Neuromarketing In The Era Of Hyperactive Competition

By M H Ahssan

Market conditions are no longer just competitive, but hyperactive. And at the epicentre of this hyperactivity lies the consumer – caught in a perpetual flux as the constantly shifting dynamics rumble through his/her cognitive faculties. HNN explores the growing trend that is revolutionising the world of branding – Neuromarketing

To say that there is a surfeit of competition is stating the obvious. But how do companies ensure that consumers prefer them over the rest during that vital moment of truth, when the consumer is at the store within picking distance of their brand, or for that matter, their competitor’s. There are enough and more cases to highlight the fact that consumers walk the other way at the very last minute, leaving their preferred brand out in the cold. Shubhra S Kumar is one such consumer. When Kumar entered a large format retail store last week, she had already made up her mind on what she wanted to buy — three casual shirts, all Pepe. But when she walked out, her shopping bag did not have a single shirt from her preferred brand. Instead she had picked up a rather lesser-known brand Rig, without any salesperson pushing it down her throat. Why? Kumar states the obvious, that she found the range of Rig attractive in the key parameters of colours, finish and design.

For a new and growing tribe of experts in the field of marketing, this vague explanation is perfectly clear. For this is a set that probes for a deeper meaning using medical technologies like the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to explore last minute changes in consumer behaviour. Did Kumar’s brain pick up signals from a hyperactive competitor at the point of sale? Did the mind play tricks, or did it take a short cut in the purchase decision process? Called Neuromarketing, it’s the new, advanced, marketing technique that’s catching on like forest fire. To put it simply, Neuromarketing studies the marketing stimuli among consumers using techniques that are perfected not in business schools, but in medical universities — sensory, motor, cognitive, affective response and so on.

Be doubly sure, this is no brain wave, but a technique that’s finding a remarkable acceptance in the marketing departments of large corporations. An Internet search of the term ‘Neuro marketing’ throws up 2.5 million results. And the companies that are currently using Neuromarketing to mine for insights to their increasing roster of marketing challenges include the top-notch marketing corporations ranging from automobile companies to beverage makers. You name them, they have tried it. In fact, as we were going to press with this issue, a source told BE about a large scale, and extremely successful Neuromarketing exercise, being undertaken by a leading consumer goods company in India (more about that later).

When the next big thing, does become The Big Thing, CMOs could come with the prefix of ‘Dr’ to their names. Because understanding Neuromarketing, could mean bringing the expertise of understanding the human brain to the marketing world. For example, when consumers avoid the brand in question, a Neuromarketer could conduct an fMRI analysis to understand which areas of the brain actually influence such aversive behaviour. Or it can identify certain genetic codes that separate the risk takers from the conservatives and help companies design campaigns that trigger the risk takers to take action and prefer their brand over the competition.

If experts in the field are to be believed this data can be tracked in a manner that’s completely non-invasive. “Neural activity results in the generation of electro-magnetic signals that can be captured by sensors. These signals are processed and then analysed statistically to draw behavioural patterns of consumers,” explains P C Kutty, J Eddie chair professor at the FRM school of business. He adds that the accuracy of these measurements, that can be filtered down to the order of milliseconds (one-thousandth of a second) has attracted the interest of researchers who are demystifying the decision-making process.

N Swami, a senior executive from an MNC that’s tried out Neuromarketing points out that another area of interest that’s gaining ground among Neuromarketers, is to track the connection between the codes passed by the optical nerves to the brain. Some questions that are being asked by marketers include, do consumers exhibit a bias to products that they see more often, through exposure to advertisements and product displays, or do they pick brands that they see first at the store shelves. Other questions that are being explored include, does a product being placed on the left stand a better chance of being picked — considering that in countries like ours, consumers are trained from a young age to look from left to right (remember, before crossing the road).

At another level, the science of Neuromarketing is also being used to track which is the best possible marketing channel strategy, how consumers react to different pack sizes and price points at various points, which distribution strategy works better in triggering the positive response, which distribution mechanism sends confusing codes to the brain and so on. R Banerjee at the The Retail Institute points out that even different retail chains can trigger different stimuli among consumers. “The same consumer may buy your product at one retail point, but choose your competitor at another retail destination. This can happen despite the space allocated to your brand remaining the same” he says. That’s because different retail chains can have a different influence on the perception and evaluation of the product.

Other factors that influence the decision making process include the brain retrieving the episodic memory, past experience with the brand, sensory memory (memory that is stimulated through the senses) and so on. Analysis by neuromarketers help in establishing which parts of the brain show the maximum activity while selecting or rejecting a brand. These findings help marketers find out what are the influencing factors behind consumer susceptibility and helps in positioning the product in such a manner that it results in developing a judgement bias in favour of the product and also develop even the right product and price strategy for the entire portfolio of offerings.

Take the case of a large consumer goods manufacturer who’s supposedly running one of the largest Neuromarketing programmes that the country has seen. In this case, the company saw a remarkable decline in several of its key categories particularly in some retail formats, that too in particular states in the last three months. As a part of its critical salvage operations, the company also initiated a Neuromarketing exercise that has in a short span delivered much more than what the company bargained for. What triggered this amazing turnaround?

Needed, innovative ideas to spur the economy

By M H Ahssan

India need not go by the global mantra of unlimited fiscal expansion. It should rather creatively target government spending.

Political parties have a great opportunity to come up with truly innovative and inclusive ideas to re-energise India’s economy as the western world slips into the worst recession since the great depression of 1930. Even as political parties prepare to release their election manifestos over the next week or so, it will be interesting to see how leading formations like the UPA and NDA respond with new ideas to the unprecedented situation developing in the global economy.

Even if the full impact of job losses and economic distress is yet to be felt uniformly across the country, especially in rural India, the climate of growing distress and insecurity will force political parties to come up with new ideas to mitigate the impending crisis.

In some sense, this is an inflexion point for India’s political economy which is waiting for the political class to introspect and look carefully within and come up with ideas specific to local culture and situations.

Globally, the new mantra is unlimited fiscal and monetary stimulus. But it may be foolish to blindly follow the herd. Strangely, as the IMF exhorts the world to expand the fisc to lift the global economy, rating agencies like S&P are busy downgrading the outlook for every economy that is expanding the fisc. Except, of course, that of the United States. The US enjoyed the highest rating at the end of Bill Clinton’s presidency when America had a huge fiscal surplus and it is still rated AAA when the US fiscal deficit is projected to expand to an unprecedented 15% of GDP! Simply because it runs the printing machine for a currency which the world habitually accepts.

So the short point is, emerging economies like India will have to think for themselves. It is here that the innovativeness of the Indian intelligentsia and its political class will be tested. One important component of this will be how the Indian government targets its increased spending at the Centre and state levels. If the gross borrowings of the Centre and states together has increased from some 7% to 12% of GDP since 2007-08, we surely need to figure out how the extra 5% of GDP or $50 billion is being spent. It must stimulate the economy in some way or the other.

The current global crisis provides the biggest opportunity to creatively target spending by the Centre and states. One successful example is the way the government set aside Rs 5,000 crore for replacement of old state transport buses that had been fully depreciated in the books decades ago. According the Cabinet Secretary, KMChandrasekhar, orders have been placed by various states for 14,000 buses which are to be delivered in the next few months. “I am informed by the Chief Secretaries of various states that the companies supplying the buses don’t have the capacity to supply so many buses before the June deadline. So the deadline may get extended after a new government is in place”, said Chandrasekhar. This is one fiscal stimulus scheme which appears to be delivering quick results. India needs a hundred such targeted schemes which will deliver results within six months.

Public sector banks could play a big role by setting up special loan appraisal division for small entrepreneurs and self-employed businesses. For instance, the thousands of decrepit taxis and smaller commercial transport vehicles—over 25 years old— plying in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai etc could be offered replacement loans by banks. The repayment period could be made longer and part of the interest component subsidised by the government. This would not only raise demand for vehicles in the immediate future but also raise productivity in a big way, besides improving energy efficiency.

The Centre and states could work together in many other ways. For instance, the home ministry can work with state home departments to refurbish thousands of police stations and other infrastructure across the country. This would increase the offtake of cement and metals and other items that the small scale industry provides. In short, there is a need for hundreds of such small ideas that can bear results in the immediate future. India has the advantage of volumes. Every small idea, in terms of value, can multiply in millions.India is fast urbanising and waste management and environmental pollution is a huge issue. This is also a unique opportunity for public policy.

