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India Inc,banks hit byshrinking credit: PM

Our BureauNEW DELHI

PRIME minister ManmohanSingh on Monday assured businesslead-ers the government would nothesitate in cutting levies and bor-rowing costs to prevent the econo-my going into a tailspin and urgedindustry not to resort to large-scalejob cuts before the steps alreadytaken and those being planned de-livered results.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)has already slashed reserve require-ments of banks and cut some ratesat which it lends money to banks asit looks to bolster the economy froma credit crunch that has roiled glob-al financial markets and economies.Last week, the government cut du-ties on aviation fuel and steel to givea boost to the sectors.

Meeting captains of industryhere, Mr Singh said the govern-ment would invest more in infra-structure, speed up social spendingand take other steps to maintaingrowth and stability in the econo-my. “The government will take allnecessary monetary and fiscal poli-cy meas-ures on the domestic frontto protect our growth rates,” a gov-ernment statement issued after themeeting quoted Mr Singh as saying.

The government expects grossdomestic product (GDP) growth toslow to 7.5-8% this year. The econ-

omy expanded by 9% last year. “We will review projects and

programmes in the area of infra-structure development, includingboth pure public sector projects andpublic-private partnership projects,to ensure that their implementa-tion is expedited and do not sufferfrom constraints of funds,” MrSingh said in the statement.

“While every effort needs to bemade to cut costs and raise pro-ductiv-ity, I hope there will be noknee-jerk reaction such as large-scale lay offs which may lead to anegative spiral,” he added. Theprime minis-ter’s two-hour-longmeeting was attended by industrychieftains such as Reliance In-dustries chairman MukeshAmbani, ICICI Bank CEO K VKamath, Essar Group chair-man Shashi Ruia, HDFC chair-man Deepak Parekh, MahindraGroup managing director AnandMahindra and ITC chairman YCDeveshwar.

Finance minister P Chi-dambaram, commerce and indus-try minister Kamal Nath, RBI gov-ernor D Subbarao and PlanningCommission deputy chairmanMontek Singh Ahluwaliarepresented the govern-ment. Unlike developedeconomies facing ma-jor stresses in theirfi-nancial sys-

tems, Mr Singh said India’s bankingsystem and deposits were safe andasked industry to be mindful of itssocial obligations in coping with theeffects of this global crisis.

LIC steps in, invests Rs 15k cr in corp NCDsReena Zachariah

MUMBAI.

EVEN as banks are averse to lending tocorporates, Life Insurance Corporation(LIC) has come to the rescue of India

Inc. From the Tata group to Larsen & Toubroto Mahindra & Mahindra , the life insurer hasinvested around Rs 15,000 crore over the lastsix months (in this financial year) in non-convertible debentures(NCDs).

NCD is a structured debt product that can-not be converted into equity shares of the is-suing company as opposed to convertibledebentures. Non-convertible debenturesnormally earn a higher interest rate thanconvertible debentures. LIC has invested inNCDs of these corporates which will earn

them an interest of about 11%(as per cur-rent market interest rates) for a tenure of 5-10 years.

“Only in this financial year our investmentsin NCDs has seen a marked improvement be-cause of the high interest we are getting...Alsowe want a mix of both equity and debt in ourportfolio,”said a senior executive of LIC. “A lotof companies have been approaching with usin the recent months,” he added.

According to sources close to the develop-ment, LIC has invested in over 50 companiesin the recent times.

However, one of the key criteria it insistson is that the company should have a mini-mum “AA” rating from one of the four ap-proved credit rating agency in the country.Last month,the country’s largest life insurer

invested close to Rs 2200 crore in NCDs is-sued by four Tata group companies includingTata Steel and Tata Sons,the sources said.However,ET could not verify with each com-pany regarding this.

Corporates issue these debentures largelyto meet their working capital requirementsand long term capital expenditure plans. Asfar as debentures are concerned insurancecompanies and provident funds are the largeand good source of funding for companies.Insurance companies largely invest in trade-able securities like debentures and bonds.Last year, external commercial borrowing(ECB) was one of the most preferred routeamong corporates. However, this year, corpo-rates haven’’t tapped this route due to the on-going financial turmoil.

