Friday, October 31, 2008

The gurus on their wheels

Clubbing, picnicking or off-roading, here’s what the experts advise...
Here’s a Murad for wheels...

Clubbing: I’d say a high end BMW or a Mercedes C- Class will be a good choice to go clubbing in. A sporty Audi, BMW 6 series, or a Mercedes SLK, can do wonders as they’re a reflection of your personality and will help you to leave a good impression.
Rush hour: Hyundai i10 is perfect for city traffic because it is small on the outside and big from inside. It’s truly the best in its class.
Date: An SUV such as a BMW X5 or X3, Mercedes M class, or a Prado would be good picks for going on a date. Amongst the more affordable ones Honda CRV, Ford Endeavour or a Scorpio are also good.
Off-roading: Tough cars like Toyota Land Cruiser and Land Rover, Pajero are quite genuine choices.
Picnic: One needs a big, spacious car to put in loads of things that people carry on picnics, so, a Scorpio is the right car for a picnic with friends or family.

An SUV such as a BMW X5 or X3, Mercedes M class, or a Prado would be good picks for going on a date. Amongst the more affordable ones Honda CRV, Ford Endeavour or a Scorpio are also good.
Murad Ali Baig Auto Expert

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Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
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'This is one of Big B's best performances'
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
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The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
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The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs


Thursday, October 23, 2008

From Prague Spring to the Velvet Revolution

The Polish and Czech opposition movements had their roots in the events of 1968

What was the Prague Spring, or the events of 1968 more generally? Their meaning, it seems, has become more, not less, debatable with the passage of time. My generation was forged by protests & police truncheons, by the hopes generated not only by the Prague Spring, but also by the Polish student movement that March, the Paris events of May, and first signs of Russian democracy voiced in the early books of Sakharov & Solzhenitsyn. For those of us imprisoned in Poland, the Prague Spring was a harbinger of hope.

So I remember my shock when I learned about the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August, and the trauma that lingered long after. On the tenth anniversary of that invasion, Václav Havel, Jacek Kuron, and I, along with other dissidents, met on the Czech-Polish border. These encounters were an extension of the climate of the Prague Spring. We all felt that we were creating something new, something that might, one day, turn out to be an important component of democracy in our countries.

And so it was. In August 1989, I proposed in the Polish Diet a draft resolution apologising to the Czechs & Slovaks for Polish involvement in the 1968 invasion. I felt that a historical circle was being closed: the ideas of the Polish March and the Prague Spring, the ideas of our mountain meetings, were becoming political facts. Three months later, the Velvet Revolution began in Prague.

The main difference between the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution was that the former was mostly the work of Communist Party members and others who wanted to bring about “socialism with a human face.” As a result, some people dismiss the Prague Spring as a power struggle between communists. Communism was attractive for the idea of universal justice & humanised social relations; a response to the great spiritual crisis after World War I and, later, to the Nazis’ genocide; and the conviction that Western dominance of the world was nearing its end.

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Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

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'This is one of Big B's best performances'
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
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The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
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India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Doc, you overestimated my AIDS

Many other chronic diseases have been neglected due to an AIDS focus


If missing estimates could ever be good news, then here is one. The World has failed to meet (luckily) the UN’s estimate of 40 million AIDS patient by the year 2007 and settled with only 33 million. But then, this also opens up a debate - are we not overspending on AIDS? If one were to see the return on investment (ROI), the outcome in case of AIDS is not very encouraging as compared to other diseases. AIDS is the 19th most invested area in the world, but the number of successful attempts to find a cure are negligible. Also, while the highest number of AIDS cases are found in sub-Saharan Africa, facilities to prevent the deadly disease hardly reach to the needy people out there. Besides, the UN has itself admitted that it overestimated the increase in AIDS cases especially in countries like China, India and Russia. The numbers were recalculated after discrepancies were found in the method of calculation. The updated figures turned out to be far less than previous estimates.

If one were to go by the UN estimates then these countries would have been down on their knees. But nothing like that has happened. Kevin M. De Cock, MD, director of the WHO Department of HIV/AIDS was quoted as saying that there is least chances that there will be a a heterosexual epidemic in countries outside Africa.

