Bengaluru Dosey Dictionary !

 The amount of time Bengaluru will remain the Start up capital of the world is anybody's guess. Bengaluru is also the dosey capital of the world, a well earned tag that will take many decades to replace. There are many restaurants which have been making dosey for over 60-70 years in Bengaluru. 

First, why the spelling. There are many variations in how this south Indian crepe  is called. Dosai or sometimes even thosai is how it is called in Tamil. Dosey is how it is pronounced in Kannada. Wherever this dish is not native to the place whether it is North, West or East India, it has assumed the name 'Dosa' or 'Dosha'. This is sad. How the North Indians of Bangalore have transformed this city into Hindi speaking country in just 3 decades is another delicate matter which is best brushed under the carpet. 

To help you choose a Dosey in Bengaluru, I have tried to list the varieties and give you an idea of what exactly it is. Some outlets serve both Chutney and Sambar with Dosey, however the best restaurants serve coconut chutney and a few serve both coconut and red chillies chutney. 

Masala Dosey - This is the most common one with potato filling making it a masala Dosey. Generally it is a treat, so best is to go for the Benne ( butter)  Masala Dosey even if you can ask for regular, which is made with cooking oil and is slightly cheaper.

Mysore Masala Dosey : This is rarely found in Bengaluru or Mysore with this name. Most restaurants add red chutney on the dosey without calling it mysore masala. In the rest of India Mysore Masala refers to the masala dosa which has red chutney on the inside of the dosa.  

As I am not fond of garlic, I usually request my masala dosey without 'red chutney' except in the few restaurants that I know don't add garlic. It is usually with garlic. 

Set Dosey - This is a plate with two or three small thick dosey. Usually served with Chutney and Saag ( mixed vegetable gravy) 

Khali Dosey - This is the closest to the Tamilnadu Dosai . Much like homemade dosey, it has less oil and is soft, not crisp. Many prefer this simple home style. 'Khali' means empty and is generally confused with plain dosey. 'Sada' dosey is generally the same as Khali. 

Plain Dosey - This is a masala dosey without the potato filling and the red chutney ( some guys do add the red chutney though). As it is without the potato it is called 'plain' however it is thin and crisp like the masala dosey.

Set Masala Dosey - This is not found in Bengaluru, though it might come to Bengaluru soon considering that it is very popular in Mysore. It is two small Masala Doseys instead of one big one. 

Onion Dosey - Onion Plain and Onion Masala are both popular. The only difference being the finely chopped onions as a filling

Open Dosey - This is a masala dosey that is flat out open. It is served as a flat dosey that is soft with the potato curry, pudi and a generous helping of benne ( butter) sitting in the middle of the dosey. This variant is really the one you want to try after the masala dosey.....worth it.

Paper Dosey - It is the ultra crisp variant sold mostly in fancy restaurants. In Bengaluru, not a popular variant.

Mulbagal Dosey - Mulbagal is a town in Kolar district close to Bengaluru and this dosey is gaining popularity for its novelty value. It is a regular masala dosey which has really crisp edges as it is made on an edge raised tawa where the batter is spread on the edges also. This is usually available with Butter or ghee and with or without Pudi ( powder) 

Davangere Benne Dosey - This is different from other doseys as it is made with a huge quantity of fresh white butter. Usually the chutney is spicy and the potato curry is made without using turmeric so it looks like white curry. The potato curry is served along with the dosey not inside the dosey like in typical masala doseys. Davangere dosey is also available as set dosey or khali dosey. 

Pudi is a spicy powder made with some lentils and spices. Many restaurants offer it as a variant or add-on for different doseys. 

Rava Dosey is not made with rice and urad dal ( split black gram) but with rava ( semolina). The onion rava dosey, rava masala dosey and plain rava dosey are popular options. Served with chutney and sambhar just like other doseys 

Neer Dosey - This is an import from coastal Karnataka. Made mostly of rice flour, this is a soft and fluffy dosey. Usually served with a Chutney ( savory) and either a sweet chutney ( made with coconut and Jaggery) or coconut milk ( sweetened) 

Ragi Dosey - This is a common dosey in Karnataka homes as it is quick to make with finger millet flour and yogurt and no waiting for fermentation and grinding issues. Except for the taste and dark grey colour it is like a regular dasey. Popular for its health benefits.

