Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Smell the coffee

Corruption needs the killer dose

The reputation of Indian politicians and bureaucrats on corruption is truly impeccable. In fact, Indian citizens have reason enough to assume that there are hidden skeletons in every cupboard and dark corners in every lair.

And if a person like Meera Shankar, India’s ambassador to US, attempts to speak up and throw some light, what else can we say other than “Welcome”! Meera Shankar’s diligent complaint to the PMO about huge sums of bribe paid to officials in Indian government establishments by US companies is creditworthy. The same cannot obviously be said of the silence over the letter from the PMO for eight months (curiously broken after the assembly election results came in).

Meera Shankar has cited the report filed by the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which names companies that have allegedly made illegal payments to Indian officials over the years. Most shockingly, it pulls the Indian defence forces into the scrutiny as well.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012. An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Monday, October 29, 2012

Y chromosome is all set to become extinctPost title

The Y chromosome is all set to become extinct, but not until a million years from now...

For those who trust the predictions of a few saints and the various historic calendars, there is nothing to worry, because they believe the world would come to an end much before that. In fact, they believe that life on Earth would end within a few years, just because some ‘wise men’ of the past have predicted so. Now, how does the society handle this in future (i.e., if life exists) is going to be a mystery for a long time. But for now, awareness is what we call for. People should be aware that several other ways of reproduction could be invented in the times to come and only a single cell could fertilize the egg. So in order to make your swimmers strong, a healthy lifestyle is what is more than recommended. Also, men need to understand that it is their sperm which carries the Y chromosome and the poor lady is not to be blamed for giving birth to a girl child.

“Resorting to sperm banks could be an option in the future...” says Dr. Vinant Bhargava. So, educated adults could help by donating and shaping the new world till the time the scientists and the medical fraternity assure us with a new research or find in order to counter this lopsided equation of X and Y!


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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CHINA: WTO

WTO finally pulls up errant China

China has also restrained the number of foreign films that can be released on her own soil to 20 each year. This policy has given birth to rampant piracy across the country, where movie or music DVDs are available at sums as paltry as $1. Even though American movie companies have tried tooth and nail to keep prices low, they are suffering. Although the  has nudged China to clamp down on piracy, it is difficult to curb bootlegging altogether in this vast country (which is an outcome of China’s own pigeonhole). China’s unprecedented growth over the last 3 decades was primarily triggered by export of manufactured goods that have been outsourced through China by the West. But this Asian giant has been very slyly restricting imports, except for raw materials and intermediate goods (for example computer chips are imported from Japan to be assembled in China and then to be shipped to the US).

The US sees this saga as an opportunity to ensure that China complies with the rules of the WTO and ergo protects intellectual property rights, something they haven’t done since they joined the organisation in 2001. But knowing the dragon’s incorrigible tendencies to act in self interest, this dispute may not be dying down very soon. For them, back to the wall literally means back to the Wall...


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Friday, October 26, 2012

“Our work will speak...”

B&E: The credit crisis is creating a lot of problems for business. How are you managing it?

KG: The world was very different place before September 15. The September 30 quarter in 2008 was one of the best quarters for us. We had almost 7% sequential quarter on quarter growth. The last 2 quarters were very bad. The world has changed. Did we see it? Not really. But we reacted very fast. In the short term, it was all about expense control.

B&E: Why have you maintained a flat outlook for 2009?

KG: What we see in the market is that with some confidence, we are saying that the market is about to revive. The bottom has been reached for the client as well as the industry. Just a question of recovery, there the consensus is that it will happen probably by the first half of 2010.

B&E: You are planning to look more towards home ground for business opportunities. What opportunities have you identified?

KG: We are seeing wins in the private and government sector; and we expect to see revenues accruing to the company over time, as many of these wins are based on new models of engagement, where pricing is based on transactions.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Thursday, October 25, 2012

India reveals how they made it…

In an exclusive conversation with B&E, V. Vasantha Kumar, Senior VP and Head – Marketing & Communications, ABN AMRO Bank, India reveals how they made it…

B&E: Can you share a latest marketing initiative that has bought in really good results for ABN?

VVK: Well, we have signed Sachin Tendulkar as our brand Ambassador which symbolises our commitment to high performance with consistency. In fact, we have launched a series of events where we give our customers a chance to express their thoughts and ideas about a variety of topics.

B&E: What are the factors that ABN keeps in mind while deciding upon the marketing mix?

VVK: Our marketing mix directly depends on the customer segmentation that we do. We do comprehensive marketing research and then decide upon the kind of communications strategy and the channels to be used. Moreover, word of mouth publicity is critical in our kind of business, particularly for the niche segment.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Tuesday, October 23, 2012

RAINWATER: HARVESTING

The biggest issue of this century will be preservation of water

BBC predicts water wars to happen in the near future while in West Africa, Ganges-Brahmaputra belt, and in Peru there already seems to be a huge risk of violent conflict. David Zhang, a geographer at Hong Kong University, had analysed 8,000 wars over 500 years and concluded that water shortage had played a far greater role as a catalyst in these wars than previously supposed. It’s a wonder today that nations have not yet declared diplomatic wars.

On the positive side, as UN Water comments, “The world’s six billion people are appropriating 54 percent of all the accessible freshwater contained in rivers, lakes and underground aquifers.” That means that there is still a huge scope for optimal sourcing of freshwater. But as in the case of food, there has to be a globally coordinated effort to fight water scarcity. Though UN Water is a body focused on the issue (they have good policy papers), yet the organisation has still not even identified strategic issues and priorities. What’re they waiting for? Ice Age 4?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Monday, October 22, 2012

Coral reefs facing the heat!?

