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The Coming Together of Oxford and Harvard Road to Healthy Living Adding a dash of Fun to work An IT Smart Organisation

A Minute to Win it

ins ght....

Jan 2013

FROM THE EDITORIAL

COUNCIL
Hello Friends, We are pleased to present the next edition of Ambit's own INSIGHT magazine!

In the last six months, different business lines within Ambit witnessed some great developments and there were some good corporate initiatives. The Fun@work council also came into action! This period was also marked by two key celebratory events - the Founder's Day & the Diwali Party!! We have tried to capture all this in this edition.

We hope you will enjoy reading this edition. We thank you for your support to our efforts. Special thanks to all those who took out valuable time to contribute to this edition. We always look forward to your feedback on current content and new ideas for INSIGHT. You can always reach us at editorialcouncil@ambitpte.com.

All the very best wishes for a very happy new year 2013 !

Cheers, Editorial Council

Team Members: Chhavi Agarwal, Christine Dmello, Gautam Gupte, Nirmesh Prakash, Priyanka Jain, Rashmi Agarwal, Romolina Charatkar, Simmy Pawar & Suhail Sheikh,

Special Thanks to Sajid Merchant for helping us with the designing of Insight

CEO Speaks
It has been a tough 2012 for the world, for financial services industry and for our business. Having said that, it is in times like this that the real mettle of an organisation and the character of its leadership team is shown. Our Institutional Equities team has been voted as the most improved Brokerage House in India by Asia Money. In addition, we have increased our market share quarter over quarter. Despite these achievements, we need to continue working hard since the commission pools have reduced considerably. I think we have a unique opportunity to significantly enhance our position in this business, given the recent developments in the industry. We remain committed to making necessary investments to take advantage of the current situation. Our Investment Advisory business has delivered the best results ever, in the current year. A return of 75%, even in a bull market is an outstanding performance. Based on this we are preparing to launch a fund under newly announced Alternative Investment Fund scheme. Having demonstrated our Investment capability, IA needs to focus on raising additional AUM using the distribution capability of our Partners, Nikko and QInvest and using the domestic distribution capability of the Private Wealth Business. Across all our peer group companies Private Wealth business has been the most affected, due to the withdrawal of retail investors from equity markets coupled with regulatory changes. PW has had to innovate and re allocate their resources to pursue small equity and debt raising deals for the PW Clients, without compromising on effort to raise additional AUM. Despite outstanding performance by our NDPMS and DPMS funds, which have delivered superior results in comparison to most of our peers, we continue to make slow progress in convincing clients to invest in equity products. This business will continue to operate in a challenging economic environment for some time. We will have to develop new and transformational strategies to be successful despite the weak environment. Ambit Finvest continues to deliver yield in excess of 15.5% on capital invested. Many of you may recollect that the growth in this business is critical to achieving our 2016 vision. We have to raise additional capital and we have to leverage our networth to deliver sustainable and scalable business model. The CEO's office is working on multiple strategies and by the time the next issue of Insight is published some of the results would have been delivered and we will have greater visibility on the progress in this business. Our Investment Banking business has performed well, relative to the market and we should close the year relatively high (1-3 on deal number and 5-10 on deal value) on the Bloomberg league deal table. We added an ECM team in the current year and hopefully we will make an appearance on the ECM league tables in the near future. The market environment continues to be challenging but we would need better ideas and greater coverage if we wish to sustain our leadership position in this business. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Mr. Tamim-Al-Kawari, CEO of QInvest, as our new Board member. The Board, in its meeting held earlier this month, discussed the need to have a comprehensive review of our strategy for each business and this will be discussed in detail at the next Board Meeting in February. As we continue to chart our growth to remain competitive and meaningful, we will have to be cognizant of the changing environment. Our ambitions have to be moderated to match the reality of the environment in which we live, largely volatile and certainly uncertain. We have the strength and character of an organisation that can reflect upon this reality and yet develop winning strategies that will help us build a leadership position. Wishing you and your family the best of 2013. Regards, Ashok

Quite a big deal!


The developments in the Institutional Equities Sales trading desk over the past two years

Jaideep Anand
VP - Sales Trading
Nothing is permanent but change wrote the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, and unsurprisingly the dealing room has taken this saying to heart by implementing sea changes over the past two years. These changes have borne fruit. The result: the efficiency of our dealers has increased, with minimal execution errors, even after volumes have quadrupled in the past two years. In our journey to achieve the best and in keeping with Ambit's values and vision, first, we changed our trading platform. Nearly two years ago, we shifted from a neat plus (NSE) and bolt (BSE) based trading terminal to the Omnesys platform. Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts. But, we were able to forge through our apprehensions, which proved to be extremely rewarding. Through the Omnesys platform, a dealer can now execute trades over various exchanges (including the F&O segment) through a single terminal only. Moreover, the platform gave us the option to introduce robust risk management system (RMS). It also helped us to differentiate between the terminals of a sales trader from that of a dealer, which led to better monitoring of trades. For instance, a sales trader can now see all his clients' trades that are being executed at different terminals on his terminal. Furthermore, the platform provided a base for moving towards an electronic order routing system and algorithmic trades. To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. Thus, the adoption of the new platform was only the first step. Next, we upgraded Omnesys. We began with Omnesys version 73.4 and upgraded it to the current 98.2 version. This constant upgradation helped us to improve our execution capabilities tremendously. Through fix connectivity, order routing through Bloomberg/Reuters can now be done directly over the trading terminal. Clients can discreetly route their orders from their Bloomberg terminal without making any phone calls or any floor shouting and the order will directly reach the designated trader. Orders then can be assigned to dealers for execution. As the trades are executed, the fields will be updated on the clients' Bloomberg automatically. There is no need for a trader to update the client repeatedly. Moreover, the latest version of Omnesys supports algorithmic trades. Algorithms are prewritten execution codes that are offered to clients. While routing their orders from Bloomberg/Reuters, the clients can choose algorithms from their dropdown list. Depending on the chosen algorithm, the trade will automatically be executed on designated trader's terminal. Omnesys has also helped us in more efficient execution. For instance, if orders are routed through the fixed option then the order quantity and rate can never be breached. In addition, a buy and a sell can never be executed on opposite sides even by mistake. These were common errors in manual execution earlier. The Omnesys RMS helps in setting risk parameters to cover risk in trading. We can limit the order value per client and per order. We can also limit the price over and below the CMP until the order is accepted. All trades are continuously monitored and any exceptions (such as rejection) are immediately escalated to the RMS terminal. . The Omnesys platform requires robust IT infrastructure (support and monitoring). We have to upgrade the hardware continuously in line with increasing volumes. System downtime has to be near zero during trading hours, because algorithmic trades cannot be interrupted. An IT person is always present in the dealing room to monitor the systems. However, we still have some distance to cover until we move to an upgraded IT infrastructure in the dealing room. Overall, large volumes are now executed over the Omnesys platform . We execute nearly 80-85% of the volumes every month over algorithms sent from client terminals. Change brings opportunity. And, we look forward to many more opportunities to change not only ourselves but also our work.

