A professor's multi-million-dollar bread enterprise

Fifty-four-year-old M Mahadevan is today known not only in India, but overseas too, as 'Hot Breads Mahadevan'.

His journey from being a professor at the Madras University to an entrepreneur in charge of a multi-million-dollar business spanning various countries can only be described as amazingly inspiring.

But the man is still the same: simple hearted and hard working. Here is his interesting story.

Early days

I come from a simple town in Tamil Nadu called Udumalpet; it is 65 kilometres from Coimbatore. Though both my parents were doctors, I took my post graduate degree in Commerce.

My interest in the hotel industry began after reading Arthur Hailey's Hotel. I had just joined college then. In hindsight, I feel what attracted me to the hotel industry was people; I love meeting people.

My parents also met people, but only those who were in pain and misery, and I want to meet people who are happy. Those who come to a bakery or restaurant are always in a joyous mood.

I came to Chennai in 1979 as an Assistant Professor at Madras University. I taught Marketing to management and accounts students. That was during daytime.

The passion to be in the hotel industry was so intense that I started working for four hours at Hotel Ambassador Pallava at night to learn more about the industry. I was a trainee, a bell boy, a receptionist: everything. So, you can say I was a professor during day time and a bell boy in the evening.

My mother was aghast when she came to know about what I was doing. She asked, 'Are you mad? You are a teacher, and then you are going and cleaning tables? I can't understand this. I will not be able to find a girl to marry you!'

In those days, no girl from any good family in Chennai would marry a man who worked in hotels! In short, my mother didn't like it a bit. But I told her, 'One day, I will become the owner of a hotel and give employment to many people.' She was happy to hear that part.

First enterprise, a take-out with Rs 60,000

I met my partner while I was working in the hotel, and we started our first take out -- at the Tic-Tac unit in Chennai. The unit was selling north Indian food and I started a Chinese take-away there.

I opened my kitchen with Rs 60,000, and it opened at 5 p.m. and closed at 11.30 p.m. That was the time Chinese food was a craze among the people here.

One of the persons who came to take the food was building a commercial tower and asked me whether I was interested in taking up a place there.

That was how the restaurant Cascade opened. We served Chinese, Thai, Malay and Japanese cuisine.

Those who sold Chinese had red and green as the interiors, but I wanted something different. I got Parmeshwar Godrej from Mumbai through my neighbour, who was artist M F Hussain's son. And I told her I wanted all white and blue. I wanted my restaurant to look different and the interiors became a selling point. Many came to see the interiors.

From then on, business roared. That was in 1986.

From hotel to bakery

I used to go to Singapore to buy my ingredients like Chinese sauces for my hotel and that was when I saw these little bakeries. I decided to open a bakery in India and sell bread. Many told me, 'people look at bread as something that they take when they are ill. How are you going to sell bread?'

My partner said, 'You are crazy. The success of Cascade has got to your head!' So, whatever money I had (Rs.300,000) in Cascade, I took with me, and decided to start my bread unit on my own. I got Rs 800,000 as loan. I started Hot Breads with Rs 11 lakh (Rs 1.1 million) in 1989.

We had to import bread making machines in those days. It was the license regime then -- not like today. I gave the project plan and it took four months for the committee to take a decision though they met every month.

Once you got the license, it was mentioned in it what machine I was to import and at what cost. Not even a dollar more I was supposed to bring in to the country!

I was not looking at selling just bread alone but curry buns, pastries, pizzas, burgers, etc. Bread was only a trap for the customer to come inside.

We took a bun, filled it with curry and made it a curry bun. We filled chicken tikka inside a Croissant. I got the idea to make these things Indian after I saw what Japanese did to their bakery items. Our curry buns are a big hit even in Paris.

People used to crowd in our unit at Alsa Malls in Chennai.

From day one, we started making profits as the concept was unique and the product tasty. It was a perfect cocktail. We broke even in the first year itself and never looked back.

In the third month itself, people from Kochi and Bangalore came to me to start Hot Breads units there.

Soon, I came to be known as 'Hot Breads Mahadevan'!

First overseas Hot Breads unit in Dubai

In 1994, a Tamil couple who had come to Chennai saw how Hot Breads attracted people in Chennai. They asked me, 'Would you like to come to Dubai?' I said, 'Yes!'

I had around 12 units in India by then. We went to Dubai, started a unit there and it was a huge success. But we had to close it down after a year as it became a no-parking zone. When we were about to wind up, I was a bit sad that my overseas venture did not take off.

We soon got a contract from a union co-operative society. From day one, it was a roaring success. It was a Godsend. Like they say, when one door closes, ten others open.

For 14 years, we were at the same place. Only last year, they replaced us but then now, we have so many other units in Dubai.

The strangest demand we got was for Arabic bread. A gentleman came to our shop and said, if you don't have Arabic bread when you are here, shut your shop'. The very next day, I hired a Lebanese guy and we started making Arabic bread. Kids might like sandwich bread, but elders still prefer Arabic bread. But what is catching up is the curry-flavoured bread all over.

Becoming a Non-Resident Indian

After I opened my first unit in Dubai, I decided to become an NRI. The rules in India were stringent then. If you are investing from India, you have to take permission. Even if you had to cough or sneeze, you had to call the Reserve Bank of India and ask, 'Can we sneeze?'

The stringent rules forced me to be a Non-Resident Indian. Anyway, I would be away for more than 180 days to build my units. The profits you make internationally are not taxed here. The profits I made were put back to start more units abroad. The rules are different now. But I am happy that I chose the NRI route.

The second stop was Paris

In the last 20 years, I have opened -- with help from others -- 130 bakeries in 16 countries: the United States (New York and San Francisco), Ghana, France (Paris), UAE (Dubai), Botswana, Kuwait, Muscat, Singapore, Malaysia, the United Kingdom (London), etc. Now we are going to Australia.

But the market in India is booming and we have 68 units here.

We started with Rs 60,000. Now, we make around Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) in India and internationally around Rs 120 crore (Rs 1.2 billion).

Hand of God

I believe in the hand of God. You have to be at the right place at the right time, and God's hands have to be there to help you and guide you. Wherever I went -- Dubai, Botswana, San Francisco -- a force took me there.

My ideas worked because they came at the right time. Instead of 1989, if I had opened in 1980, I would have gone bust. Doing your homework is very important which is studying and understanding the market.

I have made many mistakes, but I try to learn from them. We keep learning.

My advice to budding entrepreneurs is, innovate and think different. Don't follow anyone's footsteps; leave your own footprints for others to follow. Try to be lean and mean. Don't take your customers for granted.

Unless you have passion, you will not be able to carry a smiling face. More than hard work, it is the passion that you need to succeed.

My 'boys'

I have 3,000 boys working for me in India. I started with 14 boys in Dubai, now we have more than 1,000 boys working abroad. I love my boys, but I am a hard taskmaster. I don't accept laziness. I don't like procrastination. I drive them crazy, I know. Some of my boys run to my mother and complain about me!

We started 'Winners' in Chennai to teach poor, bright boys to bake. When you teach them a skill, you give them a life.

My happiness is not in turning my Rs 60,000 into Rs 120 crore. I am happy because I give employment to 3,000 boys in India. India needs not one but 10,000 Mahadevans to give employment to thousands of people. What I have done, anybody can do. I am an ordinary guy from a small town, but I had big dreams and commitment.

Longer trading hours? From next month!

India's two prime bourses, the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange, are likely to extend the trading time by two-and-a-half hours from next month and a formal notification to this effect is expected shortly.

"Both the exchanges (BSE and NSE) have discussed the issue (extension of trade timings) and a formal notification is expected shortly," a senior exchange official said.

Last month, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) approved extension of the trading timings by up to two-and-a-half hours from 9 am to 5 pm. The current market hours stand from 9.55 am to 3.30 pm.

"Both the exchanges have already deliberated on the issue and they are likely to implement it after the expiry of the stock futures contract on November 26 or at the beginning of December contract," said an official privy to the development.

The new trading hours would now help integrate the Indian bourses with Singapore and other Asian markets in the morning hours and the European market in the evening hours.

In Singapore, which is around two-and-a-half hours ahead of India, trading sessions are held between 9 am and 12.30 pm and 2 pm and 5 pm (local time).

"Right now we are losing out to SGX Nifty (Indian Nifty traded in Singapore bourse) in terms of volume. By aligning market hours with global bourses, we can maximise amount of capital allocation to the Indian stocks," ICICI Securities executive director Anup Bagchi said.

Analysts feel the sooner the bourses implement the changes, the better it would be for them as they can increase the transaction fees.

"There is a stiff competition between the BSE, NSE and the new entrant MCX-SX. The exchanges need not wait till the expiry of the derivatives contract to implement the change as it would result in losing out on foreign funds interested in investing here," SMC Capitals equity head Jagannadham Thunuguntla said.

". . . it has been decided to permit the stock exchanges to set their trading hours (in the cash and derivatives segments) subject to the condition that the trading hours are between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.," Sebi had said in a statement.

The market regulator had further asked the bourses to reset their timings provided they have in place risk management system and infrastructure commensurate to the trading hours.

Bagchi added that brokers are sceptical that with the extension of the trading hours there would be a "certain cost increase for an uncertain upside in profits."

World's largest gold reserves: The top 11

The International Monetary Fund has sold 200 metric tonnes of gold to the Reserve Bank of India for about $6.7 billion, in a bid to increase the Washington-based financial institution's capacity to lend to poor nations.

