IIPM ARTICLE AND EDITORIAL: March 2010

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

With two National Awards in his kitty, it is no wonder Shyam Benegal sees him as a worthy successor

With two National Awards in his kitty, it is no wonder Shyam Benegal sees him as a worthy successor. His kind of movies fit the art meets avant-garde meets say-it-hard genre. Dibakar Banerjee says it as it is to Aakriti Bhardwaj

How do you start on a movie?
Generally I start with an idea. Like the idea for “Khosla...” was generation gap. The idea for “Love Sex aur Dhoka” is what is private and what is public. You take that idea and then you correlate that to a story and into a plot. But the core is the idea.

All your movies have an element of “Dhoka” in them. Anything personal?
If everybody spoke the truth and did the right thing, why would I make a film? Most films are based on conflicts. Most cinema is based on things going wrong. Most cinema is about the protagonist being driven by circumstances to do something unnatural, illegal, unlawful or plain unpredictable. But that’s what drama is. Shakespeare didn’t write "Hamlet" about a guy watching the paint dry! He wrote "Hamlet" about a guy who knows his father is murdered and doesn’t know how to take revenge. It’s about conflict, it’s about special situation. When things go wrong, the right are projected more clearly. That is why most successful drama is about things going wrong.

None of your movies have had commercially successful ‘stars’. Is that deliberate?
I don’t agree! My first film had Anupam Kher and Boman Irani together. If by lead actors you mean young 40-year-old stars, then no. A film like that (“Khosla..”), or “Oye Lucky...” cannot sustain that kind of star power. If there is a subject in which the right stars come together with the right kind of story then I’ll definitely make it. But stars are extremely rare to work with because they are so busy and that’s why they are stars. To make the right script, the right subject and the right star and the right intention fall on the same date, it’s quite a thing to achieve.

Have you ever thought of making a big budget masala potboiler?
If you are talking about something that is physically big but thematically shallow, then no. But something that could be big and at the same time deep, complexed, moving and truly dramatic, something that is emotional instead of sentimental, something that is beautiful instead of just pretty, why not?

Your films have very interesting music. Is it consciously driven?
It is, because you see today, the aspect of selling a film is intricately connected with the aspect of selling the music of the film. We don’t have huge budgets for our films. Therefore, the ability to stand out is our chief demarcator. Hence the need for different kind of music.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!

Outlook Magazine money editor quits
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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

A top official of one of the leading wholesale mandis of Delhi told TSI on the condition of anonymity, “Average price of onions in the Azadpur Mandi can’t be the same as that of the wholesale mandis in Nasik and its adjoining areas in Maharshtra. Onions in Azadpur Mandi must be priced higher due to addition of transportation cost from Nasik to Delhi. People of Nasik get to eat cheaper onions than people in Delhi as they reside in the onion hub of the country.”

The story, however, is somewhat different. Commission agents reach the farms of Maharshtra ten days before the onion harvest begins, buys onions at cheap rates and hoard it for few days. Since they buy directly from the farms, they buy very cheap and they sell at high prices. However, APMC Azadpur chairman Jai Kumar Bansal denies these allegations while speaking to TSI. “Onions not only come from Maharshtra but also from Rajasthan,” he added.

Though the commission agents’ prosperity has increased manifold in the last decade, life of the average farmer remains pretty much the same. Roop Singh, a small vegetable grower in Sonepat district of Haryana, comes everyday to the mandi to sell his vegetables. He says, “These arhatias decide the price and we are forced to sell as we cannot return with the vegetables.” One more startling revelation was the presence of a large number of people who trade on the licence of arhatias and pay rent to them. These people trade on the behalf of the arhatias. These fake commission agents have monopolised the market and neither the government nor the APMC seem to have any control over them. We talked to few such commission agents who accepted working for a big vegetable commission agent Mange and Sons in the Azadpur Mandi. He tells, “We pay the rent of Rs 6,000 per month for this small space and I am not alone. There are around 70 more persons like me who trade on behalf of Mange and Sons. We decide the price and not the farmers.”

Bansal has no solution to this problem. He even pleaded ignorance about presence of such fake commission agents. However, if TSI could find such fake commission agents in a day, he, with his experience of five years at his post, should be knowing better.

Rakesh Tikait, spokesperson of Bhartiya Kisan Union, says, “The nexus between traders, commission agents and retailers is obvious. The cold storage lobby also plays a crucial role and they have emerged as a big pressure group in Uttar Pradesh.”

Prices of potato and onions have started falling. But they do not know the game behind this. People are now overjoyed that at last prices have started coming down. But they are completely unaware of the larger game being played. The official in the mandi explains this-

News is spread through media about record production of potatoes.