On the other hand, a report by WHO suggests that in the next decade 350 million people would die of chronic diseases like heart diseases, diabetes, cancer et al. However, most of these diseases have been overlooked by governments so far and are thus causing higher rates of death. In such a scenario, it makes more sense to give some more thought and investment to other diseases instead of concentrating on AIDS mindlessly.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
'This is one of Big B's best performances'
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
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IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
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The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Monday, October 20, 2008

5 more months & Elvis leaves!!!

January 20, 2009, Bush leaves the White House; but before that, he ‘updates’ the ‘official’ US terrorists list
It’s called the US National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC). The NCTC “serves as the primary organization in the US government for integrating and analysing all intelligence pertaining to terrorism.” And it has become the latest weapon in the comic armoury of George Bush’s theatre of absurdities. Not that till now Mr. Bush had underplayed the NCTC’s role – more of that later – but of critical current interest is the fact that the NCTC has a list of an estimated 3,25,000 people all across world who pose “serious threats” to US security. Experts estimate now that US nationals form less than approximately 1% of these teeming numbers.

If that was enough to raise eyebrows, what brought out the total shallowness of the NCTC’s list was the amusing attempt by the US government last month to update the list! Most hilariously, on the eve of Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday, his name was officially removed from the US terror list. Incidentally, this was done almost 15 years after this legend won a Nobel Peace Prize. If the list prepared by NCTC is to be believed, the 90 year old Nelson Mandela who has played the most important role in getting South Africa free from the draconian clutches of apartheid, has posed serious threats to US internal security for the past so many years.

Shallow is what shallow gets! And if ‘threat to internal security’ is the debate, then anything goes, whether in war or in business! The US has made it a norm to take recourse to this ‘threat to internal security’ as a reason to even block key business deals. When CNOOC, a subsidiary of CNPC (China National Petroleum Corporation) bid for the US based petroleum giant Unocal, the US House of Representatives approved the Resolution No 344, which gave the US President the authority to review the deal keeping US strategic interests in mind. The key points of the resolution, as stated in a policy paper of CATO Institute by James A. Dorn, states that if Unocal gets taken over, this “would result in the strategic assets of Unocal Corporation being preferentially allocated to China by the Chinese government.” That then “would weaken the ability of the US to influence the oil and gas supplies of the Nation through companies that must adhere to United States laws.” The CNOOC deal therefore threatens “to impair the national security,” and “the President should initiate immediately a thorough review of the proposed acquisition, merger, or takeover.” From Dubai Ports to Singapore’s Temasek, all investments by foreign countries have faced similar opposition in the US.

Clearly, when the US drains out oil from Iraq, then it’s not a problem the Pope should worry about, but if some other country goes in for a legal acquisition of a powerful US company, then Nostradamus inferences are redrawn to ensure that such moves are nipped even before the bud is born. If Iran is the latest to face the brunt of Mr.Bush’s rottweiler-like attitude – who wants the world to stop trading with Iran completely – what is not often told is the fact that there are several Israeli companies, like Medent [quoting Steve Rodan, Jerusalem Post Service] who do brisk business running up to hundreds of millions of dollars at the same time with Iran.

Bush might be leaving on January 20, 2009; but has ensured that NCTC stays in absolutely safe hands. The current NCTC Director, Michael E Leiter, is pretty well qualified. One hears that just a few handful of years back, Mr. ‘well qualified’ Leiter served as the Dy General Counsel and Assistant Director of the US President’s Commission on “US Intelligence Capabilities Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction!” Gotcha Elvis!!! Rock on!!!

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Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

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'This is one of Big B's best performances'
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
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IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
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IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Automotive concepts

An artist’s impression of how aerodynamic ‘things on wheels’ can be...

ASTON MARTIN AMV 10

This is what the Ferrari 599 GTB bashing Aston looks like. The V10 powered supercar features all aluminium construction and could follow the four door Rapide’ in the near future.


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Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
'This is one of Big B's best performances'
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Friday, October 17, 2008

High inflation is a temporary phenomenon

B&E: Still only a small portion of the population invests in MFs. So, with such huge potential remaining untapped in the market, what do you intend to do? Kurian: We are continuously doing investment education programmes. Thanks to you media people also! All the 35 members promote knowledge. They keep on doing campaigns. There is expansion in terms of branches, recruiting & empanelling more distributors. Six years ago we took this initiative to prescribe a course for distributors. One who goes up to you, has to be knowledgeable. So fund houses are working on new products, new delivery system, new service system & new methods of reaching people.

