26 July, 2013

Gujarat restaurants plan to name dishes after UPA scams

Get ready to bite into a piping hot "2G ka samosa" or a toasted "Coalgate sandwich" because restaurants in Gujarat may soon serve your favourite dishes with a dash of politics.

Members of the Gujarat Rajya Hotel Federation (GRHF) have decided to stand up for Mumbai eatery Aditi Restaurant that was forced to shut down by Congress workers on Monday for criticizing the UPA government in its bills. (The eatery had re-opened on Tuesday.) Members of the federation are planning to name some of their dishes after the scams that have surfaced during the UPA regime.

Hotelier and GRHF member Ashwin Gandhi has discussed the proposal with other federation members. "Naming food and drinks after scams is an apt reply," Gandhi told TOI. "Every citizen has the right to express his views." The GRHF has over 6,000 members across the state.

Advanced weather satellite INSAT-3D successfully launched

India's advanced meteorological satellite INSAT-3D was successfully launched by an European rocket from the spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana early on Friday, giving a boost to weather forecasting and disaster warning services. European space consortium Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket launched INSAT-3D and Alphasat satellites.Alphasat is Europe's largest telecommunication satellite-ever manufactured and results from a large-scale public-private partnership between the European Space Agency and Inmarsat.

Gujarat Ranji player is now US national team skipper

Former Gujarat Ranji player Timil Patel has been appointed captain of US's national cricket team for a series against Canada for the Auty Cup. The tour started on Thursday.

The 29-year-old Amdavadi leg-spinner emigrated to the US with his family in 2010 after playing 38 first class games for Gujarat. He made his international debut for the US on November 14, 2012, against Canada in the previous edition of the Auty Cup played in Florida.

Family-run companies better at succession planning

It happened in quick succession. Late last month, PepsiCo India announced that Manu Anand, its India and South Asia president was quitting with immediate effect. Just a day later, Walmart India announced that its CEO Raj Jain had put in his papers. Both these professionally managed companies, known for their best practices, seemed to have been caught unawares and could announce only an interim CEO, demonstrating in good effect the poor state of succession planning in certain quarters of India Inc.

In contrast, family-run companies have actually shown a better record when it comes to succession planning. At Godrej Consumer Products, a Godrej Group company, CEO transition was smooth when Vivek Gambhir replaced A Mahendran. Similarly, HCL Technologies brought on board Anant Gupta early this year to steer the Shiv Nadar group company with an eye on the future even though existing CEO Vineet Nayar is barely 50. Gupta has very large shoes to fill as Nayar, who continues as vice-chairman, had not only proved to be a successful CEO but also fashioned himself as a management thinker at the global level, opening doors for his company at global corporations. Then for all its hoopla, the selection of Cyrus Mistry as a successor to Ratan Tata through a long-drawn process was perhaps another example of a smooth transition in a family-run empire. Tata himself contributed in good measure by giving Mistry a free hand and by deciding to operate from a different office altogether. Besides, GM Rao of the diversified infrastructure conglomerate, GMR, got a family constitution drafted to deal with matters regarding ownership and power sharing.

Ahmedabad Metro to be driverless, gets a nod for broad gauge

Ahmedabad metro rail will be driverless and broad gauge project, said a top expert involved in the project. The broad gauge will result in savings of Rs 1,000 crore in capital expenditure and Rs 20 crore annually in operational expenditure. A Design Advisory Committee for the project has given a go ahead after considering pros and cons versus the standard metrog uage.

"Metro Expresslink for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA), the company in charge of the project, has zeroed in on Broad Gauge on the basis of recommendations of members ofDAC and their report submitted earlier to the State Government. In the last Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), the report by the Gauge Committee was discussed and it was decided to do further study in detail to arrive at more informed decision," said an official of MEGA.

France-based metro rail consultants M/s Egis Rail has been appointed by MEGA to undertake a comparitive Cost Benefit Analysis of Broad Guage (BG) and Standard Guage. The findings of its report were placed before the DAC and all the members unanimously accepted it.

The report claimed that there will be cost saving on infrastructure and system, rolling stock and also on operation and maintenance on ongoing basis. By selecting BG there will cost saving on civil cost of stations by around 15%, on viaducts by around 2% and on depot by around 7%. The higher capacity of wider coaches of BG will reduce the requirement of the number of coaches and MEGA will save around 11% on rolling stock.

The total cost benefit for rolling stock and infrastructure and system in capital cost will be more than Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 20 crore per year in operation and Maintenance. Core infrastructure works will begin in fourth quarter of year 2013 and Phase I is scheduled to be completed by August, 2017. The entire project including Phase II will be fully operational in March 2021.