Overhaul the intelligence set-up

Our agencies should have a more organic relationship

India faces complex security challenges, which have the potential to derail its economic and social progress. But there does not seem to be any broad-based exercise to reform the country’s intelligence apparatus and make it more pro-active and in line with the pursuit of the nation’s internal and external policies. Whatever piecemeal restructuring has been attempted from time to time, have mostly been crisis-driven and not a comprehensive needs-based attempt to address the structural flaws in the intelligence set-up. So even while we have been eviscerating our intelligence institutions over the decades, the recent attempts to ‘monitor’, ‘coordinate’ and ‘oversee’ this largely dysfunctional apparatus have only created even more layer upon layer of meta-institutions.

Let's take the example of some of those countries which are known for their intelligence-gathering prowess. The UK has just one intelligence agency, the MI-5 that oversees both internal and external intelligence operations. France has four and China one (Ministry of State Security). The US has the highest number of investigation agencies among the developed nations, but even its overall number does not exceed 15. In contrast, India has more than 25 internal and external intelligence agencies -- most have been found of working at cross-purposes instead of complementing each other. As a result, despite their numbers, Indian intelligence is proving to be the soft underbelly of the country with each agency functioning in self-created silos.

The failure of our intelligence agencies to provide for real-time intelligence and advance warnings of developing situations cannot be overstated. But this can happen only by sharing and using multiple databases, including those maintained by the National Intelligence Grid, NATGRID, the Crimes and Criminal Tracking Network and System, CCTNS, and the Intelligence Bureau-run intelligence sharing hub, the Multi-Agency Centre, MAC. Instead, what we get is nebulous intelligence analysis provided by the different agencies that are often in the dark about the investigations carried out by their peer agencies. The sorry outcome of this kind of haphazard sleuthing is that Indian intelligence agencies have time and again failed to perform by producing meaningful, actionable and timely internal and external intelligence.

Even in those cases, where Indian intelligence apparatus has succeeded in busting terror and espionage rings, it has not been able to provide accurate information which could be developed into concrete evidence that stands judicial scrutiny (as was the case with MI-5’s unearthing of the plot to blow-up trans-Atlantic flights over American cities).

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

Crimes of endearment

As Coalgate rocks India, an inside account of Jharia-Dhanbad reveals just how high the stakes are. Anando Bhakto reports

The nondescript houses in coalfields and the roofless, dilapidated collieries dotting the dusty landscape of Jharia-Dhanbad in Jharkhand, the country’s mineral rich belt, give you no clue that this could be the breeding ground of 24x7 scams involving hundreds of crores of rupees made right under the nose of the administration, often with its connivance.

How does the racket work? Since it is dangerous in open cast mines to dig coals beyond prescribed limits, the Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) and CIL (Coal India Ltd) do not mine after a point and it is here that illegalities begin.

According to estimates, there are over 2,000 open cast mines in Jharkhand. The coal mafia employs labourers, sometimes those working for coal companies, and then smuggle coal through an organised and elaborate network of cycle carriers.

Apparently, everyone knows. ``Illegal mining and its transport in Jharkhand have become a booming racket for the mafia to reap in huge chunks of black money. This involves everybody, from top officials of the BCCL to the police and politicians,” candidly admits Niraj Singh, Dhanbad Deputy Mayor.

According to information provided by the Ministry of Coal to the Standing Committee of Coal and Steel in 2010, there are 49 illegal mining sites. They include Katras, Baroda, Govindpur, Sijua, Kusunda, Kustore, Bastacolla, Lodna, EJ Area and Chach Victoria under the BCCL.

Coal companies seem to be hand in gloves with the mafia. What else can explain why they do not fill voids created after mining by way of sand stowing, an obligatory duty under the Mine Closure Plan - thus paving the way for illegal mining of coal?

Despite the Ministry of Coal admitting the presence of predominant illegal mining sites in eastern regions before its own Standing Committee, no definitive government study has so far been conducted to assess financial losses suffered by exchequer. And there is a good reason why – the losses are enormous.