“A lot of companies have been increasinglyusing debenture route to raise debt as fundingfrom ECB route has seen a big drop,” said AnilLadha, head of capital markets, ICICI Securi-ties. In a volatile market as other equity fundraising options such as initial public offer, qual-ified institutional placement,private equityhave dried up.With the global financial crisisinvestors have increasingly become cautioustowards these equity products.

Recently, Tata group’s three companies —Tata Motors, Tata Investment Corporationand Indian Hotels, got a tepid response fortheir rights issue from institutional and retailinvestors,eventually the promoters had tobail them out. Likewise, Hindalco’s rights is-sue was devolved on the bankers.

reena.zachariah@timesgroup.com

Travel Light: LCCs may trim fares 15%Decide To Pass On Reduction In ATF Prices To Customers

Mithun RoyMUMBAI

THE country’s three budget airliners— SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir — arelikely to slash airfares between 10 to

15% from November 15 thanks to a dropin the aircraft turbine fuel (ATF) prices.They are learnt to have taken an in-princi-ple decision to drop airfares in order to passon the benefit of the declining ATF pricesto the customers. An announcement is ex-pected in a couple of days.

The development assumessignificance as these three airlinescontrol a combined one-fourth share ofthe domestic market. The Jet-Kingfishercombine, which controls 60% of themarket, has so far no plans to reduce air-fares, industry sources said.

They added that these airlines areplanning to make the announcementon the same day in order to get more

mileage against full fledged carriers Jet-Kingfisher alliance and Air India, whichhave no plans to cut airfares in spite ofthe government slashing the taxes onaircraft turbine fuel last week by 17%.There are reports that the ATF priceswould be further slashed in line with adrop in crude oil prices worldwide.

When contacted, a top source inSpiceJet said: “There could be a fare cutin some sectors but nothing has beenfinalised as yet. SpiceJet will take thefinal call on Wednesday.” He declined togive details.

� Cost of fuel is 50%: P3

HOW IT WORKSNCD is a structured debtproduct that cannot be convertedinto equity shares of the issuingcompany as opposed toconvertible debentures. NCDsearn a higher interest

PepsiCo mullssame boss for snacks,beverages

Ratna BhushanNEW DELHI

PEPSICO is setting up a new leader-ship structure in India. Its two compa-nies in India, PepsiCo India Holdingsand snack food company FritoLay In-dia will both be headed by SanjeevChadha who until now was only lead-ing the beverages business.

The move is in line with PepsiCoglobal chairman and CEO IndraNooyi’s ‘power of one’ strategy fol-lowed in many world markets and isbeing implemented for the first time inIndia. The restructuring will come intoeffect starting January 1, 2009.

Mr Chadha will oversee the twobusinesses and has been elevated asPepsiCo chairman of the India region.He will be assisted by FritoLay MD Gau-tham Mukkavilli who will also work onboth businesses and has been elevatedas president of the India region.

�Units to have common head: P3

Foreign fundsturn costly for

top cos tooLiquidity Crunch, Political Risk

Premium To Push Up RatesGeorge Smith Alexander

MUMBAI

TOP corporates who are expect-ing cheaper overseas fund nextyear may be in for a rude shock andmay actually see their cost of for-eign borrowing rise. For the firsttime in recent years, bankers expectan element of political/reform riskpremium to be added to the overallfunding costs as most banks havetightened lending.

The debt market has been bracingitself for a rating downgrade for India.ICICI Bank’s and Tata Motor’s Creditdefault swaps — derivatives that pro-vide insurance against defaults —have been quoting at spreads ofabove 1,000 basis points for the pastfew days. The quotes reflect the de-fault risk. The higher the quote thehigher the default risk. Reliance In-dustries too saw its swap quotes atabove 1,000 bps last week. In fact,CDS of most Indian papers havemoved up sharply in October.

According to data fromBloomberg, the five year CDS spreadsof ICICI Bank reached a high of 1,794bps on October 27 as against 540 bps

on October 1. CDS of RIL reached ahigh of 1,025 bps on October 27 upfrom 285 bps on October 1. CDS ofState Bank of India the country’slargest bank reached a high of 855from a low of 324 bps as on October 1.

Bankers pointed that Tata MotorsCDS spreads had traded higher thanICICI Bank.