On September 18, 2009, the IMF's executive board approved gold sales strictly limited to 403.3 metric tonnes, representing one eighth of its total holdings. India and China were seen as the likely buyers given the two Asian giants' economic strength even in the face of the global recession that ravaged most economies.

But India beat China to it and the Reserve Bank of India paid about $1,045 per ounce for the gold. This new purchase puts India gold reserves in the 11th spot among the world's leading gold owners.

Let us take a look at who are the other biggies who have huge gold reserves. Read on. . .

1. United States of America

The country has 8,133.5 tonnes of gold which constitutes 77.4 per cent of the country's total forex reserves.

The USA is also the world's third highest buyer and fourth largest producer of gold. In 2007, it produced 240 tonnes of gold.

The US economy is the largest in the world, with an estimated 2008 gross domestic product of $14.3 trillion (a quarter of nominal global GDP and a fifth of global GDP at purchasing power parity).

2. Germany

The country has 3,408.3 tons of gold which comprises about 69.2 per cent of the country's total forex reserves.

It is a major economic power with the world's fourth largest economy by nominal GDP and the fifth largest in purchasing power parity.

3. IMF

It possesses 3,217.3 tonnes of gold.

The International Monetary Fund is a multilateral financing agency -- an organization of 186 countries -- working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote employment and growth, and reduce poverty around the world.

4. Italy

The country is in possession of 2,451.8 tonnes of gold that comprises 66.6 per cent of the country's total forex reserves.

Italy is a developed country with the eighth-highest quality of life index rating in the world. It is the seventh-largest economy in the world and the fourth-largest in Europe.

5. France

It possesses 2,445.1 tonnes of gold that makes up 70.6 per cent of the country's total forex reserves.

France is the largest country in the European Union. It is the fifth largest economy by nominal GDP and eighth largest economy by purchasing power parity.

It is the most visited country in the world, with 82 million foreign tourists visiting the country annually.

6. China

The country possesses 1,054 tonnes of gold which constitutes 1.9 per cent of the country's total forex reserves.

China has had the fastest-growing major economy for the past 30 years with an average annual GDP growth rate above 10 per cent.

China is the third largest economy in the world after the US and Japan with a nominal GDP of $4.4 trillion as of 2008.

7. Switzerland

The country possesses 1,040.1 tonnes of gold which makes up 29.1 per cent of the country's total forex reserves.

Switzerland is one of the richest countries in the world with a GDP of $315.768 billion.

Zurich and Geneva have been ranked as having the second and third highest quality of life in the world.

8. Japan

Japan is in possession of 765.2 tonnes of gold which constitutes 2.3 per cent of the country's total forex reserves.

Japan is a major economic power with world's second-largest economy by nominal GDP and the third largest in purchasing power parity.

It is also the world's fourth largest exporter and sixth largest importer. It is also the only Asian country in the G-8.

9. The Netherlands

The Netherlands is in possession of 612.5 tonnes of gold which makes up 59.6 per cent of the country's total forex reserves.

The Netherlands has one of the most free market capitalist economies in the world, ranking 12th of 157 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom registering a GDP of $677.490 billion (2008).

10. Russia

Russia possesses 568.4 tonnes of gold which constitutes 4.3 per cent of the country's forex reserves.

Russia is the world's seventh largest buyer of gold. Russia is also a big producer of gold. In fact, it is the world's sixth largest gold-producer. In 2007, it produced 169.2 tonnes of gold.

11. India

The country is in possession of 557.7 tonnes of gold which constitutes about 6 per cent of the country's forex reserves.

The International Monetary Fund recently sold 200 tonnes of gold to the Reserve Bank of India for about $6.7 billion.

Analysts feel that it is a very smart move as by buying IMF gold, New Delhi is shoring up its bullion reserves and slowly trying to hedge its bets on the US dollar which has been losing value against other currencies.

The RBI paid on average about $1,045 per ounce for the gold and the transaction would be paid in hard currency and not in IMF Special Drawing Rights, the IMF's internal unit of account.

Listing norms for SMEs may be eased

The Securities and Exchange Board of India is convening a meeting on November 9 to consider relaxing listing standards for small and medium enterprises.

"Based on feedback from market participants we are considering relaxation of certain standards," SEBI wholetime member M S Sahoo said at an Assocham conference.

Sahoo said the market regulator is considering relaxing the entry criteria of Rs 3 crore tangible assets (each of the preceding three years) for SME listing.

A small firm with a track record of distributable profit for at least three out of the immediately preceding five years may be eligible for the listing, he said.

As far as disclosure standards are concerned, SEBI would make them go electronic to reduce cost of disclosure, reduce frequency of disclosure of financial statement to half yearly from quarterly now, he said.

It also proposes to reduce quantity of disclosure - statement containing salient features instead of full balance sheet/profit and loss account, he said.

However, he clarified that corporate governance standards will not be diluted as applicable to all listed companies now, and hoped that a capital market would develop for small and medium enterprises with the aforesaid measures that SEBI will introduce in due course of time.

Read this before you opt for home loan!

So you have finally decided to buy your own house? With this single decision a chain of other decisions follow, ranging from choosing the property, choosing a home loan offer to deciding the furniture for the new house.

But there are many pitfalls that can turn this smooth process into a bumpy one. Here are some of those pitfalls that you should be aware of and avoid.

Look deep in your wallet before deciding the property

So you have chosen and set your heart on a house that is perfect! But have you given some deep thought to whether your wallet will be able to handle your dream? Going for a house that you can't afford to pay for is like eating more food than you can digest. You end up with indigestion.

Look closely at your lifestyle and financial capabilities.

Plan for an unfortunate eventuality like loss of job or illnesses and ensure that your wallet will be able to take the pinch for a few months at least.

Look at your other debt liabilities before going in for the home loan.

Evaluate market conditions

Understand the real estate market and evaluate if the property prices are stable and not likely to fall further.

Do your research on home loan interest rates, see if they are likely to decrease or increase in future depending on the existing market conditions, you may not want to lose out on a good deal because you jumped in too early.

Debt liabilities

Having high credit card outstanding and a number of other loans, not only brings the eligibility for higher loan amount down, it also increases the burden of paying all of these debts off.

If your home loan EMI]is around 10 per cent to 15 per cent bracket of your income, it would be a  smart deal. It would be even better if your total debt liability is within the 10-15 per cent range, but normally, that is not the case, so try to pay off all your high interest/long tenure debts sooner.

Increase the down payment

When you go for home loan, you have to pay around 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the project cost and around 85 per cent to 90 per cent is funded by the bank or financial institution. If you have more than the required amount for 'down payment' then pay more, so that your required debt is reduced significantly.

Always prepay

Also, when you have any loan try not to extend the loan to its complete tenure. As and when you have excess cash, try to prepay.

For example, you could prepay from your yearly bonuses or from your savings from the salary hikes that are expected to happen periodically. Prepaying can lower the tenure and help you save on interest.

However, check with your bank from when you can start prepaying, as banks do not allow prepayment during the first six months or the first year of the loan period. Even when they allow prepayment after this time frame, there still would be a prepayment penalty attached.

Just make sure the interest saved does not exceed the prepayment fee that you will need to pay the bank. As long as that is taken care of, prepayment is the best way to close a loan early and save significantly on interest.

The family bank

It is not essential to opt for the same bank that your brother took his home loan from. Well, brotherly love aside it is better to do your own searching in terms of the deals offered by different banks.

Moreover, your brother's offer for the same loan amount and tenure could be different from what is offered to you, as the offers and interest rates vary according to the credit profile of the borrower.

The offer that your brother got is according to his credit profile. So, it is always possible that you might be able to get a better deal from some other bank.

The processing fee

If you have nothing in writing from the bank, it is possible that you might lose the processing fee that you pay to bank in case the loan does not get approved.

So, either you get something in writing from the bank or factor in all this money for these kinds of losses.

The fine print

Most of us just close our eyes and sign on the dotted line. What we forget to read are the clauses that are in fine print in the loan agreement. You need to understand the significance and impact of these various clauses before you sign the agreement.

Some these clauses to watch out for include the force majeure clause and Reset Clause on Fixed Rates. Instead of ending up in a financial hellhole it is better to take some time out to read through the loan agreement carefully and be prepared for what's in store, before taking the big leap.

Mahindra launches compact truck @ Rs 1.65 lakh

Leading auto maker Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd launched India's first 0.5-tonne compact truck, Mahindra Gio, priced at Rs 1.65 lakh (ex-showroom Mumbai).

The vehicle offers a mileage of 27 km per litre and comes with a high performance 9.1 HP Kohler engine for good pickup and load carrying capacity.

This entry level four-wheeler cargo carrier will be available in four attractive and youthful shades of peacock blue, royal red, golden yellow, and sporty green.

The Mahindra Gio is being manufactured at Mahindra's Haridwar plant and is being launched in a phased manner. It will be available initially in west, north and select eastern states and shortly thereafter in the rest of the country.

"...As city limits gradually expand and distribution needs increase, the Mahindra Gio presents a high earning potential for customers who will benefit from its high mileage, low maintenance cost, optimum utilization of space and low acquisition cost," said Pawan Goenka, president, automotive sector, Mahindra & Mahindra.

How to block stealthy computer virus attacks

Researchers from North Carolina State University have devised a novel way to block rootkits, one of the most insidious types of malware, preventing them from taking over computer systems.

Malware, or computer viruses, is a growing problem that can lead to crashed computer systems and stolen personal information.

A recent Internet security threat report showed a 1,000 per cent increase in the number of new malware signatures extracted from the in-the-wild malware programs found from 2006 to 2008.

Rootkits typically work by hijacking a number of 'hooks', or control data, in a computer's operating system.