Interestingly, the Jharkhand government did instruct Jamshedpur-based Xavier Labour Research Institute (XLRI) to conduct a study with a limited reference point. Says Professor Tata L Raguram, the man behind the study, “The study we did was on small scale, artisanal coal extraction and cycle-based coal supply chains that operate in coal tracts of Jharkhand. The study did not trace large scale illegal coal operations.”

Even so, their findings were alarming. It revealed that 1.37 million tons of coal (estimated to be worth Rs 207 crores) is mined from abandoned sites around Jharkhand every year. Experts mention that due to this the exchequer in the state suffers an annual loss of Rs 34 crore as royalty per annum. What would be the magnitude of revenue losses caused by this organised coal racket? In the lack of any definitive study, such losses are neither assessed nor any attempts made to make changes appropriately.

In view of the XLRI findings, the Standing Committee accused responsible officials of “either indifference or too scared to stop the menace.”

Such is the dominance of the coal mafia that the transport of coal and coke by unlicensed cycles is a regular sight on the Ranchi-Hazaribagh road: there are a total of 616 FIRs which have been lodged in Ramgarh, the sub-divisional headquarters.

Cases against illegal coal operators can be lodged by anyone, government officials or coal companies. Then there are major security lapses at many points when coal is transported from mines to railway sidings. Observed the Standing Committee, “The complicity of some insiders of coal companies with the coal mafia cannot be ruled out… Generally large chunks of coal are thrown off from uncovered wagons and trucks along their routes.” Just one sign of this malignancy.

Add to it vast amounts of illegal monies made by the mafia in loading and transport of coal. According to Deputy Mayor Singh, one lakh ton coal is transported everyday, of which 20,000 tonnes are transported by road on trucks and 80,000 ton by railways. “While Rs 160 per ton is charged for loading of coal to be transported by road, only Rs 80 is paid to labourers who are hired on contractual basis. The remaining Rs 80 goes unaccounted. This means in loading 20,000 tons of coal, around Rs 16 lakh worth of black money is generated everyday. The first part goes to the police who, understandably, refrain from taking any action against culpable parties. The second goes to ‘babus’ in collieries, the third to middle men controlling labourers and the fourth part to conniving officers in BCCL,’’ alleges Singh.

Significantly, contractual labour is prohibited in the coal industry. The BCCL which in 2005 had sought exemption from the Labour and the Coal Ministry to outsource labourers, has not abolished the contract system even though exemption ended in 2010.

It is common knowledge in Jharia that a sizeable part of the money to be paid as wages to labourers is swindled by a closely knit group of coal mafia and officials. “While outsourcing labourers, the least the BCCL could do is to credit their wages directly to their bank accounts, thus ending any scope of foul play. Why do they insist on paying in cash?” questions Deepak Dutta, member of Jharia Coal Field Bachao Samiti (JCFBS).

Then comes in an essential ingredient of the coal industry – the rangdari tax or extortion. According to a dealer at Rajapur colliery at Katras Mod, who naturally prefers anonymity,  anything between Rs 1000 to Rs 3000 is taken for every truck by bahubalis (muscle-men) who work for mafias.

“This works out substantially on a daily basis as there are about 1,300 trucks engaged in transporting coal,” Datta told this magazine.

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

After Modi, who?

If the Gujarat Chief Minister moves to Delhi after 2014, there are a number of contenders for his job in the state but for the moment, they are quiet. Arnold Christie draws up a list

In the throes of his victorious Long March more than six decades ago, China’s great helmsman Mao Tse Dung was richly aphoristic “a great revolution requires a great party and many first rate cadres to guide it… we must purposefully train lakhs of cadres and hundreds of first rate mass leaders…….,” he said.

What he said about revolutionary principles applies to political parties in a parliamentary democracy – a well organised cadre is a sine qua non for a party seeking to broaden its base and stay afloat.

But trust Narendra Modi to turn things on their head. Such has been his dominance in Gujarat in the course of his decade-long rule there that there has been virtually no need for an organised cadre or second-in-command. No leader can claim proximity to the BJP strongman, who is tipped as one of the strong contenders for being Prime Minister when the country goes to elections in 2014. The main question on every Gujarati lip is this: who will succeed Modi in the state in the eventuality of his elevation to Delhi? While there are several claimants to his legacy, no one is willing to hedge their bets – as yet – as most of them are too fragile to get into Modi’s bad books.