The Congress party can revive Rajiv Gandhi’s aborted plan for cleansing the Ganga. The original effort did not fully succeed because it became a bureaucratic, top-down project. The same idea can be revived in a bottomup fashion by involving village panchayats and municipal bodies in small towns. The idea must be to create thousands of small infrastructure related to waste management, for the millions of inhabitants alongside the Ganga. Ganga has a powerful cultural connotation and if conceived well this could well turn out to be a grassroots movement. The existing funds under NREGA or JNURUM could be used in the Ganga project. Both the main political parties of the country, Congress and BJP, are struggling to become relevant in the Gangetic belt. Even politically, a massive effort related to improving the infrastructure around the Ganga could provide the right socialeconomic fillip. Any takers?

Vital ingredient for bird flu drug found in India

By Sakshi Aiyyer

Shikimic Acid Used For Making ‘Tamiflu’ Has Been Discovered In 7 Plants Species Of Western Ghats

Shikimic acid, the most vital ingredient used to make Oseltamivir, (Tamiflu) the only known drug to combat the deadly bird flu, has been found in trees in the Western Ghats.

Scientists from Bangalore have found at least seven plant species that yielded shikimic acid from the Western Ghat forests, known as one of the world’s 10 hottest biodiversity hotspots.

The team from University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, said it scanned through 210 plant species to shortlist “a few promising species whose leaves yielded shikimic acid level higher than 1%”.

Presently, the majority of the acid’s global availability is met by China because it is extracted from the fruits of the Chinese star anise tree, that contains up to 5% of the acid. But the 10-metre tree attains its seed-bearing stage after six years of growth, making it unlikely that the growing market demand of the acid would be met by the single source alone.

The fruits of this tree are traditionally used in China for culinary and medicinal purposes as they contain 2%-7% of shikimic acid, the highest reported estimate from plants.

Interestingly, the trees discovered by Indian scientists have yielded 1%-5.02% of the acid, with a plant species called Araucaria Excelsa yielding almost 5.02% of shikimic acid. The most significant advantages of the newly identified Indian sources is that the estimates are from leaves and not fruits as is the case with star anise.

Reporting their finding in the latest issue of the medical journal ‘Current Science’, the scientists said a total of 193 angiosperms (flowering plants) belonging to 59 families and 17 gymnosperms (plants in which the seeds are not enclosed in an ovary) belonging to five families were collected for the study. “Only 7 of the 193 angiosperm species yielded shikimic acid in excess of 1% while the rest yielded no or low shikimic acid. The most promising species were Calophyllum Apetalum (4.10% shikimic acid). All the 17 gymnosperms had detectable levels of shikimic acid with six species accumulating greater than 1%. Among these, Araucaria Excelsa yielding almost 5.02% of shikimic acid,” the scientists said.

They said that since so much of the acid is being used for industrial and pharmaceutical uses, it is imperative that newer sources of this chemical are identified. It is estimated that nearly two-thirds of the requirement of shikimic acid is being sourced from plants while the remaining one-third is obtained from genetically engineered E Coli.

The team added, “The leads presented here appear more promising than most others. In few of these species, the estimates are comparable to those reported from star anise. Because the estimates are from leaves, the sheer volume of the biomass offered by the leaves would render it economically feasible.

This finding of the new source of shikimic acid can potentially be used to meet the emerging needs of both the domestic and international markets.”

Union health ministry sources said, “Getting the raw material to make Tamiflu in India has been our biggest hurdle. At present, it is found only in China and Germany.” Tamiflu, the drug which blocks the replication of the flu virus, is presently being stockpiled by most countries as a precautionary measure in case of an outbreak of the bird flu among humans.

The price of shikimic acid has, therefore, skyrocketed. Pharma companies in India say the acid, which used to cost $40 a kg earlier, now costs around $1,000 per kg.

Goud’s NTP to merge with Chiru’s PRP

By M H Ahssan

Devender Goud May Seek Malkajgiri LS Ticket; To Fight On Prajarajyam Party Symbol

The eight-month-old Nava Telangana Party led by T Devender Goud is all set to merge with Chiranjeevi’s Prajarajyam party and a formal announcement is expected sometime next week before the poll notification is issued, NTP sources said.

While the official reason for the merger is said to be common ideology of the two parties—social justice and separate Telangana, the reality is that Goud has been finding it difficult to run the party as it had failed to create the kind of impact he expected before he quit TDP in June 23, 2008.

It may be mentioned here that before starting his own party Goud was a strong leader in TDP and from the position of ZP chairperson he rose to become virtually number two in TDP. He was also the revenue, panchayati raj and home minister during TDP regime under N Chandrababu Naidu. He was also the TDP deputy leader in the state assembly and used to share the seat of opposition leader in the assembly with Naidu.

While the TDP had constituted a committee to recommend the stand it should take on separate Telangana, Goud quit TDP alleging that it was anti-Telangana and floated his own outfit. But contrary to his expectations, except E Peddi Reddy, a former minister, no other leader went with him. Even the cadre did not desert TDP.

Since then, Goud had made several attempts to strike an alliance with TRS, PRP and even BJP. Now finally, Goud is said to have been assured by PRP leader Chiranjeevi that the party would include the promise of supporting separate Telangana in its manifesto. This was preceded by several rounds of talks between Chiranjeevi and Goud, NTP sources told HNN.

Once the merger is formalised, Goud is likely to get a key position in PRP and will contest polls on PRP symbol. Party sources say that Goud is keen to contest from Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency and jump to national politics. So far he has represented Medchal assembly constituency in Ranga Reddy district. Sources said he is likely to be named as in charge of party’s Telangana affairs committee.

Telangana Movement Gains Momentum

By M H Ahssan & Javed Hassan

With support for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh reaching a feverish pitch across the broad political spectrum, it is no longer a question of if but when the Telangana region would be carved out into a separate entity as the 29th state of the Indian Union. Forces led by the BJP, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and others have pulled the rug from under the Congress, which won the elections in 2004 by promising a separate state for the people of Telangana. Now that the opposition parties led by the BJP have jumped on the ‘separate Telangana’ bandwagon, the TDP has made a u-turn after opposing the movement all along, leaving the Congress party in the lurch.

Adding a new twist to the political dimensions of the Telangana movement, NRIs from Hyderabad working in Saudi Arabia) told HNN in an exclusive statement that the changing scenario in the state has placed Muslims on the horns of a dilemma. The worrisome factor, said Syed Zia-ur-Rahman, an NRI executive in Riyadh, is the future status of Hyderabad—whether it will be hived off from Andhra Pradesh as a union territory or made a joint capital of the two states.

Amid these twists and turns, the Nava Telangana Party (NTP), the brainchild of former TDP leader Devender Goud, has sought to hog the limelight through his ‘Telangana Yatra’, which he undertook last month to mobilize support for his party. He has also launched his own website in the Barrack Obama style, with news bulletins in English and Telugu. Video clips show Goud canvassing for his party among the scheduled castes, farmers and the Telangana Employees’ Association which, according to the NTP web news, has joined hands with the party.

Throughout his yatra which wended its way through the Telangana region, Goud harangued his audience, heaped abuses on the TDP and the Congress, while his party workers went about pasting “Telangana State” stickers on buses, buildings and other public places. There were pictures of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar to reinforce NTP’s message as the party of the downtrodden.

Not to be outmaneuvered , even the left parties and those representing the OBCs (Other Backward Classes) have veered round to the ‘separate Telangana’ movement which, they hope, would augur well for the future of that region. The theme of their political rhetoric is the same: they all want an end to the exploitation by the state leadership on the economic, educational and employment fronts.

The shift in the political landscape of the state has upped the ante against the Congress, which finds itself in a bind. If it goes along with Majlis Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (MIM), which wants the Congress to oppose the ‘separate Telangana’ campaign, it risks losing vote during next year’s elections. On the other hand, if it chooses to go with the flow, it could alienate the Muslims. Although the TDP has counseled its ally to back the Telangana movement, the Congress leadership continues to dither for the time being. However, according to all available indications, it is a matter of time before the Congress High Command could cave in, setting the stage for the next big move.

