BENGALURU, NEW DELHI, MUMBAI, KOLKATA, CHENNAI, AHMEDABAD, HYDERABAD, CHANDIGARH*, PUNE* VOL. 15 NO. 145 Rs15.

00 16 PAGES

SATURDAY, JUNE 19 2021
ELECTRIC DREAMS:
NAVEEN MUNJAL
Healthy online sales helped boost
their EV business during the pan-
demic, says Naveen Munjal,
managing director of Hero Electric
Vehicles. Optimistic about the
future, he says last year
proved to be the best despite
an initial dip.
SEE PAGE 12

CENTRUM-BHARATPE TO TAKE OVER PMC BANK | PAGE 16

MIXING
AT HOME THE HOME BAR IS BUZZING WITH QUIRKY
INFUSIONS, COCKTAIL KITS AND TRENDY
MIXERS. WE ASK SIX TOP MIXOLOGISTS IN
THE COUNTRY FOR WAYS TO UP YOUR
COCKTAIL MIXING GAME FURTHER

LOCAL
The J&K group that mentors
school and college students
THINK
There’s plastic
in your fish
VANTAGE
What’s keeping some from
getting the covid-19 vaccine
CULTURE
Bengaluru, old,
new and in between
02 SATURDAY, 19 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU FIRST

A NOTE FROM MENTORING FUTURE SCIENTISTS

THE EDITOR PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY JKSCIENTISTS

THE LOCAL
SHALINI UMACHANDRAN Stories from the alleys
and gullies of India

Run by researchers, the

Raising the bar decade-old non-profit
JKScientists helps
at home science students from
Jammu and Kashmir
ISTOCKPHOTO plan their careers
Majid Maqbool

T
ulaib Azam, a 23-year-old
from Mundji village in Kash-
mir, recently completed his
master’s in biotechnology
from the Central University
of Kashmir. Over the last five years, he has
been in touch with the mentors of JKScien-
tists (JKS), a non-profit run by a group of
young Kashmiri researchers to help school
and college students, who had once visited
the university for an interaction.
They guided him on career planning,
even helping him draft his CV and statement
of purpose. And earlier this year, Azam was
selected as a research assistant on a project
at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular
Biology, Hyderabad. “The mentors also did
The pandemic, for those who seemed to have boundless mock interviews, which prepared me well to
time and enthusiasm, began with posting photographs of face the actual one at CCMB,” he adds.
delicately iced cupcakes and gooey banana bread; many of It was 10 years ago, in 2011, that Mubarak
them have now shifted to posts about mental health and Hussain Syed, now 39, started JKS. In the
managing anxiety. When it comes to drinking at home years since, JKS has mentored over 4,000
though, things seem to have gone the other way. From toss- school and college students, helping them to
ing watermelon chunks in the blender with gin, the home pursue higher studies and excel in their cho-
bartender has moved on to experimenting with unusually sen fields. The JKS mentorship pro-
flavoured mixers, infusions and cocktail kits. grammes, which run through the year,
For our cover story this week, we got some of the coun- include initiatives to help students join
try’s better-known mixologists and bartenders to provide research labs for their dissertations as well as
tips and tricks. From basics like which YouTube channels to guide undergraduates to summer schools.
follow and how to make perfect ice in your fridge, to picking The main mentors are from J&K but scien-
the right glasses and music and explaining how to blend easy tists around the country help with research
syrups for that extra flair, each of them offers pointers to opportunities.
help you improve your cocktail mixing at home. And if it’s Over 200 students, including graduates
too much effort to measure, mix, shake and pour, you could and postgraduates, benefit from their pro-
order cocktail pre-mixes that have been launched by a slew grammes every year, says Syed. So far, they
of small companies, many run by bartenders who have been have stayed away from fund-raising, except
forced by the pandemic to take a hiatus from nightly mixing. to help students who were cut off from par-
Everything has come home during the pandemic, includ- ents during the August 2019 shutdown and
ing, of course, school. As a class XII student writes for months-long communications blockade—
Lounge, students have taken to apps, focus rooms and online and since the covid-19 outbreak last year.
study circles to recreate the feeling of the classroom—and The group’s impact has been even more
have discovered new productivity aids. What has really palpable since the pandemic pushed schools
taken the student world by storm is the Pomodoro method and colleges online. For JKS too pivoted to a
of splitting tasks into smaller, manageable ones—but they digital, one-on-one mentorship programme.
practise it as a community, following YouTube videos and Umer Saleem Bhat, currently pursuing a
working alone together. These videos seem quite relaxing, PhD in neuroscience at the Indian Institute
too, if you need a calming soundtrack of office-like white of Science Education and Research in
noise in the background. If you find it hard to focus on work Mohali, Punjab, is one of the beneficiaries of
at home, there might be something to learn from the meth- JKS’ SPROUT mentorship programme,
ods of these 17-year-olds. started in 2018. He joined it as an MSc stu-
But it’s the weekend, and it’s time for a break from work— dent in biotechnology at the University of
so we have suggestions for books to buy, shows and films to Kashmir. Now, he is a mentor and leads the
watch, art shows to check out, and teas to brew (or cocktails journal clubs at JKS. “My own mentors at
to mix) while you relax. JKS helped me better channelise my efforts
while I was looking for a PhD position out-
Write to the Lounge editor shalini.umachandran@htlive.com side Kashmir,” says Bhat. “The mentorship
@shalinimb programme has great potential in sharpen-
ing the acumen of young and aspiring scien-
tists from Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).”
Over 200 students, including graduates and postgraduates, benefit from JKScientists’ programmes every year.
Syed, the JKS founder-director who
comes from the Wahabpora area of Kash-
mir’s Budgam district, says the aim of setting
up JKS was to find a way to foster science
education in the region, particularly among
students from underprivileged and under-
represented backgrounds. “We take it upon
ourselves to identify brilliant minds, nurture
them and ensure they achieve their goals,”
says Syed, a neuroscientist who is currently
assistant professor of biology at the Univer-
sity of New Mexico in the US. Earlier this
year, he was awarded the CAREER award by
the US’ National Science Foundation for his
current research project on mechanisms
that regulate neural identity, connectivity
and functions.
After a master’s in biochemistry from the
University of Kashmir in 2005, Syed worked
as a junior research fellow at the National
Centre for Biological Sciences in Bengaluru.
In 2008, he went on to pursue a PhD in bio-
logical sciences through the Max Planck fel-
lowship from the University of Münster,
Germany. Later, he held a postdoctoral fel-
lowship at the University of Oregon, US.
Syed’s efforts to give back to society began
in 2011, when he was close to completing his
PhD. Along with like-minded friends and
young scientists from Kashmir, he felt the
need to start an educational initiative. So
they started a Facebook page, initially called
Kashmir Scientists and later renamed JKSci-
entists, to connect with students from the
Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh regions. Now
registered as a non-profit educational orga-
nisation in the US, JKS has more than 11,000
members, which includes students, teach-
THE MENTORSHIP ers, scientists and research scholars.
PROGRAMMES, Syed understands the challenges, ranging
WHICH RUN from lockdowns to curfews and internet
THROUGH THE YEAR, shutdowns, that students in the region face.
INCLUDE INITIATIVES “While the infrastructure and resources are
also limited, the education system is also
TO HELP STUDENTS outdated. Promising talent is not promoted.
JOIN RESEARCH LABS Most teachers and faculty don’t put in that
OR SUMMER extra effort to mentor individual students,”
SCHOOLS he says.
Students are not encouraged to ask ques-
tions, brainstorm and come up with novel
ideas, says Syed. “As a result, when they
come out of universities and colleges, they
have a degree but lack the skills to communi-
cate properly and professionally.”
JKS, Syed says, is also trying to encourage
women students. “We have created a
women’s support group and recently started
an inspiring women series where successful
women entrepreneurs and researchers
share their experiences with younger peo-
ple, especially with women students,” he
says.
Till 2019, JKS volunteers would visit stu-
dents in schools, colleges and universities
once a year to identify those who needed
mentoring. But the lockdown in August that
year, followed by the outbreak of covid-19 in
2020, has limited its offline activities. They
have, however, continued online career
counselling, mentorship programmes, lec-
tures and awareness sessions—some on local
TV channels in Kashmir. JKS members have
also done their bit to donate and deliver
essential medical supplies to healthcare
workers across the Valley.
Syed and the mentors at JKS are hoping to
resume normal activities in the near future.
“Our next target is to connect to students
and researchers from far-off places (where
they have not done student-centric pro-
grammes yet) who lack the facilities and
exposure to the diverse opportunities in the
fields of science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics (STEM),” he says.
This year, JKS plans to register itself as a
non-governmental organisation in J&K as
well as start a STEM centre in Kashmir to
offer a physical space for discussions, skill
development and counselling.
Majid Maqbool is a Srinagar-based jour-
nalist.

LOUNGE MOVE THINK LIVE WEAR

ONLINE
What ultra-running Elderly wait for the Why toddlers play Sunblock for
YOUR needs in India phone to ring with utensils screen time
FAVOURITE
WEEKEND READ
T C Y W
he world of ultra-running—races ovid-19 and the consequent lock- ou could buy your toddler the e have all been spending more
longer than the usual 42km mara- downs have heightened the lon- most expensive toys but the little time indoors but that doesn’t
NOW THROUGH thons—takes runners to some of eliness and anxiety felt by senior one will still prefer to bang spoons mean you can afford to leave
the most idyllic locations, where the dis- citizens, who are more vulnerable to the against pans or stack cups. Playing with off the sunblock. For it’s not just natural
THE WEEK tance and environment present the per- virus. A new survey finds that an over- utensils is far more interesting because sunlight that damages skin. Research
fect test for one’s endurance. But when whelming majority of the elderly miss it is a form of sensory play that allows shows that exposure to blue light from
the weather turns, the challenge posed simple routines and joys, like going for a children to discover a spectrum of computer screens can lead to skin dam-
The best of Mintlounge.in from by the elements can trans- walk or meeting family. sounds and actions. It also age as well. And that’s why
form these races into a More than 35% said they gives them a chance to the one product you
the week gone by and what to battle for survival. This is spend the day waiting for emulate the movements should never skip in your
look forward to in the one ahead what happened at the the phone to ring, while a they see adults making in daily skincare routine is
Huanghe Shilin Mountain similar number said they the kitchen, writes new sunscreen, whether you
Marathon in China, where just rest all day as they can mom Ayushi Gupta- are inside or outside,
21 runners were killed by inclement no longer go out, writes Prachi Pinglay- Mehra. Simple and fewer playthings also writes Dhara Vora Sabhnani, explaining
weather in May. Over the past few years, Plumber. What is making it all worse is let a child’s imagination run riot, encour- the different types available in the mar-
ultra-running has caught on in India but their isolation at home and the fact that aging creativity and forcing them to find ket. You may not have to reapply sun-
there isn’t enough attention being paid they either do not have access to smart- different ways to play with the same toys. screen every few hours indoors but it
to rules and safety regulations, writes phones or are not habituated to using Sensory play actually enhances cogni- acts as a perfect shield against all the
Shail Desai. them. tive growth. damaging light and pollutants.

lounge@livemint.com In Health >> Fitness In News >> Talking Point In Relationships >> Raising Parents In Fashion >> Beauty
@mint_lounge
@livemintlounge

ON THE COVER: YANGDUP LAMA, CO-FOUNDER, SIDECAR AND C&D SPEAKEASY, DELHI
 FIRST SATURDAY, 19 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU 03

THE SEVEN AGAINST ALL ODDS CLIMATE CHANGE TRACKER

BIBEK BHATTACHARYA
THIS WEEK: A more intense and unpredictable monsoon
Vinod Kapri’s 2020
project on the long
trek home of seven
migrant workers is
now a book and a
documentary
Somak Ghoshal
somak.g@livemint.com

J
ournalist and film-maker
Vinod Kapri’s new book,
1232km: The Long Journey
Home, is prefaced by a haunt-
ing poem by Gulzar. Recall-
ing the exodus of millions during the par-
tition of the subcontinent in 1947, the poet
pays homage to the numberless migrant
workers who were forced to take to the
road, on foot or bicycles, during the
nationwide lockdown to curb covid-19 last
year. “Which partition was bigger?” Gul-
zar wonders in the concluding lines, his
question echoing through readers’ minds.
“(Last year’s mass migration) was not
caused by geographical division, but
rather by the partition between the
classes, of hearts,” says Kapri, whose docu-
mentary of the same name as the book is
currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
As the lockdown kept getting extended,
migrant workers in cities set out for their
homes in far-flung villages, driven by lack
of income and hunger. Kapri and his col-
league Manav Yadav trailed a group of
seven men—Ritesh, Ashish, Ram Babu,
Sandeep, Mukesh, Sonu and Krishna—
who set off from Loni in Ghaziabad, Uttar
Pradesh, to cycle all the way back to their
villages in Saharsa, Bihar.
Aware of the risks—of police atrocity,
accident, exhaustion—along the way,
their decision was based on bleak but
infallible logic: “What if we die of hunger
before the corona pandemic gets to us?” as
one of them puts it. The story of that
incredible journey—spanning 1,232km—
is documented in the movie and the book.
While the screen version helps put
faces to the names, the book fills in crucial
gaps that the camera can never fully con-
vey. Indeed, Kapri and Yadav were not
around to capture some of the most chill-
ing moments in the journey—a daredevil
attempt to swim across the Ganga with the
bicycles or a near-robbery on the high-
As the lockdown kept
getting extended last year,
migrant workers in cities
set out for their homes in
far-flung villages.
way, for instance—which bring breathless
suspense to the narrative. These details
were fleshed out through post-facto inter-
views, as were many of the intimate
touches—stories about the families of the
men, their growing years, and harsh
truths about poverty. In a telling moment,
for instance, Mukesh argues forcefully
that the poor don’t need charity—they
need a decent education. “If they get an
education, they will manage food, clothes
and houses.” Life is a better teacher than
any university degree.
As for Kapri, one of the key struggles
through this project was to maintain a fine
balance between the impulse to clinically
document the journey and intervene in
the decisions taken by the men when the
going got tough or unpredictably tricky.
“As documentary film-makers, we ask
people to recreate scenes we miss, but in
this instance we decided to let it be—to
capture only the footage we managed to,”
he says. “It was our policy not to interact
with the men for more than 10-15 minutes
every hour or so, as we did not want to
slow down their momentum.”
There was also another rule from the
start: “If anyone was suffering, we will help
them, even if it meant compromising the
quality of the movie,” Kapri adds. “As we
1232km—The Long
Journey Home: By Vinod
Kapri, HarperCollins,
232 pages, ₹399.
began to follow the men, we told ourselves
there were nine of us on the journey. We
(Kapri and Yadav) were as much part of it
as the seven men.” To this day, Kapri has
kept alive his bond with the seven. “I
invited them home for Diwali last year,” he
says. “They are like family.” All the earn-
ings from the book as well as the movie
will also go to the men.
Bearing witness to tragedy comes at a
cost—not merely physical and emotional,
but also ethical. It was no different for
Kapri, who narrates the story of the
1,232km journey with humility and a keen
self-awareness of his privilege. When he
tries, with tact and consideration, to ques-
tion Ram Babu’s decision to have four
children in spite of gnawing poverty, he
receives a riposte that leaves him speech-
less. “In our area, floods, disease or pov-
erty claim at least a couple of our chil-
dren,” Ram Babu says cuttingly. “That’s
the reason we have four or five children.”
1232km is filled with many such bitter
truths—some epiphanic, others obvious—
that open the readers’ eyes to the realities
that stretch outside their cocoon of safety,
a world of desperate hunger that pushes
humans to scavenge among leftovers that
the elite choose to ignore as they take
Instagram-friendly photographs of their
culinary conquests. Kapri forces us to
reckon with this so-called underbelly of
society with empathy and even moments
of humour. At the end of this wrenching
journey, he writes, “not only these seven
labourers, but all the labourers in the
world were no more nameless, faceless
humans for me.” His audience will hope-
fully share the sentiment.
Waterlogged roads in Mumbai after monsoon rain in early June. HINDUSTAN TIMES
A wild monsoon
A
s of 17 June, the monsoon has been making its stately progress across the
subcontinent, and has covered nearly two-thirds of the country. According
to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), its spread in the north-
west will be delayed, though it had initially seemed that the monsoon would arrive
in the region weeks ahead of schedule. It set in a couple of days late in Kerala, on
3 June, but records compiled since show that so far, rainfall has been a good 25%
above normal.
It’s still too early to say how the monsoon will play out over the next three
months. However, it is now clear that India will have to start preparing for an
increasingly unpredictable monsoon over the coming years and decades due to
climate change. A new study published in the journal Science Advances on 4 June
confirms as much. The study, Remote And Local Drivers Of Pleistocene South Asian
Summer Monsoon Precipitation: A Test For Future Predictions, looks to South Asia’s
past to assess its hydroclimatic future.
Prepared by a team of scientists led by Steven Clemens, a professor of geological
sciences at Brown University, US, the report analyses changes in the monsoon’s
intensity over the past 900,000 years. It does so by studying sediment core sam-
ples drilled from the floor of the Bay of Bengal in 2014. The sediments, which have
preserved a record of monsoon activity over the past million years, helped the
scientists form a clear picture of changing rainfall patterns over time. The key
finding is that over the past 900,000 years, whenever CO2 levels in the atmos-
phere have gone up, monsoon precipitation has become both more intense and
more unpredictable. This supports the prediction of other studies—that the
Indian monsoon is entering a period of heavier and wildly unpredictable rainfall
as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions increase.
Among others, the Union ministry of earth sciences (MoES) report from last
year, Assessment Of Climate Change Over The Indian Region, stated clearly that
with continued global warming, monsoon precipitation over the rest of the 21st
century would become more erratic, with more instances of extreme rainfall. The
overall volume of rainfall will also increase. In fact, India is already witnessing the
changes. Over the past few years, no monsoon season has gone by without instan-
ces of intense floods and abnormal dry spells. It is clear that the monsoon as we
knew it doesn’t exist any longer.

Medium Talk More than small talk

An archive of queer love

This Instagram page
documents the
struggles and joys of
the community in India
Avantika Bhuyan
avantika.bhuyan@htlive.com

E
arlier this week, the Instagram
account LGBTQIAP Plus History of
India posted photographs from the
Hindu and Jewish marriage ceremonies
of Mona Bachmann and author Ruth
Vanita in June 2000. The caption placed
this landmark ceremony in a contempo-
rary context: the postponement of the
hearing of LGBTQ+ marriage equality
cases to 6 July by the Delhi high court to
hear “real urgent matters” during the
pandemic. “Nobody is dying because
they don’t have marriage certificates,”
the caption echoes a statement by the
government’s lawyer.
Such unique juxtapositions of past and
present can be found on the Instagram
page, started in 2016 to document the
struggles and joys of the queer commu-
nity in India. Over the past few years,
especially since gay sex was decriminal-
ised by the Supreme Court in 2018, inter-
est in the page has increased. Anindya
Kar, page founder and chief medical offi-
cer of the Kolkata-based Advanced Neu-
Celebrating Delhi Queer Pride, 2016.
extensively about Siddhartha Gautam,
who died of Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the
age of 28 in 1991. He, along with six oth-
ers, had founded the AIDS Bhedbhav
Virodhi Andolan—India’s first AIDS
activist group—which published Less
Than Gay: A Citizen’s Report On The Sta-
tus Of Homosexuality In India. When it
came out in 1991, it was the first such
COURTESY LGBTQIAP PLUS HISTORY OF INDIA
with everything happening with a click,
people might not understand how this
section worked,” smiles Dr Kar.
His process for getting testimonials
and archival material has changed too.
He once had to scour for details; today,
people are more forthcoming with per-
sonal stories. “I have a lot of queer friends
who are in their early 50s. While they tell
Volunteers working on group activities with the children in their communities before the pandemic.
A lifeline for children
Aangan Trust’s cues, create a safe space with their tone,
provide bereavement and grief support
ConnectKaro initiative to children, and suggest coping strate-
has launched toll-free gies. In cases where there is abuse, they
may report it—the safety of the child
phone lines for 900 remains paramount.
communities across six These are not counselling sessions,
emphasises the trust’s chief operating
cities and towns officer, Chaitali Sheth. “The toll lines are
a safe space for the children to talk and
get some reassurance.”
Rashmi Menon Although the questions seem direct
rashmi.m@htlive.com and articulate immediate concerns, they
reflect the underlying anxiety and fear,
AANGAN TRUST
is an issue. We believe that perhaps fam-
ily members might be sleeping or there is
a lull in activities at home, which gives
them some space to talk privately,” says
Sheth. So far, the team has received over
580 calls, most callers—mainly girls—
being in the 12-16 age group.
Last year too, the trust had offered the
service in May-June, though it wasn’t
toll-free. The feedback was that many
children couldn’t even make a call as
their mobile phones didn’t have enough
prepaid charge. They also found loneli-
ness among adolescents living in cities.

ropsychiatry Institute, says: “I was doing
some important work regarding mental
health issues that affect the LGBTQ+
community with the World Psychiatric
Association. While I was looking for
queer history, I couldn’t find any Indian
perspective in this context. We usually
view history of the queer community
from a Western gaze. I was going through
a lot of research material and was struck
by the amazing (Instagram) archive by
The AIDS Memorial. That’s when I
decided we should have something from
an Indian point of view so that people
could take pride in this rich history.”
So you find mentions of erotic gay cou-
ples dating back to ninth century Guj-
arat, symbolising sexual liberalism, and
writings on same-sex love by Pandey
Bechan Sharma, published in May 1924
in the Kolkata biweekly Matvala. In June,
the Pride month, Dr Kar has been posting
Indian publication on sex and sexuality.
Though Dr Kar knew about Gautam,
he came across more details recently in
Siddharth Dube’s book, An Indefinite
Sentence: A Personal History Of Outlawed
Love and Sex. “For the first time, I found
a book that was exclusively about con-
temporary Indian LGBT history. Besides
Gautam, Dube was also friends with
other queer men and women, sex work-
ers, and those who were amongst the first
to fight for queer rights. You will find bits
of those histories in the book. I thought
Pride month was a great occasion to
highlight them,” he says.
A post from the 1990s about the gay
magazine Pravartak shows it had a classi-
fied column, “Networking”. Queer mem-
bers used to write letters to each other
through a post office box and decide on
the time for a call, or the dress code for a
meeting. “Today, with social networking,
me stories of how they would meet, and
their struggles, they are not very com-
fortable with those being published.
However, millennials are more forth-
coming with their stories. They are more
confident and want to open up,” he says.
Through all this, the page, rooted in
mental health, has never lost sight of its
original intent, “which is to highlight that
same-sex attraction is just like heterosex-
uality or bisexuality,” says Dr Kar. “It has
taken decades for the Indian Psychiatric
Society to give a position statement to
declare that homosexuality is not an ill-
ness. It finally acknowledged this after
the World Psychiatric Association
released a Position statement on same-
sex attraction in 2018. It is not sexuality
but homophobia that creates a negative
environment. People are now coming
forward to understand how to cope with
that. Things are changing,” says Dr Kar.
W
hen will the school open? Will
it even open again?”, “Will I
get promoted?”, “Will I be able
to go to college?”, “Can I get the vaccine
even if I am not 18 years old?” These are
some of the questions Samadrita Chow-
dhury has been fielding.
Chowdhury is one of 20 social workers
who are part of the ConnectKaro initia-
tive started by the Mumbai-based NGO
Aangan Trust, which focuses on child
safety. It offers six toll-free “warmlines”
across 900 bastis (slums) and villages in
Mumbai (Maharashtra), Patna (Bihar),
Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), Bharatpur
(Rajasthan), Pakur (Jharkhand) and
North 24 Parganas (West Bengal). The
aim is to give underprivileged teenagers
an outlet to talk and share their concerns,
anxieties, even grief.
The team goes through in-house train-
ing on ways to pick up specific language
says Chowdhury, who works with the
community in Pakur, a nine-hour drive
from Ranchi. The underlying concerns
she alludes to are the surge in anxiety and
fear children, especially girls, face since
the covid-19 outbreak—of being forced
into marriage early or pushed into child
labour.
“Before the pandemic, these children
had better coping mechanisms; they
could negotiate with their parents to
study further,” says Chowdhury. But
with schools more or less shut since the
covid-19 outbreak, they are hearing par-
ents broach the subject of marriage more
often. The callers also talk about not get-
ting the time to study since they are
pulled into house and field work, taking
care of siblings, livestock and other jobs.
The toll-free service is open from 9am-
7pm. The team has, however, noticed
that calls peak between 2-5pm. “Privacy
Worse, while children were feeling
isolated, confused and anxious during
the first lockdown, these emotions were
heightened by the second wave of cov-
id-19. “This time, children have been fac-
ing all those feelings and a lot more. We
need to talk to our young people about
grief and death, as this is what they are
experiencing and seeing around them,”
says Sheth. In the communities the NGO
serves, close to 1,000 children have lost
either one or both parents.
“We listen to them, assure that the
schools will open, and provide emotional
support. We have trained our social
workers on how to read between the
lines, picking up the child’s anxiety
through the tonal quality, etc. We tell
them the truth of the situation without
sugar-coating anything. It’s okay to feel
lonely, sad, confused—and they are not
alone in feeling this,” says Sheth.
 Touch up and join Telegram Chennal
original PDF by telegram Lalit Banna sa
04 SATURDAY, 19 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU HOW TO LOUNGE THIS WEEKEND

Source
FEELING GRAND
A gifting guide for Father’s Day on Sunday
Gentlemen
STREAM OF
STO R I E S
RAJA SEN

Grand Seiko SBGK007G

This manual-winder from Grand Seiko
epitomises the brand’s exquisite
craftsmanship. Available at
Grandseikoboutique.in; ₹5.9 lakh
prefer wands
DO THE
POLKA
Camp Collar Co-ord
Set from Three
Powder-blue pants
and a polka-dotted
shirt in cotton poplin
come together to
create a breezy,
summery style
POTTED DREAMS statement for the
Ibiza Planter From Shibui cool dad. Available at
Hand-painted planters Wearthree.com.com;
made of fibreglass, sand ₹9,900
and resin that come in a riot
of colours and designs
inspired by cities of the
world. For the dad with the
green thumb. Available at
ShopShibui; ₹2,799
Omar Sy is the exceedingly rare leading man who can wear smugness with grace.

