Commandant's note

The Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry is a unique Regiment of Indian Army.  It is the only infantry regiment born out of `patriotic volunteers’ of Jammu and Kashmir which rose to fight against Pakistani raiders in October 1947 on a clarion call given by Shiekh Mohammed Abdullah. The volunteers held the Pakistani raiders at bay until arrival of Indian Army on October 27, 1947,after which they fought with them shoulder to shoulder till the attackers were ousted.

In recognition of their valour they were organized as the 'J&K Militia’, the first force to be raised after Independence. Since then the J&K Militia has participated in all operations with valour and courage.

In recognition of their bravery, 7 and 14 J&K Militia were converted into `Ladakh Scouts’ after 1962 war and merged with Indian Army. Rest of the force too was converted into regular army in 1972 after they performed exceptionally well in the 1965 and 1971 wars.

This regiment is a true symbol of national integration and secularism.  For the first time in 1948, it introduced the concept of `MMG’ (Mandir, Masjid and Gurdwara under one roof), which was later adopted by rest of the Indian Army as `sarv dharm sthal’.

The regiment has been conferred four Battle Honours, of which three were earned while it was a para-military force. No other para-military force has earned any battle/theatre honour in our country. The fourth one was earned during Kargil War. JAK LI has earned the distinction of becoming the only Param Vir Chakra winner of the Siachen Glacier.

Inspite of being the youngest regiment of Indian Army, it is one of the highest decorated. They include one Param Vir Chakra, two Ashoka Chakra, 11 Mahavir Chakra and 21 Unit Citations/Appreciation, amongst  others  awards.

Unbeknownst to the world outside, the regiment has rendered yeomen  service in containing militancy by motivating youth and providing them respectable and secure jobs in large numbers every year, especially at the height of militancy.

JAK LI’s Regimental Training Centre is located at Srinagar in the most picturesque environment. The regiment has won accolades when assigned jobs overseas, including in Sri Lanka and various UN Peacekeeping missions.

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

A matter of honour

JAK LI, a predominant Kashmiri Muslim regiment, is doing the Indian army proud. It also remains a bulwark against youth turning to militancy. Mayank Singh reports from the valley. Photo: Sujan Singh

Lanky Peer Mohammed Ummer from Anantnag has succeeded in fulfilling his father’s ultimate dream. He has joined Indian Army’s Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry Regiment (JAK LI), a unit his father served with distinction for 26 years.

Soldier Ummer is the only brother among five sisters and despite his father’s death in 2000, the family was very keen he takes over the mantle of warrior. So when Ummer recently marched at the attestation parade at Srinagar’s JAK LI parade ground, his family including two sisters - one a teacher and the other pursuing a Master of Arts degree – were in attendance, proud of their ward.

Or Rifleman Ishfaq Ahmad Malik, 21, from Rajouri, who is first in the family to join the army. Son of a farmer, Malik says he is raring to go. ‘‘It is an honour to serve the Indian Army. My family is proud and I am very excited to go and serve in areas which are terrorist-infested.'' His father cannot stop smiling at his son's achievments.

This sentiment was shared by every parent present at the parade ground that day. In a state torn by militant violence and separatist politics, Ummer like other Kashmiri recruits, is prepared to take the risk of being targeted by militants by joining the Indian Army. For those questioning the loyalty of Kashmiris towards India, this is a story worth reading.

The JAK LI regiment that Ummer plans to serve, consists of volunteers from Jammu and Kashmir. It has 50 percent Muslims while the rest represent other ethnic groups from the state.The army has taken thoughtful steps to create and carry with them the rank and file of the regiment; among their most remarkable steps to accommodate all is a common ground of worship, a time-honoured tradition of the Indian Army.

The regiment is by no means new. It came into being between April and August, 1948, trying times for the state when it faced the prospect of plunder, loot and annexation at the hands of tribal marauders who walked across the Line of Control (LoC) sponsored by the Pakistan army. While the shadow of cessation and independence is not entirely removed, JAK LI remains a testimony of how much the people of Jammu and Kashmir are willing to keep violence out of their lives.

Former Colonel of the regiment Lieutenant General ML Chibber likens the JAK LI regiment to the state’s fabulous Chinar trees, which have majestically withstood one storm after the other without any apparent signs of wear and tear. JAK LI’s historical defence of the state with its overwhelming majority of Muslim troops is rightfully the new symbol of Kashmiriyat – away from the shenanigans of vote bank politicians and cynical naysayers.

The birth of JAK LI is entwined with India’s historic freedom struggle.It is the only regiment in the Indian Army which can take legitimate pride in the fact that it emerged out of volunteer citizens who spontaneously rose as a cohesive group to resist the tribal invasion launched by Pakistan to capture Jammu and Kashmir on October 22, 1947. These sons-of-the-soils organized themselves and were called Leh Militia in Leh, Border Defence Scouts and Bal Sena in Jammu, Poonch Scouts in Poonch and National Home Guards in the Kashmir valley.

Then they had fought shoulder to shoulder with the Indian Army, their motivation fired by a burning desire to not just save their family and friends but also the land widely acknowledged to be the ‘Paradise on Earth.’ They not only succeeded in warding off invaders but put into place a hoary tradition – the practice of standing up and being counted when the country needed it.

The militias conducted themselves with great distinction during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965 and earned three battle honours during the Bangladesh conflict of 1971. But these successes, far from lulling them into complacency, spurred them on to greater heights – quite literally.

In 1984, JAK LI was deployed to the Siachen Glacier, the world’s highest battle ground, to thwart Pakistan’s designs there. Christened Operation Meghdoot, the 8th battalion of JAK LI earned plaudits by capturing a Pakistani post at 21,000 feet on the Siachen Glacier in 1987.

Celebrated Naib Subedar Bana Singh of the regiment earned the country’s highest military honour, Param Vir Chakra, and that too in fine fettle! Steeped in true warrior tradition, Singh believes a regiment is like a nursery which turns boys into men inculcating the basics of battle. Bana Singh became a Subedar Major and was later conferred with honorary rank of Captain. Says the legendary warrior,“ Jammu and Kashmir has been continuously under enemy attack. The immediate reaction to crisis without losing one’s balance is in our genes.’’ He adds: ‘‘You talk of any state and there are malcontents there. But here every jawan is proud of his tradition and the army's honour.''