Political analysts say that in 2001, when Modi took over the reins of Gujarat BJP, his overall attempt was to cut down to size any opposition from the BJP ranks. Slowly, but steadily, powerful Gujarat BJP leaders were defanged: Keshubhai Patel and Suresh Mehta were left rudderless, Haren Pandya was mysteriously murdered while powerful backward leader Kashiram Rana passed away, leaving the field open for Modi. Today, former chief ministers Keshubhai Patel and Suresh Mehta are not even part of BJP. After demolishing the first line of BJP leadership, there is only the second line of BJP cadres left in the state who are quite willing to do Modi's bidding.
While there are a youthful bunch of BJP leaders in the fray like Nitin Patel, Amit Shah, Purushottam Rupala, R C Faldu and Saurabh Patel, they lack Narendra Modi’s charisma and gumption.

While there is a lot of gossip on who could succeed Modi, the Gujarat Chief Minister has everyone, including members of his kitchen cabinet, guessing. None of the leaders mentioned wants a mass base of his or hers own - they would rather be close to Modi.

Such a situation suits the Gujarat Chief Minister who has deliberately created this confusion so that his iron grip on the state remains even if the NDA loses. In three consecutive assembly elections, he has proved that without him the Gujarat BJP cannot win the state. The deliberate posturing of being a one-man army has proved beneficial; it is not the BJP but Modi who is a box-office hit. So far, all speculation has centred on Anandiben Patel, said to be the unofficial second-in-command of Gujarat BJP and also Modi’s successor if he moves to the centre. Insiders in the state BJP say that Modi has been grooming Anandiben to take over from him.


An indication of that has come in the way she has conducted meetings and even presided over portfolios which are not under her jurisdiction. For instance, unofficially, Anandiben has guided the destinies of the party over the significant poll issue of the Narmada Dam project in a drought-stricken Gujarat.

But health may not be on side of 71-year-old Anandiben. In which case, Modi favourite Saurabh Patel – a MBA from US - can consider himself in the run. Saurabh’s ministerial responsibilities of energy, finance, industries, petrochemicals and minerals and civil aviation give him a direct line to the country’s biggest corporate houses.

With both Patels as his closest lieutenants, Modi has in a sense, secured both his past and the future. With key aide Amit Shah entangled in encounter cases,  Modi has been keen to promote 54-year-old Saurabh Patel. He was reportedly instrumental in getting Saurabh a `safe’ seat during the 2012 assembly elections.

Another possible contender is former Finance Minister Vajubhai Vala, the man who holds the record of presenting the state budget 14 times and his successor Nitin Patel. Nitin, a Patel leader from Mehsana, is also in Modi’s good books and holds important portfolios like health, medical education, family welfare and transport. These days, he is the unofficial representative of the Gujarat government on places where Modi cannot make it.

Member of Parliament Purushottam Rupala too is said to be in the race but recent developments in BJP’s internal politics indicate that Rupala is out because of differences with Modi on allotting seats during the assembly elections. They say that Rupala’s non-inclusion in the new Team Rajnath in Delhi is a sign of this changing equation.

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

Book Review: Sunshine Lanes

Words worth the weight

A poetic journey indeed! There aren’t too many contemporary Hindi film lyricists who can legitimately lay claims to being a poet to boot. Prasoon Joshi’s Gulzar-like portrait on the cover of this book, the right temple of a pair of spectacles dangling from a corner of the mouth completes the pensive image of a man who has successfully steered clear of the crassly commercial aspects of his calling and survived to tell the tale.

Sunshine Lanes – A Poetic Journey, which was formally launched at the Jaipur Literature Festival earlier this year, is a collection of some of Joshi’s best songs, printed here in the Devanagari script with the English translations alongside. Each lyric has a story behind it, which explicated in the writer’s own words.

The book, which also includes some non-film compositions and poems, provides an insight into the overall creative process of lyric-writing, besides specific anecdotal details about Joshi’s professional interactions with frequent collaborators like AR Rahman and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.