�Overseas costs have risen dramatically: P2

Asks Industry Not To Carry Out Large-Scale Lay-Offs

HIGH & LOWPost the proposed

cut, a Mumbai-Delhi ticket by

SpiceJet, IndiGoand GoAir would

cost around Rs 3,800 including

taxes during non-peak hours

Religare Aegon in parleys tobuy out troubled Lotus AMC

Pooja Meswani & Gaurav Pai MUMBAI

RELIGARE Aegon, the asset manage-ment company promoted by the Ran-baxy group, is close to buying out LotusIndia Asset Management Company, sig-nalling an imminent shakeout in the localmutual fund business.

Several fund houses were hit hard re-cently when large institutional investorsin some of their debt schemes pulled outtheir money owing to concerns over thequality of the portfolio and also due to aliquidity crunch. Lotus AMC, a joint ven-ture Rana Talwar’s India-based Sabre Cap-ital & Singapore-based Fullerton FundManagement group was one of the fundhouses which took a severe beating dur-

ing this period. The fund house saw its asset base fall

by nearly a third in October and by morethan half since January this year, accord-ing to the data made available by Amfi, atrade body of all the fund houses in thecountry. At the end of October, it had a

little less than Rs 5,500 crore in assets.Lotus has been scouting for a buyer for

several months now since continuing loss-es on operations had pushed its net worthcapital (minimum amount that a fundhouse must maintain) to a precarious lev-el. The huge redemptions and paucity ofinflows during the past few weeks mayhave dealt the final nail in the coffin.

In a scenario marked by a depreciat-ing net worth capital, either the promot-er group needs to pump-in capital or tolook for a partner or an exit. The pro-moters of Lotus seem to chosen the lat-ter option. But Lotus India AMC official-ly refused to comment. When contactedSaurabh Nanavati, chief executive ofReligare Aegon also declined to com-ment on the deal.

Insurance Major’s Pump-In In Marquee Firms To Fetch Them An Interest Of 11%

� Indian corporates creditdefault spreads are tradingat over 1,000 bps

� Elections will result inlenders pricing in political riskpremium raising cost

� Fears of downgrade in the medium-term continueto loom despite S&P reaffirmation

� Appetite for Indian paperdown because of oversup-ply and high leveraging

DEARER SPREAD

Triveni Khushali Bazaarput on the blockTriveni Retail Ventures, a 100% subsidiaryof Triveni Engineering and Industries, is un-derstood to have sounded out leading retail-ers for selling off its rural superstore chainTriveni Khushali Bazaar. Industry sourcessaid the group may either divest the ventureor offer controlling stake .

BUSINESS OF BRANDS: PAGE 4

Phoenix, Future join handsAtul Ruia-promoted Phoenix Mills andKishore Biyani’s Future group have togeth-er started retail-led mixed developmentprojects — essentially self-containedtownships — in the three cities of Mumbai,Bangalore and Chennai. The projects havealready received funds from banks andfinancial institutions.

EMERGING BUSINESS & IT: PAGE 6

Realty cos have to cut pricesThe RBI’s rate cuts alone may not stimulatethe sluggish residential market. Experts feeldevelopers may have to further cut prices tobring home buyers back into the market.Meanwhile, as a result of fall in home salesand higher capital and construction cost,most developers have reported decline inrevenue and profits in September quarter.

EMERGING BUSINESS & IT: PAGE 6

India, Iran lock hornsover IPI oil pipeline India is unwilling to pay for the Iranian gastransported through the proposed $7.6billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipelineunless it is delivered at the India-Pakistanborder. While Tehran is interested to deliverthe gas at the Iran-Pakistan border, NewDelhi is unwilling to take the paymentliability amidst concern of its safe passagethrough Pakistani in the light of growingterrorist activities across the border. Iranhas, however, said that it would be willingto evolve some contractual mechanism forthe safe delivery of gas to India.

EFM: PAGE 11

Merchandise exports fallThe economic crisis gripping the developedworld has cast its shadow on India’smerchandise exports growth, bringing itdown to 10.4% in September 2008 to$13.75 billion. Export growth during theprevious months of the current fiscal wasrobust, clocking 27% during August ‘08.Imports during September ‘08 increased bya robust 43.3% to $24.38 billion, driven pri-marily by oil, according to official datareleased by the commerce department.

EFM: PAGE 11

Pusa 1121 gets basmati tag The government on Monday recognisedrice variety Pusa 1121 as a basmati. Withthis, India has significantly diluted the iden-tity of basmati as a heritage seed to includeNew Age lab-created descendants. Pusa1121 has become very popular with Punjaband Haryana farmers due to its sturdynature and high yields.