There is a rationale behind all this political drama that is being played out, .both at the Centre and in the state capital. Andhra Pradesh goes to the polls towards the middle of next year, at a time when the Rajasekhara Reddy government is hamstrung by an anti-incumbency factor. Briefing the Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the situation facing his party, the chief minister is said to have stressed that an assembly resolution endorsing the proposal for the creation of Telangana could help neutralise this anti-incumbency sentiment.

With the TDP’s about-turn on the Telangana issue, the Congress is wilting under enormous pressure to scuttle the move. On top of this, Chandrababu Naidu is seeking electoral alliance with K Chandrasekhara Rao of TRS in the Telangana region. The ruling party thus finds itself vulnerable to the ebb and flow of the political tide sweeping across the state.

TDP’s change in its political stance came about when Chandrasekhara Rao left the TDP in 2001 and spearheaded the movement for Telangana under the banner of his own political party, Telangana Rashtra Samiti. Secondly, both the leaders were facing serious threat to their political survival. While the TDP was plagued by defections to the new party of popular film star Chiranjeevi, Chandrasekhara Rao found himself on slippery ground in the wake of a serious threat posed by Goud’s NTP.

Explaining its aims and objectives, Goud said his party will strive for the formation of Telangana state, for which action will be taken both at the political and street levels through agitations. “The party will take up the problems and issues of all sections of society, including the Dalits, tribal and Muslims”, he pointed out. Goud, who had resigned from TDP on June 23 this year, said he was forced to launch his new outfit as the Congress and TDP were stonewalling over support to Telangana and its people.

These developments forced the hands of TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu in reaching out to CPM, CPI and TRS leaders for their support to his party’s decision to back the demand for a separate Telangana state. Naidu’s move is politically significant as the CPM, the CPI and the TRS are in the process of forging an alliance against the Congress and the BJP in the Assembly elections likely to be held in February 2009. “I spoke to the CPI and the CPM leaders as also with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti leader K Chandrasekhar Rao. I briefed them about our five-member core committee’s recommendations on Telangana and that we are favouring separate Telangana,” Naidu said, unveiling his campaign strategy.

Against this background comes the statement of MIM president and other Hyderabad State Muslim leaders who feel that by agreeing to the creation of the new state of Telangana, the Congress would be playing into the hands of the BJP, which has been advocating the Telangana cause ardently.

As things stand, MIM has very little space for political maneuvering given the fact that the TRS, a one-time ally of the Congress, ordered four of its MPs to resign in an act of brinkmanship to keep the heat on the UPA. The move coincided with similar resignations tendered by 16 TRS MLAs and its three MLCs from the Andhra Legislative Assembly and Council respectively. TRS wants the Telangana region to be carved out into a separate state—a pledge to which the Congress had committed itself in the 2004state assembly elections.

It took this line of action when the Congress failed to heed its ultimatum given earlier setting March 6 this year as the deadline for the bifurcation of the state.TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao said the party will also launch a door- to- door campaign to explain the mass the betrayal by the Congress.

However, MIM, Jamaat-e-Islami and other Muslim organizations have distanced themselves from the Telangana movement due to their apprehension that Muslims may not get a fair deal under the new dispensation. They are also upset over being side-tracked during the ongoing political wheeling and dealing concerning the Telangana issue.

To quote MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi who spelled out his party’s stand on this issue, “It is not that we are opposed to Telangana per se. If a new state is formed, the tally of seats of our party in elections will go up. But we have to first ensure the safety and welfare of Muslims and other things such as the future of Urdu language. Whether these will be safe in Telangana is the issue.’’

As an indication of the shape of things to come, Owaisi cited the recent Vatoli incident when a family of six Muslims was hacked to death in a Telangana village. While MIM’s concern in this regard is understandable, the same factor had influenced their voting behaviour during the Legislative Assembly elections held in Karnataka in May this year. Although the BJP swept the polls and formed a government by engineering defections from the Congress, the status of Muslim representation in the BJP government remained unchanged—a Muslim minister in charge of Awqaf and minority affairs plus some political patronage here and there.

As a sop for the next year’s elections, they have been given some concessions in terms of education and employment opportunities. Furthermore, infrastructural facilities, such as laying new pipelines for water supply or replacing the leaky ones in some Muslim-dominated areas, were put in place with an eye on the upcoming elections. So the bottom line has remained the same. Whether it is the Congress or the BJP at the helm of affairs, some ad hoc cosmetic measures could always be expected as part of their strategy to tap into the Muslim vote bank.

Under these circumstances, continued Muslim opposition to the formation of a separate Telangana state would not be in the interest of Muslims, as it could provide ammunition to the BJP to further isolate the community. As the situation stands, almost all the political parties are now in favour of the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, with the Congress expected to come on board anytime during the run-up to the elections. Surely, Muslims would not like to be seen as the lone dissenters under these circumstances.

As MP Asaduddin Owaisi put it, the BJP would emerge stronger if a separate Telangana State was created. “The so-called secular parties cannot match the BJP after creation of Telangana State. The future of Dalits, weaker sections and minorities would be bleak in separate Telangana,” he pointed out.

Yet, the fact remains that the conflict has assumed a caste dimension. Other backward classes (OBCs) are seeking to use the Telangana card to consolidate their political base across the state. This game of one-upmanship is part of their ploy to outmanoeuvre the politically powerful Reddys and Kammas who dominate the political apparatus of the state in spite of their small numbers.

Although TRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao is a higher caste Velama, the banner of Telangana across party lines has been hoisted both by OBCs and Scheduled Caste leaders. Even the Nizamabad Congress MP Madhu Yaski Goud, an OBC, blasted the AP government for its soft-pedaling over the formation of Telangana.

Sarvey Satyanarayana, Congress MP from Siddipet and an SC leader, also spoke in a similar vein, while. other OBC Congress MPs like Anjan Kumar Yadav from Secunderabad are orchestrating their move to jump on to the Telangana bandwagon. Andhra Congress chief Keshava Rao also seems ready to toe the same line.

Another point that should be noted is that .BJP has mobilized Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in its campaign for the creation of Telangana state. “The party is organising a massive rally of Narendra Modi in Telangana in December. Modi has already proved his mettle by winning the Nano small car project for his state amid fierce competition from Andhra Pradesh and other states after the Tatas decided to pull out of West Bengal last month in the wake of stiff opposition from Mamta Bannerjee’s Trinamool Congress.

Already, BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani sounded upbeat recently when he told a massive rally during an electioneering campaign in Hyderabad that the people were now looking forward to the BJP for the creation of the Telangana state. To this end, Modi has been roped in for his pro-development image. Advani also pledged on the same occasion that the saffron party, if voted to power, would expedite the formation of Telangana state within 100 days.

In this context, actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi took the plunge with the launch of his Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) that, he said, would support the formation of a separate Telangana State that existed from 1948 to 1956, when it was trifurcated by the States’ Reorganisation Commission along linguistic lines. “It is for the Central government to take a decision on creation of Telangana State. If it comes up with such a proposal, our party will not be an obstacle at any cost,” he observed.

“I know the people of this region are overwhelmingly in favour of a separate state. I respect your feelings. If you are convinced that creation of a separate state will ensure rapid development, I am with you,” Chiranjeevi said, emphasizing social justice as the main plank of his political platform.

Chirnjeevi observed: “It will be a party for backward classes, farmers, workers, women and youth. The party will work for development, modernisation and industrial revolution. Its goal will be ’santosh’ and ‘ananda’ (contentment and happiness),” he said, adding: “I know your problems, pains and sufferings and will always stand by you. Let us strive for achieving it.”

However, a cross-section of NRIs contacted by HNN in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, has dismissed these pledges as nothing more than a camouflage for masking their own high-voltage ambitions. Dr. Abid Moiz, a veteran NRI working as a nutritionist in the Saudi Ministry of Health in Riyadh, said: “In my opinion, no party is championing the cause of Telangana. Every party wants to gain political mileage by raising the Telangana issue.” Citing the case of Devender Goud who left the TDP to launch his own political outfit (TRS), he asked: “Why did they remain silent when they were in power? Why are they raising the Telangana issue now? Obviously, it is for personal benefit, the most important of which is becoming the CM.”