In a preface, Joshi provides a brief overview of his formative years, the influence of which still lives on in his lyrics and poems. It, however, only whets the appetite – does not quite satiate it. Both the ‘writer’s comments’ at the end of each song and the aforementioned preface seem all too pithy to do complete justice to the storehouse of stories that Joshi must be privy to.

Yet, Sunshine Lanes throws just about enough light on the man and his craft to be regarded as an important addition to books about Hindi film music. Lyric writing is central to the evolution of a song and the lyricist has a unique vantage point from where he can view the creation of a film song in its entirety, both subjectively and dispassionately.

Joshi brings his acumen as a writer to bear upon the ruminations. Not only does his book elucidate the elements that constitute a film song, it also explains, if regrettably only in passing, the significance of each of the songs included in this selection, in terms of specific words and lines, or as a whole.

“I am often asked what makes for a beautiful song,” he writes. “What came first, the tunes or the words? For me, a soulful song is one that makes it impossible to decipher this, where there is no overt competition between the music and the lyrics – one that is just a beautiful blend.”              

Joshi does not work in a vacuum. He is conscious of the history of the film song and his own place within its evolutionary continuum. He knows that the quality of lyric writing is currently at low ebb in Mumbai, with the emphasis being firmly on ‘entertaining music’, but he is not willing to write off his fraternity.

He, however, believes that “if this trend continues and the staple and ‘instantly understandable’ songs are demanded and settled for most of the time, the space for experimentation will continue to diminish progressively.”
 
Joshi has been chipping away relentlessly at the shibboleths. As the lyricist of some of the finest film songs of our times, he knows exactly what it takes to make instant connect with the masses without undermining the creative essence
of a lyric.

“Writing lyrics hasn’t been and is not my profession. It’s a passion,” writes Joshi in the preface. It is passion that shields him from the detrimental pressures that less creatively fortified lyricists are vulnerable to in the Mumbai movie industry.

Joshi has a day job. He makes a living as an adman of repute and stature – he is the executive chairman and chief executive of McCann World Group, India and president, South Asia. So he does not have to write Hindi film songs to pay his bills. He can afford to cherry pick his assignments and work only with those with whom he can relate as a writer. He can afford to be an outsider while being an integral part of the industry.

Joshi is acutely aware of the constraints and challenges of his craft. “Writing lyrics for films is like walking a tightrope – one cannot be vague and excessively symbolic like in poetry, but at the same time, the mystique and beauty should not be compromised. Striking the right balance is critical.”

He has been doing just that ever since he wrote his first film lyrics for Rajkumar Santoshi’s Lajja at the turn of the millennium.

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

“We have nothing like a foodgrain surplus”

Shetkari Sangathana founder Sharad Joshi tells Chandran Iyer of B&E that lopsided policies pursued by successive governments could lead to bigger famines

B&E: Let’s take a flashback to the famine that hit India during 1965-67 and then the seventies. What are your memories?
Sharad Joshi: Things were terrible at that time. There was not only food security but also acute drought. The whole of Maharashtra was reeling under water shortage. Most of the wells in this state had become dry. I had seen birds falling down on the roads due to thirst. You can imagine the condition of people.

B&E: Do you think India has learnt its lessons from that famine? Is our agricultural policy today strong enough to prevent it from happening again?
SJ: I don’t think so. Successive governments have pursued lopsided policies. Wrong policies introduced during the British tenure are still being continued. The British imposed the system of land revenue and its collection posed a big problem to even better-off farmers. Even now, in many places in India, landless people are giving loans to the farmers to help them pay land revenues. Even the coolies in the Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC) are giving loans to farmers and turning money lenders.

B&E: The agriculture minister recently said that in 1972, there was food deficit while now there is food surplus. What is your take?
SJ: I don’t believe that there is any food surplus. The statistics comes from Food Corporation of India, which has to show that there is excess food, which is rotting. Unless they show that food is rotting, they cannot tally their accounts. They have to show that they do not have enough storage capacity. In the case of wheat and cotton, we are doing quite well. But apart from these two, I don’t think we have anything like grain surplus.