There is a range of fusion Doseys that are quite popular, however, for me the traditional doseys taste better. Some of the more popular fusion doseys in bengaluru include 

Cheese Dosey - quite popular 

Paneer Dosey 

Spring Dosey - I had this at a Kamat in Hyderabad - filled veg noodles in a crisp dosey - It was actually nice

Important : To enjoy a dosey in bengaluru don't worry too much about calories from the Benne ( butter) or Thuppa ( ghee). Recent studies indicate we must have more good fat and less complex carbs than we think as ideal. So welcome to the really competitive world of dosey in Bengaluru. 

One important warning: Never have Dosey in any of the five star hotels in Bengaluru - they are very far from the real thing and do no justice to the dish at all. 

Let me know in the comments below how your Dosey chomping experience in Bengaluru was and if I have missed any popular type of dosey you enjoy. Look forward to your posting pictures of doseys in Bengaluru in the comments box below.

Reconstructed not reconstituted foods - Investment in research to mimic natural products is that CSR or anti social?

 Reconstituted foods are common knowledge. Potato flakes used to make potato pancakes or egg powder used to make omelette is most common. Freeze drying food products only to reconstitute them by adding water is one of the great technological inventions to prolong the life of food substances. That is not the topic of this article. Reconstituted food is a common food industry/nutrition expression and so I had to call the subject of this article 'Reconstructed foods'.

In the recent years food  manufacturers have spent a great deal of money on research and technology to reconstruct food so as to make it look like it was made using a traditional natural process.

Milk

 If your child does not know about cows and buffalos and feels that milk is made in the factory, is that wrong? Long gone are the days when fresh milk was pasteurised and packed in bottles and sold. Today milk is made using milk powder and other ingredients with a variety of options in fat, SNF combinations. Many customers are aware of this and some new competitors are selling fresh milk at high prices while most dairies are producing milk in factories using milk powder ( shelf life of 18+ months) 

Potato Chips

When I mentioned that the big brands of perfectly shaped potato wafers are made from potato powder in factories and not by slicing potatoes, one of my good friends was quite surprised. The MNC's have spent so much money on developing the perfect shape to replicate the fried thin slice of potato using potato powder that it is really a great case in visual food design and engineering. While the many articles about how these chips were designed provide the rationale of strength etc, the real objective must have been also to keep it as close to the chip from a real potato so that customers don't know the difference and they don't know and by the time you are addicted and come to know of the difference, you don't care!  Potato chips design story

Corn Flakes 

Originally corn flakes were made with corn grits going under heavy rollers to make thin flakes. In India, I think Mohun Meakin still makes it this way. Most large brands make these flakes using flour ( except the classic variety which is consumed by the old)  and they could have provided them any shape, but they chose to shape them close to the original. The thickness and taste are quite different so customers can easily tell, except those who have never tried the thin flakes ! 

Pulpy Orange Juice

Using citric acid and other chemical ingredients to make orange juice is  common, however to add pulp made in a factory that resembles pulp from the actual fruit takes corporate innovation and R&D to another level. 

I find this type of food made in the factory that has the form of the traditional natural products is not good for society at large. To keep this short and since it is fairly obvious I have not gone in to the nutritional aspects or R&D spends to develop such foods. 

Did you know milk is made from powder? potato chips from potato powder? Corn flakes from corn flour + and the pulp in orange juice in a factory? Do you you know any other products that customers assume to be something and they are not? Do let me know. The passing off as natural products is the new investment in R&D 

Indian Knowledge systems in Commerce and management higher education curriculum

My sincere gratitude to Karnataka Rajya Mahavidyalaya Shikshak Sangha for giving me the opportunity to deliver an invited talk at the recent conference. With such a long history of commerce     ( some 4000 years) and of corporate and other organizations, apart from contemporary management practices unique to India, bringing Indian knowledge into higher education calls for research, consolidating and curating available content. 

IKS in Commerce and management , NEP 2020

From Teacher to Guru - The transformation expected in NEP2020

NEP 2020 - The new role of teachers as gurus

National Education Policy 2020 - Role of teachers in bringing IKS into the classroom 

Donate for classroom libraries at Gauribidanur and Manchenahalli Rural Karnataka

 https://donateabook.org.in/product/child-education-classroom-libraries-karnataka/

Integrating/Assimilating/Harmonizing....the correct expression is based on your paradigm! Indian Knowledge in Commerce and Management courses at high school level - My talk at Punjab University on 10th of July 2022

The two faces of the gig economy....killing!

