TURNING DEFICIT TO DIVIDEND

 Sharmila Mona Sinha was the third daughter.

In a society where the arrival of a son was treated as family dividend and another daughter as deficit, she absorbed the message early. She wanted to do something about it.                        She recalls,"I wanted to be a boy and do what boys did."

Last week, she entered the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York - the cradle of the American Women's Right Movement.

She is the second woman of Indian origin to receive the honour after Indra Nui, former  CEO,Pepsico. 

She absorbed from her grandmother who showed her that challenging status quo was not alien to her family - the grandmother had helped to organise women during India's freedom movement.

She was in the corporate world after graduating in Economics from Smith College in Massachusetts and after an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Over time, Sinha began wondering whether the tools she had acquired in business could be deployed for a different kind of return. Rather than abandoning the language of capital, management and organisational efficiency, she brought it into philanthropy and social change.

She now works for women. She toils to eliminate discriminating laws affecting women and girls.

Her story offers an Indian lesson about the evolution of feminism. Her Hall of Fame induction is more than another accolade for a prominent philanthropist. It is a long distance answer to the question that confronted the girl in Calcutta. 

What might that "wrong" daughter become, if nobody put a ceiling on her? 

Four decades later, the answer is inscribed in the National Women's Hall of Fame.

The Times of India 05.10.2026

UPENDRA MACHCHCHAR, FATHER OF CAPTAIN SMIT MACHCHCHAR

 Upendra Machchchar reflects.

"The cuts are deep and he is in terrible pain. But when leaders of nations speak to him, he gathers himself and responds with remarkable calm.

As his family we know what lies behind that calm. the stress is immense. But the God who saved him will also decide the course of his life ahead. 

Right now, we are one hundred percent positive God will do what is best for him."

For Upendra, the question that keeps returning is what made his son open the cockpit door despite grievous injuries. 

"What happened shocked us. But it's his intrinsic nature to place others before him that made him do what he did."

The Times of India, 05.10.2026

ACT AS ONE

 

The team succeeds only when the members act as one

SPLIT VERDICT AT THE SC - APPOINTMENT OF CEC AND THE ECs

 Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma were on the bench at the Supreme Court of India. They were hearing the petition on  the validity of the law on appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners (ECs) by a panel consisting of the Prime Minister, a Cabinet Minister and the leader of the opposition.

Views of Justice Dipankar Datta on appointment of the CEC and the ECs

1. It would not be a fallacious metaphor if it is said that since the umpire is picked by the captain of one side and his team wins, even if the decisions taken by such umpire are correct, it has the patina of suspicion.

2. Deliberating on the validity of the law on appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners by a panel consisting of the Prime Minister, a Cabinet Minister and the leader of opposition, he mentioned the flaws.

a. It gave "overwhelming power" to the  executive.

b. It made the presence of the LOP ornamental.

c. It undermines the appearance of independence in the selection process.

d. Since independence, governments had tried to control the poll body.

e. Over seven decades, every dispensation wresting office found it convenient to keep institutions which the constitution envisioned to be independent under its control.

f.  To enact a law on the lines empowered by Article 324 (2) would have meant freeing ECI from exclusive executive control and inviting trouble for the ruling regime.

g. To the mind of this court, this has not been the failing of any one party or one period.

h. A consistent trait of political power, discernible over the decades, has been to preserve leverage over the very body that is meant to judge its claim to power.

i. If free and fair elections were to be ensured, it was axiomatic that the EC must not only be an independent body, but also be seen to act independently.

j. It was painful to note that not a single party in power entrusted by the people of India to govern this great nation took the initiative of enacting a law of the nature which Article 324 (2) left to the supreme law making body, ie. Parliament, to legislate.

k. Placing its own electoral fortunes in the hands of a truly independent arbiter was not favoured by any political party for obvious reasons.

l. To remain in power, the consistent pursuit through executive action has indeed been simple - influence the composition of the EC, control the process of appointment of the CEC and ECs and thereby temper adverse electoral outcomes.

m. The bottom line of the argument runs like this:-  It would not be a fallacious metaphor if it is said that since the umpire is picked by the captain of one side and his team wins, even if the decisions taken by such umpire are correct, it has the patina of suspicion.

n. There can be no gainsaying that free and fair elections, to a large extent, depend on a truly indepndent Election Commission. It is not enough for the EC to be independent, it must also appear to be independent. The minister nominated by the Prime minister to function as the third member on the selection committee chaired by the Prime Minister cannot be expected  to defy his own nominator.

o.In such a circumstance, the inclusion of a minister in the selection committee fails to provide the independent counterweight that a neutral selector could and he would merely echo the voice of his leader. 

p. Consequently, the presence of the leader of opposition in the selection committee becomes largely ornamental, without furthering the purpose of his inclusion.