TURN TURN TURN

D
Anemos Vintage Gramophone o not tell me the truth.” The request is peculiar but no more than the
With a three-speed turntable that situation—and the man asking. Assane Diop is at sea. The odds are
can play records of 33-1/3, 45 and mounting against him and his confidante is pointing out just how dire
78 rpm as well as a Bluetooth things are. Diop, who is played by the unjustly cool leading man Omar Sy,
wireless audio-streaming receiver, looks wounded by this reality check. “You are my best friend,” he explains.
this music player is for keeps. “Comfort me. Do not tell me the truth.” Truth, after all, is malleable and
Available at Anemos.in; ₹15,000 unpleasant to Diop, something he bends and something he evades. This
swashbuckling hero may be the most suave liar on television.
One of Netflix’s greatest successes, the French series Lupin is about a gen-
tleman thief following in the footsteps of Arsène Lupin, an extraordinary
character concocted by writer Maurice Leblanc in the early 1900s. Instead of
making a show about Lupin, this adaptation by George Kay and François
Uzan inventively centres around a man who loves the Lupin books to such a
perilous degree that he considers them bibles. He commits elaborate, damna-
bly cheeky crimes à la Lupin, and the only person close to catching him is
another Lupin admirer who recognises the tributes.
This approach—doffing a top hat to the gentleman thief while never claim-
ing to represent him—is a brilliant trick, allowing audiences who may not
know Arsène Lupin to nevertheless cheer for the Lupin hero. We recognise
the passion of being a fan.
The first five episodes were released this January and the well-heeled and
MULTITASKER scrupulously polite criminal won over audiences wary of subtitles to become
Frost Headphone Stand the most watched Netflix series this year. The second set of five episodes
A perfect amalgamation of came to us last week, and I am pleased to report Lupin, like a gorgeous leath-
three materials—wood, er-bound hardback, remains as satisfying as it does stylish. The show feels
cork and metal—creates both old-world and authentically modern—at once timeless and timely—and
this compact accessory to it’s genuinely hard not to smile at the screen as the plot unravels.
hold a phone at a perfect TOP BRASS The smile is because we know it’s a lark. The plot—for all its circuitousness,
angle, an organiser space Nappa Dori Bar Tool Kit and meticulous arranging of twists and flashbacks—demands but one thing of
to keep essentials and a A solid arsenal of the viewer: an eager suspension of disbelief. Like the audience at a magic
tray below to hang elegantly crafted brass bar show watching performers work mirrors and angles and get applauded for
headphones from. tools, including a peg flashy little miracles, we want to believe this ineffably stylish man can saunter
Available at Mohh.com; measure, bottle opener, into a museum and steal a priceless painting at will, and return it as discreetly
₹1,199 corkscrew and tongs—a as he likes. Pleasure trumps plausibility.
must-have for any home This set of episodes sees Diop on
bar. Available at the run, first to retrieve his kid-
Curated by Shrabonti Bagchi. Nappadori.com; ₹7,800 napped son and later fleeing
the policemen of Paris as a
fugitive wanted for mur- STREAMING TIP
der, yet our hero keeps OF THE WEEK
finding time for niceties, Those who loved the recent hit
and for setting up Mare Of Easttown and find
VIRTUAL REALITY MATCH PLAY future sleight-of-hand. themselves brimming with adulation
We see more of Diop as for Kate Winslet would do well to
a young boy getting explore Todd Haynes’ thoughtful

Euro extravaganza better as a “gentleman

The game’s digital version includes stories in the form of an audiobook.
thief”, the ongoing nar-
rative of each episode
miniseries Mildred Pierce (Disney+
Hotstar Premium), where Winslet
plays a conflicted wife and
marching in lockstep with mother during the Great
a flashback, lessons of the Depression. She’s
past coming good in the magnificent.
present all too neatly. This neat-
ness nearly gets on the nerves, the pre-
dictable coming together of the loop out of place among today’s fractured TV
narratives, but the self-contained nature of each episode, bookended by set-
ups and callbacks, works well for Lupin’s attempt to deliver a more nostalgic
pleasure.
“Aren’t you a little too old?” a man asks a growing boy reading one of the
Lupin books—one where Lupin takes on a version of another literary icon,
here named Herlock Sholmes—and the boy turns to him with despair. The
idea that one can be considered too old for a good adventure story is a heart-
breaking one. Parts of Mathieu Lamboley’s rollicking background score in
Lupin are reminiscent of Ray Parker and Tom Szczesniak’s theme from the
old Tintin animated series. This show evokes the elusive thrill of being young
and discovering a gripping yarn, a sensational story with rapacious villains,
overwhelming odds and a hero too good to be true.
Where to begin with Omar Sy? He is, above all, the exceedingly rare leading
man who can wear smugness with grace. He can make eye contact with a
Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice against Hungary on 15 June. REUTERS woman and smile in the assured inevitability of her making her way to him,
IFA yet this doesn’t seem forced or narcissistic or unearned. Sy gives Diop a
stealthy, buttery smoothness, and this serves the frequently camouflaged

T
he group stages of UEFA Euro 2020 will see some big fixtures in character well as he darts from persona to persona, altering body language.

A lake of stories groups D and F this weekend. England could make it to the
round of 16 with a match to spare if they beat Scotland, who
need a result after the defeat to the Czech Republic in their first
Forever slippery, forever elegant.
Lupin pointedly shows how a black man—even this hulking, conspicuously
tall man—can find anonymity in a city like Paris by swiftly disguising himself
match. In Budapest, Hungary will take on world champions France, as a labourer and not getting a second look. A vanishing act isn’t always magi-

O
nce There Was A Lake, an interactive online game chronicling
the oral histories, mythologies, anecdotes and official records
of Bengaluru’s lakes, came into being thanks to the pandemic.
Conceived by Bengaluru-based playwright Chanakya Vyas, and
funded by the India Foundation for the Arts, it was initially designed
as a performative, participatory board game. It would be played on
stage by 12 players (either actors or audience members) who would
assume the role of residents of a fictional neighbourhood—where
once there was a lake. The aim was to revive the lake. Reimagined for
a single player in the digital version, the game also includes stories
recorded in the form of an audiobook, independent of the game. It
can be played on a standard browser like Chrome/Firefox and has a
tutorial with subtitles to get started. —SB
To play the game, visit oncetherewasalake.org
who look like the team to beat so far. Hungary can take heart from
their performance against Portugal and will once again have a capac-
ity crowd at the Puskás Arena behind them.
The match of the day comes from Munich, where Germany will be
looking to avoid a second defeat. They lost to France on 16 June and
will meet Portugal, the defending champions. Cristiano Ronaldo’s
team left it late against Hungary in their opening match with a three-
nil victory. The equation is simple: Portugal will be through to the next
round if they defeat Germany, who will be unable to finish in their
group F’s top two if they lose to Portugal and Hungary do not beat
France. On Sunday, Spain take on Poland in Seville. —NS
Timings (IST). Saturday’s fixtures: England vs Scotland, 12.30am;
Hungary vs France, 6.30pm; and Germany vs Portugal, 9.30pm. Sun-
day’s fixture: Spain vs Poland, 12.30am. On Sony Six and SonyLIV.
cal, though this well-tailored series, where Sy spins his cufflink into place as
he strides into the climax, is all about tricks and flair.
Lupin contains a lot of narrative magic but more than that, it revels in peel-
ing back the curtain to show the audience how the illusion is performed. Here
lies the show’s actual trick: The explanation of how a painting is heisted (or
not) is even more preposterous, even more outlandish than the heist in ques-
tion but this conjures up the illusion of an “aha!” moment. Being taken into
confidence is its own thrill, a secret satisfaction. Everything else is done with
mirrors.
Stream of Stories is a column on what to watch online. Raja Sen is a film critic
and the author of The Best Baker In The World (2017), a children’s adaptation
of The Godfather.
@rajasen

Filling in the colours of the rainbow
The reading down of Section 377 remains a lonely landmark for members of the LGBTQ+ community. So a Madras high court
judge’s recent ruling, which came from questioning his own preconceptions, is something all of us can be inspired by
CULT
FRICTION
SANDIP
ROY
P
ride month has become ultra cool
in India these days.
I have seen pink momos, cook-
ies with Pride icing, rainbow-coloured
dog chew toys and even rainbow-sliced
bread pop up as soon as June rolls
around. All that rainbow razzle-dazzle
can be blinding. While promoting his
gay romcom, Shubh Mangal Zyaada
Savdhan, in 2020, Ayushmann Khur-
rana said he was proud that India had
legalised same-sex marriage. He later
called it a “genuine slip”, but it is easy to
get carried away by the rainbow eupho-
ria and forget that while the Supreme
Court judgement decriminalising gay
sex in 2018 (reading down Section 377
of the Indian Penal Code) was a land-
mark one, it’s a lonely landmark. Since
then, the government has resolutely
resisted the notion of advancing
LGBTQ+ rights beyond simple decrimi-
nalisation, which, it bears reminding, is
not a right at all, just a stepping stone to
equal rights. When a plea for recognis-
ing same-sex marriage under the Spe-
cial Marriage Act came up, the Centre
was vehement in its opposition, saying
the Supreme Court might have decrimi-
nalised “a particular human behaviour”
but it “neither intended to, nor did in
fact, legitimise the human conduct in
question”. No one, the Centre added,
was “dying because of the lack of mar-
riage registration”.
One could be a cynic and wonder
what decriminalisation has gotten the
LGBTQ+ community other than a glut
of rainbow stickers. As Sharif D. Ran-
gnekar, author of the memoir Straight
To Normal—My Life As A Gay Man, said
in an interview in 2020, “Had the press,
as well as Central and state govern-
OF SEAFOOD AND
THE PLASTIC OCEAN
The cargo ship disaster
off the Sri Lankan coast
reminds us of how plastic
waste and a globalised
seafood market are
taking a toll
Aaron Savio Lobo
N
ethili fry served with raw onions
(and toddy, if you are in Kerala) is a
favourite bar snack through most
of coastal south India and Sri Lanka. Neth-
ili in Tamil, netholi in Malayalam, is
among a few species of beautiful, small,
slender white fish called anchovies that
are perfectly described by their Konkani
name mothiyale—like pearls. For someone
who has spent a lot of time working and
talking about the overfishing crises and
advising on seafood sustainability, I have
been a strong advocate of anchovies as a
sustainable seafood choice.
As a rule of thumb, it is considered more
sustainable to eat the small fish lower
down the food web, including the likes of
anchovies, sardines and mackerel, as
these species generally have shorter lifes-
pans—they reach maturity early on and
lay thousands of eggs. As a result, their
populations tend to bounce back even if
they are subjected to heavy fishing pres-
sure compared to their predatory coun-
terparts, including shark, kingfish,
grouper and Asian sea bass. However, I
recently came across research from a
group at the US’ University of California,
Davis that left me a bit flummoxed—they
found that anchovies are attracted to the
smell of plastic in water; they mistake it for
food and eat it.
Sri Lanka recently experienced what
could arguably be its worst maritime dis-
aster in recent history when a fire, fol-
lowed by an explosion, broke out on the
cargo ship MV X-Press Pearl. It presuma-
bly started because of a leak in one of the
containers carrying nitric acid (about 25
tonnes of it), a commonly used raw mate-
rial in the manufacture of explosives and
fertilisers. The fire continued to burn for
days, by which time the ship began to sink
off the coast of Negombo, releasing a toxic
cocktail of urea fertilisers, caustic soda,
methanol and other chemicals into the
ments, done what the (2018) verdict
suggested—to sensitise society, includ-
ing key government departments, such
as the police, we may have made some
tangible progress.”
Perhaps we would not even have had
the case that ended up before Justice
Anand Venkatesh of the Madras high
court recently. A queer women couple
sought protection from harassment by
the Madurai police at the instigation of
their parents, who disapproved of their
relationship. In a 104-page judgement,
Justice Venkatesh not only put an end
to the harassment, he ordered queer-af-
firmative counselling for the couple and
their parents, suggested sensitisation
programmes for different government
departments and issued guidelines on
how the police should treat future com-
plaints.
While activists can weigh the merits
of the various measures the court pre-
scribed, what is moving is Justice Ven-
katesh’s honesty. He writes, “I am also
trying to break my own preconceived
notions about this issue and I am in the
process of evolving.”
He said he had never personally
encountered anyone from the LGBTQ+
community. So he set out to educate
himself. He met members from com-
munity organisations like SAATHII, a
trans woman and her mother, attended
a session with a clinical psychologist,
was given books like Maya Sharma’s
Loving Women. He writes that the psy-
chologist, the community activists and
even the petitioners themselves became
the “gurus” who helped him in his proc-
ess of “evolution”, pulling him out of the
“darkness (ignorance)”.
Not so long ago, another judge also
said he had never encountered anyone
from the gay community. When the
Supreme Court was ruling on Section
377 in 2013, Justice G.S. Singhvi asked
almost every lawyer who appeared in
the case if they knew any gay person
because he did not. In his ruling with
S.J. Mukhopadhaya restoring Section
377 to the rulebooks, the justices dis-
missed LGBTQ+ people as a “minuscule
waters. Among the container’s contents
were 78 metric tonnes of plastic nurdles.
Nurdles are tiny plastic pellets which
are melted down to form the basic raw
material used in the manufacture of a wide
range of products. In this case, the nurdles
were made of polyethylene, the most
commonly used plastic today in polythene
bags, mineral water bottles, plastic cling
film and more. Large quantities of these
floating nurdles were washed ashore and
now coat the once pristine beaches of Sri
Lanka’s west coast, like an eerie blanket of
snow.
Scientists have used predictive models,
which suggest that ocean currents would
carry a fair proportion of these microplas-
tics to the southern shores of the island
nation before they continue east and
beyond. In Sri Lanka itself, many poor
fishers, already reeling from the disrup-
tions brought on by the pandemic, have
now been told to keep off fishing till the
situation is brought under some sort of
control. However, many are apprehensive
not just about when their fishing activities
will resume, but also about the demand for
seafood, given that the disaster has stoked
fears about consuming seafood.
For all the right reasons, there has been
added media focus on the impacts of this
disaster on Sri Lanka’s marine environ-
ment and livelihoods. But it would not be
outrageous to believe that the effects of
THINK
A Pride flag outside the Supreme Court after the apex court decriminalised gay sex in 2018.
fraction of the country’s population”, as
if that somehow made them less deserv-
ing of their rights, or as the judgement
put it, their “so-called rights”. Singhvi
later said child pornography had
weighed heavily on his mind even
though the case had always been about
consenting adults.
Writing about the legal battle around
Section 377 in the anthology Sex And
The Supreme Court, Saurabh Kirpal says
that a “sensitised and empathetic” judi-
ciary makes all the difference. “It was
judicial indifference that resulted in
Section 377 being retained on the stat-
ute books, and it was the clear presence
of empathy that resulted in Section 377
being read down.”
But that empathy is not just a matter
of chance. It comes from visibility. If
you are not visible, you matter less, your
rights can become “so-called” rights.
AFP
such events are likely to be felt in
distant waters too—and for some
time to come.
While it is obvious that these
nurdles could be transported far
away by oceanic currents, the picture
could look a lot grimmer if we add in
the role that fish and other marine wild-
life play in spreading plastic globally, tak-
ing them to places and communities that
have had little to do with these disasters. It
is not just the anchovies; there are, in fact,
a large number of fish and other marine
creatures that also consume plastic.
A large study published in Wiley’s
Global Change Biology in February 2021
documented plastic being ingested in 386
of the 555 marine fish species examined—
210 of these were of commercial impor-
tance. The study also showed that the
larger predatory fish, such as the sharks
and tuna, consumed far higher quantities
of plastic than the smaller ones.
Another challenge is that wildlife does
not recognise borders. Many marine spe-
cies have been documented to make dra-
matic ocean voyages literally halfway
across the globe, sometimes further. Olive
Ridley sea turtles that were fitted with sat-
ellite trackers at their mass nesting
beaches in Odisha have been known to
travel all the way down to their feeding
grounds off the coast of Sri Lanka; some of
them returned to their nesting beaches,
When the first petitions against Section
377 were filed in the Delhi high court,
no member of the LGBTQ+ community
was comfortable being the standard-
bearer for the cause in court. By the
time the Supreme Court read down Sec-
tion 377, that was no longer the case.
Writer Vikram Seth had put his
unshaven mugshot on the cover of
India Today, holding a placard saying
“Not a criminal”. LGBTQ+ people like
Ritu Dalmia, Navtej Singh, Aman Nath,
Sunil Mehra and Ayesha Kapur had filed
a writ petition challenging Section 377,
saying it impacted their lives directly.
Twenty IITians approached the court
saying geekily that Section 377 had
“first, second and nth order effects in
the lives of LGBT individuals”.
It is a matter of quiet pride that when
Justice Venkatesh reached out, there
were groups like SAATHII, trans
(clockwise from top, left) ‘MV
X-Press Pearl’ sinks after
burning for almost two weeks
outside Colombo’s harbour;
‘netholi’, Kerala-style fry; and
dried anchovies.
Fish like ‘nethili’, generally
eaten whole, are crucial
sources of protein and
micronutrients. But now this
superfood comes with a
dose of plastic sitting in its gut
AFP
women like Dr Trinetra Haldar Gum-
maraju and her mother, counsellors
like Vidya Dinakaran, to guide him. We
fear coming out, like the parents of the
couple at the centre of the Madurai
case, because we are afraid of log kya
kahenge (what people will say). The
fears of stigma are not unjustified but
people also have the immense capacity
to surprise us. Years ago, I came out to
an old friend over a letter. He said he
was shocked by it and wondered how
he could refashion his image of me in
his head. He slept over it and then real-
ised it didn’t change who I was or the
memories we shared. Now he can pull
my leg about gay life. It’s not the ele-
phant in the room that we must tiptoe
around.
LGBTQ+ Indians are indeed a minor-
ity, perhaps even minuscule. The move-
ment would not have come this far this
COURTESY AARON SAVIO LOBO
while others continued their jour-
ney to the Andaman and Nicobar
Islands. Similarly, the high-
value Pacific Bluefin tuna is
known to undertake voyages
that extend all the way from
Japan across the Pacific to the
west coast of the US. Some of
these tunas, tested in the US,
had traces of radioactive cesium,
indicating that they were con-
taminated by the leakage brought
about by the Fukushima-Daiichi
nuclear accident in Japan in March
2011.
Even if the fish don’t make these distant
voyages themselves, we do it for them.
Our seafood markets are highly globalised
and knowing which waters your fish came
from, and exactly how it was caught, is not
information that’s easy to come by. There-
fore, despite the dire state of fisheries glo-
bally, India’s urban rich and middle
classes enjoy a diversity of seafood like
never before. In addition to seafood from
all across the country, Indians now have
access to international delights such as
Norwegian farmed salmon, Tasmanian
scallops and Korean seerfish.
It doesn’t end with ocean currents and
a globalised seafood market. The chronic,
pernicious and overlooked plastic leakage
into the oceans that happens every single
day from our lifestyle of convenience is
something we seem to have normalised. It
is predicted that the oceans will have more
plastic than fish by 2050. While I am not
one for these doomsday deadlines, which-
ever way we look at it, plastic is now a
ubiquitous feature of the ocean. It is not
SATURDAY, 19 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU 05
fast without the allies who have stood by
it. They were the wind beneath its
wings. In fact, sometimes they were the
wings. Like Anjali Gopalan, head of the
Naz Project, who spoke up for LGBTQ+
Indians when they didn’t want to
appear in court themselves, or lawyers
like Anand Grover, who pursued the
long arc towards justice in court, or
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, who added
his weight to an open letter against Sec-
tion 377. While the queer petitioners in
the Supreme Court made waves (and
justifiably so), this story would not have
been written without people like Minna
Saran. When her son Nishit came out to
her on camera in the 1999 documentary
Summer In My Veins, she winced and
said: “You are joking. You like to shock
people.” Nishit died in a car crash in
2002. In 2011, Saran was the lead signa-
tory on a petition with 18 other parents
against Section 377.
Many of these people spoke up on
behalf of the LGBTQ+ community long
before Pride cookies became cool.
When human computer Shakuntala
Devi wrote The World Of Homosexuals
in 1977, she was attacked for writing a
“voyeuristic book”. The World Of Homo-
sexuals might have had its problems as a
book but her courage in writing about
those “forced to live in ‘half-hiding’
throughout their lives” should never be
forgotten.
Justice Venkatesh, however, feels
special. His ruling was not prompted by
any need to appear woke. It came from
questioning his own preconceptions.
That is something all of us, regardless of
ideology, can be inspired by. That is the
change we would all like to see.
In a month when Pride can some-
times feel more like a celebration of food
colouring than equal rights, this is some-
thing truly worth being proud about.
Cult Friction is a fortnightly column on
issues we keep rubbing up against. San-
dip Roy is a writer, journalist and radio
host.
@sandipr
ISTOCKPHOTO
surprising, then, that it has already begun
to serve as a habitat for a colourful diver-
sity of marine species—an entire ecosys-
tem called the “plastisphere”.
The science around the human health
impacts of consuming plastics is still being
decoded. Scientific innovation such as
bioplastic has the potential to replace our
traditional plastic by at least 90%. The
main raw material for bioplastic is cellu-
lose (the building material of plants) and
chitin (shells of crustaceans such as crab
and shrimp), waste products from agricul-
tural and fisheries operations. Capturing
and processing this biowaste would pro-
vide additional income as well as contrib-
ute to the circular economy. Unfortu-
nately, most of the plastics today continue
to be derived from fossil fuels, so the com-
mitment required is twofold—to substi-
tute with bioplastics and meet climate
mitigation targets.
The significance of fish like nethili is
that they are generally eaten whole, as
opposed to the boneless fillets of larger
fish you would typically consume at a res-
taurant. For poor coastal communities,
they are not only a crucial protein source
but also a vital source of micronutrients
(including vitamins A and B 12, iron, cal-
cium, zinc as well as essential fatty acids),
which are contained in the organs and
bones. Now, however, these valuable
nutrients of this otherwise perfectly built
superfood come with a dose of plastic sit-
ting in its gut.
Aaron Savio Lobo is a marine conserva-
tion scientist and a member of IUCN SSC
Marine Conservation.
06 SATURDAY, 19 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU TASTE