Subedar Major and Honorary Captain Mohammed Ashraf Bhat, who belongs to Tral in Abantipur district, concurs with Bana Singh and attributes the boys’ success in battlefronts to their natural strength, coming as they do from the mountains. ‘‘Since the boys belong to rugged mountainous terrain, fitness is never an issue. It provides them the edge in action. Also, our boys know the people from the other side (across the border) and they can easily read their body language. Their analysis comes in very handy during operations,’’ he says. Naturally, when it comes to regimental honour, the troops tend to surpass themselves.

Mountains are not JAK LI’s only forte. In 1987 they went to Sri Lanka as part of Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF)’s Operation Pawan and performed with distinction in the prevailing political circumstances. Its successes during the Kargil War where it earned distinguished awards for gallantry, was epitomized in 1999 with the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) making a special instant award of "Unit Citation" to the 12th Battalion of the Regiment for their exceptionally gallant and sterling performance in the Batalik Sector.

Their exploits in Kargil saw them win additional honours, the rise of another regiment carved out of the troops which fought the enemy as militia. Ladakh Regiment was carved out of eight companies taken from 7th Battalion which is now the 1st Ladakh Scouts and 14th Battalion became the second battalion of Ladakh Scouts.

Ladakh Scouts was raised on June 1, 1963, following the 1962 Indo-China war. Troops of Ladakh Regiment have also been at the forefront of various battles since 1965. During Operation Vijay at Kargil, Major Sonam Wangchuk, received the Maha Vir Chakra for Ladakh Scouts, displaying exemplary bravery in the face of non-stop enemy fire. The Ladakh Scouts was given the status of a full infantry regiment in 2000 and more battalions are planned to be raised.

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

Digital dharma

Social media could influence more than 150 of 543 Lok Sabha constituencies in 2014. Chandran Iyer examines the implications. 

Social Media is poised become the most potent weapon for political parties girdling their loins for the 2014 general elections. Apart from party propaganda work which appears to have already started in right earnest, there is the added promise of lampooning rivals, highlighting personal achievements and scoring brownie points in the fond hope that the voter will catch on.

To be sure, the days of dust-bowl election campaigns in India’s boondocks are not a thing of the past but the cutting edge to arguably the most explosive election campaign likely in 2014, is most certainly going to be provided by a proliferating social media.

Right on top of this list are two of India’s main candidates, Congress’s Rahul Gandhi and BJP strongman Narendra Modi whose recent Twitter monikers, ‘Pappu’ (naïve) and ‘Feku’ (boastful) respectively, have already acquired a life and logic of their own. As elections draw closer, many more such parallels may be thrown up, to the delight of the public, specially the social media-using public.

Political parties, quick to spot the potential of this newly-emerging bandwidth, are aware that an issue breaking out on Twitter or Facebook is more likely to catch eyeballs as compared to the mainstream media which is increasingly been seen as ‘compromised’ and ‘affiliated’ to one or the other political party. For the first time, social media is being seen as a direct connect with the people – without the well informed journalist and blue collared analyst coming in with his or her two penny bit.

Speaking at a debate on ‘Will Internet and social media be a game changer for the next general elections’, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari recently said, “Content agnostic new media platforms are definitely not something that any politician or political party can ignore. However, elections are a complex exercise where voting preferences depend more on local/regional variations. Therefore, one variable may not be a game changer.” May be.

Admits archrival, BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad, “the power of social media cannot be denied and political leaders will be forced to take the demands of young India into consideration.’’ By the looks of it, they probably, already are.

Just how significant is the scale of this social media outreach? According to a recent study, it is set to play a very vital and decisive role in influencing the outcome of general elections in at least 160 Lok Sabha constituencies. In other words, a significant portion of the urban vote. In a tight contest, such as the type being predicted in 2014, it can become anyones game.

Says a study conducted by IRIS Knowledge Foundation and Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI), “There are 160 high impact constituencies out of the total of 543 constituencies, which are likely be influenced by social media during the next general elections.’’ In such a situation, a little tweet or a throwaway line on the net could lead to a frenzy of talk shows, high decibel comment and seemingly endless controversies, all stirred in one direction - impending elections.

In situations such as these, the mainline media, particularly the 24x7 news matrix, on the look out for little tit bits to start a talking heads chat show, can ideally feed on the social media. In turn, both can feed on each other.

India has about 60 million-plus social media users and the numbers are continually increasing. The study categorises high impact constituencies as those where “Facebook users account for over 10 per cent of total voters in a constituency.’’ Even though, the country’s internet penetration is relatively low; about 150 million people out of a total population of 1.2 billion go online. According to the IRIS-IMAI survey, these numbers are poised to go up as D-Day approaches.

Away from dreary and cliched election speeches, a whole new world is opening up – a world where an issue can snowball out of proportion - like the Anna agitation or Kejriwal anti-corruption stir - to be lapped up by an adoring public. Social media's first impact were felt in the now celebrated Twitter spat between former IPL head honcho Lalit Modi and the Congress minister Shashi  Tharoor in 2010 over the equity pattern in the former IPL Kochi team. The seemingly minor exchange ballooned out of proportion and cost Tharoor his job as the junior minister for external affairs. It also made Lalit Modi scamper for cover in London. And guess what Modi is doing from London? Tweeting against the present management of BCCI of course and grabbing headlines!

According to a study on social media usage by The Nielsen Company conducted in collaboration with analytic and research company AbsolutData, nearly 30 million Indians who are online are members of social networking sites and about two-thirds of them spend time on the net on a daily basis.

More importantly, says the study, Indians spend more time on social media than they do using personal email. According to it, an equal number spend up to an hour on social networking and email. However, while just 8 percent spend between an hour and three hours on personal email, 20 percent spend the same time on social media sites.

The growth of social media has given rise to a new breed of entrepreneurs whose job it is to provide specialised election-related services to individual candidates or to political parties using the digital platform. In this, they are taking the help of software professionals. In some instances, political parties are outsourcing work to newly-cropped IT companies which provide niche information of the kind they require.