He also did not think that the separatist movement would serve the interests of the people, both economically and politically. “No. We live in a global village. We will not benefit from separating ourselves from others. Maybe, a separate Telangana will better serve government employees and, of course, politicians.”

On the question of MIM’s opposition to a separate Telangana since the 1960s, Dr. Moiz told HNN: “ They are of the opinion that the BJP’s influence is widespread in the Telangana region, where the language widely spoken is Urdu. It is my personal opinion that when the states are carved out on linguistic basis, then this area should be made Hyderabad state with Urdu as its language. In the past Telangana was part of Hyderabad, whose official language was Urdu. Hyderabad was then split into three parts on the basis of language and these areas were merged with Kannada-, Marathi- and Telugu- speaking areas of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra, which subsequently became Andhra Pradesh. Then, what about Urdu?”

Urdu columnist-cum-photographer K.N.Wasif, who works for a Riyadh-based Saudi Arabic magazine, too, attributed the political fireworks to personal rivalries and high ambitions. He said Chandrashekhar Rao, founder of Telangana Rashtriya Samithi (TRS), left the TDP to form his own party following some differences with Chandrababu Naidu , the TDP supremo. Meanwhile, there are two new kids on political bloc— Praja Rajyam led by Chiranjeevi, mega star of the Telugu film industry with a big fan following, and Devender Goud who launched NTP after resigning from TDP.

“He also claims that he will fight against the injustice meted out to the people from Telangana. He was a minister in the TDP government and is considered to be the right hand man of Chandrababu Naidu. Anyhow, he is a small -time leader and doesn’t have a large following like Chiranjeevi, who poses a serious challenge for TDP. The Congress has yet to spell out its stand on the separate Telangana movement.”

Making a swipe at the parties, Wasif said the Telangana movement has always been led “by politically unemployed persons who are not sincere in their support for the cause. If at all a separate Telangana state is formed, it will be beneficial for some politicians but it will not be in the greater interest of the people of Telangana, which was always a backward area. After it becomes a separate state, it will become more backward.”

He said MIM had always been against a separate Telangana state since 1969 when the late Dr. Chenna Reddy spearheaded the movement on a mass scale. “Why MIM is against the movement is a big debate which I cannot discuss here.”

According to Syed Zia-ur-Rahman, Executive Director of Al-Ma’awiya Group of Polyclinics, separate Telangana was a burning issue in the last election for almost all
the political parties. However, it was TRS which spearheaded the campaign.to upstage others who were also fighting for this cause.

Asked if the movement will safeguard the interests of the people , both economically and politically, Zia said: “I don’t think so, because during the period of NTR many people from Andhra moved to the Telangana area. They are now holding top positions in the
government and business and controlling the economy of the state. Telangana is a very backward area with a poor educational background. They also don’t have any resources, especially the Telangana Muslims, who are going to face a lot of challenges.”

Zia, who hails from Jangaon in Warangal district, said popular reaction there to the movement has been mixed, with mostly the Hindu electorate being in favour. However, some Muslims have also fallen in line without being aware of its future implications.

On the question of BJP’s support, he attributed it to the Hindu vote bank. “If they establish a separate Telangana, for sure they can form the government, as they do not have a substantial presence in the Andhra region.”

Zia observed that the separatist movement has always been opposed by MIM, “ because it is not in the interests of Muslims. Once they create a Telangana state, they will separate Hyderabad from Telangana like Delhi from UP. Alternatively, they could make Hyderabad the joint capital for Andhra and Telangana.”

The campaign for a separate Telangana state recalls a similar struggle during the 1990’s when the late Chandulal Chadrakar set up a political forum, the Chhattisgarh Rajya Nirman Manch, to spearhead the drive for the formation of Chhattisgarh from 16 districts of Madhya Pradesh. The campaign, which was propped up by major political parties, including the Congress and the BJP, gained momentum as it coincided with other separatist movements for Uttarkhand and Jharkhand during 1998-99.

During that year, the BJP-led Union Government drafted a bill for the constitution of a separate state of Chhattisgarh. The draft bill was sent to the Madhya Pradesh assembly, which unanimously approved it in 1998, with some modifications. Thus, Chhattisgarh came into being as the 26th state of the Indian Union on November 1, 2000 by the force of circumstances that also triggered the birth of Uttarkhand carved out of Himachal Pradesh as the 27th state on November 9 and Jharkhand out of southern Bihar as the 28th state on November 15 during the same year. The BJP, which has installed its own candidates in Uttarkhand and Chhattisgarh as chief ministers, sees in Telangana a similar opportunity to don the mantle of leadership. No wonder, it has mobilized its political heavy weights to improve its fortunes in the polls.

The Telangana movement shares with these three states a common factor—under-development resulting from the exploitation of its economic and natural resources. As P.L.Vishweshwer Rao, Professor and Head, Department of Communication & Journalism, Osmania University, notes in his article: “No movement, no struggle has ever started from the top: from intellectuals, thinkers, political and other leaders, elected representatives and so on. Inevitably, the struggles begin from people – the people give expression to their suffering because it is they who are victims of status quo. The long-dormant hope in the people of Telangana was awakened with the announcement as statehood for Uttarakhand by the then Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda. Within a year it has gathered so much strength that politicians, realizing its potential have jumped on to its bandwagon”.

He elaborates that the Telangana region has the lowest literacy rate and minimal educational infrastructure in the state. As many as eight districts of Telangana out of 10 (including Hyderabad) figure among the most backward educationally. “Mahbubnagar has the lowest literacy rate, both among males (40.8 per cent) and females(18 percent). The entire Telangana, except Hyderabad city and Ranga Reddy Urban areas which are in Hyderabad, has lagged behind educationally. Not a single mandal of Telangana has the national literacy rate of 52.19 percent.”

It is against this background that that a move is under way to prevent the exploitation of Telangana-based college managements by their counterparts from coastal districts. Hundreds of colleges belonging to Telangana managements have reportedly crashed in the competition. For this reason, TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao has warned that colleges run by non-Telangana managements would be banned in separate Telangana.

In fact, the birth of Maoism in Telangana, is said to be partly an offshoot of exploitation by people from the Andhra region, some of whom obtained fake degree certificates to corner jobs in Hyderabad. They also used these tricks to remain entrenched in government positions which, in turn, armed them with decision making powers.

On the economic front, they exploited its rich mineral resources as well as the Krishna and Godavari rivers that are the major sources of irrigation for the entire state. Andhra farmers reportedly went even further by cultivating water-intensive crops depleting its water resources. They also preferred cash to food crops to boost their own income while jacking up food prices as a result of these misplaced priorities.

For these reasons, Telangana has been ranked among the most under-developed regions in the country with all its nine districts, excluding Hyderabad, designated “backward” by the Centre. These districts now receive special assistance from the Central government’s Backward Regions Grant Fund. Under these circumstances, the people of Telangana and its parties see statehood as the only viable route to development. Whether their bread will be evenly buttered for everyone remains a matter of speculation at this stage.

One of the strong points of Telangana , however, is its IT industry which gained prominence during the tenure of the former TDP Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu. Thanks to its highly skilled manpower base, Hyderabad carved out a niche for itself as India’s second Silicon Valley after Bangalore with its IT and IT- enabled services, pharmaceuticals and entertainment industries. It should leverage its strength in these sectors to create more job opportunities for the people and stimulate economic development to a new pitch.

It is a tribute to Telangana that IT bellwether Infosys of Bangalore has embarked on the construction of its second campus, spread over 447 acres, at Pocharam, near Hyderabad, with a total investment of Rs 1,250 crores. The ground -breaking ceremony of the Infosys SEZ campus was held at Pocharam village in the neighbouring Ranga Reddy district.

Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies Ltd. N R Narayana Murthy has said that their decision to locate the project in that village was taken in view of the high infrastructure facilities in Hyderabad to make it a premier IT destination.

The Infosys campus at Pocharam is expected to accommodate over 25,000 employees and will be completed over a period of 10 years under a three-phase plan. Work is in progress on the first phase, scheduled to be completed in a three-year period, with a seating capacity of 10,000 employees. The initial investment will amount to Rs 600 crore. Telangana can be justifiably proud of its track record in the IT sector as it looks forward to its future as a separate state.