B&E: Can you pinpoint what exactly is wrong with our government’s agricultural policy?
SJ: What is happening now is that there is no official confirmation that the prices cover the cost of production. Farmers cannot pay taxes and the dues of the loans that they have taken and the electricity bills are a huge burden. The loan waiver scheme of the government completely forgot the electricity bills with the result that many farmers have been unable to pay these bills. So, there is no power and diesel is already in short supply as it’s expensive and there is no government policy yet on ethanol and biodiesel. At the same time, labour is in short supply. All these are precursors to a great famine.

B&E: Doesn’t it sound like a bit of a doomsday prediction?
SJ: What we have seen earlier have been famines due to natural reasons. But what we may see in the future is going to be the result of folly of man as well as fury of nature. To avert it, India needs structural reforms. Firstly, there is a need to scrap the APMC system. It has outlived its utility. They have never been able to fix a good minimum support price. The second important step is to scrap the Food Corporation of India. Thirdly, there should be nothing like a Public Distribution System.

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

10 Ways to revive the Indian Economy

With faulty policies and incompetent policy makers, the Indian economy has seen its worst. IIPM Think Tank suggests ten critical policy measures that can save the Indian economy from mirroring the paralysed socioeconomic conditions of US and Europe

When the northern, eastern and north eastern power grids in India collapsed in July and left more than half the country in the dark, it was declared to be another vivid indicator of India’s incredible growth story having run its course (following S&P’s downgrade, which predicted that India would be the first fallen angel among the BRICs). What the world chooses to ignore is that structural flaws in our power sector in generation and T&D have been holding back our economy for years, including the years where they felt so overtly optimistic (and even insecure) about India’s potential on the world stage. For the record, India achieved a net capacity addition of around 4 GW per year from 1997-2007. But a McKinsey report (however much you might wish to believe it) indicates that a growing India’s needs from 2007-2017 merit a net capacity addition of 20-40 GW per year, i.e. 5-10 times that figure. And the 11th Five Year Plan added only around 53.12 GW, or a little over 10 GW per year. In fact, the last year (2011-12) was particularly a good one with installation of 20.5 GW. In other words, despite the best attempts of the ‘powers’-that-be in scuttling our growth in the past decade, the economy has somehow pulled itself together and kept up the heat.

Clearly, it appears that countries are perceived very similarly to companies today, and you are only as good as your last quarter. By that yardstick, the Indian economy is still struggling with a depressed GDP growth of 5.5% for Q1, 2012-13; which makes it 9 consecutive quarters of declining growth rates. The surprising part is the shock and awe most Indians feel with this slowdown, as if they were in the middle of a rude awakening! That’s really because even till June last year, the government was predicting 9% GDP growth for India in FY 2011-12 and the RBI was looking at an 8% figure!

However, as B&E had concluded from its statistical analysis last year (refer B&E’s issue dated August 4, 2011 titled “The Upcoming Indian Economic Slowdown”), there were really no surprises. We had predicted it based on a multifactor correlation analysis using inflationary trends in India as the base. Interestingly – and snapping back temporarily to the start of the past decade – during the year 2000, the Indian economy followed a trend in inflation similar to the US. The trend was again repeated in 2010 when the Indian economy mirrored the US economic condition of 2008 just before it (US) stumbled into a deadly recession. As per our polynomial forecasting trend line analysis, the correlation will continue till the end of 2012 with its impact lingering till the last quarter of this fiscal year. So our prognosis is that India would see a relatively depressed growth at least till FY 2012-13. But all is not lost. In fact, this trend is based on the fact that the government will continue to simply do nothing to reverse the situation. In other words, it’s quite easy to electrifyingly turnaround our prognosis.

What is it that our government spokespersons – including our Prime Minister – have done best in this economic slowdown? Blame external factors, and that’s quite a convenient thing to do at the moment! The US grew by 1.7% yoy for the quarter ending June 2012 as compared to 2% for the previous quarter. The Eurozone remained in a quandary with GDP shrinking by 0.4% yoy for the quarter and jobless rates at a record high of 11.3% in July. And that’s why the escapist reasoning by the government. But then, that is hardly an excuse for not setting our own house in order. There is no denying the fact that the Indian economy has sufficient potential of its own accord, and if given the right impetus, India can indeed get back to 8-9% and beyond sooner than expected. B&E and IIPM Think Tank present 10 critical ways in which we can bring the economy back to its high growth phase.