 

The pandemic threw open another interesting dimension of the gig world of work. The greatest motivation for people to do a gig is the flexibility.....and the flip side of this flexibility came as quite a surprise during the pandemic, even as it should have been quite obvious.

The world of gigs is different from the world of employment and that of business ( business as in trading, manufacturing, and most types services except gigs). It is the flexibility at so many levels and on many dimensions such as timing, components/ composition/  job-mix of the gig, type of relationship, differential pricing etc that makes gigs attractive to many professionals. The pandemic brought the flexibility in association and disassociation to the fore. The convenience of easy separation and no such thing as terminal 

benefits was used by all those who give work. The world has a great respect for startup entrepreneurs, managers and officials, businessmen of all types, but the gigapreneur is both a pariah and saviour at the same time. During the pandemic the pariah didn't deserve even the crumbs as he had chosen the insecure path. Now at the end of the pandemic, while many professionals after enjoying the WFH experience want work in the gig economy, it is a decision one must make with caution. One pandemic can dry up savings made over 30 yrs of doing gigs as living off savings and a few big sudden expenses can throw any giger off balance.

 Explaining what you do to all those who wish you well and want to see you secure, and those who want to understand what you do or those who want to understand 

why someone would choose to do such unstable work if they were even reasonably competent is another difficult aspect which even those who are economically well off have to endure....and it is difficult not to care!

To gig or not to gig that is the question. The answer is entirely a personal choice with strong social repercussions. 

As for me, I just say that I have retired!

Wholesome Businesses - Going beyond triple bottom line and Stakeholder theory !

 Bholaram & Sons is a small one dish eatery in the by lanes of Ujjain, India that has survived continuously from 1924. There are many reviews of the restaurant( if we can call it one!). The list of fortune 500 companies is well known to undergo changes all the time. One study indicated that 90% of the firms that made it to the list in 1955 do not exist today.  "In 2020, the average lifespan of a company on Standard and Poor's 500 Index was just over 21 years, compared with 32 years in 1965. There is a clear long-term trend of declining corporate longevity with regards to companies on the S&P 500 Index, with this expected to fall even further throughout the 2020s"D.Clark. This is after professional strategic management, business continuity planning, product and process innovation and so many more strategies, not to mention doing the right thing of considering all the stake holders. 

Bholaram & Sons has been serving only Poori (fried wheat bread) and Sabji ( vegetable curry) from 1924. Everyone in town knows the address. There are so many reviews on YouTube, TripAdvisor and other spaces on the web. Is there a secret for business longevity? Why do monoliths die or fade away? Many explain the phenomenon with Schumpeter's  'creative destruction' as the raison d'être. The number of variations or innovations in Poori and Sabji over the last century are just too many to count. It is interesting that despite of all the innovations around the same product, this eatery thrives. 

Most companies understand sustainability as the sustainability of the firm/business, whereas sustainability of mankind goes far beyond keeping stake holders happy. Customer satisfaction or delight is limited by the knowledge and previous experience of the consumer and is a function of the expectations. Similarly employee engagement and retention, shareholder value,  superlative supplier relationships are all limited concepts because they are measured on the basis of some comparison with other businesses. 

The new normal post covid19 world calls for 'wholesome business' and hopefully educated customers who choose to do business only with wholesome firms. The role of business in society, the relationships between business and society, business and politics/governance, business and customers is not ideal today from any standpoint. Business, which is blinkered on profits, is exerting undue influence on every aspect of our lives. Undue influence is a understatement, however, I could not find a stronger expression. This is making mankind and earth unsustainable in the long run. 

Wholesome business is that which goes beyond triple bottom line and stakeholders into the domain of wholesomeness. Wholesome is not only about health and wellness, it is also about wellbeing of mind and spirit, respect for the law, ethical thought and behavior, and sustainability of mankind and the universe.  

Customer satisfaction is not enough, businesses need to provide products and services that are not harmful to the health and wellness of the individual and the world. Customers prefer whitest of paper, does that permit using chlorine that will inundate farms beyond the paper factory? How fair is it to provide 500% of recommended daily intake of sugar in a 200ml drink? 

Similarly, just take home salary is not a good measure of a wholesome employer. It should cover aspects like work-life balance, terminal and retirement benefits, wholesome working conditions. 

