Showing posts with label IIPM Gurgaon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IIPM Gurgaon. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

A thespian grandmom

A thespian grandmom, a sultry mom, and two star daughters…

Having been part of two different eras, Moon Moon sees no influence of her mom’s work in her own. “My mother stopped acting about 15 years before I stepped into films. If you look at the history of cinema, you will see that each decade is different in terms of writing, story, direction etc. I could never have done the kind of role my mother did because I was never offered such roles. What came my way was very different and I had to measure up to the kind of work I got.” The challenge, as she says, was never about comparison or expectation. “In fact, the biggest challenge faced by actors of any era is that of competition from fellow actors.”

On whether it is difficult for a star child to deal with people’s expectations, Moon Moon interestingly pointed out, “One has to understand that people don’t really have any expectations. It’s more about meeting your own expectations. Eventually how one performs matters.” In her film career of 60 movies and 40 tele-serials in Bengali, Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and even Marathi, Moon Moon Sen dared roles that were tabooed in the Indian film industry then. “They just wait to see what you are going to be like,” says Moon Moon with a conviction that appears to be her source of motivation too.

During the conversation, her well paced discourse in a husky yet clear voice was constantly reminding me of an elitist secondary school language teacher. The similarity between them was an effortless wider-than-usual stretching of lips for clarity in pronunciation. What led to such a thought could probably be my knowledge of her being an English teacher at one time or her constant words of encouragement for all star kids who somewhere along the line are trying to overcome the shadows of their predecessors. “Like today, no one really expects Ranbir to be like his father or mother. For Abhishek Bachchan, the challenge is nothing to do with him being Amitabh Bachchan’s son. Nobody expects another Amitabh Bachchan; they wish to see what Abhishek Bacchan is all about,” she explains. 


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Saturday, October 13, 2012

FUNDS ALLOCATION: FLAGSHIP PROGRAMS

Priority should be given to smaller projects and projects-on-hold

In order to end the middle men commission concept and faulty tender processes, the government needs to adopt a fast-track single-window technical tendering process. The release of funds have to made much more efficient and quick – thus enabling the project to go on as per the schedule – as well as fines charged not just for implementation delays but also for unused funds (aka ADB). Smaller projects should be necessarily targeted first. For example, the JNNURM sanction should be immediately used for public facilities like roads, water in village areas, as these are the small projects that can be tendered and completed double quick.

Another innovative procedure could be to provide appropriate incentives to the tender awardees for completing plans before time and within budgets. Most importantly, well paid professional managers should be employed to manage and rate these projects from the government’s end. Believe us, it works to hire intelligent humans. Well, how many times have government ‘Abhiyans’ been rated on an Economic Value Added concept?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Thursday, October 11, 2012

A crown of steel, a road full of thorns...

Ratan Tata himself is in favour of the successor being an insider rather than an outsider

Tata Steel’s journey over the last hundred years has been a fascinating one. And driving this growth for the last one decade is B. Muthuraman. Muthuraman joined Tata Steel in 1966 as a Graduate Trainee. He worked in the areas of iron-making and engineering development for a period of ten years. He then moved to the marketing & sales division and spent nearly 20 years there, ultimately rising to the level of Vice President. He was appointed Executive Director (Special Projects) in August 2000 and served as the main change agent for the major diversification projects of Tata Steel. He was appointed as Managing Director of Tata Steel on July 22, 2001.Tata Steel is going to look for a new CEO, as the long-standing Chief Executive of the company steps down this September. There are three to four names of potential CEOs floating around. One such name is that of Philippe Varin.

Assuming Varin gets the nod from Ratan Tata to succeed B. Muthuraman, the appointment would help Ratan Tata’s efforts to underline his group’s international credentials. Post Tata Steel’s acquisition of Corus in 2007, Varin has worked closely and effectively with B. Muthuraman, Managing Director of Tata Steel to successfully integrate Corus and Tata Steel. At the age of 56, Varin would not be a particularly youthful choice. However, Ratan Tata is more impressed with his ability than youth. Ratan Tata recently extended his own term that allows him to stay at the helm until he is 75. The diplomatic Varin has shown every sign of having enjoyed working for the Indian company, though he now has a struggle on his hands, as Corus pushes through a £350 million cost-saving plan that could involve large job cuts next year. The Board of Tata Steel has appointed Kirby Adams to succeed Philippe Varin as Chief Executive Officer of Corus and of Tata Steel Europe – the holding company of Tata Steel’s European operations. It is also learnt that the coveted post – at the helm of Tata Steel – will go to an insider. A senior Tata Group official said that Ratan Tata himself is in favour of successor being a ‘Tata Steel man’ rather than an outsider.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

ICELAND: PM RESIGNS

Iceland's PM resigns on the back of global economic turmoil

This crisis has been a tremendous let-down for 320,000 Icelanders, whose rising incomes and prosperity had left them quite unprepared for this. "What this essentially means is that this is a country without a government, so it's impossible to say what might happen next,” says Gunnar Kristinsson, Professor at Iceland University. It is anticipated that the economy will shrink by 9.6% in 2009, while unemployment will touch 7.8%.