Now, the farmer thinks that it will be difficult to dispose off crop as there will hardly be buyers due to the glut of potatoes in the market.

He sells potatoes to these commission agents at a very low price due to fear of further fall in prices.

Traders have already booked cold storages in western Uttar Pradesh. They will hoard the potatoes for the time being and after 3 to 4 months, when prices shoot up, they make a killing.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!

Outlook Magazine money editor quits
Don't trust the Indian Media!

Friday, March 26, 2010

Ash’s Kollywood calling

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s career in films began with Mani Ratnam's Tamil film, “Iruvar”. She was recently seen in Chennai at the album launch of “Rettai Suzhi,” a film being produced by Shankar, who was also the director of another one of her initial films “Jeans” and is also directing her in an upcoming film “Endhiran: The Robot”. As she shared stage with veteran directors, K. Balachander and Bharathiraaja, Ash was seen at her gracious best, and she also surprised everyone by breaking into fluent Tamil! From Hollywood to Bollywood to Kollywood, Ash has it all covered!

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!

Outlook Magazine money editor quits
Don't trust the Indian Media!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Eve at play

A women’s theatre festival makes another attempt at gender blending and bending

Somehow, I’ve never felt comfortable with receiving compliments on women’s day (March 8). The mere mention of the day as ‘My Day’ by male friends and colleagues annoys me not because I don’t take pride in my womanhood, but because one-day-for-us-and-the-rest-of-the-year-for-you doesn’t feel like a fair deal or even an achievement to be celebrated for that matter. However, let not that read like some feminist spiel, unappreciative of MANkind!

It was only after watching a few heart-rending theatre performances at “Leela”, ICCR’s first South Asian Women Theatre Festival that I reconciled to how the day is just symbolic of recognising the existence of women by men – ok, maybe not all – and more importantly by most women themselves. Held in New Delhi from March 8-15, ’10 in collaboration with National School of Drama and Jamia Millia Islamia, the festival “focused exclusively on Women’s Issues and aimed to bring together talented theatre groups from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka,” says Dr. Karan Singh, President, ICCR. Apart from the eight groups from South Asian countries, six theatre groups from different parts of India also performed at the festival. It was the common thread of problems like abject poverty, poor maternal and child health, low literacy levels, violence, social injustice and economic discrimination that brought these nations together to use the medium of theatre to address these issues. Several performances during the week-long event did fare well at touching hearts and creating hope. ‘Sakubai’, one such outstanding 90-minute play directed by Nadira Babbar and performed solo by 69-year-old Sarita Joshi (Baa from STAR PLUS's – "Baa Bahu Aur Baby"), had moments of profound thought, helpless soreness, humour and strength that left the audience in a rare packed auditorium awestruck and touched.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!

Outlook Magazine money editor quits
Don't trust the Indian Media!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Crying Wolf?

Having made to beat a hasty retreat on its stand on ‘retreating glaciers’, the IPCC might have lost more than just credibility!

‘Repeat a lie a thousand times and it becomes truth’ seems to have been the motto of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change or the IPCC and its Chairman R K Pachauri who is finding himself on a sticky wicket in the wake of the ‘Glaciergate’ scandal. But come as they may, the lies have become far too many to be kept under wraps… the can of worms is open and the count of worms hasn’t stopped... not just yet.

There seems to be no end in sight to IPCC and its Chairman, R K Pachauri’s woes. First, it was a series of leaked e-mails that set-off a wave of doubt about the extent and the rate of global warming, then it was the outlandish claim (based on mere speculation) that Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035; and now there’s yet another damning case built by Britain’s daily, Telegraph against the Nobel award-winning body that seems to have shot itself in the foot yet again by claiming that ice from world’s mountain tops was disappearing due to global warming, a claim based on a university student’s thesis and an article published in a popular magazine for climbers...

With the IPCC adding one goof-up after another to its cap, the UN body would need something of a miracle to salvage its credibility, what with another of its claims about the effects of climate change on the Amazon having come from a lifted report appearing in the WWF – an advocacy group. “As if this were not bad enough, the IPCC has now had to admit to yet another serious error. For years it has been trying to maintain that if the world warms again (and it has not done so for 15 years) hurricanes, floods and droughts would become more frequent. Now, it has admitted that this is not the case, and it proposes to “re-evaluate the evidence,” says Lord Christopher Monkton, a staunch critic of the IPCC and the theory of man-induced global warming.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!

Outlook Magazine money editor quits
Don't trust the Indian Media!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Let’s just fly a lot lower

High speed railway systems have the potential to bring about rapid progress in the war against warming

By now, the fact that the Copenhagen meet added 46,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide, most of it from flights, has become a cliché that has overdone itself. But the illogic fails to resolve the paradox that avoiding air travel or going to such meetings is not only impossible, but can even put paid to various developmental measures. But then, what can reduce per capita contribution of carbon and limit its harmful impact on environment?