B&E: How do you view domestic mutual fund industry vis-Ă -vis the global one?
Kurian: In terms of regulation, standards, transparency, disclosure, service, quality, time and delivery we are well up with international standards. There are areas in which we do lack.

B&E: But then the market penetration is much more globally!
Kurian: Yes, because they are small countries, they started early and we started in 1993, we have been here just for 15 years. Before that, there was only UTI and other public sector MFs.

B&E: Tell us something about the dual role of AMFI and SEBI in this sector.
Kurian: We are complimentary to each other. We are the eyes, ears and voice of the industry. We see, we hear and we speak. We provide SEBI our inputs – we study what’s happening elsewhere in the world, we study and understand what is required for our country. Just to cite an example, the offer document which was previously a 140 page book is now a much smaller, more meaningfully complied and readable.
B&E: At times one has found certain discrepancies between the data sources of SEBI and AMFI. How do you explain this discrepancy?
Kurian: No, no! There is no discrep- ancy at all. In the past, there might have been some but today it is not there for several months now.

B&E: Over the years, how has the Indian investor perception towards mutual funds evolved?
Kurian: People have realised that they need to look at capital market. They cannot remain in the traditional mode of investing only in a bank.

B&E: A lot of investors have seen their NAVs erode significantly in the last few months and this has really disillusioned the retail investor. In the aftermath of this, what is your advice to them?
Kurian: If one is a long-term investor, then this is the right time for him to invest. By long term I mean 3-5 years and beyond. The Indian growth story is strong and sustainable not only for 1-2 years, not for 5-10 years but for decades to come. That is the reality of our country. High inflation is only a current phenomenon. There cannot be zero inflation & 8-9% growth. It cannot be either or. It is a complement & we must accept that.

B&E: What’s next for the Indian mutual fund industry? What can the market expect from AMFI in the coming days?
Kurian: We expect high growth to sustain over a long number of years.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
'This is one of Big B's best performances'
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Thursday, October 16, 2008

No more ‘Bliss’leri...

For its new businesses, Bisleri will have to do aggressive advertising
It was almost 15 years ago when Ramesh Chauhan, Chairman, Bisleri international Pvt. Ltd. sold his well-established brands including Thums-up, Limca and Maaza (a part of Parle Group then) to the Coca-Cola Company. It was a move that Chauhan himself regrets, but he honestly names it a necessity at that point of time for the company.

Cut to the present, and Chauhan seems to be in aggressive expansion mode yet again, since he is set to launch a series of beverages including health drinks and flavoured water (by the end of this year). Certainly a diversification is knocking on the company’s door after a long time. But the million dollar question is will it work this time? “We are very much interested in entering the market of health drinks; it has an enormous potential to grow in the country,” Chauhan shares with B&E. No doubt, Bisleri is the clear market leader in the bottled water industry in India with more than 60% of the market share in the organised market. But this alone won’t promise him success in his new venture. Chauhan will have to go for a head-on competition with brands like Dabur Real, Tropicana & Gatorade (Co), Minute Maid (from Coca-Cola), Appy Fizz and Frooti. However, to its credit, there is a huge difference between the funds available to Bisleri today and in 1993. But Tushar Bhattacharya, Senior Economist, FICCI states, “If Chauhan wants to indeed be successful in these new markets that he is planning to enter, he will have to take the route of massive advertising and sales promotion.” The catch is that Bisleri is not exactly known as a great advertiser, which is attributed by analysts as possible complacency due to overwhelming market leadership.

No doubt, the company has been working on this venture for almost three years. But then to survive in today’s competitive world, Bisleri will have to develop strong expertise in branding for these new products. Building new brands in this hugely competitive drinks market will be tough, so ideally, Bisleri should be going for a brand extension; which makes it all the more important for this leopard to change its spots and ramp up its advertising budgets significantly.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
'This is one of Big B's best performances'
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The New Colonialists

Only a motley group of aid agencies, international charities, and philanthropists stands between some of the world’s most dysfunctional states and collapse. But for all the good these organisations do, their largesse often erodes governments’ ability to stand up on their own. The result: a vicious cycle of dependence and too many voices calling the shots
Even on their best days, the world’s failed states are difficult to mistake for anything but tragic examples of countries gone wrong. A few routinely make the headlines – Somalia, Iraq, Congo. But alongside their brand of extreme state dysfunction exists an entirely separate, easily missed class of states teetering on the edge. In dozens of countries, corrupt or feeble governments are proving themselves dangerously incapable of carrying out the most basic responsibilities of statehood. These countries – nations such as Botswana, Cambodia, Georgia, and Kenya – might appear to be recovering, even thriving, developing countries, but like their failed-state cousins, they are increasingly unable and perhaps unwilling, to fulfill the functions that have long defined what it means to be a state.

What – or who – is keeping these countries from falling into the abyss? Not so long ago, former colonial masters and superpower patrons propped them up. Today, however, the thin line that separates weak states from truly failed ones is manned by a hodgepodge of international charities, aid agencies, philanthropists, and foreign advisors. This armada of nonstate actors has become a powerful global force, replacing traditional donors’ and governments’ influence in poverty-stricken, war-torn world capitals. And as a measure of that influence, they are increasingly taking over key state functions, providing for the health, welfare, and safety of citizens. These private actors have become the “new colonialists” of the 21st century. In much the same way European empires once dictated policies across their colonial holdings, the new colonialists – among them international development groups such as Oxfam, humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like Doctors Without Borders, faith-based organisations such as Mercy Corps, and mega philanthropies like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – direct development strategies and craft government policies for their hosts. But though the new colonialists are the glue holding society together in many weak states, their presence often deepens the dependency of these states on outsiders. They unquestionably fill vital roles, providing lifesaving healthcare, educating children, and distributing food in countries where the government can’t or won’t. But, as a consequence, many of these states are failing to develop the skills necessary to run their countries effectively, while others fall back on a global safety net to escape their own accountability. Have the new colonialists gone too far in attempting to manage responsibilities that should be those of governments alone? And given the dependency they have nurtured, can the world afford to let them one day walk away?

A shift of money and power

Dependency is not a new phenomenon in the world’s most destitute places. But as wealthy governments have lost their appetite for the development game, the new colonialists have filled the breach. In the year 1970, seven of every 10 dollars given by the United States to the developing world came from official development assistance (ODA). Today, ODA is a mere 15% of such flows, with the other 85% coming from private capital flows, remittances, and NGO contributions. Nor is this trend strictly an American phenomenon. In the year 2006, total aid to the developing world from countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) amounted to $325 billion. Just a third of that sum came from governments.

The expanding budgets of humanitarian NGOs are indicative of the power shift taking place. During the 1990s, the amount of aid flowing through NGOs in Africa, rather than governments, more than tripled. Spending by the international relief and development organisation CARE has jumped 65% since 1999, to $607 million last year. Save the Children’s budget has tripled since 1998; Doctors Without Borders’ budget has doubled since 2001; & Mercy Corps’ expenditures have risen nearly 700% in a decade.

The shift is equally apparent on the receiving end. When aid reaches developing countries, it increasingly bypasses the host governments altogether, often going straight into the coffers of the new colonialists on the ground. In 2003, the USAID Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance distributed two thirds of its budget through NGOs rather than affected governments. Between 1980 and 2003, the amount of aid from OECD countries channeled through NGOs grew from $47 million to more than $4 billion. One reason for the shift is the growing reluctance of rich countries to route aid through corrupt foreign officials. That definitely has created an increasing reliance on new colonialists to deliver assistance and produce the desired results.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
'This is one of Big B's best performances'
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

The VP’s a Dick

Of Mark Twain, ‘Negros’ & VPs...
Yes, we know. It just seems we’re on a US bashing spree. But one final time, do allow us :-) The fear of censorship on books is increasingly having a firm footing in this so called free society. On the one hand is the freedom of speech and freedom of expression, whereas on the other, it is right of the parents to protect their children from obscenity, racism and other prohibited topics. While there are strict guidelines for US regulatory boards to take decisions after evaluating the ‘books’, controversies keep happening.

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is one such classic embroiled within the controversy. The repeated use of the word ‘Negro’ in the classic has seen virulent objections from African-American communities. While the teaching community has tried to justify Twain’s work on its literary value, the naysayers say that by that legitimacy, even Hitler’s concepts would qualify as quite ‘literary’ in comparison. So should ‘Negro’ be erased from Finn? Well, to take a stand on this issue, one would just need to understand that there’s a man called Richard Bruce Cheney who is still the Vice President of the United States. Yes, you got it! ‘Dick’ is what everybody calls him. And ‘Dick’ is what he’ll be called years henceforth...

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
'This is one of Big B's best performances'
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Monday, October 13, 2008

Will their judgement prove right?

And indeed, Wireless LAN or WiMAX is another area from which Cisco India has a lot of expectations from. It even acquired Navini Networks, Inc. – leader in the Mobile WiMAX 802.16e-2005 broadband wireless industry. Wadhwa very confidently says that, “through this acquisition, we are looking at expansion in the WiMAX area and wireless market in a very big way.” However, Gartner, in its report, cautions that India will remain a niche market for this technology until 2009. Naresh Singh, Principal Research Analyst, Gartner says, “By January 2008, India had only 3.4 million broadband subscribers, far short of the target of 9 million by 2007 set by the broadband policy. Given the low levels of PC penetration in India, there will be a limited demand for WiMAX and the country-specific mobile broadband framework makes a nationwide rollout of WiMAX cost prohibitive."

As Wadhwa admits, penetration is the key challenge. Cisco decisively leads the Indian market in routing and switching with 84.08% share in routers and 75.14% share in switches (Q4 CY2007 IDC LAN Tracker). In terms of advanced technologies, it has a share of 21.1% in WLAN (Q4 CY 2007, IDC), 46.83% in security, 13.4% in Enterprise Telephony and 19.6% in IP PBX (Q4 CY 2007, Frost & Sullivan). So it is nicely poised, despite intense competition from Avaya (leader in Enterprise Telephony), Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nortel, Fujitsu and Huwaei; apart from Japanese, Chinese,

Taiwanese and South Korean companies trying to make their foray. But the potential has to be tapped intelligently. Dhavse from Frost & Sullivan recommends a more vertical -based strategy. Taking the example of the Banking & Financial services sector, he states, "If we apply for a loan, wherein we submit the application in Delhi, the expert sits in Chennai and the decision regarding loan sanction needs to be taken in Mumbai. Through UC, this entire process can be made much faster and simpler and Cisco can leverage such strategies." There is also the feeling that such tools will prove handy only to large organisations and not SMBs, especially where the organisation is not widely scattered geographically.

To counter the challenge, Cisco has been adopting internal changes over the past 4 months. They are focusing both on going deeper into existing accounts & expanding into the territory. The second aspect is going upcountry, i.e. increasing spread across cities. Cisco has divided the country into four zones and then going deeper and wider. Besides, they have also set up a team that goes into market making, which evaluates latent potential. For instance, they would be looking at sunrise industry or industries where there has been a sudden de-regulation.

Ultimately its dominant position in India gives Cisco the confidence to focus its ''eagle eye'' on penetrating a challenging market with its futuristic technologies, which look like shooting in the dark currently. But surely, the scenario can change very fast and many more ''sunrise'' opportunities can spring up. In all probability; Cisco will be ready and waiting with a game-plan each time.

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IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
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Saturday, October 11, 2008

Kemal’s secular fundamentalists

Turkey is increasingly being pushed towards a new kind of extremism
When Mustafa Kemal Ataturk established modern Turkey, he envisioned a nation free from all kinds of fundamentalism, including “Islamism” and “Turkishness”. Perhaps he never knew 90 years hence, some of his followers will push it towards a completely different kind of fundamentalism, best described as militant secularism. In what may seriously damage political stability in West Asia, secularists or Kemalists, as they are called, are in the advance stages of banning the ruling party!

The ruling party's decision to lift a ban on female students wearing the Muslim headscarf at universities was seen as a catalyst for the closure case, the indictment for which is packed with references to the headscarf. A couple of months ago, the Constitutional Court had accepted a case by the Court of Appeals’ Chief Prosecutor, who sought closure of the AK Party.Appeal’s chief prosecutor also wants as many as 71 members of the AK party banned–that includes President Abdullah GĂĽl and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan–over charges of “breaching Turkey's constitution by supporting Islamist activities.” Senior members of the AK party believe odds are staked heavily against them as most of the 11 Judges hearing the case represent the secular intellectual strata that sees AK as a threat to Kemal’s legacy. Nevertheless experts want to differ. “On what base is the court bearing in mind the closure: a compendium of anecdotes from the unfriendly press? The case is so dubious it is tough to envisage that even the staunchest Kemalists take it at face value,” says Mark R. Parris, a retired career diplomat and an expert at the Brookings Institution’s Turkey Project, while talking to B&E.

AK party has pinned hope on the European Union (EU) to mediate and defuse the matter. EU on its part has criticised the case, saying that the kind of charges raised by the chief prosecutor should be debated in Parliament, not courts

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IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
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'This is one of Big B's best performances'
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Friday, October 10, 2008

Bruce Willis, damn!

The lack of a central anti-terror agency is hitting some countries too hard
Alright, beat this question! What’s common between Italy & Germany? Of course, they have some of the world’s most fanatical extremist outfits – Germany has the Baader-Meinhof gang, while Italy has the infamous Red Brigade – but more importantly & unbelievably so, these two nations [like many other developed nations] have not had even one terrorist attack in the past many years! And even the ones that have happened, have been one-off, unlike countries like India, where terrorist acts are almost monthly, if not weekly, in strife-torn areas.

How have these countries achieved this? By using a straightforward strategy – make sure that a central intelligence mechanism of the nation state is able to neutralise the elements even before their terror plans get executed. While everyone acknowledges the need for a central anti-terror agency, it has been witnessed that some countries, like USA [where FBI, CIA, NSA, DEA all operate on different intelligence platforms – one reason why, experts say, 9/11 happened] and India [with CBI, EOW, CID etc...] were quite unwilling to accept such a proposition. While in the US, the different agencies yielded too much individual power, the case in India has been quite promiscuous – for example, if, say, police intelligence comes under Central control, state ministers would worry that they themselves would come under scrutiny!

But things have been changing. In USA, post 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security was formed to integrate all the activities of internal security; further, the effort was termed a “national strategy” rather than “federal” to ensure individual states do not feel their agencies are being taken over by Central rule. Russia today consists of 21 republics, 46 federal provinces [oblasts] and nine territories [krias]. One would be surprised to know that each of the 21 republics under the Russian federation even have their own Constitution. Yet, when it comes to terrorism, Russia has often been harsher than even the US.

One still well remembers what happened in the Beslan school terror attack where more than a thousand students were made hostage by a Chechen rebel group, or the Moscow Theatre crisis where more than 700 hostages were taken by similar guerrillas. The special anti-terror force called OSNAZ of FSB, the Russian version of FBI, did what it had to do, without worrying about short-term implications [that is, they killed most of the rebels without negotiating]. Though it can be argued whether this was an intelligent move, the fact is, in cases of national security, individual states take second place.

Ireland, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Australia, Denmark and many others have wiped themselves clean of terror attacks. The case is surely ripe for setting up similar central agencies even in countries like India. So has India moved ahead? We hear they can’t even decide on a central active commander for their defence forces (who continues to be the non-executive titular head, the President), what to talk about their intelligence agencies. What’re they waiting for? We know the answer – Bruce ‘Die Hard’ Willis! He always ends up saving the world!

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Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
'This is one of Big B's best performances'
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
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IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

“A driving force...”

B&E: With younger generations embracing western management styles, will the Chaebols mend their ways?

MO: One of the interesting points of the present large business groups in the emerging markets is that, while family ownership is firmly maintained, the management of the group companies is undertaken by professional managers. Considering the well-known principle of division of “ownership” and “management” in modern large enterprises theoretically, it is not a big contradiction. It is true that Chaebol’s management style is changing. The transparency and accountability of listed companies is highly necessitated by the business society in present Korea. However, the core of the Chaebol system, the central ownership of single family and their strong influence in the management decision, in particular in investment, still remains pretty much the same, and hidden in the multi-layered ownership structure with many unlisted holding companies.

B&E: Are the Chaebols holding back the Korean economy?

MO: I don’t think so. The small and medium enterprises in Korea are basically weak when compared to Japan or Taiwan, and they have been always the large business groups that have led Korean industrial upgradation. Large business groups maintain the economic development of Korea as the main driving force. If the growth rate of large business groups falls down, the rate of Korean GDP will also decline. But that is different from saying that large business groups are holding back the whole economy.

B&E: Will the Samsung scandal herald the end of Chaebol’s grip on South Korean economy?

MO: I don’t agree with the idea. The scandal of Samsung in these few years is essentially, in my understanding, not led by economic reasons, but by the political necessity to scapegoat the most prominent wealth producer in Korea (such abnormal degree of wealth concentration to a single entity will hardly happen again). And considering the critical importance of Samsung to Korea, it’s unbelievable that the government & jurisdiction will drive it into a corner in a real sense.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
'This is one of Big B's best performances'
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs