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Independence Day

The yearly ritual of your taking bath
expires on 15th August.
May you give Independence to all the bacterias,
parasites and dirt that you host on your body.
Happy Independence day!

The yearly ritual of your taking bath
expires on 15th August.
May you give Independence to all the bacterias,
parasites and dirt that you host on your body.
Happy Independence day! – See more at: http://www.happyindependenceday2014x.com/2014/07/independence-day-2014-wishes-quotes.html#sthash.lR3YNyey.dpuf

Freedom in our minds, freedom in our words, pride in our souls and salute to our nation! Happy Independence Day India! Vande Mataram, Jai Hind!

Freedom in our minds,
Faith in our Words…
Pride in Our souls.
Let’s Salute The Nation on this Independence Day!
God grants liberty only to those who love it,
and are always ready to guard it and defend it.
Happy Independence Day!
Azaadi unhe hi milti hai jo usse pyaar karte hai …
aur uske liye ladte hai …
Happy Independence day !!
Shaadi shuda log ignore kare …
Baaki sab ke liye …
Happy Independence Day !!

Albert Einstein said:

We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery
could have been made.

Mark Twain said:

India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech,
the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother
of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.

French scholar Romain Rolland said:

If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men
have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.

Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA said:

India conquered and dominated China culturally for
20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.

Dilip Shanghvi, Sun Pharma promoter, a pharma maven with Midas touch

Dilip S Shanghvi, the 57-year-old founder of Sun Pharmaceutical, studied commerce. But he can stand his ground against research scientists in his industry on therapeutic areas or even different pathways to get to the same molecule.

He is a voracious reader of pharma research papers. His reading list also includes not-so-serious stuff.

A few years ago, a peer from  caught him in flight reading Harry Potter. Surprised, the Lupin executive quizzed him to find out that Shanghvi has read all the seven fantasy novels written by the British author, JK Rowling. He later reasoned to this correspondent that Shanghvi's preference for Rowling's works could be because he's an imaginative and creative person.

Shanghvi joined his father's pharma distribution business in Kolkata even before he graduated. He is a stickler for value. The company that he founded in 1983 by borrowing Rs 10,000 from his father was worth Rs 1.21  lakh crore on based on its closing stock price on Monday. 

Stock price: 524715 (BSE)Rs. 587.25 +15.35 (+2.68%)

About 63% of this belongs to its promoters, but Shanghvi, low profile to a fault, rarely boasts of his wealth. His wife, Vibha, occasionally travels to the local market in an auto rickshaw. 

The man who loves South Indian food - Matunga's Mysore Cafe and Madras Cafe are among his favourite foods joints in Mumbai - hates to travel. His typical day involves travelling from his Juhu home to a non-descript narrow and dusty lane that leads to the company's headquarters in suburban Andheri. 

Folklore has it that Shanghvi's driver once decided to move on, and joined Ranjit Shahani, vice-chairman and chief executive of Novartis India. The driver, used to the daily trudge from home to office, found that the MNC executive's daily itinerary was much busier and strenuous. 

Except for a watch or a spectacle frame, Shanghvi believes in beating down every acquisition to its bare-bone costs. On Monday, he pulled off one of the largest acquisitions by an Indian company. The $4 billion that Sun Pharma agreed to pay in stock for Ranbaxy Laboratories is less than half the $10 billion that Japan's Diiachi Sankyo spent for acquiring the Indian company in 2008. 

Shanghvi seldom displays his emotions. So it was a rare event when he laughed uncontrollably when analysts on Monday asked him leading questions on a forecast of three-five years on Sun Pharma-Ranbaxy. Shanghvi often uses the phrase "let me gather my thoughts" when reporters ask him questions that are too profound. But he rarely meets the media, and never gives away too much information.

He is rarely seen as a networker. But at his son Aalok's wedding a few years ago, the who's who of India's pharmaceutical industry was present. Anji Reddy of Dr Reddy's Laboratories came all the way from Hyderabad. And, there was Narendra Modi. The Gujarat chief minister, now BJP's prime ministerial candidate, spent a couple of hours at the Race Course venue of the wedding.