Many countries are readily investing in environment friendly mode of transport. In this long list of green transport initiatives, countries are going ga-ga over the latest high-speed railway system aka HSR. This craziness makes for good social sense; especially after analysing the recent Eurostar research. The study by Eurostar shows that the train to Paris from London, cuts CO2 emissions per passenger by a jaw dropping 90% when compared to flying on the same route. Going beyond numbers, the environmental benefit due to HSR is more than what any empirical research reveals. As airliners emit their CO2 directly into the upper atmosphere, the impact on environment is much severe.

While the Manchester City Council within UK was an early starter in the HSR revolution – precisely to tap on the increase in efficiency and its environment friendly attributes – most of the developed countries (mostly European) like France, Spain and Germany are already supporting the HSR concept. A few other European countries have also decided to join the HSR network, thus linking the UK and Europe with HSR network in near future.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!

Outlook Magazine money editor quits
Don't trust the Indian Media!

Friday, March 19, 2010

Monojit Lahiri probes into this strange annual pagalpan, gripping Bollywood!

Lyricist Javed Akhtar disagrees and is categorical in his response. He believes that “We don’t make the cut because our films lack the quality that the winning entries in the Foreign Films category demands”. He agrees that at times our selection of films has been strange but overall “it’s a clear and simple case of our films not being good enough to meet global standards.” Film-maker Aparna Sen ("36 Chowringhee Lane", "Mr & Mrs. Iyer", "15 Park Avenue") is both amused and bewildered at this huge and annual tamasha that greets the OSCAR event! “What is the big deal? Why do we make such a mega song and dance about this event? Because it is completely Hollywood-specific? Remember, excellence is not always the criteria for the winning entries. There are many other considerations at play.” Aparna should know. She is been a part of several international film festival juries and discovered that you can be out-voted for reasons that may not necessarily be cinematic-excellence driven. “The other thing that should be kept in mind is the credentials and quality of the selection committee. The group should be completely fair, free and fearless. Why do they lean so heavily towards Bollywood? How many films from the oeuvre of brilliant regional film-makers like Girish Kasaravalli, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shaji Karun, Buddhadev Dasgupta – even the great Satyajit Ray – have ever been selected? Is not it both shocking and a shame? At the end of the day, great films are not those that are in Oscars, but those that remain in your heart and mind years after the film was made and the film-maker is no more. Make a check-list in your mind of your most cherished films and then quickly check out if any of them has got an Oscar!”

Veteran film-maker Shyam Benegal has his own take. “It really has to do with your knowledge of the dynamics and mechanism required for the Oscar game … of how smart and savvy your networking is out there … of whether you have identified the key people to tap (in terms of jury members) and hired the right PR firm to publicise your film in the appropriate manner. I think the only people, to my mind, who have been able to play this game really well are Aamir Khan and Ashutosh Gowarikar. Their "Lagaan" foray should be viewed as a case study! So it is no use lamenting or getting heated up about why we haven’t made the cut there. Most guys here don’t have a clue about all this…” Aamir does. And today as both producer and director of "Taare Zamin Par" (India’s official entry) and two forays ("Lagaan" and "RDB") behind him, will he be third time lucky? As this goes into print, word is out that "TZP" is out of the Oscar race! (The winner of the Best Foreign Language Film of the year at the Academy Awards is the "The Secret in Their Eyes" [“El Secreto de Sus Ojos”] from Argentina) Another round of controversies, finger pointing, chest beating and phirang-bashing on the cards?! When will we ever grow up?

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!

Outlook Magazine money editor quits
Don't trust the Indian Media!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Ukraine's U-turn

The new regime in Kiev has given the country's political evolution another chance to kickstart itself

Four years ago, when the then pro-western Ukrainian President Yuschenko was warming up to Brussels while ignoring its sulking neighbour Russia, you could not help but recall the famous Ukrainian maxim: “The church is near, but the way is icy. The tavern is far, but I will walk carefully.”

So, for four agonising years, Kiev kept on going to the tavern while the Church waited; quietly doing what it does the best—twisting the arm. And in hubris, which led Yuschenko believe that it can act as a chessboard between the West and the emergent Russia, Kiev became an international playground. The people who had so enthusiastically ushered in the Orange Revolution a few years ago became wary. Yuschenko ignored domestic concerns and indulged a little too much in the international game. When he woke up, on the eve of the elections, he had already lost the plot. The gloom in Brussels was obvious. But gloomier still was Yuschenko’s camp.