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

"There is stalemate in dialogue with China"

Clad in an starched white Indian kurta-pyjama, speaking fluent Hindi, Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile Dr. Lobsang Sangay breaks his silence for the first time on several key issues. In an exclusive interview with B&E’s Aditya Raj Kaul, the Tibetan leader says that with likely changes in China’s top political leadership, the struggle for Free Tibet will reach a decisive stage next year.

B&E: Almost 40 Tibetans including monks have attempted self-immolation since 2009. Why this sudden increase in such desperate acts of protest? Have they lost hope for a free Tibet?
LS: [Brief silence] Yes, it has been really unfortunate. Question is why? The Chinese Government doesn’t allow any form of free speech like we see in India, here we can have dharnas, hunger strikes, and we can protest, and organise rallies. But in China, especially in Tibet, it is not so. You simply cannot participate in protests, even if it’s a gathering of three people, they get arrested and tortured. Tragically, Tibetans are taking to this rather drastic political act of self-immolation. But all the 40 self-immolators have only hurt themselves and not harmed others. Their demands are pretty clear – the return of His Holiness Dalai Lama and Free Tibet.

B&E: The 27-year-old Tibetan activist Jamphel Yeshi also self-immolated himself hours before Hu Jintao’s arrival in March this year. Is self-immolation the only way of being heard?
LS: We have told people not to indulge in self-immolation. A few days after Jamphel Yeshi’s self- immolation we in fact issued a very strongly worded letter asking Tibetans-in-exile particularly not to resort to self- immolations because we have freedom of speech in India. We can resort to and engage in many other forms of protests. Unfortunately, Tibetans inside Tibet don’t have any other option, but to commit self- immolations.

B&E: Have the concerns over Dalai Lama’s security intensified of late? The Dalai Lama himself recently said that a Tibetan may attack him?
LS: His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s security is of major concern to us. Threat perception always remains. The report (about a Tibetan attacking Dalai Lama) is reliable but not verified. Reports are that the Chinese Government at one time was training people like that, so we have to take all this under consideration.

B&E: Your views on Indo-Tibetan relations in the near future?
LS: Before 1959, India and Tibet had close relations. The 1914 Simla agreement makes it very clear. Tibet is of major interest for India from geo-political, environmental and cultural point-of-view. Culturally, because we follow Buddhism, which we adapted from India. Environmentally because Tibet’s Himalayan geography directly affects the region. And geo-politically because China is building a railway line all the way to India. The Indian government spends billions of dollars for border security. Before 1959, it was not necessary. Resolving the Tibet issue is in India’s interest.

B&E: Is there any ongoing back-channel dialogue with China or does a stalemate persist considering recent resignations of your two appointed emissaries?
LS: At the moment it is a stalemate, mainly because of the Chinese government. The relevant Chinese officials have not reciprocated positively to the memorandum that we submitted. That is why our two appointed envoys resigned. The environment is not conducive for dialogue. The situation inside Tibet is also getting worse. Having said that, we are ready to engage in dialogue with the Chinese government anytime. We seek autonomy within China and within the framework of the Chinese constitution. Most likely with the changes in leadership, by early next year there might be slight changes in the trend.

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

What in heavens went wrong?

It was one of the most highly anticipated IPOs in the history of Wall Street. But despite all the hype and drumbeats, the Facebook stock has lost almost 25% of its value within the first month of trading and become the second worst listing in US history. Is this just a short term glitch or does it have long term implications for the social network?
Issue Date - 30/07/2012

From the days when his business card read “I’m CEO... Bitch” till today when it has become virtually impossible for him to justify the plummeting stocks of his company, Mark Zuckerberg has begun looking much older than his 28 years. And why not? The billionaire tycoon who was habitual of calling the shots from the confines of an insulated environment, now has to mingle with (and forcibly smile at) the perpetually hungry hounds of Wall Street after his botched IPO – an IPO which Dealogic (a specialist data research firm) calls the second worst listed in US history. The gloss of being the world’s youngest billionaire is swiftly being wiped away with class action lawsuits alleging blocking of revised information about the IPO’s prospects hours before its listing. And of course, there is now also the accompanying headache of having to create value for a lot more shareholders than he originally bargained for.