This novel experiment was witnessed during the 2012 Gujarat assembly elections, as well as the recently-concluded Karnataka assembly elections. Pune-based Xtech Infocom, an information technology-enabled service provider company, was given the task of managing Congress propaganda. Explains Riyaaz Sheikh, head business relations of Xtech Infocom, “We work for political campaigning through digital medium for individual politicians, regional and national parties. We have provided technological support for campaigning, propaganda, giving information to voters about the party’s policies through bulk SMS, Bulk Voice and cloud telephony”.

Sheikh’s company helped the Congress in Gujarat in the last assembly elections in implementing their election strategy. “We worked hand in hand with the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) in Ahmedabad.  Our boys worked with GPCC's IT cell. Our task was to reach out to maximum voters in the state through mobile telephony and internet and ensure that the party message reaches them. We helped the party in planning total electoral strategies”.

While this social networking may not have been enough to take Narendra Modi off his high pedestal, it certainly suggests the pattern of things to come. The methods employed by Sheikh’s company helped in deploying state-of -the art telephony system along with updated voting slip database and putting into place a call centre where voters phoned up for getting detailed voting slips on their mobile along with the name of their leader.

During the Karnataka assembly elections, political parties set up their own election cells with IT experts and professionals to propagate party agenda and to take liberal pot shots at the opposition.

In Karnataka, BJP became the first political party to set up a professional wing to take care of the social media, christened the Communication Cell. Points out Channamallikarjun B Patil, cell convener: “Our total campaign via the social media was designed by members of our Communication Cell. Our five-pronged strategy included letting the world know about the achievements of the first BJP government in south India through the social media. Second was the party manifesto and the party's future plans; third exposing UPA’s corruption - we released an online version of UPA 100 not out scams – a complete ready reconnoiter of the scam-infested of UPA in the last nine years. Fourth,was the voter awareness programmes via social media and the last, details of clean governance provided by Chief Minister Jagdish Shettar’s government.’’ To be candid, this is one case where even the social media could not help a beleaguered state government and party mired in graft but the general elections could throw up another picture.

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

China does a mini-Kargil

The objectives are big

China has sent a complement of 50 troops 19 km into Indian territory in the DBO sector in the middle of the strategically-significant Depsang Bulge. The sector is at an altitude of 17,000 feet. Protracted discussions have just begun. China claims the territory as its own; India is busy finding ways to secure a retreat of Chinese troops. The development reflects poorly on Indi's so-called China experts.

China has been frantically developing its national power with economic acitivity, expansive military infrastructure and technology build-up. On the contrary, India has been a meek reactionary hobbled by  lack of foresight and diffidence in the name of caution.

A comprehensive study done by the Eastern Command two years back had brought out that China was ready to initiate its conspiracy against India. The report clearly enunciates the Chinese ‘External Calm and Internal Intensity’ strategy that will not be aimed at achieving any military gains but to  to humiliate India, undermine its rise and dent its position.

The present local position held by the Chinese troops is 30 km south of Daulet Beg Oldi. Daulat Beg Oldi and its airstrip are located just south of the great Karakoram pass; it offers India a means to snap the road route between China and Pakistan and guard the eastern gates to the Siachen glacier. Thus it can, if China holds on, be interdicted.

Zorawar Daulet Singh, an expert on China-India military relationship, says, “The Ladakh incident has been provoked by the Chinese to bring about a new operating environment on the border and draw Delhi’s attention to the tactical level.” It sounds plausible when one analyses China's demands.

On one side, China is setting conditions to stop construction activities at Daulat Beg Oldi and at Chumar where a helipad is being built, and for some tin sheds at Fukche to be dismantled. What has miffed China is the Indian steps to better its infrastructure. Infrastructure development has been in the media for decades. It’s not that we are doing it secretly. Now, once China has completed its infrastructure build up it aims to hinder Indian side of infrastructure buildup.

Border patrols have increased from both sides as China increased its number every year. This is an extension of what was being tested for years. It can be termed as a mini Kargil. Although it was not an off-season intrusion, it was well planned and caliberated. There are clear signs that the Chinese are gradually adding up to the symbolic escalation as they started with tents, increased their numbers, added flags and they will keep waiting for Indian reactions and then will accordingly keep adding to the provocation. No country will throw its soldiers in and this is least possible from a country like China which plans its moves with great care.

If we draw a parallel with the war zone campaign, then this move by China is quite clearly akin to  ‘External Calm and Internal Intensity’. The primary aim here is to lull the adversary into lethargy and inactivity, exactly like it happened before 1962. The slogan ‘Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai’ sums it up the best. As in 1992, the army had drawn a precise analysis of 10 years of the Chinese plan ahead. In Indian army relocation plan and dual tasking official document of Indian Government had led to ending the posture taken during Operation Chequerboard. This operation was launched during General K Sundarji’s time when China had tried to grab a post in Sumdorong Chu. Gen Sundarji had deployed troops in an offensive posture and which had resulted in China backing off. But after the Army’s relocation plan this posture was discontinued. It might have been a wise decision then as it was based on operational information that China was not ready to fight a war for the next 10 years as it was to focus on building its economy and infrastructure. But the analysis that no fight would take place till 2002 also meant that China would be ready for action after 2002. What was our response apart from changing the posture? Did we engage in improving infrastructure and operational capacity? India has not bought artillery guns for two decades, Our air defence has holes, helicopters are lacking, tanks are night blind. Our field formations do not have proper practice ammunitions. The list is long even if we do not talk of the approved strategic roads after the Kargil Committee Report. We have awakened late and started proper allocation in 2010 which will take another 10 years to develop. So, since 1992 poor appreciation and bad military management have hobbled India. TSI, through its sources, has learnt that almost 30  to 40 per cent of the army’s vehicles do not have fuel to run them. In August 2012, an executive order was issued that no new vehicle would be bought.

Ironically the defence Budget increases every year but does not take cost escalation and inflation into account. A senior officer informed TSI that for nine years the utilization of Capital expenditure has been the maximum 9 percent of the allocation. “The first half of the year is wasted in delaying the files and then executive orders are issued and the allocations are blocked,” he adds.

From August the weather will make any troop movement impossible. China had tried the same strategy with Japan but met with strong resistance. It also used pressure tactics with Vietnam and the Philippines and is now doing the same with India. India not only needs to discuss issues with China in clear terms but also focus its priorities and build its national power in a synergized manner. Otherwise, it will only have to capitulate to the smart moves of the adversary.