Now compare that with the new President Viktor Yanukovych’s path. An open pro-Russian leader, the first capital he visited was Brussels—not NATO’s den but EU’s headquarters. He conducted talks with the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and the President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek.

Unlike Yushchenko, who preferred to make pledges of ceaseless love to the nation’s European buddies, Yanukovych specified his priorities of associations with the EU. They consist of the signing of the accord on association (a first step towards the EU), the formation of the free trade zone, the non-visa regime and the EU’s support in overcoming the consequences of the financial predicament in Ukraine—rather domestic concerns, all of them. And then, he decided to rebuild the bridge with the nation his predecessor had so offended—Russia.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!

Outlook Magazine money editor quits
Don't trust the Indian Media!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

As the civil war is over

On last saturday morning, Fishing Boat no. 404, after getting essential clearance from the Indian Navy at the Rameswaram Jetty, was speeding past the Palk Bay waves. I was on it. The owner and driver of the boat, Sudalai Kasi, was an excited man. With over thirty years of fishing experience in the Palk Bay, he had seen the island many times but never could set his foot upon its shores in the last two decades. “Earlier, only a thatched shed was there as a chapel. Then in the 1970s, the tile-roof structure was built. Thousands of people from India and Sri Lanka would meet there every year. There will be exchange of goods and gifts,” Sudalai Kasi reminisced about the old times.

C. R. Senthil, another co–passenger of the boat actually had his relatives living in northern Sri Lanka. “We used to write letters to them saying what we would bring for them. They would also write to us stating what they needed from India,” he says. Senthil’s relatives, no longer live in Sri Lanka. The war made sure they were displaced and ended up as refugees in India.

Kittur Chennamma, an Indian Coast Guard boat, guided us past the international maritime border. After three hours of travel, we were near the shores of Kachatheevu. The Sri Lankan Navy boats were busy in transporting people to the shore as the fishing boats could not go near the land due to rocks in the water. We waited for three hours and a country boat transported us to the shores.

Kachatheevu is a rocky piece of land with some small palmira trees and bushes. The church is on the shore. It is in a dilapidated condition but was decorated for the festival. In all, 2,910 people from India and 600 from Sri Lanka came for the event. All came with tents, food and water. Few Sri Lankan Tamils had put up some shops too where they accepted Indian money. Around the church, there was a small clearing made for the gathering. Between the trees and bushes, people erected their tents and were busy cooking.

In the evening, the prayers started. Catholic priests from Jaffna, Delft Island in Sri Lanka and Rameswaram and Ramanathapuram in india presided over the ceremonies. The area was well lit with generators. Kathiresan, Gramsevak from Delft Island, told TSI that the Sri Lankan government had made the arrangements but they did not expect such a huge crowd from India.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!

Outlook Magazine money editor quits
Don't trust the Indian Media!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Malaise that now runs rampant across the country

Barely a week ago, two lovers in Kerala, the girl a second semester MBBS student in Kochi and the boy a student in a dentistry college in Thiruvananthapuram, killed themselves after their parents opposed their relationship. Though located hundreds of kilometres apart, they planned their deaths over their mobile phones and took their lives at the same time. A year ago, the suicide of three Class 12 students at Alappuzha, also in Kerala, shocked the state. It later turned out that the girls, who came from an underprivileged background, had been given mobiles by their boyfriends and had hidden them till they killed themselves. “Spirituality and the traditional Indian austerity seem to have lost relevance and ‘market-imposed milestones’ are being actively pursued at the direct cost of personal will and happiness,” says Kulkarni. A different take on spirituality and freedom, though, turned out to be the reason for West Bengal’s Sugata Bhattacharya’s unquenchable quest for death. A note left by his feet as he hanged himself from his hostel room merely said: “For no reason; for one reason, death”. Some time before he took his life, Bhattacharya had penned some poetry: “I’d rather be a bird in the open skies and hover gracefully unbound and free…In my deep slumber I can be as I may…”

The reasons are as varied as they are tragic. For Venugopal Reddy, the demand for a separate Telengana state was reason enough to kill himself. It had to do with “something that the government can sit and decide”, KG Kannabiran, president of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, told the press. “The movement need not be violent as this is not a revolution… but they have stationed the entire police force here (at Osmania University, the nerve centre of the Telengana movement) and that has provoked the students. We are angry. I would not be human if I didn’t get angry,” Kannabiran said. For Venugopal Reddy, that anger led to suicide.

So is there a solution to all of this? Says Salman Abid, a career counsellor from Andhra Pradesh: “So many students have committed suicide but the question of Telengana remains unsolved. The solution lies in the students asking themselves a few questions: will my death separate the soil of Telengana from Andhra?; am I alone with complete authority over my life when my second creator – my parents – are alive?” It is time to realise, he points out that while lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, lost time is gone forever. For the depressed student about to take his or her own life in today’s India, though, there seems to be little time to ponder such matters of reality, or life.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!

