SAJAforum

LISTS: Forbes list of "World's 100 Most Powerful Women"

Forbes is out with its list of "the world's 100 most power women" and there are a few South Asians on there. You will see two right in the top 10: Indra Nooyi at #5 and Sonia Gandhi at #6. Toward the rear at Dr. Dina Samar at #92 and Vidya Chhabria at #97. The #1 slot is held, not surprisingly, by Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany.

You will notice they forgot to put in the right description of Sonia Gandhi on at least one of the listings - she isn't president of India, but president of the ruling Congress Party:

5	Indra K. Nooyi	Chairman, chief executive, PepsiCo	U.S.
6	Sonia Gandhi	President	India

What do you think? Is this a good list? Post your comments below.

EARLIER ON SAJAFORUM:

• Time 100 list of most powerful people includes Sonia Gandhi & Indra Nooyi.

RESOURCE: Tracking Heads of Major U.S. Companies

This post have been replaced by an updated, in-depth page:

http://www.sajaforum.org/businesschiefs.html

The naming of Deven Sharma as president of Standard & Poor's, a division of McGraw-Hill Companies, prompted me to pull out an old list that we'd like to update. And we need your help. Please take a look below and help us with better information by adding to the comments section or e-mailing saja[at]columbia.edu.

South Asian CEOs in MAJOR US companies ("major" of course, is subjective; $500 million-plus companies and/or brands that are widely known, perhaps? Please help us add more here):

CURRENT AMERICAN CEOs & Presidents

• Ramani Ayer, chairman and CEO, Hartford Financial Group, a $27-billion financial services co.
• Raj Gupta, chairman and CEO, Rohm & Haas, an $8-billion specialty materials company
• Vinod Gupta, CEO of InfoUSA, a $400 million company (formerly known as American Business Information)
• Indra Nooyi, CEO, PepsiCo ($33 billion in sales)
• Deven Sharma, president, Standard & Poor's (Aug. 2007)

FORMER CEOs

• Rono Dutta, former president, United Airlines
• Rakesh Gangwal, former CEO, USAirways
• Rajat Gupta, former managing partner, McKinsey & Co. (1994-2004)
• Umang Gupta, former CEO of Gupta Corporation, a database company he took public in 1993; now chairman of Keynote Systems
• Sanjay Kumar, former CEO of Computer Associates and co-owner of New York Islanders hockey team (2000-2004)
• Bhaskar Menon, former chairman and CEO of EMI International, one of the Big Four record labels; artists include the Beatles, Deep Purple, Cliff Richard, Duran Duran, Beastie Boys, Norah Jones, etc. (appointed 1978; retired several years ago; now a consultant to the industry)
• Meeta Vyas, former CEO, Signature Brands - Betty Crocker, Cake Mate, etc (first South Asian woman to become CEO of publicly traded company; first South Asian to  head a $1B business)
• Jim Wadia, former CEO, Arthur Andersen (which spun off Accenture in 2000)

LARGE-FIRM CEOs OUTSIDE SOUTH ASIA

• Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone, one of world's largest telecom companies, from (market cap: $120 billion)
• Lakshmi Mittal, CEO and Chairman of Mittal Steel, world's largest steel company (market cap: $7B)

Who else? If you have updates, please e-mail saja@columbia.edu or post your comments below.

BUSINESS: Deven Sharma Named President of Standard & Poor's

Another desi rises to the top of an iconic American business. This time, it's Deven Sharma, 51, being named president of Standard & Poor's, "the world's foremost provider of financial market intelligence, including independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data"  and a company with 8,500 employees. From this morning's press release (reproduced in full below):

The McGraw-Hill Companies today announced the appointment of Deven Sharma as president of Standard & Poor's, the Corporation's financial services division, effective immediately. Mr. Sharma has served as executive vice president of Investment Services and Global Sales for Standard & Poor's since November 1, 2006. He succeeds Kathleen Corbet, who is stepping down from her position to pursue other opportunities. Mr. Sharma will report to Harold McGraw III, chairman, president and chief executive officer of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

"The continual expansion of the world's capital markets presents enormous growth opportunities for Standard & Poor's, and Deven's strategic thinking and deep understanding of global financial markets will help us continue to identify and benefit from these opportunities," said Mr. McGraw. "Deven has made significant contributions to our growth and success since joining the Corporation as head of Global Strategy, and his appointment to lead S&P further strengthens our global growth management efforts and enhances the deep, talented and respected management team that exists across S&P's global network."