THE ALCOHOL QUOTIENT

DIRECTORATE OF HORTICULTURE, GOVERNMENT OF MEGHALAYA

Why do we get tipsy? Why is gin paired with tonic? And

why beer-battered ‘pakodas’ are the crispest
ILLUSTRATION BY KRISH ASHOK

TEA NANNY

The flavour
of Meghalaya
Aravinda Anantharaman

Krish Ashok vodka, gin and rum is produced by the addi-
tion of another step after fermentation to
pairs well with sour and bitter flavours, which
is why gin and tonic works. You would never
I
When that happens, your hand-eye coordina-
tion suffers, a condition we colloquially term
n 2016, geoscientists Arindam Pal and Poulomi Sen were
driving to Shillong when their car started giving trouble
near Mawlyngot, about 45km from the town, in the East
Khasi Hills. They checked into a guest house. It was there that
they first tasted a tea they thoroughly enjoyed. They asked
their hosts about it.
“Our hosts looked surprised. They said we had just driven
through a tea estate,” says Pal.
The couple had not seen the tea estate because this was
Meghalaya, the land of low-hanging clouds that had hidden
the lush green fields from sight.
Meghalaya’s fame in tea may be recent but it’s well worth
taking note of.
The story goes that when the East India Company was look-
ing for regions suitable for tea-growing in India, they did
home in on Shillong. But it did not become a tea area since the
Khasi ruler insisted no migrants would work in his land. And
tea cultivation is labour intensive.
Meghalaya has come a long way since. In 1977, a Tea Devel-
opment Centre was set up in the state, which is suitable for the
growth of both Darjeeling and Assam varieties, to promote
cultivation. Today, the state has nearly 2,000 hectares under
tea cultivation, producing around half a million kilograms of
tea annually.
My first taste of Meghalaya tea was a black brew from LaK-
yrsiew, a privately owned garden. It was in 2002 that its own-
ers, Nayantara and Geert Linnebank, began planting tea. They

A
lcohol has been around with
human beings for as long as
13,000 years, with beer and
wine residues being found in
archaeological sites on multiple
continents. And it’s not surprising because the
moment you take any source of sugars and
water, and just give it time, ethanol (also
known as ethyl alcohol) will be produced with
near certainty. The alchemist in this process is
a tiny, single-celled microbe called Saccharo-
myces cerevisiae that breaks starches and sug-
ars into ethanol and carbon dioxide.
In the wild, yeast is everywhere. It’s on the
skins of grains, fruits and vegetables. It lies,
waiting for fruits to ripen, soften and release
their sugars for fermentation to happen. That
blackened banana that went to mush on your
kitchen counter—it probably has anywhere
from 0.5-1% alcohol by volume.
Of course, wild fermentation is uncon-
trolled and unpredictable because the yeast
has to compete with several other microbes—
both good and bad bacteria, and pathogenic
fungi (the hairy ones). So when human beings
figured out that grape juice left to itself for a
while turned into a pleasantly heady experi-
ence that they rather enjoyed, they started tin-
kering with the conditions. And thus was born
the great culture and tradition of brewing.
Semantically speaking, fruits are fermented
into wine and grains into beer, although this
distinction can vary depending on which part
of the world one is in. Hard liquor like whisky,
increase the concentration of alcohol—distil-
lation. Despite the relatively booze-unfriendly
culture in our part of the world, alcoholic
drinks have been brewed in India for millen-
nia. For example, feni is made by fermenting
the cashew apple and then distilling it to pro-
duce a strong 40-45% alcohol-by-volume
liquor. Toddy, a mildly alcoholic drink made
from the fermented sap of palm trees, yields
the more potent arrack when distilled.
Here is what happens when you drink
something with alcohol. Ethanol by itself
tastes sweet because it binds with the same
receptors as sugars, but it also causes a burn-
ing sensation. Remember what happens when
you eat chillies? The capsaicin molecule binds
with a receptor that detects heat and fools
your brain into thinking your mouth is on fire.
Alcohol binds with the same receptor—thus
the burning sensation in your mouth and
throat, particularly when you drink hard
liquor.
But it also does something more interesting.
It makes the receptor more sensitive and
causes it to trigger the brain at a temperature
that is slightly lower than your body’s normal
temperature of 37 degrees Celsius. This has
the effect of your brain starting to literally feel
the heat of your own body! It’s not the alcohol,
it’s your own body heat. And because ethanol
ends up blocking these receptors, actually
spicy food will taste relatively bland, which is
why bar snacks tend to be quite intense to
compensate. The sweetness of alcohol also
be able to tolerate those bitter herbs other-
wise.
Another thing ethanol does is mess with the
production of a hormone called vasopressin,
which is responsible for helping your body
retain water by controlling the kidney’s func-
tioning. So when vasopressin is not produced,
your kidneys simply let water go, which is why
most bars need extra washrooms. This is also
one of the reasons you get a hangover; it’s
mostly dehydration.
If you have had a couple of glasses of wine,
there’s a good chance that some of the ethanol
has reached your brain—and because it’s a
super-tiny molecule that loves reacting with
fats, it gets through the blood-brain barrier
with great ease and manages to mess with the
way nerves communicate with one another.
The sweetness of alcohol
pairs well with sour and bitter
flavours, which is why gin and
tonic works. Or, you would
never be able to tolerate
those bitter herbs
“tipsy”. It also affects the functioning of the
part of the brain that deals with self-control
and inhibition, a phenomenon we are familiar
with from the behaviour of middle-aged
uncles at wedding parties.
Alcoholic drinks can also play a stellar role
in your kitchen. Beer, which tends to contain
anywhere from 3-10% alcohol by volume, is
simply not boozy enough for this purpose
though. You can still use beer in your cooking
as a souring agent because it is acidic. The fizz-
iness is also useful in making the crispest pos-
sible pakodas. Just use beer instead of water
when making the batter. You can also use soda
water if you do not want to use beer.
Wine is a fantastic cooking medium. The
grape juice flavours add complex sweet-sour-
ness while the alcohol, a better solvent than
water, helps extract more flavour molecules
from spices. When used in gravies, most of the
ethanol evaporates by the time the dish is
cooked, so you do not have to worry about get-
ting drunk from the aloo gobi gravy you just
made. You can also use a tablespoon of hard
liquor like brandy or rum, especially when
deglazing the bottom of a pan, to liberate all
those deliciously browned products of the
Maillard reaction. As the legendary chef and
culinary instructor Julia Child once said: “I
enjoy cooking with wine. Sometimes I even
put it in the food I am cooking.”
Krish Ashok is the author of Masala Lab: The
Science Of Indian Cooking.
seem to have got so many things right when it comes to qual-
ity, community and branding. Today, LaKyrsiew is one of the
most successful brands from India, available in the best tea
stores around the world.
At Mawlyngot, Pal and Sen had stumbled upon the 40-hec-
tare Urlong, a farmers’ cooperative. It was started in 2011 by a
schoolteacher, D.L. Nongspung, who felt something had to be
done to support struggling local farmers. The factory produ-
ces small volumes of orthodox black teas but also oolong,
green and white tea, some exported and others sold in India.
A similar cooperative model has been created in Ri Bhoi dis-
trict in the East Khasi hills, under the name Arsla.
The list of tea gardens and factories is growing—and each
garden comes with its own narrative: The Tea Development
Centre offers Meg Tea-Umsning, a range of Assamica teas, and
Meg Tea-Upper Shillong, orthodox highland teas. Sharawn
was started by John Marbaniang, who had worked with War-
ren Tea in Assam for over a decade. Denmar, run by Marbah
Warjri, lies in the middle of a forest of tropical fruit trees and
specialises in green tea. Arengh, Durama, Nalari, Anderson
—each offers its version of Meghalaya tea.
I am waiting for my order of Ing tea from Zizira, a blend of
green tea with lemongrass and Schezwan peppercorn. Per-
haps it will convert me to a green tea, after all.
Tea Takes: LaKyrsiew (Teabox), Urlong (Qtrove,) Zizira
(Amazon or Zizira.com), Meg Tea (megteaums@gmail.com).
Tea Nanny is a weekly series steeped in the world of tea. Ara-
vinda Anantharaman is a Bengaluru-based tea blogger and
writer who reports on the tea industry.
@AravindaAnanth1

Sage and thyme and a glimmer of hope

PHOTOGRAPHS BY SAMAR HALARNKAR

the best of, and be grateful for, what we two entrées I have written about here. BAKED VEGETABLES WITH THYME
OUR have. And, oh yes, these recipes—both
D A I LY To retreat into a shell and go over to
the dark side is all too easy, and it is
dishes together serve five—demonstrate
that I can and do cook vegetarian food.
Ingredients
1 medium-size brinjal, thinly sliced
BREAD something we must all resist. From my Many of you, dear readers, often write to 2-3 large tomatoes, thinly sliced
experience of being locked down at me, much to my chagrin, saying this col- 1 large onion, thinly sliced
SAMAR home, there is no better diversion than umn is mildly entertaining and passably 4 tsp thyme leaves, plucked off stems
HALARNKAR cooking to keep your family distracted readable, but of course it is for meat eat- 2 tsp sage, roughly torn
and satisfied. Keep your stove lit and ers, is it not? Might I remind you that I 2 tsp black pepper
bountiful. have a vegetarian wife, and my oeuvre 15 cloves of garlic

J
ust as their cities begin to reopen
cautiously, friends and family in
Delhi complain of stifling heat, and
those in Mumbai of humid, oppress-
ive air. In salubrious Bengaluru, we
have no such complaints. It is the pre-
monsoon season of glorious weather.
There is a light breeze all day, the sky
is mostly overcast, it is pleasant all day
and there is a nip in the air at night. In
sum, there could not be a better time to
start unlocking the city after a long, dis-
tressing lockdown of disease and death.
The pandemic has not disappeared by
any means but one can only take heart
from the troughs when they come.
A peak in the form of a third wave
may be inevitable. Since I wrote my last
column, we have lost more people, and
sometimes it feels odd to be writing
about life and food at a time like this.
But I have rationalised my predicament
thus: We must do what we must, make
During the shutdown, I refused to get
my fresh vegetable and herb supplies
from sundry online companies, prefer-
ring instead to leave home by 7am and
frequent local stores and markets, duly
double-masked.
Now, as the season of nature’s boun-
ties is especially evident, I am delighted
to scoop them up before the monsoon
wipes the shelves clean, especially the
best herbs.
The only thing that has really
changed now is that our market dead-
line has gone from 10am to 2pm, so
there’s no longer a rush to get out and
get back. Indeed, earlier this week, as
the city partially unlocked, I made my
first leisurely 5km trip to do some shop-
ping at 11am, the longest and latest I
have been out in more than a month.
It was exhilarating to simply witness
the world beyond my neighbourhood
but the joy soon turned into familiar
Carrots tossed with sage; and (right) baked vegetables with thyme.
despair as I ran into massive citywide
road works, incomplete for a year and
running late because of the shortage of
workers.
Even though regular shopping and
public transport had not yet restarted, I
was quickly stuck in a traffic jam on an
excavated road where asphalt had
become a distant memory.
In the event, those temporary tribula-
tions were swept aside when my bags
were full of fresh produce; anticipation
ran high. I told myself it was time to go
beyond cooking with the basics. So I
grabbed some bunches of fresh thyme
and sage, both herbs rare during the
lockdown.
With my curious cat, perched on the
kitchen counter, observing me—he’s
eight months old, not yet cynical and
gets excited by boiling water and siz-
zling pans—I meditatively chopped and
processed the vegetables.
The kitchen was redolent with the
fragrance of the sage and thyme as I
plucked them and added them to the
grows by the day? Stay tuned.
CARROTS TOSSED WITH SAGE
Ingredients
250g carrot, julienned
1 tsp white sesame seeds
5-6 leaves of fresh sage, roughly torn
Half tsp pepper powder
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp olive oil
Salt to taste
Method
After chopping the carrots into juli-
ennes, mix with 1 tsp olive oil, pepper
and sage. Set aside for 10 minutes.
In a non-stick wok, heat 1 tsp of olive
oil, add sesame seeds and heat until
they start to pop. Sauté garlic for a
minute, add the carrots and toss
until cooked. Add a pinch of salt if
needed.
200g mozzarella, grated
2 tsp olive oil to coat oven-proof dish
Salt to taste
Method
Grease the oven-proof dish, lay out the
onion and grill in oven at 250 degrees
Celsius until caramelised. Layer brinjal,
then tomato. Sprinkle with salt, half the
black pepper, half the thyme, sage and
garlic. Layer with mozzarella. Repeat
another layer of all ingredients. Bake for
35 minutes in an oven at 175 degrees,
step up to 225 degrees Celsius for 15-20
minutes until mozzarella browns nicely.
Our Daily Bread is a column on easy,
inventive cooking. Samar Halarnkar is
the author of The Married Man’s Guide
To Creative Cooking—And Other Dubi-
ous Adventures.
@samar11
 SMART LIVING SATURDAY, 19 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU 07

Preparing for Big Bad

GETTY IMAGES
Boards with BTS, apps ISTOCKPHOTO

The ad-free, 90-minute ‘Study With Me’ live sessions on YouTube have helped me increase my attention span; and (right) the famous Korean band BTS.
From productivity Anusha Sharma
apps to YouTube he alarm rings without
study sessions and
Focus Rooms, a class
XII student shares
how she found ways
T mercy. I hit the snooze but-
ton repeatedly even as my
best friend calls.
“Wake up!” yells Reet.
“We are in the 12th grade, for God’s sake.
Wake up and start studying.”
Yeah, she is well within her rights to
yell. Between the two of us, she is the one
to tackle the dreaded who actually wakes up daily at 4.45am and
spends the next 15 minutes dragging me
exams during covid-19 out of bed so that we can study together.
Online!
We both have different subjects. Yet
having each other on a Zoom call early in
the morning feels like we are back in
school, in one place, doing the thing 12th
graders are supposed to do: study, study
and study some more.
I proposed the idea of waking up at 5am
daily for the duration of the second lock-
down in Delhi. This is yet another “only
for the lockdown” pact to be productive.
After all, we have to be “productive”
because we are the new battalion lining up
to conquer the Big Bad Boards as the 12th
graders from the batches of 2020 and
2021 have left the front-lines.
In the last six months, I have used the
“Study With Me” live sessions found on
YouTube. These ad-free, 90-minute vid-
eos have helped increase my attention
span, especially when you have the illu-
sion of BTS members RM and Jungkook
working with you. Hey, who does not like
to study with BTS on their screen?
My friends and I also hold group study
sessions on a Google Meet link. We just
open our textbooks and get on with work.
A little chat, some giggles, a quick ques-
tion check—I find this method very con-
structive since we keep each other
accountable. PS: Side benefits of peer
learning include catching up on gossip!
I have also tried Lifeat.io, which fol-
lows the Pomodoro method, a time man-
agement method using a timer to break
down study or work schedules into
defined intervals with short breaks. The
unique similarity in every video—music
in the background to anchor you, ASMR
(autonomous sensory meridian
response) techniques like paper rustling,
and a soft colour palette—on the site sim-
ulates the much craved quiet classroom
experience.
These techniques have kept me moti-
vated and made learning so much more
than just a chore! But even as I make and
break dozens of “let’s study smarter”
promises, my friends and I cannot help
but wonder why we are even bothering to
prepare for the boards in 2022, making
plans for colleges or signing up for
entrance exams when none of us know
what will happen next year.
The coronavirus arrived in our part of
the world in 2020 and changed what it
meant to be a 12th grader. Of course, the
For my friends and me,
class XII has been a game
of Russian roulette: the
uncertainty of ‘Will we, won’t
we give the boards’ is quite
a crippling experience
pandemic has impacted the lives of every-
one but for the three of us, batches of
2020, 2021 and 2022, class XII has been a
game of Russian roulette: the uncertainty
of “Will we, won’t we give the boards” is
quite a crippling experience.
Everyone knows the 2020 batch was
left high and dry in the middle of their
boards when the first lockdown was
announced. “My mental health has been
like Sisyphus and his boulder since. It
reaches the top and falls over and over and
over,” says Priyanka Sood, a 2020 batch
student from the Capital’s Delhi Public
School (DPS), RK Puram, now in college.
“My last board exam was put on hold
indefinitely and that was unsettling. I had
made a lot of plans with my friends for the
break between school and college but all
of that went kaput. I spent a large part of
last year just being disappointed,” says
Ishaan Nair, a former student of DPS, RK
Puram from the 2020 batch. Nair, who
gave four out of the five board exams,
graduated from school and has now been
in college, a place he has never visited, for
a year.
The 2021 batch found out in June that
they will not give any board exams. “I have
had so much anxiety and restlessness
thinking about the boards, not knowing
what to do and how to go about things.
Having no idea about what we are going to
do if boards don’t take place was really
confusing and scary as a 12th grader who
is primed since senior school to be
devoted to these exams,” says Fia Subu, a
2021 batch student from Sanskriti School,
Delhi. “This whole exam business is
redundant. We need some new ideas,” she
adds.
As for the batch of 2022, I can tell you,
we are terrified after seeing what hap-
pened with our seniors. The constant
questions we keep asking ourselves:
“Is preparing for the board exams even
worth it?”
“What is the relevance of standardised
exams when there is always a chance that
our preparation will go to waste?
“Will we be left hanging for months like
the previous batches?”
“I have noticed that there is a direct
relation between the increase in the num-
ber of cases and general anxiety levels, so
I try to avoid negative news,”says Parth K.
of Amity School, Delhi, a 12th grader like
me. “Do I worry about what will happen?
Yes, I do but can I stop preparing? No. So
it’s endless rounds of online classes, sitting
in one place in front of the screen for seven
hours during school hours and then head-
ing online (yes, there again) for tuition,” he
says.
“The fact is that it’s impossible to stay
alert and pay attention for such long peri-
ods online while studying for the class XII
boards,” adds Nair.
Yet we all know there is no point in sec-
ond-guessing the fate of the batch of 2022.
“As someone who has gone through it, all
I can say is, don’t stress about when the
exams will happen, will they happen, how
will they happen. None of that is in your
control. For now, don’t stay up the entire
night, don’t follow unhealthy preparation
cycles and don’t practise exam papers
endlessly,” says Mehul Sharma, a batch of
2020 student from DPS, RK Puram, now
in college. “We made it to college, so will
you. Keep hoping for the best (whatever
that is) and take the time to build your
relationship with your family. Spend time
with them because your life will get busy
really soon, fingers crossed,” says Aadya
Choudhary, a batch of 2020 student of
Vasant Valley School, Delhi.
On my part, I am fighting the feeling of
languishing by experimenting with differ-
ent productivity techniques. I see Pinter-
est boards on how to make solo study a fun
activity. I keep trying new methods to
break away from procrastination. My lat-
est experiment is making time-lapse vid-
eos on my phone of me studying. This pre-
vents me from using my phone while
studying and makes me immensely proud
of how focused I look in the videos.
Next up, Focus Rooms on Studys-
tream.live or figuring out how to create
one with other 12th graders from around
the world. Since these sites insist on keep-
ing the camera on for maximum accounta-
bility, I believe the feeling of just being
with people across the world will be
encouraging.
As for the “only for this lockdown” pact,
the lockdown is sort of over and the pact
has been phased out. I have started waking
up at 5am on most days on my own, with-
out wailing or dodging the alarm. I freshen
up quickly, greet the crow outside the
window and the cockroach by the door,
make myself a cup of coffee, chew on a
croissant or hog on sticky rice like my
favourite vlogger Deemd does, take out
my books and log into my study app.
On some days, I almost feel excited
about starting the day.
Anusha Sharma is a class XII student of
Sanskriti School, Delhi.