Outlook Magazine money editor quits
Don't trust the Indian Media!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Bailouts are simply a waste of time & resources. Leave them alone!

So do bailouts really work? “It is certainly correct to let businesses fail... if they could not face the challenge from competitors. Creating more debt, will only lead to more problems down the road,” advises Lok Sang Ho, Director, Center for Public Policy, Lingan University, Hong Kong. Given the background, it is clear that the longer the crisis lasts, the bigger the bailouts would be. And there lies the catch – the billion dollar bailout plans which aim to provide credit to these failing institutions for a limited time will definitely not work!

Now, let’s talk about the Detroit giant - GM. Wagoner in his letter to the American Congress wrote, “By lending GM money, you will provide us with a financial bridge... This will allow us to keep operating and complete our restructuring...” (Right Rick, and then we can all go and compete in the American Idol!) The hearts in the Congress melted, and GM received a bailout package of $18.88 billion between December 29 & December 31, 2009. So did the ‘bailout creamed with benevolence’ help?

Not by numbers. Its Mcap has fallen to a pitiful $0.89 billion today and it returned losses tantamounting to $52.8 billion in the past year. Further, Wagoner has requested for another $21 billion from the Fed! (Oh! whatever happened to those past billions?) Commenting on GM’s worsening condition, Jack Welch, Former CEO, GE, also wrote, “The automakers’ boards should take the courageous step of putting their companies into bankruptcy!” Well, the Treasury needs to realise this. Even Barry Ritholtz, Lead Analyst, RGE, while talking about the AIG bailout avers, “AIG was essentially two companies under one roof. The government should have only rescued the life insurance side of AIG and left out the other gambling side.”

Really, ‘better to be bankrupt than dead...’ Didn’t some wiseman say this before? (Surely, he wasn’t from the Fed or the US Senate, was he?)

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!

Outlook Magazine money editor quits
Don't trust the Indian Media!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Dare you waste it

Mind your wallet if you waste...

If you are planning to eat Japanese food at Hayashi Ya Japanese restaurant on the Upper West Side of the US, be careful not to leave even bits and pieces of it on your platter. Or else you may end up paying $27.75 instead of $26.95. Amazed! The Hayashi Ya restaurant charges 3% extra if there are leftover of food in your plate. This may seem very weird to most in West who make it a norm to waste much of the food they order for. And it isn’t a home-grown hypothesis. WCBS TV confirms that 27% of all food in the US finds itself in trash bin (works out to a pound of food every day for every American), while Stockholm Water Institute study extends this figure up to 30% or food worth around $48 billion annually. This amusing food-wasting habit of the West leads to annual wastage of 30 million tons of food. However, the UNEP 2009 report depicts an even more grim picture. Food waste in the US could be as high as 50% which means around one-fourth of all fresh fruits and vegetables is wasted between the field and belly. Among all the food-wasted, 15% are never opened in spite of being within expiry date.

To make the matter worse, rather horrifying, this phenomenon is not just confined to the US but can be felt and found across the globe. Consider this: half of Australia’s landfill is made out of food waste. Likewise more than 30% (worth £10 billion) of all food purchased in the UK never reaches destination (read: the stomach), 30% of total fish is lost in Africa due to discards, post-harvest loss and spoilage. If one collects all the food found in bins in the UK, the whole of Wembley stadium can be covered eight times in a year! Japan leads the race hands down by wasting 20 million tons of food annually. The other side of the story is even more interesting. The University of Arizona believes that if Americans cut their food waste by 50%, it would reduce the environmental impact by 25%, while researches in the UK estimate that if food wastage is contained, the reduction in CO2 emission would be equivalent to pulling off 20% of cars from the UK’s roads! The whole contention of donating 0.7% of GDP to developing countries will be redundant if the Hayashi Ya model is replicated all across. What an idea Hayashi Ya!

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!

Outlook Magazine money editor quits
Don't trust the Indian Media!

Monday, March 08, 2010

“ We invested before time”

B&E: What factors have worked for you in India?

VT: We have been in the Indian market for 14 years now, and believe that our foresight and belief in the country and commitment to the telecom market, along with work with the government have helped grow the telecom industry. Nokia devices today straddle a comprehensive range of products at every price point for all segments. India is not only its second largest market globally, but is also one of the only three countries, where Nokia has an end-to-end presence, including a manufacturing unit, R&D centres and over 10,000 employees.

B&E: What strategy did you adopt in the initial days to help you penetrate the Indian market?

