Mohammed Ishaq, a former Karnataka and BEL footballer, died here on Sunday. He was 66 and had been ailing for some time.
Ishaq turned out for Karnataka in the Junior Nationals of 1964. He also represented BEL for over 20 years.
In a condolence message, the Karnataka State Football Association described Ishaq as a fine defender. He is survived by a son and a daughter.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sport / Bangalore – February 17th, 2014
AR Rahman on making experimental music with Imtiaz Ali, his two upcoming international releases, Mani Ratnam’s next and a music album that releases later this month.
He’s getting ready to walk the red carpet at the Berlin Film Festival with Highway director Imtiaz Ali and leads Randeep Hooda and Alia Bhatt. “It’s cold here but not freezing, the sun is out,” says AR Rahman, talking to Mirror from the German capital.
Back home, he has surprised many by appearing in the music video of Pataka Guddi with Alia. Is an acting career on the cards? “That’s a different trip. I’d rather continue with my musical journey. There’s so much left to explore” says the maestro.
He points out that the film offered him a lot of creative freedom to experiment with different things before they landed up with the final list of songs. “Even more challenging was the minimalistic background score. There were places where we decided not to have music and let the ambience speak,” he reminisces.
After this road trip through six states, Rahman will set out on The Hundred-Foot Journey based on Richard C Morais’s novel. The Mozart of Madras is looking forward to this adventure drama starring Helen Mirren, Om Puri and Manish Dayal. “I’m a great admirer of the Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom who’s been nominated for the Oscars for My Life as a Dog and The Cider House Rules. His sensibilities are unique. I’m really excited,” he exults. Produced by Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey and Juliet Blake, the film opens on August 8.
Before that, the composer will have another international release on May 16–Walt Disney Pictures’ biographical sports drama, Million Dollar Arm. “I’ve worked with a lot of artistes on this score, collaborated with rappers from the West. It’s in the Slumdog Millionaire genre but goes forward and beyond. It’s based on a true story (of baseball pitchers Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel discovered by sports agent JB Bernstein after winning a reality show) which made it more interesting,” he says.
For all those who believe that Rahman is on a highway to the West, he points out that there’s the Rajnikanth starrer, the oneof-its-kind Kochadaiyaan – The Legend. “It’s not real live-action and has been in the making for long but I’m proud to be associated with it,” he asserts. He’s also given the nod to Mani Ratnam’s bilingual starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
Confirming the news Rahman says, “It’ll be nice to be working with Mani Sir again on an exciting, young project.”
He’s also given the nod to Imtiaz’s Window Seat starring Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone. And there’s Shekhar Kapur’s Paani. “I’m glad this ambitious project is in the right hands now, it will happen the way it’s meant to,” he avers.
And if that’s not enough, Rahman will also be releasing an album, Raunaq, on February 27 but won’t divulge detials. You’ll hear it soon,” is all he will say.
With all that’s happening, it’s not surprising his son Ameen would want to stop a music session so his dad could get seven hours of sleep. “Living in a family we tend to take each other for granted till we get a wake-up call like this. Then it’s like wow, this is what a family is about,” he says.
But cruising down the highway of life, as we see in Imtiaz’s upcoming film, can be an eye-opener and a mind-opener. “I’ve been travelling for the last 15 years, not on a truck but on an aeroplane. My kids miss me when I’m away but I don’t mind living out of a suitcase. The UK, US, France, Germany, Iraq… it’s such a thrill meeting people of different cultures, learning about and from them,” he muses. “It’s changed my perception about life, humanity and spirituality.” Jai Ho!
Meanwhile, buzz is, he had objections to Sohail and Salman Khan using the title Jai Ho for their film? Rahman says, “After Slumdog Millionaire, Jai Ho became such a huge hit that I copyrighted the title. I gave an NOC to Sohail and Salman for their film, but if anyone outside India wants to use it, they will need my permission.”
source: http://www.mumbaimirror.com / Mumbai Mirror / Home> Entertainment> Bollywood / by Roshmila Bhattacharya, Mumbai Mirror / February 15th, 2014
Bangalore :
Samreen Gafoor’s fascination with keycards began at the age of six. The 15-year-old, who has travelled extensively, is the proud owner of over 80 keycards. The student of Bishop Cotton Girls’ School has keycards from India, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Chicago, Shanghai among a host of other places. “Actually a lot of them are from the hotels of these places. As a family, we make it a point to go on a vacation every six months. That way I’m lucky that I can add to my collection frequently,” she says.
Recalling how she started off, Samreen says, “The first one I got was from Malaysia which has my name on it. I was a kid back then and got excited to see a keycard with my name on it. So I told my parents to keep it even though they didn’t think much of it. But then after every holiday, I would keep the keycard carefully. That’s when they started taking my hobby seriously. In fact, the minute my dad gets back from a trip, I ask him if he has brought me a keycard.”
Any relative or friend visiting the family loves looking at the keycards. In fact, her love for keycards is so popular that the members of her extended family ensure that they bring her back some when they travel. Pointing out to her collection, she smiles, “Whenever anyone travels, the first thing they do on returning is give me the keycard of the hotel they stayed in. My friends do the same.”
So which are her favourites? “Every keycard is special to me. But the ones from Westin Hotel in Gurgaon, The Atlantis in Dubai, Taj Mahal Hotel in Delhi and Ramada in Doha stand out. Actually, I could go on and on,” she says. Samreen, who has a keen interest in art, says that she looks for keycards with intricate art work. Pointing out the difference between her first few keycards and the current ones, Samreen says, “I have noticed that a lot of effort goes into each one. These days, the hotels like to leave a mark on the keycards. For instance, either a photograph of the hotel or a work from it is put on the keycards. Some have paintings on them. A lot of effort goes into making them attractive. They are really worth keeping.”
She further adds, “Some hotels keep changing the designs every few months.” But her biggest disappointment is when she lands at a hotel which doesn’t use keycards. “The first thought that crosses my mind then is ‘how will I add to my collection?’ Thankfully, the metallic and plastic keys are slowly and surely getting phased out,” she says. Samreen points out that her unusual hobby has given her a chance to map her journey. “I remember the places I have been to and learn about them in the process too,” she says. However, she rues that she has not come across anyone else who has a similar interest. “I really wish I knew others who have the same hobby. It would be great to exchange,” she says.
So how does she maintain her large collection? “It actually doesn’t take that much effort because they fit perfectly into a visiting card holder. But before I got this idea, it was quite tough as I used to keep them all in a box,” she says. While many youngsters grow out of their hobbies, Samreen makes sure that the collection, she has had for over ten years, only grows. “Having pursued the hobby for so long, I know that I’m going to be a collector of keycards for a long time to come. Although I don’t have anything in particular that I would like to add to the collection, I just pay attention to whatever comes my way,” she wraps up.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Supplements> MetroLife / Unique Hobbies / DHNS / by Vidya Iyengar / February 17th, 2014
Guwahati :
On this past 3rd May, a history was created very silently in Assam by a young Muslim girl. Umme Fardina Adil did what female members of her Muslim community in the Northeast state could not do in the last 66 years of Independence. By cracking India’s most coveted Civil Services examination, Fardina became first Muslim woman to become IAS in Assam. Her historic achievement could not be hidden long.
Umme Fardina Adil, a resident of Hatigaon in Guwahati, was felicitated by ERD Foundation and other organisations for her success in the Civil Services exam 2012 whose results were announced on 3rd May. In the list of 998 successful candidates this year, Fardina got 319 rank.
Speaking at the function organised at Regional College of Higher Education (RCHE) in the city on Sunday, Mahbubul Hoque, Chairman ERD Foundation said, “Assam gave the only President of India from the North East – Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. Assam also gave the first and only Muslim woman Chief Minister of the country – Anwara Timur. But it took Assam 66 years to produce the first Muslim woman IAS officer – Umme Fardina Adil.”
Hoque also informed the audience that the entrance test and interview of minority candidates opting for coaching for the IAS exam of 2014 was conducted at the same venue in the morning. It was organised by Zakat Foundation of India (ZFI) and coordinated by ERDF. The felicitation for Fardina was arranged in the afternoon to facilitate her interaction with all the aspiring minority community IAS candidates of 2014 from Assam who were also present at the venue.
Dr Ikramul Haque, Atiqur rahman Siddiqui and Mohammed Aleem from the Zakat Foundation of India, New Delhi were also present on the occasion.
Speaking during the felicitation programme, HN Das, former Chief Secretary of Assam & Director, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Coaching Centre for Civil Services Examinations Guwahati said, “Financial hardship should not be a reason for not being able to sit for IAS examination. Now there are many organisations to support meritorious students to prepare for competitive examinations.”
Prof PK Abdul Azis, Vice Chancellor, University of Science & Technology Meghalaya, who was also a member of the IAS interview board for several years congratulated Fardina and offered her flowers and gifts on behalf of the University. Sabur Tapader and Ahmad Hussain offered gifts to Fardina on behalf of Unity Education Foundation and Pragjyotish Group of Institutions respectively.
Fardina, a former student of Disneyland School and Cotton College of Guwahati, informed the audience that she cleared the IAS in her first attempt and with about 8 months of preparation putting in about six hours every day. She said, she depended on newspapers and Wikipedia for gathering knowledge about new topics and never referred to any guide books.
Fardina encouraged the aspiring candidates for developing a politically neutral view and showing an aptitude for analytical dissection of the subject in question. She also asked the young generation to be socially committed, stressing that this attitude would see them through in any interview.
source: http://www.muslimmirror.com / Muslim Mirror / Home> Education / by Muslim Mirror News / May 13th, 2013
Umme Fardina Adil achieved what other women of her community could not do for more than six decades.
She became the first Muslim woman from India’s northeastern region to clear the Union Public Service Commission exam since the country became independent.
“Allah’s blessings and my parents’ prayers,” Fardina summed up her success in an interview to Two Circles.net.
To become an officer of the Indian Administrative Service was her childhood dream.
“I was obviously very glad to clear the civil services exam at the very first attempt itself. It means a lot to me,” she added.
Now, she has another dream: make India free of open defecation.
“I have already started my work by research in low cost sanitation technologies,” said the cheerful woman who now works as a senior programmer with Accenture Services Private Limited. And her pet project is “Low Cost Sanitation Technologies.”
“I want to be an IAS so that I can work for society” by efficiently utilizing government resources, she added.
Several organizations in Guwahati have come forward to celebrate Fardina’s achievement.
“Assam gave the only President of India from the North East — Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. Assam also gave the first and only Muslim woman Chief Minister of the country – Anwara Timur. But it took Assam 66 years to produce the first Muslim woman IAS officer,” Mahbubul Hoque, chairperson of the Education Research and Development Foudnation, the largest educational network in northeastern region, told a felicitation program.
Fardina was born and brought up in Guwahati, Assam’s commercial capital. She did her tenth grade from Disney Land High School, Khanapara, and the twelfth from Cotton College.
The she studied engineering from Mody Institute of Technology and Science, Rajasthan in Computer Science before taking up the job with the Accenture firm.
She said she would attempt the civil service exam again to improve her rank. “Since my ranking is 319 this time, I will not get IAS but will definitely try for this in future,” she explained.
Asked about the exam, she said it was definitely tough, “but with determination and hard work, it became a bit easier.”
Fardina says she gets excited over social causes.
She finds women in Assam in “a much better position” than their counterparts in northern India socially and economically.
At the same time, she realizes participation of Muslim women in public services is much lower than tribal and dalit women.
“It took 66 years of independence to produce a Muslim woman civil servant from Assam which is a very unfortunate scenario,” she said and added that the lacuna is not because of facilities are absent. I think it is due to lack of awareness,” she added.
She wants every Muslim woman to “believe strongly in their abilities and capabilities” and join every field to chase their dream. “And if they do so, I’m sure the entire scene will change,” Fardina predicted.
The aspiring civil servant says the increasing atrocities on women upset her.
When a girl was publicly outraged in Guwahati last year, she wrote a letter to the editor of The Hindu newspaper, “I have always been proud of my Assamese origin; for the first time, I am ashamed of it. It is time civil society in Assam woke up and ensured that such shameful incidents, so contrary to our culture, did not occur again.”
She termed the incident as “a shame on humanity” and said it made her realize her mother who used to tell her not to harbor any fear when in public. “If there is one bad person in the crowd, there will be 20 good people who will come forward to help you,” her mother told her.
“But when I read about a young girl’s molestation by a group of about 20 men on the busy streets of Guwahati with many people shooting the incident, but none coming forward to help, I realized my mother was wrong,” she wrote in the letter.
Fardina is convinced Indian women’s status would improve if they get equal opportunities from childhood. “There is no difference between a man and woman in their mental ability. Along with fulfilling duties as a daughter, sister, wife and mother, a woman should also think about herself as an individual,” she added.
A daughter should “have the complete right to take her decision independently like a son. Parents should convey that they believe in her ability and will support her always,” Fardina elaborated on ways to improve women’s lot in India.
The young Muslim woman says at times religions are misused to hinder women’s advancement, especially when social evils such as female infanticide and child marriage take place.
courtesy: Matters India
source: http://www.upscportal.com / Home> Success Story>Toppers Talk> IAS – Indian Adminstrative Services> UPSC
Bangalore, Karnataka :
Seven-year-old Vidhya S carries a pile of books to her principal’s chamber. Her notes are neat, with all the right answers. Vidhya is one of eight children admitted under the Right to Education (RTE) Act quota at M M Nursery and Primary School, a Muslim minority institution in Tasker Town.
Although minority unaided schools are exempt from the RTE Act, this school took a decision two years ago to implement the quota in keeping with Section 12 (1)(c).
M M School’s move is in sharp contrast to the practice of some schools which claim “minority” status to avoid RTE Act obligations.
This school, however, admitted eight children (four boys and four girls) belonging to the Hindu community under RTE, of whom five are in Class 2 and three in Class 1.
“Our management knew that they didn’t have to comply with RTE, but I started looking and found there were so many parents in the neighbourhood who wanted to send their kids to school. They had to be provided with the opportunity to give their children education,” said principal Veena Nesam.
The school, which is managed by the Modi Masjid Education Trust, allotted five seats in 2012-13 and three seats in 2013-14 under the RTE quota. “In the interest of children’s education, the management agreed to go ahead with RTE. We are aware that we cannot expect any fee from these children,” she said.
“I have already spoken with my management on how we can sustain ourselves financially. We already have children whose parents are unable to pay fees,” Nesam said.
The school, located in a three-storey building opposite the Modi Masjid, has 350 children spread over Classes 1-8 and is permitted to use Urdu as its medium of instruction. Still, the school also teaches in Kannada and English. “My knowledge of Tamil helped me reach out to parents in the neighbourhood. Awareness among parents on RTE is low. All they know is that there is free education,” Nesam said.
When asked why other private schools were using the minority tag as means to keep RTE at bay, she said: “Many schools do not want RTE because of the financial burden it comes with. It is the 25 per cent clause that schools are wary of.”
In fact, the Bangalore North-3 BEO has sanctioned Rs 10,000 for admitting children under the RTE quota.
Nagasimha G Rao, convenor, RTE Task Force, lauded the school for having gone against the odds to implement the RTE quota.
As of July last year, the Department of Public Instruction has identified 288 certified religious and linguistic minority schools in the state.
However, it cannot issue any more minority certificates because of a pending case in the High Court, allowing schools to falsely claim minority status without certification.
“We cannot issue certificates as the previous government’s new minority definition was stayed by the High Court,” said Mohammad Mohsin, Commissioner for Public Instruction.
The new minority definition of the previous government required 2/3rd of the members of a school’s management to belong to a minority section with more than 75 per cent children belonging to that minority community.
“Now, because we cannot issue certificates, many schools have approached the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions for certification,” Mohsin said.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Express News Service – Bangalore / February 14th, 2014
Today Chowmahalla palace will be teeming with visitors and lovers of history to see the unveiling of numerous Qurans some of which date back to early 1400 A.D. Princess Esra, of the erstwhile royal family, who has been an important part of the revival and restoration of the Qurans says, “It was a Herculean task but worth the sweat and effort. These valuable Qurans couldn’t have been let to rot in the state they were found. Once we discovered the collection we took notice of the work it needed and set out with a serious pace,” she revealed .
Esra adds, “It’s only for the sake of culture and heritage. When I came here as a bride I was shown night pictures of the lanes and areas and I was in awe of the silenceand solitude . My mother used to tell me ‘you will know once you get there,’ and after I came to Hyderabad I realised what it meant to be a part of the royal family,” she smiled. In awe of the grandeur and the luxury as well as the love that people had for the royal family, she felt humbled. “When I returned after years to see the dilapidated state of the things I had touched and felt, including the Qurans, I was grief-stricken; I couldn’t let them rot away. I am sure even the Nizams themselves didn’t know how many of the precious holy book of scriptures they owned. When the final discovery was made, the total number of the Qurans, of all sizes, stood at 36. There are some very tiny ones as well,” she says.
Esra also speaks with pride of another cloth Quran that was found; the entire Quranwritten on cloth. The cloth’s dimensions stood at 9.5 feet x 5 feet. The Qurans are of immense value not only because of their heritage but also the quality of ink used in them. “Besides gold and silver ink, inks made from powdered gems and semi precious stones were also used. In some Qurans mother-of -pearl has also been used as ink,” informs G. Kishan Rao, director of Chowmahalla Palace.
Since no royal item is permitted to go outside the Palace, specialists from The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) have been approached. “They worked continuously for two years to revive the precious books, with Esra’s continual monitoring. The restored Qurans will be displayed in the room opposite the Council Hall in the palace,” informs Kishan Rao.
The Qurans will be unveiled by Esra and Muffakham Jah’s son at Chowmahalla Palace today.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Events / by Prabalika M. Borah / Hyderabad – February 06th, 2014
Ayesha Kidwai
Professor, Centre for Linguistics, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
The Infosys Prize 2013 in Humanities – Linguistics is awarded to Prof. Ayesha Kidwai for her exceptional contribution to the field of theoretical linguistics. Her research on syntactic relations in Hindi-Urdu has related wider debates in linguistics to the study of Indian languages and has extended our understanding of India’s linguistic diversity.
“It’s wonderful for me to have the opportunity of congratulating Prof. Ayesha Kidwai for the extraordinary work she does on theoretical linguistics. India is a country of many languages and she has been able to use her general skills to find ways and means of studying the languages with the kind of international global understanding. That is one of the delights of contemporary linguistics. Totally delighted to be able to count on her being part of the community of scholars that we are honoring through this annual giving of prizes”
Prof. Ayesha Kidwai completed her M.A. and Ph.D. in Linguistics from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her research interests include linguistic theory, with particular reference to the (generative) syntax and morphology of Indian languages, philosophy of language, gender and language, the politics of English, and the evolution of language. Her current research interests include the syntax of finite complementation and the properties of adjunction in natural language.
She has authored several papers and a few notable books such as XP-adjunction in Universal Grammar: Scrambling and Binding in Hindi-Urdu, and In Freedom’s Shade, an English translation of Anis Kidwai’s Urdu memoir Azaadi Ki Chaon Mein.
Prof. Kidwai’s research ranges around a wide variety of syntactic topics, united by a preoccupation with the properties and effects of optional displacement operations in Universal Grammar.
Universal Grammar is the radical hypothesis, put forth five decades ago by Noam Chomsky, that the innate human linguistic ability is a domain-specific intelligence that must be modeled as a distinct Faculty of Language. This innate endowment, a system of principles and parametric options, forms the basis for the human knowledge and acquisition of any natural language, and is the source for both the relatedness of and differences between human languages. Prof. Kidwai’s contributions to the field have been the study of the principles and parameters that must be hypothesized to explain the syntactic properties of a number of South Asian languages, including Hindi-Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam, Meiteilon and Santali.
The phenomenon of free word order found in many languages of the world – ‘scrambling’– raises many intriguing questions for Universal Grammar, as such word order variation is apparently optional, and therefore difficult to characterize by grammatical rules. Prof. Kidwai’s work in this intensively studied and debated domain proposes a novel theory of how the referential properties of scrambled noun phrases in Hindi-Urdu may be characterized once the discourse effects of these optional variations are taken into account. These proposals have had important implications for the hypothesized design of Universal Grammar as well as the displacement operations conjectured to be central to it.
Recently, Prof. Kidwai also distinguished herself as an ace translator, having rendered Anis Kidwai’s moving Urdu memoir of the aftermath of partition, Azaadi Ki Chaon Mein, into English, In Freedom’s Shade.
Prof. Ayesha Kidwai is an outstanding theoretical linguist. Her work has earned recognition from leading international experts, as it relates the general theoretical framework of the principles of Universal Grammar to some of the particular syntactic features of Indian languages like Hindi-Urdu, Santali, Meiteilon, Bangla and Malayalam, analyzing these within the structures of human cognitive systems and their general properties.
Central to these achievements is Prof. Kidwai’s work on a wide range of adjunction phenomena. On the intensively studied and debated syntactic phenomenon of ‘scrambling’, her work proposes a novel theory of binding in extensive analytical investigation of Hindi and Urdu.
Prof. Kidwai has helped raise the respectability and significance of the field of theoretical linguistics by providing leadership and mentorship to young linguists in India. She has consistently stressed on the political and cultural importance of the study of India’s linguistic diversity.
source: http://www.infosys-science-foundation.com / Infosys Science Foundation / Home> Infosys Prize / Laureates 2013 / Feb 2014
http://www.infosys-science-foundation.com/prize/laureates/2013/ayesha-kidwai.asp
Lucknow :
A play by Nadira Babbar on the life of thumri queen Begum Akhtar and career counselling sessions besides felicitation of ten prominent alumni of the Lucknow University will be the highlights of LU foundation day celebrations this year scheduled on November 25.
The celebrations are being organised jointly by the Alumnae Society and the University of Lucknow. Governor TV Rajeswar and chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav would attend the function. Justice AS Anand, chairperson, National Human Rights Commission and former Chief Justice of India, would be the guest of honour. Justice Anand is a law graduate of LU.
Giving this information at a press conference on Saturday, LU Alumnae Society president Ram Kumar Bhargava said, “other illustrious alumni to be felicitated are Harish Chandra Gupta, additional defence secretary, (MSc from LU); Kamal Kumar, director, national police academy (MSc from LU); Nadira Babbar, director, Bhartendu Natya Academy (BA from LU); Dr SS Agarwal, former director, SGPGI (KGMC graduate); Gogi Saroj Pal, artist (she did her BFA from LU); Lagan fame writer KP Saxsena (MSc from LU); veteran journalist Seema Mustafa (MA English from LU); Rajendra Prasad, vice-president, American Express-India and subcontinent (a commerce graduate of LU) and Nighat Khan Lodhi, former national football player.
Nadira Babbar will stage the play on November 24 in the evening. Naresh Agarwal, state transport minister will be the chief guest. The main function to felicitate the alumni will be held during the day, a session on career counselling will be held on November 25 evening, which will be addressed by Rajendra Prasad, vice-president, American Express, VV Singh, CEO Reliance Infocom, Parveen Talha, member, Union Public Service Commission and Jayant Krishna, centre head, Tata Consultancy Services. Efforts are also on to invite KK Srivastava and Amrita Das for the counselling sessions as well, Bhargava said.
The Alumnae Society has also proposed to build an alumni house on the university campus for the purpose of coordinating the activities of the society. Vice-chancellor have accepted the proposal and has allotted the land of men’s hostel of academic staff college for the purpose. Chief minister will lay the foundation of the alumni house. Bhargava said that registration for membership of Alumnae Society are open and those who want can contact office-bearers for detail. Others who addressed the press conference included vice-chancellor, Prof SB Singh, pro vice-chancellor Prof MP Singh and AK Srivastava, Alumnae Society general secretary.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow> Lucknow University / TNN / November 01st, 2004
S P ‘Bobby’ Mustafa has taken charge as Hindustan Lever Ltd’s (HLL) group treasurer and head of M&A — a critical post at the consumer products multinational — with effect from June 1, 2002.
Mr Mustafa, who was commercial controller (detergents) at HLL, replaces Mr Prince Asirvatham, who sought early retirement.
Mr Asirvatham, who served 26 years with the fast-moving consumer goods major, decided to pursue his personal interests in social service and corporate governance. Mr Asirvatham has headed treasury & M&A at HLL for about four years.
Mr Mustafa has also served a stint earlier with the erstwhile Pond’s India Ltd as vice-president (finance and personnel). He had taken over from Mr Vishwanathan as group controller in charge of finance.
In fact, the post of group treasurer and head of M&A was created at a time when HLL has been involved in hectic M&A activity. It had merged Brooke Bond Lipton India Ltd (BBLIL) into HLL; Pond’s India was being merged into HLL; and the company was acquiring Lakme’s stake in the joint venture company Lakme-Lever Ltd.
Inorganic growth has been an integral part of HLL’s strategy. The company recently acquired a majority stake in Modern Foods. In 2001, the amalgamation of International Bestfoods with HLL was confirmed by the Mumbai High Court.
The merger resulted in a power brand, Knorr, joining the company’s stable, and strengthening the culinary business. The turnover of Knorr doubled in 2001, and its profitability was improved by streamlining the supply chain and restructuring some of its operations. This merger coincided with the amalgamation of yet another wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, Aviance, to consolidate its personal products range with that of HLL’s personal products business, thereby, facilitating long-term growth while realising the benefits of greater synergies between these overlapping businesses.
Last year, Rossell Industries, which has seven tea gardens spread over a planted area in excess of 3,000 hectares, became a subsidiary of HLL consequent to Lipton India Export Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of HLL raising its shareholding in Rossel Industries.
source: http://www.financialexpress.com / The Financial Express / Home> Corporate / Mumbai 06th / Uploaded Monday June 07th, 2002