No matter how much one tries to justify the sequence of events, fact is that Facebook’s debut on the bourses has been a mess. The social network’s $104 billion valuation at the time of its offering was the largest ever by an American company. But then things went downhill. If General Motors’ announcement that it was pulling off all ads from Facebook because of low returns was not enough, lead underwriter Morgan Stanley let slip that it was lowering Facebook’s revenue forecast. A spooked Wall Street went into a tizzy and Facebook’s stock expectably nosedived from its $38 debut. The stock has lost almost 25% of its value within the first month of its stint at the bourses. So is this the end of the hugely successful saga of Facebook’s gravity-defying growth? To answer that, we need to look at issues much deeper than a depressing debut at the bourses. Read on...

The good...
There’s no denying the fact that Facebook will go down in history as a company that spearheaded and laid the foundation for a radical online advertising model of the future. Facebook has built a reach and target driven engagement platform with a user base that is just phenomenal. For the quarter ending March 2012, the social network – that is available globally in more than 70 languages – reported a monumental 901 million monthly users, an increase of 33% compared to the same period last year. Roughly 80% of these users are based out of the US and Canada. On any given month, an average of 526 million users are active on the website. During March 2012, on average 398 million users were active with Facebook on at least six out of seven days. Further, Facebook is home to more than 125 billion friend connections. Of late, Facebook has also seen extraordinary growth in terms of users accessing the social network on mobile. Ironically, Facebook was late to market with a dedicated mobile app. But its growing breed of 500 million plus mobile users speaks volumes for growth prospects. With this wealth of data, Facebook is in a unique position to collaborate with its partners by giving them access to demographic information based on login credentials. Chances are that Facebook might eventually succeed in creating an advertising network that is as deep rooted as present day television networks. But here’s the big question. Despite significant competitive advantage over off-line media, why has the Facebook IPO floundered?

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

“We’re heavily involved with the app developer community”

Mike Bell, VP, Intel Architecture Group, discusses the global launch of Intel’s first mobile processor

B&E: You already have the largest share of the market in the PC segment. What have been the reasons to move into the smartphones and tablets category?
Mike Bell (MB): Computing is now moving onto a lot of other devices than just PCs. Smartphone and tablets lead the fray. We were instrumental in scripting the rise of the PC. And since then we have been all about the end user experience. So for us, moving onto smartphones and tablets was only a logical extension.

B&E: What would be the difference between the user experience when we talk about an ARM based processor and an Intel processor?
MB: Well you know it’s not just about the processer. Delivering an unparalleled user experience is about fine tuning the hardware along with the processor and the operating system. Only then do you get high performance coupled with low power consumption. So it’s about all the technologies at Intel that work together to bring about a seamless experience and not just the processor.

B&E: The smartphone revolution has been shaped by the kind of applications that the hardware can support. So how are you looking at the app community to push your processor?
MB: We are heavily involved with the app developer community. Again, we have have a group of people who have gone out in the past and worked with PC app developers to optimise applications. And now the same group is working with the mobile ecosystem as well. So we’re putting in significant resources in making sure that the Intel technology is 100% compatible with the entire mobile ecosystem.

B&E: Going forward, when can we expect to see Intel significantly dominating the smartphone market?
MB: Not soon enough! Well, I’m joking. Being ambitious is a part of our very nature and I think the XOLO X900 has been a great starting point. It will be easy to develop great products when we have a solid roadmap. We think we’re on the right path and I believe that people will appreciate and adopt our technology.

B&E: Since Paul Otellini had announced during the CES 2012 that Intel powered Lenovo and Motorola smartphone are being developed, we were expecting to see those hit the market. But eventually, you’ve chosen a lesser known brand like Lava which lacks global appeal to launch your first smartphone processor. Why?
MB: It’s about compatibility. For our first smartphone processor, we wanted to work with a partner who thought like we did. Someone who strived to deliver an exceptional end user experience. It’s not just about selling the device. It’s about educating the customer in store, the after sales service. And I think Lava does that pretty well. Right now, we’re very choosy about who we work with.