Are You Ready To Eat Telangana Biryani?

What is common between Hyderabadi Biryani and Telangana? The answer is both simple and complicated. First let’s talk about the simple answer. Biryani is cooked by more than one person; it takes a lot of time to cook; it tastes best when served hot and it turns stale in just one day. Similarly, the formation of Telangana too would require more than one political party; it’s formation too will take a lot of time; it would taste best if formed immediately and it will take merely one political season to rot its demand.

Now talk about the complicated comparison. With less than six months left for the Assembly and General Elections, almost all political parties in Andhra Pradesh are vying to carve out Telangana pie. But just like the Biryani, all political parties seem to be blissfully unaware of the perfect recipe.

Rice, meat, ghee, oil and garam masala are the common ingredients of Biryani. Similarly, Telangana too would require Congress, TDP, BJP, NTP, TRS, Praja Rajyam and other political parties. For Biryani, one needs to get a defined quantity of each ingredient which should be properly mixed and heated for a defined period. Similarly, Telangana would need a proper consensus among all political parties. Any increase or decrease in any ingredient will spoil Biryani’s taste. Similarly, strong opposition or support for Telangana will spoil the taste of Andhra politics.

Just for a little more gyan, let’s talk a bit more about Biryani’s history. No body knows for sure when the Biryani was cooked first, but it was confined to royal kitchens till independence. Later, it became a permanent item in the menu of all marriage celebrations and also entered the market through hundreds of Irani hotels in Hyderabad. Initially, Irani hotels served only mutton biryani but soon they also introduced chicken biryani. It was followed by Kalyani Biryani, Lal Biryani, Shahi Biryani, Mughlai Biryani, Zafrani Biryani, Kaju-ki-Biryani and a lot of other varieties.

Each variety has a different taste. Even the Mutton Biryani served in two different hotels will taste different. Further, Mutton Biryani prepared by the same chef, will have a different taste when he does it second time. Therefore, it is now an established fact that there is no defined recipe for Biryani and each chef will cook it in his own way. But very few people notice these differences and everyone enjoys whatever is served to them in the name of Biryani.

The demand for creation of Telangana too has a long history. In 1969, the Telangana Praja Samithi launched a mass agitation for Telangana. It also won almost all assembly and Lok Sabha seats in the region in the next elections. But the movement was given an unceremonious burial when the TPS was merged into Congress. For almost three decades, no politician dared to revive the demand for Telangana since such demands were viewed with great suspicion.

After 1994 assembly elections, BJP revived the issue and went to the extent of giving the slogan of “one vote, two states” during 1998 elections. Two years later, K.Chandrasekhar Rao floated Telangana Rashtra Samithi. The demand got political recognition during 2004 elections and TRS was able to win 26 assembly and 5 Lok Sabha seats, of course, with a tie-up with the Congress party. Nearly five years later, now almost all political parties are supporting separate Telangana.

Let’s again go back to the comparison. Biryani has no clear definition except for the fact that it is the most favourite food of all Hyderabadis. Likewise, in the present political circumstances, Telangana too has no clear definition, but now it has become the most favourite poll slogan that all parties are trying to adopt. A chef thinks that Biryani with attractive looks and perfect aroma was more important than the recipe. Similarly, for politicians, a bunch of 10 districts and the slogan “Jai Telangana” are important and not the strategy which would ensure its creation.

I think creation of Telangana is not as easy as it is being projected by the political parties. In 2004 elections, both TRS and Congress maintained that if people want Telangana, then they just need to vote for them. People did so. A few days later, TRS chief Chandrasekhar Rao started setting deadlines and after losing full five years, now he believes that Telangana will be a reality after next elections. But being a sub-regional party, it will be impossible for the TRS to get the statehood even if it wins all 109 assembly and 16 Lok Sabha seats of the region.

Officially Congress maintained a strategic silence although some Congress leaders made periodic statements demanding statehood for Telangana in the last five years. There is no clarity as to whether the Congress-led UPA Government will constitute the second States Reorganisation Commission or will it introduce a Telangana resolution in the State Assembly. But political pundits are just speculating that Congress will do either of these to boldly face the next elections. BJP claims that it can form Telangana if voted to power in both the State and the Centre. But BJP knows fully well it cannot form the government in Andhra Pradesh at least after next elections. Recently TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu joined the Telangana bandwagon and now the Praja Rajyam chief Chiranjeevi also joined in the chorus.

No political party including the Telangana Rashtra Samithi is clear about the roadmap for Telangana. No body is clear as to how a separate state would be carved out of the country’s fifth largest state. They don’t have any answers for both short-term and long-term questions. Will it be a state consisting of 10-districts? What will happen to Khammam district which partly falls in Telangana & partly Andhra? If the state is bifurcated, then what will happen to the four districts of Rayalaseema? Will Anantapur, Kurnool, Cuddapah and Chittoor be merged with coastal Andhra? Or will the state will be trifurcated by giving statehood to Rayalaseema? How water resources will be shared between the newly created states? Which newly created state will get compensation or more compensation from the Centre — Andhra or Telangana?

There are hundreds of hotels in Hyderabad that sell Biryani. Despite a major difference in rate, taste and quality, the hotels do not compete with each other. Several hundred tons of Biryani is sold in Hyderabad every day, because the hoteliers know that the only USP to sell this dish is its name. Just supercede anything with “Biryani” and people will buy it and also enjoy it without major complaints.

Similarly, it appears that politicians have started believing that the only USP to win the next elections would be Telangana. Just say “Jai Telangana” or at least don’t object to others saying “Jai Telangana” and you will emerge a winner. Going by the present political trend, it can be predicted that Telangana will be the major issue during the next elections. Only the poll outcome will tell whether voters find the party with correct Telangana recipe or one that again ends up making a mish mash out of Telangana in the next elections.

An OPEN LETTER To Sri Manmohan Singh, Honorable Prime Minister of India

Dear Sir,

We take this opportunity to impress upon you the need and urgency of your action in the form of working toward a separate Telangana State. As you quoted Victor Hugo over a decade ago, “No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come” and the Telangana people’s aspiration is one such.

Telangana has been subjected to oppression and neglect for over five hundred fifty years. First five hundred years, Muslim Kings made the decisions for Telangana, and the last 47 years, Andhras are making decisions for Telangana. The Telangana people were free for only four years (1952 – 1956) to make their own decisions. Freedom to determine one’s own destiny, as you know is the highest of the rewards for a true democracy.

Four and a half decades have passed since the State of Andhra Pradesh was formed. As you are aware, the merger of Telangana with the former Andhra State became possible only because a set of solemn promises were made and constitutional guarantees were given to protect against the possible neglect and exploitation of Telangana. These promises were made not just once, but numerous times and all were broken.

Consequently, the exploitation of the region and its people is continued. The people of the region are not only deprived of their legitimate share in the development but are also marginalized in the political process. They have been humiliated on the cultural and linguistic fronts and are virtually reduced to the status of second-class citizens in their own homeland. A prolonged neglect of the region has provided a fertile ground for the emergence and spread of Naxalite violence and also unending farmer suicides.

The development scenario of Telangana is very depressing. There is not even a single sector in which this region has not been ignored. We would, however, like to bring to your notice only a few areas to underscore the gravity of the situation.