Bailouts by neighbouring countries and IMF are failing to prop up the economy. The new PM Johanna Sigurdardottir is asking Central Bank governors to resign and is building consensus for a union with EU. As other options fail, this indeed seems to be the best way forward.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Look where we landed!

The new CEOs of Walmart & Yahoo! could actually explore an alliance!

At the beginning of this century, when the world had just begun adjusting to life after the Internet, everyone was talking about how the brick & mortar companies would be out of contention soon and the Internet upstarts would seize the day. The dotcom bubble burst and badly so, taking many believers with it. But the belief was not misplaced. Only, the Internet’s potential was overestimated. However, what must be understood is that no amount of technology can make up for the lack of a sound business model. This is evident from the travails of Walmart and Yahoo!, one company hails from the brick & mortar world of yore, and the other belongs to the futuristic Internet space. For both, 2009 is bringing in a crucial change in leadership (as US President Barack Obama would agree, change is the key word this year!).

Walmart will get its new CEO Mike Duke on February 1, replacing Lee Scott (who’s term has ended) and Yahoo! has already gotten its new CEO Carol Bartz replacing co-founder Jerry Yang (who stepped down following intense criticism). Well, the irony is that the ‘past’ seems to be ahead of the ‘future’. Walmart is successfully surviving the downturn and Yahoo! is struggling. But both CEOs have their own set of challenges.

Duke has been with Walmart for over 14 years. His appointment indicates that Walmart may be looking at expanding international operations (where Duke has valuable experience) immensely. Liz Crawford, VP-Retail, Strategy, Tracy Locke states, “Duke has learned valuable lessons in markets like Germany (where the chain had to close down).” Walmart will face overwhelming competition from Tesco, Metro, Carrefour, et al in emerging markets, as per Bryan Roberts, Global research Director, Planet Retail.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Saturday, October 06, 2012

It’s a Simple Matter of Investment

A Synchrotron is Welcome, But India still needs a Thriving R&D Culture

There is a plan to set up a ‘synchrotron’ in West Bengal with an investment estimate of Rs.60 billion to be made by the Indian government and private players, a concept that exists only in four countries – US, France, Japan and Germany. It is being hailed as India’s arrival into the Big Boys club in R&D. A synchrotron is a cyclical particle accelerator (like the one at the most famed CERN) that has its application in various streams of sciences. Truly, in the scientific industry, it’s equivalent to sending a man to the moon. For India, it’s not only a matter of pride, but a step towards rebranding itself as an upmarket research and development hub.

But keep this synchrotron instance to one side, and one starts viewing huge gaps in our R&D efforts. As per the latest data from the Ministry of Science and Technology, there were 3960 R&D institutions as of 2006, of which 707 were by the Central Government, 834 by State Governments and 2020 by private sectors. Total investment during 2002-03 was $3.91 billion, which was just 0.8% of the GNP. However, that increased to 2% of GDP in 2008.

But these numbers shrink when one compares the same to benchmark countries. OECD commented that even in 2006, China was apparently investing $136 billion in R&D. As of 2008, India had 1.5 lakh researchers compared to China’s 10 lakh plus. Even the US had a total R&D expenditure in 2006 of $340 billion. Global expenditure on R&D has dramatically increased from $525 billion in 1999 to $1.1 trillion in 2007. Positively looking, the patents granted in India had increased from 1078 during 2002-03 to 15220 during 2006-07. But in the same year, the European patent office issued 62,780 patents; and the US, 173,771 patents.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Friday, October 05, 2012

WIKILEAKS: THE EULOGY

Left to us, We’d give the Nobel Prize to WikiLeaks, Run by the Rollicking Sunshine Press, For their Astounding Efforts... This one’s for them!

But more than all the numbers, WikiLeaks has beyond doubt proven that United States has knowingly not only committed the worst and unpardonable human rights violations, but also has violated the Geneva Accord that controls the behaviour of armies, who capture “prisoners during the course of operations.”

