The new game-turner in politics

Facebook and Twitter are reshaping the landscape of Indian politics 

Social media became an integral part of the US and European hustings a long time ago. The victory of President Obama in the 2012 US Presidential election was due to the potent force of the social media and its exploitation to the hilt. The Democrat’s ploy of laying greater emphasis on micro-targeted messaging through Twitter and Facebook paid off substantially! While Obama had 33 million fans on Facebook, his Republican rival Romney had only 12 million. Now, the social media messaging trend is picking up speed in India too. Even though it’s largely urban-centric, political parties are waking up to the reality that the phenomena can be leveraged to tilt the results in the battle of ballot.

Leading from the front, and predictably so, is BJP’s Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, who is kind of frontrunning himself as the prime ministerial candidate. He has the highest number of Facebook fans among Indian politicians. Being tech-savvy, Modi started his cyber campaigns long back, during Gujarat’s 2007 assembly polls, through the BJP IT cell. But this time around, his expansive embrace of the social media is expected to reap rich dividends. Already, he has received 9,37,692 likes on his Facebook community page, called 'Narendra Modi for PM'.

Like Modi, politicos from other parties too have been swift to climb on the social media bandwagon. Congress party worthies such as Shashi Tharoor and P. Chidambaram have been particularly adept. Chidambaram, in fact, hosted online interactions with an eye to democratize his Budget this year. The ruling UPA coalition, too, is striving to make its presence felt on social media sites and has been showing a distinct fervour for e-press releases. As such television promotions and debates have an extension now – TV programmes are being debated and dissected on online interactive sites and the two are becoming increasingly integrated. And the television channels have been quick to wake up to this reality. News stations like CNN are introducing on-screen hashtags – a means to exchange tweets with the audience.

A recent report by IRIS Knowledge Foundation and the Internet and Mobile Association of India have highlighted that around 160 constituencies (out of the total of 543 constituencies) will be impacted by internet campaigns in the 2014 General Elections. As per the study, Maharashtra will have the maximum 21 high impact constituencies followed by Gujarat (17), Uttar Pradesh (14), Tamil Nadu (12), Andhra Pradesh (11) and Kerala (10).

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Bihar's Gujarat agenda

Nitish Kumar is all set to leave NDA if Narendra Modi becomes the poll mascot for 2014, reports Sanjay Upadhya

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is known to always get his timing right. After all, how many politicians in India can sup with the BJP and also keep its Muslim votes intact? Who can have BJP as its staunchest ally, yet decide to publicly snub saffron strongman Narendra Modi and fellow chief minister, when a JD(U) dinner organised in favour of  BJP allies in town for their Parivartan rally in 2010 was canceled at the last minute, keeping the sentiments of the state's 16.5 Muslim voters in mind?

As the focus on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as India's next PM-in-waiting gets shriller and as the pendulum swings between various powerful regional claimants to occupy the top position in the South Block post-2014, Nitish Kumar is girdling up his loins. He wants a showdown with his principle ally and wants it fast.

According to a JD(U) insider, "Nitish's mind is made up. No sooner does Modi's name be announced as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, if it does, he will rock the NDA by walking out.'' He should know.

In an interview about a year ago, the Bihar chief minister made it clear that the NDA's prime ministerial candidate for 2014 would have to have a 'secular' image. This was followed by like minded statements issued by important JD(U) leaders, including Sharad Yadav, inviting retorts from the RSS top brass who said the prerogative of choosing a leader for the elections lay with the BJP and not its allies.

Not much has been heard of it since Nitish is a man who chooses his words carefully – one of the reasons for his political survival and longevity. But that has not kept his proxies from indulging in Chinese whispers. The gossip doing the rounds currently in Patna is a Hindi newspaper interview of Nitish Kumar in which he has allegedly suggested that as in the case of Atal Behari Vajpayee, the BJP declared the name of its prime ministerial candidate well in advance.

The state's public relations department has denied the existence of any such interview but has chosen not to contradict the story or demand an apology from the newspaper! Why pray?

