The second edition of BW Healthcare Summit held in New Delhi on June 5 attracted major healthcare industry players. Dr Om Manchanda, chief executive officer of Dr Lal PathLabs, was among those who spoke at the event. He talked to Haider Ali Khan about the diagnostics business in India: What is the current state of diagnostics in India?The condition of diagnostics in our country is good as compared to many nations across the globe. It is still affordable and reliable, and within the reach of people. We still have many things to do to ensure a better and healthy life to all. And we continue to do so. How do you differentiate Dr Lal Pathlab from other diagnostic companies?We at Dr Lal PathLabs ensure our best practises at affordable pricing. We have a very strong customer relationship and we rely on that. In this stiff competition with other diagnostics companies, we try to stand alone in terms of quality and reliability. We have a strong presence in public domain and we have to work hard to achieve the best and retain our customers. Diagnostic services are becoming costlier. How will you ensure they remain affordable?Yes, with the increase in manufacturing and import costs and many other hidden costs like electricity, the services are getting costlier day by day. We cannot rule this out. As we are classified as an industry, we have bound by rules and regulations. We cannot compromise on the quality, and hence people have to pay more. We do try to keep our rate under minimum slabs, but without compromising on the quality and standards. What are your future plans?We are expanding our network in India. We are now focusing on Kolkata. We are moving in all directions of the country but it requires time. We have plans to cover all major cities and towns of India.
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You can turn your Android home screen into a museum of sorts with little more than an app. Muzei offers up a painting from a well-known artist every day. We're going through a spell of Vincent Van Gogh these days.
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Prominent film industry people have called for government incentives to help India's struggling single-screen theatres in the face of a growing multiplex culture. Participating in a Businesswrold event, Liberty Cinemas owner Nazir Hoosien said some single-screen cinemas are local landmarks and their legacy should be preserved. "In Mumbai some of the exquisite cinemas are falling to rack and ruin. They should be given incentives to thrive. Single screens have the potential to become tourist attractions," Hoosien said. People's film viewing habits have changed over the years, but many visit theatres like Liberty because of their historical past and architecture attached to them, he said, during in a discussion at The Fridays - BW | Businessworld Cinema Exhibition Awards & Conference in Mumbai recently. Manmohan Shetty, a pioneer of multiplex culture in India and chairman of Adlabs Entertainment, said since the inception of multiplexes in 2001 moviegoers are comfortable paying more for the quality of their cinema experience. "Moreover, there is a huge amount of money and effort (invested) in showcasing quality product, which will go waste if we lack proper medium. It is the multiplexes which bring business and revenue for the film fraternity," Shetty argued. The government could help single screens by offering them tax breaks, the participants said. On the issue of co-existence, Shetty said single screens will have to become more competitive to attract audiences. Families look for facilities such as parking and multiple movie choices in one place and these are easily available at multiplexes, he said. "If single screen comes out with these facilities they have all the chances to survive with the multiplexes," he said. The session was also attended by Rafiquee Baghdadi, journalist and historian, and its moderator was Rafeeq Ellias, an award winning photographer and filmmaker. The event attracted some of India's top cinema and entertainment experts.Another session focused on the future of theatres and how to rejuvenate them. Pranav Ashar, founder of Matterden Centre, Rahul Puri, managing director of Mukta Arts, Amit Khanna, former chairman of Reliance Entertainment, Ramesh Nair, international director and chief operating officer of Jones Lang LaSalle participated in the session moderated by Bharti Dubey, a well-known film journalist. Khanna lamented that busy modern lifestyles restrict people from going to a theatre and enjoy cinema. He predicted that in five years multiplexes will break down into a large single screen with more advanced technology and that will turn cinema into "more of an experiential thing." Ashar said "experiential cinema" has already started in Britain and it will take over the current multiplex culture so there was no need for an argument between single screens and multiplexes.