In comparison, Saddam’s kangaroo-trial and summary execution by the US government for the killing of 148 Shiites in Dujail, seems like child’s play. One wonders whether George Bush would ever be even charged with war crimes.

Back to topic, while the top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen warned that the WikiLeaks Afghan expose is a threat to national security, President Obama commented, “These documents don’t reveal any issues that haven’t already informed our public debate on Afghanistan.” Strangely, the tenor of Presidential speak has been quite similar whenever WikiLeaks has squirmed the can open – their historic Guantanamo Bay expose inclusive, where WikiLeaks revealed the exact prison manual (termed the Standard Operating Procedure) for Camp Delta, that documented spectacular human rights’ violations – usage of dogs, belly irons, isolation torture et al.

But Assange hasn’t always gotten it right. In two notable mistakes, WikiLeaks has had to eat dust. In December 2006, WikiLeaks claimed that Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a Somali political figure, had planned to assassinate Somali Government officials. Later, the claim was found to be unauthentic and led to WikiLeaks trying to cover up.

In another example, WikiLeaks jumped the gun during the 2008 US Presidential Election, by posting contents of an email account which purportedly belonged to Sarah Palin. It didn’t take much time for investigators to discover that it was just a fake email account created by David Kernell, a Tennessee University student.

But the world is fortunate that WikiLeaks has survived till now. In February 2008, the Swiss Bank Julius Baer sued WikiLeaks in a court in California, US and sought permanent shutdown of its website after it reported illegal activities in the bank’s Cayman Island branch. WikiLeaks won the case in March, 2008. This time they were lucky. It might not be so in the future. To that extent, Assange, your personal indiscretions aside, this one’s for you!


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

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Saturday, September 08, 2012

Do Aliens really exist?

August 5, 2010: UK Government officially accepts the hushing up of a confirmed UFO incident by releasing 5000 plus pages of UFO reports! So do Aliens really exist? The Scrutiny team does a quick recap of available research in this area!
 
Numerous scientists, defence intelligence agencies and government organizations, after years of research, continue to grapple with the possibility of alien life on other planets – and on earth. While none of them have indisputably confirmed the existence of aliens or UFOs, innumerable sightings at different times in history in different parts of the world have made stronger than required and straight-jacked denials from leading governments appear clearly unnecessary at the best, and to the critics, like cover-ups at the worst.

While the most famous July 1947 purported alien aircraft crash in Roswell, USA, was repeatedly denied by the US government (despite the statements by people like Maj. Jesse Marcel – deputed by the US government in the debris recovery at Roswell – who confirmed the crash to be of an “unearthly” extraterrestrial spacecraft), some of the other incidents have been accepted by respective governments to have definitely occurred; the Scrutiny team gives a quick review of the reports.

January 31, 1916: A UK pilot near Rochford reports a row of lights, like lighted windows on a railway carriage, that rise and disappear. In another similar incident, a US pilot sees six “flying manhole covers” between Wichita, Kansas and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

June 24, 1947: Much respected American businessman Kenneth Arnold is flying his private plane near Mount Rainier, Washington. He suddenly sees nine brilliantly bright objects flying across the face of Mount Rainier. He reports the incident and it immediately catches media hype.

April 18, 1962: A thousand odd people, including civilians as well as US Air Force officials and several radar sites spot a “meteor” over Oneida, New York, heading in a westerly direction. The meteor comes down in Eureka – US Air Defence Command reports that there is an unexpected power cut in the surrounding area. Interestingly, the meteor takes off again and finally disappears over the Nellis Air Force Base. Power resumes post the disappearance. The concept becomes the basis for many sci-fi movie makers.

March 13, 1997: More than a hundred eyewitnesses situated randomly between Nevada and Tucson report UFOs and lights travelling along a 300 mile area, with Phoenix, Arizona being the host to the maximum sighting. The most sightings occur in the area in and around Phoenix, Arizona. The National UFO Reporting Center confirms the incident. National Geographic confirms the same too and launches a specific science investigation on the incident over a decade later.
 

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
 
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Thursday, August 30, 2012

Oil price deregulation and the auto sector!