A Stanford University study claims to have found heat-resistant coral reefs. But can slow adaptation keep pace with the changing environment?

There are many treasures hidden in the depths of the oceans; marine plants and animals aside, there’s more to this wealth than pearly oysters and treasures lost to sunken vessels. Anyone who has ever visited an aquarium or gone snorkelling would be familiar with these stunning creatures called corals. Yes, these plant or rock-like things aren’t actually either. They’re, in fact, animals that play a vital role in defining the structure of marine reefs (colonies of corals), which in turn are the source of vital nutrition for fish and other sea creatures who depend on them for their sustenance. But in spite of having called the oceans home for eons, corals are always at risk, sometimes owing to natural but largely due to man-made reasons. Almost 80 per cent of shallow reefs are over-fished and that’s significant, considering the fact that corals occupy less than one per cent of the total marine environment, which is home to over 25 per cent of all known marine fish species. Another factor is a phenomenon called coral bleaching in which a rise in ocean temperature makes corals lose colour and eventually die out. Says noted filmmaker and conservationist, Mike Pandey whose film Shores of Silence – Whale Sharks in India, won the Green Oscar, “Coral reefs are the first and the most prolific and sensitive ecosystem and origins of life. Global warming has killed thousands of coral reefs and many coral reefs in Lakshwadeep, Maldives and South East Asia have died because of oceans warming up.” But what about reports that Stanford University scientists have found evidence that some coral reefs are adapting and may actually survive global warming? “There are species that have adapted to climatic changes but adaptation and mutation takes millions of years. The slow adaptation cannot cope with the rapid change in environment,” maintains Mike.

There’s no denying that corals sustain livelihood, about two billion directly and three billion indirectly. They are also the breeding ground for 4500 species of fish. Reefs have died because of careless and reckless tourism. “Over thousands of fishes have been lost to Dynamite Fishing in South East Asia. A 1000 tonnes of corals and living shells are being drenched out and oiled to be sold as souvenirs every week.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Saturday, October 20, 2012

Unpolitically incorrect, Sir!

Most terrorist movements eventually wither away for they fail to replace an armed struggle with a political one

First, a Big Moose question. Who defeated the LTTE? Answer: The LTTE did! Even before the Sri Lankan Army!! Lest you start blaming the Big Moose thought process [Well, who defeated the British? The British. Who defeated Napolean? Napolean... Duh], read on to understand our take on Orwellian avatars that need not necessarily have Brad Pitt’s river running through it.

Guerilla warfare is not a new phenomenon and is not essentially another gift of the 20th century. For ages, those fighting a potent enemy have used subversive tactics to preempt and ambush erstwhile uneven contests to obtain a more even keel in which the seemingly weaker eventually turned out victor. If David proved it in fables against Goliath, then the kiddy king Robin Hood vindicated it successfully against King John. Yet, it was essentially the 20th century when guerrilla warfare, freedom struggles, armed resistance and political activism, all started getting enmeshed into one. The flowchart logic was pretty simple when faced with adversaries who weren’t necessarily Presbyterian ministers. When your ‘demands’ are not being met [and have no hopes of being met through dialogue – well, not every ruling government is British], then throw a few bombs, burn a few trains, kill a few security personnel/ruling politicians, and to add special effects, showcase a few suicide bombers. There; once you’ve got the attention of the powers that be, enter into a negotiation dialogue, grab whatever best political power you can out of the deal, and live life happily ever after as a part of the matrix. In case the ruling party reneges on the deal, go to the start of this paragraph and follow sequence to the tee.

In fact, one of the first organized armed resistances of the 20th century was the Irish movement against the British rule which led to a fierce conflict in between 1919-1921 that eventually led to the formation of Ireland while Northern Ireland remained part of the British Empire.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Friday, October 19, 2012

The Chuckling Chaebol cheats!

They ignored the potential of ‘Clean capitalism’ ; they were wrong...

Capitalists often wonder why South Korea was nicknamed the ‘Land of the Morning Calm’; there’ve been wars, invasions & power conflicts over decades… So what exactly defines ‘calm’? Alright, for being the capitalists that we are, let us overwrite the follies of the South Korean nicknamers, and move ahead… calling South Korea, the ‘Land of Chaebols’. Yes, we’re talking about those capitalist armies, represented by names like Samsung, Hyundai, LG, Daewoo, SK Corp et al, which are neck-deep into making money, but totally submerged when it comes to attaining power. Now that admixture often leads to one final potion – corruption! And that’s what this tale is all about; about their ride down the path of ‘crony capitalism’... Over the past five decades, as the South Korean economy grew like wildfire, the Chaebols too expanded, gaining great control over almost all the sectors in world economy and today, are proud about being names that control codes to many treasure boxes [or Pandora’s boxes?]. Of course, diversification was most definitely the ‘magic’ key for the Chaebols, with all the big names enjoying multiple feathers in their caps: Samsung, has 63 companies under its umbrella; LG has 51; SK Group has 62 and Hyundai Group has 9. So how did these conglomerates dare to launch a full-fledged attack on Global Inc.? The answer is simple – under the garb of ‘crony capitalism’.

This confluence of capitalism and policies became the breeding ground for ‘dark secrets and financial manipulations’ by the Chaebols. Dr. Van Jackson of the University of Maryland, who is also the global authority on East Asian History explains how Chaebols should rather be blamed for holding back the South Korean economy, and eroding away fairplay by posing two grave dangers – unstable concentration of capital & corruption. “Both these dangers scare-off risk-averse international investors, which naturally limits FDI. In this sense, it is reasonable to blame the Chaebols for ‘holding back’ the Korean economy,” he asserts.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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