ECONOMY & COMMODITIES: PAGE 15

Saddam’s yacht on the block. Iraq says ithas decided to sell Saddam Hussein’s lux-ury yacht after winning a legal disputeover its ownership. The former dictator’s269-foot superyacht is fitted with swim-ming pools, salons, a secret passage and a

rocket launchingsystem. Iraq’sg o v e r n m e n tspokesman Alial-Dabbagh saysin a statementthat the govern-ment has agreed

to part with the superyacht. Frenchauthorities seized the boat on January 31after it docked in Nice on the Mediter-ranean coast. The yacht remained therewhile courts settled a row over the ship’sownership. A yacht brokerage firm hadtried to sell the boat for a reported $35million. But Iraq said the yacht stillbelonged the country.

SUDDENLYSOMETHING

ET–InstaPOLL

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To vote, log on tohttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com

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BUSINESS OF BRANDS: PAGE 4

SPAMMERS BREACH LIVEHOTMAIL SECURITY

EMERGING BUSINESS & IT: PAGE 6

Narendra Kamath

Belgium can easily be describedas a diamond occupying prideof place in the bejeweled crown

of the European Union (EU), thanksto the various important hats that itwears with equal ease and elegance.Its relation with India too goes wayback and the roots have only gottenwell entrenched with time. Indo-Bel-gian trade has been rising systemati-cally over the years and the visits bystate dignitaries and businessmen, hasmade sure the ties are strengthened.With the state visit of King Albert II,the Belgian Monarch, starting yester-day, the ties between the two coun-tries are set to be fuelled further.

The Monarch is here on a nine-day

visit beginning Nov 3 accompanied byQueen Paola, Foreign Minister KarelDe Gucht, top businessmen andmembers from the Belgian academia.The visit starts in New Delhi and endson Nov 12, with trips to Mumbai,Chennai and Hyderabad. The visit bythe Monarch is a clear sign of theearnest efforts by the country to havebetter bilateral relations and in theprocess increase the trade betweenthe two countries.

The importance of Belgium in theEU is quite well known with itsstanding as a founding member of theEuropean Union. Its capital city,Brussels, even hosts the EU head-quarters and North Atlantic TreatyOrganization (NATO). Owing to thisfact, Brussels is even known as the

capital of Europe. As far as Belgium’s relation with

India is concerned, the trade betweenthe two was mostly led by the gemsbusiness since early days. Diamondsand precious stones formed the coreof it with the city of Antwerp at theheart of the trade. The port city ofAntwerp can be called the capital ofdiamond trade with People of Indianorigin (PIO) controlling a majority ofit. Belgium has also had a substantialpresence in logistics and port devel-opment in India.

On his Indian trip, the BelgianMonarch will meet India’s PresidentPratibha Patil and Prime MinisterManmohan Singh and is expected todiscuss a wide range of bilateral andregional issues with them. Patil will

THE KINGCOMETH

THE VISIT OF THE BELGIAN MONARCH, KING ALBERTII TO INDIA IS SEEN AS A BIG STRIDE INSTRENGTHENING THE TIES BETWEEN INDIA ANDBELGIUM IN ALL SPHERES OF TRADE WITH HIGHLEVEL DELEGATIONS FROM BOTH THE COUNTRIESSET TO ENGAGE IN TALKS TO FURTHER THERELATIONS BETWEEN THE TWO NATIONS

host a state dinner for him Nov 4.This visit also marks the interestshown by the two countries in yetanother sphere - academics. VariousMoUs are expected to be signed be-tween educational institutions in thetwo countries that will broaden theeducation horizon for students inthese countries.

The delegation that would accom-pany the Monarch will quite definitelysign a slew of commercial agreementsengaging in high level talks with Indi-an businessmen hunting for those lu-crative tie-ups that the two countriesoffer each other. The last few yearshave been very interesting and benefi-cial for the businesses with presencein India and Belgium; and for India,

with major India companies havingfound Belgium to be great place to dobusiness. Top Indian companies likeairline major Jet Airways, IT biggiesTCS and Infosys among others havetheir offices in Belgium. In fact JetAirways has formed its European hubat Brussels, clearly indicating the im-portance of the country for an Indiancompany to do business in.