In The Spotlight
Prabhas Dhanuka
Director - Sales Trading
1. Share a memorable experience of your childhood Cannot point out one instance in particular but can confidently say that I wasn't half as smart as my daughter or any other child that I know of today 2. A college memory you distinctly remember/cherish This was during my S.Y. B.Com days; there was this professor of ours who everybody used to trouble a lot but much to our frustration he wouldn't react at all. One day while he was teaching, my friend and I got up from our seats, walked up to him and turned his table upside down!! Unfortunately, the principal saw us, he stormed into the classroom, caught me by the collar and gave one across my face. I was very lucky neither to be suspended nor were my parents summoned. 3. Describe yourself as a teenager and a habit you would not want the world to know then... As a teenager I was a carefree person I still don't want the world to know as those habits die hard 4. An interesting anecdote from your first job My first large deal (tiny by today's standard) I remember it was a cross of 100,000 LML. I felt I had reached the moon and I remember telling my senior, small step for you but a giant's leap for me 5. A word that best describes you Two words; FUN LOVING 6. Philosophy of Life There is just one thing better than money and that is MORE money. But make it in a clean and transparent way 7. Your motivation mantra People who criticise you are actually giving you an opportunity to improve

8. A failure you learnt from This happened in one of my earlier firms. Due to some miscommunication we had to take some shares off a client in our books, my boss asked me to knock it off immediately as the extent of loss was known at that point of time. The markets were in full swing and greed got better of me and I didn't sell it. Despite the market going up, the stock kept tanking and eventually when I sold it the loss was almost 3 times higher. My boss fired me left, right and centre and I learnt two things that day: (a) en error trade has to be sorted out immediately as nobody would give you a medal if the stock moves in your favour and you make a profit but if the loss increases you are gone, (b) draw a line to your greed. 9. Weekends are for... Family, friends and if I can sneak out of the house, the bartender in our club 10. Favourite Actor/Actress? Hindi: Amitabh Bachchan and Nutan. English: Charlton Heston, Harrison Ford and Julie Andrews 11. Superstitions, if any None 12. Things that you and your spouse don't agree on This space is too short to answer this (maybe that is why we are still happily married) 13. Experience so far in Ambit Better than I imagined. A very professional set up and I am in the midst of some excellent people who are willing to put 5 times the effort of their peers even if it means getting 1/5th of their peer's business.

Founders Day
We are 15 now!

The journey continues towards an IT Smart organisation!


Vijaykumar Talreja
Director - Information Technology
I would like to take you on a journey through the changes in trading technologies and regulations over the years and explain how algorithmic trading is helping us to take advantage of these changes. Gone are the days of manual trading; after online trading through computers, algorithmic trading emerged. Algorithmic trading, also known as Automated Trading, Black-box Trading, or Algo Trading, is the use of electronic platforms to enter trading orders through an algorithm, which executes preprogrammed trading instructions whose variables may include timing, price, and quantity, and in many cases, initiates the order without human intervention. Algo trading is the new trading paradigm that has emerged from the structural shifts in the business of trading. Today, the buy-side clients are driving algo trading. Algo trading is widely used by investment banks, pension funds, mutual funds, and other buy-side (investor-driven) institutional traders, to divide large trades into several smaller trades to manage market impact and risk. Equity markets have entered an era where machines are rapidly replacing humans. Programme-driven trades account for around 70% of equity trading in the US and for 40% in Europe. India is not far behind, with one-third of trades in both cash and derivative segments of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) being driven by such programmed orders. How do these algorithms work? Some programmes slice a large order and place them through the trading session at the right time and rate so that the price is not unduly affected by the order. Another type of algorithm identifies price anomalies between price of an asset over different platforms or deviations from a typical statistical relationship between assets and executes trades to exploit these differences. These programmes act as conventional arbitrageurs. There are again algos that follow a set of technical parameters to buy and sell. The above are the more innocuous of algos. Some rogue programmes sniff the outstanding orders in other systems and take advantage of them. There are algos that make bluff trades so that other programmes reveal their intended trades. They then go on to cancel these bluff trades. The fascinating aspect is that these algos are constantly mutating to trump their peers. As regulators struggle to keep up with programmed trades, investors have to learn to make the best of it. After all, this could turn out to be the natural process of evolution for equity trading from trading rings to online trading to computer-driven trading. We partnered with our Institutional Equities (IE) business to provide an algo trading service to their clients. We selected the Omnesys NEST GATE platform, because it had a faster time to market, was extremely customised, and was integrated with our existing Omnesys NEST Order Management System (OMS) for extremely fast execution. Now we can also create our own customised Algos. We currently offer five Algos to our clients. We launched Smart Order Routing (SOR), After Market Orders (AMO) and New Algos for SOR services for IE clients. The SOR engine routes your order to the exchange where the best price is available for the required quantity. We then integrated our Omnesys Algos with one key FII client's OMS, thereby becoming their only Indian broker using Omnesys to do so. We implemented FIX connectivity for two more FII clients, and Secondary and Tertiary dealer ID mapping to avoid missing FIX orders. To implement the above changes, we had to upgrade the version of the Omnesys application to the latest available. These new service offerings have put our IE business ahead in the league of our competitors and have helped us to get more empanelments on the buy-side. We are also using Algo Trading for one of our Private Wealth Equity Trading client. These are some of the key initiatives we have implemented for IE in our journey towards an 'IT Smart' organisation. IT is your business partner and we will continue to similarly partner with all our other businesses to enable them to achieve Ambit's Vision FY16. We continue in our journey undeterred by the challenges ahead, after all 'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step'.

A Minute to Win it
Andrew Holland
CEO - Investment Advisory
Although here in India we are delighted with the performance of the stockmarket so far this year, it masks the negative sentiment that India (particularly with respect to political and economic events) received overseas. Indeed, a large part of discussions with our Nikko colleagues focused around these relevant issues. But as we all know, things on the ground can change very quickly in India. So how do we communicate this to sales/marketing people around the world, given the enormous amount of emails everyone receives daily, whilst also competing with news from other markets?? Well, first of all, we had to think of frequency of update, a month seemed too long and a weekly maybe too much info. Our thinking though moved towards a weekly if we could make it a product which updated you on major India events without too much work from the readers end. Then, what should be the focus of the weeklywell that was fairly easyMacro, Politics and Markets. Cutting a long story short, it was decided that the weekly should land in your email -ready to read -take no more than One-Minute to read -have links to reports/articles so the reader can access more info if desired Ok that was the easy part. Next was to tell Romolina the vision and then have her create a template which fitted all of the above. Despite never having created a template before she delivered (taught herself) the first template within a week and after providing various options we narrowed down to one. Next was test marketing within the Nikko world and the response was extremely positive with comments like This is excellent. I really like the format with the overview that allows you to get to the reports with a good variety of sources and Thanks, this looks extremely informative, I like your approach in getting India into the consciousness of our colleagues. We went live on the 22nd November and the aim is to add our own views and thoughts going forward.but that's an early 2013 project. The great part about the product is that every team member helps in its production through highlighting relevant news during the week, but more importantly (in Romolinas case) shows how one can stretch themselves outside of their normal comfort zone. If anyone in Ambit would like to see the product or be added to the mailing list please contact Romolina.