THUMB RULE
BY NITIN SREEDHAR

Space tourism takes flight AN APP A WEEK TO KEEP YOU ON TRACK

A new book charts the three-year-old Stucky told his father he THIS WEEK: WELLPAPER
would one day become an astronaut. CATEGORY: TOOLS AND PRODUCTIVITY
tragedy and triumph of Schmidle puts you on the shoulder of a
space tourism through successful pilot and his passion for fly-

the people at Richard

Branson’s Virgin Galactic
ing—from his first experiences of hang
gliding, skydiving with goggles stolen
from a chemistry lab and a dodgy para-
STAY DIGITALLY
Nitin Sreedhar
chute, to life in the Marine Corps, as a pilot
with US space agency Nasa, flying the
world’s fastest spy jet, and serving with the
HEALTHY
nitin.s@htlive.com air force during the war in Iraq. Schmidle
is no stranger to this feeling. His father,

A
bout 20 years ago, Dennis Tito, an
investment manager from Los
Angeles, US, paid $20 million
(around ₹145 crore now) to hitch a ride to
space. He was supposed to visit the Mir
space station—but Mir was deorbited in
March 2001. A month later, Tito visited
the International Space Station (ISS).
He became the first so-called space
tourist; others followed soon. Mark Shut-
tleworth, the British-South African tech
entrepreneur (2002), American entrepre-
neur and scientist Gregory Olsen (2005)
and Iranian-American engineer
Anousheh Ansari (2006) are just some
who have visited the ISS since, paying
anywhere from $20-35 million for the trip.
Between 2001-09, seven individuals flew
to space through the US space tourism
company Space Adventures and the Rus-
sian space agency Roscosmos.
Orbital space tourism has picked up
pace and today, at least three major pri-
vate companies are working to build rock-
ets that will carry people into space on
short flights. In his new book, Test Gods:
Virgin Galactic And The Making Of A Mod-
ern Astronaut, The New Yorker journalist
Nicholas Schmidle profiles the remarka-
ble story of the test pilots and visionaries
behind Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.
Through the 352-page book, Schmidle
primarily follows Mark Stucky, Virgin’s
lead test pilot. He also sheds light on Bran-
son, the eccentric English billionaire
Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson (right) with test pilot Mark Stucky.
funding this private space-flight venture.
Branson, however, is not the only name
in the space tourism race today. Amazon
founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has
announced that he will fly to space on 20
July with his brother Mark on the first
crewed flight of the New Shepard, the
rocket ship designed by his aerospace
company Blue Origin. An unnamed bid-
der even paid $28 million at a recent auc-
tion for a seat on the same flight.
As Schmidle points out, Branson, Bezos
and SpaceX founder Elon Musk have “dis-
tinct visions” for the journeys to space.
While Virgin Galactic hopes to carry pas-
sengers on a “sub-orbital flight”, Blue Ori-
gin is interested in deep space exploration
too. Musk hopes to colonise Mars one day.
With Stucky, the author takes the
reader on a deeply personal journey, right
from his early days as a boy born to fly.
Inspired by the pioneering aviator John
Glenn, and his missions to space in 1962,
GETTY IMAGES
Test Gods—Virgin
Galactic And The Making
Of A Modern Astronaut:
By Nicholas Schmidle,
Penguin Random House UK,
352 pages, ₹799.
Robert, was a decorated fighter pilot.
The journey of taking people to space is
also dotted with tragedy. In 2014, Stucky
saw one of his closest friends and co-pi-
lots, Michael Alsbury, die in a crash of the
Virgin SpaceShipTwo space vehicle VSS
Enterprise. Schmidle poignantly describes
the small margins of error and the risks
that come with the job.
It was a simple technical mistake by
Alsbury, an experienced test pilot, that
led to the crash as aerodynamic forces
tore the ship apart. The tragedy hit
Stucky hard but didn’t deter him. “An
expectation of sudden death came with
the job; test pilots learned to metabolize
mortality differently than the rest of us,”
Schmidle writes.
There is, of course, the elation of flying
to space, experiencing weightlessness and
returning safely to Earth. In December
2018, Stucky and his co-pilot Frederick
Sturckow, also a former Nasa astronaut,
took the SpaceShipTwo more than 51 miles
(roughly 82.7km) above Earth, a mark
used by the US to denote the beginning of
space. This was a big boost for Virgin
Galactic—and the industry is expecting
much more, in the form of commercial
operations for instance, by year-end.
For those who can afford it, and those
with the “right risk appetite”, nothing else
comes close to space travel, says Schmidle.
“A Himalayan expedition seemed almost
pedestrian by comparison.”
Google Play Store
êêêêê
App Store
NA
Have you ever tracked time spent on the smartphone? With
the WellPaper app from OneLab Studio, you can do that
through innovative wallpaper styles.
You won’t need a separate app to check your screen time.
WellPaper uses your screen-on time data to create persona-
lised, live wallpapers. The app connects to the internet to
detect different app categories from the Google Play Store. It
groups these into broader categories, displaying them on your
screen in the form of a wallpaper. The fun part? You can
choose from three styles.
When you use the “Composition” wallpaper, with six col-
oured tiles, tapping on any one of them from your home or
lock screen shows the app categories (social, entertainment,
communication, etc.) and screen times for two seconds.
Arrows indicate if the screen time has increased or decreased.
“Radial” includes a gradient version of six coloured circles,
which change size according to your screen time. “Glow” fea-
tures six neon rings. The thickness of these rings will change
depending on how much time you spend on different apps
through the day.
WellPaper does not require you to sign up for anything.
And your device data remains safe.
08 SATURDAY, 19 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU
COVER

COME HOME The home bar is buzzing

with quirky infusions,
cocktail kits and trendy
mixers. We ask six top
mixologists in the country
for ways to up your cocktail
mixing game further
Jahnabee Borah & Shrabonti Bagchi

SHATBHI BASU
MIXOLOGIST, AUTHOR, BAR & BEVERAGE
CONSULTANT, MUMBAI
Five must-have spirits at home
åGin
åVodka
åDark rum
åTequila
åGood whisky
Ways to elevate the drinking experience at home.
Use nice glassware. Take the trouble to garnish a drink. Use
your imagination with the nibbles. Encourage local produc-
ers who create interesting wines, great beers and fantastic
spirits. These are being made by a wonderful
group of talented people against all odds.
Let’s support them too while enjoying great
experiences at home.
What’s on your playlist while you
mix cocktails?
The playlist depends on the mood
and weather. I love all kinds of
music, from Indian classical to jazz
and rock; from Gangubai Hangal,
Bhimsen Joshi and Vasantrao Desh-
pande to Louis Armstrong, Benny
Goodman and Jethro Tull.
T
ry making a Balle Balle Bloody Mary,”
says Yangdup Lama promptly in
response to a question about a recipe
for this story. The co-founder of the
award-winning Delhi bars Sidecar and
Cocktails & Dreams has mastered the magic that mix-
ologists posses: spreading cheer.
It is this sentiment, with the pandemic offering lit-
tle respite, that has made this a year of mixing cock-
tails at home. The beginnings were deceptively sim- YANGDUP LAMA Glass: Stemmed goblet
ple—making fuss-free classic cocktails like Gin and CO-FOUNDER, SIDECAR AND C&D SPEAKEASY, DELHI
Tonic and Whisky Sour. The game went up a few Ingredients
notches with Cosmopolitans and Manhattans, and Five must-have spirits at home 3 dashes of Tabasco
now we are talking home-made infusions. åWhisky (Bourbon/Scotch) 3 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
Bars and F&B brands have caught on to this shift. åVodka 2 green chillies, chopped
Just as restaurants pivoted to delivery, mixologists åGin 2 tsp fresh coriander, chopped
started creating pre-mixed cocktail boxes for takea- åRum (preferably light and aged) Salt to taste
ways, released elaborate drinking guides, and con- åTequila (Silver for cocktails and Anejo for sipping) A pinch of rock salt or kala namak
ducted paid cocktail mixing sessions on Zoom—most A pinch of chaat masala
were sold out. New brands specialising in cocktail Ways to elevate the drinking experience at home. 15ml lime juice
mixers are now stirring things up for amateur and Make it a sensorial experience. Let the drink 100ml tomato juice
optimistic home bartenders. lure you in by how good it looks, how good it A pinch of Maggi masala
These new products signal a change—a shift in tastes, and how inviting the aromas are. This 60ml vodka
tastes from hard liquor on-the-rocks to subtle, fla- means you will need nice glassware and garnish. Lots of ice
vourful drinks that make the alcohol seem almost Then up your game with some great music. Cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes and mint
incidental. Some attribute this shift to the sprigs for garnish
gin revolution in the country, while oth- What’s on your playlist while you mix cock- Freshly ground pepper
ers speak of a hankering for anything tails?
artisanal. Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville , Toby Keith’s I Love Method
If you are keen to get in on this game, This Bar, Rupert Holmes’ The Pina Colada Song, Take a mixer and put all the ingredients. Give it a good
Lounge asked six top bartenders to Rod Stewart’s The Great American Songbook roll a couple of times. In other words, mix it like filter coffee
share recipes, expert advice and music and What A Wonderful World. by using two glasses (three times). Fill a stem glass with ice.
suggestions to raise the bar at home. Top up with the concoction. To garnish, slide in a slice
RECIPE of cucumber, cherry tomatoes and top off with mint
jahnabee.b@livemint.com Balle Balle Bloody Mary sprigs. Sprinkle fresh ground pepper and serve.

RECIPE
Cucumber & Curry Leaf Gin &
Tonic
Use spirits and mixers made by local
producers. I recommend Greater KARTHIK KUMAR Afro house, Adana Twins, and music from Cercle.
Than, Stranger and Sons for gin, and BEVERAGE CONSULTANT; BRAND-KEEPER AT JOSE
Svami, Bengal Bay or Sepoy & Co for CUERVO; FOUNDER, TWO OUNCES, BENGALURU RECIPE
the tonic. Espresso Martini
Glass: Tall Five must-have spirits at home Glass: Martini
åWhisky (Scotch, Bourbon, single malt, blended Scotch)
Ingredients åGin (a London-style dry gin for cocktails and Navy Ingredients
60ml gin Strength for the best Martinis) 60ml vodka, whisky or dark rum
30ml cucumber juice—use what’s in åVodka, the best spirit to experiment with 40ml freshly brewed espresso (at a pinch, you can use instant
your kitchen åWhite and dark rums, not just for making Mojitos but also coffee powder, 1 tbsp mixed in 100ml water. Use exactly
1 wedge lime—feel alive with a little to make great Tiki-style drinks like Piña Coladas, Mai Tais, 40ml of this)
tartness to wake you up Rum Old Fashioned-s and Manhattans 20ml sweetener, like sugar syrup/ hazelnut syrup/ vanilla
3 curry leaves—encourage your win- åSome aperitifs, like Campari or Aperol for cocktails and syrup.
dow garden some flavoured liqueurs
Tonic water Method
Garnish: slice of cucumber/curry leaf Ways to elevate the drinking experience at home. Shake well with ice in a closed jar or a cocktail shaker. You
stick Hire a bartender! Jokes apart, along with the flavoured syr- will get a crème layer on top when you shake the drink hard
ups available, simple things like orange peels can do wond- for a minimum of 12 seconds. Strain it into a glass. Garnish
Method ers: Peel the orange without the pith, infuse the peels with with a sprinkle of coffee or cocoa powder on top of the crème.
Fill glass with ice sugar in an airtight container, leave it for a day. You will get Bonus tip: To make vanilla syrup at home, boil 500ml
Pour in the gin and juice an orange liquid called oleo saccharum. Filter the peels, store water in a pan, remove from heat, add any sugar, stir and dis-
Squeeze the lime wedge and drop the liquid in a bottle and use a few drops in cocktails. Lemon solve the sugar. Slit 2 vanilla beans, separate the pods, and
the peel in or grapefruit peels can be infused in a similar way. add the pods and stalks to the sugar syrup pan. Let it sit for
Crush the curry leaves and drop What’s on your playlist while you make cocktails? an hour. Stir well, strain and store the syrup. in a bottle.
them in
Top with tonic and stir
Garnish
STORY
CINDY LALRAMNGAIHZUALI
BARTENDER, HOOTS’ AND PERCH, DELHI
Five must-have spirits at home
åYour favourite spirit—be it gin or whisky or rum
åVermouth
åOrange liqueur
åAn aperitif like Campari or Aperol
åMezcal or Cognac for special occasions
Ways to elevate the drinking experience at home.
Grow your herbs. I am also trying to grow my own herbs
at home—basil and mint. New enthusiasts could start by
watching cocktail videos on YouTube and experiment
with different styles, like shaking a cocktail in a jam jar,
stirring with chopsticks or other DIY methods. Also read
about flavour pairings and how unique ingredients will
match with each other. Everyone has heard about apple
and cinnamon but did you know that smoke and salt go
well with chocolate? Check out YouTube channels like
Truffle on the Rocks, Three Barstools and Epicurious.
For flavour pairings, refer to books like The Flavour The-
saurus and The Flavour Bible. Also, smell and taste the
ingredients while making the cocktail, like you would
while cooking.
What’s on your playlist while you make cocktails?
Lafayette Harris, Frank Sinatra, Avicii , David Guetta.
RECIPE
Summer Lounge
Glass: Collins
Ingredients
60ml white rum
20-25ml lime juice
15ml celery saccharum
3-4 basil leaves
Soda to top up
Method
Place the rum, lime juice and celery saccharum in a cock-
tail mixer and give it a good shake. Then pour it in a tall
glass and add ice. Garnish with basil leaves and serve.
SATURDAY, 19 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU 09
COCKTAIL MIXERS
SHAKE THINGS UP
Artisanal, handcrafted, stuffed with botanicals and
aromatics—we have come a long way from Coke and lime
cordial when it comes to what we mix our drinks with
Tamarind Whiskey Sour Mix from Bartisans.
Shrabonti Bagchi
shrabonti.b@livemint.com
I
t’s a real orchard out there. A jackfruit Mojito mix, a hibiscus-lavender Martini mix, a mango-
chilli Margarita mix, tonic waters infused with elderflower, with grapefruit, with orange and
basil—you could quite literally make cocktails every day for a month and not have the same
drink twice. The Indian market for cocktail mixes was not doing too badly before the pandemic—
SOURAV SINGH artisanal tonic waters were definitely beginning to make their way to home bars, for instance—but
CONSULTANT MIXOLOGIST AND FOUNDER, COCKTAIL PUNDIT, KOLKATA in the past one and a half years, the drinking experience at home has transformed completely.
“The culture of cocktails has been picking up since the past five years and bartenders have
Five must-have spirits at home played a very important role in that. The quality of cocktails, the variety, has gone up tremen-
åAbsolut Vodka dously. Discovery happens at a bar, but over the pandemic, people couldn’t go out that much but
åGreater Than gin still wanted to recreate that experience at home,” says Aneesh Bhasin, co-founder of Foxtrot
åJim Beam whisky Beverages Pvt. Ltd, a “progressive drinks company” that makes the Svami range of tonic waters
åBacardi rum and non-alcoholic pre-mixed drinks, one of the earliest entrants in this category.
åTequila La Chika The variety Bhasin talks about is truly considerable, and layered. There are brands like Jimmy’s
Cocktails, &Stirred, and Swizzle, which retail pre-mixes for classic cocktails like Mojitos, Margari-
Ways to elevate the drinking expe- tas and Whisky Sours; there are makers of specialty tonic waters and ginger ales—Svami, Sepoy
rience at home. & Co, Bengal Bay, Jade Forest, to name just a few; and now, those who make small-batch, hand-
Experiment with fruits, tonics and syr- crafted pre-mixes and are experimenting wildly with ingredients and flavours.
ups. Store a few bottles of aromatic bit- Many of the new, smaller companies have been started by bartenders themselves. Take Ōtanē
ters, flavoured tonic water, some low- (pronounced “Othane”, which loosely translates to “to infuse” in Sanskrit and “to pour” in Mara-
sugar flavoured syrups like elder- thi), launched by mixologist Sharan Kutty and illustrator Errol Crasta in December. Kutty, who
flower and passion fruit. Just adding a was working as a bartender in Australia, came home to Mumbai last year and teamed up with
few easily available ingredients to Crasta to launch a batch of non-alcoholic infusions with local ingredients like vanilla, orange and
your normal gin and tonic or your roselle leaves that can be mixed with spirits such as gin, rum and vodka. Each exquisitely designed
vodka soda, like slit green chillies or a infusion kit from Ōtanē comes with detailed notes on how to make the cocktails and the foods
grapefruit, will elevate the taste. Make to pair them with. The Mumbai-based brand delivers across India, with each kit retailing for ₹625
your ice game strong—the more in Mumbai and ₹685 in other parts of the country.
chilled your cocktail, the more you Bengaluru-based Karthik Kumar, formerly director of beverages at the Byg Brewski Brewing
will enjoy it. Freeze fruits like straw- Company (he now consults with them), started Two Ounces during the lockdown when he real-
berry, melon, watermelon, blueberries in ice trays and add them to your drink. Fix ised there was a lot of uncertainty about when bars would be allowed to open—and that people
Zoom meetings with friends and family, share your favourite cocktail recipes. were craving bar-style cocktails. “Making a nice drink at home is not easy. You need a number
of ingredients in small quantities that there’s no point keeping at home, so I got this idea of send-
What’s on your playlist while you make cocktails? ing out cocktail kits,” says Kumar. From there, the idea evolved to sending out pre-mixes that
Slow, relaxing Arabic tracks, James Brown, Alan Walker, are made fresh and delivered within a few hours of a customer placing an order for, say, a Jackfruit
Thom Yorke. Mojito Mix, a Darjeeling Chai Punch Mix, or a Salted Caramel Old-Fashioned.
Jovita Mascarenhas and her son Jordan, a trained mixologist, started off with a similar idea in
RECIPE Mumbai last year with Bartisans, a range of handcrafted cocktail mixers like Blue Pea and
Axiomatic Mint Gin Fizz Mix, Hibiscus Lavender Martini Mix, and Rose Cardamom Whisky
Inspired by everyday cocktail-making and the apprecia- Sour Mix. Initially made-to-order and available only in Mumbai, the company
tion for “spirit forward” drinks, this cocktail focuses on my started pan-India deliveries just about a month ago. “Alcohol delivery is a difficult
signature twist with Jack Daniel’s, Vermouth Bianco and market to crack in India, there are too many hurdles and different rules in differ-
Hazelnut Reduction. To finish, a drop of Pinenut and Hazelnut ent territories. We came up with the idea of doing pre-mixes around four years
Bitters that balance the stiffness of the cocktail and sweetness ago, actually, but at that time it was probably too early. With the pandemic, the
of the reduction. demand has really shot up. When you talk about cocktail mixers now, people know
Glass: Goblet exactly what you are talking about,” says Mascarenhas. “The idea is to also appeal
to people who don’t drink alcohol—our products are basically ready-to-consume,
Ingredients zero-proof drinks,” she adds.
50ml Jack Daniel’s Old No.7 “Zero-proof”—which essentially means “non-alcoholic”—is the latest buzzword
10ml Vermouth Bianco in this category. Svami too has just launched its zero-proof Rum And Cola, Pink Gin
Half tsp hazelnut syrup & Tonic and classic Gin & Tonic. How are these different from a regular cola or tonic?
3 drops pinenut or hazelnut bitters “Oh they do taste like the real thing, and we have achieved that by paying attention
to the flavours of the mixed drinks—by adding the strong juniper notes of gin to the
Method G&T, or vanilla notes in the Rum & Cola,” says Bhasin. “It’s all in the aromatics.”
In a mixing glass, add all the ingredients. Give them a good stir. Gar-
nish with grated hazelnut and serve in a coupe glass. With inputs by Jahnabee Borah.
DEVI SINGH Karsh Kale, Tech Panda, Michael Jackson, Bruno Mars,
BAR MANAGER, ANTARES, GOA AND BRAND-KEEPER, Imagine Dragons
JOSE CUERVO TEQUILA
RECIPE
Five must-have spirits at home Orange You Glad
åVodka Glass: Rocks glass
åWhisky
åRum ( dark and white ) Ingredients
åGin 50ml gin, preferably Greater Than
åWine and beer 20ml orange juice, preferably fresh
15ml honey
Ways to elevate the drinking experience at home. 10ml lime juice
Improve your ice-making skills and ice storage. You will need 5-6 basil leaves, tapped and dropped
more ice trays, maybe an additional freezer. Cocktails need
a lot of ice and that’s usually what people have an issue with Method
at home. Play around with textures of ice, such as shaved and Take a shaker, add ice, gin, orange
crushed. Blending the entire cocktail with ice can give you juice and honey. Stir the honey
a slushy texture and make a few frozen cocktails, which is a well in the shaker, else it will stick
great way to consume cocktails in summer. Always use good- to the sides and not incorporate
quality water to make ice. When trying to demould the ice well with the drink. Add tapped
from the tray, keep it out of the freezer for a few minutes. This basil leaves and give it a good
will allow the ice to slide out of the tray without breaking. shake. Strain over ice and gar-
nish with fresh basil leaves and a
What’s on your playlist while you make cocktails? slice of orange.
10 SATURDAY, 19 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU
‘I like taking my time
with the films I make’
Amit V. Masurkar’s
‘Sherni’ has Vidya
Balan playing a forest
officer forced to deal
with human-animal
conflict
Udita Jhunjhunwala
A
mit V. Masurkar made his
directorial debut in 2014
with Sulemani Keeda, a
comedy about two strug-
gling film writers. His next
feature, Newton (2017), was a political sat-
ire set around an election in a conflict-af-
fected district in central India. The Raj-
kummar Rao starrer premiered at the
Berlin Film Festival 2017, won a National
Film Award and was also India’s entry to
the Oscar awards. Sherni, his latest, is a
thriller headlining Vidya Balan as Vidya
Vincent, a forest officer dealing with
human-animal conflict in an area that has
settlements bordering the jungle.
In a video interview, Masurkar speaks
about the challenges of making his latest
film, and what he enjoys most about the
film-making process. Edited excerpts:
What was the starting point for
‘Sherni’?
Sherni is about a tigress that is losing
her habitat due to human intervention.
She has come to the fringes of the jungle,
where she encounters human beings.
This is the starting point of the film.
Vidya Balan plays a forest officer, an
experienced but gentle and empathetic
person who is trying to bring change, but
is not being allowed to do so. She’s also
absorbed in her personal life and feels
like she is not being taken seriously. She’s
thinking of quitting her profession when
this incident happens. That’s when she
starts taking a deeper interest and real-
ises that conservation is anthropocentric.
It cannot be removed from humans, and
human beings need to be actively
involved. The tiger is the symbol for pre-
serving nature and the wild.
Why focus on a tigress?
Basically, this is a story about conser-
vation and the need for it. It’s a topic that
is the need of the hour. The tiger is a flag-
ship species for conservation in the sense
that if you protect the tiger, you end up
protecting the ecosystem that the tiger
lives in. You protect bugs, bees, butter-
flies, the animals the tiger feeds on. This
is why we focused on the tiger. Writer
Aastha Tiku’s thought was that in order
to bring about positive long-term
change, a whole lot of people need to
make a whole lot of effort. Man is not sep-
arate from nature. From a young age, we
are taught that it’s man versus nature;
that we are different from animals, plants
and insects—but we are all part of nature
and if one gets affected, we all get
affected. It’s a chain.
Is ‘Sherni’ based on a real incident?
The film’s story is not inspired by any
Why you should trust Henry Rollins’ taste in music
FIRST
B E AT
SANJOY
N A R AYA N
H
enry Rollins has had a versatile
career. Hard-core punk singer in
the early to mid-1980s; spoken-
word artist; radio jockey; actor; pre-
senter; stand-up comedian; even a mus-
cle-bound powerlifter. A workaholic
who always seems to be bursting with
energy, Rollins, now 60, is best known
for his years with California’s Black
Flag, pioneers of hard-core punk, one of
the most aggressive forms of punk rock,
which evolved in the late 1970s.
The (not quite apocryphal) story of
how Rollins, then not yet 20, became
Black Flag’s singer provides some
insight into his spontaneous, impulse-
driven character. In his teens, Rollins
sang with various local hard-core bands
in his home town, Washington, DC, and
when the Flag came to town on a tour,
Rollins, who was in the audience,
jumped on to the stage and started sing-
ing with his idols. The band hired him
soon after. He was an intense singer
whose stage performance was impress-
ive—he would often appear shirtless, in
shorts, his powerful physique on dis-
play.
Rollins was with Black Flag till 1986.
Amit Masurkar’s film ‘Sherni’ is a thriller about wildlife conservation.
particular conflict or incident. Every
year, you find a dozen cases of human-
animal conflict across the country and
they all have the same pattern. You see an
animal and you see some officials, there
is a hunt, which becomes sort of legend-
ary, and people gather around it and feed
from it.
How did you shoot the animal
scenes?
The tigers and some other animals are
all visual effects (VFX). It would have
been much cheaper to go to Thailand and
shoot with real tigers but that was not the
message we wanted to send out. We
didn’t want to shoot with animals that
were captive and exploit them. So we
went for VFX, which is a big challenge
because in India the visual effects quality
is not up to the mark. Then we found The
Circus. They were involved in the mak-
ing of the Life Of Pi tiger. We got artists
who had a lot of experience in creating
animals. We also had a scientific consult-
ant who worked on the animal details and
supervised accuracy, including bird calls,
the sound of bees, which can be different
in the day and different in the night, etc.
What was the most rewarding aspect
and the most challenging part?
It was rewarding to tell a story about
conservation. It’s very important to have
‘
It was rewarding to tell a story
about conservation. It’s very
important to have this story
out in mainstream media.
’’
Henry Rollins performing in Los Angeles in December 2019.
He then went on to form his own metal
ensemble, the Rollins Band, and
embarked on a solo career involving
spoken-word performances. Spoken-
word performances are high-adrena-
line affairs with fast-paced wit, covering
an eclectic range of subjects. They drip
with energy and often last more than
three hours—and he has toured the
world with them. To sample them,
check out his show at the Wacken Open
CULTURE
this story out in mainstream media.
Shooting with covid-19 protocols was the
biggest challenge. We also shot without
artificial lights or a big crew. We shot in
natural light, which means you are
dependent on clouds and time of day. If
we were shooting at 4pm, we had to wrap
that scene quickly because otherwise you
would go into the evening and see the
change in light. That meant rehearsing
for two hours after lunch so we could
shoot quickly. For this we needed actors
who were dedicated and open to rehears-
als. The entire crew had to be very fluid.
There are lots of hand-held shots and
you move the camera a lot, which means
a 270-degree clear field. The advantage
of hand-held and natural light is that it
frees you and it frees the actors to move
around without bothering about catch-
ing the light and standing on a mark.
After the acclaim for ‘Newton’, did
you feel pressure for your follow-up
project?
Yes. I took that pressure for one year
after Newton was released, when I
thought my next needed to be something
deep. I was also getting a lot of offers sud-
denly, with bigger actors. But then I real-
ised that it doesn’t make sense to take
that pressure. So I took my time and I am
glad I have done Sherni with Vidya.
How would you describe yourself as
a film-maker?
I am not very ambitious in terms of vol-
ume. I want to enjoy the process because
I like every part of it. I get involved in
research—I am a curious guy. I enjoy
shooting, editing and music. I like taking
my time with the films I make. A film
needs to be made with a lot of love.
Sherni is streaming on Amazon Prime
Video.
Udita Jhunjhunwala is a writer, film
critic and festival programmer.
GETTY IMAGES
Air Festival in Germany in 2013 (it’s on
YouTube).
But it is Rollins as a radio jockey that
you really want to check out. Although
Rollins began hosting a radio show on
an indie channel in Los Angeles, US, in
2004, it was only in 2009 that he began
a weekly show for KCRW, a National
Public Radio member channel that is
broadcast from the Santa Monica Col-
lege in California. It’s a two-hour broad-
Photomontage by Shanthamani M. (seen below), 2006-2008, Bengaluru.
BITS OF BENGALURU
Artist Shanthamani M.’s
new online show at
MAP Bengaluru captures
the spirit of a city
torn between tradition
and modernity
Somak Ghoshal
somak.g@livemint.com
I
n one of Shanthamani M.’s photo-
graphic compositions—or “photo-
montages”, as she calls them—a
woman holds aloft a miniature model of
an aeroplane. Flanking her are brightly
embroidered blankets made by women
from the Siddi community of Karnataka
and mandalas that look like rangoli
designs, though not quite like the ones
you see in the southern state. On one side
of the frame is an image of a felled tree
trunk, hollowed out, with a hole like an
open wound.
All these fragments, photographed on
Bengaluru’s buzzing Brigade Road
between 2006-08, cohere to form a met-
aphor for a city in a constant state of
flux—a metonymy for urban space that is
repeatedly dismantled and cobbled
together, ad infinitum, a place under
siege from a rapacious model of growth
meant to serve unbridled commerce to
the exclusion of all else. The aeroplane
acts as a symbol of the growing influx of
immigrants into the city. The spectre of
all the trees that were chopped to build
roads connecting the airport with the
rest of the city looms on one side of the
frame, with remnants of Bengaluru’s
multicultural legacies lurking at the bot-
tom.
Part of Past Continuous, an online
show hosted by the Bengaluru-head-
quartered Museum of Art and Photogra-
THE LOUNGE
LIST
Five tracks to bookend
your week
1. ‘The Studio Of My Mind’ by Ooga
Boogas from ‘Ooga Boogas’
2. ‘Atelier’ by Sweeping Promises
from ‘Hunger For A Way Out’
3. ‘Excuse Generator’ by Lithics
from ‘Mating Surfaces’
4. ‘Crossbow’ by Tamar Aphek
from ‘All Bets Are Off ’
5. ‘Lunch’ by Spiritual Mafia from
‘Alfresco’
cast (streamed) every weekend, with
Rollins as the jockey playing great
music. Sometimes they are bands that
you might have heard of but more often
than not, they are ones you might have
missed completely if he hadn’t played
them. True to his nature, Rollins is an
obsessive collector of music and his dis-
coveries almost always come as a pleas-
ant surprise.
On 5 June, KCRW streamed Rollins’
636th broadcast. It was an aural smor-
gasbord of songs by bands I had never
heard. Such as the Ooga Boogas, a four-
piece from Melbourne, Australia, that
plays instantly infectious indie garage.
Rollins played The Studio Of My Mind
MALLIKARJUN KATAKOL; COURTESY THE ARTIST
phy (MAP), this composite image is an
outcome of Shanthamani’s return to her
visual archives during the coronavirus
lockdown. “All those years ago, when I, as
part of a group of four artists, went out
and took these photos, the city was
undergoing a major churning,” she says.
“We spoke to ordinary people and docu-
mented ways of life about to vanish for-
ever. It was our way of rooting art into the
geography of the city.”
Shanthamani, who originally trained
as a painter, is best known for her power-
ful sculptural installations. At the 2014
Kochi-Muziris Biennale, she created
Backbone, a massive spinal column made
of cement and cinder, and laid it on the
premises of Aspinwall House in Fort
Kochi. The intimate realities of the
body—the pair of hands with which we
create and destroy all the time—recur in
Shanthamani’s art.
She extends these themes on to Past
Continuous too, except that this is ren-
dered over two dimensions, on the vir-
tual reality of screens. And instead of the
human body, it dissects the anatomy of a
metropolis.
As the race to reinvent Bengaluru into
from their 2012 self-titled album. On the
same show, the intrepid DJ introduced
me to another Melbourne band, Spiri-
tual Mafia, which plays alternative rock.
Their debut album, Alfresco, is out this
year and Rollins played the first track,
Lunch. The band’s staple alt-rock instru-
ments (guitars and drums) are comple-
mented with spacey synths and turnta-
ble scratching and though their sound is
nowhere near what you would likely call
spiritual, it can be strangely calming.
Next, he spun a track by yet another
band unknown to me: Sweeping Prom-
ises—a Boston punk band fronted by
bassist and vocalist Lira Mondal, a sec-
ond-generation Bangladeshi-American
who grew up on a musical diet of Lata
Mangeshkar and ABBA, which her
immigrant parents were fond of, before
being influenced by acts such as Mazzy
Star and Portishead. Mondal and her
band record in a concrete underground
“lab” and their sound has a uniqueness
because it is usually recorded with just
one microphone.
While new bands are the big bonus of
Rollins’ shows (with his pithy but highly
useful descriptions adding spice), he
frequently peppers the shows with
older music. On 5 June, he played Real
World from the English punk band
Buzzcocks’ second album, Love Bites,
which was first released in 1978.
If you think punk or alternative rock
is Rollins’ only thing, it isn’t. A few
tracks after Buzzcocks, Rollins played
Heaven, Hell Or Houston. Followers of
the blues rock band ZZ Top will know
IMAGE COURTESY THE ARTIST
India’s Silicon Valley intensified, it
opened up conflicts about notions of
belonging, growth and modernity. “I had
a studio in Koramangala village in the
early 2000s. That area did not have a
road for a long time,” Shanthamani
recalls. “But soon after a road was built
there, the locals dug it up to create the
firebed on which they did their ritual
fire-walking before the temple nearby.”
Moments of change and resistance such
as these provoked some fundamental
questions: “Who are we building this city
for?”, “What does it meant to inhabit
Bengaluru collectively, as part of a heter-
ogenous and expanding community?”
Such queries are also addressed by the
show, archly and gently, its accent shift-
ing from frame to frame. In one work, for
instance, a model of Hanuman, the mon-
key god, is juxtaposed against a billboard
advertising a newspaper meant for
“young minds”, the latter represented by
a young woman. In another, a video foot-
age, the camera looms over a woman’s
hands swiftly making incense sticks as
she sits at a street corner. Shanthamani
weaves in subtle and overt references to
the history of Bengaluru—pre-colonial,
British, and beyond—to build some sense
of cultural coherence into the map of the
city.
From the coming of electricity to the
Kolar region in 1905 to the figurines wor-
shipped during bombe habba (the festival
of dolls), to the coexistence of colonial
and brutalist architecture along Cubbon
Park, Past Continuous is keen to draw
attention to the multiplicity that inheres
in Bengaluru’s identity as a modern
metropolis. This is not a project to
uphold any politics of insularity but,
rather, an attempt to reveal the complex-
ity of historical layers over which the city
stands.
Past Continuous is on display at Map-
india.org.
it’s from their 1981 album, El Loco. Ear-
lier this year, when alternative rock
stars Dinosaur Jr released their new
album, Rollins played them too on his
show.
What makes Rollins’ show a true
weekly gem is that it can help you dis-
cover new music. A few weeks ago, he
played an Israeli singer and guitarist
named Tamar Aphek. She is a trained
classical musician from Tel Aviv but was
besotted by rock music after listening to
post-hard-core bands such as Fugazi
and The Jesus Lizard. Aphek crossed
over to rock and her debut album,
released this year, is titled All Bets Are
Off. She calls her genre of music “jazz &
roll” and her album is a curious rendez-
vous of bop and heavy rock.
Rollins is a man of many parts. In
addition to his solo projects, he has col-
laborated with musicians such as Iggy
Pop, The Flaming Lips, and William
Shatner. Last year, during the early
months of the lockdown, he even did
two marathon episodes of another show
for KCRW, titled The Cool Quarantine,
featuring long-form, digital-only music
along with his personal stories, deep
cuts, rarities, bootlegs, full albums and
EPs. But in his regular weekly show, he
does the heavy lifting, searching for and
bringing us music we might not have
discovered without his help.
First Beat is a column on what’s new
and groovy in the world of music.
@sanjoynarayan