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Multiplexes in India have tremendous scope for growth as vast areas of the country are still not covered, film industry experts said at a Businessworld event. Vijay Kapoor, senior vice president for business development at PVR Limited, believes that India is still an under-screened country compared with places like China and the United States. "Against the 7,250 screens that we have, China has 23,600 screens and the United States of America has 39,400 screens. We still have a lot to grow, and we have to penetrate into small towns and cities, although there are hurdles and problems," Kapoor said. But Devang Sampat, business head of strategic initiatives at Cinepolis, said comparing India and China was not right because of the latter's much bigger economy. "We should not compare our growth with China since their GDP growth is twice compared to India. Content of the movie still drives the business," he said. They were participating in a session at the "The Fridays - BW | Businessworld Cinema Exhibition Awards & Conference" in Mumbai. The discussion focused on the financial impact of multiplexes and whether their presence was eroding the influence of single screen theatres. Noted film journalist and critic Komal Nahta said there is a feeling that the growth of multiplexes has sidelined single-screen theatres. He said when the multiplex culture started in India, people were sceptical about its future in India. Their growing influence is also directing the content of movies, a popular form of entertainment across India. "Since multiplexes are prevalent more in urban areas, many times single screens owners feel that the story and content by writers, and the type of movies made cater only to that particular (urban) section. Hence, they feel left out," Nahta said. P.V. Sunil, CEO of Carnival Cinemas, noted that revenues of multiplexes depend on many factors and not just on ticket sales. "There was a time when only box-office mattered. Now since the content and the audience response is not certain, we have to depend upon food and beverage and advertisements," Sunil said. Multiplexes are also being seen as providing better experience to moviegoers, thus increasing Bollywood's audiences. In this scenario, popcorn is being seen as a significant revenue contributor. "Popcorn is in many sense bigger than the Khans in Mumbai", Prof Bharathan Kandaswamy, course director at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, said referring to Bollywood's leading stars Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan.
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On most days of the week, the Supreme Court of India undoubtedly does very brave things. Let’s face it; outside the gate of the court building, any judge howsoever high is very vulnerable. He has no dedicated administrative machinery to enforce his will and no screaming hoard of rented supporters to ‘protect’ him from those he acts against. Still, the Supreme Court manages to regularly confront and defeat the forces of evil, so to speak, some of whommake the laws that he interprets. Curiously, that same bravery frequently fails the judiciary when it comes to dealing with its own. Consider the grim facts. When I joined law practice in 1980, Delhi’s trial courts could not try cases of a value greater than Rs. 50,000. Over the thirty five years since, this limit has progressively been pushed up till it has in recent years stood at Rs. 20 lakhs. In 2014, the government proposed to increase it to Rs 2 Crores, but did not leave lawyers breathless with the speed of its legislative progress. Finally, after a succession of muscle flexing one-day strikes, district lawyers struck work indefinitely on 22nd April, 2015 demanding action on the issue asap, complete with dozens of sms messages to every lawyer extolling calls to action to the sound of rousing metaphorical bugles[As an aside, no one spams my phone like my brother lawyers. Generally I get about three or four invitations to funerals and uthalas every day]. This strike continued till 8th May 2015, when the LokSahba obliged by passing the amending legislation. That didn’t mean the end of the strikes though. It meant the High Court lawyers went on strike instead! Now, you may ask why the litigant, who is the consumer of this service, would care where his case is conducted. It is true that trial courts decide cases somewhat faster than the High Court but conversely, the sagacity of the judge may well be superior in the High Court. At the end of the day though, these strikes aren’t about improving systems, or speeding up processes, or providing more effective justice.To put it bluntly, this little battle within the legal community is all about who gets to seize the revenue stream of cases valued between Rs 5 Lakhs and 2 Crores. But guess who the first victim of this family war is? More’s the pity because every service industry ought to be structured around quality of service, and not the enrichment of the service provider. For sure, that is more or less the unstated premises on which the Bar Council of India Rules were set up under Section 49(1)(c) of the Advocates Act 1961. Make no mistake, Chapter II, Part VI of the Rules make it clear that lawyers are expected to “uphold the interest of the client” and not “misuse or takes advantage of the confidence reposed in him by his client”. Even the courts have had no feelings of ambiguity on this subject. In UP Sales Tax Service Association v. Taxation Bar Association, Agra [(1995)5 SCC 716], Agra’s Tax lawyers went on strike demanding the transfer of the Deputy Commissioner (Appeals), Sales Tax, Agra, who they claimed was corrupt. The issue wound its way up to the Supreme Court which ruled that “lawyers should not resort to the strike or boycott the court or abstain from court except in serious, rarest of rare cases; instead, they should resort to peaceful demonstration so as to avoid causing hardship to the litigant public.” That didn’t work. Within five years, the Supreme Court was compelled to reiterate its message. In Ramon Services (P) Ltd. v. SubhashKapoor[(2001) 1 SCC 118], a trial court decreed a case without hearing the defense because its lawyer was on strike that day and did not show. Could an appeal court wind the case back to the status on the day before the strike? The court said that “strikes by professionals including advocates cannot be equated with strikes undertaken by the industrial workers in accordance with statutory provisions.”It said that the relationship between lawyer and client was one of trust and confidence and besides abstaining from work hampers justice too. It ruled that striking lawyers “fail in their contractual andprofessional duty to conduct cases for which they are engaged and paid.” Even this didn’t make the slightest difference. Two years later, the issue was up before the Supreme Court again in Ex. Capt Harish Uppal v. Union of India[(2003) 2 SCC 45] compelling the court to repeat itself. It said that “It is the duty of every Advocate who has accepted a brief to attend trial, even though it may go on day to day for a prolonged period. …a lawyer who has accepted a brief cannot refuse to attend Court because the Bar Association gives a boycott call.”It also said that“lawyers have no right to go on strike or give a call for boycott, not even on a token strike. The protest, if any is required, can only be by giving press statements, TV interviews carrying out of the Court premises banners and/or placards, wearing black or white or any colour arm bands, peaceful protest marches outside and away from Court premises, going on dharnas or relay facts etc. That was by no means the last of it. It added for good measure that “no Bar Council or Bar Association can permit calling of a meeting for purposes of considering a call for strike or boycott and requisition, if any, for such meeting must be ignored.” It warned defaulters of dire consequences thus: “if a lawyer… abstains from attending Court due to a strike call, he shall be personally liable to pay costs which shall be addition to damages which he might have to pay his client for loss suffered by him. Can any message be clearer than this? Significantly, the court made one exception. It condoned strikes “only in the rarest of rare cases where the dignity, integrity and Independence of the Bar and/or the Bench are at stake”. It said that only the court could decide whether any issue fit this category of rarity, for which purpose, the President of the Bar must first consult the Chief Justice before the call to strike can be given. Given the forthright nature of the ruling, we could have expected the reality on the ground to change. No such luck. Strikes continued from time to time, till PIL activists Common Cause decided to do something about it. The facts were plain enough. The Bar Association called a strike. Some lawyers said they would not abstain from work. Bar Association officers threatened these lawyers with suspension of their memberships to the Bar. Was this contempt of court? The Supreme Court had its opportunity to change the history of India’s Bar. In Common Cause v. Union of India[(2006) 9 SCC 295], the Supreme Court reiterated the legal position, but did not then pull the trigger. Instead it passed the buck, ruling that it is for the Bar Council of India (which regulates lawyers) to take disciplinary action against lawyers. It said it was the duty of every advocate to bodily ignore a call for a strike. Finally, it ordered that “a committee be constituted in that behalf to suggest steps to be taken to prevent such boycott or strike”. I need not tell you why commissions of inquiry and committees are appointed or what happens to their recommendations, if such recommendations ever do get made. A potentially defining moment ended in a tragic damp squib. The cynic could credibly argue that the legal community is considerably better at delivering honor-and-probity homilies to other than it is at putting its house in order. For my money though, what leaves me most flummoxed is the radical transformations that has occurred in our society in the way we view our relationship to our fellowmen. For 5000 years, we have believed that the individual is defined, not by his rights, but by his duties, or more properly his path of righteousness a.k.adharma. How this has transformed in less than 50 years into an overwhelming environment of rights and entitlements is quite the untold story. Perhaps our quest for a society grounded in liberal humanism is at the heart of it. When we wrote our constitution, we conferred rights on individuals, rights that we had thus far never publicly acknowledged. Laudable as these goals were, what we have actually achieved is a kind of “transfer of traditional paradigms” into our new liberal landscape. All at once, the caste based war for privilege we have witnessed throughout our long history has manifested itself in the attitudes of these new communities our constitutional structure has helped created. Lawyers are merely one such powerful community.But then, that is another train of thought, with its own devil in the Fineprint. (The author, Ranjeev C Dubey, is managing partner of the Gurgaon-based corporate law firm N South. He is the author of “Winning Legal Wars” and “Bullshit Quotient: Decoding India’s corporate, social and legal Fine Print”. He can be contacted at rcd@nsouthlaw.com or ranjeevdubey@hotmail.com).
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Write It With Google There may be a smartphone in every pair of hands, but not every pair of hands is comfortable with inputting text on their touch devices. There are quite a few methods available to make input easier, but not everyone ends up exploring these. Google has just added to the bunch with a handwriting input app.
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BW|Businessworld, one of India’s most respected business media brands, has joined the country’s vision of developing 100 “Smart Cities” with the launch of a new knowledge and information platform. Businessworld Group launched its new publication BW Smart Cities at an event attended by top urban planning experts, professionals, business people, and government officials in New Delhi on March 26. The print edition’s launch came 42 days after the website bwsmartcities.com went live. BW Smart Cities will be a bimonthly publication. The event at the Taj Mahal Hotel was accompanied by panel discussions on issues related to urban development, with many speakers calling for empowering municipal corporations as an essential step towards city development. Former urban development secretary M. Ramachandran, speaking during the discussion on “Cities of Tomorrow: Leading the Change”, said Indian states have not done enough to develop modern cities. He said the idea of developing smart cities is to overcome the lack of development in the past and be at par with what is latest in terms of managing cities. Ramachandran advocated empowering cities in taking up local development projects, saying it is critical to make people participate in processes. Karuna Gopal, president of Foundation for Futuristic Cities, similarly said it is not enough to build modern infrastructure but governments must have mechanisms to engage people in their plans.N.S.N. Murty, associate director, government and public services, at PwC India, lamented that municipal corporations in the country lack financial management and other specialist skills. He said most civic bodies are financially bankrupt and need to be given more powers. To overcome their resource-crunch, cities often try to monetize their land resources or hand over operations of essential services to private players, but Murty does not see it as a sustainable model of running a city. He prefers public-private partnerships rather than full privatization in running utilities and basic services. Vaibhav Chaudhari, associate director of CBRE South Asia Pvt. Ltd., said in designing a city’s infrastructure, authorities must have a long-term vision to meet future growth. In the case of Gurgaon, dubbed as “the Millennium City”, this was not done and the city suffers from chronic congestion problems, Chaudhari said. Spain’s Ambassador to India, H.E. Gustavo de Aristegui, told the gathering about his country’s success in deploying smart technologies in services and providing state-of-the-art water and transport infrastructure in cities such as Madrid and Barcelona. Speaking during the session on “Future Structures: Reimagining Partnerships for Smart Cities,” the Ambassador explained that Spain has combined modern development with preservation of its history and heritage. Barjor E. Mehta, lead urban specialist at the World Bank, stressed the need to develop good systems of revenue and accounting at local level. He said city mayors must be given more administrative powers.Shailesh Pathak, executive director of Bhartiya Group, who moderated the discussion, echoed that view, saying mayors rather than chief ministers should control cities. Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department Of Industrial Policy and Promotion at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, described smart cities as just one component of urbanisation. He said technology companies will play a key role in planning smart cities. Kant sees modern public transport systems as crucial to building such cities. The panel discussion on “The Internet of Things and Smart Cities”, moderated by BW Smart Cities executive editor Preeti Singh, featured Manu Ahuja, India and Southeast Asia President of Assa Abloy, Prof S.P. Ketkar of Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, Social Cops co-founder Prukalpa Sankar and iYogi president Vishal Dhar. Muktesh Chander, Special CP, Traffic, Delhi Police – also speaking at this session – spoke about Delhi Police’s plans for using advanced technologies to improve traffic management in the national capital. Member of Parliament and BJP’s National Spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi called for investing in people and their knowledge base to realise the smart city vision. She favours a greater role for Indian companies and indigenously-developed technological solutions in making cities smarter. Anurag Batra, chairman and editor-in-chief of Businessworld, said BW Smart Cities magazine and Businessworld Group will cater to various stakeholders by being an information platform. “Our vision is not just to be a business magazine. We want to be a platform catering to communities in their need for knowledge and information,” he said. The Indian government is expected to soon roll out the Smart Cities project, which aims to create 100 “smart” cities across the country based on the use of better technology, superior civic management, modern governance and efficient infrastructure. These cities are being developed to meet the challenges of growing urbanisation amid an economic expansion, creating immense business opportunities in a number of areas, including real estate, technology, transport, project management, infrastructure and finance.
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Encouraging more women to start and run new business ventures was the dominant theme among investors and entrepreneurs at a day-long event organised by Businessworld to launch its BW Accelerate programme for women. BW|Businessworld, one of India's most respected business media brands, on Thursday (March 12) unveiled BW|ACCELERATE|Women, a multi-city initiative, focused on networking, mentorship, skill-building, and education of female entrepreneurs. It aims to support women’s entrepreneurship through initiatives designed to link aspiring and existing women entrepreneurs. Anurag Batra, editor-in-chief of Businessworld, said a separate forum was needed to foster collaboration, provide mentorship and encourage women's entrepreneurship in India. Meenakshi Lekhi, a BJP member of Parliament and spokesperson, talked about the larger issue of safety and security for women at workplace. "Once you give them safety and security, and you nurture their talent, they will manage everything in life," she said. "If economy needs a boost, this creative force needs to take a centrestage. And until and unless this creative force takes the centrestage, the economy cannot really get the boost we are looking for," Lekhi said. The event held at the Holiday Inn, Aerocity Hospitality District, had a panel discussion on the policy changes required for making entrepreneurship for women easier. Ashish Garg, founder and CEO of Discover Tomorrow, called for bringing about a structural change in the education system. "It is not about the lack of education but the lack of right kind of education. The system doesn’t encourage women to be enterprising and go out there and take risks. The problem is the mindset and that can happen when we change what is taught in schools," she said. Aparna Dutt Sharma, founding member and former CEO of India Brand Equity Foundation, wants the country to have a platform that highlights the different experiences of women. "We need a platform that aggregates different experiences of women, the success stories, the challenges, and goes beyond just urban women. It should use internet as a leveller to connect to women at grassroots level and bring them the relevant information," she said.The discussion on "India's New Generation Entrepreneurs", moderated by Avani Parekh, founder of LoveDoctor.in and lead evangelist at BW|ACCELERATE|Women, had successful entrepreneurs talking about the aspirations behind their ventures. LimeRoad founder and CEO Suchi Mukherjee, author Ira Trivedi, POPxo cofounder and CEO Namrata Bostrom, Tattva Spa-Elements Wellness director Shipra Sharma and Diva Restaurant owner Ritu Dalmia shared their inspiring stories. The session on funding of new ventures offered advice on how women should develop new business plans to secure financing from investors. Seedfund executive director Paula Mariwala, Sheroes CEO Sairee Chahal, Anita Belani of BMR Advisors, Zinnia Pasricha of Udaan Angels, and 5Ideas partner Pearl Uppal participated in the discussion moderated by Ashu Agrawal, head of BW|ACCELERATE. The behaviour of women entrepreneurs in terms of making business pitches, confidence levels, financial education, and gender biases were prominently discussed. The participants were of the view that in securing outside funding a person's gender is not important but what matters is the quality of business plans and the confidence to execute them. Mariwala said women are often hesitant to make business pitches to raise institutional funding, whereas Uppal urged women not to "hide away” from networking opportunities. In gender-specific strengths, women are seen as doing better than men in areas such as education, healthcare, fashion and lifestyle – businesses that have a large number of women consumers. Knowlarity CFO Shruti Agarwal, Deakin University's South Asia director Ravneet Pahwa, Carz on Rent executive director Sakshi Vij, Quintillion Media cofounder Ritu Kapur offered their views on how the climate for women entrepreneurs will change in India over the next 10 years. The session, moderated by Preeti Singh, executive editor of Special Projects BW|Businessworld, looked at market opportunities for female entrepreneurs and the impact women-led ventures will have on society. The participants felt that women are becoming more economically independent and are better able to use opportunities available to them nowadays. Pahwa was of the view that women in India would be able to accomplish "anything and everything" by 2025.Evaldesign founder and CEO Akanksha Bapna, Fab Alley cofounder Shivani Poddar, Sakha Cabs CEO Deepali Bhardwaj, MyDala founder and CEO Anisha Singh, and Pooja Mukul, consultant physician with the Jaipur Foot Project, discussed how women can create and run businesses that would have a social impact. The session conducted by Digital Market Asia editor Noor Fathima Warsia discussed how women could do more to support women’s entrepreneurship in India Anisha Singh said there is a lack of networking opportunities for aspiring women entrepreneurs. "I do not think India has much of that," she said, adding that established women entrepreneurs should come forward to help other women through mentorship and networking programmes.
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