"Hackers can use rootkits to install and hide spyware or other programs. When you start your machine, everything seems normal but, unfortunately, you've been compromised," said Dr Xuxian Jiang, assistant professor of computer science at NC State and a co-author of the research.

"By taking control of these hooks, the rootkit can intercept and manipulate the computer system's data at will essentially letting the user see only what it wants the user to see," Jiang added.

As a result, the rootkit can make itself invisible to the computer user and any antivirus software. Furthermore, the rootkit can install additional malware, such as programs designed to steal personal information, and make them invisible as well.

In order to prevent a rootkit from insinuating itself into an operating system, Jiang said that all of an operating system's hooks need to be protected.

"Our research leads to a new way that can protect all the hooks in an efficient way, by moving them to a centralized place and thus making them easier to manage and harder to subvert," said Jiang.

Jiang revealed that by placing all of the hooks in one place, researchers were able to simply leverage hardware-based memory protection, which is now commonplace, to prevent hooks from being hijacked.

They were able to put hardware in place to ensure that a rootkit cannot modify any hooks without approval from the user.

The awesome power of compounding!

Eat less and exercise more, that is the mantra to be followed if you have a weight-loss goal in mind, they say. Well, it is no different when there is money involved.

A parallel universal truth with regard to money is spend less, save more, for you to reach your ideal level of wealth. The earlier you start saving for your rainy day (read retirement) the richer you will be when it finally arrives.

In this context, you need not be a whiz in your attempt to make yourself financially secure for the future. You simply need to be consistent in saving a portion of your money and let it compound over time. The fascinating effect of compounding gathers up momentum over longer periods of time and becomes an avalanche of wealth.

How does compounding work?

When you save Rs 100 and get an annual interest of 10%, you will have Rs 110 at the end of one year. Due to compounding the next year you will get a 10% interest on Rs 110, which will then leave you with Rs 121. The next year, interest will be calculated on Rs 121 at 10% and so on. In time, these savings will grow exponentially.

There are certain number rules that have been evolved to figure out a quicker method for calculations, especially in finance. Rule 72, is one such quick method of calculating how much time it will take, for your investment to double.

So, if you invest Rs 100 with a compounding interest of 10% per annum, the rule of 72 gives 72/10 = 7.2 years as the approximate time frame required for the investment to become Rs 200.

If you equate the same to a larger amount of Rs 1 lakh in approximately 7 years, it would grow to 2 lakh. Remember you will be consistently saving up too, topping up existing funds, hence, if you are planning to retire 60 years from the time of the investment, it will approximately snowball to about 6 times from its original value. This is the avalanche effect of compound interest.

Fortune favours the early bird!

Compounding interest is like wine, yields better results when money is saved over longer durations. So, if you are planning to save crores for your retirement funds, then start as early as possible, with your first salary or at least by 25 years of age. So, when you retire at the age of 60, you will be sitting on a comfortable pile of money to lead the rest of your life in style.

If you set aside a sum of say Rs 5,000 every month from the age of 25, at a return interest rate  of 10%, in 60 years you will have with you funds worth about a crore and more.

However, if you start at 40 with the same amount and return rate of interest, the retirement fund will amount to only around 33 L. That is a huge difference, the 40 year old individual would need to invest several multiples of Rs 5000 to be able to catch up!

Here is a comparative chart of the approximate retirement funds an individual can lay claim to depending on the age at which he starts saving.

Let us assume the individual plans to invest Rs 10,000, every year at a return interest rate of 10%. You will realize from the chart that starting early counts a lot! 

Age at which investment begins	Retirement fund
20	49 lakh
25	30 lakh
30	18 lakh
35	11 lakh
40	6 lakh

You will notice from the above comparison, that even a matter of five years can make a huge dent on how much you retire with.

You could choose to start saving when you are much older and still meet the target retirement fund of 49 lakh, saved by an individual who started investing from the age of 20.

However, you will need to increase the amount of money you invest to make up for the lost time. This could be a strain on your budget, as you may have to set aside a significant amount of money to reach your goal.

To illustrate, let's see how much more you would need to invest and at what age, for you reach a target of 49 lakh by the time you are 60 years old.

Here is a comparison of the approximate increase in the amounts of money you need to shell out every year to reach your target. 

Age at which investment begins	Difference in funds invested
20	10,000
25	16,500
30	27,000
35	45,000
40	78,000

You will notice that the more you delay, the more you need to invest, hence it makes sense to consistently set aside about 10% of your monthly income for your retirement fund. This will mean your savings will increase correspondingly with your income, enabling you to grow your funds exponentially.

All you need to reap the advantage of compounding interest and save up a significant retirement fund is to invest time, consistency, patience, and savings to obtain a financially secure future, when you need it the most.

GM drops plans to sell off Opel

Citing better business conditions, US car maker General Motors has scrapped plans to sell its European operations, including Opel, and will initiate restructuring efforts worth billions of dollars of the same.

In the wake of the financial turmoil, GM, which has emerged leaner after revamping itself under bankruptcy protection, had earlier agreed to sell German car business Opel and UK brand Vauxhall to Canadian automotive supplier Magna International.

The decision to retain Opel in addition to restructuring its European operations was taken by the company's board of directors in the backdrop of "improving business environment," GM said in a statement on Tuesday.

Preliminary estimates peg the restructuring charges to be about three billion euros.

"GM will soon present its restructuring plan to Germany and other governments and hopes for its favourable consideration," GM President and CEO Fritz Henderson said.

"From the outset, our goal has been to secure the best long term solution for our customers, employee, suppliers and dealers, which is reflected in the decision (to retain Opel and restructure European operations)...

"This was deemed to be the most stable and least costly approach for securing Opel/Vauxhall's long term future," he added.

The decision is likely to frustrate Europe, especially since the German government had agreed to provide over four billion euros loan to Magna, related to the planned Opel sale.

Satyam case: Clean chit to PwC

Accountancy regulator Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI has withdrawn disciplinary proceeding against auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, allegedly involved in the Satyam scam.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Delhi-based franchise of PwC had approached the Delhi high court seeking quashing of proceedings initiated against it by the government in the aftermath of Satyam scam.

It pleaded before the court that the government proceedings were illegal as they have no connection with the Bangalore-based franchise which had audited Satyam accounts.

"There are six franchises of the international audit firm in the country and they are not related to each other in any way. We have nothing to do with the Bangalore firm which had audited Satyam accounts.

"So there doesn't arise any cause of action against us in the aftermath of the Satyam scam," senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Delhi-firm, pleaded.

He submitted that the proceeding against it should be quashed immediately. Justice Sanjeev Khanna after hearing his arguments asked the government counsel to take instructions from the Centre and inform the court.

Warning! Check the home loan agreement carefully

This could happen to you. . .

Sameer Tiwari, a Pune-based mechanical engineer, thought he had made a "prudent decision" by opting for a fixed rate, home loan five years ago from a reputed national bank.

Three years after the date of disbursement, Sameer received a letter, which said it was time for renewal of his loan and that the interest on his fixed home loan had been increased by 0.5 per cent.

On checking with the bank, he learned that there was a clause in the agreement that said the fixed rate was only for a period of three years and not for the entire tenure!

This letter brought endless, sleepless nights to Sameer and his family… now, they had to recalculate and replan all their income sources and planned expenses because the "fixed EMIs (Equated Monthly Instalments)" will increase!

What is a loan agreement?

A loan agreement is a 'contract' entered into between the borrower and the lender (banks and financial institutions) that regulates the terms of a loan. The loan agreement comes into picture immediately after the bank appraises your credit and the property that you have identified.

The agreement and the fine prints…

In the euphoria to acquire that dream house, various clauses in the loan agreement are often overlooked. However, these clauses have a significant bearing on areas ranging from interest rates to repayment schedules.

Reading home loan agreements is generally viewed as a sheer formality and one always tends to ignore points that the agreement mentions. Moreover, the legal language used in the document often seems more alien than human!

In any case, not reading a loan agreement thoroughly can land you in a soup. Here are some clauses, which should be searched for inside a loan agreement and be clarified with your HFC (Housing Finance Company):

Reset Clause on Fixed Rates: Banks have introduced the reset clause in their fixed rate, home loan agreements so that they can increase interest rates in case the market rates increase in future. This effectively makes fixed rate loans equivalent to floating rate ones.

This gives the banks an escape from interest rate surges but is a disadvantage for the borrower who is mostly unaware about such content in their agreement. Typically, the period for such reset clause varies from two to five years depending on the bank or housing finance company you borrow from. So read this clause in your loan agreement carefully.

Force Majeure Clause: There may be certain loopholes in your home loan agreement that allows the bank or home loan company to unfix and raise the fixed interest rate under exceptional circumstances. This will be mentioned under the 'force majeure' clause of your agreement. However, the differentiation between 'exceptional circumstances' and normal circumstances is always a tough task.

For example, a cut in banks' prime lending rate (PLR) is not automatically translating into reduction of all PLR-linked loan rates. The reason being cited is that the bank's margins are under severe stress due to lending rate cuts.

They feel interest rates on some existing sub-PLR loans do not even cover their cost of funds and any further fall in those sub-PLR loans will worsen the matter. Therefore, some public sector banks have revised the existing loan contracts in case of select sub-PLR borrowers, by using the 'force majeure' clause, meaning a 'situation beyond control'.

Defining a Fault: A 'fault' for a layman often means a non-payment of an EMI during the loan tenure. However, your bank or HFC may have a different meaning for this term. The home loan agreement of few banks defines fault as a case when the borrower expires, the borrower is divorced (in case of more than a single borrower), or the borrower is/are involved in any civil litigation or criminal offence. Therefore, you must be clear what your lender means by the term 'fault'.