Dr Dibyesh Anand, associate professor, Westminster University and an expert on China, believes there is relative paucity of neutral and non-nationalist scholarship from the mainstream Indian media, which prevents a dispassionate analysis and gives space to hawks who fit this event into the older lens of bad China/good India/impotent Indian government.  He says: “The way out is to temper down the tension, and ensure serious conversation between Beijing and Delhi without the media baying for each other’s blood,” says Dr. Anand.

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

BBA Institute

From Neecha Nagar to Miss Lovely

Indian cinema’s association with the Cannes Film Festival goes back a long way. As the world’s largest film producing nation inches its way back into the reckoning on the Croisette, here is a historical overview of what has gone before

India’s association with the Cannes Film Festival goes back all the way to its first edition in 1946. That year, Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar, loosely adapted from Maxim Gorky’s The Lower Depths, won the Grand Prix along with ten other titles. Eleven films were given the top prize because Cannes was seeking to make up for the hiatus of the War years.

Legend has it that the Cannes event was originally supposed to kick off in 1939 because the Venice Film Festival awards were “rigged” – Jean Renoir’s superb Grand Illusion was passed over for two utterly undeserving films – one made by Goebbels’ propaganda ministry, the other by Benito Mussolini’s son. Politics has remained a constant factor for Cannes ever since.
 
In 1946, Neecha Nagar was in great company. Among the films that were awarded in Cannes’ inaugural edition were David Lean’s Brief Encounter, Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend and Roberto Rossellini’s Rome Open City.

Until the mid 1990s, India was a constant presence on the Croisette and several films from the country competed for top honours at the festival. Then, the world’s largest film producing nation dropped off Cannes’ radar. It rankled because Cannes has always mattered. 

As the multi-talented French creator Jean Cocteau once said, “The Festival is an apolitical no-man’s land, a microcosm of what the world would be like if people could contact each other directly and speak the same language.” At the festival, everybody does indeed speak the same language – the language of cinema. For 11 days, Cannes turns into the movie capital of the world and no nation that fancies itself as a force on the global stage can afford to miss out on the action.

Since the curtains went up on the festival – the first Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) was handed out to Delbert Mann's Marty in 1955 – Cannes has recognised the best filmmakers of the world with its trophy.

Run your eyes through the list of filmmakers that have won the Grand Prix/Palme d’Or over the years: Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio de Sica, Orson Welles, Federico Fellini, Luis Bunuel, Luchino Visconti, , Michelangelo Antonioni, Lindsay Anderson, Robert Altman, Joseph Losey,  Martin Scorsese, Ermanno Olmi, Volker Schlondorff, Akira Kurosawa, Andrzej Wajda, Constantin Costa-Gavras, Wim Wenders, Shohei Imamura, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Soderbergh, Mike Leigh, Abbas Kiorastami, Emir Kusturica, Chen Kaige, Coen brothers,  Taviani brothers, Quentin Tarantino, Lars von Trier, Michael Haneke…

This list is by no means complete, but it’s a veritable who’s who of the men who have shaped the contours of modern cinema. Unfortunately, only a solitary woman director – Jane Campion for The Piano, 1993 – has ever won the Palme d’Or and that is one imbalance that the Cannes Film Festival would be keen to rectify.     

What separates Cannes from other festivals is its constant edginess. Even as it celebrates Hollywood glitz and glamour, it revels as much in showcasing the auteurs and the in-your-face upstarts, and in spotting and pushing new talents from around the world. You love some of the films, you hate others, but you can rarely ever completely ignore anything that the Cannes selectors pick.

The last Indian film to compete in Cannes was Shaji N. Karun’s Swaham in 1994. Another Malayalam film, Murali Nair’s Arimpara, made the Un Certain Regard cut in 2003, a year after Bhansali’s reworking of Devdas had a special red carpet screening at the Grand Lumiere.

But India was blanked out year after year by the globe’s premier film festival until it made a comeback with Vikramaditya Motwane’s Udaan breaking into  Un Certain Regard in 2010. Yet, Indian filmmakers, big and small, land in Cannes’ buyer-seller space with movies in a bid to access the growing Diaspora as well as tap new markets. .

But for those saddened by the dwindling global esteem for the quality of Indian films, it is a tad painful to see relatively small filmmaking nations that were once way behind India in terms of international exposure - South Korea, China, Iran, Thailand, Taiwan – being ‘officially’ celebrated in Cannes every year.

 In 1954, Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zameen bagged a Grand Prize, while Ray’s epochal Pather Panchali was adjudged the Best Human Document in 1956. As many as 17 Indian films were in Competition during the first two decades of Cannes. Besides Pather Panchali, these included Ray’s Paras Pathar and Devi, Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zameen, Biraj Bahu and Sujata, V. Shantaram’s Amar Bhoopali and Shevgyachya Shenga, Prakash Arora’s Boot Polish (for which Baby Naaz won a Special Mention in 1955), and Moni Bhattacharjee’s Mujhe Jeeno Do.


In the 1970s and 1980s, too, Indian cinema figured frequently in the Cannes Competition with films like Mrinal Sen’s Ek Din Pratidin (1980), the Jury Prize-winning Kharij (1983) and Genesis (1986), MS Sathyu’s Garam Hawa (1974), Shyam Benegal’s Nishant (1976), Ray’s Ghare Baire (1984).

Two Indian films came tantalizingly close to winning Cannes’ top prize. One, of course, was Pather Panchali, which is today listed on the festival’s official website at par with the 1956 Palme d’Or winner, the French documentary Le Monde du Silence (The Silent World), made by legendary oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Louis Malle. It was felt the French film pipped Ray’s debut work for of its technical brilliance – it was one of the first films that used underwater cinematography to capture the depths of the ocean in colour.


The other was Mrinal Sen’s searing critique of urban middle class mores, Kharij, which, in 1983, was up against a film of the quality of Shohei Imamura’s The Ballad of Narayama. While the latter was given the Palme d’Or, the jury, headed by American writer William Styron, adjudged Kharij the second best by bestowing the Jury Prize on it. In 1983, Cannes had a particularly strong Competition line-up and the runners-up finish for Kharij was no mean achievement. Among the films that Sen’s entry upstaged were Robert Bresson’s L’Argent and Andrei Tarkovsky’s Nostalgia.

