Saturday, March 22, 2008

The Google of mobiles WILL COME FROM INDIA

Over the past decade, Google has been every entrepreneur’s benchmark for success through innovation. Besides its founding duo, Sergei Brin and Larry Page, there were a handful who saw the internet search engine’s potential and backed it when it was still being run from a garage. And here’s the Indian connection. Ram Shriram, who went to school in Chennai and later migrated to the Silicon Valley, was one of the pillars that built Google. Ram Shriram considers himself a guide for entrepreneurs rather than a mere cheque-writing angel investor. Known as the ‘Sherpa from Palo Alto’, he runs Sherpalo Ventures and also serves as the founder director at Google Inc. He spoke with Ritwik Donde in a freewheeling chat about entrepreneurship, technology, India and of course, Google.


Fundamentally two biggest applications on the internet are search and email. And there was a quantum order of magnitude improvement in quality of search at that time that Google presented that resonated with me and resonated with its early users. That is what prompted my interest in it. Agreed that we did not have a business model or a revenue model figured out at that point but you have to start somewhere small for you to grow later. And if u do that piece really really well then you may have a future as big as Google.
So was it their luck that they found an investor like you?
No, I would not call it luck. Not for me not for them. In my case, I do not think lightening strikes three times as it did for me. I had done Netscape and Amazon before I did Google. And then there have been more successes like Stumbleupon and mint which is a financial services portal aggregating personal financial information. Google is the most prominent one in my portfolio but it certainly was not just luck.
You have seen Google grow like no other dotcom in the internet space. Do you see another Google, may be, in India as entrepreneurship is on a high here?
Frankly speaking. No. Not in the internet space at least. The challenge in India to create another Google is not that somebody can not build a big internet company, I mean look at Naukri, it is a pure-play dotcom company. The market is limited by the size of the internet population which is somewhere between 30 and 40 million and unfortunately it is staying somewhat stuck at that level because we have a last mile problem. We don’t have an Digital Millennium Copyright Act equivalent law or a spectrum policy that opens up broadband spectrum. I have had conversations with the policy makers and unfortunately the pace at which it is moving is slower than I like. It is important for Indian dotcom space as the trickle down economics of having more Internet access is that it could generate more jobs, generate a great deal more new companies that can be bigger companies than Google. It not that the entreprenuership spirit is low so India is not getting a Google out, they can do it. Wipro and Infosys have shown that there can big companies build around outsourcing so Indian entrepreneurs can easily do it on the Internet.
Ok. So, what you are saying is if America’s Google was in the Internet space, India’s could be in some other?
Yes. Looking at the amount of innovation happening in India. I think there is a Google waiting to happen in the mobile space. I see somebody like Google coming about every 10 years. In the 80s it was Microsoft, in the 90s it was Cisco and Google in the period up to 2010 and there may be a garage start-up right now in some part of India in the mobile space that would set the tone for the coming decade. Lots of interesting content companies coming about as there are confluence of cellphones and entertainment content. The big success will happen on mobile and it would happen on mobile because the mobile market is growing by 8-10 million users a month and most importantly almost all users are attuned to the use of the technology on offer when you say mobile like it is with Internet in countries like the US.
But is there enough spark then in the Indian space for bigger companies to come out?
Absolutely. There is spark. We are in the age of entreprenuership in India. There are good market spaces to nurture businesses. But the Internet user base has to go up from 30 million to 100 million for any dotcom company to scale up like Google or may be also an Yahoo.
If any entrepreneur has to take lessons from Google, what would those be?
It’s not just about having a good idea and a vision. But it’s more about great execution as successes come with great execution. So what does great execution mean? Hiring great people, building right partnerships and more importantly than doing the right things success for a start-up, it is in figuring out the things not to do. This keeps you focused and finally making sure that you make the right choices in terms of capital i.e. making sure the right kind of people invest in you..
If you look at the dotcom players in India, there are a lot of ‘Me Too’s. For every Yaari.com , you have a Facebook. Comment.
I don’t think that you can make the characterisation that they are all ‘me too’s in the Indian market. What happens is that there are only so many market segments in the dotcom space, so you can only build companies in the market segments available to you. When you talk about segments like search, emails, social networking, since there are global giants like Google, Yahoo and Facebook. So the chances for scaling your own ‘me too’ here are far and few. But if you take something like jobs or travel, those are areas that need to be targeted more. Yes there is an Expedia for a Cleartrip, but those are not successful in India because they have not focused on India as a market. So just because a company exists in that space does not mean that you cannot build a success in the same space. Look at China, it has a company in each of these spaces where US dotcoms are dominant. There is 51jobs.com, then there is qqq for messaging. That proves that there can be a successes where the US already has a success. Having said this, there are growth areas like these but these areas have been invested in quite heavily. There are 6-8 companies invested in the same sector and there are all not going to be successes. I think there will be a shake out in terms of successes from the next set of venture backed companies. Nobody in India starting a web venture would die for lack of funding. There is a good angel network here as well. The law of averages however would now start to apply in the dotcom industry and only a small number would actually succeed. But this phase is still 2 years away.
A lot has been said these days about the US slowdown. Do you think the US recession affect the Indian start-ups?
I think the recession will affect the tech spendings. It hasn’t yet affected any start-ups and it won’t affect the start ups because unlike the 1999-2000 period it wasn’t the tech bubble that has caused the decline in the markets but a set of financial issues. Recessions are when great companies are built. If you look way back at Microsoft, Google, these were companies that were essentially born at the depths of the downturn because that is a great time to hire people and it is a time when valuations come back down to normal levels. It is, however, affecting the private equity companies and in turn the fund flow to Indian companies.