Security cover at times of falling property rates: This clause states that a bank is eligible to demand additional security when property prices fall. Even if you are loyal on your EMI payments, this clause demands a security cover in addition to your loan amount and if a borrower fails to provide such a security then he/ she may be declared a defaulter by the lender.

Floating is Fixed and vice versa: Floating rate as well as fixed rate home loans are linked to the Benchmark Prime Lending Rate (BPLR) of a bank or the HFC from which you take a home loan. Hence, if the BPLR is 13.5 per cent and floating rate home loans are at a discount of 1.5 per cent to the BPLR, then the interest rate on a floating rate home loan is 12 per cent.

So whenever the BPLR is raised, then the interest to be paid on the floating rate home loan goes up. The vice versa also holds true. However, banks and HFCs do not show the same alacrity to reduce the interest rates, which they might have shown when increasing it.

When interest rates come down, banks and HFCs offer lower rates to new customers but existing customer continue paying the higher interest rates. Check with the bank or HFC regarding the details about such clauses.

These clauses are overlooked by most home loan borrowers and some of them eventually end up paying interest rates, fees, or hidden charges completely out of the blue. It is imperative that you have a thorough understanding of such clauses with your bank or HFC.

What happens to your email account after you die?

Saving that parting e-mail from your first love in your inbox? Well, chances are, after you pass away, your spouse and the entire family will know about the long held secret.

This is because web email services like Hotmail and Gmail do not let users specify what should happen to their messages when they die.

In fact, email services owned by Internet giants like Google and Microsoft have a policy of keeping your data after you die and letting your next of kin or the executor of your estate access it.

These services can hold tens of thousands of messages.

Accounts with Google's Gmail can hold up to 7GB -- or roughly 70,000 emails with a small to medium picture attached to each and they archive the messages you've written as well as received.

When it comes to deleting the data, Microsoft's Hotmail will remove an account if it is inactive for 270 days, while Gmail leaves the responsibility to the next of kin.

Of the top three providers, only Yahoo! refuses to supply emails to anyone after the user has died. The user's next of kin can ask for the account to be closed, but cannot gain access to it.

A Yahoo! spokesperson said the only exception to this rule would be if the user specified otherwise in their will.

Meanwhile, social-networking site Facebook has recently publicised a feature called memorialisation that lets the family of deceased users keep their profile page online as a virtual tribute.

MySpace, on the other hand, says it addresses the issue of family access to sensitive data on a 'case by case basis'.

A spokesperson for MySpace could not rule out letting a user's next of kin log into their profile - potentially giving them access to private messages.

Avenues 2009: Of people, planet and profit

Avenues 2009, the annual two-day business festival of the Shailesh J Mehta, School of Management, IIT Bombay, based on the theme 'People, planet and profit' reflected the creative and intellectual spirit of the management students.

It was a great experience for the management students to organise the events, get sponsors and run the show smoothly and live up to the expectations of the participants.

"As management students, we are masters at case studies. But, the practical aspect is never checked. Organising events of such scale helps us put these principles in practice. It gives us a test field to implement our ideas and check what works and more importantly, why it works, like marketing the event on social networking sites," says Amey Kambli, second year student at SJMSOM IIT Bombay, event coordinator of Avenues 2009.

Successful entrepreneurs and outstanding achievers from different walks of life participated in the event.

M.Damodaran, former SEBI chief; Ajit Balakrishnan, founder and CEO of rediff.com; Pramod Chaudhari, chairman, Praj Industries;  Ness Wadia, joint managing director, Wadia Group; Rahul Bose, actor, and Prahlad Kakkar, advertising guru addressed the students during the event.

The event also saw participation from students of more than 150 B-schools across India as well as leading corporate houses and working professionals.

Starting off the guest lecture series called Alankar, Ajit Balakrishnan, founder and CEO, rediff.com, delivered a thought-provoking speech. He talked about the digital revolution, the threats and opportunities for India. "India will lose its way in the online digital revolution just like it did during the industrial revolution if the government does not take proactive measures to make broadband cheaper and easily accessible," he said.

Avenues 2009 saw active participation from B-school students on various events like: a HR event, green project financing, Pune infrastructure consulting challenge, social marketing event and such other novel concepts.

"These ideas were well-received by the B-school community and we got over-whelming participation. An innovative concept of collaborative green IT strategy was slightly ahead of time. The event execution was smooth with the support from public relations and logistics teams," Amey said.

Pramod Chaudhuri, chairman, Praj Industries, spoke on the theme 'People, planet and profit'. He spoke about the triple bottom line principle, which considers that besides economic aspects, businesses should look toward the environmental and social aspects to ensure true sustainability.

He touched upon climate change, the greenhouse effect and other environmental issues. He said the underprivileged must be educated for the world to sustain itself. He also highlighted the need for more entrepreneurs to build innovative and sustainable solutions for the world.

"The experience of organising the event was like steering a startup to attain new heights. As the event coordinator, I was the first person elected by the batch for the job. Encouraging healthy competition between teams and resolving conflicts were my top priorities. I had a bird's eye view of the festival and so I had to steer individual teams in the right direction when they would lose focus. The team of three coordinators who shared my responsibilities ensured that I did not take a biased decision," Amey added.

M Damodaran, former chief, Securities and Exchange Board of India, gave an insightful talk about regulations. He said that as long as fear and greed define human conduct, there will always be a need for an external body to list what is fair and unfair, right and wrong and this is what makes up a regulator.

Damodaran spoke on the situation in America and how the present methods to combat the recession might not really be helpful in the long run.

He spoke of India's own method to use regulation to solve problems and said that this could not really work. After all, if a crime is committed, one punishes the criminal; one doesn't rewrite the law. This principle should also apply in the financial world in the case of scams and frauds.

Ad guru Prahlad Kakkar had the entire audience laughing with humorous anecdotes from his own experiences.  Kakkar used various incidents in his life to explain the his principles.

He said that for most people, the greatest motivation in their lives is fear and that fears have to be confronted, not shelved away.

Kakkar illustrated this by describing his first diving experience when the great fear of the open ocean forced him to confront all his other, smaller fears.

Kakkar went on to speak on the issue of global climate change and how it affected unrelated victims even more than perpetrators.

He illustrated the devastating effects of climate changes, such as the destruction of marine life and the possible submerging of coral islands. He believes that, the issue of climate change should be solved by every nation resolving to clean up its own house first and then seeking responsible behaviour from others.

Well known actor and social activist Rahul Bose conducted a very interactive and thought-provoking session, which was an enriching experience for the students.

He spoke about how to be 100 per cent happy. Firstly, we should find out who we are, by finding out the values that we hold dear.

Next, we should determine what it is that we are born to do and then find a way to do it.

Then, we should take away or reduce the things that make us unhappy by giving our time, skill or money, but not to such an extent that it hurts.

Ness Wadia, who was the judge at the flagship consulting event -- Samvaad, interacted with the students and enthralled everyone with his very real take on corporate social responsibility and the lack of it in the Indian corporate domain.

He also addressed current issues of social development and the need for public private partnership in various fields.

Wadia took very keen interest in the overall proceedings and asked relevant questions to all the participants. His feedback and comments were invaluable for all the participants.

The HR event called HRiday, saw the participation of more than 100 teams from the best B-schools in India. Opera, the operations club of SJMSOM conducted Yojna, a case study based operations event.

Another interesting project was Imagine it! Participants were given some materials like candles, used CD, straws and matchbox and asked to make a useful thing from it.

There were lot of innovative ideas and products presented in this event like - solution for electricity scarcity in Mumbai, multi-utility organizer etc.

Around 100 teams participated in preliminary round of Pragyaan, the business Quiz. Participants were from the corporates such as IBM, Sun, Deutsche Bank, Tata Consultancy Services and from institutes like IIMs, the SP Jain Institute, etc. Avinash Mudaliar, CEO of 3XUS was the quizmaster.

Navonmesh, the entrepreneurial challenge, gave fillip to the spirit of innovation and enterprise in the country. This event conducted every year aims to offer a helping hand to support and nurture start-ups.
Six start-ups were invited to present their business plans. These start-ups are supported by the Technopreneur Promotion Programme of the department of science and technology. The start ups presented feasible business plans to a panel of judges, which included start-up owners and venture capitalists.

Karteek Narumanchi, Aravind Venugopalan and Rajesh Kumar Naidu Yabaji from IIT-Kharagpur won the award this year.

P2 Power, owned by Shwetank Jain, is a start-up currently incubated at IIT Kharagpur and has products to improve the power distribution quality.

P2 Power Solutions aims to be a market leader in the domain of power quality enhancement at the distribution level, helping industries to strengthen their power assets through avant-garde technology and technical expertise.

The event was a culmination of months of hard work for the second year students of the SJMSOM.
"The event plans were initiated in March when we brainstormed on the theme for the festival and the events. We started working on the events three months ago when we approached distinguished personalities for lectures and corporates for sponsorship. The economic slowdown made getting sponsorship an uphill task. But our marketing skills and the brand name of SJMSOM, IIT Bombay helped us pull it off in grand style," says Amey.

Why India bought IMF gold

It has been an incredible turnaround for India.

In 1991, New Delhi kick-started the economic reforms process owing mainly to the serious balance of payments crisis it was facing. Then, India -- just an inch away from defaulting on its loans -- had less than $2 billion in forex reserves (that would not even have taken care of three weeks' of imports) and had to pledge gold with the International Monetary Fund to get a loan to get out of the crisis.