In the late 1980s, two Indian films did the nation proud – Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay won the Camera d’Or (for the best debut film screened in the festival across all its sections) in 1988 and Shaji’s Piravi bagged the best film prize in Un Certain Regard in 1989. In 1999, Murali Nair’s Marana Simhasanam, screened in Un Certain Regard, won the Camera d’Or.  
   
But the last two decades have seen a complete washout, with no Indian name making it to the list of 20-odd films that compete each year for the Palme d’Or although a special screening of a documentary celebrating the popular strain of Hindi cinema, Rakesysh Omprakash Mehra’s Bollywood – The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, was hosted by the festival in 2011.

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

Why the BJP was decimated

State assembly results show that voters will come out strongly against corruption

The voters of Karnataka have delivered a decisive mandate against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in the state. The Congress party looks all set to occupy the regal portals of the Vidhana Soudha, which is the seat of state legislature in Karnataka.

The results of the recent assembly polls have shocked even the most hard line poll pundits. While many had predicted that the Congress would fare well in these polls, very few had imagined that the BJP would be mauled so badly. The saffron party has been virtually decimated to the extent of being placed in the third position behind the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular), an ignominious situation for them indeed.

This assembly elections recorded the second highest voter turnout in 35 years with a polling percentage of 71.29. There were 2,940 candidates in 223 Assembly segments, with the election in Periyapatna constituency being put off due to the death of a candidate. What are the reasons for this dismal performance by the BJP?

Corruption seems to have been the main issue in this election. The infamous scandals involving the Bellary brothers related to mining issues, resignations of various ministers due to impropriety and the ouster of the then Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa who was indicted by the Lok Ayukta on charges of corruption, played a huge role in the decisive shift of public opinion against the BJP.

However one must inject a dose of caution before we credit the Congress for its victory. The Karnataka voter may have punished the BJP this time. However, they are also aware of the various corruption scandals that have plagued the Congress-led UPA government in New Delhi. They may be in an equally punishing mood during the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, with the Congress being at the receiving end.

It is a dream gone sour for the BJP. Karnataka was the first south Indian state that the BJP won when Yeddyurappa became chief minister in 2008. While this was trumpeted as a great victory, there were some ominous signs even then. Certain shady individuals like the mining barons of Bellary district led by Janardhan Reddy had funded the BJP and this was well known to the central leadership of the party.

In many ways the BJP government was doomed at the very start of its tenure by its association with individuals of dubious repute. A plethora of corruption scandals followed, ranging from illegal mining to various instances of land grabbing by ministers. Yeddyurappa was relieved of the CM’s post and this caused an irreparable rift in the party. He formed the Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP) with the help of many other BJP stalwarts like CM Udasi ,who left the party with him. Yeddyurappa always had a mass following among the Lingayats, who are a very powerful community in Karnataka and constitute a sizable proportion of the electorate.

This election has been largely lost in North Karnataka. This region accounts for 96 seats. In the 2008 elections, the BJP won a record 56 seats in a region once considered a Congress fortress. This was mainly due to the consolidation of Lingayat votes in favour of the BJP. North Karnataka has always been crucial in deciding the fate of political parties in the state. In the 1985 elections, Ramakrishna Hegde came to power with 139 MLA’s, of which 60 came from North Karnataka. In the 1989 elections, Veerendra Patil of the Congress became chief minister, largely due to the 68 seats the party won in North Karnataka. The loss of Lingayat support has proven very costly indeed for the BJP.

Once the excitement of the election results has subsided, the real challenging task of governance begins. Rural Karnataka has been severely neglected with reports of numerous farmer suicides. About 100 farmers have committed suicide this year alone, largely due to drought and ever increasing input costs. A total 2,986 farmers have committed suicide in Karnataka in the last decade. The new government has to remedy this immediately. Recent studies have shown that Karnataka is among the most corrupt states in India. Cities and towns in Karnataka are bursting at its seams and lack adequate infrastructure when it comes to transportation, community hygiene and health. These challenges are immense and one hopes that the electoral verdict against corruption and maladministration will resonate loudly in the ears of all political parties.

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

BBA Institute

A Toxic Tale

Animal Planet is crawling with them. So is Nat Geo Wild. It’s snakes and the modern day snake charmers, herpetologists with a penchant for one way conversations – folks like Austin Stevens, Jeff Corwin, Brady Barr, the man who started it all, the late great Steve ‘Crikey’ Irwin, and of course, our  home grown sweet talking snake wrangler – Gerry Martin, who seem to have taken over all the prime time slots on animal tv.

They make for wonderfully exciting viewing, I will give you that. Most folks, even those that love dogs and cats and birds, and find monkeys cute and white mice adorable, shudder at the thought of a snake slithering along their arm.

Snakes inspire revulsion and reverence in equal measure. The scales, the forked tongue, the unblinking eyes and the possibility of a lethal liquid flowing through their switchblade fangs elevates them to the status of a god for a few and the very devil for the rest.

So I can understand why it is like standing barefoot on the very edge of reality tv to watch a man as mortal as you and me, literally kiss death as his lips touch the raised hood of a king cobra. These men catch mambas by their tails, taipans by the neck and play with rattling rattlers like they were a child’s toy. The tiniest scratch from any one of these snakes could lead to a painful and hideous end for these experts.  Even with antivenom, the recovery process is uncertain, slow and very painful. So those men are risking a whole lot for good television. Should you try this at home? Sure, go ahead. If you’re as incredibly lucky as I once was, you will survive both the encounter and the feeling of having been monumentally stupid when the realization of how close you were to a grisly death has washed over you. And if you are not, you will be in that privileged ringside seat to the spectacle of watching the limb that suffered the hemotoxic bite disintegrate in front of your very eyes as you writhe in the kind of agony that might make getting impaled on a stake feel like a vacation. Or you could try guessing which of your organs is shutting down first as the neurotoxins motor along your arteries. Whichever the nature of the venom, it is unlikely to be a quiet death, I promise.  