Party insiders say that with Nitish consolidating his gains considerably since being voted into office for the first time in in 2005, his calculation now is that the JD(U) can go it alone. With several development initiatives under his belt, Nitish believes he is in a position to pull it off on his own.

Under his two tenures – November 2005 to November 2010 and from November 2010 to the present – Bihar has developed an electronic version of the Right to Information (RTI) called the Jankari scheme. In addition, his government has launched the e-shakti NREGS progamme which helps rural people can get employment information on telephone. He is credited with improving infrastructure and reducing crime, widely felt to be serious problems in the state. His tenures have seen a record number of criminal prosecutions through fast track courts. Nitish's administration has initiated a mandatory weekly meeting with all district magistrates to monitor development at the grass root level. His government has generated employment in police services and teaching and Bihar registered record construction work, surpassing even the national average. The JD(U) government has also initiated a programme to award bicycles to girls who stay on in schools – that has seen a fall in school drop out rates. There have been periodic health schemes and improved banking facilities for farmers. Incredibly, Bihar has witnessed steep hike in GDP growth, the second highest in the country.

Which is why the Bihar chief minister's political lieutenants are in constant touch with independent MLAs and BJP dissidents. Interestingly for Nitish, a strong faction of the BJP led by Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi is on his side.

Old BJP war horse Sanjay Jha, a former party MLC, is an example of a politician who left the saffron fold to join the JD(U) – with the consent of boss Nitish Kumar. Apart from Sushil Modi, newly-elected BJP state president Mangal Pandeya is also close to Nitish.

Just how close can be judged from Sushil Modi's endorsement of his chief minister a few months ago as a "liberal PM candidate" – this keeping in view Nitish Kumar's frank but unstated position that it is either he or the Gujarat strongman in a pre-eminent position in the NDA. During the controversial dinner party fiasco in 2010, Nitish had said, "We have an alliance with the BJP, not the Gujarat BJP.'' The BJP as the junior partner in Bihar had to swallow the humiliation, despite making some noises.

Says a senior BJP leader, "Narendra Modi has displayed guts and popularity. The BJP will make a historical error by not projecting him as prime ministerial candidate. The JD(U) is a regional party and has no existence except Bihar.''

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

BBA Institute

IFC; it's all we need

IFC has strangely taken on a profit-making goal

The fastest growing unit of the World Bank, the International Financial Corporation (IFC) was set up in 1956 with the vision that “people should have the opportunity to escape poverty and improve their lives.” Sadly, the global institution derailed long back from its primary motive and has turned out to be a typical profit-oriented venture. An assessment of IFC brings forth its associations with billionaires, transnational firms and involvement in multinational projects that aim to secure immediate returns for IFC.

Even the fabled downward economic trickle to the poor has not really happened when we see IFC's various projects. And this is something even those in the IFC family accept. A 2011 report prepared by the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) highlighted that "Most IFC investment projects generate satisfactory returns but do not provide evidence of identifiable opportunities for the poor to participate in, contribute to, or benefit from the economic activities that the project supports." Surprisingly, only 13 per cent of 500 projects "had objectives with an explicit focus on poor people."

Additionally, if we go through the clientele list of IFC, then one can easily see that IFC only likes to work with big corporations and the list contains the who's who of the world – from oil giant ExxonMobil to Grupo Arcor, the huge Argentine candy-maker. An independent review panel suggested in 2003 that the World Bank, including IFC (in 2003), pull out of all oil, natural gas, and coal-mining projects by 2008. That never happened. IFC reported a $2 billion oil-and-gas portfolio, investing with 30 companies in 23 countries in 2011. Sometime back, the European Network on Debt and Development also criticised IFC, while mentioning, "The IFC undermines democracy with its piecemeal, top-down approach to development that follows the priorities of private companies." Exemplifying IFC's senseless investment strategies are its investments in hotels globally. A January 2012 report from the World Bank claims that hotels "play a critical role in development as they catalyse tourism and business infrastructure.” IFC itself accepts that it has invested $2.5 billion in hotels globally since inception. From Mongolia’s Shangri-La Ulaanbaatar 5-star hotel to Maldives' Shangri-La Villingilli 5-star resort, IFC seems to have profoundly lost focus while blubbering its way into 280 odd hotel investments. Shockingly, IFC has even invested in a five star hotel called Movenpick in Acra, Ghana; this at a time when the country’s per capita GDP ranks in the bottom three.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

BBA Institute

The Libertine

What right do you have to take away my right to bring women – people I have known as friends, family, lovers, teachers, a country and maybe even as God – to life on my canvas, with my vision as the brush and my blood and sweat for paint?