Sudoku

For solution, refer page 26

A Corporate Communications initiative

Nanhi Kali
Aakriti Sethi
KC Mahindra Trust
Born into an agricultural laborer family and belonging to one of India's 250 most backward districts, Mahbubnagar, is Renuka. Renuka, the eldest daughter of Lalappa and Ananthamma is a bright child, hailing from an economically deprived family, with an annual income below Rs. 15,000/-. The increasing cost of education has been a constant source of worry for Renuka and her family. Coupled with these economic troubles is the poor environment they live in where the average literacy rate in Mahbubnagar is merely 56.06% and female literacy is as low as 45.65%. Also plaguing this district are issues like child labor, malnutrition and anemia in the children. Moreover many schools do not have proper furniture, basic infrastructure, and a proper educational atmosphere. This is the story of not just one, but several girls like Renuka who in spite of harsh circumstances, strive to bring about a change in their lives and the community around them. Profiled in the year 2009, Renuka started receiving support under the umbrella of Project Nanhi Kali. Renuka is fortunate to be one of the 112 girls who are currently being supported by Ambit Capital as a part of the Diwali Promotion that they ran in November 2012, supporting Project Nanhi Kali and the cause of Girl child Education. As part of the Nanhi kali program she receives support in the form of a material kit which comprises of uniforms, a school bag, shoes, socks, hygiene material etc. to enable her to go to school with dignity. Apart from this, she receives academic support through a 1-2 hour class conducted before or after school hours called the Academic Support Centre, where concepts in Maths, Science and Language are taught to bridge the gaps in learning and enable children to attain grade specific competency levels. The teaching methodology includes the extensive use of innovative teaching tools and activities such as storytelling, group games etc which make learning not only meaningful but also fun. The Nanhi Kali team also works with the parents and community to sensitize them on not only gender equity but also issues related to adolescent health & hygiene. Post this intervention, it was observed that Renuka's performance and confidence accelerated a great deal. Before becoming a Nanhi Kali, Renuka was an above average student scoring 65%. However, after th being enrolled into the program she started scoring as high as 89%. She did her level best in the 9 grade st exams and came out with flying colors by securing the 1 rank (89%) in her class. Her parents are proud of their daughter's achievement and would like her to further pursue higher education! The importance of Girl Child Education cannot be stressed more. Education enhances lives. It ends the generational cycles of poverty and provides the means for sustainable development. A high quality basic education will better equip girls with knowledge and skills needed to adopt healthy lifestyles, and to take an active role in social, economic, and political decision-making as they transition to adolescence and adulthood. We believe education will also radically change the perception towards girl children from being considered as a burden today, to becoming potential leaders and building blocks of the society tomorrow.

Giving Back
CSR Council
The council was formed in 2009 under the name Ambit Oditi Foundation. Since then we have carried out different activities like blood donation camps, clothes collection drives and voluntary activities for Muktangan (a school for underprivileged children). The Ambit Oditi Foundation was granted the 80G certification in April this year. We commenced fund collection in May 2012 with around 10% employees. By July 2012, 88% employees were contributing 0.25% of their annual CTC, which is being deducted from their salary on a monthly basis. The total monthly collections are matched by Ambit. Primarily the funds are being utilized to support our office boys / housekeeping staff / security guards. For them, the two main causes we support are: - Education for their children: We reimburse their school fees and vocational training cost - Medical reimbursements for their parents / family members Till date we have reimbursed school fees for 13 children and provided medical assistance to 1. We also have made significant contributions to Magic Bus a non-profit organization, founded in 1999, that works with 200,000 children every week from marginalized communities in India. The primary objective of the NGO being to aid children in helping them living a better quality life through specialized mentoring and coaching initiatives. This is the 2nd consecutive year where, Ambit employees have volunteered to teach at Muktangan a school for underprivileged children. 4 employees go twice in a week to teach mathematics and English to class 9 students. We organized a clothes, toys and books collection drive in November. The collections were donated to GOONJ - a non-profit organization initiated in 1998, GOONJ provides clothes & other basic amenities to millions in the far-flung villages and they send out 80 to 100 tonnes of material every month, across 21 states of India. This has been an important year for Ambit CSR, where virtually every employee in the organization has very literally contributed to the initiative! We look forward to your continued support through both higher contribution to the fund and active participation in the volunteering activities for Muktangan and for Magic Bus (will commence based on employee interest) in the coming year.

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Achievement
Simran Phatak (11), daughter of Amarendra Phatak, is a Rhythmic Gymnast. She is a national player since 2008. In 2012 she represented Maharashtra at both, the School Nationals & the National tournaments conducted by the All India Federation of Rhythmic Gymnastics. She won 2 Gold Medals. 2 Silver Medals & 1 Bronze in these tournaments

Grand Recognition !
Mohammed Suhail Sheikh
VP - Private Wealth
When I joined Ambit little did I know that I would be part of a team which is like "A List" where each member of the team comes from different banks and different skill sets and forms a part of the same team under the leadership of Sutapa Banerjee. In a short span of two and a half years, we have created a platform of private bank which is "bespoke" for clients wherein each client is catered with personalised solutions depending on individual needs rather than "one size fits all", which is still not so easily available in a country like ours where you have very large players operating in a similar space with a "me too" attitude. When Asia money polls was conducted at the beginning of this year to identify the best private bank in India, our clients willingly participated in the polls. Conducting of such polls is fool proof as each of the respondents is called back and then asked to verify the answers which they have given in the survey either online or via an email. All the players operating in India participated which includes the likes of Citibank, RBS coots, Kotak Private Bank, Barclays, Morgan Stanley, etc. To our surprise, we were positioned as The 3rd Best Private Bank in India. This is a laudable achievement as we covered huge grounds in terms of service and product identification and offerings to our clients. I would like to share a snapshot of the survey with you with respect to Ambit:

ASiA MONEY
3rd Best private bank in India (Over all) 2nd in Discretionary portfolio management services 3rd in quality of advice 3rd in holistic approach addressing advise 3rd in quality and diversity of products 3rd in client relation management and service 3rd advisory portfolio management 3rd in structured products and derivatives 3rd in alternative investments 3rd in issue of confidentiality and security. We still have a lot of ground to cover and ensure that we do not rest on our laurels but continue to strive to reach and stay at the top in the coming years.

Achievement
Paresh Kapadias son, Spandans first stage performance since he started to learn the guitar. He is 7 years old and he played the tunes of "National Anthem" & "We shall overcome".

In The Spotlight
Premal Doshi
Director - Corporate Finance
1. Share a memorable experience of your childhood Amitabh Bachchan coming to my school for the shooting of Amar Akbar Anthony. 2. A college memory you distinctly remember/cherish During my 12th std, I was part of a group that engaged in organizing Dandiya events. I remember working tirelessly for organising these events from scratch to end, including sponsorships, financing, budgeting, logistics, ground levelling, decorations, catering, security, etc. I also won the Best Dancer prize making me one of the popular ones in the college. 7. Your motivation mantra If you think negative, only negative will happen in your life. Always think that you can do it, only then you can do it. Be optimistic.