Here’s my story that I might have shared in bits and pieces on earlier occasions but this time I present it to you in its entirety as a prelude to ‘what to do when the naughty one from Eden comes calling’.

A few springs ago, I was walking out of my office which was then sitting pretty near the green glades of Sanjay Van near Qutab Institutional Area, when I spotted the guards crowding around a pair of flower pots. I peered over their shoulders and saw them poking at a long slim snake with sticks. More than two feet long, a deep dirty brown with bands running rings around it. Some wanted to kill it with sticks, some suggested burning it while a few where of the opinion that it should either be left alone or carried outside the premises and released.

One of the men said that he had often seen these snakes around the area. Now that got me thinking. If this snake was common in the area, it was important to know whether this snake was venomous or not and what should one do if one of these snakes just pops up around a corner. So I suggested that they put the snake, unharmed and whole, in a container so I could take it to the zoo and get it identified and find suggestions for a viable protocol if this kind of an encounter was to happen again (mobile phone cameras weren’t really de rigueur in those days and so physically carrying the snake was the only way out).

A plastic bottle was procured and the snake, still sluggish in the cool of the morning was poked and picked and placed inside the bottle. One of the guards thought the snake might find the confines of the bottle claustrophobic and punched a few holes into the cap. But now the holes seemed big enough for the snake to escape through them and so he stuck a few twigs to plug the holes. Equipped thus I stuck the bottle between the seat and the door to keep the bottle upright and drove off to the zoo. A speed breaker later, the bottle keeled over and a forked tongue flickered out of the port window in the bottle cap. If the snake got out, it would be impossible to find in the folds of the car’s insides. I had to pull over and set things right. Like I said, it was a monumentally stupid decision to transport a potentially dangerous reptile in this fasion and then to drive with this distraction through Delhi’s notoriously hostile traffic.

Anyway, we both survived the trip to the zoo where I explained my situation to the folks manning the gate and I was ushered in to reptile house. I held out the bottle with the gaping holes in the cap (the twigs had given in to gravity and had fallen through. The little snake had climbed along the length of the twigs and was now poking its head out of the bottle). The man at the reptile house shrank back in horror. “Krait! It’s a Krait”, he whispered. My hands must have started shaking involuntarily at the exclamation for the bottle vibrated in my hand and the snake dropped down again to the bottom.

A krait?! I had been cradling a krait all this while? t krait in Re first time I came across those five dreaded letters was in Rudyard Kipling’s Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, that unforgettable tale that pitted a pair of cobras against a brave and wily pet mongoose. In the story, Kipling’s krait was smaller but as venomous (as a matter of fact, ounce for ounce, krait venom is even more potent than cobra venom) and dangerous as those hooded emissaries of doom. “It is still a little chilly these days. This one got out a little too soon and that’s why you are still alive”, snapped the zoo ‘expert’. “Half an hour is all it will take for this little devil’s neurotoxins to take you to the brink of respiratory failure”, he added.

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

The auto bloodbath

Going by how matters have been in the past year, there is little hope that India’s auto industry will grow beyond the single-digit mark in FY2013-14, even if macroeconomic indicators and economic sentiments improve substantially. By sutanu guru
This kind of brutal bloodbath was not witnessed even after the global financial meltdown of 2008 when it appeared as if Apocalypse and Armageddon had jointly invaded the global economy. From about 1.6 million domestic sales in 2007-08, passenger car sales fell marginally to about 1.55 million units in 2008-09. Not just that, the auto industry registered a spectacular turnaround almost immediately and kept growing at a very healthy pace. By 2011-12, passenger car sales had reached close to 2.68 million units.

Something similar happened with sales of commercial vehicles that reflect even better the state of health of an economy. From about 490,000 units in 2007-08, sales crashed to about 384,000 units in 2008-09 in the aftermath of the global financial meltdown. But as with passenger cars, the recovery was swift and sure. By 2009-10, sales of commercial vehicles had recovered smartly to 532,000 units and crossed 800,000 units by 2011-12. The magic one million mark was looking very much within reach. And everybody was going ga ga over the brilliant prospects of the Indian auto industry. Some over optimistic souls even started predicting that the auto industry growth rates in India will keep outpacing that of China and that India could well emerge as one of the five largest auto markets in the world by 2020.

In 2010, the consultancy firm Ernst & Young conducted a study on behalf of Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India. The E&Y study predicted that the Indian automobile market would clock the fastest growth rates between 2010 and 2020. Average annual growth rate for the Indian market between 2010 and 2020 was pegged at 14%. The average annual growth rate for the Chinese market was pegged at 8%; the forecast was 6% for other emerging markets and just about 4% for developed markets belonging to G-7 countries.

According to the survey, domestic sales of cars and SUVs would jump to 5 million by 2015 and further double to 10 million by 2020.


Is it any surprise then that every automobile company in India and its third cousin has been making a beeline for the Indian market? Is it any surprise that states like Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat are fighting pitched battles to attract automobile companies to their states. Is it any surprise that the quick decision of Narendra Modi to encourage Ratan Tata to relocate his Nano manufacturing plant to Gujarat in the aftermath of Singur added spice and polish to his already glowing halo? And why not since the numbers being bandied about have been so jaw droppingly awesome. The same E&Y study predicted that the size of the Indian auto industry will balloon from $25 billion to $110 billion by 2020; the value of exports will rise from $3.5 billion to $30 billion and the size of the auto components industry too will balloon from $26 billion to more than $110 billion by 2020.

So what happened? Far from maintaining the much touted growth momentum, auto sales have actually crashed in recent months. The decline in sales has been so widespread and so precipitous that 2012-13 is guaranteed to register an actual decline in numbers as compared to the previous year. And hardly anybody seems to have been spared from the onslaught. Hyundai has seen sales falling more than 16% y-o-y in March 2013. Tata Motors has had to suffer the trauma of a more than 60% fall in sales in the same month. The only company that seems to have come up smelling of flowers in the aftermath of his bloodbath is Mahindra & Mahindra, whose gamble on the rising popularity of multi-utility vehicles seems to be paying off.

The two wheeler market too, is going through a series of potholes. The market leader Hero Motocorp has reported an 11% y-o-y decline in sales in March 2013. The erstwhile partner of Hero, Honda seems to be the only major two wheeler company whose fortunes continue to improve in this gloomy scenario. But across the board, the breathless optimism about the prospects of the Indian auto industry seem to have evaporated.