What right do you have to take away my right to write of confessions and guilt, perceived or real; of . my gods, false or true; or of my beliefs, agreeable or not? They are mine, to share and defend, to honour or offend.

What right do you have to take away my right to put together a tale on film or mail that tells what I know is true and good? It is my tale, my truth and my belief in our good.

Mere shadows on screens and paper on print, they are no demons to fear, nor gods to revere, just my world for you to share… if you care…

I want you to see all that I do. Tell me you like it. Or maybe you hate it - an encounter you rue. That is ok, for it is your right to criticize and condemn what abominates or hurts. Shun it, lampoon it, scoff at it for all I care. Tell the world it isn’t worth their time from every rooftop in everywhere. That is your right as much as it is mine, for from those very same rooftops, I too have my soul to bare.

No, I don’t hate you. I like you in fact. Like Jacob and the angel, we too have our own age-old pact.

If the wondrous world is the whisk that churns this buttery soul, separating beauty and glory from the dull, the dreary and the mundane, then you, my savage critic, are the earthen pot that keeps this beauty and glory together, from spilling over and losing myself on dirty sullied ground.

Turn away from my words and wounds, and if you must, urge the world not to stare, but leave me my voice; don’t choke me with fear, that wouldn’t be right. That wouldn’t be fair.

I could go wrong. I will give you that. We are Lotharios given to seducing the senses, and syphilis be damned.

The hands could grow veined and old but the soul is young and brash, my passions wild and strong. They keep me warm and fed through hungry nights that are dark and long. They are the light, the way, the guiding star, but it is I, I blame, if I follow that light into dark alleys where I do not belong.

Open a window, tell me I’m lost. But don’t block my path, my freedom to roam. For how else would I learn to find my way home?

Sometimes I wonder if you really are sincere. Is your hurt felt, or do you feign injury? Do you fling burning barbs in hate and fear, or do you pull me down so you could a little taller appear?

Hounded by these questions are the ghosts of Souza and Husain in another world, and the fans of Haasan in this; tormented too are a Salman, a Nasrin and three nameless girls as the ever-quiet moderate majority stares unwittingly into this claustrophobic bottomless abyss.

But I blame you not for your excesses as you too must excuse mine, it is the government that must protect your right to dissent as it must my right to call my god a name,  or wear on my shirt his sign.

My noble critic, I absolve you of your sins, for like a river without banks of law, you can’t help but flood my world with your whims. I look to you, yes you, my man in ‘the house’, who took my taxes and my vote to bring me my rights, to fight my fights, to keep me safe on angry days and fiery nights.

Don’t wash your hands yet again, O Pontius fair. Don’t crucify justice and hang my free tongue on a nail up there. This nation shall one day learn to read and then your time will be done. The adventurer and the puritan shall coexist, but your impotent greed will come undone.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
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IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

BBA Institute

Books of the year 2012: TSI's picks

Em And The Big Hoom
Jerry Pinto
Aleph

Writer, columnist and journalist Jerry Pinto’s first novel paints a vivid, poignant portrait of a Roman Catholic Goan family with a hole in its heart. Em and the Big Hoom isn’t a ‘big picture’ Mumbai novel. It isn’t Maximum City or Love and Longing in Bombay. It is a son’s intimate and moving account of growing up in a middle class home in Mahim with a loving and irrepressible mother (Em to her children) susceptible to “terrifying manic rages”. The novel is refreshingly unsentimental yet emotionally gripping. Its reality-cloaked-in-fiction device lends both immediacy and vitality to the tale.