Today, it is the IMF that has sold gold to India to 'borrow' money to loan to poor nations!

That is indeed irrefutable proof that the economic reforms that Manmohan Singh (the then finance minister and current prime minister) set in motion have borne fruit.

On September 18, 2009, the IMF's executive board approved gold sales strictly limited to 403.3 metric tonnes, representing one eighth of its total holdings.

India and China were seen as the likely buyers the IMF gold, given the two Asian giants' economic strength even in the face of the global recession that ravaged most economies.

Many analysts were surprised at the speed with which India bought the IMF gold. However, they believe that it is a very smart move as by buying IMF gold, New Delhi is shoring up its bullion reserves and slowly trying to hedge its bets on the US dollar which has been losing value against other currencies.

The RBI paid on average about $1,045 per ounce for the gold and the transaction would be paid in hard currency and not in IMF Special Drawing Rights, the IMF's internal unit of account.

IMF, meanwhile, has not given out any details on whether any other central banks had shown interest in buying the remaining 203.3 tonnes of gold on tap for sale.

For long, China has been slowly but steadily building up its stockpile of gold and India does not want to be left behind.

'Our average student outperforms the brilliant American'

Karuna Jain is the first woman to head a B-school in India. Head of the Shailesh J Mehta School of Management at IIT-Bombay, she is excited about the growing number of women at the helm of banks and financial institutions.

"It is so good to see women establish themselves. When I took over, there were many who were sceptical about how I would handle things. But I am glad I proved them wrong," says an optimistic Karuna Jain.

"Women by nature are careful, meticulous and well prepared. This is what helps women to rise high in financial services as due diligence is vital in financial services," says Jain.

India is competitive in terms of imparting quality education, she believes. "Our primary and higher secondary education is far superior, our IQ level is very high too. Our average student outperforms the brilliant American," she claims.

She questions the rationale of creating new IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) and IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management) when they are already faced with a faculty and fund shortage. The biggest challenge she faces is getting good faculty. She points out that nobody wants to take up the teaching profession.

"Students in the B-school earn three times more than me on the first day. What I earn in a year, they earn in a month," she says.

Karuna Jain shares her views on management education, faculty shortage, the challenges she faces, and the exciting experience of over two decades of teaching and mentoring students.

How does it feel to be head of a management institute?

It feels very good to be in such a position though there are several challenges. It has been an interesting journey and I have been quite successful despite all odds. I don't look at myself as a woman, but women have to work really hard to prove themselves.

There have been times when people have tried to pull me down, but that has not affected me. They have tried to tell me, 'Don't think you can get away because you a lady', and I have told them, 'I am not a lady, I am your boss!' You have to be really strong. I have always been strong.

In terms of the achievements by the institute, the number of job offers, salary scales and research work have improved after I took over so I am quite satisfied.

The faculty strength has doubled in two years. But I have to increase it by 30 per cent in a year's time.

What kind of challenges do you face? Is it an easy job?

Many think teaching or being a part of an academic institute is a cozy job, but it is not. It is tough as management education is very competitive.

There are many challenges: fulfilling the demands of the students, they want contemporary courses so there is always a paradox as to what is an appropriate mix, how much of theory knowledge is desired and how much practical knowledge is to be given. To create a good mix of theory and practical is a challenge.

Being a technology-dominated institute, it is tough to sell your capabilities in the marketplace. It is still tougher to lure good faculty members. Faculty shortage is a major problem.

In the IIT-set up, research is given more importance than generating funds. Another problem is that in a place where the institute is technology-driven, management is a soft target as our requirements are different from that of a technical institute.

How has the institute progressed in terms of research and placement offers?

In 2007, we had 9 PhDs, more than what all the IIMs together had. Our research focus is pretty good.

The placements scene has improved after I took over. I don't want to take credit for this but when I took over in 2006, the average offer was at Rs 7.5 lakh (Rs 750,000). In 2007, it was Rs 9.76 lakh (Rs 976,000), in 2008 it was Rs 13.96 lakh (Rs 1.396 million). Last year I thought we would be badly hit but we got it around Rs 10.03 lakh (Rs 1.003 million).

The year 2008 was really good as we had 3 jobs per student. This year it has gone down to 1.5 , that is 90 job offers for 60 students.

But the students are not getting paid for their expertise. Most of our students are engineers, and for the value addition they give, they are not paid well. A management guy may get more pay than these guys.

Why are they very few girls for this management course?

We take students based on a competitive exam. We take only engineers. There has always been less number of girls for engineering courses. But this year it is much better. Ten per cent of the students are girls this year; earlier that figure used to be 3-4 per cent.

When I studied engineering, in our college of 5,000 students, there were just 2 or 3 girls. So it has got to do more with the social system.

Even now there are many communities, where co-education is not allowed. I went to a girls' school. I went to a co-ed institute for the first time when I joined engineering. Even though the ratio of boys to girls is skewed, even at the B-schools, in academics and in placements, girls do equally well.

Does the quota system help?

I am against any kind of quota business, irrespective of the reason. If girls are not getting the right environment, we should provide it for them. We should develop the capabilities for the underprivileged to compete with others at some level.

If we go on offering them everything at concessional rates, they get the feeling that they can get away without doing anything.

How long can this continue? Someday there will be a lot of frustration as we would fail to create an attitude to build capabilities and compete with others based on the capability. This is harmful for our country.

We are not growing the way we should because of the quota system. We create quotas for everything and keep aside our competence.

Do you think India should have more IITs and IIMs?

It is the responsibility of the nation to provide education to everyone. So you can either upscale the existing system and maintain the same quality/standard or you create a new system and bring them to that level. I would prefer the latter because once the culture is built, scaling up becomes much easier, rather than building something new and build the culture as it takes a longer time.

Today, IITs have a brand value after 50 years of hard work and efforts. Emulating this at a new place would require at least twenty years.

You cannot create academic institutes by just making new buildings. You need good teachers and you cannot create teachers overnight. Unless we have more teachers, we cannot impart quality education.

The plan should ideally be toward creating more teachers.

Do you face a faculty shortage?

This is the most serious problem we face in India and all over the world. Nobody wants to take up the teaching profession. People even say we are stupid to become teachers.

One problem is the compensation package; we can earn ten times more if we take up any other job. My students earn three times more than me on the first day. Our doctoral students earn five times more than me. What I earn in one year, my students earns in one month.

Gone are those days where we believed in a value system. The value systems today have completely changed. My father said one should not charge for imparting education. If that is the case there would be no coaching classes today. Goddess Saraswati has nothing to do with money. But this is no longer valid.

Is there more interest among students to start their own firms?

Most of them want to take up a job first. They want to have corporate experience, to learn management and implement it in large organisations and then start ventures on their own.

There is a huge interest in entrepreneurship. Last year, we created an entrepreneurship club. This year we are launching an interesting initiative called the e-garage. Young entrepreneurs from the IIT and management professionals from the SJ Mehta School of Management will come together to work on new ventures. It will be a perfect combination of a technical expertise and management skills.

Even though the management grads are engineers, IIT-ians have the advantage of being abreast with the latest technology. E-garage will provide a perfect ecosystem for entrepreneurship to flourish.

Are more students preferring go abroad? Do you think brain drain is still happening?

Last year, we got five offers from MNCs for positions in India. I don't think many people want to go abroad now. The trend is changing; many of my friends are now coming back to India.

Earlier, there were many opportunities abroad, but that has changed now. They see more opportunities in India today. Brain drain is hype, actually. A good majority of people go abroad to pursue higher studies.

Can we cut down on the number of students going abroad to study?

No, we can't. In India we do not have the facilities to accommodate 450,000 students to do MTech. We don't have the infrastructure. There is a huge demand supply gap here whereas in foreign countries there large universities and less number of students. So students will continue to go abroad.

But if you take the quality of education, we are competitive. Our primary and higher secondary education is far superior than theirs, our IQ level is very high too. Our average student outperforms the brilliant American.

I have realised this from my 20 years of teaching experience. I have figured out that my son is far better in Maths and Science compared to his cousins (older than him) who study abroad. Of course, there may be situations where it may not be true.

Do you evaluate business plans of students?

We do evaluate plans. We hold competitions like the Eureka at IIT. We organise a programme called Navonmesh, where upcoming startups are encouraged. We hold a competition for the startups with the best feasibility plan.

Some of them even get funding from angel investors who come to judge their plan. While Eureka is about ten years old, we have been conducting Navonmesh for the last three years. The interest and spirit among students in terms f entrepreneurship is huge.

One of our faculty members -- Prof Rajendra Sonar -- owns a startup and recently won an award in the five-year-old startups category. The success stories emerging from our B-schools are very interesting.

Most of the students study engineering for four years, then they pursue a management course and finally end up doing jobs, which may not be related to what they studied. What are your views?

It is not true, but if they are selling soaps then they are deviating from their expertise. But these days most of the businesses are technology-oriented and have sensitivity toward technology really helps.

I use the word sensitivity because being an electrical engineer. I may not understand mechanical aspects, but I can certainly understand what kind of constraints that can come up and use my engineering skills in enhancing products and services. This understanding is very crucial.

Instead of having pure technology people who talk only about functionality or people who just know the financial aspects, a technology person with a management degree makes you a better decision maker, a better manager.

Should more start-ups be promoted?

Definitely, startups need to be promoted. We need to create an ecosystem that allows entrepreneurs to come up. We do not have the right ecosystem to promote startups. But it has improved in the last two decades.

The hardships that young entrepreneurs face are much less today than it used to be 10-15 years ago. We need to grow on this aspect as our economy is large. We need more angel investors and venture capitalists to invest in bright ideas and do the hand holding as the risk level has gone down from 80 per cent to 20 per cent.

If you go to Silicon Valley, you get to see such hand-holding and mentoring process. It has become a culture there. We must create a similar culture in India.

What are new initiatives that you have planned for your B-school?

We are looking at creating programmes that blend research with practice. Right now, they work on programmes that span 3-4 months. We are looking at a master's programme in technology operations, which can be over a longer period of technology 8-10 months.

We are planning to start a one-year executive MBA programme. It has been approved by the senate but we are working out the operational details.

Being in the IIT set up, we are also looking at giving research inputs to the management world. One of the areas we would focus on is entrepreneurship and innovation. We are planning to start a centre of excellence to take up large projects.

The heads of all the B-schools of IITs are looking at creating an IIT B-school brand, work together on some projects. We are also looking at building technology entrepreneurships as we have the support of all the IITs.

IIT-Madras and IIT Kharagpur are already doing projects in collaboration with IIM Calcutta. This is the need of the hour. We need to make the best use of our technology and management education. We have also been approached by the aviation regulatory authority to conduct studies. So 'consultancy projects' is another area we will focus on.

What has made you successful?

There are many things...the desire to be successful, dedication and commitment to the profession are the main aspects. Once I take up an assignment, I put my heart into it. I don't take up a project if am not sure I will be able to justice to it.

What is your advice to people who want to pursue management education?

They must understand the nuances of management and go for education. I would suggest they get some experience before they join for this course. This would help in understanding the management principles better.

We decided to take freshers so that they are not biased to any particular style of function. Even at IIMs, graduates find it difficult to understand certain things. So it is advisable to get some experience and learn so what would be valuable to them, they have to decide what they would like to specialise in.

This will put them on a right track as a bachelor's degree is a just a foundation course, but a master's degree creates a unique skill set based on your strengths.

The world's most attractive employers

Internet search giant Google has emerged as the most sought after company for business and engineering graduates, according to two surveys, which term the company as the world's 'most attractive employer'.

According to the surveys compiled by Universum, a global employer branding firm, Google has been ranked number 1 in the list of top 50 global businesses and engineering companies.

The surveys said, "Google's number one position is no surprise. Due to its remarkable brand image, students worldwide see it as a company they would like to work for."

The global rankings -- based on a survey of 120,000 students -- highlights the world's most powerful employer brands and those companies that are 'the most successful in talent attraction and retention'.

Students from the United States, Japan, China, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Russia, Spain, Canada and India's top academic institutions took part in the survey.

Soft drink major Coca-Cola is in the 13th position, while Citigroup has cornered the 21st place for itself among the list for business students.

Oracle and Philip Morris make it to the top 50 for business students, but not for engineering students.

GlaxoSmithKline and Alcatel-Lucent appear in the engineering ranking, yet not in the business ranking.

Despite it being one of the toughest years for car manufactures, BMW and Daimler appear in the global top 50
ranking in both lists.

Let's take a look at the top 10 favourite companies for both engineering and business students. . .

Google: Rank 1

It was in the summer of 1995 that Larry Page and Sergey Brin met for the first time at Stanford. Larry, 22, a University of Michigan graduate, was considering the school, and Sergey, 21, was assigned to show him around. According to some accounts, they disagreed on almost everything during this first meeting.

In 1996, Page and Brin, now Stanford computer science grad students, began collaborating on a search engine called BackRub. It operated on Stanford servers for more than a year -- eventually taking up too much bandwidth to suit the university.

Next year, Page and Brin decided that the BackRub search engine needed a new name. After some brainstorming, they went with Google -- a play on the word "googol," a mathematical term for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. The use of the term reflected their mission to organise a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.

In August 1998, Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote a check for $100,000 to an entity that dd not exist: a company called Google Inc.

In September, Google set up workspace in a garage at 232 Santa Margarita, Menlo Park.

Google files for incorporation in California on September 4. Shortly thereafter, Page and Brin open a bank account in the newly-established company's name and deposited Andy Bechtolsheim's check.

Craig Silverstein a Stanford graduate was Google's first employee.

In December 'PC Magazine' recognised Google as the search engine of choice in the Top 100 Web Sites for 1998.

Google is now headquartered at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California.

Pricewaterhouse: Rank 2 (business list)

The search giant is followed by Pricewaterhouse where most B-Schools students want to work.

"The employers that feature in this Top 50 all have one thing in common: they successfully appeal to current and
future talent, and they are aware of how scarce talent is," Universum said.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has been created by the merger of two firms - Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand - each with historical roots going back some 150 years.

In 1849, Samuel Lowell Price set up a business in London, and in 1854, William Cooper established his own practice in the city, which seven years later becomes Cooper Brothers.

In 1982, Price Waterhouse World Firm was formed, and in 1990 Coopers & Lybrand merged with Deloitte Haskins & Sells in a number of countries around the world.

Finally, in 1998 following a worldwide merger of Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand, PricewaterhouseCoopers was born.

PwC audits:

• 31% of the FT Global 500;
• 30% of the Fortune Global 500;
• 29% of the FT Europe 500;
• 38% of the S & P Latin America 40;
• 38% of the S & P Asia 50, and
• 29% of the Fortune 500.

The worldwide gross revenues of its network of firms was $26.2 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2009.

PwC was named the 2009 Top Company for Global Diversity by DiversityInc. While PwC was a top 10 winner in the 11th Annual Global Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise Award, PwC US was named one of Fortune's '100 Best Companies to Work For' in 2009.

Microsoft: Rank 2 (engineers list), rank 3 (business list)

Irrespective of ranks, the top 50 global employers for business and engineering students are very similar, showing strong employer brands transcend many skill and industry groups.

While engineering graduates preferred Microsoft as their second choice, for business students, Microsoft is the third choice.

Following the launch of the Altair 8800 (a computer), William Henry Gates III, (Bill Gates) called the developers of the new microcomputer, Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, offering to demonstrate an implementation of the BASIC programming language for the system.

After the demonstration, MITS agreed to distribute Altair BASIC. Gates left Harvard University, moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where MITS was located, and founded Microsoft there.

The company's first international office was founded on November 1, 1978, in Japan, titled ASCII Microsoft (now called Microsoft Japan).

On January 1, 1979, the company moved from Albuquerque to a new home in Bellevue, Washington. Steve Ballmer joined the company on June 11, 1980, and later succeeded Bill Gates as CEO.

On August 12, 1981 IBM introduced its personal computer with Microsoft's 16-bit operating system, MS-DOS 1.0. on May 22, 1990 Microsoft launched Windows 3.0. 

IBM: Rank 3 (engineers list)

Nicknamed 'Big Blue' for its official corporate colour, IBM has been well known through most of its recent history as the world's largest computer company and systems integrator.

With over 398,455 employees worldwide, IBM is the largest and most profitable information technology employer in the world. It holds more patents than any other US based technology company and has eight research laboratories worldwide.

The company has scientists, engineers, consultants, and sales professionals in over 170 countries, and its scientists have earned five Nobel Prizes.

IBM was founded in 1896 as the Tabulating Machine Company by Herman Hollerith, in Broome County, New York. It was incorporated as Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation on June 16, 1911, and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1916.

CTR's Canadian and later South American subsidiary was named International Business Machines in 1917, and the whole company took this name in 1924.

BMW: Rank 4 (engineers list)

After World War I, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (English: Bavarian Motor Works or BMW) was forced to cease aircraft (engine) production by the terms of the Versailles Armistice Treaty.

The company consequently shifted to motorcycle production in 1923 once the restrictions of the treaty started to be lifted, followed by automobiles in 1928-29.

Goldman Sachs: Rank 4 (business list)

Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869 by German immigrant Marcus Goldman. In 1882, Goldman's son-in-law Samuel Sachs joined the firm which prompted the name change to Goldman Sachs.

The company made a name for itself pioneering the use of commercial paper for entrepreneurs and was invited to join the New York Stock Exchange in 1896.

In the early 20th century, Goldman was a player in establishing the initial public offering market. It managed one of the largest IPOs to date, that of Sears, Roebuck and Company in 1906.

It also became one of the first companies to heavily recruit those with MBA degrees from leading business schools, a practice that still continues today.

Intel: Rank 5 (engineers list)

Intel - the world's largest semiconductor chip maker is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors.

Intel was founded on July 18, 1968, as Integrated Electronics Corporation and is based in Santa Clara, California, USA.

At its founding, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce wanted to name their new company Moore Noyce. The name, however, sounded remarkably similar to more noise!

So they junked the idea, and used the name NM Electronics for almost a year, before deciding to call their company INTegrated ELectronics or Intel for short.

However, Intel was already trademarked by a hotel chain, so they had to buy the rights.

Ernst & Young: Rank 5 (business list)

Ernst & Young is the result of a series of mergers of ancestor organisations. The oldest originating partnership was founded in 1849 in England as Harding & Pullein.

In 1989, the number four (accounting firm) merged with the then number five, Arthur Young, on a global basis to create Ernst & Young.

In October 1997, EY announced plans to merge its global practices with KPMG to create the largest professional services organisation in the world.

In 2002, EY merged with many of the ex-Arthur Andersen practices around the world, although not those in the USA, UK, China or the Netherlands.

General Electric: Rank 6 (engineers list)

General Electric formed in 1892 through the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Company is worth almost $49 billion.

In 1896, General Electric was one of the original 12 companies listed on the newly-formed Dow Jones Industrial Average and still remains after 113 years.