Virtually no one is willing to bet on anything more than single-digit growth rates for the industry even if macroeconomic conditions and economic sentiments improve substantially in 2013-14. In effect, we could be looking at car and SUV sales of about 2.5 million units in the year 2013-14. So if the E&Y forecast about domestic sales of 5 million units by 2015 has to come true, Indian consumers will need to double their car and SUV purchases in just one year. Even the most optimistic of Indians does not expect GDP growth rate to improve substantially beyond the 5% or so it has managed to eke out in the year just gone by. Equally important, despite the Reserve Bank of India finally taking some steps, nobody expects a dramatic fall in interest rates. But the most important factor is what we call investor as well as consumer sentiment. With General Elections round the corner, the citizen or the analyst is not expecting any drastic step or any bold decision that could boost sentiments in the economy. In fact, with each passing week, the intensity of bad news keeps increasing. The current account deficit is already at an astonishing 6.7% of GDP, the highest ever in the history of independent India. Latest figures reveal that manufacturing output, including that in the so called core sector has actually declined. Newly released data also shows that cutting fares has not improved passenger traffic for airlines. Consumer inflation also remains stubbornly high, refusing to come down below double-digit levels. In the event, it is but natural for consumers to postpone their car purchases till the situation improves. Says Kumar Kandaswami, Senior Director at Deloitte India to B&E, “The only macroeconomic reason for the slowdown is that people buy cars only when there is some growth in disposable income. And there hasn’t been much in recent months. Other factors like interest rates and fuel prices have also played their part.”

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

BBA Institute

Can India rise to the challen ge of its solar potenti al?

India’s National Solar Mission is helping create conditions for the rapid scale-up of solar capacity and technological innovation. But although it appears to be going great guns in some states like Rajasthan and Gujarat, it will need greater push and deployment across the country in order to meet its overall objective.

An hour’s drive from Amritsar, the border city between India and Pakistan, lies the small village of Awan. At first glance there is nothing that makes this village any different from the others in Punjab. But walk a little farther from the village and you come across the imposing gates of Azure Power Pvt. Ltd. This sprawling solar power plant is spread over almost 15 acres and its hundreds of installed solar panels feed the electricity needs of more than 20 neighbouring villages around. The plant produces 2 megawatts of electricity, which gets fed straightaway to the local grid and is then distributed to the villages all around. The chunk of land on which the plant sits has lost its fertility and has been obtained on a 20-year lease from the village panchayat. Besides paying the panchayat a one time fee for the land, Azure Power has also created a few employment opportunities in the village. In short, a win-win situation for all the stakeholders.

Another village also situated on the Indo-Pak boundry – Dhoodsar – in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan plays host to one of the country’s biggest solar power generation plant. The 40-Mw photovoltaic plant, which spreads over an area of 140 hectares, is set up by Reliance Power Ltd. However, it is not the only attempt towards utilizing the immensely available solar energy in the state. There are projects worth about $19 billion to set up solar power generating capacity all around the country by the year 2020. The examples of Awan and Dhoodsar typify India’s growing strides in the field of solar energy generation. If one takes a closer look at the trends over the last 2-3 years, solar energy production has risen year on year. In the past two years, India’s solar power production has grown from 20 Mw to more than 1,000 Mw. Under the country’s ambitious solar program, the National Solar Mission (NSM) launched in January 2010, India has jumpstarted its solar energy industry, fostering growth in both photovoltaic (PV) projects and CSP, also known as solar thermal. Before the Mission began, CSP projects only provided 8.5 megawatts of energy. Two years later, the large-scale CSP projects now underway in India will provide a projected 500 Mw of clean, reliable energy under the NSM. Given the short time frame of the Mission, these numbers are impressive.

The objective of the Mission is to establish India as a global leader in solar energy, by creating the policy conditions for its diffusion across the country as quickly as possible and reduce the cost of solar energy. The Mission aims to install 20 million solar lights and 20 million square meters of solar thermal panel, generating 20,000 megawatts by 2022. With lots of untapped potential just around the corner, solar can contribute majorly to our energy security and power development. Consider the facts: The average intensity of solar radiation received over India is 200 Mw/km square (megawatt per kilometer square) with 250–325 sunny days in a year. India receives the solar energy equivalent of more than 5,000 trillion kWh/year. Depending on the location, the daily incidence ranges from 4 to 7 kWh/m2, with the hours of sunshine ranging from 2,300 to 3,200 per year. Recent research has shown that India has a vast potential for solar power generation since about 58% of the total land area (1.89 million km2) receives annual average global insolation (solar radiation) above 5 kWh/m2/day. The research adds that, given the present efficiency of 11 TW = 1012 watt or 1 trillion watt levels, 1% of land area is sufficient to meet the electricity needs of India till 2031, using current solar technology.
 

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

 

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

“You cannot start suddenly if you are not ready”

Dr. Gopichand Katragadda, MD, GE India Technology Center, believes that companies have to be far more patient with reverse innovation opportunities

B&E: GE has been a pioneer in applying a reverse innovation philosophy. How does GE prioritise vis-a-vis reverse innovation and glocalisation?
Dr. Gopichand Katragadda (GK): The progress of technology is great, and you need to leverage what has happened. There is no point in inventing everything. So I think this is where we falter in a big way. We talk of indigenisation, and we study for 30 years trying to catch up with where other countries have taken off. By the time you are there, other countries are 70 years ahead, because that is the pace of innovation. So you need to leverage what is already there and then move forward from there. For instance, a gas turbine is the same gas turbine and an aircraft engine is the same air-craft engine, whether it is designed for the western market or the Indian market. So why do I need to develop a new aircraft engine for Air India, or for any other airline? There is no unique need that is driving that. On the other hand, in the field of healthcare, TB is a need that only India can articulate the best, because we have an unresolved issue there. So who else should solve the problem other than those who are here on the ground? So let’s not worry about the aircraft problem and let’s solve the TB problem, where there is no solution in sight so far.