Even shareholders are not sharks, dividend and market capitalization ( really speculative notional value most times) need to be expanded to include other wholesome indices of the wholesome use of investment. 

Just my thoughts on the necessary post covid changes needed in business. I am a romantic, which is essential to be a disruptive innovator :) and be rarely understood! 

  The change in mind-set this calls for is great, however, every start up gives me hope. The number of social enterprises is increasing everyday and that is a good sign. When will we have a global corporation that is a social enterprise?

Anyone interested in expanding this idea into a journal article or think such a potential exists please do write in.

As always, your comments are what I eagerly look forward to. 

My review of 1924 restaurant Bhola Guru and Sons, Ujjain

 https://www.tripadvisor.in/ShowUserReviews-g679024-d15097412-r823709772-Bhola_Guru_Sons-Ujjain_Ujjain_District_Madhya_Pradesh.html?m=19905

My review in TripAdvisor 

Profiteering in a not for profit sector - Education

 Sent this to the Hindu, Indian Express, and Outlook one after the over 3-4 months. No one was willing to publish it hence I thought of my own blog!

Profiteering in a non-profit sector – Education

India has chosen for education to always be not for profit. The new education policy also reiterates this. In the introduction to the new education policy, one of the principles of the policy listed is ‘education is a public service’. Whether this is a good approach or not is not the subject of this article, though it deserves a lot more debate in our country rather than being brushed under the carpet like it is. This is about how successive governments have been hand in glove with ‘education for profit’ entities paying (unnecessarily in my view) lip service to the ‘not for profit’ principle. Everyone knows that most ‘for profit’ institutions are owned, benami most times, by politicians of all hues, big business owners, civil contractors and builders, in fact those parts of the economy where large amounts of black money is available.  Can India get out from the clutches of rapacious Edu-entrepreneurs, self-styled as social workers?

Most of this article is surely based on opinions and anecdotal evidence, however, readers who are connected with education will know a lot of these as facts. 

The new education policy 2020(NEP) has this to say on the topic 

“18.12. Multiple mechanisms with checks and balances will combat and stop the commercialization of higher education. This will be a key priority of the regulatory system. All education institutions will be held to similar standards of audit and disclosure as a ‘not for profit’ entity. Surpluses, if any, will be reinvested in the educational sector. There will be transparent public disclosure of all these financial matters with recourse to grievance-handling mechanisms to the general public. The accreditation system developed by NAC will provide a complementary check on this system, and NHERC will consider this as one of the key dimensions of its regulatory objective.

18.13. All HEIs - public and private - shall be treated on par within this regulatory regime. The regulatory regime shall encourage private philanthropic efforts in education. There will be common national guidelines for all legislative Acts that will form private HEIs. These common minimal guidelines will enable all such Acts to establish private HEIs, thus enabling common standards for private and public HEIs. These common guidelines will cover Good Governance, Financial Stability & Security, Educational Outcomes, and Transparency of Disclosures.

18.14. Private HEIs having a philanthropic and public-spirited intent will be encouraged through a progressive regime of fees determination. Transparent mechanisms for fixing of fees with an upper limit, for different types of institutions depending on their accreditation, will be developed so that individual institutions are not adversely affected. This will empower private HEIs to set fees for their programmes independently, though within the laid-out norms and the broad applicable regulatory mechanism. Private HEIs will be encouraged to offer freeships and scholarships in significant numbers to their students. All fees and charges set by private HEIs will be transparently and fully disclosed, and there shall be no arbitrary increases in these fees/charges during the period of enrolment of any student. This fee determining mechanism will ensure reasonable recovery of cost while ensuring that HEIs discharge their social obligations” National Education Policy – 2020, Ministry of Human resource development, Govt of India.

With regard to school education also the policy has a similar approach though it does not detail it as in the case of higher education. The excerpts are from a chapter titled “Curbing Commercialization of Education”

As one can see from the small print and reading between the lines, there are many areas that will offer loopholes that can be built into the legislations that will bring this policy to life. As the states and central government are still drawing up implementation plans and no supporting legislation has been made, it may be a good time to reflect on the various ways the corporate sector is involved in education and list the well-known mechanisms of profiteering in this domain. The high fees charged to students and incomes from consultancy by some of the IIM’s  which are independent, yet founded by the government, is another interesting area not covered in this article!

