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TOP BRASS

Young Chairman of the Coffee Board G V Krishna Rau has many plans up his sleeve like introducing Bio Technology in coffee cultivation to ensure that the Indian Coffee goes places. "Our focus would be to increase the export of value added coffees to realize enhanced export realization while developing differentiated coffee products to offer a variety of choice to the consumer", he disclosed.
According to Rau "our communication and promotion initiatives in the last few years have helped in positioning the strengths of our coffees appropriately before the international coffee fraternity due to which washed Robusta variety currently fetches a premium of over 350 US dollars per tonne."

In an interview to the "whispersinthecorridors.com" he said that Indian Robusta has also got the recognition as a vital component in a good cup of espresso, the fastest growing segment in key international markets. However, he said "in spite of these positive developments, we cannot afford to be complacent in our endeavor."

G V Krishna Rau foresaw some growth for decaffeinated and organic coffees in the Asian and Indian market adding "but I don't expect it to be a dominant segment." According to him on an average the Board spends about Rs.50 lakhs per annum for labour welfare measures.

1/Since the Coffee Board has slashed its staff, then how do you cope up with the research work?

About five years ago, Indian Arabica used to attract over 10 cents/lb discount at New York futures terminal. Today our Arabica is fetching on par prices. Indian Robustas are presently attracting highest premiums for both washed and unwashed types in the international terminal. This essentially means that our communication and promotion initiatives in the last few years have helped in positioning the strengths of our coffees appropriately before the international coffee fraternity. However, there is still ample scope to improve the quality of our coffees specially by augmenting the production of washed Robustas which currently fetches a premium of over 350 US dollars per tonne. Indian Robusta has also got the recognition as a vital component in a good cup of espresso, the fastest growing segment in key international markets. In spite of these positive developments, we cannot afford to be complacent in our endeavor. We need to make sustained efforts in producing, promoting and marketing good quality coffees to remain competitive vis a vis other producing origins

2/Which is best variety of coffee? Do you think that after a decade or two Decaffeinated coffee and Organic coffees will capture Asian and Indian market?
Arabica and Robusta are the two varieties of coffee commercially cultivated the world over including India. While Arabica is known for its flavour and aroma, the Robusta is known for its body and strength in the cup. In the international arena, While all Robustas are classified as a single category, Arabica is classified as Colombian milds, Brazilian milds and Other milds. Indian Arabica is grouped under Other milds.

With regard to varieties, it is very difficult to pin point a particular variety as the best coffee as the performance of a given variety depend on many parameters like elevation, aspect, soil profile, rain fall pattern, humidity and adoption of cultural practices under Indian conditions. Because of this, the Board recommends different varieties for different locations depending upon the suitability and adoptability of varieties in particular locations.
As far growth for decaffeinated and organic coffees in the Asian and Indian market is concerned, there will be some growth but I don't expect it to be a dominant segment.

3/ Does the Coffee Board carry out welfare activities for workers engaged in coffee plantations?
Coffee Board is implementing a labour welfare plan scheme which provides for (1) Grant of educational stipends to meritorious students i.e. children/ dependents of coffee plantations/processing workers (2) Grant of donations for medical aid and equipments to hospitals /primary health centers in coffee growing regions and (3) Financial assistance to improve infrastructure in educational institutions. On an average the Board spends about Rs.50 lakhs per annum for labour welfare measures.

4/ Coffee consumption is going up in India. In the wake of this how growth can be ensured so that domestic need was met while jacking up exports?
We have flagged the issue of enhancing the domestic coffee market as a priority in our XI Plan. The International Coffee Organization (ICO) has also recognized the fact that, only by increasing domestic coffee market in the producing countries,, the problem of supply demand mismatch can be addressed suitably. In the Indian context, enhanced domestic coffee consumption would not only help in insulating the grower realizations but also would generate employment opportunities. For example, every additional tonne of coffee consumed in the country would provide at least ten new jobs.

Our present coffee production is placed about three lakh tonnes (Post Blossom estimate for 2006-07). On account of limitations of further available area in the country suitable for coffee cultivation and also the limitations in increasing the current productivity levels beyond a certain point, our production projection for XI Plan terminal year would be around 3.35 lakh tonnes. Our projection for the domestic coffee consumption is 1.20 lakh tonnes (from the present level of 80,000 tonnes) by the terminal year of the XI Plan. This would mean that only about 2.15 lakh tonnes of Indian coffee is available for exports which is almost on par with the present level of exports. However, our focus on the export front would be to maximize value for coffee exports. In this regard, our focus would be to increase the export of value added coffees to realize enhanced export realization.

5/ In which new areas Indian Coffee Board is going to enter?
As far as new areas are concerned, our focus would be to develop differentiated coffee products to offer a variety of choice to the consumer. This would not only attract a wider section of consumers but also increase the visibility of coffee.