The Man Within My Head
Pico Iyer
Penguin

The Man Within My Head explores the “shadowy place” that travel writer Pico Iyer draws his inspiration from. This wonderfully well written and passionate book is significant for many reasons. Of all the riches that it contains, none is as precious as Iyer’s extended meditation on the relationship that he has as a writer and a man with Graham Greene, who he never met in person. Not only does it tell us a great deal more about the Englishman than we already know, it also gives us an insight into where the author has come from and where he wants to go.



Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Katherine Boo
Penguin

Joseph Lelyveld, Mahatma Gandhi biographer and old India hand, described the book as “the best piece of reporting to come out of India in a half century at least”. There might be a bit of exaggeration in that opinion, but Katherine Boo’s empathetic and engrossing probe into the grimy yet dynamic lives of the denizens of a Mumbai slum near the Sahar International Airport is certainly the finest narrative non-fiction book published during the year. Although the writer spent three years in Annawadi slum, she keeps herself out of the narrative and relates a dramatic tale that is neither romantized nor exoticized.



The Meadow
Adrian Levy & Cathy Scott-Clark
Penguin

In 1995 during a trekking expedition at Pahalgam, four foreigners were abducted by the then unknown militant group Al-Faran. The Meadow includes blow-by-blow account of the negotiations for the hostages’ release between an inspector and the militants. It is also revealed that instead of working to secure the foreigners’ release, the Indian intelligence agencies protracted its detainment and sabotaged parleys with the militants as part of a bigger, well laid out plan to present Pakistan, and the Pakistan-supported insurgency in Kashmir, in a callous and ruthless light.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Who the hell is Billy Graham?

America voted this man as the third most-admired person globally in 2012 – after Obama and Mandela! Since 1955, he has featured 56 times amongst the top ten in the annual poll of the world’s most admired living individuals! Who the hell is Billy Graham and how can he, well, save the world?

“But God forbid that I should Glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” – reads the verse posted in big letters on the wall of Billy Graham’s office in Montreat, North Carolina. Graham is clearly a typical evangelist; and has been for decades. In any educated society, evangelists in general, despite having a following in the conservative belt, would not be eulogised and admired by the mass population. For every sycophantic follower an evangelist might have, there would be tens looking down upon the typical sacred spiel being spewed out.

Clearly, in the case of Mr. Graham, we couldn’t have been further from the truth! He has been one of the most admired and, most in the know mention, rightfully glorified personas in the US. As per Gallup, which conducts an annual poll of the World’s Most Admired Living Individuals, the 94 year old modern day ecclesiast has been amongst the top ten in the list 56 times since 1955, more than any other man. And to imagine that those in Asia, the world’s most populated continent, have not even heard of this charismatic pulpitarian

In the latest Gallup poll, whose results were released just last month, Billy Graham again easily qualified on the 3rd spot (Obama and Mandela took the first and second positions respectively; Romney, unbelievably, had to settle for a tied 3rd spot with Graham). If you thought that the reason for Billy’s amazing following is simply his godly predicant bent, then one wonders why the Pope couldn’t beat him on this most admired persons list. For information, Pope Benedict XVI, like Romney, had to be content being tied at the third spot with Billy. A 2005 poll in America revealed that one in six adult Americans have heard Graham in person while 52% have heard him on radio and 85% of them have seen him in television. More importantly a massive 66% view him favourably while 20% were critical of him.

So, what makes him so belligerently popular among the Americans? A seat of the pants answer to that would be that he preaches better than the best preacher you would’ve heard. Billy Graham started to appeal to the masses since beginning preaching in the early 1940s. The 1940s was an era marked by destruction, violence and destabilization of the economy and the nation was devoid of an inspirational spiritual leader of sorts. Graham was able to immediately strike a chord with people recovering from the ravages of the war with his preaching for peace.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

 

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

B&E Annual CEO Outlook 2013 results*

Why CEOs do what they do

Methodology

In 2011, NYSE Euronext commissioned the NYSE Euronext CEO Report, the seventh annual CEO survey. The survey ascertained expectations of respondents on various business and economic conditions. 317 NYSE CEOs, 119 emerging CEOs of US non-public companies and 205 MBA students were covered in the research report.