Friday, March 21, 2008

India Story' demands change

Fresh funding flows in, modernization continues
By PATRICK FRATER
Debate flares up regularly as to whether the Indian entertainment sector is a bubble about to burst. Certainly, last year's Ficci-Frames convention was a platform for some purple prose along those lines. But the past year has not witnessed a crash. Instead, fresh funding has continued to flow in as the industry has modernized on many fronts at once.

Coin came in quickly over the span of 2001 to 2006, after the film sector was given ''industry status'' by the government. "Many companies used that badly," said Ashok Wadhwa, head of Ambit Corporate Finance at last year's confab. Immature companies rushed to the stock market and disappointed investors. "Now that the 'India Story' has emerged, things need to be different."

But investment has continued to flow in to Indian entertainment. It ranges from further private equity funding of groups like Nimbus to large joint ventures with Western media congloms to overseas IPOs. In February, global investor George Soros generated frothy headlines when he put up $100 million for a 3% stake in privately held Reliance Entertainment.

But arguably the most dramatic move was the $1 billion plonked on the table by Sony Entertainment Television and Singapore's World Sports Group to back a new made-for-TV cricket franchise.

Their confidence seems to have been justified by the welter of other corporations -- and Bollywood names including Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta -- who put up $725 million for team franchises and a further $42 million for first-draft players.

The reasons for the inflow are not hard to see either. The India Story is the demographic perfect storm of a huge population that is young, increasingly middle class and internationally minded -- that translates into increased disposable income, and leisure spending entertainment is expected to grow.

But possibly the most compelling reason for the inflow is the growing corporatization of the highly fragmented industry. Respect for each other's high standards of corporate governance was said to have been a major factor behind NBC Universal's $150 million investment in NDTV.

The opportunities for consolidation are huge. Most film producers are still small-time operations, have little access to distribution and behave like traders quickly selling their product in order to make a margin.

But vertically integrated groups with long-term vision and professional management are shrinking the picture considerably and are attracting substantial coin to help them do so.

Giants like UTV, Eros and Adlabs/Reliance, in their different ways, are each developing studio models that allow them to retain talent, buy productions and distribute globally. (Rooted in Hindi-language Bollywood, all three are also attempting to bridge the cultural, linguistic and regional divides within India and have greenlighted Tamil and Telegu productions. Where film distribution was once divided into 22 regions, there are now seven or eight.)

In contrast to the shingles based around a single star or helmer, Eros and UTV each boast distribution slates of 40-plus pictures. They stand accused of creating talent and budget inflation, but unlike the minnows, they have the ability to amortize their flops and sell packages to TV and ancillary markets.

Others business models may succeed. Having guaranteed itself a place at the bargaining table through its hardtop circuit, Pyramid Saimira, a multiplex group operated by former producers, floated on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and is raising a production fund. INX, the private equity-backed TV startup headed by former Star TV co-chief Peter Mukerjea, also intends to expand into films as soon as his networks start to generate positive cash flow.

Eros and UTV's film arm aired their global intentions and corporate governance credentials by listing on the AIM section of the London Stock Exchange. Investors had little problem digesting the model when the Indian Film Co. also tapped the London market with a $110 million offering. Although technically a startup, IFC emerged with established management, powerful corporate parents in TV18 and Viacom and an 18-title slate that it has subsequently expanded to 40-plus.

More narrowly focused, animation house DQ Entertainment followed them to the London market in November. "We could have had an easier time and possibly a better valuation if we had listed on the BSE, but Europe is a more developed investment market, and investors there better understand the long gestation periods involved," says DQ boss Taapas Chakravarti.

Listing on the BSE has been more the preserve of local TV channels, multiplex operators and Hindi-language production companies, and the pace of listings slowed in 2007. Their stock performance varies wildly, and some observers predict that many of the multiplex operators -- who have found profits harder to come by and fallen short of their ambitious building schedules -- will soon delist.

"I'm not sure that you can equate underperformance by some media stocks with a slowdown in IPOs. Rather, there are still funds available looking for good homes. But many investors are taking a close look and being sensible. First-round finance has gone in and what first-mover advantage there was has probably been had already," says PricewaterhouseCoopers' Marcel Fenez. "On the other hand, there is no doubt about the overall trend. The bubble is not bursting yet."

CASH FLASH
Some good reasons as to why international investors are talking up India:

* Indian entertainment and media are growing on all fronts: Theatrical B.O. is being driven by multiplexes, higher ticket prices and digital distribution.

* TV is being boosted by new channel launches, digital cable with mandatory new set-top decoders that should limit revenue leakage and the arrival of two or three more DTH satellite platforms to compete with the existing two commercial ones.

* Development of organized retail is creating shopping malls with DVD stores and multiplexes plus demand for nationwide ad campaigns.

* Mobile phone penetration has grown by 7 million subscribers per month recently, and many people will first use the Internet on a handheld device rather than a PC. This is already boosting ancillary revenues for items such as electronic wallpaper and games. Some forecasts even suggest mobile TV could be worth $5 billion in five years' time.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Growth momentum will continue: KV Kamath

``In India, growth has been service sector lead instead of manufacturing sector as witnessed in other economies. Since the sequence is broken, it is going to create market in a much bigger way. Though we are seeing poor economic numbers, this is a passing phase, which will be corrected. Basic momentum is still sound and not derailed. Growth will continue``, emphasised Kamath, vice president, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and managing director & CEO of ICICI Bank at the interactive session `Leadership Ecosystem` organized by CII-Yi at Mumbai. The session had a cross section of audience which included students, farmers, young entrepreneurs and executives.

Speaking on the pointers which would inspire and motivate the youth of today, Kamath illustrated the demographic advantage that India has in comparison with the rest of the world and how with a young population of about a billion, growth opportunities are in abundance.

``Where South Asian economies have witnessed double digit growth for the past 10-15 years, Indian growth story is surely to grow for another decade or two. As India has grown from a per capita of USD 500- USD 1,000 today, next phase of growth will witness per capita rising from USD 1,000- USD 1,500 with urban regeneration and improvement in irrigation systems, ports and infrastructure``, commented Kamath.

Further at the CII-Yi session Kamath stressed on the requirement of inclusive growth. `How do you involve yourself in the creation of jobs? For the coming year, what is that you want to do which will make a visible difference to our country?`, questioned Kamath. He also emphasised that today`s generation should take efforts to ensure that ever single youth create one job or job opportunity, which will be a sure sign of growth.

When asked about the kind of support the financial services sector proposes to render to the farmers, Kamath emphasised that fair price for the agricultural products, building an entire market mechanism with market accessibility both local and global and creating systems to mitigate market risks is required for rural development.

The interactive session brought forth Kamath`s views on leadership, motivation and aspirations of the youth today in relation to the opportunities and challenges faced by them.

 

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Friday, March 14, 2008

INDIA:A strong growth story

While all segments in India's property market are booming, commercial real estate is leading the way

NINA SUEBSUKCHAROEN in NEW DELHI

The Indian property market has soared to giddy heights since 2005 when the country opened its doors to foreign direct investment for the first time. Since then, early birds have already booked significant profits on paper, according to Anshuman Magazine, the chairman and managing director for South Asia of CB Richard Ellis.

Prices have doubled and even tripled in certain prime areas, and while they could climb further in the short term, the percentage rate is bound to slow. ''In other places it will remain stable and in some areas where the supply has gone beyond demand it may also come down,'' said Mr Magazine.

While all segments of the property market have been doing well lately, commercial real estate has been the pace-setter. ''It's a very different market here, but the fact is all property values have gone up. The residential side has already increased quite a bit,'' he said.

''And in India what is happening is that a lot of people are talking about which city to buy. Every segment is undersupplied and there is quite a bit of scope, except there could be certain segments that are oversupplied in certain micro-markets, so you have to really look at the market point of view.''

The pace of India's growth and the sheer size of its population promise to bring tens of millions more people into the consumption mainstream, creating unparalleled supplies in many areas including real estate.

The South Asia office of CBRE has been attracting a lot of overseas institutional investment since 2005, primarily from American financial entities such as hedge and equity funds, along with some inquiries from Europe and the Middle East. ''But before anybody came in, the Singaporeans were the very first ones to invest but then the Americans are coming in a big way,'' he said.

The flow of American funds is not linked to the sub-prime crisis, having started before the US property market started to turn sour last year. A substantial amount has been focused on western and southern parts of the country in cities such as Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and the capital, New Delhi.

''Their primary investment is in housing and offices, first offices then housing,'' said Mr Magazine. ''Housing has been increasing but now they are also looking at retail and everything else.''

The 2005 regulatory changes meant that 100% foreign ownership through an automatic route became permissible, provided the investment was to develop at least 25 acres of land or 50,000 square metres of commercial space.

Mr Magazine said authorities structured the rules to discourage speculation and encourage real development. ''Foreign institutions can't come in and buy an existing building, they have to develop it. The only exception is hotels. They can buy and sell existing hotels ... to encourage tourism but otherwise it has to be development work.''

The big change since 2005 and the apparent undersupply in practically every segment means that there is a huge amount of construction going on in the country with most contractors very busy.

''Foreign construction companies have been looking at India for quite some time and some of them are trying to form joint ventures,'' he said, noting that there are no rules barring foreign contractors from doing so.

Foreign individuals can buy apartments in India but it must be for personal use and even then need permission. It is not as simple as a foreigner buying and selling a condominium in Bangkok.

''You can't do that in India. This does not apply to non-resident Indians or people of Indian origin. But foreigners are buying in places such as Goa for example. You have to go through the whole process [of] rules and regulations.''

Basically, the rules mean that a foreign buyer would have to show some connection with India, whether it is conducting business in the country or some other purpose.

''I met an Italian at a party and he had bought an apartment at Gurgaon, he said it took some time,'' said Mr Magazine. ''But generally foreigners will buy in places such as Goa and Kerela, these are the places they buy holiday homes. But again it's not simple, it's not that you can buy and sell easily.''

However, once foreign buyers get approval to buy a property they are allowed to own the land plot on which it is built. Despite this, Mr Magazine noted that buying land is really a grey area because according to the rules no foreigner can buy agricultural land and most of the land is devoted to agriculture until its usage is changed through development.

For several decades pre-2005, overseas Indians had been badly burned in their property investments in India, being unable to evict tenants and having to eventually sell at a low price to the tenants or some other party willing to evict them.

The reason, Mr Magazine said, was that in the past taxes on overall income were so high, reaching as much as 80-90%, which led to landlords often entering into very sketchy one-page agreements or no agreements at all in order to dodge the taxes.

But things have changed and today, and with exemptions these taxes are now a maximum 30-33%. Those who bought and let out their properties previously, and made sure they had proper lease agreements that were registered, would find the eviction process easier.

''So today things have definitely changed, you still might have problems here and there but generally speaking it is nowhere close to where it was before.''

 

 

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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

India way ahead of China in economic transformation

NEW DELHI: India has been ranked 25th in terms of economic transformation, way ahead of world's fastest growing economy China, which has been placed at the 85th position by a German foundation.

India ranks just behind Singapore (23), Brazil (20) and South Africa (18) in the transformation index prepared by German Bertelsmann Foundation and published in Berlin on Monday.

The transformation index is a study of market economics and democracy in 125 transformation states.

In terms of management performance, India has attained the 19th position for its political decision making, equivalent to an improvement of 13 rankings on the previous comparative investigation conducted two years ago and 24 rankings higher than five years ago, the report said.

"The plans of the Indian government to shape the country to become a developed economy and a key player in international politics are now bearing fruit," Josef Janning of the Bertelsmann Foundation said.

India should also exploit this favourable situation to increase efforts to tackle its greatest problem: the continuously pronounced inequalities in the society, particularly in terms of education, health, social security and earnings, Janning added.

The creation of a greater equilibrium between the regions and enabling as many people as possible to share in economic success should be central objectives of future policy, he said.

The report recommended that India should continue to pursue economic reforms rigorously to sustain the growth rate of eight per cent.

The Transformation Index 2008 in terms of economic transformation has been topped by Czech Republic, followed by Slovenia. In terms of the management index, Chile lead the pack, followed by Estonia. However, Myanmar (124) and Somalia (125) are the tail-enders in the index.

India appears for the first time in the group of stable democracies.

"The country has one of the most dynamic national economies in the world is beyond doubt, but deficiencies in the area of reform have threatened to block this development," the report stated.

The country is well placed in terms of the management index ranking ahead of Singapore (32rd) and China (67th).

"The appraisal primarily lauds India's efforts to achieve peaceful integration of ethnic minorities and its international cooperation with its regional partners, particularly Pakistan. However, continuing weaknesses include a cumbersome justice system and inadequate protection of civil rights in conflict regions," the report said.

The evaluation of India in the appraisal is embedded in the analysis of overall development in Asia. This has seen economies in the northern Asian landscape achieving the fastest international growth rates in recent decades.

India, has rapidly developed in about a decade to become a global economic power, the report said, adding that excellent economic performance has also been witnessed in China and Singapore.

A negative aspect is also the fact that the population in only nine of the 21 countries investigated is able to freely elect their rulers.

 

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Sunday, March 9, 2008

India Outlook

Yesterday I attended a conference on wealth management at the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai. It was part of the event Extravaganza organised by Shorex Ltd. A lot of the talk at the conference was focussed on the India growth story. There is no doubt in the minds of these finance professionals that India is on a growth path for the next 30-40 years. Since we are just at the beginning of this growth cycle, it is a very good time to invest in the Indian stocks.

How can we say if it is the right time to invest now? Well, looking at the growth of the Indian economy for 30 - 40 years, we can expect the stock market to grow for atleast about 15 years.

How do we judge if the market is overvalued or not? What about the PE ratios? Currently the Indian market has a PE ratio of about 18. We know that the economy is growing at about 9 or 9.5%. The inflation is about 4-5%. In nominal terms we thus have a growth of about 14%. This applies to the entire Indian economy. Now, the corporate sector is at the forefront of this growth. Hence, the PE of 18 is entirely reasonable. We can definitely see a increase in the PE levels from here as the sentiment in the market improves, but that is another story. At the current PE, we can easily expect a 20% growth from the Indian stock market for the next 15 years. If the PE increases to above 30, it might be a good time to come out of the market and wait for it to come down again, as historically the PE has gone above these levels only during the scam times when markets were overvalued.

Overall the sentiment was in line with my feeling. We can see a flat market or it might go down (giving more buying opportunities), but the long term growth is simply positive. Keep investing, stay invested.

 

 

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Monday, March 3, 2008

My Vision For India - Pluralism, Secularism, Economic Growth

Written by Kaleem Kawaja · February 16, 2008 ·

As I read the speeches of our ex-president APJ Abdul Kalam and his vision for India I become nostalgic. He tells us that if we persevere with hard work and smart strategy, despite current difficulties we could make India a world class nation.

My mind flashes back to my student days in high school in my hometown, Kanpur, North India. In those days far fewer creature comforts and modern goods were available to people from middleclass families such as mine. Yet, reading about the planned industrialization and modernization of the country imbued much enthusiasm in me and my friends.

As I began my engineering studies at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, I came across many diverse and motivated young men and women from all over the country. The common thread among us was our optimism and vision of technological progress of India, of eradicating poverty and backwardness, of implementing social justice, of removing hang-ups of religious and ethnic differences; in short a future of moving ahead with confidence.