Views of Justice Satish Chandra Sharma

a. The petition challenging the 2023 law on appointment of the CEC and the ECs raised substantial questions of law.

b.The substantive constitutional questions should be systematically referred for an authoritative pronouncement. 

c. It required consideration  by a larger bench.

Outcome

While Justice Datta did not find a reference to a Constitution Bench necessary, Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, puisne judge on the Division Bench held in favour of sending the case to a constitution bench reasoning that several questions of substantial importance were at stake.

Due to the differing opinions on whether to directly process or refer the matter regarding the inclusion of a Cabinet Minister in place of the CJI, the two judge bench delivered a split verdict. 

The Bench requested the Chief Justice of India to constitute a five judge Constitution Bench to settle the issue.

FACTOR FITNESS AND PERFORMANCE - M.R. POOVAMMA - GOLD MEDALLIST AT NAGOYA ASIAN GAMES

 When her teammates from the gold winning quartet of the women's 4x400 relay in 2014 Asian Games moved away from the track, M R Poovamma, the debutant at that games, chose to stay.

Many laughed and some questioned why she was still running. Some said she would not last. She answered them not with words, but with performances. At an age most Indian athletes would  move on from elite competition,  Poovamma, 36,  was among India's oldest at the 2026 Nagoya Asian Games. She was part of the quartet that won the women's 4x400 relay gold for India. It was the lone Gold India won in athletics at Nagoya. With the silver in the mixed 4x400 relay a couple of days earlier, she now has six  Asian games medals  altogether.

She believes the secret to her longevity lies in discipline and fitness.

To a query whether this was the end, she replied, "Why should I give up when I am performing well? "

"That I am competing even after all these years, with nothing to prove, should be an inspiration to youngsters."

"I have the LA Olympics and the 2030 Asian Games on my mind, which I may go to with my future child."

"I am in good form and retirement is not on my mind."

She insists age has little bearing on what an  athlete can achieve.

"Age for me is just a number."

"It is said that in India, there is so much talk on an athlete's age."

"The only thing that should be factored in is fitness and performance."

"That's the measure in most countries."

"I have always believed that it is important to be physically and mentally fit.'

"With that, you also need to stay motivated."

Poovamma, who had represented India at the 2016 and 2024 olympics concludes, "I have nothing to prove. I led a very disciplined lifestyle thanks to the support from my husband Jithin Paul, from my entire family and especially from my mother. She ensures I don't have to worry about household chores and can stay focussed on my training."

M R Poovamma does convey to us how we must look at life and how we must tackle life's challenges.

IIT - IIM ALUMNI TO HEAD INDIA'S TWO TOP PRIVATE BANKS

 Congratulations to,  Anup Bagchi and Anup Kumar Saha who have been appointed as MD &CEO at HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank respectively.

They have excellent track records.

They are brilliant

They both are alumni of IIT and IIM.

We wish them the very best in their challenging assignments

However, the question persists.

Not withstanding a few greats, unless you are from IITs or IIMs it's very difficult to ascend to top positions. And to get into these premier institutions, an aspirant from the remote villages of the country stands little chance. He doesn't even know the existence of such opportunities. You have to be city bred or you have to belong to major towns to cross the stringent admission processes that demand a high level of competence. 

Further even if you have similar qualifications from elsewhere you are treated badly in the sense you'd be recruited to positions lower down the scale.

When people from places like Kandankary, Agaly, Kanthalloor, Mankulam, Kunjithanny - these are places in Keralam - or places more remote than them in the whole of India  are able to prove themselves one better than those from India's premier institutions like IITs and IIMs and reach  the top postions, we can truly state that the country is a developed nation. Till then equality in opportunities will remain a rainbow.

ANUP BAGCHI - MD & CEO - HDFC BANK - FROM OCTOBER 27, 2026

 

Anup Bagchi will be the MD & CEO of HDFC Bank from October 27, 2026.

He is the first outsider to head HDFC Bank since it was set up in 1994.

He will have to focus on loan growth and credit-deposit dynamics in the existing competitive environment. Further he will be tasked to extract synergies from the HDFC merger. 

He succeeds Sashidhar Jagadishan who took over from Aditya Puri in 2020. Jagadishan had completed the merger leading the bank through the pandemic. During his tenure  the  digital operations of the bank had been expanded.  

Colleagues describe Anup Bagchi as a big picture manager. He prefers to give teams both a destination and a route to reach it. He is a firm leader. But he is known for persuasion than theatrics. The approach has shaped his mangement style. 

He is regarded as unusually grounded for someone who has occupied senior positions across a large financial conglomerate (ICICI group). He relishes holding meetings with executives in the common canteen rather than behind glass doors.

Bagchi has tended to travel light. During his transfers between ICICI group businesses, he is known to have moved without taking large teams with him.