Based on the NYSE Euronext CEO Report, the Indian Council for Market Research (ICMR), with research support from the IIPM Think Tank conducted a nation-wide survey amongst CEOs and top managers for listed and unlisted/emerging Indian companies, apart from MBA students. Responses were taken via face to face/telephonic/e-mail interactions, and the survey generated 50 responses from CEOs/top management executives of Indian-listed companies, 75 CEOs/top management executives of unlisted companies and 275 Indian MBA students. The core agenda of the survey is to ascertain how CEOs are looking at the business & economic environment in the domestic and the global context in 2013.

With exclusive permission from NYSE-Euronext and IIPM Think Tank-ICMR, B&E presents the results of the B&E Annual CEO Outlook for 2013.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
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IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

BBA Institute

National

DLF: on a Selling spree

Sale of non-core assets to bring it debt relief

DLF, the country’s leading property developer, is expecting to close the deal on its luxury hotel chain Aman Resorts by the end of December. The Aman Resorts assets for sale include 22 hotels in 12 countries, but not the property in New Delhi. The move to sell the property has been prompted by property developer’s attempts to sell off its non-core assets so as to reduce its whopping Rs.232 billion worth of debt. The company is also looking to sell its wind energy business and expects to complete the deal by the end of this fiscal year. The sale of Aman Resorts and its wind energy business will help DLF achieve its target of reducing net debt to 185 billion rupees by March 31. DLF is learnt to have taken the approval for these sell-offs from its shareholders.

As part of its asset divestment strategy, the developer had sold a parcel of land in Mumbai for about Rs.27 billion to the Lodha Group. Some industry experts believe that the hotel deal has been delayed due to the lower-than-expected bids from the shortlisted companies. DLF was expecting to sell Aman Resorts for at least $400 million. The company, which developes residential and commercial space mainly in north India, has reported a 63% fall in net profit to Rs.1.39 billion for the July-September quarter compared to last year’s Rs 3.72 billion.

Telecom: spectrum auction

End of the boom times?

After the Supreme Court struck down the validity of 122 telecom licences for 2G spectrum issued by former telecom minister A. Raja and called for fresh biddings, things were expected to get back to normal once fresh acutions were completed by the government. But perhaps the telecom regulator TRAI and the government went over the top in fixing a steep reserve price for the 2G spectrum resale. Ignoring the pleas and warnings from industry experts and telecom operators, the government fixed the reserve price at Rs. 28 billion per MHz for GSM spectrum and Rs.36 billion per MHz for CDMA spectrum. But the auction proved to be a fiasco as the government could rope in only Rs.94 billion as against the expected revenue target of Rs.400 billion. The amount generated is also far less than the Rs.677.19 billion that the 3G spectrum sale brought in for the government two years ago. For some inexplicable reasons, the government also failed to put all available spectrum on the block. In fact, the re-auctioning was carried out only in the 800 MHz and 1,800 MHz bands and not in the 900 MHz band. The government withheld 136 MHz spectrum out of 431 MHz in the 1,800 MHz band. As a result, nearly 50% of the available spectrum with the government still remains unsold.

Surprisingly, none of the five operators that participated in the recent auction bid for a Pan India licence due to the high price of Rs.140 billion. Companies who got pan-India licences four years ago had to pay Rs.16.58 billion for it. Also, there were no bidders for the four circles of Delhi, Mumbai, Rajasthan and Karnataka in the 1,800 MHz band. Similarly, no operator bid for the 800 MHz CDMA. Players like Videocon and Tata Teleservices who were initially inclined to bid for CDMA spectrum withdrew their applications. The government, concerned that even the limited auction put up for sale found few takers, has planned another round of auction on March 31, 2013, for the circles that did not attract any bids.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

BBA Institute

India-EU FTA: How long will the debate continue?