EDUCATION

The literacy rate in Telangana is 37% as against 46% in Coastal Andhra, 45% in Rayalaseema and 72% in the Capital City.
Enrollment of students at the school level in Telangana is 30% instead of 40%, based on the size of population. Over 75% of the expenditure on government and government-aided colleges is incurred in the other two regions.
Out of 21 Universities and University level Institutions funded either by the State or the Central Government, 3 are located in Coastal Andhra, 7 in Rayalaseema, 10 in the Capital city and just one in the entire Telangana region.
IRRIGATION

69% percent of catchments area of river Krishna and 79% percent of catchments area of river Godavari are in the Telangana, and Telangana region gets less than 15% of the river waters.
The Coastal Andhra has usurped 80% of assured waters of Krishna allocated to the State by the Bachawat Tribunal. 90% of surplus waters, yet to be allocated, are reserved for the Rayalaseema, denying the Telangana its rightful share.
The Godavari waters have already been harnessed to irrigate more than 12 lakh acres in Coastal Andhra while the corresponding figure for Telangana is 4 lakh acres. The proposed Polavaram Project on Godavari is to serve the Coastal Andhra region is planned to be six times larger than the proposed Ichampalli Project to serve the backward Telangana region.
The net area under tank irrigation in the Telangana region had declined by 76% between 1956 and 1998. The Telangana farmers mostly depend on well irrigation. The farmers of Coastal Andhra get cheap canal water subsidized by the State, while the Telangana farmers are forced to pay higher electric pump bills.
AGRICULTURE

The net cultivated area in the Telangana region has decreased by 22% during the period 1956 and 1998, while it has increased by 4.25% in Coastal Andhra region.
40% of the cultivated area in the State is in the Telangana region, and the institutional credit available to the Telangana farmers is far less. They get 18%, 23% and 28% of the total credit provided by the District Cooperative Central Banks (short-term), the A.P. Cooperative Central Bank (long-term) and the Scheduled Commercial Banks.
Inadequate Institutional credit is forcing the Telangana farmers to fall into the debt trap laid by the private moneylenders, leading to an unprecedented number of suicides during the last five years.
INDUSTRIES

No major industry worth its name has been setup in any of the districts of the Telangana region as compared to the establishment of several industries in Visakapatnam, Vijayawada, Kakinada, Nellore, Tirupati, and Cuddapah.
Quite a few major industries established in the Telangana region during the rule of Nizams are being closed one after the other by the successive governments. Important among the closed industries are Azamjahi Mills (Warangal), Sir Silk Factory (Sirpur), Antargaon Spinning Mills (Adilabad), DBR Mills, and Allwyn Factory. Further the famous Nizam Sugar Factory (Nizamabad) is on the verge of closure.
EMPLOYEMENT

There are about 15 lakh jobs in the government and government-funded offices and establishments. Based on the size of population, 40% of these jobs, i.e. 6 lakhs, should have been filled in by the Telangana job seekers. But the total number of jobs now occupied by them is less than 2 lakhs.
The State Government issued orders as back as in the year 1984 to remove all the non-locals appointed and to appoint only Telangana locals against the vacancies created. Besides not implementing these orders, further recruitment of non-locals in the Telangana region is going on.
FINANCES

The contribution of Telangana region to the State’s Exchequer has all along been around 43%. But the expenditure incurred on the development of this region has never been more than 25%.
The lower per capita income of the Telangana region enabled the State Government to get higher allocation of funds from the successive Finance Commissions. But the benefit of such higher allocation of funds never materialized for the Telangana region.
More than 80% of loans taken from the World Bank and other International and National agencies are being spent for the development of Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema. But the burden of repayment of these loans and interest on them is being borne by the people of Telangana to the extent of 40 to 43%.
A cumulative effect of these and similar factors, over the years, has been the diversion of thousands of crores of rupees meant for the development of Telangana region, for the development of other regions.
The situation in other sectors is equally, if not more, alarming. The Drinking water is a major issue for the Telangana region. The people mostly depend on bore-wells for their drinking water and are inflicted with fluorosis. The fluorides in the drinking water cause permanent disfigurement, brain damage and there is no cure for it.

Telangana is rich with resources. Telangana people are asking: Use Telangana resources for the development of Telangana region for the betterment of Telangana people. We hope that the national government under your stewardship is aware of these facts.

Formation of Telangana State is as explained earlier is the aspiration of the natives. That aside, the principles governing smaller states to bring government closer to people would build up the economy and empower people in the process. Telangana people opposed the formation of Andhra Pradesh state in 1956, they overwhelmingly voted for a separate Telangana state in 1969. In 2004 elections, the people of Andhra Pradesh accepted the concept of two states, voted overwhelmingly for TRS-Congress alliance, and rejected the TDP appeal for united Andhra Pradesh.

I congratulates you for taking the step toward initiating a dialogue through President’s address to the Parliament and further clarifying it in your first Press conference the future Telangana state. Telangana people have committed to achieve their statehood through non-violence. The conditions are ripe and there is consensus on ground with out any unnecessary hate or dislike toward each other. The time for Telangana has come and please understands that I will continue to work towards the betterment of the region.

Thanking you Sir.
Sincerely yours,

Telangana Supercop

An Open Letter to Sonia Gandhi

Dear Ma’am,

We are writing this letter to you, on behalf of Telanganites across India to inform you and request you to take appropriate decisions regarding democratic demand of Telangana people. We are supporting the just and democratic demand for Separate Telangana. We would like to gently remind you that you too campaigned for Congress party during the 2004 elections by accepting the demand for separate Telangana. The fact that Congress had electoral alliance with TRS, and willing to go ahead with the parties having only one objective to establish Telangana state, is in itself enough that you agreed for the formation of separate state. You have campaigned for Congress party with “Jai Telangana” slogan. That is exactly the reason, they voted for Congress and the current Chief Minister vows his power to the people of Telangana.

People of Telangana peacefully waited for four years for Congress party to honour the main election promise- to move the bill in the parliament for forming Telangana state. The wish of the people of Telangana was included in the common minimum programme of your UPA Government. The President of India, the highest constitutional authority in India, articulated it during his speech to Parliament. Then we, along with people of Telangana, believed that the process of formation of state will be started soon. After four years, people of Telangana are feeling cheated and betrayed.

The popular demand for separate state is now in the hands of a few people who are manipulating Congress party. We feel that the democratic demand for separate state is being deliberately undermined and insulted for the gain of these few individuals in the Congress party. This is not acceptable in a democratic country like India. We are writing to you to examine the facts and agree for the Telangana state immediately to avoid unfortunate events that might be created by the people who are for and against the formation of Telangana.

We have no political interest whatsoever. Some of our families were part of the popular Telangana movement during the process of re-organisation of the country. People of Telangana never agreed to be part of the Andhra Pradesh. The struggle continued for last fifty years- the longest struggle in post independent India. As you may be aware, whenever the people of Telangana had an opportunity, they expressed their preference for a separate state. In 1971 during the peak of Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s popularity, Telangana people have voted for separate state overwhelmingly electing 10 out of 11 Parliament seats. Again in 2004 they voted for the parties supporting separate state, including Congress party, defeating the most powerful politician then in the state and country. In 2006 bi-election, once again they expressed their anger, frustration and bitterness by defeating Congress. How many times do the Telangana people have to express their preference to live in separate state? They lost confidence on state of Andhra Pradesh. They do not need any prolonging in the name of building consensus. There is a consensus among all sections of Telangana people- artists, writers, elites, educated middle class, politicians, political parties, farmers, women – practically every one now wants to live in a separate state.

If there is a referendum more than 85% people of Telangana want separate state. That is what your own senior party leaders wanted to communicate to you in Delhi. They were humiliated because they were denied even the appointment. We on behalf of Telangana people wanted to meet you personally and explain the situation, but we decided to inform you through this open letter with a view that this is the faster way you might be able to listen and take action.

Powerful kingdoms have fallen. Six hundred years of Nizams rule in Hyderabad crumbled when they failed to listen to people. In democracy people are supreme. Listen to the people and their concerns. That is what we would like to request you through this open letter. YSR or Naidu will never agree for separate state. They are part of the problem. Building consensus for Telangana state is certainly required. But you cannot build consensus with those who are part of the problem. There is consensus within Telangana. Telangana will not be a small state, it will be bigger than18 Existing states of India.

Prolonging and delaying in establishing Telangana state will have serious consequences to AP and to Congress party. Your own party men are articulating in public as to how big a damage it might cause to you and you party. A further delay is not in the interest of people of Telagnana, Country or Congress. There is nothing wrong in two states speaking Telugu. The only section opposing formation of separate state is a handful of people who accumulated wealth, power with mafia type of operations intimidating political parties and people. That is exactly what the people of Telangana want to get rid of, and that is the reason we are supporting their just and democratic struggle as responsible people. Forming Telangana state is in the interest of all the Telugu speaking people all over the world.

It is not about development; Telangana people have lost faith in AP. They do not want to live with political, economic and cultural domination. They want to live in peace. They just need their own state. They are prepared to continue this struggle for as long as it takes. We are with them in a small way. We request you to be democratic and listen to people and not to some individuals who are benefiting through unfair means and controlling the political process.