VT: Nokia had a holistic approach towards developing the market and growing its consumer base. Our strategy has hence been focused on investing before time, understanding different consumer needs, building a strong product portfolio that caters to all segments of the market and making our products and services relevant to the Indian market. We were the first to invest in setting up a robust distribution network, to understand the potential of having an effective after sales network. Today, our reach and scale is amongst the best in consumer durable industry, let alone handset industry. Nokia has 1,90,000 outlets and a retail point for every 20 sq. km and 800+ centers across 400+ cities.

B&E: What, according to you, are the biggest strengths for Nokia India ?

VT: One of our greatest strengths has been our power to localise our products and services. In India we have used our understanding of the Indian consumer to create handsets, applications and services that answer the needs of the consumer and deliver value.

B&E: How will the handset market shape in the year 2009 and what are your plans for the year?

VT: We expect 2009 to be a ‘defining’ year. The coming of 3G is another milestone for the Indian telecom industry. 3G is expected to initially create much needed ‘voice’ capacity in the existing spectrum but the larger question will remain as to what will drive 3G services consumption amongst consumers. We believe 3G in India will be entertainment led.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!

Outlook Magazine money editor quits
Don't trust the Indian Media!

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Let’s just fly a lot lower

By now, the fact that the Copenhagen meet added 46,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide, most of it from flights, has become a cliché that has overdone itself. But the illogic fails to resolve the paradox that avoiding air travel or going to such meetings is not only impossible, but can even put paid to various developmental measures. But then, what can reduce per capita contribution of carbon and limit its harmful impact on environment?

Many countries are readily investing in environment friendly mode of transport. In this long list of green transport initiatives, countries are going ga-ga over the latest high-speed railway system aka HSR. This craziness makes for good social sense; especially after analysing the recent Eurostar research. The study by Eurostar shows that the train to Paris from London, cuts CO2 emissions per passenger by a jaw dropping 90% when compared to flying on the same route. Going beyond numbers, the environmental benefit due to HSR is more than what any empirical research reveals. As airliners emit their CO2 directly into the upper atmosphere, the impact on environment is much severe.

While the Manchester City Council within UK was an early starter in the HSR revolution – precisely to tap on the increase in efficiency and its environment friendly attributes – most of the developed countries (mostly European) like France, Spain and Germany are already supporting the HSR concept. A few other European countries have also decided to join the HSR network, thus linking the UK and Europe with HSR network in near future.

Reducing the amount of CO2 is just one aspect of HSR as it also comes with added benefits. To a large extent, it solves traffic congestion and air pollution problems. Comprehending this fact, Japan has extended its bullet train network by 76%, thus linking almost all its cities. Europe has decided to add an extra 1,711 more miles by 2010 under a similar program. Thanks to HSR, the air travel frequency between Paris-to-Brussels has almost disappeared after opening up of the HSR link.

What is most astounding is that this HSR model can be emulated in developing countries too. Third world countries will not only benefit due to ‘technology-leapfrogging’ but will also experience a boost in other sectors. They will obviously have a second mover advantage and can reduce loss (by analysing the success model of HSR already in place) and customise the model as per requirement and infrastructure. Implementation of HSR will augment their infrastructure and employment. Besides this, if HSR links the urban and rural areas, it will also decrease urban migration (urban sprawl) and help bridge the rural-urban divide. With proper planning, HSR can give rise to mid-sized cities and satellite towns in developing (and highly populated) Asian nations. Proper planning can surely make HSR a successful socially beneficial model and a landmark social initiative in the third world. Green HSR is, without even an iota of apprehension, a credible answer to carbon emitting short distance air travel.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Friday, March 05, 2010

Filmmaker Leena Yadav rises from the "SHABD"

Sir Ben Kingsley? Leena explains that thanks to the net, information and communication across the world is very simple. “That’s how we got our amazing action director and editor on board. They have done hi-profile work in Hollywood’s mega hits. Once we got Mr Bachchan on, the person that his character looks up to, had to have a presence that justified and made credible the vibes that coloured their constant interaction. The Big B, at any point, is a very hard act to follow, so it had to be someone who blended charismatic personality with power-house histrionics. For some reason, the first actor that comes to my mind, whenever great acting is spoken of, is Kingsley’s amazing Gandhi! So we decided – what guts, huh?! – to go for it. Ambika, a real trouper and a massive support system all along, leapt into action with all the formalities in terms of contacting his agent, script, contract … And before we knew Sir Ben was in! Amitabh Bachchan and Sir Ben in the same movie, sharing the frame! Was I dreaming?!”