There are third party corporate entities which take on the managing of a college, department or a program. This means the not for profit trust or society only runs the program on paper whereas the corporate gets in the students, conducts the classes, finds placements etc using the institutions infrastructure and affiliating or private university for award of the degree. This is usually run on profit sharing or fee sharing basis with minimal faculty on the roles of the institution.

Another model is for a corporate to spew one or many private universities. In this case the university is a not for profit and remains so, however all incomes and expenditures happen through the company thereby the company remains profitable by providing all services to the university and its customers. 

Corporates withdraw monies from educational institutions providing many core educational functions. 

Many institutions of national prominence included offer programs similar to the one for which they have the approval. For example if there is an AICTE approved PGDM program with an intake of 120, the institute take in another 120 or 240 students to whom it offers PGDMM/PGD – E Com, or similar. Many times if it is a deemed university, no approval is taken for the MBA program (am not sure why universities are exempt from this requirement) and some private universities have admissions in thousands for the MBA program. 

The PhD program has been another area where commerce controls education. A few years ago PhD’s were being offered by a large number of universities for a high fee. There has been some reduction in this fraud, however, there are many deemed universities whose PhD programs need to be evaluated for minimum quality. There are universities which have set up off campus research centres to offer PhD in areas such as commerce and management which have nothing to do with a unique domain of expertise or great relevance to the university. 

The term ‘deemed to be a university’ means it is an institution of higher education not a regular university. According to UGC (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2019 Published vide Notification No. F. 1-2/2018 (CPP-1/DU), dated 20.2.2019 “3.0. Objectives of an Institution Deemed to be University. - The objectives for which an institution is declared by the Government as an Institution Deemed to be University shall be:

3.01 To provide for higher education leading to excellence and innovations in such branches of knowledge as may be deemed fit, primarily at undergraduate, at post-graduate and research degree levels, fully conforming to the concept of University as defined herein.

3.02 To engage in areas of specialization with proven ability to make distinctive contributions to the objectives of the higher education system in diverse disciplines.

3.03 To provide for high quality teaching and research recognized nationally and globally” The reality is that many private colleges flush with funds got the ‘deemed university’ status and have called themselves ‘University’ with the words ‘under sec 3 of UGC Act’ in smallest of letters, and the first time graduates, unsuspecting parents have bought into this on a large scale. It is only after 2017 there was some attempts to curb this practice. 

The TMA Pai judgement gives freedom to the institutions in charging fees.  In the T.M.A Pai v. State of Karnataka, 2002: The Court directed that educational institutions could make a “reasonable surplus” but disallowed profiteering and charging capitation fees. It argued that “reasonable surplus” to meet the cost of expansion and augmentation of facilities did not amount to profiteering. The UGC Act does not specifically have provisions about profits by educational institutions, while most of the school regulators have provisions to affiliate societies, trusts or Sec25 companies which are not for profit. There has not been any comprehensive legislation of fee fixation in both government and private institutions which includes aspects like donations, admission fees, hostels etc. even as we want education to be a public service with no profit motive. On the other hand, large corporates who want to start educational institutions which are genuinely part of their CSR have no way to go about it. 

Charging donations for admissions, high fee for academics and if that is limited then charging exorbitantly for other services, commissions on everything from text books to uniforms are the obvious methods of increasing revenue.  A survey on ‘parking charges’ or ‘compulsory bus fee’ levied by institutions in Bangalore for example would be very revealing.  Using mostly adjunct faculty or junior faculty, not paying reasonable salaries, not maintaining the buildings or providing sufficient safety, are some ways of reducing costs. 

The environment is stifling those who genuinely want to run really ‘not for profit’ institutions and with the tacit support to ‘for lots of profit’ institutions, wonder why the lip service. Hypocrisy only creates problems, in this case, of expectations which cannot be met. Much better to have a debate on the types of institutions, their role and target market. The role of the private sector is inevitable in India, and public sector universities have generally been job creation factories. On the demand side, we have a very large number of students and their parents who are easy prey as they value the degree without understanding the underbelly of the unprincipled part of the education industry. 

The new education policy is now in the planning for implementation stage, how will the legislation, rules and regulations view this elephant in the room? Will the income tax, companies act, societies act, and those connected with education take a common and all-encompassing view or continue to watch this from the side lines and maybe concentrate on correcting history and making changes in curriculum which are also important.