B&E: Could you elaborate on some more areas where the Indian market needs new solutions?
GK: Since we were discussing health-care, I’ll continue on that. I talked about TB. The information systems in India are not so robust. So when it comes to my insurance, I can’t go from one place to another, just quote a number and be set. So I should be able to carry a smart card that contains all my medical information and doctor’s advice. It’s a unique need that offers a lot of opportunities. When it comes to ultrasound, you cannot do a sex determination for the baby in India. But if you are doing an examination and you are smart enough, you can make a guess at some stage of the pregnancy. How do you mask the sex of the baby while providing all the clinical information for the doctor, is another unique area in India. Diabetes and cardio-vascular diseases might be there elsewhere, but we have a higher incidence of them. So talking about and working on obesity, these are some of the areas that India needs to work more on as we have a higher incidence of these diseases at a younger age. When you have a life span exceeding 80 years in US, it is unfair to compare that cardio vascular disease ratio with ours, because we are getting these diseases at the age of 50 or so and it is constantly moving down.

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

 

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

“70-80% of the investment will be from private players”

Rajiv Agarwal, MD & CEO, Essar Ports, on how ports can be run profitably and the growing private participation in the sector

B&E: Essar Ports has plans to be the second-largest port in the country in terms of capacity by FY2013. How do you plan to achieve that?
Rajiv Agarwal (RA): The development of Essar Ports is based on the cargo demand from our anchor customers. We have been lucky that most of our anchor customers are from our own group’s other businesses. They need a dedicated, world-class port facility. So we provide that service, and based on that we build an asset and then the facility is made available for use by everyone. That is how we are moving on our expansion. We are building this 160 million tonnes of capacity port, out of which we expect that at least 100 MT shall be used by the group and some companies with which we have signed the contract, while the balance will be available for third party users.

B&E: While your in-house intra-group business will ensure demand to a large extent, how will you ensure efficiency for your port?
RA: It’s the way we have designed the port that will make a huge difference towards the port’s profitability. What determines profitability is the kind of draught a port has, the extent of its mechanization and the evacuation capabilities that really brings down the cost of transportation for the customer. Ports can operate efficiently without having a pre-berthing time, which is possible if you have a traffic optimisation of 65-70%. The moment you go above that level or touch 90% there’s a huge waiting time involved, which affects efficiency. Our aim is to ensure that we operate at a level that maximises efficiency and profitability.

B&E: Why do you say that greater efficiency at lesser traffic is better than higher traffic at the cost of efficiency?
RA: That’s because greater efficiency directly impacts your margins in port fees. The customer always looks at the all-in-cost. So the ideal way to go forward for any port operator is to reduce the customer’s cost in areas like shipping company fees or other payouts like stevedore charges etc. At the same time pulling a larger chunk of the customer’s overall cost can help the port operator to increase his own business. If you allow others to take more of your own business, then you will of course get a lesser share of the pie. If, as a port operator you cannot ensure quick turnaround of ships then it’s the shipping lines that get to earn more.

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

 

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

At the cusp of a great execution opportunity

The real estate sector in India has come off its peak two years ago and is currently being dragged down by a host of issues. For the sector to get back on the growth track, there’s much riding on how leading players such as DLF get their act together again.

For the last two years, the real estate sector in India – whose market size is expected to reach $90 billion by 2015 – has been witnessing slowing demand and inventory pile-up. The unsold inventory in residential real estate so far this year has been the highest in Delhi-NCR at 102,758 units, followed by the Mumbai metropolitan region at 90,512. Bangalore comes next with 46,596 units, and Pune follows with 40,734 units (PropEquity statistics). At the same time home loan interest rates have refused to come down and this has dampened sales even further. Growth in home-loans dropped to 12.1% for the year ended March 2012 from 16% in the last fiscal year.

Even the prospects of commercial property have dimmed severely. The drift is likely to continue for the next few quarters, with absorption of office space expected to drop by 10-15 % for 2012 due to lower demand from the IT/ITES sector. Demand from IT/ITES sector has dropped from 68% in 2005 to 35% at present due to increasing cost pressures faced by IT firms.

To make matters worse for the industry, most of its leading players are reeling under high debt. The cost of debt for most real estate companies is in the range of 12-15%, on the basis of which the combined interest burden itself on them is between Rs.40 billion and Rs. 50 billion. With home sales at abysmal lows, real estate companies are finding it difficult to deliver their projects or repay their growing debt on time.

Apparently, nearly half of the 930,000 under-construction residential units in the country, scheduled for delivery by 2013, are likely to be delayed by up to 18 months. Analysts say many of these delayed projects might be up for sale as developers will not be able to revive them due to shortage of funds and cost of debt servicing.

According to industry estimates, the combined debt of the country’s top 11 listed real estate companies stands at around Rs.350 billion. While many small and mid-sized Indian property developers face the risk of default, the big ones are trying to overcome the situation by delaying projects, discounting properties and even selling assets. Leading real estate player Unitech is selling land parcels to pare its debt, which stood at Rs.51.9 billion as of December 2011. It had a land bank of 605.4 million sq. ft. in

March 2008, but by December 2011, it had declined to about 304 million sq. ft. Another leading real estate firm, HDIL, which had a debt of Rs.41 billion as on December 31, 2011, recently sold a two-acre plot in Andheri, Mumbai, to the real estate arm of Adani Enterprises for Rs.9 billion.

Even the country’s largest real-estate company – DLF – which ranks #73 on this year’s B&E list of Most Profitable Companies, has been finding it extremely difficult to raise funds and reduce its mountainous debt of Rs.227.58 billion as of end of December 2011. Its debt burden rose to around Rs.200 billion on the back of a tenfold rise in its interest costs since 2008. The interest outgo in the fourth quarter of FY2012 increased to Rs.6.03 billion from Rs.4.55 billion in the year-ago period. The company, as a result of its huge costs, has not been able to post an increase in quarterly profits over the last two years, and its sales growth has also fallen over the last four quarters. For the quarter ended March 2012, DLF posted a 39% drop in consolidated net profit at Rs.2.11 billion. Similarly, consolidated total income dipped 4% to Rs.27.47 billion as against Rs.28.70 billion in January-March 2011. To ease the pressure on its books the company has set a target of raising Rs.60 billion to Rs.70 billion from divesting non-core assets such as hotels and IT parks by the end of financial year 2012-13.

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

 

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