The Director Sahiba can’t even begin to explain the experience of working with them. “Totally and unconditionally, dedicated and committed professionals, their brilliance at work was only matched by their generosity of spirit and humility, away from it. Not once, even for a second, did they ever make me feel like either a discriminated-against woman director or someone only on her second film. Sensitive, responsive and interactive with critical inputs, both these legends made “Teen Patti” an enriching experience for which we shall remain eternally grateful. I genuinely believe that if you are an Indian film director and haven’t had the privilege, good fortune and luck to work with Mr Bachchan, your journey is incomplete.”

Pssst – what about the garma-garam Maria? Another Big B – Brazilian Bombshell? “She’s a real knockout! See, I needed a dancer with sexuality that intimidated, not titillated. She had to radiate the right vibes when she goes around the room buttonholing men, singing "Teri Niyat Kharab Hai". I interviewed plenty of very attractive females, but when she walked in, I instantly knew that she was it! The in-your-face pataka symbolised the seven deadly sins! My choreographer Ashley Lobo agreed and man… she really turned on the heat during that number!”

Finally, what are her expectations from the film? She laughs. “The film’s title “Teen Patti” is my answer! Life, Bollywood releases, audience feedback, box office results… Isn’t everything a gamble, residing in the terrains of the unknown? That’s what makes it exciting, challenging … And scary! We’ve done our very best, worked with our hearts, with passion and purpose. It works as a metaphor of life, at various levels and is totally identifiable. It plays out easily – unlike “Shabd” – and is neither intellectual nor complex. The content powered by the likes of the two legends and supported by brilliant talents like Madhavan, should provide for thrilling entertainment. Let’s see. I am keeping my fingers crossed …” Here’s to the gamble paying off!

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!

Outlook Magazine money editor quits
Don't trust the Indian Media!

Thursday, March 04, 2010

‘youth first’

In his two months in the job of party president, Gadkari has realised that the BJP has to develop a strategy to counter Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s largely successful efforts to connect with the youth. In consultation with former party president Lal Krishna Advani and other senior BJP leaders, he has drawn up a road map for the purpose.

The key element of this road map is a proposed 50 per cent increase in party posts from block to national level to facilitate greater participation of the youth. The party’s constitution was amended at the convention to pave way for the entry of the younger leaders into the decision-making structure of the BJP.

BJP’s young leader Virendra Sachdev says: “There has always been theoretical talk of youth participation. But the message that came through in Indore was that the young have enthusiasm and energy which need to be harnessed. When young party workers fan out throughout the field, they are bound to encourage other youth to join the party in large numbers and strengthen the grassroots organisation.”

Sachdev is bang on. A country, of whose population two-thirds is young, the segment cannot be ignored. It would be fatal for a political party to disregard these dynamics. If the BJP is to come to power in 2014, the young will have to bolster it. Even Advani realises this pressing need and made it a point to stress it in his speech.

In the convention’s closing speech, Advani, well aware of his own lost chances, had said: “Nitin Gadkari is a representative of the party’s third generation. I have full faith that his team will have workers from the fourth generation as well. The party is also committed to identifying and training young, deserving candidates who will take the BJP forward.”

Liberalisation and globalisation have changed the mindset of the young – the mandir-masjid question or issues related to caste and religion are but nearly forgotten blips in the minds of today’s youth. Develeopment and good governance are the keywords. The Gandhi scion is appealing because he speaks a language that is modern and progressive and because he believes in the young man in the street. Gadkari wants to borrow the same lexicon to project the BJP as a modern and liberal party.

For the first time, a BJP national president has appealed with humility to Muslims to permit the construction of a temple in Ayodhya and delivered a Power Point-laced speech. Gadkari’s message was loud and clear: the party has to move with the times to remain relevant.

It is learnt that several senior leaders had suggested to Gadkari that he should switch to dhoti kurtas or at least kurta pyjamas while addressing the convention in keeping with the party’s ideology. The party chief would have none of it. Even on day three of the convention, when he did address a rally at the city’s Dussehra grounds, though he chose to wear kurta pyjama, his kurta was from Fab India, a definite youth favourite.

Amit Thakur, the national president of the party’s youth wing, is excited. “The atmosphere at the convention was electrifying for the youth. Our national president wants the youth to be a big part of the party’s structure and government. He spoke of giving chances during every term to at least 25 per cent untried, young new faces in every office of the organisation right from the lowest to the national level ones.”

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!

Outlook Magazine money editor quits
Don't trust the Indian Media!

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

“India has entered a steel intensive phase...”

Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh spells out his vision for the Indian steel sector in an exclusive conversation with Pramod Kumar

Virbhadra Singh, Union minister for steel, is keen on taking initiatives to make the Indian steel sector self-sustaining and globally competitive. In this exclusive interaction with TSI, he discusses the major issues facing the sector and also how they can be addressed. Excerpts from the interview...