Since over half of GE's revenue is derived from financial services, it is arguably a financial company with a manufacturing arm. It is also one of the largest lenders in countries other than the United States, such as Japan.

With 323,000 employees around the world, GE was the world's largest company by Forbes this year.

Procter and Gamble: Rank 6 (business list); rank 10 (engineers list)

William Procter, a candlemaker, and James Gamble, a soapmaker, immigrants from England and Ireland, respectively, who had settled earlier in Cincinnati, met as they both married sisters, Olivia and Elizabeth Norris.

Alexander Norris, their father-in law, called a meeting in which he persuaded his new sons-in-law to become business partners. On October 31, 1837, as a result of the suggestion, Procter & Gamble was born.

As of 2008, P&G is the 8th largest corporation in the world by market capitalization and 14th largest US company by profit.

Sony: Rank 7 (engineers list)

In late 1945, after World War II, Masaru Ibuka started a radio repair shop in a bombed-damaged department store building in Nihonbashi of Tokyo. The next year, he was joined by his colleague Akio Morita and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo which translates in English to Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation. The company built Japan's first tape recorder called the Type-G.

When Tokyo Tsushin was looking for a romanised name to use to market themselves, they strongly considered using their initials, TTK. But Japanese railway company Tokyo Kyuko was also known as TKK.

The company occasionally used the acronym 'Totsuko' in Japan, but during his visit to the United States, Morita discovered that Americans had trouble pronouncing that name.

Finally they settled for "Sony" - a mix of two words - the Latin word Sonus which is the root of 'sonic' and 'sound' and the other was 'sonny', a familiar term used in 1950s America to call a boy.

At that time it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters instead of kanji to spell its name and the move was not without opposition.

J P Morgan: Rank 7 (business list)

J P Morgan is part of JPMorgan Chase & Co, a global financial services firm with assets of $2.0 trillion.

John Pierpont Morgan (April 17, 1837 - March 31, 1913) was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time.

He created the first billion dollar corporation by buying out industrialist Andre Carnegie and combining some 33 companies to form United States Steel.

During the financial panoc of 1907, J P Morgan saved several trust companies and a leading brokerage house from insolvency, bailed out New York City, and bailed out New York Stock Exchange.

And in 2008, J P Morgan played an important role in helping manage the credit crisis through the acquisition of Bear Stearns.

Siemens: Rank 8 (engineers list)

Headquartered in Berlin and Munich, Siemens AG is a conglomerate of three main business sectors: industry, energy and healthcare with a total of 15 divisions.

Worldwide, Siemens and its subsidiaries employ approximately 480,000 people in nearly 190 countries and reported global revenue of euro 77.327 billion as of 2008.

Siemens AG is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since March 12, 2001.

KPMG: Rank 8 (business list)

KPMG is one of the largest professional services firms in the world and one of the Big Four auditors, along with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu  and Ernst & Young.

Its global headquarters are located in Amstelveen, Netherlands.

KPMG employs over 136,500 people in a global network of professional services firms spanning over 140 countries. It has three lines of services: audit, tax, and advisory.

Shell: Rank 9 (engineers list)

Little did shopkeeper Marcus Samuel realise, when he decided to expand his London business, that he was laying the foundations of one of today's leading energy companies.

He sold antiques, but now added oriental shells. He aimed to capitalise on a fashion for using them in interior design. His instinct was right - such was the demand that Samuel quickly began importing shells from the Far East, laying the foundations for his import/export business.

The word 'Shell' first appeared in 1891, as the trade mark for kerosene being shipped to the Far East by Marcus Samuel and Company.

The word was elevated to corporate status in 1897, when Samuel formed The "Shell" Transport and Trading Company. The first logo (1901) was a mussel shell, but by 1904 a scallop shell or 'Pecten" emblem had been introduced.

When the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and Shell Transport and Trading merged in 1907 it was the latter's brand name and symbol which remained.

McKinsey & Company: Rank 9 (business list)

Ranked number one for six consecutive years in the Vault.com list of top consulting firms, McKinsey & Company has been a top employer for MBA graduates since 1996.

James O. McKinsey & Company was founded in Chicago in 1926 by James O. ("Mac") McKinsey, an accounting professor at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, who pioneered budgeting as a management tool.

Marshall Field's became a client in 1935, and soon convinced McKinsey to leave the firm and become its CEO; however, he died unexpectedly of pneumonia in 1937.

Marvin Bower, who succeeded McKinsey resurrected the New York office and renamed it McKinsey & Company.
McKinsey has produced more CEOs than any other company and is referred to by Fortune magazine as "the best CEO launch pad".

More than 70 past and present CEOs at Fortune 500 companies are former McKinsey employees.

Deloitte: Rank 10 (business list)

According to the organisation's website as of 2008[update], Deloitte has approximately 165,000 staff at work in 140 countries, delivering audit, tax, consulting and financial advisory services through its member firms.

Its global headquarters are located in New York City, New York. European headquarters are located in London.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is a Swiss Verein, a membership organization under the Swiss Civil Code whereby each member firm is a separate and independent legal entity.

While the full name of the Swiss verein is Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, in 1989 it initially branded itself Deloitte & Touche and then simply Deloitte.

Deloitte offers its staff a variety of career models to choose from based on their preferences, geographic location and business need.

The organisation is consistently rated by Fortune as one of their '100 Best Companies To Work For'.

In 2007 and 2009, Deloitte was rated the number one place to launch your career by BusinessWeek.

Procter and Gamble mentioned in slide 8 is ranked 10th in the business list.

These IIT-ians make your home-hunt easier

Meet Ashutosh Upadhyay and Snehesh Mitra, two IIT-ians who founded EasySquareFeet.com to offer hassle-free solutions for home-hunters.

Their mission is to make real estate services market transparent, efficient, reliable and truly professional. They believe that the real estate brokerage industry in India is fragmented, localised and inefficient. So they have come up with a solution that will make your search for a dream home or house on rental easier and effective.

People who are looking to buy, sell or take a house on rent can place a request by making a call, or just post a request on the website (easysquarefeet.com). They will get an immediate response from the team. Instead of listing a large number of properties in the database, the customers are shown houses after understanding their requirements.

Photographs are shown to them on the Web site or mailed to them. After they shortlist the properties they would like to see, they are accompanied to the site. "The service is very personalised, making sure that the customer gets the best deal for his money," says Ashutosh.

The company focuses on service quality and information credibility. A fascination for social entrepreneurship, creating opportunities for others, handling bigger challenges and building a strong and reliable service prompted Ashutosh who joined hands Snehesh with to start this real estate servicing venture.

"Property rentals and prices have risen a bit and stabilised. We expect them to remain stable over the next few months," says Ashutosh. Here's how the two are planning to make their mark in the booming real estate sector.

Tell us more about how you became an entrepreneur?

Ashutosh: After exploring multiple ideas and taking opinions from several entrepreneurs, I started looking for a good business partner.

I decided to join hands with my IIT Kharagpur batchmate, Snehesh, whom I have known for a decade. He was doing the preliminary study for setting up a venture in the real estate services sector.

The sector fitted my bill because there is immense potential for making a social impact by educating and empowering real estate workers.

Snehesh: I wanted to be a leader who creates opportunities, and makes way for the masses to follow. So for me, it was just a matter of time before I took the plunge.

Though it hasn't been that simple, the endeavour is still on. There is still time before I call myself an entrepreneur.

I see difficulties as the fun part of being an entrepreneur. Believe me, I would have never wanted to be one, if it was all so simple. I had a lot of fun breaking this news to my wife, though she always knew it was round the corner.

The questions about where do we start from, how we will manage without a job, will it work, where do we get the money to sustain. . . There was so much to think about and do. The fun still continues.

What kind of challenges do you face?

Setting up has lot of challenges right from deciding whether to take the plunge or not. It was extremely difficult to inspire confidence among real estate professionals of diverse background and change their behaviour.

It was tough to get to a business model, which made sense for all stakeholders. Hiring and retaining the right talent has been another big challenge for us as a startup.

However, underlying these challenges are the people issues -- our business thrives on the power of collaboration, which demands strong leadership, management and organisational capabilities.

Convincing people to change their old behavioral patterns was the most difficult step. So people related issues are our biggest challenge.

Was your family supportive?

Ashutosh: I have been lucky as my family backs my decisions. Lack of support or resistance from friends and family can make an entrepreneur's job more difficult.

In fact, one must give due consideration to the support system before pursuing entrepreneurship. A supportive environment from the family and friends is extremely important for sailing through the tough times.

Snehesh: Yes. To say the least, they have been always around. With those comforting words to that handing over the last penny from the bank account, to sleeping with the lights on and handling my aggressive phone discussions late into the night. . .

I think they have become more of an entrepreneur than I am.

When did you start? How has the experience been so far?

Ashutosh: I decided to pursue entrepreneurship in early 2007. The first step was to work on attaining financial security, gathering more perspectives and exploring options alongside. While I was in France for most part of 2007, I did my groundwork to understand the challenges of entrepreneurship, evaluated business ideas and planned for my next steps.

Snehesh and I were always in touch and were aware of each other's entrepreneurial aspirations. I came to India in December 2007 and met Snehesh to discuss further. After considering my options, I quit my job and started off as an entrepreneur.

Snehesh: Things started moving by the end of 2007. Once Ashutosh joined, we were in the fast lane. It has been quite an experience. I always wondered how it would be when I walk this path, but the experience has been way beyond what I imagined it to be.

How did you develop an interest in the real estate sector?