Although India and the European Union have been engaged in negotiations on a free trade agreement since June 2007, a deal doesn’t seems likely to be coming anytime soon. What’s stopping them from arriving at a consensus?

When, in June 2007, the European Union (EU) and India started talks on a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), the negotiations were expected to be long and complex. But no one expected it to linger on for years. However, that’s exactly the situation. India and the 27-nation bloc, since then, have missed several deadlines to conclude the very sought-after India-EU FTA – officially known as the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA). Although India and the EU are hoping that a deal can be struck before their annual summit in February 2013, several unresolved issues related with market access suggest that the negotiations are still far from completion. Moreover, since then its development implications have been of increasing concern to stakeholders, policy analysts and civil society in India and Europe.

Critics argue that the proposed FTA is going to have a far reaching consequence for both India as well as for the lives and livelihood of Indian masses. The reason is simple. As per the proposed agreement, both the EU and India are supposed to completely eliminate duties on 90% of tariff lines with the remaining 10% to be negotiated or completely excluded. Considering the kind of exposure the Indian companies will get in the European market, the India-EU FTA looks like a great bargain for India from the top. However, a closer look and one can easily figure out that given the unevenness of the industrial development and wealth between the EU and India, such a high level of trade liberalisation would flood the Indian market with cheap and subsidised European goods. It will adversely affect a lot of industries, leading not only to large scale job loss, but also potential closure of several units in the small and medium-scale industries. In fact, the sector that is going to be hardest hit by the FTA is the unorganised sector comprising over 90% of India’s 450 million strong workforce with no job security and little income.

Agriculture, with almost 70% of Indian population still directly dependent on it, also remains a significant area of concern to all, not only because European subsidies make it the most unbalanced segment of the negotiations, but also for further threatening India’s food self-sufficiency in a time of global food crisis. Impact assessment studies of the FTA suggest very little gain for India in commodity trade, especially in agriculture. Policy analysts believe that the trade surplus in agriculture will turn into a trade deficit and a long-run fall in agricultural employment is imminent. According to a report by Penang (Malaysia) based Third World Network, an international network of organisations and individuals involved in North-South issues, “While India’s share in the EU’s markets in cereals, other crops, agro-food and products from animal origin will remain constant (at 1.2, 0.6, 1.1/1.3 and 0.1% respectively), the EU will increase its share in all these markets in India as a result of the FTA.” For instance, in primary products the EU’s share increases from 4.9% to 16.7% by 2020, and from 17.6% to 23.5% in cereals. In products of animal origin, the EU’s share is projected to increase from 7.5% to 10.4% by 2020 and from 2.9% to 5.3% in agro-food. Even another study points out that in both agricultural trade as well as trade in agro processed products, India will see a deficit increase by $50 million each as imports will outstrip exports.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

 

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year

BBA Management Education

Revving up the engines of equitable growth

MBA education has traditionally been about generating a steady pool of competent managers who can deliver superior shareholder value. Should entrepreneurship & social inclusion be a part of B-school curriculum?

Take the term ‘MBA’ on one end and juxtapose it with ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘social inclusion’. Traditional corporate world thinking will outrightly denounce the very idea and say that the terms on the left and right are mutually exclusive. Their standard grouse is that an MBA course either cannot inculcate these ‘competencies’ in an individual or is not even supposed to drill them in. Or both.

Nevertheless, that thought process is bound to undergo a change in the light of the glaring realities we face today, at least on the ‘not supposed to’ front. First of all, let us look at entrepreneurship. It is a foregone conclusion that the Indian economy desperately needs entrepreneurs, especially when it comes to addressing our daunting challenges on employment generation that really can undo much of our demographic dividend. According to a Mckinsey report this year titled “The world at work: Jobs, pay and skills for 3.5 billion people”, it is estimated that there would be around 58 million surplus low skilled workers by 2020 in India and other younger developing countries. The report highlights that this would mean millions of workers “trapped in subsistence agriculture or in urban poverty”. India could create just around 67 million non-farm jobs from year 2000 to 2010, while China created a whopping 121 million in the same period. Also, around 41% of these jobs in India were low-skilled construction jobs compared to 16% for China from 2000-2010. Around 340 million workers in India lack secondary schooling and over 90% of India’s work force is employed in the unorganised sector (National Statistical Commission report). Clearly, the ability of these two countries, which are expected to account for 60% of the addition in the global workforce by 2030, to create adequate employment opportunities will be key to sustained growth in coming decades.