Meet India’s covid anti-vaxxers
Fears over efficacy,
WhatsApp forwards
and a blind belief in
alternative medicine
are dissuading some
from getting the jab
Pooja Singh
pooja.s@htlive.com
I
don’t know if you will believe it
but CBD (cannabidiol) oil helped
me fight covid-19,” Kumar Lal-
wani tells me over the phone
from Panvel, Maharashtra. The
cannabis activist “lives and breathes” the
Ayurvedic way of living.
When the 34-year-old contracted cov-
id-19 in September, he turned to the cen-
turies-old system of natural healing with-
out a second thought. The practice of
Ayurveda has long been encouraged to
slowly and steadily build a healthy body.
But its efficacy, or that of cannabis, against
a disease, let alone something as virulent
and novel as covid-19, isn’t really backed
by scientific data.
During the initial six days, Lalwani
stuck to a steady diet of water and sleep,
for “the liquid will flush out all the toxins
and eight-nine hours of shut-eye will help
fight diseases of all kinds”. The next six
were spent consuming five drops of CBD
oil every eight hours, sometimes mixed
with fruit juice. “By the 12th day, I was in
perfect condition. Our body is made to
consume only plant-based…natural prod-
ucts, not the synthetic stuff they (doctors)
pump into you,” insists Lalwani, an entre-
preneur-cum-photographer who quit a
corporate career nine years ago to dedi-
cate his life to promoting Ayurveda, yoga
and meditation. “The medicine industry
is only a few hundred years old. Ayurveda
has been around for thousands. I don’t
trust the medicine industry. I don’t under-
stand why people are taking the covid-19
injections. How can they even make them
(the vaccines) so fast?”
Lalwani is not the only Indian asking
this question. At a time when one of the
world’s biggest vaccination drives is
underway in India, some are still uncon-
vinced about the efficacy of the covid-19
vaccine, be it Covaxin, Covishield, Sputnik
V or any other. Many question the fast-
paced production of vaccines and the
speedy clinical trials. Some of the elderly
are fatalistic. Some trust WhatsApp for-
wards over the government’s message on
the jab. Their reasons for distrust are
based mostly on hearsay: One inevitably
hears stories about how someone they
knew contracted or even died from cov-
id-19 after the first or both doses. The gov-
ernment’s endorsement of some Ayurve-
dic and homeopathic remedies has only
given a fillip to such opinions. It tried to
invest in homoeopathy cures too but so far
Fear and triumph on Everest
Mountaineer Jim
Davidson nearly lost his
life in the 2015 avalanche
on Mount Everest. Two
years later, he returned
to attempt the summit
The Next Everest:
By Jim Davidson, Pan
Macmillan India,
416 pages, ₹699.
Vaccine hesitancy may well be due in part to a lack of effective communication; and (below) a health worker being vaccinated in Delhi in May.
only allopathy has shown the potential to
fight the virus.
“The vaccine is the only effective tool
against this notorious virus. People need
to overcome their fears and anxieties and
get vaccinated. Home remedies and Ayur-
veda won’t give any such protection,” says
Vivek Nangia, principal director and head
(pulmonology) at Max Hospital in Saket,
Delhi. When it comes to the quick produc-
tion of vaccines, doctors explain the roles
of technological advancement, interna-
tional cooperation and procedures being
fast-tracked given the urgency of the situ-
ation. “People getting covid-19 (after the
vaccine) could be because of underlying
conditions,” explains Dr Nangia.
But all such arguments tend to fall on
deaf ears.
“There are also people who think that
since they have grown old they don’t need
any vaccine,” rues Dr Nangia. “But I would
request everyone to come forward.”
Urmila Rana is one of these people. The
67-year-old homemaker from Faridabad,
Haryana, is the only one in her family yet
to get the vaccine. “Sab bhagwan bharose
hai… jeena marna woh hi decide karta hai.
Aur iss umar main vaccine ki kya zaroorat
hai? Hum bachche hain kya (It’s all in God’s
hands. God decides who lives and who dies.
And at this age, who needs a vaccine? Are we
children)?”
A 75-year-old farmer in Uttarakhand, a
retired government employee, says: “Kya
apko pata hai madamji uss injection main
yeh log wohi kidda dalte hain (Do you know
Shail Desai
F
our decades after he had first spotted
Mount Everest in a book, American
mountaineer Jim Davidson, now 58,
landed at the base of the mountain.
On 25 April 2015, he set off for the sum-
mit in the dead of night with his guide,
Pasang Kami Sherpa, and soon entered
the Khumbu Icefall. As the first rays lit up
the world of ice and snow, they reached
the site where 16 workers had been killed
a year earlier. Davidson kept calm as he
negotiated the terrain of gaping crevasses
and towering seracs. Five hours after start-
ing from base camp, they reached Camp 1.
It was time to catch some rest.
Davidson had just about settled into his
tent when he heard a rumble, getting
louder by the second. Avalanches tumbled
from the slopes. Before the trained geolo-
gist could gather his bearings, his tent had
been tossed in the air, a momentary hang
time, before dropping back to the ground.
Then it struck him—he had just experi-
enced an earthquake at 19,700ft.
“When my tentmate and I scrambled
outside, we couldn’t actually see the ava-
lanches due to midday clouds. It made the
situation even scarier. I thought we may
be dead in another minute when the
debris overran our camp. Images of my
wife and children flashed through my
mind but I tried to focus on doing every-
thing I could to increase my chances of
survival,” Davidson says.
The 7.8-magnitude quake that wreaked
havoc across Nepal in 2015 had made its
presence felt on Everest. His dream was
over in a flash. The experience tormented
him even when he was back in the US. It
took a massive effort to return to the
mountain two years later and finally climb
it. It’s a journey that he painstakingly
reveals in the book The Next Everest.
VANTAGE
they put the covid-19 virus in the injection)?”
He’s referring to a standard process fol-
lowed in creating attenuated vaccines,
which contain genetically weakened
viruses so that they create a protective
immune response.
“Such vaccines are commonly used in
smallpox, chickenpox, measles. These
viruses or bacteria are introduced simply
to encourage the body to create antibodies
and memory immune cells. They abso-
lutely don’t cause any disease,” clarifies
“A small part of me was disappointed
but it was not hard to brush that aside
quickly. During the disaster, survival was
paramount. And helping Nepal was far
more important than any recreational
climb,” he says.
It was what life had taught him. Even
before he approached his first mountain
in 1982, Davidson had taken to heights
while assisting his father with outdoor
painting jobs. During one climb up the
side of a church, he was handed his first
important piece of advice: “Focus on the
climb, not the drop.” Another time, he was
left gasping for breath while cleaning a
sewage treatment chamber. He experi-
enced his first tragedy as a graduate stu-
dent, losing his climbing partner, Mike
Price, in a crevasse fall on Mount Rainier.
Survivor’s guilt gnawed at him but he
eventually got back to climbing.
“Over time, I came to understand that I
could honour him by living a full life—
helping others when I could and striving
to be a good teammate, both on and off the
Yoga, meditation and a
balanced diet can help
build immunity but so far
the only scientifically proven
way to fight the covid-19
virus is the jab
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY JIM DAVIDSON
mountain. These commitments let me
reshape the trauma into post-traumatic
growth to fuel climbing and my life in
good ways,” he says.
It took him to the Khumbu valley in
Nepal, the home of Everest, for the first
time in 1992. The climbs continued and in
2009, he scaled Cho Oyu, the sixth high-
est mountain in the world, and the highest
he had climbed till then.
By 2014, the plan to attempt Everest had
taken shape. But there he was, a year later,
his plans wrecked. He knew there would
be aftershocks and that the immediate
need was to get off the mountain. “My two
degrees in geology helped me have a real-
istic assessment of the dangers and after-
effects. Once the tremors stopped, I had a
good idea about the size and frequency of
the aftershocks we could expect. Though
the insights were quite scary, I was able to
share the information with our expedition
leaders, which helped them make critical
decisions. In every emergency, it is impor-
tant to be realistic as well as optimistic.”
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM GETTY IMAGES
Manoj Goel, director (pulmonology), at
the Fortis Memorial Research Institute in
Gurugram, Haryana.
No amount of explanation will convince
the Uttarakhand resident, though. After
trying to persuade me not to get vacci-
nated by forwarding WhatsApp messages
(“You will die after taking the vaccine,”
one read), he offers the example of
Mahatma Gandhi, who was a vocal oppo-
nent of Western medicine and believed
that vaccination was “sacrilege”.
(left) Everest base camp; and Jim Davidson (left) and P.K. Sherpa on the Everest summit
on 22 May 2017.
A helicopter evacuated them to base
camp a couple of days later. Every
moment thereon was dedicated to lending
a hand. He helped dig through debris to
recover supplies, carried dead climbers in
a tarp and got together with his team to
rebuild homes in a village.
Once back in Kathmandu, Davidson
had a good look at himself. The many
weeks in the mountains, and the trauma,
had given him a deep sunken look. It had
taken a toll on his psyche.
But there was still work to be done.
Once home, he appeared in interviews to
raise awareness about the tragedy and
showed up at fund-raisers for Nepal. “It
was difficult to repeatedly narrate the ter-
rifying story, recreating it in the book was
even more emotionally trying. But I want
people to know what the deadliest day on
Everest was like. From every situation,
good or bad, we can distil some knowledge
or wisdom to carry with us for the next
challenge or opportunity ahead. We must
always seek to become more resilient for
the next Everest in life,” he says.
A year later, Davidson heard that his
teammates had climbed Everest. There
was a burning desire to chase his own
dream one last time. He spoke to family
SATURDAY, 19 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU 11
Vaccine hesitancy is not new in India.
When the smallpox vaccine was intro-
duced in the early 19th century, many
resisted it, including Gandhi. He went on
to write in a 1913 article in the Indian Opin-
ion newspaper: “Vaccination seems to be
a savage custom. It is one of the poisonous
superstitions of our times the equal of
which is not to be found even among so
called primitive societies…. is a filthy rem-
edy. Vaccine from an infected cow is intro-
duced into our bodies; more, even vaccine
from an infected human being is used…. I
personally feel that in taking this vaccine
we are guilty of a sacrilege.”
“When Gandhiji didn’t believe, why
should we? It’s all in God’s hands,” the
farmer insists, looking towards the sky
during the video call. “My family also
doesn’t understand my thinking.”
‘I TRUST WHATSAPP’
On 23 May, a father of three in Ladakh
received a news story link via WhatsApp.
It was an article in which a supposed
researcher claims that people who take
the vaccine will die in two-three years. He
immediately forwarded the message to his
family group. Half an hour later, all the
nine relatives in the group got on a video
call and decided against vaccination. The
article turned out to be fake but they are
“too scared” to get vaccinated.
“I trust WhatsApp. And the article looks
legitimate. The vaccine is just not safe,”
the first recipient of the article, who
doesn’t wish to be named, says. He asks
the same question as other anti-vaxxers:
“How were they able to make it so quickly?
There’s still no cure for HIV, cancer. How
come covid-19 vaccine is here so soon?”
Perhaps the problem here is a lack of
effective communication. One of the big-
gest reasons for the quick development of
covid-19 vaccines is that the entire world’s
medical community worked together
simultaneously using the same sources of
information. “Plus approvals happened
quickly. And you can’t really compare dis-
eases. We should be thankful that this mir-
acle happened. It’s quite unfortunate that
in our country fake news travels faster
than real,” says Dr Goel.
Pratishtha Kaura keeps reminding her
retired father in Jalandhar, Punjab, of this.
He refuses to get the vaccine because he
“doesn’t trust the government”. “We have
had so many arguments but he prefers to
trust WhatsApp university,” says Kaura,
31. “He’s just too anxious about getting it,
and focuses on home remedies.”
Cannabis activist Lalwani suggests the
same thing. While explaining how most
illnesses are related to the stomach, he
offers the recipe for a spices-based kadha
that can fight almost all problems—again,
a home remedy not backed by data. “Med-
icines will make matters worse. Drink the
kadha with warm water. You will never
get any disease.”
The fact, however, remains that while
yoga, meditation and a balanced diet can
help build immunity, the only scientifi-
cally proven way so far to fight the cov-
id-19 virus is the jab.
and friends. “Although they worried about
me returning to climb the mountain, they
understood how I see challenges as a way
to refine myself into a better version of me.
So they supported me even if it entailed
some risk,” he says. “I take family photo-
graphs and messages with me on every
major climb to remind myself to be care-
ful, to endure whatever happens, and to
return home.”
Besides his own story, Davidson has
also worked to dispel misinformation
about Everest, issues such as crowding,
trash and human waste. He continues to
climb, though most times away from big
mountains and big expeditions. He has
made his peace with death, choosing to
live in the moment instead.
In today’s world of commercial expedi-
tions, climbing Everest has often been
trivialised. Those who have been there are
well aware of what’s it like to spend weeks
at base camp, getting the mind and body
ready for the job. And a few like Davidson
know that feeling of being caught smack
in the middle of a natural disaster, bracing
for the worst and embracing the good for-
tune of walking away with life.
Shail Desai is a Mumbai-based writer.
12 SATURDAY, 19 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU BUSINESS LOUNGE

Naveen Munjal
THE ELECTRIC EFFECT The managing director of Hero Electric Vehicles, riding high on last year’s sales, acknowledges worries
about charging infrastructure and servicing but remains bullish about the future of EVs
Illustration by Priya Kuriyan

Arun Janardhan

N
aveen Munjal points to the
guitar in the background as
a short-lived lockdown
pursuit. He had decided,
like many others, to add a
new skill during last year’s forced isolation
by learning an instrument. But a short
(online) stint with the school of music at
Last year was the
the University of California, Berkeley, US,
turned out to be too theoretical—Munjal
was keen on more practical lessons.
The guitar took a back seat as the man-
best for us.... Retail
aging director of Hero Electric Vehicles
Pvt. Ltd, a part of Hero Eco Group, turned
his attention to some other interests,
sales were higher
including an opportunity to teach, as he
continued to push sales online. The com-
pany’s sales grew by 16% in 2020-21 over
the previous year in spite of everything
than what we were
being shut in the early days of the pan-
demic-triggered lockdown, the supply
chain taking a hit and transportation
shipping.
being stalled owing to farmer protests in
north India later in the year.
The company, with an annual revenue
of over ₹300 crore from the sale of more
than 50,000 vehicles in 2020-21, man-
aged to boost its online sales—from a mere
700-1,000 vehicles a year over the earlier
five years to about 12,000 by the end of
last year. Munjal, 49, says they decided to
route digital sales also through their brick-
and-mortar dealer network to keep them
happy. To push online sales, the company
conducted webinars for consumers,
offered discounts and came up with a
three-day return policy.

So far, Hero Electric has

sold 350,000 EVs
through a network of
over 450 dealers and has
about 6,000 trained
mechanics

“We broke the shackles of competition

with a blended model,” says Munjal dur-
ing a Zoom call. “Last year was the best for
us—it began with a dip and then an
upward trend. In the last quarter of the
year, 8,500-9,000 units were being
shipped out month on month from the
plant (in Ludhiana, Punjab). Retail sales
were higher than what we were ship-
ping—we were disposing of inventory.
This year, our target is to double that.”
Munjal’s white shirt and salt-and-pep-
per beard blends with the monochromes
of the background—sofa, curtains and
cushions in combinations of black, white
and grey. He pauses for a moment before
answering questions, taking just a few sec-
onds before coming up with a flow of
detailed information. Munjal says he is not
someone who enjoys working from home,
even if “home” is a farmhouse in Delhi that
has family and four dogs. He misses
human interactions, gauging body lan-
guage. Their office opened briefly last
year, closing again when the second wave
of the pandemic started, though the fac-
tory, with a production capacity of 250
e-bikes a day, continues to operate.
Born in Ludhiana into the Munjal fam-
ily that owns the Hero brand, he went to
The Lawrence School, Sanawar, when he market expanded, most of the products ger a purchase, says Munjal. cles. Hero is pushing for expansion too, to course this summer on the future of EVs
was nine. Boarding school, he says, moved to lithium ion portable batteries. Consumers still worry about vehicle Favourite rock bands/ produce more than a million EV units over at the Masters’ Union School of Business
“pushes you to the boundary”. Once in The current portable lithium ion battery range. “They do think of what if I go far musicians the next five years. The company will in Gurugram, Haryana, diving deep into
college, in Ludhiana, he would go to the e-scooters are in the ₹46,000-72,000 and I lose charge,” he admits. Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Bob invest ₹700 crore over three-four years to preparation with a Harvard course on
factory for half a day to understand their range. In the midst of all this, in 2009, he In 2020-21, EV penetration, compared Dylan, Bruce Springsteen—’I have ramp up annual production capacity from tutoring. But the college shut after the
various businesses, absorbing everything became president of the newly formed to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehi- shot him live.’ the current 75,000 units to a million. second wave hit the National Capital
about bicycles, casting, chain-making, Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehi- cles, was less than 1% for two-wheelers— Munjal believes the EV category has to Region this March, leaving Munjal disap-
aluminium and forging. An MBA in inter- cles (Smev). “I continue to wear that hat for every 100 two-wheelers sold in the Favourite diving be a collaboration between manufacturers pointed. “I could have done it online but
national marketing from Huron Univer- because, I guess, no one wants the role,” country, less than one was an EV. Aware- location and technology partners. “There is so I wanted to interact with them—see their
sity in the UK followed. he says, smiling. ness of the advantages of EVs remains Maldives. ‘It’s so calming deep much R&D money spent in this sector. We body language, and for them to see mine,”
He then worked for around eight So far, Hero Electric has sold 350,000 poor in tier 3 cities and rural centres. Wor- down.’ are looking at acquisitions but the down- he says.
months in 1994 with Land Rover in the electric vehicles (EVs) through a network ries about the fact that these vehicles need side is, if you are married to a tech at this The other deep diving he does is of the
UK. “Once I finished (college), I was not in of over 450 dealers and has about 6,000 a dense charging infrastructure—availa- Dream bike point, then you are married to that. We literal kind. He tells me about the “craziest
the mood to come back (to India). Once trained mechanics. “We understood there ble at the grocery store, the chemist, etc.— BMW R 1250 want to keep options open at this point.” thing” he did once, diving 44m to a ship-
you get here, no matter what stage you is no charging infrastructure in India. So and the kind of roadside mechanics who He is relaxed about hobby options, wreck in the Maldives with an instructor.
start (in the family business), you are not we made our batteries portable—you can service ICEs, continue to dog sales. Bat- though. Besides the aborted attempt at When they came back up, he was
learning in the same manner because peo- take it to your apartment or office, charge tery disposal and recycling remain poten- learning the guitar, he started learning instructed not to tell anyone about the
ple will treat you as a boss. Any new mem- it and plug back for a range of 80-210km. tially hazardous. Four-wheeler EVs still about Artificial Intelligence while contin- daring descent.
ber in a family business should have expe- We made the battery uniform across the have fewer products, high prices, limited uing with his enduring interest in street “If the government finds out, you would
rience outside,” he says. product range. We learnt what’s working battery life and financing—only about 10% photography. “When I am stressed out or be banned for 10 years, she (the instructor)
By the time he returned to India—and only based on experience of failures of the of EVs get financing. stuck, I go into processing my millions of said. Those 10 years are over, so I can talk
the bicycle business—at the insistence of past,” says Munjal. “If I charge at home and Some factors will trigger mass adoption, pictures, listening to soft rock, and come about it,” he says, laughing. He also went
his parents, he found a well-run machin- don’t have to go to an external charging says Munjal. The gap in purchase price back to some level of normalcy,” he says. diving once with a shark in an open aquar-
ery that didn’t need much change. Tech- centre or swapping or fuel station, that between ICEs and EVs will narrow as bat- Munjal, who did a week-long, intense ium with 10 million gallons of water in
nically aligned, he wanted to diversify works well.” tery prices come down and performance course in photography with Jay Maisel in Kuala Lumpur—without realising that the
while not straying far from the industry. A The 2020 lockdown, with deserted improves. As of now, there’s a daunting New York in 2013, tells me about photo- tiger shark is not particularly fond of
trip to Las Vegas, US, in 1998 for a bicycle streets, cleaner air and a growing interest difference of about 40%. graphing a Danish couple on Brooklyn humans.
show ignited another spark—electric in cycling, may have propelled an interest Competition is building up. Ola Electric Bridge—the woman was terminally ill and For the head of India’s largest electric
bikes. in EVs. But while cost-effectiveness— is setting up what it claims will be the was fulfilling a dream of visiting New vehicle manufacturer, that came as an aft-
Hero launched electric cycles in whether it’s the initial purchase price world’s largest scooter manufacturing York. Munjal sent them the pictures and ershock.
2000-01, a failed venture that did not (especially for two-wheelers) or the run- facility in Tamil Nadu, Bajaj Auto, TVS found out much later that she had died.
explain or market the product well, he ning cost—may work in their favour, the Motor, new-age startups like Ather But his picture found a place on their bed- Arun Janardhan is a Mumbai-based
says. In 2007, they launched lead acid positive impact on the environment is still Energy, Okinawa Autotech and Ampere side table. journalist who covers sports, business lead-
based electric scooters; and by 2017, as the not considered important enough to trig- Vehicles are bringing in a range of vehi- He was most excited about teaching a ers and lifestyle.
LIVEMINT.COM NEWS SATURDAY, 19 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU 13

m MINT SHORTS
HT Media reports consolidated net
Adani slips
to third spot Markets remain shaky Dodla Dairy
share sale
profit of ₹19 crore in fourth quarter
New Delhi: HT Media Ltd has reported a consolidated net profit
of ₹19.09 crore for the quarter ended 31 March 2021. The com-
pany had posted a net loss of ₹188.72 crore for the same quarter
on Asia’s
rich list
on Fed rate hike fears subscribed
45.6 times
of the previous fiscal year and a profit of ₹9.43 crore in the quarter
ended 31 December 2020. Revenue from operations has declined FROM PAGE 16 Ashwin Ramarathinam
by 24.9% to ₹349 crore during this period compared with ₹465 ashwin.r@livemint.com
crore in the March 2020 quarter, HT Media said in a regulatory The accounts of Albula A faster-than-expected rise in global interest rates made investors cautious MUMBAI
filing. For the whole year 2020-21, HT Media reported a consoli- Investment Fund, Cresta Fund

T
dated loss of ₹64.4 crore. The company cut its losses from ₹344.5 and APMS Investment Fund he initial public offering
crore in the previous year. STAFF WRITER were frozen on or before 31 Nasrin Sultana (IPO) of Dodla Dairy was
HT Media is the publisher of the Hindustan Times and Mint May, according to the deposi- nasrin.s@livemint.com
Uncertainty looms oversubscribed by 45.62
Overall, Indian markets were down
newspapers. tory’s website, the report said. MUMBAI
nearly 1% this week, eroding investors’
times on the final day of the
Meanwhile, APMS Invest- wealth by ₹3.78 trillion. share sale, primarily driven by

ment Fund said in a statement
ShareChat earmarks $19.1 mn on Monday that NSDL’s entry
showed only a technical
for its first ESOP buyback account-level freeze, and that
MINT
its global trading operations
continue to run normally.
“The subject fund is not fro-
zen by any means and main-
tains full as well as normal trad-
ing operations globally,” it said.
Adani group, too, said in a
statement that as per a written
confirmation from the regis-
trar and transfer agent, the
demat accounts of the offshore
funds in which Adani shares
were held “are not frozen”.
Bengaluru: Mohalla Tech, the parent company behind In the past four days, Zhong’s
short video app Moj and homegrown social media platform net worth also dropped from
ShareChat, has announced its first employee stock owner- $71.2 billion to $63.5 billion
ship plan(ESOP) buyback programme worth $19.1 million after his firm Nongfu Spring’s
(about ₹140 crore). Close to 200 existing and former stock price fell 2.32%. However,
employees with vested options will be eligible to participate despite the Chinese billion-
as a part of this buyback. Mohalla Tech will be the sole aire’s decline in market value,
buyer in this buyback process. STAFF WRITER Adani could not hold on to the
second spot.
The rise in Adani’s wealth
India’s GDP likely to grow at a was driven by an aggressive
growth strategy that saw the
lower 8.7% in this fiscal: MOFS group expand its business
Hyderabad: Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd (MOFS) on through large acquisitions
Friday slashed its FY22 growth forecast for India to 8.7% from across the infrastructure
11.1% estimated in March, with the second wave of the pandemic domain.
expected to slow down economic recovery in the April-Septem-
ber 2021 period. “Due to the ferocious second covid wave, GDP
(gross domestic product) growth forecasts have been revised
down. Compared with MOFS March forecast of around 30%, the
firm now expects real GDP growth of 21% in the first quarter of Kumar steps back at Grofers
FY22, with some downward revision in the second quarter FY22
as well. However, as covid cases have dropped sharply in June,
some pent-up demand may be visible in the second half (October-
March) FY22 and first quarter of FY23,” it said.
Tarush Bhalla
tarush.b@livemint.com
ASIT RANJAN MISHRA BENGALURU
A
lmost eight years after
RBI has acted to smoothen starting online grocer
Grofers, co-founder
impact of second wave: Jain Saurabh Kumar is leaving the
I
ndian markets were volatile on Friday as retail investors.
53,100 52,474.76
investors turned cautious following a (Previous close) The IPO received bids for
faster-than-expected increase in global 52,344.45 388.10 million shares against
interest rates, swinging 2% before end-
52,800
(Close)
the 8.51 million shares on offer,
52,500
ing the session with marginal gains. according to data available
SENSEX
The BSE Sensex was up 21.12 points or 52,200 with the exchanges.
0.04% at 52,344.45 while the Nifty edged 51,900 The portion meant for qual-
8.05 points or 0.05% lower at 15,683.35. 52,484.34 ified institutional buyers was
51,600 (Open)
“Weak global cues led Indian equities to see subscribed 84.88 times, non-
profit booking in the last couple of days. A 51,300 institutional investors by 73.26
9.15am 3.30pm
depreciating rupee, higher oil prices and The Nifty edged 8.05 points or 0.05% times and that of retail inves-
Source: Bloomberg
inflation could be near-term overhangs for lower at 15,683.35 on Friday. MINT tors by 11.34 times.
the market. Nifty corrected around 0.8% The IPO consists of a fresh
for the week as the slight hawkish stance of multiples is inevitable whenever global orderly. The team expects 10-year IGB issue of up to ₹50 crore and an
the Federal Reserve in the latest FOMC liquidity and Fed action tightens, the big- yields to rise gradually from current levels offer for sale of 10,985,444
(Federal Open Market Committee) meet- ger compression could coincide with the to 6.5% and 6.75% by end of FY22 and shares by existing investors of
ing weighed on sentiments,” Indian government bond FY23, respectively, as RBI starts normaliz- the company, including the
said Binod Modi, head strat- Analysts said with tightening which is likely to ing policy,” it said. promoters and private equity
egy, Reliance Securities. US inflation rising be gradual over the next 24 With foreign institutional investors investor TPG Capital.
Overall, markets were to 5%, global months. A full blown contrac- pumping in $8 billion into Indian equities The net proceeds of the
down nearly 1% this week, markets may tion in multiples might not so far in 2021, benchmark indices have issue will be utilized for repay-
eroding investors’ wealth by occur until there is a hit to risk been hitting record highs. Domestic insti- ing certain borrowings availed
become jittery,
₹3.78 trillion. Analysts said appetite from an external tutional investors, including mutual funds, by the company.
with inflation in the US rising putting pressure shock or panic event, it said. pension funds and banks, have been net Also on Friday, the IPO of
to 5%, global financial mar- on the rupee UBS said that while global sellers of Indian shares worth ₹12,752.87 hospital chain Krishna Insti-
kets may become jittery, cre- liquidity factors (and Fed crore this year so far, while offloading tute of Medical Sciences Ltd
ating pressures on the Indian action) matter, it is keeping an ₹2,784.5 crore in June alone. (KIMS) sailed through success-
rupee. The US Federal Reserve’s hint of eye on factors closer to home, such as RBI’s “Domestic retail direct investment has fully with a subscription of
policy normalization is expected to hit for- move, Indian government bond move- picked up significant momentum over the 3.86 times. The IPO received
eign fund flows, which have been driving ments, and household savings. “Our fixed last couple of years which can cushion the bids for 55.66 million equity
emerging markets like India. income strategist believes that while there markets against any FII outflows,” said shares against 14.41 million
According to UBS analysts, while some are growing inflation/policy normalization Rupen Rajguru, head, equity investments equity shares on offer, as per
impact on India price-to-earnings (PE) risks, rise in IGB yields should be quite and strategy at Julius Baer. data available with the NSE.
Centrum-BharatPe to Paytm to issue
₹12,000 crore
take over PMC Bank fresh equity
FROM PAGE 16 als at ₹1,000 per account for six shares in IPO
months, which was gradually
trum has complied with the relaxed to ₹100,000 in June
conditions laid down as part of last year.
the in-principle approval. PMC Bank had total deposits
FROM PAGE 16

BLOOMBERG
company.
In an email to employees,
Kumar said he will no longer
be involved in the company’s
day-to-day functions, but will
continue to be a shareholder
and board member.
“When I look back at what
we have achieved in this short
time, I can only feel proud.
You should too. We have gone
through a fair share of ups and
downs, but we always faced
New Delhi: Asserting that the second wave of covid-19 has them together and came out
posed some challenges, RBI deputy governor M.K. Jain on stronger. This is because of
Friday said both the central bank and the government have your hard work and many sac-
taken steps to mitigate its impact.”[P]reliminary data suggest rifices you have made. When-
that in terms of CRAR that has been improved upon, the prof- ever we had our backs to the
itability has been improved upon, provision coverage ratio wall, your strength and sup-
that has also been improved over the previous year, and the port gave me courage [...] I
gross NPA as well as net NPA has come down,” he said. PTI haven’t known a life outside
Grofers. Most of my learning
and growing up has happened
Price band for India Pesticides’ IPO here,” Kumar wrote.
“I have been reflecting on
opening 23 June fixed at ₹290-296 my life and personal ambitions
Mumbai: India Pesticides Ltd has fixed a price band of ₹290-296 for some time. And my deci-
apiece for its initial public offering (IPO) that will open on 23 sion to step away is the out-
June. The company aims to raise ₹800 crore, comprising a fresh come of that. I want to wander
issue of ₹100 crore and an offer for sale of ₹281.40 crore by chair- again,” he wrote.
person Anand Swarup Agrawal and ₹418.60 crore by other share- Co-founder and chief exec-
holders and promoters. Axis Capital Ltd and JM Financial Ltd are utive Albinder Dhindsa called
lead managers to the issue. Proceeds from the IPO will be used Kumar’s exit the “end of an
for funding working capital requirements. RAVINDRA N. SONAVANE era” for Grofers.
Saurabh Kumar, co-founder of Grofers.
“Incredibly humble and
grounded, he (Kumar) has
always reminded me of how
fortunate I was to be building
Grofers with him, in a zone of
no ego and no second guess-
ing. SK is not only my
co-founder, he is my friend,
my support system during
upheavals; the keeper of my
conscience, and a brother and
family to me,” Dhindsa wrote
in a company blog.
Dhindsa also wrote that over
the past six months, Kumar
had been yearning to invest in
his own personal evolution—
to grow beyond a growth
driver to become a designer,
enabler and coach.
“Diving deeper has con-
vinced him that this is another
area he can have a huge impact
on, if he can build on it from
scratch. I know SK has been
pulling the weight on most of
our sprints, but I also know
he’s a marathon runner, and
this time to go far, he must go
alone. I am fully supportive of
his decision. And wherever
that may lead him on his jour-
ney,” said Dhindsa.
Till date, Grofers has raised
close to $600 million across
multiple tranches and is
backed by large investors,
including Sequoia Capital
India, Tiger Global Manage-
ment and SoftBank.
For Grofers, order volumes
grew by 80% in 2020, as pan-
demic-induced lockdowns
forced consumers to resort to
online platforms for ordering
daily essentials.
It now operates across more
than 38 cities in India.
The new entity has to be oper-
ational in the next 120 days and
only when that is done, will the
RBI draft a scheme on amalga-
mation with PMC Bank. The
plan will then be sent to the gov-
ernment for approval and official
notification. Under Section 45 of
the Banking Regulation Act,
only a bank can be merged with
another and, therefore, the proc-
ess will start only once the small
finance bank is created.
“This in-principle approval
has been accorded in specific
pursuance to the Centrum
Financial Services Ltd’s offer
dated 1 February in response to
the expression of interest noti-
fication dated 3 November
2020 published by the Punjab
and Maharashtra Co-operative
Bank Ltd, Mumbai,” RBI said.
The primary difference
between a universal bank and a
small finance bank is the pres-
ence of certain lending stipula-
tions for the latter. While a uni-
versal bank can lend freely, a
small finance bank has to
largely focus on priority sector
and small ticket loans.
After seizing PMC Bank, RBI
initially capped cash withdraw-
of ₹10,727.11 crore and total
advances of ₹4,472.78 crore as
on 31 March 2020. Its gross
non-performing assets were at
₹3,519 crore in FY20, up from
₹315 crore in FY19, according to
its website.
The RBI move comes as a
relief to depositors of the coop-
erative bank, whose funds have
been stuck for close to two
years now. They had moved
court against the RBI and held
numerous protests outside the
central bank’s offices, hoping
their voice would be heard.
To be sure, in the case of
cooperative banks, RBI’s hands
have been tied to some extent.
Before the government
granted more powers to RBI in
June 2020, cooperative banks
were under dual control of both
the central bank and either the
state or Union government.
The central bank had
acknowledged in September
last year that factors such as
huge losses incurred by PMC
Bank that led to its entire net
worth getting wiped out and
steep erosion in deposits, pose
serious challenges in finding a
workable revival plan.
lead book running managers to
the IPO.
Mint first reported on 31 May
that Paytm was looking to raise
$1-1.5 billion by selling new
shares to qualified institutional
buyers. Through the primary
and secondary share sales, the
company would be looking to
raise slightly more than $3 bil-
lion through the IPO, a person
aware of the discussions said.
“The upcoming issue of fresh
shares will be solely to infuse
primary capital in the com-
pany. There will be a secondary
offer as well, where existing
investors would offer their
shares,” the person said on con-
dition of anonymity.
The company has about
1,000 shareholders, broadly
held by various institutional
investors, employees, former
employees and others.
The notice also proposed
removing founder Vijay She-
khar Sharma’s ‘promoter’ sta-
tus, complying with Securities
and Exchange Board of India
(Sebi) rules requiring promot-
ers of listed firms to have at
least 20% of post-issue capital.
Currently, Sharma holds
9,051,624 equity shares of
One97 Communications,
amounting to 14.61% of its total

RateGain eyes ₹1,200 cr IPO Single platform Post US Federal Reserve meet, paid-up equity share capital.
Sharma will continue as man-
to soon host all aging director.

