Category: Features

The success of a business depends on many factors, the most important of which is the decision regarding what industry it would like to pursue. In management terms, the blueprint for any business as to which niche it would like to operate in is called a ‘business model’. It is imperative to have a business model in place for it provides focus and direction to the management. Without such a structured approach, a business is likely to falter.

In Some Sizes Fit All, Akhil Gupta explains how the most important pillar for the success of any business is clarity on its business model. There are seven main issues which need to be considered and agreed upon for setting up a solid business model.

1. The line of activity

Almost all industries have multiple segments, referred to as ‘lines of activity’, which the management needs to carefully consider and choose from. In most cases, one would have to choose one or some of them as it may be neither necessary nor possible to pursue all possible lines.

2. Geography

It is important to identify the region in which the management would like to operate. The choice of geography would depend on the resources and ambitions of the management.

3. Target Customer

Companies need to carefully choose the segments of customers they wish to serve since the business strategy and required actions will depend upon this.

4. Sequencing and pacing of expansion

If multiple choices exist in any of the parameters above, it would be prudent to decide on sequencing and priorities and the milestones/time period for the introduction of specific products/services or specific geographies.

5. Revenue and profitability model and timing

It is important to have a clear revenue model, that is, a proper understanding of how and from where the revenue will come in, and also to have a time frame within which the revenue will start coming in. Companies that cannot demonstrate a revenue and profitability model do go out of favour sooner or later.

6. Clarity of objective

Every business needs to be clear as to what its main goal is—is it philanthropy or running a profitable business? Ideally, the objective should be to run a successful and profitable business with rapid scale-up using ethical means.

7. Revisit the business model at regular intervals

It is important for every company to revisit and review all aspects of its business model at regular intervals. These intervals can be time-based, say, annually, or can depend on specific events, such as regulatory changes, new technological innovations, the emergence of new markets, etc.

Some Sizes Fit All is an attempt to explain the fundamental pillars for any kind of business. An authentic and lucid presentation of management concepts and practices-which Akhil Gupta has tried and tested first hand through his illustrious career-this is a must-read for anyone trying to build a robust and financially sound business.

Friendships and sustainable, in-depth human bonds are crucial for survival and individual fulfillment. But like any relationship, friendships also need care and emotional investment for sustenance and strength.

In his latest book The Magic of Friendships, motivational speaker Shubha Vilas explores, in a straightforward, anecdotal manner, some accessible advice on how to sustain strong and magical friendships in your life. We take a look:

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Growing as an individual

‘Unless we work on our bad attitude and develop the right attitude and mindset, genuine friendship will always elude us.’

Symbiotic and mutualistic dynamic

‘[A symbiotic relationship] should ideally not be developed with the intention of deriving gains from the other person, but should be born of compassion and empathy towards one another.’

Putting friends at the centre of our lives

‘Friendship begins when we get rid of our self-centred mindset. As long as we remain at the centre of our lives, making good friends is out of the question. […] As long as we are focused on serving our own needs, interests and concerns, there is no time or desire to focus on the needs, interests and concerns of another person.’

Be your own friend first

‘To be a friend to another person, you first need to be a friend to yourself. Before you take on the responsibility of a friendship, you first need to take responsibility for your own self. The responsibility for changing ‘me’

Invest time and effort

‘[Deep friendships] cannot be developed overnight. They need patient nursing, which requires time.’

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In these challenging, socially-distanced times, it is more important than ever to keep your friends close. The Magic of Friendships is a testament to the fact that those friendship goals are way more attainable than you think!

The Anglo-Manipuri War of 1891 was hotly debated for months in Australia, Singapore, Great Britain and the United States. Highly controversial in the unfolding of the events of 1891 was the execution of Crown Prince Tikendrajit of Manipur. Today, the 13^th of August, the day of the execution, is observed as Patriots’ Day in Manipur.

The day her uncle Crown Prince Koireng Tikendra Bir Singh was executed on the Mound of the Eunuchs by the royal market. Sanatombi saw this vividly before her eyes. It was the last time she saw her uncle. She leaned on a post and stood stock-still. She thought, ‘My uncle, hanged! Was the Indian who was also hanged for siding with the crown prince the Indian my uncle talked about? No, that was Niranjan the subedar. Then who was it? … … … Uncle, so was this what you meant when you said you would be back?’ Binodini, ‘The Princess and the Political Agent’.

Bir Tikendrajit

The Anglo-Manipuri War of 1891 was a highly controversial war that deeply convulsed the British Empire. In 1825, after seven years of occupation of the Tibeto-Burman kingdom of Manipur by the Burmese kingdom of Ava, the army of the East India Company and an army of Manipuri princes called the Manipur Levy joined forces to expel the Burmese. The subsequent Treaty of Yandabo of 1826 recognised the independence of Manipur.