His son is now being groomed for a larger role at Sun Pharma. A co-founder of solar panel maker PV Powertech, Aalok Shanghvi also heads international marketing at Sun Pharma. His daughter Vidhi, a Wharton graduate, is slowly learning the ropes of the trade. 

But as the stakes get bigger, Shanghvi might still lean in favour of professionals. Recently, he hired Israel Makov, former CEO of Teva, as chairman of Sun Pharma and Kal Sundaram, former managing director of GlaxoSmithKline India, as a director. Clearly, while he laughs at questions about the distant future, Shanghvi is preparing a blueprint for the decade ahead. 

An interesting association of Shanghvi is the one he has with brother-in-law Sudhir Valia, who has acquired stakes in stock broking firms Antique and Fortune Financials. Valia, through intermediaries, had also been buying Ranbaxy shares on the open market for a few months now.

Shanghvi's employees call him India's most aggressive promoter whose calm demeanour shadows his killer instincts when it comes to splurging on some of the riskiest assets in the market. So, on Monday when Sun Pharma announced the multibillion-dollar deal, he took some by surprise. His decision will take Sun Pharma into the top five generic drug makers in the world and the largest pharma company at home in India.

"This is our first important step in becoming a global company and an important part of a global company will be to manage cultures," Shanghvi said on Monday. "Some traits will impact performances. It is common. But everyone can be successful if the management gives clear guidance," he added.

"I think they sold it to the right guy who knows how to handle it," said the chief executive of a midsize drugmaker. "The deal enables Sun Pharma to save enormous amounts on R&D at the combined entity level, given a lot of duplication in R&D spend by the two companies." According to this person, Shanghvi does not do deals simply because he wants them. "He does them only when he is doubly sure that he is going to get the returns he wants."

Shanghvi's Midas touch is probably what would make this deal work, despite all the regulatory mess that Ranbaxy is in and that Sun Pharma would have to clear. All the assets that Sun Pharma has bought so far have been distressed - Caraco, Taro and Dusa, for instance. Within a few years of the acquisitions, all these turned profitable.

At the conference call after the announcement of the Ranbaxy acquisition, Shanghvi was asked if this is the most difficult acquisition to manage, he candidly explained it is probably the biggest acquisition that the company has done, but not the most difficult. "This acquisition is the validation of my basic principles," Shanghvi calmly responded. Dilip bhai, as his employees call him, has wrestled with the most difficult management issues while acquiring his assets.

A classic example of this would be when he held on with the past promoter of Taro, the Israeli company that Sun Pharma bought in 2007. Within a year, Barrie Levit of Taro wanted to terminate the deal citing valuation issues. However, Shanghvi stood his ground, without bulging on his position, and after a three-year legal battle he managed to gain full control of the company. Today Taro contributes a significant part of Sun Pharma's total revenue. So, in that context, Shanghvi is right when he says the Ranbaxy deal will not be the most difficult one for him.

When ET asked him about his future plans during an interview in December, Shanghvi displayed his classic style of playing the cards close to his chest. "My limitation is that I don't have a clear vision beyond this year. I try to stay focused on what I need to deliver this year. As for the next year, we try and see that we remain consistent. So, our focus is to see that we are growing faster than the industry," he had said. "And whichever product we launch, we do better than competition.We try and manage our operations better than competition. Essentially, we try to be better than what we were the previous year." 

But little did he reveal that he was quietly planning his biggest acquisition. But, when asked what his take away from the Ranbaxy mess was, he responded that companies that learn from others' mistakes are more successful. So, with Shanghvi's eye for details and experience in dealing with the US Food and Drug Administration - Caraco, for instance, had faced deep regulatory problems - chances are high that he would do what Daiichi couldn't do with Ranbaxy: bringing it back on track. In the course, we might also see an Indian company take the top spot among the world's largest drug companies.

Read more at:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/33388607.cms?curpg=3&utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Sony pips Apple to be No. 2 smartphone brand in India

Sony overtakes Apple to emerge second largest smartphone brand in India 

Sony has overtaken ace rival Apple to emerge the second largest smartphone brand in India in value sales, thanks largely to its strategy to focus on the Rs 10,000-20,000 smartphone space, backed by Rs 300-crore marketing spend.

According to latest data from market tracker IDC, the Japanese electronics major garnered 9.1% value share in the Indian smartphone market in the October-December quarter of 2013 against Apple's 7% share. Samsung dominated the market with 43% value share.

IDC India senior market analyst Manasi Yadav said Sony's strong positioning in the mid-tier smartphone space of Rs 10,000-20,000 price band has delivered results for the company. "Some of the top selling models for Sony are Xperia M Dual and Xperia C priced in this bracket, which is one of the fastest growing segments in the Indian smartphone market," Yadav said.

The CEO of a leading mobility device retail chain said Apple lost out since it withdrew its largest selling model, iPhone 4, from India as a global decision thereby vacating the sweet spot of Rs 20,000 pricing. "While this loss of sales prompted Apple to relaunch iPhone 4 once again in India in January, sales have not picked up since it is not at all spending on marketing or offering any buyback offer and even the initial euphoria around iPhone 5S has sobered down," the person said.

Analysts, however, said Sony's share in the smartphone market may have slid in the January-March quarter, with Nokia venturing into Android phones with its aggressively priced X series, Apple relaunching iPhone 4 and Micromax rolling out a new range of Canvas phones. IDC will release its figures for the January-March quarter in May or June.

India is one of the rare markets outside Japan where Sony has achieved major success in the smartphones. Kenichiro Hibi, managing director at Sony India, said the company's smartphone business has attained similar revenues as its flagship television business in the fiscal ended March 31. The two businesses contributed around 70% to the company's turnover of about Rs 10,000 crore during the year.

"However, smartphone business will overtake television business in sales this fiscal year," Hibi told ET. "For us, both television and smartphone will be the main pillars to continue the pace of growth in India," he said.

Hibi said the company is poised to further grow its share this fiscal with flagship Xperia Z2 ready for launch this quarter. "The smartphone business doubled in last one year which led to 20% growth in overall sales in 2013-14. We expect to grow at a similar pace this fiscal as well to touch Rs 12,000 crore sales," he said.

Indian brands such as Micromax, Karbonn and Lava have notched up significant share in the smartphone volume sales. While Samsung had 38% market share by unit sales in the October-December quarter, Micromax is second with 13% share. Sony's volume share was 5.5% while Apple's was 2%.

Apple seeking decisive US court ruling against Samsung

Apple Inc and Samsung faced off once again in their long-running courtroom battle, with the iPhone maker asking jurors to award more than $2 billion for patent violations and Samsung trying to cast its rival as a sore loser in the smartphone market.

Attorneys made opening statements on Tuesday at the companies' third trial in the last two years, in a San Jose, California federal court. Apple marketing chief Philip Schiller also testified about his shock at how similar Samsung's smartphones were to the iPhone.

Also see:( Apple's Schiller says Samsung hurt iPhone and iPad demand by copying them)

http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/apples-schiller-says-samsung-hurt-iphone-and-ipad-demand-by-copying-them-447448

Jurors awarded the iPhone maker about $930 million after a 2012 trial in San Jose, California, but Apple failed to persuade U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to issue a permanent injunction against the sale of Samsung phones.

A sales ban would be a far more serious threat to Samsung, which earned $7.7 billion in the quarter that ended in December. Samsung's mobile division, which includes smartphones, generated operating profit of 5.47 trillion won.

The current trial involves a fresh batch of Apple patents, which cover iPhone features like slide to unlock and search technology. Apple is again seeking to ban sales of several Samsung phones, including the Galaxy S III.

Apple attorney Harold McElhinny told the eight-member jury on Tuesday that Samsung had sold over 37 million phones and tablets that infringe its patents, and deserved an average royalty of $33 per phone.

"They will try to tell you that our inventions were and are trivial," McElhinny said. "And that they are not valuable."

McElhinny said Samsung could not compete with Apple and had reached a crisis by 2010. "It copied many many features," he said.

However, Samsung attorney John Quinn said the South Korean company's phones use Google Inc's Android operating system. The features Apple is claiming to own were actually developed by Google, which did not copy Apple, he noted.

"We will prove to you that, yes, Apple is a great company but they don't own everything," Quinn said. "They don't own the only way to search on phones."

In attempting to win a sales ban against Samsung, Quinn said Apple is trying to recover its leading position in the smartphone market.

"What this case is really about is Apple trying to limit consumer choice and to gain an unfair advantage over its one main competitor, Google's Android," Quinn said.

Samsung also claims Apple violated two of its patents, and is seeking to ban the iPhone 5 (Pictures).

Both sides invoked Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who passed away in 2011. McElhinny played video of Jobs launching the iPhone, saying the device embodied over 200 inventions and remade the way people communicate.

Quinn, however, pointed to a 2011 document written by Jobs, saying Apple was in a "Holy War" with Google and that the iPhone maker was in danger of losing its advantage as an innovator in the smartphone market.

On the stand, Apple's Schiller rehashed testimony from previous trials and said "competition is great."

But Schiller described his shock at seeing the similarities between Samsung's smartphones and the iPhone. Under questioning from Samsung attorney William Price, however, Schiller said he was not familiar with the specific patent claims Apple was asserting in the case.

In rejecting Apple's previous bid for a sales ban, Koh wrote that a consumer survey Apple submitted in the 2012 trial likely inflated the value that customers place on the smartphone features in dispute, meaning Apple does not merit an injunction. Apple is appealing that decision.

Apple has hired the same marketing expert to conduct a new consumer survey for the current trial. But this latest effort contains additional analysis about how Apple's patented features drive consumer demand, according to court filings.

While the prior survey only concluded that there was general demand for the patented features, the new study attempts to quantify the proportion of customers Samsung would have lost if its smartphones did not contain those features, court filings show.

Samsung tried to stop Apple from presenting that evidence to the jury, arguing that the methodology was unsound. However, Koh agreed in a February ruling to allow Apple to use the study.

McElhinny told jurors that Samsung disabled its infringing search technology after Apple sued, but then restored it due to consumer demand. That demonstrates the value of Apple's features, he said.

Quinn responded that the reason Samsung restored the search technology had nothing to do with consumer demand. Rather, Samsung received permission to restore the feature after an appeals court reversed legal rulings that had limited its use.

The trial is expected to last until early May.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Apple vs Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, 12-630.

Letter to Every Indian

Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why? We are the first in milk production. We are number one in Remote sensing satellites. We are the second largest producer of wheat. We are the second largest producer of rice.

Look at Dr. Sudarshan; he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.

http://sociovigil.in/tribal-hero-dr-h-sudarshan

http://www.vgkk.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanumappa_Sudarshan

I was in Tel Aviv once and I was rIsraeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news.

In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE? Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign T.Vs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is... She replied: I want to live in a developed India. For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. You must proclaim.

India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation...YOU say that our government is inefficient. YOU say that our laws are too old. YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage. YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke. The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination. YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits. YOU say, say and say... What do YOU do about it?

Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name - 'YOURS'. Give him a face - 'YOURS'. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they are... You pay $5 (approx. Rs.. 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity… In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai.. YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs...650) a month to, 'see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else. ‘YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, 'Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost.' YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand...Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo ? Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston??? We are still talking of the same YOU.

YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India?

In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan...Will the Indian citizens do that here?' He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick an up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms. We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity.