6/ Where do you find the Indian coffee when compared to the global trade from other countries?
About five years ago, Indian Arabica used to attract over 10 cents/lb discount at New York futures terminal. Today our Arabica is fetching on par prices. Indian Robustas are presently attracting highest premiums for both washed and unwashed types in the international terminal. This essentially means that our communication and promotion initiatives in the last few years have helped in positioning the strengths of our coffees appropriately before the international coffee fraternity. However, there is still ample scope to improve the quality of our coffees specially by augmenting the production of washed Robustas which currently fetches a premium of over 350 US dollars per tonne. Indian Robusta has also got the recognition as a vital component in a good cup of espresso, the fastest growing segment in key international markets. In spite of these positive developments, we cannot afford to be complacent in our endeavor. We need to make sustained efforts in producing, promoting and marketing good quality coffees to remain competitive vis a vis other producing origins

7/ What innovative ideas have been adopted to arrest dwindling production of Arabica coffee?
For the past one decade or so, the Arabica production in the country have remained more or less stagnant at around one lakh tonnes. This is in spite of the fact that, total Arabica area in the country moved up from the level of 1.4 lakh hectare to 1.80 lakh hectare during the past 10 years. The reasons for this stagnation are (1) Large presence of senile Arabica blocks (about 60,000 hectares) which are past their economic age limits (2) Death of millions of Arabica plants in the past 4-5 years owing to Stem Borer menace - Roughly over 10,000 hectares of area have been replanted in the past 4 years which are yet to come to bearing (3) Impact of coffee crisis in the last 4 -5 years owing to which growers reduced farm inputs to reduce losses which negatively impacted the farm productivity (4) Very low productivity levels prevailing in the coffee farms in Non traditional areas like Andhra/ Orissa and North East Region and (5) Limitations in increasing productivity levels in Arabica farms under Indian conditions. The Coffee Board has recognized these issues and is proposing the following initiatives.

1. Put in place a suitable Replanting scheme with appropriate financial incentives backed with credit facility to motivate growers to convert senile Arabica blocks into productive blocks
2. Collaborative research efforts in the XI Plan to bring about synergy in the frontier areas like Bio technology to speed up developing superior plant materials with enhanced productivity and quality potential as well as tolerance to pests and diseases specially the stem borer and leaf rust.
3. Intensive drive to combat the Stem Borer with active participation of grower bodies.
Through above initiatives, it would be possible to stabilize Arabica coffee production in the country at around 1.5 lakh tonnes in the next 8-10 years.

Will Lalli be CEO of Prasar Bharti ?
Name of Balji Singh Lalli is currently doing the round for the post of CEO of the Prasar Bharti. He is 1971 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre. Meeting to select the CEO is scheduled to take place on Thursday.

PM Discusses top appointments
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is reported to have discussed the appointment of IB and RAW Chief with NSA MK Narayanan and Principal Secretary to Prime Minister T K A Nair on board during his Japan visit.

Who will be RAW Chief ?
Who will be new RAW Chief? Though 1970 batch officer Ashok Chaturvedi is the senior-most yet two other names of Ambar Sen and Ajay Singh are also in circulation. Will someone else emerge victorious ?.

Will Paul move ?
Will Delhi Police Commissioner K K Paul move either to RAW or CRPF ? Rumour mill say so. If North-Block sources are to be believed he is unlikely to be changed.

Kiran Bedi not to accept outsider !
DG BPR&D Kiran Bedi has reportedly made it clear that she would not accept any outsider as Delhi Police Commissioner. If some one outside the UT cadre is made Delhi Police Commissioner she would move to the court of law.

Akil joins BSF
Mohammad Akil has joined the Border Security Force as DIG Ferozpur sector. He is 1989 batch IPS officer of Haryana cadre.

INDIAN creates a new record
Who says INDIAN is going down? Take for instance the case of number of passengers. It is INDIAN that has created a record barely three days ago. As many as 29632 passengers travelled on December 15, highest in two years in the aviation history. And the credit goes to none else but its new CMD Vishwapati Trivedi and his team.

K K Singh empanelled
K K Singh has been empanelled to the rank Joint Secretary in the Government of India during the review meeting. He is 1985 batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre.

Shyam Agrawal to be Additional DGFT
Shyam Agrawal is being appointed Additional DGFT in the Ministry of Commerce. He is 1980 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre.

Nand Lal to be Member (Finance ) DDA
Principal Accountant General ,Gujarat Nand Lal is moving to Delhi as Member (Finance) Delhi Development Authority( DDA).He is a senior IA &AS officer.

Kanha Tigress impresses Mani Shanka Airyar
Indian Minister for Panchayati Raj Mani Shankar returned from Madhya Pradesh to Delhi in a very happy mood on Sunday.Reason for his joy was that after 22 long years he had been to the world famous Kanha national park and was able see a tigress.The then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had been to Kanha 22 years ago,but Mr.Aiyar could not tour Kanha then.