The kingdom became a buffer state between the British and the Burmese. In 1834, under the regency of Crown Prince Narasingh, the Political Agency of Manipur was instituted by the British as a medium of communication between the East India Company and Manipur about the frontier between Manipur and Burma. The function of the Political Agent was dependent on the will and pleasure of the Maharaja of Manipur. British records described him as a British officer under Manipur surveillance.

The 1850s and the 1860s, however, saw a series of succession wars after the death of the popular and able Maharaja Narasingh in 1850. The instability led the British to provide a unilateral guarantee of protection of Manipur in 1865 by declaring Maharaja Chandrakirti Singh as an “Asiatic power” in alliance with the Queen of Britain.

In 1874 Chandrakirti and Lord Northbrook, Viceroy of India, reaffirmed the Anglo-Manipuri treaty of 1833. In 1886, the powerful and friendly Chandrakirti died and the British annexed Upper Burma as well. The weakened Manipur’s importance as a buffer state for the British came to an end. But the kingdom remained strategically important as it was located between Burma and Assam, two important possessions of the British Empire.

After the accession to the throne by Maharaja Surchandra, the eldest son of Chandrakirti, there was a palace coup in September 1890 led by his younger brother Prince Tikendrajit. The rebel faction deposed Surchandra and proclaimed Kulachandra, the next oldest brother, the king. Surchandra fled to Calcutta where he appealed to Viceroy Lord Lansdowne to reinstall him on the throne.

Instead, the British dispatched James Quinton, the Chief Commissioner of Assam, with an army to Manipur. His mission was to recognise Kulachandra as the king under the condition that they be allowed to arrest the coup leader Crown Prince Tikendrajit and deport him from Manipur. This aggressive imposition of British law in a sovereign state was rejected by the king, precipitating the Anglo-Manipuri War of 1891. The Anglo-Manipuri War was fought for over a month in the spring of 1891.

In its first phase, the British under the cover of night before daybreak attacked the palace of Manipur, in present day Kangla Fort. Defeated, they retreated but Manipuri forces surrounded the British Residency and five British representatives — Quinton, Frank Grimwood, the Political Agent in Manipur, and three other officers — emerged from the Residency under a flag of truce. A durbar was held with the king at Kangla Fort.

The British representatives were asked to surrender their arms. Upon their refusal, the officers were arrested and tried in the royal military court. The five were executed in Kangla Fort for their crime against the monarch. In the second phase of the war, the British invaded Manipur with three columns from the west, north and east. The Manipuris were defeated at the decisive Battle of Khongjom and in April, the British captured the palace of Manipur at Kangla Fort.

Maharaja Kulachandra and his brothers were deported to the British penal colony in the Andaman Islands. Queen Victoria tried to save Tikendrajit. She thought hanging him “would create very bad feeling in Manipur and in all India.”The Viceroy threatened to resign and refused to comply. He proceeded with the death sentence of Tikendrajit. The Crown Prince was hanged to death in August 1891. The deposed Surchandra died in British custody in Calcutta later that year.

The House of Parliament in Westminster debated the future status of Manipur. The British Raj declared that Manipur state was forfeited to the Crown, but decided to regrant it to a scion of another branch of the dynasty. Eight-year-old Churachand, great grandson of Maharaja Narasingh, was installed as the new king of Manipur in September 1891 by Political Agent Henry St. P. Maxwell. The Anglo-Manipuri War was hotly debated by the international community and remained for months on the front pages of newspapers in Great Britain, the US, and the crown colonies of Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

Representatives of Great Britain had, in an act of defiance of the British Empire, been beheaded by the public executioner in the presence of a big crowd. The imperial British could not accept the capital punishment meted to their five officers by a small kingdom. They termed it as “treachery” and “rebellion”, and as an act of barbarism. The New York Times opined that the conflict was a serious and threatening blow to British prestige, for instead of being the result of a casual riot, the murder of the English representatives was a quasijudicial act on the part of the native government.

International opinion also held Quinton guilty of attempting to capture Tikendrajit and for attacking a sovereign state without a proclamation of war. The international community censured the subsequent execution: “They were soldiers, but they were taken from their prison, led to a scaffold and there hanged like ordinary murderers.”

Coming after the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, native Indian newspapers condemned it as British colonialism, declaring the war as part of the general uprising against foreign rule in India.

Somi Roy is a film and media curator, cultural conservationist, and the translator of the works of his mother M.K. Binodini Devi. His latest translation, ‘The Princess and the Political Agent’, Binodini’s historical novel set in the years and events around 1891, is published by Penguin Random House India. Wangam Somorjit is a historian and the author of ‘The Chronology of Meetei Monarchs’ (2010) and ‘Manipur: The Forgotten Nation of Southeast Asia’ (2016). He lives in Imphal. 

This article was first published in The Daily Guardian.