FROM PAGE 16 globe. So, they are well insulated

the third Indian company from
the travel sector to seek a public
listing, at a time the industry
hopes to emerge from the pan-
demic on the back of mass vac-
cination programmes globally.
Low-fare carrier Go Airlines
(India) Ltd of the Wadia Group
filed its draft prospectus with
the market regulator last
month for an initial share sale
to raise up to ₹3,600 crore.
Online travel portal ixigo also
aims to go public and is
expected to raise ₹750 crore
through a primary issue of
shares as part of its
₹1,500-1,800 crore IPO
expected later this fiscal, Mint
reported on 24 May.
Online travel portal Ease-
MyTrip (Easy Trip Planners
Ltd) raised ₹510 crore through
its IPO in March.
The International Air Trans-
port Association (Iata) in May
said global domestic travel
demand improved in April 2021
RateGain joins a host of tech
firms that plan to list on Indian
exchanges in the coming months.
compared with the prior
month, though it remained well
below pre-pandemic levels,
even as global passenger travel
continues to struggle because of
government-imposed travel
curbs.
China’s domestic traffic
returned to pre-crisis levels of
growth, it said, adding that the
US domestic market is expected
to make a full recovery by the
end of this year or early 2022.
“RateGain serves travel and
hospitality providers across the
from the impact of the second
covid wave here in India. With
vaccinations picking up, espe-
cially in the West, demand for
travel and hospitality will bounce
back strongly and companies
such as RateGain will benefit
from that. We have already seen
a few budget airlines list in the US
in the past few months. So inves-
tor demand for the sector is
clearly coming back,” the second
person mentioned above said on
condition of anonymity.
Emails sent to RateGain and
TA Associates remained unan-
swered till press time.
With its IPO plans, RateGain
also joins several tech firms that
plan to list on Indian stock
exchanges in the coming
months. These include Paytm
and Zomato, which plan to
raise around ₹22,000 crore
and ₹8,250 crore, respectively.
Others in queue include insur-
ance marketplace PolicyBazaar
and financial services provider
MobiKwik.
academic jobs
FROM PAGE 16
staff after the QS World Univer-
sity ranking was announced,
IIT-Delhi director V. Ramgopal
Rao highlighted how getting
quality faculty is a challenge and
how his institution is doing its
best. Also, talking about its rela-
tively not so high score in QS
rankings in the teacher-student
ratio, he wrote: “please note,
older IITs added 2,500 students
in the last two years because of
the EWS quota implementation.
So, we took a hit on this for rea-
sons beyond our control”.
“The UGC initiative needs
political and academic willing-
ness...to hire more and pay in
time to be successful... Only
creating a digital platform will
not solve any problem. The
education sector, like health-
care, needs more funding,”
said a Delhi University profes-
sor seeking anonymity.
gold takes a tumble in India
FROM PAGE 16
it gained around $16 later in
the day to more than $1,792. A
troy ounce is equivalent to
31.1gm.
Despite a strong rebound in
international prices, insuffi-
cient demand has taken the
sheen out of the yellow metal
in India, at least for now.
While investors are cautious
in a volatile market, gold
retailers are not unduly per-
turbed.
“Any gold price fall acts as a
trigger for more purchases by
customers. There are two
types of customers when the
price falls. The first kind
rushes to the market to buy
more gold. The other waits
for another fall before firming
up the purchase decision,”
said T.K. Ramesh, promoter
and executive director, Kal-
yan Jewellers Ltd.
“The board of directors of the
firm is informed that it has
received a letter from the founder
(Sharma), on declassification of
As lockdowns in states such lockdown, we saw a lot of his status as promoter [...] the
as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and young customers make a gold founder does not exercise any
Kerala are still in force, either purchase at our showrooms control over affairs of the firm
partially or fully, the gold as they found gold as a liquid and that the board is not accus-
retail market has yet to see a asset. We also witnessed high tomed to act solely in accordance
revival. Many jewellery show- growth in first-time custom- with any advice, directions or
rooms are still to reopen even ers,” said Ramesh. instructions given by him. The
after the lifting of Also, in the involvement of the founder in the
lockdowns in As with almost gold retailing management and affairs of the
some markets, every part of the market, there has firm is limited to his professional
according to global market, been a visible capacity as an executive director
industry officials. global prices, too, shift from the and currently as managing
Industry offi-
are impacted by unorganized sec- director,” the notice said.
cials are, how- tor to the orga- Paytm declined to comment
ever, upbeat the decision on nized. on Mint’s queries on the matter.
about gold as a US interest rates “People want Another proposal pertains to
fundamentally to avoid crowded amendments to One97
strong asset class markets and pre- Employee Stock Option
“Price volatility does not fer standalone showrooms. Scheme 2019 and its Employee
impact our P&L (profit and Also, strict BIS hallmarking Stock Option Scheme 2008, to
loss) because we have hedged rules have forced many to comply with Sebi’s listing rules.
our gold adequately,” said move away from unorganized “The amendment in ESOP may
Ramesh. gold sellers,” said Ramesh. be cosmetic changes to comply
“Indian customers look for The government has made with Sebi rules. Grant price and
long-term gains and they it mandatory for jewellers to vesting period and pool size is
know gold has always given a sell only hallmarked jewellery expected to remain unchanged,”
return. Soon after the first from 16 June. said the person cited above.
14 SATURDAY, 19 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU NEWS LIVEMINT.COM

IT rules not in sync

with human rights
Twitter pledges to work with Air India to
sell realty
norms: UN experts govt to guard citizens’ rights assets for up
to ₹300 cr
Prasid Banerjee
prasid.b@livemint.com Rhik Kundu
NEW DELHI rhik.k@livemint.com
Rule of the land will be supreme, the parliamentary standing committee on IT tells Twitter NEW DELHI

I
ndia’s new information tech-

N
nology (IT) rules do not con- ational carrier Air India
form with global human Prasid Banerjee Ltd is offering to sell
rights norms, experts from the
United Nations have said.
prasid.b@livemint.com
NEW DELHI
UP Police several properties,
including offices, flats, and staff
In a communication sent to
summons quarters at major metropolises

T
the government on 11 June, witter on Friday pledged to as the cash-strapped airline
three special rapporteurs from work with lawmakers and the makes a renewed attempt for
the UN expressed “serious con- The traceability rule is the key government to safeguard free- Twitter MD such divestments this fiscal.
cerns” with certain parts of the conflict between encrypted dom of expression and protect The airline has put up several
legislation and said that “due platforms such as WhatsApp, “the public conversation” in PTI properties in cities such as New
diligence obligations” placed and the Indian government. AFP India amid continuing controversy over feedback@livemint.com Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata,
on intermediaries may lead to posts on the social media platform. GHAZIABAD Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Men-
“infringement of a wide range the significant social media Twitter officials appeared before the galuru, Nashik, and Nagpur,

T
of human rights”. intermediary will be required parliamentary standing committee on he Ghaziabad according to a tender posted on
The communication dated 11 to disclose as to who started the information technology (IT) to face ques- Police has sent a its website on Friday.
June, which is publicly availa- message,” the government tions on its response to the government’s notice to Twitter These properties include
ble on the UN’s website, was wrote in its response. new IT rules. India managing director residential units at New Delhi’s
penned by Irene Khan, special The traceability rule is the The committee, headed by Congress Manish Maheshwari, Asian Games Village Complex,
rapporteur on the promotion central conflict between lawmaker Shashi Tharoor, told the com- asking him to join a flats at Bandra’s Pali Hill neigh-
and protection of the right to encrypted platforms such as pany that the “rule of the land” will be probe in connection bourhood, flats at Kolkata’s
freedom of opinion and expres- WhatsApp, and the Indian gov- supreme and not Twitter’s internal poli- with the case involving Golf Green locality, and the air-
sion, Clement Nyaletsossi ernment. The platforms, which cies, PTI reported. an assault on a Muslim line’s booking office at Nagpur,
Voule, special rapporteur on use end-to-end encryption to The appearance was part of the com- man in Ghaziabad ear- among others.
the right to free- ensure user pri- mittee’s routine consultations with the lier this month, officials The e-auction closes on 9
dom of peaceful In response to the vacy, have argued industry. said Friday. He has been July. News agency Press Trust
assembly and of letter, the govt that they will have The agenda, according to Parliament’s The microblogging giant has been involved in a tussle over the government’s asked to appear at the of India has reported that the
association, and told the UN that to read, track and website, was “to hear the views of repre- intermediary guidelines announced in February. ISTOCK Loni Border police sta- airline plans to raise ₹200 crore
Joseph Canna- the IT rules are trace all user mes- sentatives of Twitter followed by evidence tion here within seven to ₹300 crore from its asset
taci, special rap- sages to reach the of representatives of the ministry of elec- involved in a tussle over the government’s the IT Act. days to get his statement monetization plan.
porteur on the
designed to
first originator of tronics and information technology intermediary guidelines announced in The government has said on several recorded in the case in Air India’s attempt to mone-
right to privacy. empower users offensive texts. (MeitY) on the subject of safeguarding citi- February. The guidelines require social occasions that Twitter is in non-compli- which an FIR was tize its land assets comes at a
In response to of social media The letter by zens’ rights and prevention of misuse of media platforms such as Twitter, Face- ance with these guidelines. lodged against the social time when the country’s econ-
the letter, the UN experts said social/online news media platforms, book, and WhatsApp to appoint nodal “There are numerous queries arising as media giant also, a sen- omy has been adversely
Indian govern- that terms such as including special emphasis to whether Twitter is enti- ior police official said. impacted by the covid-19 pan-
ment told the UN that the IT “racially or ethnically objec- on women security in the FACING SCRUTINY tled to safe harbour provi- “Manish Maheshwari demic. As such, it may be a chal-
rules are “designed to empower tionable”, “harmful to child”, digital space”. sion. However, the simple is the MD of Twitter lenge for the airline to raise a
users of social media” and that “impersonates another per- Twitter said in a statement, TWITTER officials THE appearance IT said it was ready to fact of the matter is that India and was sent a substantial amount of money
the government had held con- son”, “threatens the unity...of “We appreciate the opportunity appeared before the was part of the
panel to face queries committee’s routine
work with the panel in Twitter has failed to com-
line with its principles
notice yesterday under from property sales as the real
sultations with civil society and India”, “is patently false and to share our views before the on its response to consultations with of freedom of ply with the Intermediary CrPC section 166 seek- estate market has not yet recov-
other stakeholders in 2018. untrue”, “is published with the Standing Committee on Infor- the new IT rules the industry expression, privacy Guidelines that came into ing his cooperation in ered from the impact of cov-
It also said that the “tracea- intent to mislead or harass a mation Technology. Twitter effect from the 26th of the probe. Some other id-19, said a senior aviation ana-
bility of first originator” seeks person…” are overly broad and stands prepared to work with May,” IT minister Ravi details have been sought lyst with a foreign consultancy,
“only limited information”. “lack sufficiently clear defini- the committee on the important work of officers in key compliance positions, cre- Shankar Prasad tweeted on 16 June. from him and he has who’s been tracking the airline
“Only when a message already tions”. They also expressed sup- safeguarding citizens’ rights online in line ate automated processes for taking down “We are keeping MeitY apprised of been given seven days’ for some time. “The sales will
in public circulation is giving port for encryption services. with our principles of transparency, free- pornography, remove offending content the progress at every step of the process. time to appear at the depend on the valuation put up
rise to violence, impinging on India’s new IT rules are in dom of expression, and privacy.” within 36 hours of receiving a legal order, An interim chief compliance officer has local police station,” by the airline,” the person said,
the unity and integrity of India, violation of rules laid down in “We will also continue working along- and trace the originator of offending posts been retained and details will be shared superintendent of requesting anonymity.
depicting a woman in a bad the International Covenant on side the Indian government as part of our and messages. with the ministry directly. Twitter contin- police (Ghaziabad A senior official at Air India
light, or sexual abuse of a child Civil and Political Rights shared commitment to serve and protect Compliance with the guidelines is ues to make every effort to comply with Rural) Iraj Raja told said that he expected real estate
and when no other intrusive (ICCPR), a key human rights the public conversation,” it said. essential for platforms to enjoy safe har- the new guidelines,” Twitter had said at reporters Friday. sales to rise as the economy
options are working, only then treaty, according to the letter. The microblogging giant has been bour protections detailed in Section 79 of the time. picks up in the coming months.

100K youth Entrance test fee not subject to GST, clarifies CBIC 67% adults exposed
to be trained Gireesh Chandra Prasad
gireesh.p@livemint.com
any services procured by them
relating to admission, or con-
It has always been a grey area
to determine what annuity pay- to virus: sero survey
as frontline NEW DELHI duct of such examinations. This
clarification will lower the cost
ments pertain to construction
and what pertain to grant of
Neetu Chandra Sharma

F
ees paid by students to of such fees charged to millions access, said Jain. “As such, the same in both the age groups,”
workers various central and state
education boards, includ-
of students appearing for the
government exams every year,”
government can consider issu-
ing a further detailed clarifica-
neetu.s@livemint.com
NEW DELHI
he said.
Although children were
ing the National Board of said Rajat Mohan, senior part- tion on the subject matter and infected, they suffered very
Neetu Chandra Sharma

O
Examination (NBE), for tests ner at chartered accountants perhaps, contractors can ver 67% of adults in mild infections. Only isolated
neetu.s@livemint.com are not subject to goods and firm AMRG & Associates. clearly outline what part of India have been cases of infection may occur in
NEW DELHI services tax (GST), the govern- The NBE, at present, con- consideration pertains to con- exposed to the covid-19 children in the next covid-19
ment said. However, accredita- ducts examinations in over 70 struction and what pertains to virus, according to the latest wave, Paul said.

T
he central government
will train around
100,000 youth to
strengthen India’s healthcare
system to deal with the
expected third wave of corona-
virus infections.
In a new initiative for manag-
ing the pandemic, Prime Minis-
ter Narendra Modi on Friday
launched a ‘customized crash
course programme for covid-19
frontline workers’ via video
conferencing. The programme
will be conducted in 111 training
centres across 26 states.
Training will be imparted for
six customized job roles—
home care support, basic care
support, advanced care sup-
port, emergency care support,
sample collection support, and
medical equipment support. It
will involve fresh skilling as
well as upskilling initiatives.
“About 100,000 frontline
workers will be trained. Top
tion services provided by these
boards to educational institu-
tions are subject to tax.
In a set of clarifications, the
Central Board of Indirect Taxes
and Customs (CBIC) also said
deferred payments to builders
for construction of roads and
bridges called annuities are tax-
able. The clarifications issued
on Thursday are based on dis-
cussions at the 43rd GST Coun-
cil meeting.
CBIC clarified that for the
limited purpose of conducting
examinations, central and state
Govt proposes age-appropriate film certification
Lata Jha
lata.j@livemint.com
NEW DELHI
However, accreditation services provided by central and state
boards to educational institutions are subject to tax, CBIC said.
boards, including NBE, are
treated as educational institu-
tions, but not for the purpose of
granting accreditations.
Accordingly, GST is exempt on
any fee charged by them for
conducting examinations,
including entrance examina-
tions for admission to educa-
tional institutions. GST is also
exempt on services bought by
these boards for admission,
conducting examinations,
under 12 or U/A, and adult
films. Now, the government
seeks to subcategorize it into
age-based classification such as
result publication and printing
of admit cards and questions
papers. However, 18% GST
applies to services provided by
these boards such as providing
accreditation to an institution
or to a professional.
“The government has clari-
fied that GST shall neither be
charged on fees collected by
central or state boards for any
examinations, including
entrance examinations, nor on
may, if it considers it necessary, incitement to any offence.
direct the chairman of the
board to re-examine a particu- said the age-specific classifica-
lar film.
disciplines in medicine and has
HT accredited over 700 institu-
tions including hospitals in the
public and private sectors all
over the country.
The clarification on annuity
payments explains that tax
exemption has been provided
only in the case of such pay-
ments received for providing
access to roads and highways.
Where the payment is received
for construction of roads,
bridges or highways, it is not
exempt from GST, said
Abhishek Jain, tax partner at EY.
However, industry insiders
tion will add to the confusion in
access of road/ highways in
their agreements,” said Jain.
In a separate notification,
CBIC clarified that payments
received from a government
agency for construction of rope-
ways are taxable at 18%, not at
12%. CBIC also clarified that ser-
vices provided to an educational
institution, including pre-
schools and anganwadis, by way
of serving of food such as mid-
day meals are exempt from GST
irrespective of whether it is
funded by government grants
or corporate donations.
film on the behest of the Centre
“is yet another way of ensuring
control over creative expres-
sion”, he added
national serological survey con- As the government has
ducted by the World Health administered around 270 mil-
Organization (WHO) in associa- lion covid-19 vaccine doses so
tion with the All India Institute far, Paul citing scientific studies
of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). said that vaccination reduces
The survey chances of hospi-
findings released In rural areas, the talization in cov-
by the health seropositivity id-19 patients by
ministry on Fri- rate was 56% in 75-80%. “Studies
day showed that persons below 18 show that chances
more than half of
those below 18
years and 63% in of hospitalization
are 75-80% per-
years of age were persons above 18, cent less in vacci-
also infected. the survey said nated individuals.
“The seroposi- The possibility of
tivity rate was such individuals
found to be 67% in persons needing oxygen support is
above 18 and 59% in people around 8% and the risk of ICU
below 18 years of age. In urban admission is only 6% in vacci-
areas, the seropositivity rate was nated persons,” said Paul.
found to be 78% in persons Meanwhile, the Union
below 18 and 79% in those above health ministry on Friday also
18 years of age,” Dr V.K. Paul, asked all states and Union terri-
member-health, NITI Aayog. tories to ensure the safety and
“In rural areas, the seroposi- well-being of healthcare work-
tivity rate was 56% in persons ers, following reports of vio-
below 18 years of age and 63% lence against doctors and

experts of the country have
designed the six courses, as per
demands of the states and
Union territories. This cam-
paign will give fresh energy to
the health sector frontline force
and will also provide job oppor-
tunities to our youth,” he said.
Modi said the virus is still
present and there is a possibil-
ity of mutations. “The second
T
he ministry of informa-
tion and broadcasting
has proposed to intro-
duce the Cinematograph
(Amendment) Bill, 2021, to
make the process of certifying
films for theatrical releases
more effective, in view of the
changing times, and to curb the
menace of piracy. The Centre
has sought feedback from the
U/A 7+, U/A 13+ and U/A 16+. Under the proposed rules, the certification process and In April, the ministry of law in persons above 18. The infec- healthcare workers in Assam,
The move seems to be on a the ministry will have the will require effective execution and justice had abolished the tion was found to be almost West Bengal and Karnataka.
par with the new IT Rules on option to invoke on the ground. “It Film Certification Appellate
age-appropriate classification constitutional The govt seeks to could be a chal- Tribunal (FCAT), a statutory
of content for video streaming provisions to introduce lenge to distin- body, constituted via the Cine- CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS
platforms wherein content that impose reasona- subcategories guish content matograph Act, 1952, by the
can be watched by all has a U ble restrictions on such as U/A 7+, meant for 13 and ministry of information and Mint welcomes comments, suggestions or complaints about errors.
rating. Other ratings are U/A 7+ the freedom of 16 or above. If we broadcasting, to hear appeals of
U/A 13+ and U/A Readers can alert the newsroom to any errors in the paper by
, U/A 13+, and U/A 16+, besides speech and were making the applicants aggrieved by an
an A rating for content expression in the 16+ for age-based distinctions, film- order of the Central Board of emailing us, with your full name and address to
restricted to adults. interest of the sov- classification makers must also Film Certification (CBFC).
feedback@livemint.com.

wave illustrated the kind of
challenges that the virus may
present to us. India needs to
stay prepared to meet the chal-
lenges and training more than
100,000 frontline warriors is a
step in that direction.”
public by 2 July.
The Cinematograph Act,
1952, provides for the certifica-
tion of films under three cate-
gories—unrestricted public
exhibition or U, parental gui-
dance required for children
More importantly, while a
Karnataka high court order
said the central government
cannot exercise revisional pow-
ers for films already certified by
the censor board, the amend-
ment proposes that the Centre
ereignty and be given more lee- Another change the govern- It is our policy to promptly respond to all complaints. Readers
integrity of India, way when making ment seeks to make is to grant dissatisfied with the response or concerned about Mint’s journalistic
the security of the State, content that has already been certificates to films for perpetu- integrity may write directly to the editor by sending an email to
friendly relations with foreign classified as adult,” said a film- ity. According to the existing asktheeditor@livemint.com
States, public order, decency or maker, requesting anonymity. provisions of the Act, the certif-
Mint’s journalistic Code of Conduct that governs our newsroom is
morality or in relation to con- The proposal to have the icate issued by CBFC is valid available at www.livemint.com
tempt of court, defamation or board re-examine a particular only for 10 years.

FOR ANY QUERIES/DELIVERY ISSUES

CALL: 60004242, Monday-Saturday, 10am-6pm (Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune and Chandigarh) MAIL: delivery@livemint.com TO SUBSCRIBE: Give a missed call on 7039035039 or visit www.mintreaders.com or write to us at subscription@livemint.com

First published in February 2007 to serve as an unbiased and clear-minded chronicler of the Indian Dream.
SRUTHIJITH KURUPICHANKANDY (EDITOR); PUBLISHED/PRINTED BY DINESH MITTAL ON BEHALF OF HT MEDIA LTD, 18-20 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 110001
Printed at HT Media Ltd presses at •Plot No. 8, Udyog Vihar, Greater Noida, Distt Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh 201306; •MNSPrinters Pvt. Ltd, 345/4, Bhatrahalli, Near KR Puram RTO, Old Madras Road, Bangalore 560049; •Saraswati Print Factory Pvt. Ltd, 789, Chowbhaga (W), Near China Mandir, Kolkata 700 105; •MNSPrinters Pvt. Ltd, 76/1, Poonamallee High Road, Velappanchavadi, Chennai 600077; •
Bhaskar Print Planet, Survey No. 148P, Changodar Bavla Highway, Sanand (Tal), Distt Ahmedabad, Gujarat. •Jagati Publications Ltd, Plot No. D75 & E52, APIE Industrial Estate, Balanagar, Rangareddy Distt. Hyderabad 500037 *Also available in Chandigarh and Pune.
RNI Registration DELENG/2007/22485; Mint welcomes readers’ responses to all articles and editorials. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. Send in your views to the editor at letters@livemint.com. ©2021 HT Media Ltd All Rights Reserved
LIVEMINT.COM NEWS SATURDAY, 19 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU 15

CCI clears
stake sale in Beijing’s policy to rein in HT Media Limited
CIN: L22121DL2002PLC117874
Registered Office: Hindustan Times House, 2nd Floor, 18-20, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi - 110001, India

costs melts metal stocks

Tel: +91 11 66561608 Fax: +91 11 66561445

Magma HDI Email: corporatedept@hindustantimes.com Website: www.htmedia.in

(INR in Lakhs except earnings per share data)
Extract of audited Consolidated Financial Results for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2021
Gireesh Chandra Prasad Quarter ended Year ended
March 31, December 31, March 31, March 31, March 31,
gireesh.p@livemint.com Particulars 2021* 2020 2020* 2021 2020
NEW DELHI Audited Unaudited Audited & Audited Audited &
Revised** Revised**
Revenue from operations 34,907 34,074 46,484 111,729 208,260

T
he Competition Com- Net profit/(loss) for the period (before tax and/or exceptional items) 2,428 1,290 3,483 (10,319) 8,855
mission of India (CCI) has BSE Metal Index slumped 7.44% on speculation of rising supply from China Net profit/(loss) for the period before tax (after exceptional items)
Net profit/(loss) for the period after tax, non-controlling interest
2,111 1,290 (21,503) (10,636) (34,367)
cleared a stake sale in 1,589 326 (17,576) (7,084) (34,570)
and share in loss of joint venture (after exceptional items)
Magma HDI General Insurance Total comprehensive income/(loss) for the period [comprising profit/
Co. Ltd to Morgan Stanley, the Ravindra Sonavane (loss) for the period after tax, non-controlling interest and share in 1,534 501 (16,942) (6,661) (33,966)

Poonawalla Group, and entities ravindra.s@livemint.com Seeing red loss of joint venture and other comprehensive income (after tax)]
Paid-up equity share capital*** (Face Value - INR 2/- per share) 4,655 4,655 4,655 4,655 4,655
advised or managed by ICICI MUMBAI The correction in metal stocks this week Other equity excluding revaluation reserves as per the audited
- - - 204,318 210,892
came after China said it was releasing balance sheet
Venture.
Earnings/(Loss) per share (of INR 2/- each) (not (not (not

M
Magma HDI had in March etal stocks slumped on Fri- government reserves of metals soon.
annualised) annualised) annualised) - -
announced a ₹525 crore deal in day with the BSE Metal Change in a week (in %) Basic 0.69 0.14 (7.62) (3.07) (14.99)
Diluted 0.68 0.14 (7.62) (3.07) (14.99)
which fresh capital of ₹250 Index falling nearly 8% in a -6.5 LME Copper *Refer Note 5 below
crore was to be issued to private week as China stepped up -1.4 LME Aluminum **Refer Note 6 of Quarterly Consolidated Financial Results filed with Stock Exchange for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2021
equity funds advised or man- its efforts to control metal ***Includes Equity Shares of INR 44 Lakhs held by HT Media Employee Welfare Trust
-3.1 LMI Zinc Notes:
aged by ICICI Venture private prices that have seen a sharp surge since 1 The above is an extract of the detailed format of quarterly financial results filed with the Stock Exchanges under Regulation 33 of the SEBI
equity fund and to Morgan last year. -7.4 BSE Metal Index
(Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015. The full format of the quarterly financial results are available on
Stanley private equity fund. On the London Metal Exchange, cop- the Stock Exchange websites (www.bseindia.com and www.nseindia.com) and on the Company’s website “www.htmedia.in”.
-8.6 JSPL 2 The above consolidated financial results for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2021 were reviewed and recommended by the Audit
The deal also involved a sec- per, aluminium, and zinc dropped 6%, 2% Committee and approved by the Board of Directors at their respective meetings held on June 18, 2021. The Statutory Auditors have
ondary sale of promoter stake and 3.1%, respectively, this week, while -8.0 JSW Steel carried out an audit of the above results pursuant to Regulation 33 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and
Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, as amended and have issued an unmodified audit opinion.
worth ₹275 crore to ICICI Ven- China hot-rolled steel prices fell 2% in the -7.2 Tata Steel
3 The consolidated financial results have been prepared in accordance with the Indian Accounting Standards (‘Ind AS’) prescribed under
ture, Morgan Stanley Private same period. -8.4 SAIL Section 133 of the Companies Act, 2013 read with Companies (Indian Accounting Standards) Rules, as amended from time to time.
Equity, and Cyza Chem, a Till last week (11 June), the BSE Metal -6.0 Hindalco
4 Additional information on standalone financial results is as follows:- (INR in Lakhs)
Poonawalla Group entity, and Index was on an upswing, gaining 67.4% Particulars Quarter ended Year ended
Source: Bloomberg
to two family offices. year-to-date, but since then it has lost March 31, 2021 December 31, 2020 March 31, 2020 March 31, 2021 March 31, 2020
The transaction involves 7.44%. Since 11 June, Jindal Steel and Audited Unaudited Audited & Audited Audited &
Revised# Revised#
acquisition of less than 25% of Power Ltd (JSPL) has dropped 8.6%, JSW what China is holding and how much it 4% below the pre-covid peak now, while Revenue from Operations 17,093 16,504 27,186 52,810 122,551
Magma HDI by India Advan- Steel Ltd has erased 8% of its stock value, wants to release, said Mohit Nigam, head, demand is at the pre-covid peak”, Credit Profit/ (Loss) Before Tax 2,871 (2,027) (24,135) (13,544) (43,258)
tage Fund S4 I and Dynamic Tata Steel has fallen 7.2%, while Steel portfolio management services, Hem Suisse said in a 25 May report. “...with steel Profit/ (Loss) After Tax 3,118 (1,659) (21,789) (8,135) (39,268)
India Fund S4 US I on a fully Authority of India is down 8.4%, and Hin- Securities. “We don’t expect a severe cor- names trading at a decadal high relative Total Comprehensive Income/(Loss) 3,121 (1,560) (20,861) (7,822) (38,316)
diluted basis, CCI said. The deal dalco Industries Ltd shed 6% of its stock rection in metal stocks as both domestic price-to-book and the near-term risks to #
Refer Note 13 of Quarterly Standalone Financial Results filed with Stock Exchange for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2021
also involves acquisition of less value. and global demand continue to be strong steel prices, we advise caution and to book 5 The figures of the quarter ended March 31, 2020 are the balancing figures between the revised audited figures in respect of the previous
financial year and the revised year to date figures upto December 31, 2019, being the end of the third quarter of the previous financial
than 10% of the share capital of The correction in metal stocks came with improved visibility,” Nigam said. profits as well,” the report said. year, which were subjected to limited review.
Magma HDI on a fully diluted after China’s National Food and Strategic Brokerage firm Credit Suisse has down- The brokerage firm has downgraded The figures of the quarter ended March 31, 2021 are the balancing figures between the audited figures in respect of the financial year and
the year to date figures upto December 31, 2020, being the end of the third quarter of the financial year, which were subjected to limited
basis by NTH, an investment Reserves Administration said it was graded the steel sector after the BSE Metal Tata Steel and JSPL to neutral from out- review. For and on behalf of the Board of Directors
holding firm that belongs to a releasing government reserves of metals Index jumped 67% year-to-date (till 11 perform. It also downgraded JSW Steel to
New Delhi Shobhana Bhartia
fund managed or controlled by in batches, including copper, aluminium June) as it sees multiple risks to steel pri- underperform from neutral. June 18, 2021 Chairperson & Editorial Director
an affiliate of Morgan Stanley. and zinc, in the near future. The recent developments
Magma HDI is engaged in The reserve stocks of metals PRICE CONTROL on the metals front could
the non-life insurance business will be released through bid- prove to be a headwind for the
and offers products across cate- ding to processing and manu- CHINA plans to HOWEVER, it has ANALYSTS don’t listing of the recent initial DELHI JAL BOARD
gories such as motor, health, facturing industries. release reserve not specified the expect a severe public offering (IPO) of steel OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR (REVENUE)
stocks of metals to volumes that will be correction in metal VARUNALAYA PHASE-II, KAROL BAGH, NEW DELHI-05, (011-23637218)
personal accident, home and “This step was taken to cool cool down the offloaded from stocks as demand producer Shyam Metalics,
fire insurance. “Investment by down the multi-year high commodity prices reserves remains strong which is expected to debut on “STOP CORONA: Wear Mask, Follow Physical Distancing, Maintain Hand Hygiene”
marquee PE investors such as commodity prices and boost stock exchanges on 24 June. Re-invite NIT/RFP NO. 01/DJB/DOR/Rev.(HQ)/2021-22/ dated 17.06.2021
ICICI Venture and Morgan supply shortage to ensure The IPO was a bumper hit, On behalf of Delhi Jal Board, Director (Revenue) re-invites online tenders for Selection of Agencies for Online spot-reading,
Stanley, along with leading price stability in the commodity market. ces ahead. witnessing subscription of more than 121 capturing of image of water meter, billing and distribution of Bill of Water/Sewer Connections under the jurisdiction of Delhi
family offices, underwrites the At present, metal stocks have slumped on “(We see multiple risks like) impact of times. Jal Board in respect of Rohini and Janakpuri Zones as under:-
confidence in the company’s speculation of rising supply from China. supply chain shock, which drove steel pri- The grey market premium was quoting Item Name of Tender Earnest Date of release of tender Period Last date/time of receipt of e-tender
business and the quality of the However, China has not specified the vol- ces to record highs, easing, China entering at ₹130 a share, according to a dealer, No. Zone Fee Money on e-procurement portal through e-procurement portal
Item Rohini Rs. Rs. 18.06.2021 02 Years 02.07.2021 upto 1.00 P.M.
management team. This will umes that will be offloaded from reserves. a weak demand season at a time when pro- dropping from a peak of ₹155-160 apiece. No. 1 Zone 1,500/- 4,62,300/- Tender ID 2021_DJB_204558_1
support the strong growth tra- Thus, the quantum of physical metal duction continues to be very strong, the “We believe strong demand, led by Item Janakpuri Rs. Rs. 18.06.2021 02 Years 02.07.2021 upto 1.00 P.M.
jectory of the company and will release by China to ease the supply-de- Chinese government’s recent comments infrastructure development and steady No. 2 Zone 1,500/- 4,04,500/- Tender ID 2021_DJB_204558_2
set it to be among the leading mand gap will be in focus,” said Ankit Par- on price control of commodities, espe- pricing scenario in the sector, will keep The RFP document can be downloaded from Delhi Government e-Procurement website (https://govtprocurement.delhi.
players in the industry,” eek, research analyst at Choice Broking. cially steel and iron ore, and ex-China pro- listing gains in Shyam Metalics IPO gov.in).
Magma HDI had said in March. At this stage, it’s difficult to determine duction run-rate catching up and at only intact,” Nigam said. ISSUED BY P.R.O. (WATER)
Advt. No. J.S.V. 122(2021-22) Dy. Director Revenue (HQ)

YOUR MORNING
NEWSPAPER JUST
BECAME YOUR
ALL DAY
COMPANION.

Scan the QR code and enjoy full

access to everything that
there is on livemint.com.
For 30 whole days.
30 day subscription to
livemint.com

Download E-paper

News in video format

Articles and podcasts on the go

The best of Wall Street Journal

Seamless access across any device

Save and share favourite articles

Articles by celebrated columnists

Please contact your vendor for new pricing details.

Scan code to Growth is

claim your 30-day not just about chasing success.
free access to It’s also about learning from failures.
livemint.com
Growth is...On.

Follow us
mint.live livemint live_mint livemint www.livemint.com Follow us:

mint.live livemint live_mint livemint www.livemint.com

 BENGALURU, NEW DELHI, MUMBAI, KOLKATA, CHENNAI, AHMEDABAD, HYDERABAD, CHANDIGARH*, PUNE* VOL. 15 NO. 145 Rs15.00 16 PAGES

Saturday, June 19, 2021

Business Lounge | Naveen Air India to sell some realty

livemint.com Munjal: The electric effect uP12 assets for up to ₹300 cr uP14

SENSEX 52,344.45 21.12 NIFTY 15,683.35 8.05 DOLLAR ₹73.86 ₹0.22 EURO ₹87.96 ₹0.45 OIL $72.58 $0.50 GOLD ₹47,122 ₹271

Centrum-BharatPe to Ticket to ride

Domestic travel demand in international markets stayed well
below the pre-pandemic levels in April, showed data.
Country (domestic travel market) % change in revenue per passenger
Paytm to issue
₹12,000 crore
DON’T MISS

take over PMC Bank

kilometre in Apr 2021 over Apr 2019
China 6.8 fresh equity
Russia 11
US -34.9
shares in IPO
Centrum will set up SFB first, which will merge with PMC Bank Australia

Brazil
-34.4 Tarush Bhalla
-60.9 tarush.b@livemint.com
India -42 BENGALURU
Shayan Ghosh Twitter pledges to work with the
FLYING THE CO-OP Japan -54.9
government to guard citizens’ rights

P
shayan.g@livemint.com
Source: International Air Transport Association
ayments and wallet giant
MUMBAI Paytm has taken a step Twitter on Friday pledged to work with
The development comes as a relief to depositors, whose funds have been stuck SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT
for nearly two years. The bank had total deposits of ₹10,727.11 cr as on 31 Mar 2020. closer to its initial public lawmakers and the government to safeguard

E Travel tech services

nding nearly two anxious
years for depositors, the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
on Friday cleared the decks
for the takeover of Punjab
and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank
(PMC Bank) by a consortium of non-
bank lender Centrum Financial Ser-
vices and fintech startup BharatPe.
The multi-state cooperative len-
der was on the brink of collapse
when the regulator seized it on 24
September 2019, capped cash with-
drawals and launched an investiga-
offering (IPO) as it sought freedom of expression and protect “the
(In  crore) Deposits Advances shareholders’ approval to sell public conversation” in India amid continuing
12,000 new shares worth ₹12,000 controversy over posts on the social media
platform. >P14
8,000
firm RateGain plans crore in its IPO.
A notice sent to shareholders
on Friday said the share sale
Metal stocks melt as China steps
proposal and others will be put
4,000 ₹1,200 cr share sale to vote at an extraordinary gen-
eral meeting on 12 July. Paytm’s
parent One97 Communica-
up efforts to keep a lid on prices
Metal stocks slumped on Friday with the BSE
Metal Index falling nearly 8% in a week as
Swaraj Singh Dhanjal two banks to start work on its IPO. tions Ltd, India’s second most- China stepped up its efforts to control metal
0 swaraj.d@livemint.com It has appointed Kotak Mahindra valued startup worth $16 bil- prices. On the London Metal Exchange,
FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20
Source: PMC Bank annual reports MUMBAI Capital and IIFL to manage the lion, is expected to launch its copper, aluminium, and zinc dropped 6%,
BACK FROM THE BRINK process and more will be added IPO in late November. 2% and 3.1%, respectively, this week. >P15

tion into its accounting lapses.
RBI said it has decided to grant
in-principle approval to Centrum to set
up a small finance bank under on-tap
licensing norms. On-tap licensing
refers to the regulator giving out bank
licences on a continuous basis, rather
than once in several years.
In February, Centrum Financial
Services and BharatPe had submitted
a joint proposal to take over PMC
Bank. Centrum Financial Services is a
step-down subsidiary of listed entity
Centrum Capital, and provides credit
to small and mid-sized companies ran-
ging from ₹2 lakh to ₹2 crore. Resilient
Innovations Pvt. Ltd, which operates
BharatPe, will be an equal partner in
the small finance bank.
“We are delighted that a new
banking licence will be issued to an
T
PMC was on the brink CENTRUM, BharatPe THE consortium plans ravel and hospitality tech- later. They might raise around “The company proposes to
of a collapse when RBI submitted a plan to take to bring in ₹900 cr of nology services provider ₹1,200 crore through the IPO, create, offer, issue and allot
seized it in Sep 2019 over PMC in Feb this year capital in the first year RateGain Travel Technol- which will be a mix of primary and fresh equity shares of the com- Grofers co-founder Saurabh Kumar
ogies Pvt. Ltd is planning an ini- secondary share sale. TA Associ- pany of face value of ₹1 each of takes a step back from operating role
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT
tial public offering (IPO), two ates is an investor and will look to the company (the “equity Almost eight years after starting online grocer
NBFC after a gap of nearly six years rest ₹400 crore during the course of people aware of the development sell down part of its stake,” one of shares”) up to an aggregate of Grofers, co-founder Saurabh Kumar is taking
and would like to thank RBI for the the year,” he said. said. With this, RateGain joins a the two people mentioned above ₹12,000 crore […] The pro- a step back from his role. In an email to staff,
opportunity and confidence shown Ashneer Grover, chief executive list of companies headed for the said on condition of anonymity. posed offering is likely to Kumar said he will no longer be involved in
in us,” Jaspal Bindra, executive and co-founder, BharatPe, said it is capital markets in the coming RateGain helps travel and include a fresh issue of the the day-to-day functions, but will continue to
chairman, Centrum Group, said in a delighted at the opportunity to build quarters. hospitality firms in revenue equity shares by the company be a shareholder and board member. >P13
statement. a high-performing technology-led In 2015, private equity firm management, e-distribution, and an offer for sale by certain,
“In the first year, we are commit- small finance bank serving the pay- TA Associates invested $50 mil- and brand engagement. It existing shareholders of the
ted to bring in ₹900 crore of capital ment, investment and credit needs lion in the company, which pro- claims to support more than company,” the notice said. Centre plans to back up frontline
and this would be equally divided of the under-served. vides software-as-a-service 250,000 hotel properties glo- On 14 June, Paytm’s board workers ahead of third covid wave
between Centrum Group and Bhar- RBI said it would consider grant- products. The firm, which was bally, by providing 240 billion cleared the new share sale
The Centre will train around 100,000 youth to
atPe,” Bindra said over the phone. ing a licence for commencement of founded in 2004, claims its ser- rate and availability updates plans, and named JPMorgan strengthen the healthcare system to deal with an
“Then, an additional ₹900 crore will banking business under Section 22 vices are used by more than 25 and handling more than 30 Chase and Co., Goldman Sachs, impending third covid wave. PM Narendra Modi
be brought in by the two partners as (1) of the Banking Regulation Act, out of the top 30 online travel million bookings every year. Morgan Stanley and ICICI on Friday launched a crash course for frontline
and when required after the first 1949, once it is satisfied that Cen- agencies, airlines, hotel chains, The company’s plans make it Securities Ltd as bankers or workers via video conferencing that will be
year. We will be starting the bank and tour operators in India. conducted at 111 centres across 26 states. >P14
with ₹500 crore on day one, and the TURN TO PAGE 13 “The tech firm has picked up TURN TO PAGE 13 TURN TO PAGE 13

Gautam Adani slips to third spot Gold extends fall in India

on Asia’s rich list as stocks tank after Fed signals rate hike
REUTERS
Ashwin Ramarathinam Anto T Joseph hole (per 10gm) in their kitty.
ashwin.r@livemint.com
Pecking order feedback@livemint.com As with almost every part of
MUMBAI
Gautam Adani, who lost $13 billion in four days following a sell-off in the international market,
shares of Adani group firms, slipped to No. 3 spot on Asia’s rich list.

G
old prices in most parts global gold prices, too, are

B
illionaire Gautam Adani Rank Change Name Net worth ($ bn) of India have fallen impacted by the decision on
was knocked back to the 1 0 Mukesh Ambani 84.2 more than ₹1,000 per US interest rates. Any rise in
UGC expects all colleges and universities to post their human No. 3 position among 10gm of 24-carat in the past interest rates in the US tends to
resource requirements in that platform once it is ready. HT Asia’s richest people within a 2 +1 Zhong Shanshan 68.5 two days, ever since the US lead investors towards bonds
few weeks of grabbing the sec- Federal Reserve on Wednes- from gold. The US dollar has

UGC builds single ond spot, as the Indian business

tycoon lost $13 billion in four
days following a massive sell- 4
3 -1

0
Gautam Adani

Ma Huateng
63.5

59.9
day signalled an interest rate
hike by 2023.
This is the biggest decline
also strengthened.
“If the US Fed rates go up, it
will weaken the rupee. The

platform to host
off in shares of Adani group
companies.
Adani currently has a net
worth of $63.5 billion, sharply
for gold in India in 2021, and price of gold is likely to remain
5 0 Jack Ma 48.7 prices continued to drop on somewhat range-bound
Source: Bloomberg
Friday, even as the bullion Despite a rebound globally, a between ₹45,000 and
made a strong rebound in the lack of demand has taken the ₹55,000 per 10gm,” said

all academic jobs lower than the $76.7 billion at

the start of this week.
Mukesh Ambani, who con-
Shares of Adani group com-
panies have plummeted this
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT

more than 10% and Adani

Enterprises Ltd lost 6.64%.
international market. Weak
consumer sentiment follow-
ing the second wave of covid
sheen out of the metal in India.

on Thursday and Friday, respec-

Prashant K. Nanda vacancies on this portal, which
prashant.n@livemint.com will help in disseminating
NEW DELHI the information to the eligible
candidates,” it said.
trols the retail-to-oil conglom-
erate Reliance Industries Ltd,
continues to top Asia’s rich list
with a net worth of $84 billion,
week following a sell-off on
Monday after reports that
accounts of some major foreign
investors holding these shares
The combined market value
of these companies plunged
from $76.7 billion to $63.5 bil-
lion this week after a media
and restrictions in most states
crimped physical demand for
the precious metal this year.
India is the world’s second-
tively, to close at ₹48,300. In
Chennai, the price dropped to
₹48,600 after two declines of
₹650 each. Gold rates in India
Raghu G, general manager –
bullion, Manappuram Group.
Internationally, gold suf-
fered its biggest single-day
percentage drop this year on
Thursday as the dollar rose
after the US Fed signalled it

T
he University Grants
Commission (UGC) is
developing a single-win-
dow platform for all academic
jobs in both teaching and non-
teaching positions, in a move
that could ease hiring in col-
leges and universities.
The higher education regu-
lator expects all colleges and
universities to post their
human resource requirements
in that platform once it is
ready. This will aid job search
and talent mapping, and thus
accelerate the filling-up of
vacancies, it said.
“Once you bring all the
vacancy notifications from
India’s higher education sec-
tor is one of the largest in the
world with about 50,000 col-
leges and universities having
around 2.8 million staff, includ-
ing teachers. The number of
vacancies is quite large as well.
The elite Indian Institutes of
Technology (IITs) are facing a
15-30% faculty shortage across
campuses. In March 2018, the
Union government informed
Parliament that the faculty
strength of the 23 IITs is 5,428
against a sanctioned strength of
8,234 teaching staff. There is
thus a combined 34% shortage
of faculty in these institutions.
Similarly, there is a shortage of
according to the Bloomberg
Billionaire Index.
China’s Zhong Shanshan
regained the second spot from
Adani. The Indian business
magnate had in April overtaken
Zhong when shares of the
Adani group almost doubled
since January.
Microsoft’s combination of top roles goes against trend
Mengqi Sun
feedback@livemint.com
have been frozen.
In the past five trading ses-
sions, among the group’s half a
dozen listed firms, Adani
Transmission Ltd, Adani Total
Gas Ltd and Adani Power Ltd
lost more than 20%, and Spe-
cial Economic Zone Ld and
Adani Green Energy Ltd lost
ing a push by corporate-govern-
ance experts, shareholders and,
in some cases, regulators to
report said India’s National
Securities Depository Ltd
(NSDL) froze three accounts of
key foreign portfolio investors
(FPIs) having a major stake in
four of the six listed Adani
group firms.
TURN TO PAGE 13
from the company’s board last
year. Mr. Gates announced last
year that he was stepping down
largest bullion consumer after
China. Within India, Kerala is
the largest retail market, accord-
ing to the World Gold Council.
In Delhi, the price fell by
₹700 and ₹400 on Thursday
and Friday, respectively, and is
currently around ₹50,500. In
Kerala, it fell by ₹540 and ₹660
vary across cities due to state
taxes, hauling cost and margins.
In Mumbai, however, the
prices dropped by only ₹60 to
close at ₹48,350.
For investors in the country,
this, along with the five-day
fall in the run-up to the US Fed
meeting, has blown a ₹2,000-
by Mr. Gates in 2000, the spokes-
man said. “It’s a bad move,” said
Charles Elson, a professor of cor-
may raise interest rates sooner
than expected.
Gold futures declined 4.5%
in the biggest drop in more
than 10 months. That took
gold down to $1,777.80 a troy
ounce on Thursday. However,
TURN TO PAGE 13
bit of a red flag when the CEO
doesn’t think the title of the CEO
is enough,” she said.

colleges and varsities on to a
single platform, it will allow a
larger group of people from
across regions to apply. So, job
search and talent search exer-
cise from both demand and
supply sides becomes better,”
said a government official who
did not want to be named.
UGC has written to all uni-
versities, informing them that
it is setting up the single-win-
dow platform and that it shall
include non-teaching vacan-
cies. The regulator said it will
also add new features. “The
upgraded portal shall become
functional shortly. You are
requested to kindly upload job
M
more than 5,000 in the com-
bined faculty strength of cen-
tral universities.
Varsities and institutions
have hired some faculty
through permanent and ad
hoc measures. However, res-
ervations for the economically
weaker sections (EWS) has led
to an increase in the intake of
students and lowered the fac-
ulty-student ratio, which was
visible in the QS World Uni-
versity Ranking this year,
where some top schools did
not do well in this aspect.
In an email to faculties and
TURN TO PAGE 13
icrosoft Corp.’s move to
combine the roles of its
chief executive and
chairman goes against recent
governance trends.
The Redmond, Wash.-based
software company said Wednes-
day that Chief Executive Satya
Nadella would also assume the
role of company chairman. John
W. Thompson, who preceded
Mr. Nadella as chairman,
returned to his role as the lead
independent director, a title he
held from 2012 to 2014.
Microsoft’s decision comes as
more U.S. companies have sepa-
rated the CEO and chairman
positions in recent years, follow-
untangle the two roles.
About 59% of S&P 500 compa-
nies now have separate CEO and
chairman positions, according to
data compiled for The Wall Street
Journal by
ISS ESG, a
unit of proxy
adviser
Institutional Shareholder Servi-
ces Inc. That is an increase from
55% in 2020 and 37% in 2011.
A Microsoft spokesman said
Wednesday that Mr. Nadella and
Mr. Thompson had been in talks
since late 2020 about potentially
combining the roles and the
change was unrelated to
co-founder Bill Gates’s departure
three months after having been
re-elected to the board.
“Microsoft and its board have a
longstanding commitment to
strong corporate governance and
shareholder
protec-
tions,” a
company
spokesman said Thursday. “With
10 of 11 board members inde-
pendent, and an experienced
lead independent director, the
board remains positioned to pro-
vide effective oversight and stra-
tegic direction to the company.”
Mr. Nadella will take the lead
in setting the agenda for the
board and use his knowledge as
Microsoft chairman and chief
executive Satya Nadella. MINT
CEO to identify key risks, the firm
said Wednesday. Mr. Thompson
will provide input on board agen-
das, call meetings of the inde-
pendent directors, set agendas
for the executive sessions and
lead performance evaluations of
the CEO, the company said.
The last time the two positions
were held by the same person was
porate governance at the Univer-
sity of Delaware. “The person
being monitored by the board,
the CEO, shouldn’t chair the
board that monitors them.”
The move would enhance
management control of the
board, where the chairman con-
trols the agenda and flow of the
meetings, Mr. Elson said. He
added that it would be difficult to
strip a CEO of the chairman role
once positions are combined.
A change to combine the roles
is a source of concern, said Nell
Minow, vice chair of ValueEdge
Advisors, which advises institu-
tional investors on corporate
governance issues. “It’s always a
While combining the two titles
might not be as meaningful if the
board has a strong independent
lead director who sets the
agenda, companies should
explain why a combination is
necessary and how the board
would provide independent
oversight, according to Ms.
Minow. How a board handles a
CEO’s compensation and
whether it takes the lead on envi-
ronmental, social and govern-
ance issues can indicate how ade-
quate its oversight is. “It’s not the
titles that concern me so much,
it’s how they are interpreted by
the board,” she said.
©2021 DOW JONES & CO., INC
 Touch up and join Telegram Chennal
original PDF by telegram Lalit Banna sa