How has the steel industry grown in this last year since slowdown hit India in October 2008?

The steel sector in India has successfully surmounted the global economic recession and has stood out with a positive growth of 2.5 per cent in steel production and 6.8 per cent in steel consumption during April-November of the financial year 2009-2010. This has been possible on account of the various economic and financial stimuli that were launched in October 2008. The trends also indicate that steel demand in India may pick up now on the back of strong domestic demand from the automobiles, housing and construction sectors.

Steel consumption has faced shortage of iron ore and you had also recently said raw iron ore exports should be restricted. What can be done on this front?

I am of the view that iron ore reserves in the country need to be conserved for fulfilling the requirements of the domestic steel industry, which is a key to infrastructure sector in the country. The ministry has been consistently taking up the matter for imposition of appropriate export duty on iron ore to discourage unabated exports of iron ore and also improve the domestic availability. The government has recently increased the export duty on iron ore lumps from five per cent to ten per cent and the iron ore fines from nil to five per cent.

Recognising that iron ore is a non-renewable resource and considering the long-term requirements of steel industry, the government has already taken a stand that conservation of iron ore resources is of paramount importance. We are, therefore, examining all options to improve the domestic availability of iron ore at reasonable prices, through fiscal measures.

We have seen the steel industry in China prosper because of the Olympics? How will the Commonwealth Games impact India?

VS: The usage of steel for the Commonwealth Games and linked infrastructure could be as high as one million tonnes. However, that is not an isolated area where we are looking for growth. While Commonwealth Games may give a fillip to steel demand, the sustainable boost to steel demand in India over the medium and long term will be strongly linked to infrastructure development, urbanisation and lifestyle changes on account of growing income levels. India has already entered the steel intensive phase of growth, which observed steel consumption growth clocking double digits a few years back. We may again witness double digit growth in steel consumption very soon, possibly by next financial year.

You have been trying to expedite the expansion programme of SAIL to the tune of Rs 60,000 crore. Can you elaborate on this?

In order to maintain its pivotal position in the Indian steel sector and to improve its competitive edge, Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has drawn up a modernisation and expansion programme for its five integrated steel plants and the special steel plants, including the raw material division. Apart from increasing the production capacity, the plan also addresses elimination of technology obsolescence, improving energy efficiency, environment friendly technology and improvement in value addition through a flexible product-mix and customer centric approach. Special emphasis has been laid on state-of-the-art-Information Technology application through Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Manufacturing Execution System (MES). The estimated project cost of the steel plan is Rs 60,000 crore. Besides, a provision of Rs 10,264 crore has also been made towards investment in existing mines under Raw Materials Division. During the year 2009-2010, SAIL has earmarked nearly Rs.10,000 crore towards budgeted capital expenditure, out of which Rs.6100 crore was spent by November 2009. The plan is likely to be completed by 2012-2013.

What is your long-term vision for SAIL as an organisation?

At this time we are the fifth largest producer of steel (globally) and we hope that we will be second largest after implementation of the present programme.

What impediments do you see in meeting the annual steel production target, especially when all the major steel projects, including those of Tata Steel, Arcelor Mittal, Jindal South West and Jindal Steel and Power Limited, are pending for over four years?

It is a fact that brownfield capacities of all major steel investors are going on as per schedule. During the last financial year, Tata Steel added 1.8 million tonne blast furnace at Janshedpur and JSW Steel commissioned a 3 million tonne blast furnace in Karnataka. Almost all estimated 33 million tonnes of brownfield steel capacities are likely to materalise within the next 3 years. This includes additional 12 million tonne expansion capacity of SAIL and 3.4 million tonne capacity expansion project of RINL. In the private sector, all major players like Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Essar, Jindal Steel & Power and others are also moving fast with their brownfield capacity addition plans. Amongst the Greenfield investors, a few have achieved substantial progress in land acquisition. These projects include Tata Steel’s 3 million tonne plant in Orissa, Essar’s Steel’s 6 million tonne unit in Orissa and Jindal Steel and Power’s (JSPL) 2.5 million tonnes each in Orissa and Jharkhand. Posco is one of the foreign investment projects which is facing difficulty in land acquisition, but has made considerable inroads by keeping other things in place. This way they can move ahead immediately after acquiring the land. The land identified by Arcelor Mittal, both in Orissa and Jharkhand, falls under the scheduled area, which involves additional procedural formalities. The process has already started and one may see some progress soon. Moreover, there are also a number of small and medium steel projects in the capacity range of 0.5 to 1.0 million tonnes, which were initially not considered, but are observed to be coming up fast.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!

Outlook Magazine money editor quits
Don't trust the Indian Media!