Deregulation of petrol and diesel prices has given rise to a lot of hue and cry in the domestic auto industry. B&E reaches out to various experts for a commentary on how the dynamics of the auto industry may change. by Sanchit Verma

“Why should the government pay `5,000 crore per quarter for the petrol being used in anyone’s car?” Replying to opposition’s demand to roll-back fuel recent price hike, when Union Petroleum Minister Murali Deora asked the above mentioned counter question, it was absolutely clear that the government was determined to go in for the kill and save as much as $25.6 billion per year spent on subsidizing prices of petrol, diesel, gasoline et al. Anticipation of a budget deficit of 5.5% might have made the Congress-led UPA government opt for deregulation, but this certainly was one of the landmark decisions since opening up of the country’s economy around two decades ago. The question remains, how is freeing up oil prices going to affect the auto industry, an industry which is directly associated with fuel prices?

While the auto industry is divided on the impact of the fuel price rise, it’s quite obvious that in the near future price deregulation is bound to hit the sales of vehicles in the country. A research report from CARE Ratings suggests that the automobile industry would be one of those industries, which would face a higher degree of negative impact. According to the research, while growth of the two-wheeler segment would fall by 200 basis points, sales of passenger vehicles would be marginally affected and the same for domestic commercial vehicle would have a very insignificant impact. Comments Revati Kasture, Head – Industry Research, CARE Ratings, “The 5 -6% increase in petrol prices by the said move of EGoM would bring in difficulty for many households, which are already reeling under the pressure of high inflation.” This, certainly, is something to be worried about for the industry, as it’s only this year that the industry has managed to revive its performance after last year’s poor show due to the sluggish economic conditions.

P Balendran, VP, GM India also opines that high fuel price would have a negative impact on the demand scenario in the short term. Going by his words the industry may witness a drop of around 5 to 10% in sales over the next month or so. But then, as per industry reports, Indian car makers, be it market leader Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Tata Motors, Ford or General Motors, have posted record sales in July (prices of petrol and diesel were hiked in the last week of June). While Maruti’s sales have surged 29.18% to record the auto maker’s second monthly sales of over 1 lakh units during the year, passenger vehicles sales of Tata Motors has jumped by a whopping 62%. Similarly, domestic sales of Hyundai Motors India Ltd have jumped over 24% up during the last month. However, for pessimists considering just one month sales figures may be myopic to reach to any conclusion, but then considering the fact that fuel prices were deregulated in June, this should have been the month with the maximum of the impact.


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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

The absence of any specific contectual factors of the UPA-I

In the absence of any specific contectual factors of the UPA-I, the present government seems to be taking a completely neo-liberal approach. by nilotpal basu

The government’s neo-liberal approach manifest in the severe adverse conditions that the aam aadmi is faced with as a result of the spiraling prices of essential commodities – particularly food. The government has refused to act to do anything meaningful to redeem the situation. The price question is being attempted to be dealt with through monetary measures and tinkering of the interest rates. While nobody is contesting that agricultural production – particularly food production has to be enhanced – but the fact remains, today, the main problem is distribution. 6 million tonnes of foodgrain lies stored in our godowns – part of which is as the Supreme Court has observed – in a state of rot. The government has persistently refused to release them to the poor and the vulnerable through the Public Distribution System.

Overall, the conditions of the people – the aam aadmi – has been precarious during this tenure of the UPA government. The economic situation is not changing for the better and the aam aadmi is at the receiving end. Their condition becomes even more unbearable in the phase of the huge gains that the ‘high and mighty’ have come to enjoy. These are highlighted by the pronounced display of corporatisation of politics and charges of cronyism. The social and the political tensions create a situation of palpable disquiet.

The situation and the government’s critical role ought to have been set out through an articulate direction. Primarily, as is the fundamental requirement of our Constitution, the Prime Minister ought to have led the charge. Prime Minister’s stoic silence to respond to the aam aadmi’s aspirations has been an overwhelming feature of the last year. And, that itself is an eloquent statement!


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Monday, August 20, 2012

THE NEW AGE ENERGY IMBROGLIO

While the upstream regulator has enjoyed a relatively clean track record until the RIL-RNRL fracas, the downstream regulator is yet to get really started by Virat Bahri

Considering how our hydrocarbon reserves are a rare and precious national asset, the role of a strong regulatory body with the highest levels of competence and ethical standards becomes all the more paramount. And in the upstream sector, DGH was supposed to play that very role when the New Exploration Licence policy was instituted in 1993. The government had realized then that with the increasing role of the private sector, there was the “need to establish an agency that could effectively supervise the activities of all these companies in the national interest.” The DGH’s primary role includes reviewing exploration programmes for adequacy, technical and financial evaluation of development plans of commercial discoveries, review of reservoir performance at major fields, collection and preservation of data/samples related to discoveries (subsequently sharing with prospective bidders), advising the government on award of acreages, et al.