Tenure of Ravi Kumar to expire today
Central deputation tenure of IDAS officer, P Ravi Kumar, Director Finance in MOD (Finance), is coming to an end on Monday.

IAS officer fails to view ACR
Arvind Agarwal, IAS, Industries Commissioner, Govt of Gujarat has failed to get a view of his ACR through the RTI. He was refused a peek into his ACR by the appellate authority of GAD, Government of Gujarat on the basis of a Nov.14, 2005 circular that prohibits access to ACR and related records u/s 8(e)of the RTI Act. Agarwal who is Secretary of the IAS Officers's Association of Gujarat now proposes to appeal to the State Information Commission (SIC)

Srivastava is Chairman of Settlement Commission
H O K Srivastava has taken over as the new Chairperson of the Income Tax Settlement Commission. He is 1967 batch IRS officer.

1974 batch IPS gets DG rank in Gujarat
J Mahapatra, IPS1974 Gujarat Cadre, has been promoted as DGP and posted as Comissioner of Police,Ahmedabad City, vice K R Kaushik DGP,1972 batch P S Thakur, IGP, 1979 batch Gujarat, has taken over as Commissioner of Police Vadodara (Baroda), vice Deepak Swaroop,Addl.DGP,1976 IPS batch Gujarat.

Bureaucratic changes in J & K today
Minor bureaucratic reshuffle is expected to take place in J & K on Monday.

Meet of Alumnus of MONIRBA in February
Get-together of Alumnus of Motilal Nehru Institute of Research and Business Administration (MONIRBA), University of Allahabad, will take place on February 11, 2007 at National Sports Club of India from 11.00 am onwards. Prof. Anand G Khanna Marketing Area Co-Chairman -MDP & Consultancy Institute of Management Technology Ghaziabad can be contacted -0120-3002274 and 9811699153 or akhanna@imt.edu

FORUM
BJP-CONGRESS and SP

With UP elections in focus, while the BJP tries to capitalize on the
PM's alledegly "First Charge" to muslims speech, and while the Congress/UPA drum up the Sachar Committees findings of poor muslim representation in government jobs, it could be interesting to check what deal those few are getting who actually do enter government service and related matters. In the last 30 years, while Bihar has had two muslim DGs but no Chief Secretary, UP has had none of either. In UP, there was a dearth of sufficient senior candidates till the 21st century. During present UP regime one candidate emerged for CS post and two for DG. Unbelievably, the "maulana" government actually superseded both the muslim DGs and has been dilly dallying with the CS candidate. Oddly, Centre (UPA) also avoided empanelment of any of them, but, ironically, all three of these officers were given promotions in the State by the former BJP government! Add to this the reluctance of the state government to prosecute (potential PM) Advani as well as its recent Citation Award at IAS Week to an Ayodhya-tainted Principal Secretary and maybe the extent of reversal of roles of "Psuedo-secular" and "Secular" political formations will start to become clear! Politics certainly seems to be the art of the impossible!

Rani Mathur

Why upper edge to IAS ?
I would endorse the views on "Why only IAS officers". Rather DOPT should be cadre management agencies for all Group-A Services (IAS, IPS, IRS, IAAS, Postal, IES, CES, Medical services, Scientific, Information Services etc.). The post of Deputy Secretaries, Director, and Joint Secretaries should be equally divided among all Group-A services. The same batch of all the cadres should be considered together for these posts. Why upper edge to IAS only?

Ajay

The system is run by IAS
The question by Joginder Singh may be natural, but is not likely to be considered relevant by the powers-that-be in our highly feudal bureaucratic system. Rajeevratan's accompanying comment about 'housing' just about sums it up: Non-IAS should just shut up; the system is run BY and FOR the IAS.

Shalini Majumdar

AWAKE IRS

One more CBI raid and another huge cash haul (the joke is that the cash being seized by CBI in IRS officer's house is more than the cash seized from businessmen during IT raids). The officer is reported to have many complaints against him. But how come such corrupt officers always manage to get sensitive and plum posts, as if to ensure their corruption. Come on IRS folks, stop lamenting endlessly about your transfers. Stand up and speak out against your corrupt brethren. Otherwise, the image and credibility will reach its nadir.

Sunny

Santosh Desai quits McCann Erickson
President and COO of McCann Erickson Santosh Desai has quit to join Kishore Biyani's Future Brands.

Joshi is ED of McCann Erickson
Prasoon Joshi has been appointed Executive Chairman of the MacCann Erickson India..

Khanna resigns from DSP ML
Top Investment Banker of the Country Munesh Khanna has reportedly quit the Investment Banking Division of the DSP Merril Lynch.

Gupta is CEO of Birla Sun Life
Mukul Gupta is joining the Birla Sun Life in Januaray as CEO.

Le-fur is new CEO
Le-fur will be new CEO of the world's number 3 drug-maker Sonafi-