Traditionally, MBA institutes have delivered largely in terms of addressing the acute managerial shortages that have accompanied post-liberalisation economic growth in India. The core focus of B-schools has been to provide domain expertise in marketing, HR, operations, et al; which equips students for executive roles in organisations. The orientation is strong towards emulating established processes and business models, as opposed to creating new ones. So on that premise itself, B-schools would hardly qualify as breeding grounds for entrepreneurs. So the debate on whether B-schools can create the job creators that India desperately needs is getting vociferous by the day. And more importantly, they have to bring out job creators who can deliver in the ‘not-so-encouraging’ Indian context. The World Bank’s ‘Doing Business 2013’ report ranks India at 173 in terms of ‘ease of starting a business’ (4 places down as compared to last year). The average number of procedures to start a business in India is 12 as compared to 5 in OECD nations and it takes 27 days on an average compared to 12 in OECD nations. Also, minimum paid-in capital is a massive 140.1% of income per capita in India compared to 13.3% in OECD economies.

The findings of the National Knowledge Commission report 2007 on entrepreneurship revealed that around 70% of the entrepreneurs interviewed did not have an MBA degree and only around 2% were PhDs. But the number of MBAs becoming entrepreneurs in India is also on the rise. The report highlights that “for entrepreneurial ventures, established since the beginning of this decade, the ratio of MBAs and postgraduate entrepreneurs has steadily increased, while the number of undergraduate entrepreneurs has decreased”. Also, in the pre-2000 era, MBA graduates who started business straight out of college formed the largest chunk of MBA entrepreneurs (38%), while the post-2000 era saw a huge majority (59%) of MBA entrepreneurs starting a business post an experience of 0-5 years.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Mitt, here are 3 strategies for you!

Barack Obama's lead over Mitt Romney seems to be growing with each passing week. With just over a month left before the elections, will Mitt Romney be able to win back lost ground through his gun-blazing dollar infested October marketing campaign?

As per the predictions of the most recent issue of Political Science and Politics, if elections were to be held today, Barack Obama will definitely win – with 8 of 13 recent polls having shown his clear lead over Romney. The electoral vote projections by The Fix (published in Washington Post) shows Obama’s command over 237 electorates compared to 206 of Mitt Romney out of the 538 electorates in the US Electoral College. A Pew Research Center poll released on September 19, 2012 and Reuters/Ipsos poll published on September 20, 2012 have also highlighted that Obama’s lead has grown to eight points and five points respectively. The September 24 Bloomberg National Poll report mentions, “In the head-to-head contest, Obama leads Romney among likely voters, 49% to 43%.”

With just a month left, Romney needs radical strategies to get back into the lead; and guess what, we have two seat-of-the-pant strategies that Romney should immediately employ.

#1: It’s quite evident that the electoral college is not differentiating between Obama and Romney’s stands on erstwhile critical issues – health, abortion, foreign policy. What Romney needs to do immediately is to spike up on plain old brand recall. The more appearances Romney would make on national TV, the more would be his recall. Forget the agenda Mitt, just roll out all appearances at a national level.

#2: At the start of September 2012, Obama had $86 million campaign money remaining; Romney shockingly had only $35 million. Mitt, rather than attempting to outspend Obama on ads throughout the month, maximize the use of your campaign dollars in the last week before the elections as the maximum voter susceptibility occurs then. #3: Get Paul Ryan more publicity: In the weeks following the announcement of Ryan becoming the Republican VP candidate, Obama started trailing in many polls.

Read more...

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

 

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA