Pesticides: Repel the repellents

Praise the performance of the biologically active chemicals, pesticides in helping get rid of pests, and at once stick out the hazards and risks involved in their usage and exposure. Prolonged exposure to these compounds can cause anything from irritation in the skin and eyes to muscle twitching, dizziness, vomiting, headache, diarrhoea to disruption of the nervous system, depending upon the route of entry – dermal, oral, or by inhalation of the chemical. An obnoxious stand by most viewpoints, at this juncture of the 21st century, would be to advocate a complete ban on the use of pesticides. But instead, more rational fixes are the need of the hour.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

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Indian farmers

Fortunately, the government has taken a whisper of a logical step in this year’s budget by announcing a comprehensive insurance scheme, the compensation of which will be based on weather derivatives, rather than on making tedious calculations of crop damage. But aren’t derivatives extremely miniscule currently? M. Parshad, CMD of Agricultural Insurance Company, which has been asked to carry out the scheme on a pilot basis in few states, accepted to B&E, “At the moment, weather derivatives take up only a very small fraction of the rural insurance market, but since weather derivative contracts are easier and much faster to settle, we expect it to change.” Whatever it is, it’s a great start. But the government should now focus on making such schemes compulsorily linked to all crop loans and to attach maximum number of farmers, and even other firms whose fortunes depend on weather, to it. Really, why can’t the thumb rule for Indian farmers one day change from ‘No Rain, No Gain’ to ‘No Rain, No Pain’

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

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Melting glaciers
Mercury
Slow and steady...
High potential real estate sector
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Mankind’s future under water!

It’s time to recite Coleridge “Water water everywhere, not a drop to drink….” And surely if the trend of global warming & melting of glaciers continue, ocean levels will rise and swallow up entire nations & cultures. Besides other threats of global warming, the one attracting high concern is thermal expansion of the oceans – a result of water molecules expanding in warmer temperatures, increased precipitation and melting of mountain glaciers which leads to high sea-levels. The sea-levels have been rising tremendously with a rise of over 200 meters since the end of the last ice age, and astonishingly in 20th century alone, sea levels rose 0.17 meters with predictions for the next century rise ranging from 0.18 to 0.59 metres. The brunt will be borne by low lying areas, which would be entirely submerged such as Nile Delta, Maldives and Bangladesh which will suffer great damage if and when sea level rises, as it has an extensive coastline and lies between 2 major rivers. Shrinking coastlines are being observed across the world.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

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Protocol wrongly exempted

But the same America rejected him in favour of George Bush, coincidentally (or perhaps, not so coincidentally), his chief target. Unfortunately, it’s indeed a shame that the US, which is the largest contributor to carbon emissions, has refused to take the lead in retrieving the world. Statistics clearly show how the US alone contributes to over 30% of the world’s greenhouse gases, yet Bush very conveniently backed out on his election pledge to cut down on CO2 emissions. The US asserted that capping carbon emissions is akin to slowing down economic development. Bush also reversed a ruling for mandatory reductions in CO2 emissions in electric power plants in the US. But interestingly, he refused to ratify US support to the Kyoto Protocol (Australia supported the US on this) stating that this Protocol wrongly exempted developing nations (like India & China).

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

Read More Article:-
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Ethanol

Taking the case of ethanol; its production depends on molasses obtained from sugar cane (a primary cash crop in the country). Large industries engaged in sugar production such as Balrampur Chinni, Bajaj Hindusthan& Dhampur Sugar have been busy romping up their production capacities for molasses derivation. However, the ‘ethanol’ comfort factor ends there, and you can blame the myopic government policies for the same. A spokesperson of a large western UP-based company (who requested for anonymity) flatly put it across to B&E, “We do not want to increase the production share of molasses as we hardly save anything on that at the present rates, A quintal of sugarcane yields Rs.18 for each kg of sugar, but it only gives Rs.2 for each kg of molasses obtained!” The considerable gap is demotivating for producers even though molasses is a multi-purpose ingredient in a lot of production activity.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

Diesel gets a green push

For the project pertaining to jatropha plantations, the government has made provisions of 98 million acres of arid land. Unlike other cash crops the leaves of the jatropha plants are unfit for animal consumption; therefore the yield is safe from animal grazing. Dr. Reena Singh (Area convenor & associate fellow), Centre of Mycorrhiza, TERI “As per our research, the Jatropha plantation requires atleast one irrigation annually and bio-fertilizers like Mycorrhiza. The plantation should be sustainable however” The process of oil extraction is based on jatropha seed crushing in an oil expeller rendering oil. This oil in turn is then mixed with alcohol along with a catalyst with bio-diesel and glycerine as bi-products. Extracted bio-diesel can be mixed with normal diesel bringing about oil conservation and better combustibility which results in lower emission levels. Scientists believe that bio-diesels have sustainable Cetane (equivalent of Octane) levels and thus they can be used up to 30% under normal operating conditions without evident engine damage. Furthermore, being a ‘low care’ crop, jatropha requires very little maintenance. Once the plantation is secured, it is sustainable even without the usual hoopla of proper irrigation and fertile soil. It’s not without a reason that jatropha is known as the ‘shameless plant’! Companies like DaimlerChrysler, D1 Oils & IOCL are taking active interest in this new age technology. As a matter of policy though, the government is reportedly not very keen on large scale jatropha plantations as that may lead to a cash crop status for jatropha. Critics are with the view that in an event of increased dependence on the crop as a fuel alternative, farmers could be encouraged to produce less food crops.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

Potential antagonists

Yet, such hard won success once again seems to be threatened by a creeping tendency to be ‘soft ’ with negotiators and potential antagonists. There is the nuclear deal with the United States, where Uncle Sam is steadily moving the goalposts and trying to stifle and choke India’s strategic ambitions. There is Australia that claims that it will not supply Uranium to India even if there is a nuclear deal with Uncle Sam, because India violates international nuclear weapons control regimes. There is Pakistan that continues to mollycoddle terrorists while claiming that terror camps have been shut down. Most signifycantly, there is China which brazenly announces that Arunanchal Pradesh is an integral part of the Middle Kingdom, and hence refuses to give visas to people from the state.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

Taming the Dragon

India needs to subtly tell China where to get off...
One of the most persistent – and valid – charges against the Indian state by strategic analysts, over the years, has been that it’s a ‘soft state’. According to them, India has borrowed generously from Mahatma Gandhi and transformed foreign policy into the art of turning the other cheek whenever there has been a diplomatic slap. The more adventurous and bellicose of these analysts want India to learn from Israel when it comes to an uncompromising and relentless pursuit of ‘national interests’. These pundits would have Indian troops chasing terrorists across the border into Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. Fortunately for India, that kind of jingoism has not replaced hard headed pragmatic diplomacy of the type practised over the last two decades. Along with the spectacular rise in the size and status of the Indian economy since 1991, pragmatic diplomacy, too, has earned many brownie points in the global arena.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

You've got mail... and the world's got warmer!

Consumers and industry will have to take the eWaste problem seriously, before...
Buy y a PC, plant a tree. Sure, it’s a gimmick, but as gimmicks go, it’s a good one. I didn’t see Michael Dell’s “Plant a Tree for Me” announcement at CES this year, but I was told the auditorium was pretty much empty. That’s too bad, because his programme could go a long way towards solving a serious problem. We live in a culture that never powers down, and all that power that we consume eventually takes a heavy toll on the environment we live in. From now on, whenever you buy a Dell PC, you’ll have the option of donating a few dollars towards planting new trees. And it’s not for nothing. A PC requires electricity, and generating electricity typically involves spewing a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. As Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth makes pretty clear, this is a big problem, especially for people living at sea level. New trees can off set some of those carbon emissions.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

Green is money!

...the new motto of tech-world
Suddenly, the world looks like an enlightened place, where everyone has envisaged the importance of going green. While the moral responsibility to become environment friendly should be compelling enough, it is the moolah that is in fact driving the green spirits of global IT giants. In its quest to save cash (read billions of dollars) on energy costs, IBM has recently announced its decision to invest nearly $1 billion every year in Green Technologies. Christened as “Project Green”, IBM has devised a 5 stage programme that helps IT companies save almost 42% of their data centre energy consumption.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

An eye on the future...

SAIL is looking seriously towards emerging green opportunities
Steel Authority Of India Limited (SAIL) is quite well known for its rapidly improving balance sheet year on year. The company had yet another stupendous financial year 2006-07 with a turnover of Rs.391.89 billion (growth of 21% y-o-y) & net profit after tax of Rs.62 billion (growth of 55% y-o-y). Chairman S.K. Roongta, while highlighting the inner strengths of the company further reiterated, “We (SAIL) are determined to make optimum use of our resources.” And SAIL has been quite bullish on environmentally sustainable growth for which it recently received a CSR award. In an industry like steel, eliminating pollution becomes difficult even with latest technologies. As R.Sreedhar, steel environment expert, says, “Although the SAIL Bhilai plant has won the CSR Award this year, still communities around that area continue to suffer from pollution and very little corrective action is being taken...” But the SAIL plant is doing quite a bit.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

Lenovo office in Bengaluru

A first look at the Lenovo office in Bengaluru shows a refreshing change from the serious image of IBM. The colour white (complete anti-thesis to the IBM obsession for black computers) dominates in the entire setting, and posters of the celebrity siblings & brand endorsers Saif & Soha Ali Khan adorn the walls. Ask Neeraj Sharma the key to Lenovo’s strategic objectives, and his answer is innovation. He feels Lenovo is one of the typical instances of Thomas Friedman’s ‘flat world’, as the company is successfully leveraging engineering talent across the world. Three research labs in the US, Japan & China form the heart and soul of Lenovo’s R&D. The American lab works on Think advantage technologies, the Japanese lab for notebook innovations, while the Chinese lab is focused on desktop engineering. This is termed as the ‘innovation triangle’ of Lenovo.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

Tax Holidays !

If you have a few million rupees to spare and want to avoid the tax man, buying a wind mill might be a good idea. The craze for alternative sources of energy has ensured that a businessman can generate electricity in a wind farm and pay absolutely zilch as income or corporate tax. This has led to many controversies and run ins with the tax man. Even Suzlon has been paid a visit or two by income tax sleuths. The Chennai based Kemkas and the NEPC group they manage, was notorious during the 1990s for perceived abuse of liberal tax laws to create ‘mythical’ wind mills. Wind farms were also associated with the bitter controversy involving Tata Finance, when the erstwhile close aide of Ratan Tata, Dilip Pendse was accused of fraud.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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