Mango trees from a farmer’s orchard in Kota district of Rajasthan will now grow in the majestic Mughal Gardens of Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Four mango trees of evergreen variety – Sadabahar – from Kishan Suman’s orchards have been planted in the Mughal Gardens. This mango variety blooms round the year.

Kishan Suman’s 4 ‘bhigas’ of agricultural land has 22 mother plants and 300 grafted mango plants of Sadabahar variety for sale. These saplings are immune to major diseases and disorders of mangoes. This mango variety is a dwarf type and hence can be grown in pots. It regularly bears fruits throughout the year.

According to Suman, he had identified the variety in his orchard 17 years ago which bloomed in all the three seasons (12 months) January-February, June-July and September-October. Upon preserving and preparing the grafted mango trees, he noticed that the trees had a good growth trend and began to bear fruit from the second year of grafting. 

Suman intends to promote his mango trees during upcoming ‘GRAM Kota’, which is scheduled to be held from 24 to 26 May.

The Sadabahar Aam —as it is aptly called– is now in the process of being patented.Suman says that the plants are now being delivered to Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Haryana on a regular basis. He has also received an award at the National Innovation Foundation’s exhibition and his innovation was appreciated by President, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee. 

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar may have just managed to quell a coup.

 The Congress, fresh from its sacking of Digvijaya Singh as a central overseer, made fresh overtures to allies in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led ministry in a bid to topple the Parrikar government.

 While both the Goa Forward and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), which have three seats each in the 38-member (an MLA each from the BJP and Congress have resigned) have rejected reports of a coup and the BJP on Saturday claimed the government is stable, Goa’s politics appears primed to replay its mercurial and unstable edge of the 1990-2000 decade — when the state saw 14 Chief Ministers.

 The fresh developments, during which the Congress claimed to have been in touch with several BJP MLAs and the BJP counter-claiming that 10 Congress legislators were in touch with its leadership, have, however, ended with some egg on the face of state Congress President and legislator Luizinho Faleiro.

 Faleiro’s leadership has again been challenged by a section of Congress MLAs.

 Congress sources said they had re-established contact with Goa Forward founder-member and now Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai and two Independent MLAs in a bid to win him over.

 “His condition to joining a Congress-led government continues to be the same as it was before he joined the BJP-led formation in March. He wants Faleiro out of the decision-making hierarchy. He wanted our MLA Digambar Kamat (former Chief Minister) in charge of negotiations and as the coalition leader,” a senior party leader told IANS.

 The party official also said that efforts to topple the BJP-led coalition government had been intensified following A. Chellakumar’s promotion as Congress General Secretary in charge of Goa. 

 He was earlier an understudy to Digvijay Singh, who was unceremoniously sacked a few weeks back.

 Faleiro, a two-time Chief Minister, led the Congress campaign in the February 4 polls. But his running feud with Sardesai could have cost the Congress the opportunity to stake claim to form government despite the party emerging with 17 seats of the 40 Goa assembly seats.

 Sardesai is known to have more than cordial relations with Kamat. Both politicians have successfully partnered together in the municipal elections in Margao, a major South Goa township.

 The loyalty of Congress legislators appear to be split between Kamat and Faleiro although the Congress formally has denied any rift and Faleiro has even offered to surrender his rank for the health of the party.

 “I am ready to quit any position for the party… If even one MLA feels that we can form a government and that it (my resignation) will help and facilitate that, then I am ready to quit,” Faleiro said.

 With Congress MLA Vishwajeet Rane resigning on March 13 and becoming the Health Minister in the Parrikar cabinet, the Congress needs five MLAs to obtain a simple majority and therefore the support of Goa Forward with its three MLAs and two Independents helps the party make the numeric cut.

 But Sardesai, who led the poll campaign and canvassed for votes in the Catholic-dominated areas on an anti-BJP pitch, now claims his support to the BJP and Parrikar is unequivocal and he would never betray the latter.

 “Parrikar gave up his ministry in Delhi on our word. I will never let him down. This government is stable and it will last its full term,” he said.

 The BJP too has strongly refuted reports of a coup, with its state President Vinay Tendulkar insisting that in fact the Congress which is in turmoil.

 “This government will continue full-strength and last its full five year term,” Tendulkar told IANS.

 Asked if the Congress had tried to poach ruling alliance partners, he said: “As many as 10 Congress MLAs are in talks with us. They are willing to join the BJP.”

As India on Sunday skipped China’s Belt and Road forum to oppose the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Islamabad and Beijing vowed to conclude the contentious economic route.

While opening the two-day Summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping said “all countries should respect sovereignty” and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said CPEC had no “geographical boundaries”.

In a veiled reference to India, which is dead against the CPEC as it goes through Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, Sharif said the issues of CPEC “must not be politicised”.

In addition, Xi pledged about additional $14 billion for the construction of the Belt and Road project, of which CPEC is the chief component.

The grand project aims to connect Asia, Europe and Africa through a network of roads, sea links and railway lines.

New Delhi, which had been non-committal about attending the forum despite repeated offers by Beijing, made its intentions clear about skipping the event.

“No country can accept a project that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity,” India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said on Saturday.

The CPEC has emerged as a thorny issue between India and China, whose ties have been under strain over issues including Beijing blocking New Delhi’s bid for the Nuclear Suppliers Group and Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh in northeast India.

India’s absence at the summit will certainly not be liked by Beijing, which was keen on New Delhi joining the connectivity event.

India claims Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and says allowing a road to be laid through the region will compromise its sovereignty.

However, China is continuously pushing for the corridor, which will give it access to the Arabian Sea.

“All countries should respect each other’s sovereignty, dignity and territorial integrity, each other’s development paths and social systems, and each other’s core interests and major concerns,” Xi said on Sunday.

The summit was attended by leaders of 29 countries and delegation of over 100 countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin was one of the prominent heads of state.

Sharif, who heaped praises on the project, said the CPEC was open to all the regional countries.

“Let me make it very clear that CPEC is an economic undertaking open to all countries in the region. It has no geographical boundaries. It must not be politicized,” he said here on the opening day of the event.

Sharif said the Belt and Road “rejected the encirclement for any country. It is about connectivity. It is about emancipation.

“OBOR belongs to all of us, those who are participating and those who are not as yet.”

Of the six corridors of Belt and Road, to New Delhi’s interest is the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar route.

Book             :  RISE LIKE A PHEONIX — SCRIPTING CORPORATE TURNAROUNDS

Author          :  PRADIP CHANDA.

PUBLISHER  :  Sage Publishing.

Pages            : 171.

Price              : Rs 395

Scripting a company’s turnaround is no child’s play. And the task of a ‘Turnaround Management Consultant’ is no walk in the park. The biggest question to be considered is whether a turnaround effort is worth the blood, sweat and tears. The book — RISE LIKE A PHEONIX : SCRIPTING CORPORATE TURNAROUNDS — is authored by Pradip Chanda, whose corporate career has spanned four decades including twenty years as CEO. 

His core competency has been the ability to conceptualise and champion clear business strategies while maintaining focus on achieving operational results. The signs of stress often begin as ripples in nooks and crannies below the senior management’s radars. Alarm bells start ringing when the market share charts keep going south, sales drop and the cash inflows become tighter. Knee jerk reactions follow. 

Data based reasoned decision-making becomes the first casualty. Deep discounting destroys carefully nurtured brand positioning. Costs are indiscriminately cut, processes suffer, quality issues multiply and customers cancel orders. Jobs are threatened, good people resign and others begin looking for jobs. Disruption, which everybody has been talking about, seems to have caught the company with its pants down. 

The urge to invite strategy consultants to chart out paths for restructuring, revitalising, renewing or reinventing the company, becomes strong. The consultants will focus on strategy reformulation and prescribe a silver bullet to cure all. Most of these solutions are resource hungry. A cash strapped demoralised organisation is rarely ready to fire the silver bullet, no matter how potent it sounds. 

Such a company has to first go through a painful turnaround process to restabilise and prepare to launch a renewal programme. It has to find resources from within along with innovative uses of existing (often neglected) assets, use cost management as a strategic tool to enhance competitiveness, embark on short term strategic initiatives to revive the company’s morale and confidence in formulating a viable and sustainable business model. 

To the turnaround manager, this internal personality crisis is the biggest challenge. If a company is to revive, a change in its personality is the starting point. The challenge lies in integrating the work force into the mainstream. 

Chanda became President and CEO of Gramaphone Company of India Ltd better known as HMV at the end of 1985 when its accumulated losses had completely wiped out its net worth. His priorities pertained to renewal, cost management and funding the renewal. 

The renewal process begins with sharp focus on immediate positive, revenue multiplying, activity involving as many people as possible. The company can move beyond a turaround phase only when a sustainable business model is ready for implementation. 

A game plan was evolved that gainfully utilised over 90 per cent of the workforce. It was profitable, cash came in before production, the factory became a beehive of activity and large quantities of dead inventory was recycled. The company was back in business. Exploitation of its assets over the years has made it again the number one music company. 

Chanda also took up the challenge of turning around the BFT or the Bharat Floorings and Tiles which was started way back in 1922. The next decade from 1930-40 may well have been called the renaissance decade. As WW II gathered momentum, the government diverted cement to defence installations. BFT tiles deprived of their basic raw material had to almost close down. 

Almost all turnarounds require an asset utilisation strategy. The critical needs may vary from company to company but will centre around acquiring new technology, upgrading design and research capability, capacity building often requiring additional equipment, revamping the organisation by rightsizing, again at a cost, retraining the existing workforce, hiring new talent and promoting the products and services on offer. 

An asset utilisation strategy is the only means available to an under performing company to generate the cash flow in the short term to tackle any of the needs mentioned. The first task at BFT was to audit the assets. The next big task was to get a fix on BFT’s positioning in the market and see if this can be leveraged to sustain a turnaround attempt. 

Considering the nature of its manufacturing process, the author believed BFT was destined to be a niche player. The question was which niche? In this business getting an order was a time consuming exercise. It does not need a genius to figure out the more balloons or quotations BFT has in the air, the greater chance of establishing a steady flow of orders. 

To begin with BFT needed to define the universe of architects in the Mumbai metropolis, its biggest market. It is now a national brand extending its reach to all the major cities in the country. The company has signed up for ISO certification to ensure quality adherence in all its functions prior to embarking on a ambitious capacity building programme which includes setting up production units in other parts of the country and perhaps one in South East Asia. 

The author maintains that the core values of a company are imperative to win with grace. In this context Coca Cola has retained its appeal through half a dozen generations. It emerged as the number one brand of soft drinks once its centre of excellence moved from proprietary ‘cure all’ medicine category at its inception in 1886 — to a strong customer focus. The stable Coca Cola company has more than 400 brands and variants selling in 180 odd countries. 

Henry Ford celebrated his 60th birthday in 1923. With sales exceeding two million units, Ford accounted for almost half the sales of motor cars in the world. The author emphasises that businesses do not fail but people do. 

In this context the author specifically refers to the ouster of the Ambassador car, dominating the Indian roads till the late 1990s. He has also dwelt on the building blocks particularly unlocking the value of under-utilised assets. 

Without growth many a turnaround would end up as an illusion. Chanda’s book is a must read, lucid and gripping for its valuable insight about a disruptive scenario. It seeks to sensitise those striving for a turnaround about the doable action plan and strategies.

NEW DELHI : The government has included Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) in the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) to protect children against severe forms of pneumococcal diseases such as pneumonia and meningitis. With this inclusion, children will be protected against 12 vaccine preventable diseases.

The launch was done by the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, J.P. Nadda at a function in Mandi in Himachal Pradesh.  Pneumococcal disease is the leading cause of vaccine-preventable deaths in children under five years of age globally and in India. India accounts for nearly 20% of global pneumonia deaths in this age group. In 2010, pneumococcal pneumonia accounted for approximately 16% of all severe pneumonia cases and 30% of pneumonia related deaths in children under- five years of age in India. Introducing PCV, therefore, will substantially reduce disease burden in the country.
Terming this as an historic moment and an exemplary step in India’s immunization programme, Mr Nadda said the government was committed to reducing morbidity and mortality in children. Strengthening routine immunization is an essential investment in India’s children and will ensure a healthy future of the country, he noted. 
Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine is being rolled out to approximately 21 lakh children in Himachal Pradesh and parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in the first phase. This will be followed by introduction in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan next year, and eventually be expanded to the country in a phased manner.Mr Nadda said that under Mission Indradhanush, so far, more than 2.6 crore beneficiaries have been immunized so far. From 1% annual increase in coverage of full immunization, Mission Indradhanush has resulted in a 6.7 % annual expansion in the immunization cover.   
The Health Minister further said that all these vaccines were available in the private sector for many years, not only in India but also across the world. “While these vaccines in the private sector were accessible to only those who could afford them, by making them available under the UIP, the government is ensuring equitable access to those who need them the most, the underprivileged and underserved,” Mr Nadda added.Pneumonia kills more children under-five years of age in India than any other infectious disease. The pentavalent vaccine which was scaled up in all states under the UIP by 2015 protects against Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) pneumonia. Now, the introduction of PCV in the UIP will reduce child deaths from pneumococcal pneumonia. It will also reduce the number of children being hospitalized for pneumonia, and therefore reduce the economic burden on the families and the health cost burden on the country. 
The Health Minister informed that the ICT-based Patient Satisfaction System (PSS) “Mera Aspataal / My Hospital” for implementation in public and empanelled private hospitals, is envisaged to empower the patient by seeking his / her views on quality of experience in a public health care facility.

He further said that the Free Drugs Services Initiative, universal screening for non-communicable diseases for all people above 19 years to be rolled out shortly in select 100 districts in the first phase, the Free Diagnostics Services Initiative, the District Hospital Strengthening support, roll out of comprehensive primary health care, and Quality Assurance Programme – all represent initiatives intended to reduce fragmentation of care, improve quality of care and reduce out of pocket expenses. 

NEW DELHI : India on Saturday ruled out participation in China’s mega One Belt One Road summit in Beijing, citing its objections to the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, that passes through Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

In a statement, a day ahead of the launch of the two-day summit in Beijing, India said that “Guided by our principled position in the matter, we have been urging China to engage in a meaningful dialogue on its connectivity initiative, ‘One Belt, One Road’ which was later renamed as ‘Belt and Road Initiative’. We are awaiting a positive response from the Chinese side.

“Regarding the so-called ‘China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’, which is being projected as the flagship project of the BRI/OBOR, the international community is well aware of Ind’a’s position. No country can accept a project that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Barely a year ago Emmanuel Macron was nowhere near being the President of France. That the pollsters finally proved right is reassuring as it has proved to be a victory for centrism and European integration. This ensured the resounding defeat of the far right nationalist Marie Le Pen who had threatened to pull out of the European Union.

The French have underlined they are not in favour of stereotype attitudes of leaders and chose to improvise and experiment. The Dutch should be given the credit for showing the way in March this year when they sent anti-Islam and anti-EU candidate Geert Wilders packing with only 13.5 per cent of the votes. 

And now Macron has shown that the extreme right’s victory march can be halted decisively. At the same time a far right candidate in France has polled more than 30 per cent of the votes. This a worrisome factor. 

There is no doubt Macron will still have to consolidate his party’s position in next month’s parliamentary elections for being able to govern with authority and assurance. 

His facile win has also smashed the dominance of France’s mainstream parties and come as a relief to European allies who feared another populist upheaval following Britain’s vote to quit the EU and Donald Trump’s election as President. 

The French youth have displayed their out of the box thinking and willingness to experiment. At 39 years old, Macron is the youngest President of France and is holding elected office for the first time. A former investment banker he has shown his willingness to transcend his country’s sharp left-right divisions. 

What is surprising is that despite the poor opinion of Le Pen’s National Front because of its anti-immigrant policies, it broke the barrier of securing 30 per cent of the votes. 

Macron’s first task would be to bridge the sharp divisions in the country along ideological lines. His political movement is barely a year old and starting from scratch. That might be an advantage as well as disadvantage. He will need to some juggling in fulfilling his pledge of overhauling and renewing French political life by having experienced political personalities from the left, right and centre. 

It is widely believed that Macron’s will has saved France from itself. Having a European Union was a bold experiment. The pulling out of the EU is both costly and disruptive. At the same time the Eurozone will have to start moving towards greater monetary and fiscal union or it will have to be disbanded. 

Macron’s plans include a Eurozone budget and Parliament. His political strategy along with his message of stability, pro-Europeanism and technocratic governance attracted a wide range of voters.

He mobilised outgoing President Francois Holland’s former electoral base. He benefitted from the massive vote transfers from the left, moderate left and right wing voters. 

At a time when there is a leadership crisis in the democratic world with exclusive ideologies rebounding themselves as patriotic and populist, France can provide a counter narrative and leadership to a world in dire need of it. 

Becoming President of France amounts to winning the battle, the war lies ahead. It is not clear how many seats his political startup En Marche! might get in next month’s Parliamentary elections traditionally dominated by mainstream Left and Right parties. 

Macron faces huge challenges ahead particularly how successfully he runs the economy, brings about reconciliation among opposite viewpoints along with tackling the menace of terrorism. It is apparent the new President needs to act bodily and decisively for ringing in changes. 

(T R Ramachandran is senior journalist and commentator. The views are personal.)

MUMBAI : Celebrated Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan, a Hepatitis B conqueror, was on Friday appointed the WHO Goodwill Ambassador for the Hepatitis awareness programme in southeast Asia region. He says nobody should suffer from the disease.

 The veteran actor has been brought on board to boost awareness and intensify action to arrest the Hepatitis epidemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced in a statement.  “I am absolutely committed to the cause of Hepatitis. As a person living with Hepatitis-B, I know the pain and sufferings that Hepatitis causes. No one should ever suffer from viral Hepatitis,” Amitabh said.  In his capacity, the actor will lend his voice and support to public awareness programmes that aim to scale up preventive measures and advocate for early diagnosis and treatment of viral Hepatitis to reduce the disease burden.    Announcing his association with WHO, Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director for WHO southeast Asia, said: “This association is expected to help strengthen WHO’s efforts in reducing the high numbers of premature deaths and illnesses from viral Hepatitis which is not only causing hardships to individuals and families, but also impacting health and development across the region.”  In a video message, Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda said: “Mr Bachchan’s voice is one that is listened to by people across the country, regardless of cultural, social or economic background and can make real change possible. We have witnessed this in polio eradication.”  Amitabh had earlier served as Unicef Goodwill Ambassador for the polio eradication campaign in India, and has been supporting and promoting various health and related issues in the country such as childhood immunisation programme, anti-tuberculosis campaign and ‘Clean India’ initiative.

NEW YORK : Contrary to a long-held misconception, the human sense of smell is not inferior but may be just as good as that of mammals like dogs and rodents — some of the best sniffers in the animal kingdom, say researchers.

The human sense of smell was thought to be inferior because of the size of the olfactory bulb — nerve tissue which sends signals to other areas of a very powerful human brain to help identify scents.

However, the study published in the journal Science, showed that the human olfactory bulb is quite large and similar in the number of neurons to other mammals.

“For so long people failed to stop and question this claim… The fact is the sense of smell is just as good in humans as in other mammals, like rodents and dogs,” said John McGann, associate professor at Rutgers University-New Brunswick in the US.

The idea that humans do not have the same sense of smell abilities as animals flourished over the years based on some genetic studies which discovered that rats and mice have genes for about 1,000 different kinds of receptors that are activated by odours, compared to humans, who only have about 400.

But the study showed that humans can discriminate maybe one trillion different odours which is far more than the claim by “folk wisdom and poorly sourced introductory psychology textbooks”, that insist humans could only detect about 10,000 different odours.

“We can detect and discriminate an extraordinary range of odours; we are more sensitive than rodents and dogs for some odours; we are capable of tracking odour trails; and our behavioural and affective states are influenced by our sense of smell,” McGann added

Film: “Meri Pyaari Bindu”

Director: Akshay Roy

Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Parineeti Chopra, Aparajita Adhya and Abish Mathew

“Meri Pyaari Bindu” from the Yash Raj Films (YRF) stable is a sincere yet frothy tale, designed from a pulp novel. And like any other pulp fiction, this film is a light-hearted fluff, racy and engaging.

Designed as a catharsis, it is the tale of a successful pulp writer Abhimanyu Roy aka Bubla, who has compiled novellas like “Chudail Ki Choli”, “Dracula’s Lover” and “Das Cabin”, among many more.

On the insistence of his publisher, Abhimanyu is forced to write a romance, which he does begin but is stuck between his real life heartache and imagination. He finds it difficult to chronicle his thoughts about this “unpredictable, impatient, imperfect, crazy, restless and larger than life, live-wire girl” called Bindu, who was once his neighbour and who over a period of time crept into his life and soul.

So, when Abhi returns home and stumbles upon an old audio cassette with their favourite playlist, it sends Abhi down memory lane and his novel unravels speedily juxtaposing his past and present.

With a good dosage of old Hindi film songs and titbits as transitions, metaphors and analogies, the treatment of the chaotically jumbled script along with the screenplay, is astutely handled. The plot moves at a frenzied pace regaling the ecstasy and agony of Abhimanyu and Bindu.

While the plot is well-charted, it is the conflict and the resolution that disappoint. It lacks substance in terms of oomph and other exploiting factors that make for engrossing viewing. The non-linear narrative style, at times, creates confusion with the timelines.

The dialogues too are worth a mention and are delivered with gusto.

Ayushmann Khurana, with an intellectual demeanour, plays the flurried pulp writer Abhimanyu Roy with panache. With natural ease, he internalises his character and communicates his affection through his intense gaze. He is sincere and endearing in his portrayal and it shows.

On the other hand, Parineeti Chopra essays Bindu with dexterity yet she seems superficial and shallow, especially in the restaurant scene when she tells Abhimanyu about her boyfriend, Mathew. Her portrayal of the character lacks depth.

The rest of the supporting cast is natural and have their moments of on-screen glory. Especially noteworthy is the character who plays Abhimanyu’s mother.

Technically, the film is well-mounted. The camera movements are fluid and the flow of the visuals seem uninterrupted with the skilful and smooth editing. The songs naturally integrate into the narrative.

Overall, while the film is interestingly told and is engaging, the last scene, though it talks about a happy ending, unsettles the purist.

(With Inputs from IANS)