8. A failure you learnt from This was during college, after having cleared the ICWA Inter (Costing exam), being over confident I appeared for the C.A. entrance exam without any preparation whatsoever and did not clear. After this, I learnt not to take things for grantedwhich is reflected by the fact that ICWA Final, CA Inter 3. Describe yourself as a teenager and a habit and Final levels (all groups) were cleared in first you would not want the world to know then... attempt. I was hardworking and independent as a teenager and did all kinds of jobs like taking tuitions, doing 13 9. Weekends are for... field surveys for companies, setting up an ice Family and Children cream parlour, running stalls for card and other games at fairs. No negative habit as such. 10. Favourite Actor/Actress? Akshay Kumar and Dimple Kapadia 4. An interesting anecdote from your first job Started working in CIFCO post qualifying as CA in 11. Superstitions, if any 1991. Six months into the job, the Harshad Mehta None scam got exposed engulfing CIFCO, leading to CBI raids and the firm closing down. At that point in 12. Things that you and your spouse don't time, many people including family and friends agree on told me to take up CA practice or join a corporate Well, it is a long list, difficult to fit in here. However, as a career move as this was more stable than over the last 20 years have adjusted to most of it financial services. However, my fiance (now my except when it comes to eating sweets wife, Nipa) encouraged me to pursue my passion and this landed me a job in Jardine Fleming (now 13. Experience so far in Ambit JP Morgan) where I ended up for about10 years. Its been great so far. It is motivating to come across such high calibre individuals and such a 5. A word that best describes you vibrant and professional setup that drives one to Happy go lucky perform to his/her optimum capability. Moreover, the people are friendly, having access to people 6. Philosophy of Life across different verticals/ businesses is enriching Every moment is precious, make the best of it as the coupled with the presence of an open door culture moment gone will never come again.

The Coming Together of Oxford and Harvard


Praveen Maheshwari
AVP - Corporate Finance
Ambit advised on back-to-back transactions in the Educational Book Publishing Sector in India. While on one hand, private equity firm Everstone picked up significant minority stake in SChand, on the other hand SChand simultaneously acquired 100% stake in Vikas Publishing. Ambit was the financial advisor for both the transactions, albeit, on the opposite sides!!! If by now, you are confused as to what is the connect between the heading of the article and the deals being talked about......let me ease your confusion. Everstone-SChand deal was codenamed "Oxford" and SChand-Vikas Publishing deal was codenamed "Harvard", hence the title Coming Together of Oxford and Harvard. Sometimes an investment banker's jargon of using codenames for projects can really result into some interesting situations! Wellthe journey started sometime in Aug 2011, when SChand promoters expressed a desire to raise private equity money into the company and grow the business inorganically and chose Ambit to help them achieve the same. As we started speaking to the private equity investors, we witnessed a strong interest in the transaction, as the company had all the right ingredients required for a private equity deal. But a big question to which no one had an answer was..what does the company do with the funds so raised!!! Is there a target available readily where the monies so raised can be invested from day one? At this juncture, started a quest from all parties involved to search for a suitable target for SChand. Ambit too reached out to some publishing companies to check if there was an interest for a transaction.and finally Ambit's search ended in the name of Vikas Publishing, which was just the right target for SChand. There was already an existing relationship between Ambit and the promoters of Vikas Publishing, which helped us a lot in convincing them to consider a deal with SChand. With the deal contours in place now, there began a long journey through the transaction process. As is the case with all corporate finance transactions, the journey was full of challenges. There was a lot to be done at all ends: group restructuring involving a series of mergers and de-mergers in SChand, countless meetings with private equity investors, financial and legal vendor due diligence of both SChand and Vikas Publishing, early completion of audit of accounts for FY 12, confirmatory due diligence by the buyers and not to forget, signing of heavily negotiated term sheets for both transactions. However, with Sanjay Bansal leading the transaction team, there were some unique solutions to every such challenge. With most of the above done by May 2012, we were now up against the most challenging task of final negotiations on pricing and agreements for both the deals. There was endless number crunching and analysis for final pricing and countless day long meetings on the agreements with the lawyers giving their best performance on their argumentative skills. There seemed to be no end to the discussions on the agreements as every time a meeting called to finalize the agreements would end up in few new issues to be resolved, thus resulting in a circle of issues (and this continued for several weeks!!!). On a lighter side, this of course included opportunity for good professional bonding between all the parties during free time and some good lunches and dinners followed by the special Yamu's paan from Connaught Place, Delhi which the SChand promoter would himself bring for us every night we sat

Nevertheless.all is well that ends well. Finally both the transactions got signed and sealed by the end of Aug 2012 and post that achieved a quick (which was unexpected and surprising given the speed of transactions so far!!!) simultaneous financial closure in early Oct 2012. A long journey through the transaction process came to an end with happy faces all across (which was well celebrated by some important stakeholders at German Beer Festival and in Bangkok) As I look back at the transactions, its a different feeling altogether of having grown up studying both SChand and Vikas Publishing books (or may be sitting at the back benches and making paper airplanes out of them) during my school / college days and years down the line applying a part of the same learning to put together a transaction for both these companies (this time.of course flying through the real airplanes between Mumbai Delhi !!!). As it is rightly said..certain things do come back in life.though in different forms.. We look forward to many more back-to-back transactions for Ambit.

Employee Health & Wellness Program through Vidal Healthex


Contributed by Team HR
Ever heard of the phrase, 'Health is not valued until sickness comes'? With the kind of life one leads today, clubbed with strenuous schedules and mounting stress levels, it becomes challenging to take out time for oneself. In such a scenario, where would one visit a doctor to check if one is actually healthy. The visit to the doctor gets restricted to when one is really sick. Not surprisingly, most of us think we are in good health as long as we feel fine. In fact, many small ailments which do not have any clear symptoms are often overlooked by us and may later take the form of a major illness. These can however be treated properly if detected well in time. With this in mind , we felt the need to take a step towards the wellness of our people, and set out to identify a partner who could manage this for us. We met four companies and identified Vidal as the partner for their Healthex Program. The program aims to make our employees aware of their current health status and work towards improving their health through a structured nutrition, exercise and awareness programs. The components included - a risk assessment tool to know about the lifestyle, habits through a detailed questionnaire, a master health check up comprising of comprehensive medical tests, nutrition camps and awareness talks, daily heath tips, 24X7 helpline for medical advice, e mail facility for stress queries and on-line access to health knowledge bank. We are currently in the third phase of the Program. We have had 91% participation to the Program with 95% providing positive feedback on the satisfaction with the Program. The first two phases helped us determine Ambit's Health score, which stands at 81.43 which is rated really high. Our highest risk has been identified as 'High Cholesterol' as the dietary habits of our staff need to improve. The planned personalised nutrition camp, followed by nutrition awareness talks should help our employees follow a better dietary regime. We wish you a healthy living!

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Diwali 2012

The Ustads of the Utsav

Five Big Bosses One at Office rest at home

Yeh duniya mein agar jannat hai to yehi hai ..yehi hai, yehi hai

Kanoon ke haath bahut lambe hote hai

I didn't know you could stoop so low!!

Card will be yours but rules will be minebolo manzur hai!!

I told you it has to be 9

Celebrating Happiness

Diwali 2012

De Tally 6.5

Firecracker time

Please call back, Ashok is in a Board Meeting

Liquidity

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"Boss I am a professional.. I started gambling when you were this young

Dad have you changed the password??

Pathi, Patni aur woh .. Blackberry!!!!!!

Policy - Glass or Bottle?

In The Spotlight
Kashyap Choksi
VP - Corporate Finance
1. Share a memorable experience of your childhood A: During our summer holidays, we used to go to our Nana's (Maternal Grandfather) place in Ahmedabad. I always admired my Nana for his business acumen and he was my role model. During one of the summer holidays, Nana offered me whether I would like to stay at home and play with other cousins or accompany him to our Jewellery shop. My Nana had 4 Jewellery shops in Ahmedabad. I quickly grabbed the opportunity as I would get to spend more time with Nana and understand his style. Consequently, most part of the summer holidays I had spent going along with Nana to the Jewellery shop, observing him, having lunch with him and also assist in the sales in the showroom. Since I was small, I was placed in the Pendant and Earrings counter. I was fast at learning the tricks of the trade. At the end of the vacation, Nana offered me stipend and said how much do you want as your stipend for the hard work put in by you for the period of 2 months. I found it very difficult to ask money from Nana ..so.as a token of appreciation, I requested Nana whether I can get a sweet looking pendant as a gift for my sister. During those days casting pendants (pendants molded in a pre-designed particular shape) were a novelty. He smiled and asked me which one do you want. I pointed to a small sweet looking pendant .to which Nana agreed and readily packed it in a gift wrap box. The smile on my Nana's face is still very fresh in my memory. It's not that I could not have bought the pendant for my sister but the token of love (from my first stipend) was something that is very special to me. When I came back to Mumbai, I gave the pendant gift in the same way as was packed by Nana - to my sister. She was completely overwhelmed and so were my parents. The smile and happiness on their face is still very fresh in my memory and as a mark

of appreciation, my sister, amongst various other pendants, adorably wears that sweet small pendant. 2. A college memory you would like to share This one incident relates to the day when my CA Foundation results were announced. I was in NM College attending lectures. During the break, few of my friends came and congratulated me for not only clearing the CA Foundation exams but also coming in All India Level rank. This was double news to me as I was not aware that 1) the results were announced and 2) that I had scored a rank All India Rank I was not willing to believe the news and asked them how did they come to know about my results and about my rank which is when they revealed the secret of star mark (*) besides the name and its relevance. All my friends started asking for Party and as news started spreading, even acquaintances started wishing me.but I was not willing to accept this mentally till I saw it with my own eyes. Not willing to believe them, I went to the CA Institute at Cuffe Parade to check out the results on my own, praying to God while my eyes were searching my name on the small Notice Board and somewhat torn list pasted in one corner. Finally, I saw my name in the Results List and yes.also saw the star mark (*) besides my name. Still unable to understand the relevance of the star mark and not willing to believe the truth, I went to the Enquiry Office of the CA Institute and asked the gentleman sitting at the counter the relevance of the star mark.

I saw a spark in the person's eyes and he said with a big smile . Congratulations my boy, you have scored a Rank. He asked my roll number, entered it in his system and said that you have scored 35th Rank. This was a big surprise for me. I was jumping in my mind and left the CA Institute happily..and started humming a song of the movie that had just released- the song from Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Khamoshi.Aaj Mein Upar..Aaasman Niche.aaj mein aage.zamana hai pichchein Singing, Humming, Dancing, Jumping I would have walked more than half way from CA Institute to Churchgate station.which is a decent distance. when I realised that my legs started screaming and then I took a cab to station. 3. Describe yourself as a teenager and a habit you would not want the world to know then... A bright student with clear focus on studies first and everything else later. As regards habits not known to world, these secrets are better kept to myself 4. An interesting anecdote from your first job This was in SBI Capital Markets, my first exposure to Investment Banking. This place gave me the exposure to the world of Investment Banking, introduced me to some good colleagues / seniors whom I still regard in high respects and maintain good relations. One of our Team Members was to appear for his exams to get admission for MBA in one of the foreign university. He had therefore proceeded on leave which I came to know when I casually asked my senior about his absence. Now as luck would have it, he was working on a transaction the details of which were known only to him. I or other Team Members did not have any clue about the deal. Suddenly, the transaction became live and the client wanted to open the Issue. Consequently, the regulatory filings were to be done in a short span of time with loads of pending issues. My senior said that we need to complete this as the firm's reputation is at risk. Without uttering a single word, all other Team Members joined up and completed the transaction .ofcourse it took a toll on us as we had to get to the depth in a short time without compromising on the quality. We consciously did not disturb our colleague friend as we had decided that we should not disturb him during his important studies.

When he came back, we just informed him that Friend, this assignment is done and these are the relevant papers for you to take charge of it. No sign of any favour done or special efforts undertaken.not by any single team member senior or junior. This incident strengthened the bonding amongst us and we still share a very good rapport even when all of us are in different organisations.as if just a phone call away and ready to help. 5. A word that best describes you Calm and Composed 6. Philosophy of Life Live and Let Live 7. Your motivation mantra Believe in God and When the Going Gets Tough..the Tough Gets Going!! 8. A failure you learnt from Keep your Personal Relations and Money Matters separate. If you mix the two, you will have to lose one. I learnt this the hard way. 9. Weekends are for... Family and catching up on pending sleep 10. Favorite Actor/Actress? Actor: Different Actors in Different Genres ..but if I have to select one name in the current breed of Actors it has to be Amitabh Bachchan Actress: Can be different.but one actress that looks good on screen and I like watching her Katrina Kaif ;) 11. Superstitions, if any None 12. Things that you and your spouse don't agree on During Vacations, she prefers to spend more time in exploring Shopping Places, Fashion Trends etc while I prefer to explore the place and the scenic beauty around it 13. Experience for far in Ambit Ambit was my second job when I had joined this organization in 2002..at that time Ambit was relatively small and we had our office in Dalamal Towers. I was here till 2009 and had a good time. Moved out for a brief period of 3 years, learnt some new things and am back here. Don't think, anything more needs to be said about the experience in Ambit and that this is like coming back to my own Home

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Another European Road Trip


Shalini Kamath
MD - HR & Corporate Communications
As in the last issue of Insight, I had thought I would write about something that would be relevant in Ambit's context, but the new Editorial Council felt sharing of something personal is more apt....so here I am, sharing another of my travels......this time the road trip from South of France to Zurich via Italy. My yearly trip to Provence was different this year as I visited all my favourite places, the quaint villages that I truly find fascinating with my daughter. What I thought she would like the most she found quite average and the places that I thought were rather moderate she found them fabulously exciting. The realisation struck that she has grown into a young lady with a mind of her own and any influencing is futile :-). The highlight was also a dinner that we hosted for friends in our apartment in Cannes. After nearly a week in Cote de Azur, we began our road trip from Cannes to Lucca. We drove through the beautiful ocean road. Left very early in the morning as we were very keen to reach Lucca by evening so that we could watch the Quarter Finals of the Football world cup being played between Italy and England at a local pub in Lucca. So to meet this objective we shunned the ocean road after lunch and took the highway and crossed numerous tunnels. Lucca is a delightful little walled town....much smaller than Florence and just exquisite. We witnessed the passion that Italians have for both food and football, over our first evening at Lucca at a local pub.....the celebrations on the road after Italy's win were similar to the ones we have after a Cricket win by India. The road trip in Italy continued to Pisa, Chianti, Florence. On the way to Cinque Terra, we got caught by the police for driving on the no entry bus lane. The very aware Italian police officers took all their frustration of the two sailors who had been placed in the jail in India, by harassing us for nearly an hour and also slapping a Euro 108 fine on us! From then on for the rest of the journey our daughter got an additional task of watching for road signs and we did not depend purely on the GPS. Amongst all the gorgeous places we visited, Lucca remains my Fresco on the Ceiling of the Dome favourite. Some memories that remain of Italy are - after the perfectly shaped (by the grace of God and the Doctor) women in South of France it was good to see normal sized women (definitely made us feel comfortable with our size:-). The fabulous infrastructure that has been built for tourism, the Expressways connect each historical site View from the top of the Dome and you enter and exit each through an automated toll as you enter a world of charm. The number of steps (highest being 206 steps) we climbed at each church to view the city from the top of the ' Duomo''. The site and sound of an Italian woman, in an obscure garden, playing the harp and singing Krishna bhajan. The warmth, passion and sense of style of the Italians. And, of course the wine and the food......

The Alps

After an enchanting 10 days in Italy we drove through Milan towards Zurich via De Stelvio pass at a height of 9050 feet through the Alps. We crossed 60 hair pin bends through the Alps to crossover to Switzerland. This route is rated amongst the top 3 motorways by BBC Topgear. The villages with their European style cottages, bright colour flower pots on the windows, snowcapped Alps in the back ground and rivers flowing through were just 'picture perfect'. No wonder there have been so many famous artists in Europe. Who wouldn't get inspired by such beauty that nature has bestowed?!

After a 16 hour drive we reached Zurich and the first home cooked Indian meal in 3 weeks was just purely satiating. Next morning, as we travelled through the streets of Zurich we found the restaurant where many years ago we had fed bread to the Swans and danced to live music. What happiness living old memories, provides to the human soul! It drizzled right through while we Outside The Zurich Restaurant travelled with our friends to a nearby village the next day. Reliving golden memories Finally I was not voted out and got to listen to Hindi music in the car as now we were 3 (our friends and I) against 2 (my husband and daughter). The combination of great company, good music and rain made the last part of the trip truly memorable. And then it was time to say goodbye and head home. Three countries over 3+ weeks by road, just reinforced our faith in our road journeys -for the flexibility it provides to stop at any place anytime, follow any route one desires to take and witness the changing landscapes as one meanders from place to place.

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Money Talks !

Road to Healthy Living


Dr. Smitha Samdariya
Vidal Healthex
Ever heard of a phrase Prevention is better than cure? Quite often, would be your answer. You would be surprised to hear that at least 80% of all heart diseases, diabetes and stroke, and over 40% of cancer can be prevented by making those minor adjustments in our lifestyle and behavior. 1.Accept the change - You are responsible for your health and hence, you are the one who has to act - Write down and place the benefits of healthy living in a place where you can see them quite often such as bedroom mirror, bathroom, wallet, etc - Aim for a realistic goal such as reducing weight by about 10% - Monitor and compare your efforts against your set goals by making journal entries
Healthy Living Not just the absence of illness, but to embrace wellness A way of living that promotes productivity and longevity of life Enables you to feel and be well physically, mentally and socially Not just a one-time affair, but a long-term commitment Makes your today and tomorrow healthier than yesterday Making those specific/right choices that takes you close to absolute wellbeing Made up of 5 key elements

2. Healthy diet - Have a balanced nutritious diet spread throughout the day in smaller quantities; remember, moderation is the key - Consume foods rich in fibers and whole grains, and replace saturated fatty foods with unsaturated ones - Daily diet should consist of about 5 portions of vegetables and fruits; one portion is the amount one can fit in their palm - Learn how to read and compare food labels that will help you choose the right options 3. Regular physical activity - Aim for at least 30 minutes a day for 5 days a week of brisk walking, running, swimming, etc - Invest in a pedometer and try walking Set SMART goals Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic 10,000 steps a day by walking to your and Timely goals office, taking stairs instead of elevators Start small Take one step at a time, break in to smaller - Warm up and cool down before and milestones after exercising Track it Monitor your progress to know where you are and - Keep yourself adequately hydrated by what needs to be done drinking fluids in between exercises and whenever possible Reward yourself On achieving smaller milestones, reward yourself to keep you motivated 4. Good Health behavior - For any current illness, visit your doctor regularly and stick to your doctor's advice - Contact your doctor and get immunized for flu, hepatitis, tetanus, typhoid, etc. - Maintain adequate oral health brush your teeth at least twice daily, floss at least once a day and see your dentist at least once a year - Quit smoking write down why you want to quit, make non-smoking friends, reduce your cravings by avoiding the triggers 5. Emotional health - Mind controls the body, and hence, you have to be emotionally sound to be physically fit - Set priorities at work and at home and act accordingly - Go to bed early and get at least 6-8 hours of sound sleep - Make a note of things that stress you and try to avoid or overcome them in a positive way

Long Term Service Awards


Harsh Gupta It is great to have been a part of the firm's growth over all these years. Not only the milestone provides a sense of pride and satisfaction, it also provides renewed vigour to set newer goals and make aggressive efforts to achieve them Angela Fernandes Today, I complete 5 years of my journey at this company. 5 years of a journey filled with stories of struggles, success, fights, fun and joy. This journey is made even more memorable because of the larger effort that each one of you put in here at work during your personal individual tenures here. I take pride in THANKING each and every one of you here for the support. Dinesh Mengwal Journey in Ambit has been one of happiest & extremely satisfying moments of my life. Not only I have gained professionally but have made some of the best friends for life. The best part of working in Ambit is that Respect & Appreciation flows right from senior management to my colleagues. Cherish all the time spent here and hope Ambit will keep inspiring and keep giving me lots of opportunity to excel Manoj Batra It is just the beginning of a new journey with plenty of experience in these five years Shalini Kamath The last near 6 years with Ambit have been tremendously satisfying. Initially in partnering with Ashok in hiring business and function heads and then partnering with them to hire, manage and develop a highly talented workforce for Ambit to deliver on its Vision. The trust and independence bestowed by the organisation to design all processes and programs in-house in collaboration with the businesses, will always be cherished by me. Ambit also provided me with an opportunity to learn corporate communications - beginning right with the foundation of identifying our brand identity through to developing all the marketing collaterals. Overall it has been an ardous but a very exciting journey!

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Rehan Shaikh My precious milestone! Being a recipient of the prestigious award for 5 years' long association with the Ambit family, I am overwhelmed and have immense gratitude for acknowledging my sincere efforts and consistent performance and this, moreover, gives me an impetus to strive and encourages me each day to make a difference in the company. Being a part of this Ambit family gives me a sense of pride and satisfaction that I shall cherish always.

Nilesh Oza Today, on this occasion, I would like to take this opportunity to talk about my journey at Ambit. It has been a long and memorable journey filled with stories of struggle, success, fun and joy. It is the combined effort of my colleagues and consistent support of my seniors, specially Mr Ashok Wadhwa who motivated me to continue in this organisation for all these years. I take this opportunity to thank one and all at Ambit who has made it possible for me to reach this position. I have had the privilege of serving our great organisation with honor, commitment, vision & spirit that all of us value so much. I am also privileged to be part of the team that has successfully implemented many projects and surpassed many major milestones and achievements. There are many people, both in past & in present, who have helped make my time here pleasant, enjoyable, worthwhile and I've enjoyed every moment of it here at Ambit. It was not easy for me to move from Finance & Accounts to HR and for that I must make a special mention of the enormous support given by Mrs Shalini Kamath & rest of my team without whom, none of this would have been possible. It is a dream come true for me to be working at Ambit, the journey is still on & I feel proud to be a part of Ambit. I personally wish to see our organisation grow & achieve many more success.

Invictus
In a conversation on the big screen with Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon, the captain of South Africas rugby team), Mandela (Morgan Freeman) shared with Pienaar that during his darkest moments in prison, his spirit was lifted and sustained by the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley, and that he would not have made it through prison if not for the words of this English poet who lived from 1849 to 1903

Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.
Contributed by Sujal Patwardhan

Structured Financing
Sanjay Dhoka
COO - NBFC
Apart from the standard products like promoter funding, margin financing, loan against securities, IPO financing etc., Ambit Finvest also offers a tailor made solution which is specifically designed to meet the client's requirements under its structured financing product. The loan facility under this product is specially structured / designed to enable the client to take advantage of a special situation or an investment objective keeping in view the constraints faced by the client. Special situations in which Ambit Finvest undertakes financing includes Buyback, Delisting offers, Open offers, Rights issues, Creeping acquisitions, Acquisition financing, Working Capital and projects bridge financing, PE drawdown financing, Bidding financing and PE cash outs. As a process, Ambit Finvest understands the client's requirements/objectives along with the constraints in detail, checks for the legal and the regulatory aspect related to the transaction and then designs a mutually accepted deal structure best suited to client's requirements and compliant with all the regulations. Post the agreement on the deal structure and commercial terms, the documents specific to the deal are prepared and executed along with security creation by client. After the disbursal of the funds to the client, Ambit Finvest continuously monitors the transaction flow so that the same complies with designed structure till the final settlement of the transaction. Ambit Finvest's niche lies in providing lending solutions to the client with value added services like helping the client in overcoming the constraints, guidance on legal and statutory compliances etc. at attractive terms and conditions.

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Little Angels

HRITHIKA
Daughter of Simmy Pawar (Assistant Manager - Corporate Communications)

ARAINA
Daughter of Avril Ruzario (Secretary)

Adding a dash of Fun to Work


Fun@Work Council
A fun workplace is a happier and more productive workplace and therein lies the genesis of the fun @ work council (F@W). F@W which has taken over activities that celebrate occasions, achievements of colleagues across businesses and all activities that generally create a positive buzz at the workplace had its first meeting on the 18th September 2012. The council championed by Vinod Wadhwani includes Rupesh Kolwalkar, Isha Dalal Rana, Pramod Menon, Dipti Mehta, Sumit Narang, Poonam Kataria, Siddharth Kharbanda, Shachi Seksaria & Niyati Khanna Motishah as its members. One of the first initiatives by F@W has been to celebrate employee birthdays falling in the same sun sign across the group. Posters indicating the names and birthday of employees, a select list of famous personalities sharing the sun-sign as well as the traits of the sun-signs are put up on all the floors including the cafeteria. The birthday celebration culminates in the "Super Friday", typically the last Friday in the sunsign where all the birthday employees are presented with a small birthday present and a cake is cut. The Super Friday also provides a social setting for employees across all businesses to interact and bond over beers and snacks outside of their work. So far F@W has organised two Super Fridays - For Libran's we celebrated the - Beer and Cake Super Friday - For Scorpions We celebrated the Beer & Vodka Pani Puri Super Friday The response to these initial events organised by F@W has been very encouraging and the effort and organisation of these events by F@W team has been appreciated. We also received several suggestions for improvement which were where practicable implemented. We would also like to take this opportunity to place on record our sincere appreciation for all the help and support provided to us by the Admin as well as the IT teams. As the F@W team continues to debate and discuss various ideas during the meetings, we hope that the energy and fun at these meeting translates into bringing more interesting events to ensure that Ambit becomes a place people enjoy and look forward to work at. Till the next "Super Friday" Have Fun!!

Sudoku Solution

The Ambit Nikko Tie-up


Saif Attar
COO
Ambit and Nikko announced in December 2011 that they had entered into a Joint Venture Agreement for providing investment management and advisory services. Both parties agreed that the dedicated India funds of both partners now and in the future will be managed and advised by the JV. At that time, Ambit was advising two funds in Mauritius viz Ambit Frontier Fund and Ambit Sharia Fund. On the other hand, Nikko was managing a BRICS fund that also had AUMs of approx US$150 million in Indian equities that would, henceforth, be advised or managed by the JV. The JV became operational effective 1 August 2012 when Andrew Holland and his team moved into a new legal entity Ambit Investment Advisors Pvt Ltd ( AIA ) and Ambit and Nikko jointly owning AIA and Ambit's FII in Mauritius. Andrew is the CEO and Bill Wilder, President & CIO of Nikko is the Chairman. The IA team is very excited that the JV has the ability to tap into Nikko's product development capabilities and extensive network of distributors. Already, the IA and BSG teams are putting together the contours of a new fund under the new SEBI rules for AIF. The new fund will leapfrog the IA team's excellent track record created for proprietary investments. Based on meetings with investors so far, the feedback is certainly positive and the interest is encouraging, prompting us to move rapidly. The formation of the new fund has all the internal approvals to go full steam ahead and put together the prerequisites for SEBI approval. The fund is expected to be raised in the first quarter of 2013. Our PW team will also be involved in distribution of the fund to investors.
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Desi Daaru!
Sukkerrr or (Means sugar cane in Danish) Or Vodgun A Vodka based desi cock-tail! Ingredients: - Vodka 120 ml (Plain or vanilla flavored) - Sugarcane juice 250 ml - Lemon Juice 2 tbsp - Lemon wedges / Mint leaves to Garnish - Ginger juice 2 tbsp - Crushed Ice one full martini glass - 3 splash Grenadine - 2 Martini Glass Kept in freezer for an hour Fill the two martini glasses with crushed ice. Mix 120 ml of vodka, 250 ml of sugar cane juice, 2 splash of Grenadine and 2 tbsp ginger juice and shake it well. Divide one splash of Grenadine between the two glasses and pour the mixture equally on both the glasses. Add one tbsp of lemon juice in each of the glasses and garnish with lemon rind and fresh mint leaves.
Contributed by Sujal Patwardhan