Finally, we would like to state the following. The time is of the essence for any political process. People of Telangana are feeling frustrated and pushed to the wall. The crooked people who are opposing the millions of people’s democratic choice are going to provoke and create violence to prove that they can further intimidate and oppress Telangana people. That will lead to violence and chaos which is what we want you to avoid. As a national leader with moral consciousness, as some one who understands and appreciates the democratic values, you should take a decision now, before it is too late.

We would like to briefly remind you the past. In 1969, in almost similar situation, a CM ordered police firing on the Telangana people. More than 370 young people lost their lives. We are sure you do not want that kind of situation to repeat. No one wants that to repeat, no one wants some mothers to lose their children fighting for their just demand. That is what we are deeply concerned.

The forces opposing Telangana state are determined to create violence and create confusion. They are determined to humiliate the Telangana people with their money, power and mafia type of political operations. They are comparing Telangana with Kashmir, that itself is an indication that how far they can go to oppress the people of Telangana. We firmly believe that you should be completely informed without filtration about the actual situation, its historical past and the implications related to Telangana. We are deeply concerned about the manipulation that is going on to keep you in the dark regarding Telangana issue.

We are seriously concerned about the events that might unfold in future to suppress the democratic and popular demand for Telangana. Please avoid the bloodshed. You can do that. Please do not claim or exclaim later that you were not aware of the situation. That is the reason we are appealing to you through this open letter. You have means to know the actual situation. Just do it through independent and trusted sources. Not knowing the facts is not going to help you or avoid the unfortunate events that might be instigated by the forces opposing Telangana. We want complete peace and we believe that you can help in the formation of Telangana state.

One thing is certain, Telangana state will be formed. Why not now? Keep your promise to Telangana people and share the glory. We appeal to you to start the process for the formation of Telangana. Start now without any further delay. Please note that it is in your hands to save or ruin the Congress party in Telangana.

Sincerely,

Telangana Supercop

EDITORIAL: New clear deal

The big issue is India’s foreign policy

The Left is right. The Congress-Left battle is not simply over the nuclear deal. There are bigger issues involved. The big issue is India’s foreign policy. The Left wants and, to be fair to it, has been wanting for some time an ideological foreign policy.

No one else in India, at least no serious player at the national level, certainly not the Congress or the BJP, wants a foreign policy strait-jacketed by ideology in the sense of prioritising theories and dislikes over national interests. Therefore, and this is the crucial thing to understand as the Left and the Congress issue reactions to each other’s statements, at the fundamental level what the current crisis has brought to fore is what some observers, including this newspaper, had suspected about this ruling arrangement: the alliance was always artificial, both sides felt unnatural in it, and it could only run so long because the Left’s hard ball tactics were concentrated on economic policy.

This may sound strange because the PM, squarely in the Left’s target, is so much a part of India’s economic transformation. But economics as it has played out in politics recently offers room for manoeuvre that big foreign policy choices don’t. In part because of earlier reforms that released, to use the much-used Keynesian phrase, the animal spirits in India’s private sector, India’s growth could ramp up without radical additional reforms. Manmohan Singh and his handful of reformist ministers would have loved to initiate more reforms. Not being able to do so was frustrating. Listening to the Left’s jibes and threats wasn’t pleasant. But a lot can be tolerated when the economy grows above 9 per cent.

Barring Delhi and Mumbai airport ownership change and the SEZ bill, the UPA can claim no major reform. No one was expecting any more. What was widely expected was that any other reform proposal mooted would be shot down by the Left and the government would have carried on ruing economic policy paralysis but knowing political stability isn’t at great risk.Foreign policy now doesn’t offer these luxuries because redefining India’s role in the world requires action.

The nuclear deal was part of that action. The BJP, never mind what it says now, started it when a Democrat was in the White House and the Congress carried on with it with a Republican president. There’s bipartisan consensus in both countries on the broad and crucial aspects of India’s foreign policy programme. The Left doesn’t want any part of that programme.

Which is why talk about buying time and postponing this or that negotiation on the nuclear deal are ultimately red herrings. Tactical inaction can’t resolve the current dispute. The dynamics of the larger issue around the nuclear deal are very different from, say, those around the pension bill. The Congress has probably understood that.

Dutt’s release likely on Wednesday

By Tanveer Khan

Actor Sanjay Dutt is likely to be released on interim bail only on Wednesday as formalities and paper work may not be completed on Tuesday. Sanjay has been lodged in the Yerawada jail since August 1, after being convicted for six years RI under the Arms Act in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case.

Sources said family members, including Sanjay’s sister and Congress MP Priya Dutt, were waiting for release orders from the apex court. They will be submitting the papers to the TADA court in Mumbai on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning for the release orders.

“We need to see if the orders from the TADA court will reach here before 1700hrs, even so we have our procedures that take over an hour minimum, therefore his release on Tuesday appears to be unlikely”, said jail authorities.

The police resorted to a mild lathicharge to disperse the jostling crowd, who were waiting to have a glimpse of their hero outside the Yerawada jail.

Retail wallets closed to Indian mutual funds

By Indrajit Basu & M H Ahsan

Ask bankers or a heads of insurance companies in India about how many retail customers they have added in the past year and chances are that most would give you a number close to the nearest hundred. After all, retail clients are the backbone of their growth, they say, and acquiring new clients is their top priority. But place this question to a fund manager of any of India’s 44-odd mutual funds, and most would draw a blank. No official numbers regarding retail investors in mutual funds are available, but “we have many”, they say. Some even evade the question and try to direct attention instead to the sizzling growth in the amount of money they manage (called assets under management – AUM in industry parlance), which most funds consider a key benchmark for their performance. They can always find an excuse, though, for not having enough retail clients.

According to reported figures, the penetration of mutual funds in India has languished at a mere 3% of household savings, compared with 16% in most developed and developing economies. “If you compare the overall investments of the retail investors, the mutual-fund industry is still struggling to gain the attention of the retail investors,” said Krishnamurthy Vijayan, director and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Asset Management Co. Indeed, although the Indian mutual-fund industry has finally started growing like a teenager since mutual funds in their true sense were opened to the private sector in 1993, the fact is that the sector continues to be the favorite for only the big guns, while most investors from the street push this investment avenue, supposedly the retail investor’s best, way down their preference list. On the face of it, though, the mutual-fund industry has never had it so good.

The AUM or the total corpus of this industry grew by a stunning 21% over the year ending July to exceed US$125 billion. But, said T C Nair, a member of the country’s capital-market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), even as it is “astonishing that assets managed by mutual funds have doubled in less than 18 months, the mutual-fund industry is still very urban and geared toward institutional investors”. And this has happened despite the fact that the industry aggressively positions itself as a safe investment avenue that can offer better returns than most fixed-interest-bearing investment instruments, such as bonds and deposits. Take these numbers, for instance: according to SEBI, of the $125 billion AUM, as much 81% comes from the eight largest cities of India, while half of the AUM “belongs to corporate clients, banks and financial institutions”. But there’s not much participation of retail investors in the other half, either.

According to industry numbers, there are about 32 million retail accounts in Indian mutual funds. “However, the point to note is that much of this too belongs to the high-net-worth investors, because most usually invest though multiple accounts,” said Jhelum Chowdhury, a financial planner and a mutual-fund broker. Therefore, said Krishnan Sitaraman, head of fund-services and fixed-income research for the credit-rating agency CRISIL, “Although there’s no concrete information on that [retail investors in mutual funds] number, we reckon that no more that 25% of the AUM belongs to the retail investor.” Compare mutual funds in India with its peers in the developed countries, say the United States, where mutual funds truly function as they should – to increase the wealth of smaller investors – the picture looks completely different: more than 80% of the AUM belongs to retail investors.

The ratio is similar in Europe and elsewhere in Asia. So why don’t millions of investors find Indian mutual funds hot? “One major issue with less retail participation [in mutual funds] is the income level of smaller investors,” said Rachana Baid, a professor at the Mumbai-based Indian Institute of Capital Markets. “Indian investors follow a typical investment hierarchy where risk-fee investments like bank deposits and bonds get the top priority and, after making such investments, there is little money in the hands of the investors to invest in equity-linked mutual funds.”