With this visit the proverbial ballthat has been set rolling since long,will gather tremendous momentum,it is expected, and some new sectorswill also get into action. The trade toois on the verge of exponential growthwith old and new sectors geared up toclick in the two countries. The kingcometh, the carpet’s laid.

The diamond and gems business is predominantlycontrolled by people of Indian origin in Belgium

Belgium has also had a substantial presence in logistics and portdevelopment thanks to its expertise in the sector

The delegation accompanyingthe Monarch will definitelysign a slew of commercialagreements

This visit also marks theinterest shown by the twocountries in yet anothersphere - academics

BIG BIZ

H.E. King Albert II

of Belgium

AN INTERNATIONAL REPORT FROM THE ECONOMIC TIMES

THE ECONOMIC TIMES CHENNAI TUESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2008 10

A Correspondent

Brussels, the capital of Belgium isknow for a variety of reasons, butthe most unique among them

and possibly the most interesting forany traveler would be the fact that thecity has comic strip murals on hugewalls across the city looking at you onvarious streets.

About 15 years back in 1993, The Cityof Brussels started producing its own

comic strip murals that have become agreat tourist attraction and the muralare found across the city. The tour, infact, includes 31 walls in the centralPentagon area and four walls in Laeken.This is surely a great way to discoverBrussels, something that no other city inthe world will offer. And in the year tocome, City of Brussels will again add toits comic strip tour, with two or threemurals engaging a world audience withits long tradition of comic strips.

The city has even instituted a prize -City of Brussels prize, which goes to anauthor and an original work that opensup new perspectives for comic strips (interms of graphics, stories or story-tellingtechnique). It’s an idea that contributesto the beautification of the city andyou’ll find artists from all around theword taking part in it.

ET: What initiatives are youworking on to take the benefits ofBiopharma to the people in thiscountry?CJ: UCB is working extensively onepilepsy di-stigmatisation with vari-ous NGOs and numerous doctors. Wefeel that benefits of modern epilepsytreatment is not reaching many pa-tients due to wrong beliefs about thisdisease. We have also recently startedassessing the needs of rural India andhow we could make a difference inmaking more high quality drugs avail-able to the most remote parts of India.

The pharma industry in India hasnot always been very environmental-ly friendly. In addition to new waterpurification systems in our Vapi facto-ry, we are also proud to be the firstpharma co in India to have off-set allour CO2 emissions. We are also con-tributing to the development and try-ing to make available to Indian pa-

tients, their families and doctors, high-ly effective and innovative medical so-lutions.

In January 2008, UCB opened aprimary care healthcare center in Kil-lai for patients affected by the Tsuna-mi. UCB has committed to fund andsupervise the management of thiscenter for 5 years. We also donate ourproducts on various occasions to partsof the countries that are in specialneed such as during the recent floodsin Bihar.

What do you think is the future ofBiopharma in India?The future of biopharma in India isbright. We aim to combine the bestWestern science and Indian wisdom.First of all, there is a large talent poolof world-class doctors and scientists,some returning from Europe and theUS. There are clear benefits for West-ern pharma cos and biotechs to do re-

search, development, developmentservices, manufacturing and adminwork in India. Finally, as income lev-els rise, health infrastructure improvesand heath insurance increases its pen-etration, the Indian pharma marketwill benefit

How has the journey been so farhere? What obstacles, if any, haveyou faced in functioning in In-dia?The journey has been very rejoicingand interesting. Rejoicing to see somany colleagues work enthusiastical-ly in building relationships with doc-tors and patients, in producing highquality medicines and in providingbetter and better solutions to ourUCB colleagues in the West.

Despite numerous changes in UCBIndia's objectives and ways of work-ing, we have faced a fairly limitednumber of obstacles. The main obsta-

‘THE FUTURE OF BIOPHARMAIN INDIA IS BRIGHT’

ONE OF THE LEADERS IN THE BIOPHARMA WORLD, UCB IS DEEP INTO RESEARCH ON VERY CRITICALHEALTH ISSUES. IN A CHAT WITH NARENDRA KAMATH, CHARLES-ANTOINE JANSSEN MANAGING

DIRECTOR OF UCB GROUP IN INDIA UNDERLINES THE COMPANY’S OBJECTIVES AND GROWTH PLAN

cle faced at first was maybe due tothe excessive respect for their su-perior that many Indians seem tohave. Often my colleagues under-stood the ground reality betterthan I did, but would not tell me Iwas wrong. Hopefully, these daysare now far behind us as we workas a close knit team pursuing therealisation of UCB India's visionand mission.