In The Spotlight
Himanshu Damania
VP - Business Process & Operations
1. Share a memorable experience of your childhood Tour to Kashmir with my parents when I was 10 yrs old. Few of most memorable experiences were staying in houseboat, Sledge car ride , beautiful rose gardens (must say i plucked lot of different color of roses for my Mom) and shikara in Dal lake. 2. A college memory you distinctly remember/cherish We were 10-12 friends in the group and use to celebrate birthday of each person in the group with different theme. I would like share Few of themes like dress color code, beach party , traditional wear, Street food party etc. The best part was that all expenses were shared by all friends. 3. Describe yourself as a teenager and a habit you would not want the world to know then... Always ready to have fun. No unknown habits. 4. An interesting anecdote from your first job My first job was with Action financial services, I started as trainee in 1995. In those days, Stock market had settlement cycle of 15 days. On the settlement day, brokers get physical certificate delivery of securities and all employees including senior management work over night to deliver shares on the next day to customers. I was always amazed to see team energy reaching at highest level while working over night on such settlement day. 5. A word that best describes you Flexible

6. Philosophy of Life Taking action in present keeping mind future you want to create. 7. Your motivation mantra Do not stop by any breakdown and find alternate possibilities to meet the goals. 8. A failure you learnt from Nothing significant to share. 9. Weekends are for... Spending time with my wife & kids 10. Favourite Actor/Actress? - Jim Carrey - Jean Claude van Damme 11. Superstitions, if any No purchases on inauspicious days 12. Things that you and your spouse don't agree on My wife likes going out on Sunday evening and I don't. 13. Experience so far in Ambit I am really impressed with organization's philosophy of caring about employees. Ambit's senior management team members are very humble and easy to access. On the whole, the entire team is very talented and focus on delivering what is expected of them.

Throwing some Prakash on Dogmas!


Gautam Gupte
Director - Corporate Finance
Statistics around blindness in India can be stunningly sad. - On an average, 3 persons amongst every 100 Indians are blind - India is the nation with the highest number of blind children in the whole world - In rural areas, the average ratio of population to a qualified ophthalmologist can go as high as 500,000 to 1, severely affecting detection and treatment of blindness - A child born blind has a less than 50% chance of survival beyond five years, a less than 10% chance of getting formal education and a less than 1% chance of securing a regular livelihood -- leading to potentially massive socio-economic consequences. The list can go on, and on, but will not be complete without the most significant (and perhaps the most disturbing) fact - around 40% of all instances of blindness in India are either preventable or curable! This is one of the key failings of our public health system. While many people talk about this, some actually make significant contribution towards alleviation of this bane. One such person is Dr Pawan Sinha. No, he is not a medical practioner as his title and the context of this article may suggest! Pawan holds a doctoral degree in Computer Science from the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston. His undergraduate and master's degrees were also in the field of Computer Science! He is currently a professor at MIT and his research includes using computational modelling techniques to understand how human brain learns to recognize objects through visual experience. Pawan has published a number of research papers in the field of cognitive science and has earned a variety of academic and industry honors, including very recently, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, 2012 given by President Obama. All children are born nearly blind. Immediately after birth, with the help of visual inputs which their eyes provide to the brain, they 'develop' vision. Traditional scientific knowledge holds that if a child is born with an eye disorder (eg. an opaque retina) which prevents the brain from receiving visual inputs, then the child is unlikely to recover vision even if the physical defect in the eye is corrected at a later stage. This conventional dogma, that visual system cannot regain functionality if children do not see during their first years of life, is borne out of research including the work of some past Nobel award winners. A part of Pawan's research is focused on challenging this age old belief! Pawan has launched Project Prakash in India, about 10 years ago, with the objective of marrying scientific opportunity with a humanitarian mission. Under Project Prakash, thousands of blind children in India are screened to identify cases of treatable blindness. Identified cases are provided free medical help and guidance for visual rehabilitation. This humanitarian effort has created a large, identifiable population of children who are just learning to see. Monitoring this group through studies, complemented with use of modern medical equipment like MRI scanners, has provided valuable insights into the process of visual learning and recognition. This research has also helped establish that human brain retains an ability to perform visual tasks even after an extended period of congenital blindness - something which should spur efforts in treating & rehabilitating children born blind and assumed to be 'lost cases' as per the extant scientific beliefs. I met Pawan recently at our graduation batch reunion. Personally I was amazed at the way he has bridged the divide between two seemingly very divergent streams of knowledge - computer science and neuro-science, in the process opening up the possibility of vision for many Indian underprivileged children. One of the key challenges for Project Prakash is scalability, given the mammoth size of the problem in India. Today, Project Prakash is active in some parts of India. Inspite of efforts from dedicated healthcare volunteers, only the proverbial tip of the iceberg has been touched. In addition to financial support, the initiative needs awareness among the people who can make a difference by contributing thought leadership and spread of the message through word of mouth. More information at http://web.mit.edu/bcs/sinha/prakash.html.

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Jab Main Chota Baccha Tha...

Sushant Bhansali
AVP - CEOs Office

Milan Sarvaiya
Sr. Executive - Operations

Nishat Vakil
Sr. Executive and Secretary

If you allow people to make withdrawals than deposits in your life, you will be out of balance and in the negative. Know when to close the account.

10% of with world's food supply is consumed by insects Japanese people don't have middle names Employees of the Vatican pay no income tax The only thing that can destroy a diamond is intense heat Bill Gates began programming computers at the of age 13

Did You Know

Flies can react to an object it sees and change direction in less than 30 milliseconds The first drug that was sold as a water soluble tablet was aspirin in 1900 The ice cream cone was introduced in 1904 Green tea has 50% more vitamin C than black tea The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year Superman dates back to June 1938 (he first appeared in Action Comics No. 1) The first crossword puzzle appeared in 1913 The dollar values on the board game Monopoly have been the same since 1935 The first taxi service began in New York in 1907 The elevator was invented in 1850 The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum It took Leonardo Da Vinci 10 years to paint Mona Lisa Wine is sold in tinted bottles because it spoils when exposed to light The youngest pope was 11 years old. They have square watermelons in Japan - they stack better Ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone. Thomas Edison, light bulb inventor, was afraid of the dark The world's oldest piece of chewing gum is 9000 years old The original name of Bank of America was Bank of Italy. There is a Starbucks in Myungdong, South Korea that is five stories tall. Ted Turner owns 5% of New Mexico There are more 100 dollar bills in Russia currently than there are in the United States A Boeing 767 airliner is made of 3,100,000 separate parts

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