Then there’s the question of risk perception. Experts say that since equity-linked mutual-fund plans – the only mutual-fund plans that retail investors actually invest in – invest primarily in stocks, retail investors perceive “such investments as a proxy for a punt on the stock market”, said Krishnamurthy Vijayan of JPMorgan. Moreover, added Baid, the Indian mutual funds have not been able to communicate their risk profile to the retail investors segment properly. “It is true that mutual funds per se could be risky too, but when one considers this investment avenue from a longer-term perspective, say 30 years, the daily or even few months of volatility of the stock markets should not matter,” said Baid.

Nevertheless, the biggest reason Indian mutual-fund plans haven’t been able to penetrate deep into the retail segment is the mutual funds themselves: all have the principal focus on growth of their AUM in which corporate and institutional markets offer an easy way. “And there are understandable reasons for it,” including a sweetener in the Indian income-tax laws, said Dhirendra Kumar of Valuresearch, which claims to be the first dedicated fund-research company in India. After tax concessions extended to mutual funds in 1999 where dividends from equity funds were made tax-free and where debt funds were taxed concessionally at 10%, “Companies and other large investors prefer to put their money in debt funds of mutual funds instead of putting their money directly in fixed-income-bearing securities, where the earnings are treated as interest income and hence taxed at much higher rates,” said Kumar.

That is also why, say industry sources, about 65% (although SEBI claims it is about 50%) of the AUM consists of debt plans. “Moreover,” said Krishnamurthy Vijayan, “most mutual-fund companies in India are grossly undercapitalized [meaning they do not have enough capital to expand their marketing efforts], so they tend to address the meaty area [where one marketing call could get them the business of many retail clients] to grow.” Small wonder that SEBI is unhappy about the way mutual funds in Indian operate. In a public forum last month, SEBI chairman M Damodaran pointed out that “the mutual-funds industry seems to be prematurely patting itself on the back” and that “the question of who has made what sort of growth provokes more questions than it provides answers”. Damodaran also urged the industry to examine the possibility of getting different kinds of money into funds, rather than bank overwhelmingly on institutional investors, since such “large investments by corporate houses in mutual funds generate conflict of interest”.

The truth, then, is that in India, mutual funds are hardly what their original concept mandates: individual investors should form the bulk of fund investors or participants. But the good news is that this may be changing. Lately, claim both Vijayan of JPMorgan and Vikaas Sachdev, country head of business development for ING Investment Management, some large fund houses have started venturing deep into the micro-investment segment through the systematic investment plans route, and by getting non-government organizations to mobilize funds from even rural areas. “

The inflection point is now,” said Sachdev. “With rising disposable incomes and confidence following three years of a sustained bull run, the share of the retail investors’ wallet in the MFs [mutual funds] is going up; the industry expects that retail participation [will] grow much faster in the next few years.”

De-demonizing Southeast Asian Islam

By M H Ahsan & Sentim Richard Khan

At last the academic community is standing up to the myths being perpetuated about Islam and Muslim identity in Southeast Asia. For years scholars and area specialists have lain supine as the roller-coaster of the “war against terror” has ridden roughshod over truth and history concerning the region’s nearly 300-million-strong Muslim community. Kudos to British political scientist John Sidel for his brief and biting essay “The Islamic Threat in Southeast Asia: A Reassessment” that seeks to redress the appalling imbalance.

In fewer than 60 pages, Sidel, a professor at the London School of Economics, demolishes many of the shaky premises that have shored up the so-called “second front” in the US-led “war against terror” and helped create a dangerous divide between Muslims and non-Muslims in the region. The backlash has regrettably been slow in coming. Perhaps that’s because of the immense weight that US foreign policy carries in Southeast Asia; perhaps also because tales of fanatical bearded jihadis plotting the downfall of secular regimes are just too compelling for the Western media to report straight.

It has become axiomatic in the media and among so-called security specialists that Southeast Asia is home to a resurgent Islamic sentiment that breeds and protects dangerous radicals bent on redrawing the region’s map through the establishment of a pan-Islamic caliphate. Sidel in essence argues the reverse. Using a more refined and informed analysis, he points to the declining fortunes of once-ascendant Islamic forces in the last decade of the 20th century. From the mid-1990s in Indonesia and Malaysia, the intellectual effervescence of Islamic thinkers such as Anwar Ibrahim and the late Nurcholish Madjid offered a promise of a modernist Islamic politics that blended and synthesized modern technology and democracy with the moral tenets of faith.

Their liberal ideas posed a threat to oligarchic and undemocratic interests and were smothered – partly through co-option as in the case of Indonesia, and more starkly in Malaysia by Anwar’s arrest and incarceration. Anwar and his intellectual peers epitomized the nadir of Islamic revival in the region. After 1998, the financial crisis and the ensuing political instability swept away rosy ideas of an Asian renaissance based on enlightened religious ideas. This emasculation, Sidel argues, left more conservative and radical activists feeling that Islam had been sidelined and besmirched, which helps explain, he argues, why a tiny minority turned to violence.

“The turn towards terrorist violence by small numbers of Islamist militants,” Sidel writes, “must be understood as a symptom of a reaction to the decline, domestication and disentanglement from state power of Islamist forces in the region.” Modern roles Finely argued as his thesis is, Sidel is in too much of a hurry to explain away the role of Islam in modern Muslim society and policy. For instance, he neglects to explain fully why conservative Islamic mores are so appealing to a society that sees secular politicians stealing from the people and modern forms of government powerless to defend their interests.

The important distinction here is between Islam as a moral code for governing everyday life and Islam as a war cry for a tiny minority of misguided misfits. It is one thing to explain away the fanatics targeting Westerners in Bali and Jakarta as weak and marginal. It is quite another to play down the trend toward religion in a society that has seen Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism as well as Islam make huge gains in the region over the past two decades. As a result, there is no escaping the fact that religion has entered the political fray.

The question is: How successfully can democracy, which has made great strides in a country like Indonesia, temper the conservative, fanatical fringes? Sidel argues convincingly that Islam has become a marginal force in Indonesian and Malaysian politics. Yet he misses the point that in both countries, there is insufficient ideological ballast to counter the forces of Islam and therefore insufficient middle ground on which to contest elections.

People have the vote, but democracy is still under construction in an institutional sense – party platforms are poorly developed and rhetoric and symbolism outweigh substance. So instead of fighting over better education and garbage collection, gubernatorial candidates in the recently held Jakarta city elections battled over Islamic law and pluralism. In Malaysia, the deputy prime minister provocatively and erroneously described Malaysia as an Islamic state so that the ruling party could get out in front of the opposition Islamic party ahead of elections expected by early next year. Sidel is right about the domestication of Islamic politics. He is wrong about disentanglement, and this is what still concerns many non-Muslims.

None of this detracts from the core of Sidel’s thesis, which is that the violent militancy of the past few years is a marginal anomaly rather than a symptom of growing strength of radical sentiment in society at large. The problem is that he applies this notion rather too broadly to all forms of violence in the Muslim community. He supports the idea, for instance, that the eruption of violence in Muslim minority regions of Mindanao and southern Thailand is a symptom of re-ordered elite relationships that have upset the balance of interests that in the past appeased local Muslim leaders and kept violence at bay.

This is simplistic and ignores deep-rooted issues of ethnic identity and pent-up historical grievances that have at best been contained rather than accommodated over the generations. True enough, legions of so-called terror experts and mainstream journalists have failed to make a convincing case that armed groups in either of these two backwaters are about to link up, break out and sow violent mayhem across the region. Nor is the violence going to subside with the simple restoration of justice and democracy, as Sidel seems to suggest. Ultimately, Sidel’s provocative essay is too short to cover adequately all the valuable new analytical ground he is opening up.

The significance is that he has created a path for other experts and specialists to follow. If the “horrorists”, as British writer Martin Amis calls the more conservative proponents of the Islamist threat, are allowed to dominate the debate much longer, there is a real danger that the distorted perceptions of Muslim Southeast Asia could become dangerous realities. Sidel seeks to paint a less alarming picture and put Islam in a more objective social and political context. He mostly succeeds in defusing the Islamic time bomb, though in places his argument moves too far in the other direction by playing down the importance of assertive Islamic social and political currents. In the face of so much uncritically received nonsense from the other side of the argument, perhaps Sidel can be excused for a modicum of hyperbole.