Which are your most ambi-tious researches that are takingshape currently?Because of its unique combinationof research skills in short and longmolecules i.e. chemical and biolog-ical compounds, UCB is designingnew synergistic approaches to drugdesign and drug development.More and more of this is likely totake place in India in the future aswe find partners who are willing to

work beside us for the long-termand share our patient-centric stateof mind.

With the entire Biopharma sec-tor in India expecting to clock adouble digit growth, where doyou see UCB group in the nearfuture? In 2008, we except UCB India togrow its topline at a double digitrate, most probably quite fasterthan the market average. In 2009,we plan to grow faster than in2008, as a result of organic activi-ties, new product launches andpartnerships. We will contribute tothe development and will makeavailable to Indian patients anddoctors highly effective and innova-tive medical solutions. We will nur-ture and expand our employees’competencies and help them to re-alize themselves.

A walk with the

comic

AMAZING AS IT MAY SOUND,BRUSSELS OFFERS THETOURISTS A UNIQUE TOUR -THE COMIC STRIP TOUR!

Arguably the most famous Belgian export tothe world is Tintin, the comic character who’sa detective by choice and has some of theworld’s most loved characters for company.The abuse-smattering shippie Captian Had-dock, the forgetful scientist Prof. Calculus, thebumbling detectives Thomson and Thompsonand possibly the cutest and the smartest dogin comic history, Snowy, are all a part of thecomic world folklore and they all find theirorigin in the mind of the famous Belgiancomics writer and artist Herge.

TINTIN >>>

A Correspondent

Clearly the best gift a woman can everreceive and one that elicits the mostblushes - a diamond - will be forever,as they say and quite truly so. And ifthere’s one place in Belgium thatknows this fact better than any other,it is Antwerp - The city of diamonds.The city is known for its diamond in-dustry and is home of the AntwerpWorld Diamond Centre (AWDC). TheAWDC is the coordinating body andofficial representative of the diamondsector. It’s an official organization,

recognized internationally and acts ashost, spokesperson and intermediaryfor the Belgian diamond community.

Antwerp has a prosperous and live-ly commerce, rich history and deeplyrooted traditions. Diamonds form anintegral part of the cultural history ofAntwerp, from its golden age until thepresent day. Antwerp and diamondshave been closely linked since the14th century. With the current eco-nomic slowdown, the indistry wouldalso be affected a bit but not for longfeels Mr. Freddy Hanard, M.D ofAWDC. “China, India and the MiddleEast are the emerging markets on amiddle long term (5 to 7 years). Butthe two coming years will still be im-

Shining on! Diamonds are a girl’s

best friend, and theyare also Belgium’s mostpotent weapon in thetrade armoury. We takea tour of the AntwerpWorld Diamond Centreto learn more about thegem and the businessof that exquisite littlestone that never fails tothrill

pacted by the financial crisis. Thegrowth of the diamond industry fol-lows the global economic growth,”says Hanard.

The Antwerp Diamond SquareMileAn interesting aspect of Antwerp isthe Antwerp Diamond Square Mile,an exclusive, unparalleled infrastruc-ture where more than 1500 interna-tional diamond companies have theirheadquarters in a secured area, calledthe Diamond Square Mile with itsfour diamond bourses, specialized di-amond banks, diamond gradinglabs,insurance, security and transportcompanies, brokers, consultants,schools, technology companies andmore.

With Indians taking a shine to dia-mond like never before, the diamondbusinesses too have taken note andAntwerp will always be in thescheme of things when the gem ismentioned. “Antwerp still remainsan important diamond centre, offer-ing the widest variety of goods andcompanies,” says Hanard confidentlysumming up the importance of theregion for the diamond trade.

Brusselshas even

instituteda prize -

City ofBrussels

prize,which goes

to anauthorand an

originalwork thatopens upnew per-spectives

for comicstrips

(Above, top and right): Sights from around Brussels

characters

AN INTERNATIONAL REPORT FROM THE ECONOMIC TIMES

THE ECONOMIC TIMES CHENNAI TUESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2008 20