Press release in full below. See SAJAforum's list of South Asian CEOs at major companies. Post your thoughts in the comments section below.

FOOD: Devi Restaurant Closed in Response to Workers Lawsuit

Devi, one of the most celebrated Indian restaurants in New York, closed earlier this week. The restaurant helped bring chefs Suvir Saran (pictured here in a photo by Ozier Muhammad, who taught a photo workshop at the SAJA Convention this year) and Hemant Mathur to prominence, but litigation against the owner, Rakesh Aggarwal, apparently forced his hand. Workers - South Asians and others - complained of substandard wages and tips being skimmed.

One major fan of the restaurant was Frank Bruni, the chief food critic for The New York Times, who posted "An Elegy: Devi" on his blog. He said he was stunned to hear of the closing.

"Devi opened in late 2004 and earned admiring reviews, including the one I gave it. It intended to be — and arguably was — the most ambitious and refined Indian restaurant in New York, where Indian restaurants haven’t taken root or soared to glory to the extent they have in London."

Tushar Sheth, a staff attorney at AALDEF (the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund), tells us that workers from Devi will be protesting the closing on Thursday, which they say is 'in retaliation" to a lawsuit they'd brought against Aggarwal, charging him of labor violations. Details:

Date/Time of Protest: Thursday, August 30, 12:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Location: Devi Restaurant, 8 East 18th Street, Manhattan
Directions: On 18th Street between Broadway and 5th Avenue

MEDIA WATCH: Jonathan Foreman Commentary on Lack of Media Coverage of Hyderabad Bombings

SAJA member Jonathan Foreman writes about the recent Hyderabad bombings in National Review Online. From "Buried by the News: The Deaths of Civilians in Hyderabad is Not a Media Priority":

This weekend saw an extraordinary demonstration of strangely selective “news value” in the British and U.S. media. On Saturday night a pair of synchronized bombs ripped apart two crowded nightspots in Hyderabad, India. The explosions killed 42 people and wounded at least a hundred more. Since the attacks, police have found and diffused 19 more bombs at movie theaters, bus stops, and pedestrian bridges.

As far as I can tell this slaughter was not important enough to make the front page of any major newspaper in Britain or America. Why? Well, one thing is certain: It is not as if bombs go off every day in Hyderabad, which happens to be one of India’s key industrial cities. Moreover, it is not as if India is not on the world’s media map these days.
<snip>
Why then has it been relegated to the inside pages along with the death of former French premier Raymond Barre, and the stalling of war crimes trials in Liberia? One plausible explanation for the minimal coverage is that the Western media’s pace-setters somehow regard murdered Indians as of lesser value than dead people of more favored ethnicity. Not just less important than Americans, Europeans, and Japanese, but less important than Palestinians, Iraqis, Israelis and so forth. If 42 people were killed in the West Bank you can be dead sure it would be front-page news.

But I suspect that the true answer follows a different line: it is simply that the men and women at the front of the media herd have invested their resources in certain places, for reasons that are a mixture of politics and practicality. Everywhere else falls into the category of backwater.

Read the full piece. Read other NRO pieces by Foreman as well as JF-dot-com (that's a photo of him from his days reporting from Iraq). See recent SAJAforum posting about another Foreman piece, "PAKISTAN: A British Woman's Impact on Remotest Pakistan."

Asked by SAJAforum to update us on his whereabouts, Foreman says:

I'm currently based in London and hoping to get some more South Asian assignments after the summer. I'm also involved in the launch of a new political and cultural monthly, title to be decided, that will rival "Prospect" and will, I hope, cover South Asia much more consistently than most British and American publications. I should add that I'd be happy to meet or help out in any way I can any SAJAers visiting London.

[Foreman can be reached at jonathanforeman at aol.com - but due to volume of e-mail, he may not be able to reply to everyone]

What do you think? Post your comments below.

BANGLADESH: Roundup of Items about Curfew

Following up on our recent posting about the crisis in Bangladesh, here are some more items to read. Please post your comments and suggestions below.

From the BBC report Photo the Bangladesh Government Cannot Stand:

If a single image can sum up the thorny mess into which Bangladesh has once again stumbled, then this perhaps is it. A sandaled demonstrator in mid-air kick and a hatless army officer in terrified retreat. In the background, bystanders hurry away. Out of shot, a military vehicle burns and the security forces are in danger of losing control to the angry mob. The photo gives a momentary glimpse of just how bad things got during three days of violent protest that rocked cities across Bangladesh last week. But the picture is significant for another reason. As we found out on the first night of the curfew imposed to contain the trouble it was an image that deeply upset the Bangladeshi rank and file.

Its publication was seen as a humiliation, every bit as great as if that flying sandaled foot had been aimed at the behind of the army chief himself.

From a Reporters Without Borders action alert (in full below):

Reporters Without Borders today called on the interim government and army to quickly rescind all the repressive measures of recent days, during which the imposition of a curfew from 22 August until yesterday severely impacted the ability of journalists to work.

"The interim government's record has been badly marred by the censorship and violence that has assailed the press since the start of the student protests in Dhaka and other major cities," the press freedom organisation said.

DESI SPOTTING: Two Indian Gurus, Two Story Ideas

Within minutes of each other, two messages arrived yesterday at SAJA HQ that are worth noting. Both are story ideas sent by the publicists for Indian gurus (one is 76, the other 80; bet you didn't know gurus had publicists). Each has a large following in America and elsewhere.

• NY-based Sri Chinmoy, 76, is available to discuss his close friendships with Princess Diana and Mother Teresa (he arranged their final meeting).
• Swami Parthasarathy, 80, is visiting the U.S. in September and will be giving talks to execs at Merrill Lynch and other corporations (the New York Post called him the "Go Getter's Guru").

Scroll down for the full press advisories and post your comments below.

For those of you interested in learning more about non-spiritual Indian gurus and their impact on American business, here are two links. BusinessWeek's 2006 article about various Indian management gurus, "Karma Capitalism":      

Times have changed since Gordon Gekko quoted Sun Tzu in the 1987 movie Wall Street. Has the Bhagavad Gita replaced The Art of War as the hip new ancient Eastern management text?

Financial Times profile of Prof. Srikumar Rao, The mentor who guides MBAs on a course to lasting fulfilment:

It is a rare business school programme that invokes in its participants a similarfervour to that experienced in a revivalist religious meeting. But this would appear to be the case with Srikumar Rao's elective course, Creative and Personal Mastery.
More on Rao at AreYouReadyToSucceed.com.

See earlier SAJAforum posting on Ram Charan, the most successful desi management consultant at the CEO level: Ram Charan, Biz Guru to CEO Stars.

RACE: Time Out New York's Race Issue

The current issue of Time Out New York has a desi cover - the Statue of Liberty with a bindi and a sari - as part of its race issue.The cover line says "This Picture... thrills me/angers me/confuses me." Manish Vij over at Ultrabrown thinks she might even look like the actress Rekha.

Lots of stuff about diversity in the issue, available in full online.

We have added this cover to our collection of 125+ U.S. magazine covers with South Asia/South Asian images.

Post your comments below.

FOOD SAFETY: Canada Bans Brand of Neem Toothpaste

Canadian health authorities have issued a second warning on the use of a toothpaste made in India. From  Health Canada's Aug. 24 advisory (reproduced in full below, along with the original July 26 warning about an ingredient also found in antifreeze):

Further to the Health Canada warning issued July 26, 2007, further testing on Neem Active Toothpaste with Calcium, manufactured by Calcutta Chemical Co. Ltd in India, has revealed that in addition to unacceptable levels of diethylene glycol (DEG), the product also contains high levels of harmful bacteria. This poses additional significant health risks, especially to children and individuals with compromised immune systems.

Health Canada continues to advise Canadians to discontinue use of this product. Potential adverse effects of ingesting products that contain unacceptable levels of harmful bacteria include fever, urinary tract infection, and gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. Infants, children and vulnerable populations such as patients hospitalized for severe underlying diseases or with compromised immune systems are more sensitive to these effects. Severe vomiting and diarrhea could lead to potentially life-threatening dehydration. While toothpaste is not intended to be swallowed, it is often swallowed by young children.
(full warnings below)

In a sign of how much more part of Canada South Asians are than in the U.S., you can see below that Health Canada also issues the same releases in Hindi and Punjabi.

Anyone know if this is available for sale in the U.S.? I see it's still being sold online at places like Neem Genie in the UK:

In our opinion this toothpaste epitomises the many qualities of Neem in one product.

    * Neem kills the bacteria that cause tooth decay.
    * Neem kills the bacteria that cause Pyorrhea and Gingivitis. (Gum disease)
    * Neem prevents cell adhesion and helps to control plaque
    * Neem is very effective in areas of pain control

All the staff at Neem Genie use N/A we know of no other toothpaste with these qualities.
Neem Active contains bark extract which has unique properties and is not as bitter as other products from the tree. Neem Active toothpaste is competitively priced, flavoured with spearmint and is pleasant to use.
Ingredients:- Neem extract, calcium carbonate, Spearmint, one part per 1000 flouride.
A percentage of the proceeds from Neem Active Toothpaste goes towards the planting of more trees.

Has the manufacturer, the Calcutta Chemical Company, responded to any of this? Please help us update this story. Post your comments below.

TV: PBS Wide Angle's "The Dying Fields" on Farmer Suicides in India

Tuesday, Aug 28, 2007, is the PBS premiere of "The Dying Fields," the latest "Wide Angle" documentary, 9 p.m. in most cities. It visits the distress of cotton farmers in Vidarbha, Maharashtra. More than 4,000 have killed themselves in the past four years or so. The team from American that worked has many South Asian connections: the documentary is produced and directed by Fred de Sam Lazaro, best known as a  global correspondent for The Lehrer Newshour on PBS; the anchor of the piece is Daljit Dhaliwal, who is host of the series; and the post-film interviewee is Columbia professor, Council on Foreign Relations Fellow and globalization expert Jagdish Bhagwati.

From the press release by show publicist Dierdre Branley [branley at thirteen.org]:

In a documentary that views the consequences of global free trade from an intensely human perspective, WIDE ANGLE: The Dying Fields studies a tragedy unfolding in the cotton-growing region of Vidarbha, where farmers face a grim reality of crop failures, sinking global cotton prices, and spiraling debts - and many are taking their own lives.  In 2006, l,044 suicides - one suicide every eight hours - were reported in Vidarbha alone. As filmmakers investigate the web of financial and social forces behind the growing string of suicides, they record the backbreaking labor endured by the rural farmers; observe the farmers' annual ritual of petitioning the bank for a loan; and sit in on tense negotiations between moneylenders and farmers whose existing debt has made them ineligible to get bank loans.

Read de Lazaro's filmmaker's notebook here (his e-mail is fred at wvmedia.org).  See the Vidarbha show's website here (you can view a preview clip and take a poll that asks: "Is it fair for the U.S. government to subsidize its cotton farmers?"). The site has a teacher resources section, where the effects of globalization can be discussed in the classrom. See the "Wide Angle" series site here.

To find your when your local PBS station is airing it, see the listings here.

Read a  series on what's been happening in Vidarbha by development journalist P. Sainath (recent winner of the Magsaysay Award, "Asia's Nobel").

Post your comments below.