In those days religion was a private affair for us – my friends were mostly Hindus, a couple of Sikhs and Christians and Muslims. We mingled freely especially on each others’ religious festivals, such as Dassehra, Diwali, Holi, Eid, Christmas which all of us enjoyed equally as our common events.

In US in my years in graduate studies and as a young professional, again I found myself in a circle of friends who were from a variety of backgrounds in India, with whom I had most commonality and with whom I felt most comfortable. While satisfying our curiosity for the many Western elements, we often thought and talked about India and its developing infrastructure and industrial base.

I soon realized that whenever India looked good as a result of some remarkable achievement of either India or an Indian, my American colleagues paid greater attention to me. That encouraged me to paint a positive image of India among the Americans whenever I could.

However, in my periodic visits to India it bothered me to observe that the elements that are at the core of the development of any country, such as law and order, corruption-free administration, social justice, fair treatment of the weaker sections of society, were not getting adequate attention from the government and the leaders of the nation.

While sporadic Hindu-Muslim tension and violence in certain parts of India has been an endemic problem since independence in 1947, generally the major political parties did not encourage it. But in the early 1980s the picture changed radically. A major political party started openly spreading false stories and venom against the Muslim community. Also caste-based politics mushroomed across the nation.

At the same time watching the upsurge of the violence of the misled Muslim terrorists against their fellow Hindus in Kashmir in God’s own paradise, where they had lived in harmony for centuries, was hard to believe. Similarly, it was very painful to watch the 1984 anti-Sikh violence, the 1992 demolition of Babri mosque and the sectarian attacks on the peaceful Christians staring in 2002.

The unprecedented anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 with which the Gujarat state government openly connived, and the subsequent total loss of recourse to justice for the Muslim victims of the carnage shook me to my bones. In this dark hour my spirits lifted when I saw the mainstream Indian media, the Supreme Court of India, many Indian Non Government Organizations, and a majority of Hindus, speak up to help the Muslim victims and to condemn the Gujarat state BJP government.

However, I kept faith that the enlightenment of a majority of Hindus will overcome the zealotry of a few among them. As the Urdu poet BD Pandey wrote: “Hazaaron saal ki yeh daastan; Aur yaad haiy unko sirf itna; Kay Aalamgir zaalim thaa, Hindukush thaa, sitamgur tha.” ( Hindus and Muslims coexisting is a tale of a thousand years; And yet all they remember is that Aalamgir (Aurangzeb) was a oppressor of Hindus and a tyrant.)

As I watch hordes of young Indian Information Technology engineers and other professionals flood the shining offices of major corporations and government all over U.S., and get respect for the quality of their work, my chest swells with pride at being an Indian. As I hear of the growth of hi-technology and industrial and infrastructure development in India’s various cities, and India’s 8 percent annual economic growth, I wonder if the quarter century old vision for India that I dreamt as a boy and that has stayed with me ever since, is now becoming a reality.

As an Indian Muslim I have two identities; my Indian identity and my Muslim identity. Just as other Indians have two identities, the Indian identity and the identity based on their religion. Pluralism, democracy and secularism are the core of our nation. It is on this core that we Indians regardless whether we are Hindus or Muslims or Sikhs or Christians have built our vision for the future of India.

As I stand in front of the mirror from my boyhood of my bright and hopeful vision of an economically advanced and social justice oriented India, I notice that a few cracks are staring hard at me. I am unable to understand the dichotomy that while India has made phenomenal progress in the spread of education, great technological infrastructure and economic progress, at the same time indifference towards one-third of the population that lives below poverty line, and religious minorities, and frequent organized anti-minority violence has also become a visible part of India’s landscape.

Today my vision for India as an Indian and a Muslim is the same as that of my fellow Indians from other backgrounds. That is to repair these cracks and move forward with renewed enthusiasm to build that egalitarian and modern India that two generations of Indians – my father’s generation that actively participated in the freedom struggle, and my generation that was born in post-independence India - have dreamt for more than half a century.

“ Chishti nay jis zameen pur paigham-e-huq sunaya,

Nanak nay jis chaman main wahdat ka geet gaaya,

Mera watan wuhi hay, Mera watan wuhi hay”

( The land in which Moinuddin Chishti preached the message of God’s justice,

The garden in which Guru Nanak sang the song of God’s unity,

That land is my motherland, That land is my motherland. )

 

 

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