It was widely believed that DGH was playing a neutral and admirable role until the turn of this century, the years when late former ONGC Chairman Subir Raha was at the helm. Officials at ONGC continue to be critical of what they allege as unfair treatment meted out to them in favour of private operators like Reliance. They claim that ONGC had substantive discoveries around D6, but DGH took needlessly long time to approve the same. The fracas between Subir Raha and the ministry over the latter’s wish to appoint DGH director V. K. Sibal on the board is well known in business circles.

The killer blow really was the clear bias that Sibal showed towards RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani during the gas row between the Ambani brothers. RIL had cited that its new price for gas was justified since the production cost had gone up from around $2.47 billion in 2004 to $8.8 billion by 2006. Anil Ambani’s RNRL contested the claim, also alleging that RIL was artificially keeping production low due to lower demand for the gas at the higher price of $4.2 per mbtu. V. K. Sibal sided openly with the elder brother and gave total approval to the increased investment estimates. Sibal even stated that the CAG had approved the capital expenditure in 2006, but CAG denied it. Media took up the cudgels on the issue of Sibal’s daughters being provided flats by RIL in Mumbai. The CVC decided, based on these parameters, that Sibal’s term should not be extended, even though the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had asked for the same. The data is critical, since the government enters into profit sharing agreements with exploration companies once they recover their costs; so a deliberately inflated cost would ultimately mean loss of money to the government.


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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Who’s the liar here?

Neither has a clean record, yet the eventual choice wasn’t too surprising

The war of words between Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the former Sri Lankan Army Chief Sarath Fonseka doesn’t seem to be any close to ending; despite the fact that Rajapaksa has gone well ahead of Fonseka in the political race. Both are national heroes (Rajapaksa, thanks to the inherited political dynasty along with the strong leadership during the crisis to defeat LTTE and Fonseka for ending the three decade long battle against LTTE); yet, both are now seen by global commentators to be indulging in double-speak, if not lying altogether. Wondrously, their diatribes and repartees at each other are on their way to attaining folklore status in the hall of comedic dialogues. It’s unbelievable that neither Fonseka nor Rajapaksa are realising that the world today views their accusations at each other with hilarity. We bring to you some golden nuggets:

March 2010, Presidential nominees are declared:
Incumbent President Rajapaksa comes to know that Fonseka will contest in the Presidential election.
Rajapaksa: “He is a fool!”
Fonseka: Charges Rajapaksa with trying to “sideline” him with “unfounded fears” and says he is “disgusted and disillusioned” with the manner in which Rajapaksa is treating him.

The issue of rights of minorities in Sri Lanka:
Rajapaksa: “We will ensure equality and equity among all the ethnicity... I believe the solution should be given to them after discussing it with them.”
Fonseka: “China is ruled by Chinese, England by the Englishmen and Germany by Germans. This is because these countries are ruled by the majorities... What is wrong in saying that this country, which is historically ruled by Sinhalese, will be ruled by the Sinhalese...”


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Monday, August 13, 2012

Losers blog...

Losers use the net more, and blog

From illegal downloads of movies and music, to free access to pornographic and tendentious material (even information on how to build bombs), technology advancement – while creating new age entrepreneurs – has also done to death many innovative ideas apart from criminally promoting anti-social concepts, products and behaviour. Illegal downloads are one part of it (the movie Avatar being the latest victim, like innumerable others), what cuts the waste deeper is anonymous/falsified blogging, tweeting and social profile usage on sites like MySpace, Facebook, Orkut and others.

While on one hand, these and many other social profiling sites have generated mass hype (viral marketing, if you may) as being the next ‘big thing’ on the Internet, on the other hand, not only have these sites promoted slanderous and defamatory posting of content by anonymous users, they have also gone ahead to claim that they cannot be taken to task over such content being posted by anonymous users as they (the sites) support freedom of speech! But things are changing. Countries like China, Iran and others have in one shot brought erstwhile know-all search engines like Google to their knees. India even arrested and jailed the CEO of an auction portal (owned by e-Bay.com), which hosted pornographic content under similar irreverent premises of non-responsibility. A National Institute of Mental Health supported research proved that increased use of the net was associated “with decreased family communication and reduced size of local social circle,” apart from loneliness and increased depression. Consequences? In UK, in March 2010, a 33 year old was jailed after admitting to kidnapping, raping and murdering the teenager he met on Facebook using a fake Facebook profile.


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