We realised that Indian real estate services was one domain, which is very large, fairly unorganised, uses little technology or best practices, and is powered by unskilled professionals due to zero entry barrier to the domain.

The industry lags behind in terms of innovation, organisation, etc. As a result all stakeholders in the sector -- consumers, agents, and builders -- have problems that we can solve.

We clearly saw that our experience/expertise can create significant value. The opportunity to make a huge impact drew our interests towards real estate services sector.

Most people find finance a major constraint to start a venture. How was it for you?

It was not an easy ride for us either. We bootstrapped with our savings. However, we had planned our finances reasonably well to run the show optimally.

Have you received funding? Do you have plans to approach venture capitalists?

We recently raised one round of angel funding, which was mostly through friends and known angel investors. We have no immediate plans to approach VCs. We plan to grow the business by internal accruals.

How much have you invested so far?

We have invested around Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2 million) so far. (This does not include the funds that we raised recently.)

How many people are there in the company? How difficult to convince people to join a start-up?

We are a team of 7 members. Besides this, we have 24 sales associates, 12 supply associates.

Being a Morpheus Venture Partners (MVP) portfolio firm, we also get guidance from MVP s team of experienced entrepreneurs. MVP team works with us as a limited co-founder and plays an integral part in each step of execution.

There are a lot of job seekers in the market, so convincing people to join the start up is not that difficult. The difficulty is in selecting the right candidate.

Startups need to be very choosy and hire only the best talent. Since, the number of employees is so small for startups, every single one makes a huge difference.

Retaining the employees is another challenge. Employees working in lower and medium segments do not have long-term vision and can switch jobs for small hikes. It s important to create a good work environment, having timely appraisals and salary revisions in order to keep them motivated for a longer run.

How do you manage expenses? Do you take a salary?

Our expenses are managed from what we earn. We did not take salary for over 20 months. However, we have started taking burn rates from September 2009.

How many enquires do you get everyday?

We receive around 200-300 enquires in a month. On an average we get about 6-10 enquires daily.

How different are your services compared to others that already exist?

In the existing market there are two types of services: classifieds and local agents. EasySquareFeet believes that the key to servicing customers is to create a strong online infocentre, backed by stronger offline capabilities, and combine the two powers to ensure service quality and information credibility, on a large scale.

The biggest challenge in achieving this aim is to organise the sector and inculcate a sense of collaboration and team work among all entities.

With our propriety technology and organising capabilities, we are in process of modernising Indian real estate services space and ensuring highly customer focused services.

How did the IIT help in making you an entrepreneur?

Ashutosh: Clearing the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) to be among the 2,000-odd people who made it to IIT gives a big boost to your self confidence.

IIT offers you plenty of opportunities to learn and broaden your perspectives. IIT gave me the platform for all-round development, gave me opportunities to face challenges, demonstrate leadership and strengthen my personality.

Snehesh: I was not born an entrepreneur, but IIT made me one. Right from having a positive attitude to the killer instinct, to an illustrious alumni network I owe a lot to IIT.

Has the recession affected your business?

Recession has had both a positive as well as a negative impact on our business. As a young startup we were affected by the slow market scenario. Lack of buyers dried up the outright transactions.

The rental market was also affected due to reduction in recruitments (people moving in from other cities). Hence the amount of business shrunk and our growth has been affected.

The positive aspect is that the tough times reduced competition as non-serious players moved out of business because of the difficult conditions. Strong fundamentals kept us going in the tough times.

Consistent growth in the recession period established a strong credibility for us in the market. As a result, we are reasonably placed to capitalise on the post recession scenario.

How's the feedback from people? What's the fee you charge?

There is a pressing need for professional organised real estate services. The concept and the service have been well accepted so far. Moreover, constructive feedback from our user base has helped us continually enhance the user experience.

We charge the market prevailing rates to individuals and provide discounts to existing customers.

How many transactions have you done so far?

We have done over 125 transactions in the bootstrapping phase.
What are your views on the real estate sector in India? Will the rental and property prices rise further?

The real estate sector plays a significant role in the country's economy. It is second only to agriculture in terms of employment generation and contributes heavily towards the gross domestic product (GDP).

Almost 5 per cent of the country's GDP is contributed to by the housing sector. In the next five years, this contribution to the GDP is expected to rise to 6 per cent.

Property rentals and prices have risen a bit and stabilised. We expect them to remain stable over the next few months. Any further increase may be temporary and prices may get corrected back to the current levels, in the near future.

How do you see the company's growth when there are other agencies offering similar services?

The market is huge and no single vendor can cater to the whole market. More agencies that can give professional services will only help consumers. Moreover, our business model can also leverage the existing agencies and organise them. For us it's all about collaborative competition.

However, not many firms provide services in the manner in which we do. International franchising firms like Remax have recently entered Indian markets, but such firms have work to do because their business models, which worked in developed countries, need significant alterations in the Indian context.

On the other hand, we have a two-year advantage of understanding the nitty-gritty of the Indian real estate market and devising a model that works best for India.

Finally, the proof of the pudding is the fact that we are already generating revenues. The model is quite scalable and we are set for growth.

Is this a profitable business? What kind of revenues do you expect?

After achieving operational breakeven, we raised capital for implementing our plans keeping the future in mind.

Currently, we generate monthly revenues in the tune of Rs 1.5 to 2 lakh (Rs 150,000-200,000) by covering one third of Bangalore. The current set up is under-utilised and can generate 2-3 times more revenues.

A little additional cost can increase our coverage area to help us increase revenues further in Bangalore and leverage the economy of scale.

How do you sum up your experience as an entrepreneur?

Ashutosh: After graduating, I worked as a PLM expert with Infosys for five years. During this period, I travelled to several countries and worked for top notch clients.

However, in my less than two years of entrepreneurship, I have learnt much more than what I did during my regular job.

When I set out to be an entrepreneur, self improvement was one of my primary personal goals. So far, my journey has been a fulfilling one and there is a lot more to look forward to.

Snehesh: The experience has been great. I have always seen myself as multifaceted person, and entrepreneurship has allowed me to use my skills well. It's worth taking the road less travelled by, and it has made all the difference.

Tell us 5 things that entrepreneurs must do to succeed?

Ashutosh: It would be too early for me to say what people must do to succeed. However, there is something common with all entrepreneurs I have met. Some of them were born with these qualities; others picked them up after taking the plunge.

1. Have passion:  Extremely passionate about whatever they do. They are most passionate about their ventures. They consider their ventures as their babies.

2. Stay determined: They never give up, have patience to keep trying in spite of repeated failures. They have a very positive attitude.

3. Have supreme self belief: Forever trust in who we are and 'nothing else matters'. They like to leverage wisdom of everyone around by taking opinions. Their self belief inspires confidence among the people they lead. Self belief also ensures that they enjoy what they do. Hence, it's easy for them to rub their passion on to their team mates.

4. Should be crazy about detail: Entrepreneurs have an eye for detail. Focus on getting all data points for arriving at the sound conclusion.

5. Have leadership qualities: This is one quality which comprises of an endless number of things and is hard to quantify. In short, he should be able to build teams, drive consensus to keep everyone together, lead by example, command the respect of his men and get the best out of them!

Snehesh: A good entrepreneur must believe in oneself, in the team and in the idea. He must have perseverance, work smartly rather than just working hard. Keep experimenting and improve on objective feedback. Have fun with whatever you do.

How important is innovation for an entrepreneurship to succeed?

Entrepreneurship is about identifying an unsolved problem and providing commercially viable solution to a large customer base. In order to succeed, the product/service should offer something unique, something that does not exist.

Entrepreneurs, like scientists, constantly innovate to improve that magic formula of an efficient and viable solution. It won't be wrong to say that innovation is the key to success. Without innovation there is no entrepreneurship.

Did you have any role model who inspired you?

Ashutosh: I don't really have one role model but I do observe good habits of people to draw inspiration. There are quite a few people whom I have high regard for.

Lance Armstrong: His determination to fight cancer, win 7 Tour de France races, reminds that one must always stay positive. Every obstacle can be turned into an opportunity.

Sachin Tendulkar: Humility, professionalism from a man of his talent and stature is a great lesson for not letting success get to one's head. His undying passion is also awe inspiring.

Vijay Mallya: For being an entrepreneur, who has created his unique personal brand

N R Narayana Murthy: Having worked with Infosys, I really appreciate his vision and ethics.

M S Dhoni: For his composure, presence of mind and leadership instincts.

My parents (Rakesh and Rajni Upadhyay): For always listening to their heart and giving it all to achieve what they believed in.

Snehesh: I really don't have one, but there are certainly so many people I look up to. They have all helped me understand what I want to do and how I should go about it.

But most important of all, I look up to my parents, Chinmoy and Madhumita Mitra

What are your company's future plans? Where do you see yourself five years from now?

By Q2 2010, we shall consolidate our business in Bangalore and provide service across the city. Thereafter, we will look for expansion in one more city.

In the next five years, we aim to have a pan India presence. The Indian real estate is market is worth $60 billion and is expected to grow to $90 billion by 2014-2015.

The services market is estimated to be $3 billion and is expected to grow to $4.5 billion by 2014-2015. We will aim to be among the top market players in the next 5 years and look forward to grab market share in the range of 5-10 per cent.

How do you spend your leisure time?

Ashutosh: My work doesn't offer me much leisure time but I do make efforts to create a work life balance.

I have been a semi-professional cricketer. I train players and play matches. I go for Salsa once a week, play the guitar when I am at home and I like to spend time with family, friends and read books.

Snehesh: There are only two things I do, work and spend time with my one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. She is my relaxation therapy as well as my work out dumbbell.