This applies even to the staff that is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, and girl child! And others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? 'It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry.' So who's going to change the system? What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbors’, other households, other cities, other communities and the government, but definitely not me and YOU.

When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr. Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country.

Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money. Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too….. I am echoing J. F. Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians…..'ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY’ Let’s do what India needs from us.

Forward this letter to each Indian for a change instead of sending.

Thank you

Unknown Indian

Narendra Modi to contest Lok Sabha elections from one seat in Gujarat: BJP

BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, and senior leader LK Advani during party's Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting in New Delhi on Thursday. (PTI Photo)

The BJP on Thursday announced that Chief Minister Narendra Modi will contest elections from one seat in the state, without ruling out the possibility that he may fight on a second seat from Uttar Pradesh.

“I can definitely say that Modiji will fight elections from one seat in Gujarat,” state BJP general secretary Vijay Rupani told reporters in Ahmedabad.

“There has been a clamour to invite Narendra Modi to fight elections from four main cities of the state — Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat. Our party workers wish that he should contest from Gujarat,” Rupani said.

“Our (state BJP) parliamentary board had met over the last four days in which it was finalised that Modi would contest from one seat in Gujarat,” he said, adding that the decision on which seat he will contest is yet to be taken.

When asked if Modi will also contest from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP leader said, “I do not know anything about that seat, but it will be decided by our central parliamentary board.”

There has been lot of confusion on from which seat Modi will enter the poll fray.

The BJP prime ministerial candidate is in Delhi to attend the central parliamentary board and central election committee meeting.

However, state party leaders said that candidates for Gujarat seats will not be discussed in those meetings on Thursday.

In reply to a question on whether party veteran L.K Advani will be contesting from Gandhinagar, from where he holds the seat for five terms, Rupani said, “The central parliamentary board will decide about it.”

“We have not finalised panel of names for the Lok Sabha seats in the first round of meeting of parliamentary board. We will sit again after Holi festival to do that,” he said.

BJP Gujarat unit’s parliamentary board had met on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday at the residence of Modi, in hispresence.

“Our (state) parliamentary board is likely to meet again to finalise the names of panels of candidates for the 26 Lok Sabha seats,” state BJP spokesperson Harsad Patel said.

U.S. pharma companies benefit from large Indian generic market

Innovator firms have explored strategies to increase revenues

The tirade by the U.S. against India with regard to its ‘unfriendly’ business environment, particularly the Indian pharmaceutical sector, is largely misplaced according to the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA).

The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) last month started public hearings in Washington DC as part of its investigation ‘Trade, investment and industrial policies in India: effects on the U.S. economy.’ Representatives from software and pharmaceutical industry associations among others from India appeared before it.

Speaking to this correspondent, Dilip Shah, Secretary-General, IPA, who earlier appeared before the USITC hearings, said, “the USITC report is expected by November but the U.S. Trade Representative (TR) decision is expected by April 30 and a downgrade to ‘Foreign Country Watch List’ is possible. This could mean that the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) duty benefit to India could be withdrawn.

It will have a 4-5 per cent impact on India’s total exports of $50 billion to the U.S.”

The sanctions, if they do come, could spark off a trade war with retaliatory sanctions from India also hurting large U.S. companies, Mr. Shah said, adding that India had been TRIPS (Trade related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) compliant since 2005.

He said that although the market for new patented drugs at U.S. prices was clearly negligible, innovator pharmaceutical companies had explored promising strategies to increase revenues with differential pricing.

“U.S. innovator companies are also profiting from the large generic market in India and increasing their sales and imports of finished goods,” he said.

“The World Trade Organization (WTO) has not determined that India’s patent laws are violative of the TRIPS agreement. No member country of the WTO, including the U.S. has even disputed it before the WTO. It must therefore be presumed that India’s patent law is TRIPS-compliant,” Mr. Shah said adding, “The main institution for the global governance of health is the World Health Organization, which has strongly endorsed India’s patent law and its compliance with the TRIPS agreement.”