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

Infosys my experiment with entrepreneurship

There is nothing wrong in wanting to get richer. But there are many ways to get richer, and entrepreneurs must be able to choose the right one By N. R. Narayana Murthy Founder & Chairman Emeritus Infosys Ltd

For most people who are looking to take the entrepreneurial plunge, one of the greatest inhibitions is the loss of security that a job provides. Even in my personal case, it was not how I had planned things initially. I grew up in a middle class Kannada Madhava Brahman family, and the most critical learning that I imbibed from my family and environment was the uncompromising focus on education and respect; a learning that I have retained throughout my life.

My journey into entrepreneurship started out very differently, and a couple of defining moments come to mind. The first defining moment was a meeting with a famous American computer scientist when I was a graduate in Control Theory at IIT. He talked to me at length on the future of computer science; and his conviction and subject knowledge were so profound that I was hooked to the field for life. The second defining moment happened during my trip to Europe. It happened in the Sofia Express, in which I was travelling on my way to India. My co-passengers were a girl and a boy. I started a discussion with the young girl in French, who talked about the perils of life in an iron curtain country. To our astonishment, a few policemen came and arrested both of us, which, I believe, was because the young man had complained that we were perhaps criticising Bulgaria’s Communist government. They confiscated my belongings and dragged me along the platform into a small 8x8 foot room with a cold stone floor and a hole in a corner as a toilet. I was made to stay there without food and water for 72 hours. Even after I was taken out, I was taken to Istanbul on a departing freight train, again without food and water, before finally being released; because I was “from a friendly country called India”, as per one of the guards. During the entire journey to Istanbul, I seriously rethought my views on communism. While I was quite a bit of a Leftist in my thought process earlier in life, my experiences in Europe started convincing me otherwise. Subsequently, over the coming years, I became more and more convinced that rather than communism, it was capitalism – and in essence the entrepreneurial spirit – that was the best way for countries like India to get rid of poverty. You can say that Infosys, in essence, was an experiment for me in entrepreneurship.

My first venture was Softronics, which only lasted for a year and a half (after which I joined Patni). I realised a few key lessons. Firstly, when you become an entrepreneur, the market has to be ready for your idea. The Indian market was certainly not ready, which is why with Infosys, I decided that we will explore the global market. Secondly, I learnt that it is important to have a team that has a common and enduring value system and the strengths of team members must be complementary and mutually exclusive. Again, these lessons came in handy when I set up Infosys. The idea of starting another software company started brewing in my mind when I was working as a lead engineer in Patni Computer Systems. I wanted to, as my upbringing had taught me, build a company that would earn the highest level of respect.

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

Can MoD ban Diageo?

Banning six defence suppliers is a good start; but why isn’t the Defence Ministry banning Diageo?

The recent allegations by outgoing Army Chief General V. K. Singh about an attempt to bribe him have unfortunately raised more questions than answers. Trace back just a few weeks and the can is open. In early March 2012, the defence ministry blacklisted six vendors that included four foreign defence contractors for their involvement in the 2009 Ordnance Factory Board scam.

That’s a good start. But what is mysteriously suspicious is that the Ministry has continued to deliberately ignore the clear case of liquor giant Diageo (owns Johnie Walker Scotch Whisky, Smirnoff Vodka and others).

In July 2011, the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) slapped fines of $16 million on Diageo convicting it for bribing government officials in India and other countries. The SEC further confirmed that $1.7 million worth bribes were paid in India. The SEC ruling that is available with B&E (Release No. 64978 / July 27, 2011) confirms, “In India, from 2003 through mid-2009 Diageo – through Diageo India Pvt Ltd – made over $1.7 million in illicit payments to hundreds of Indian government officials responsible for purchasing or authorizing the sale of its beverages.” Bribes were paid to Indian CSD (Ministry of Defence) canteen employees, Label Registration and Excise Officials across India. While the US government has convicted Diageo, why is it that the Indian Ministry of Defence continues to ignore the issue? Is it because Diageo’s India ‘advisory’ board consists of Naresh Chandra, a former cabinet secretary, defense secretary, advisor to PMO?

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

What’s Apple’s biggest challenge: replacing Steve or Wall Street?

Steve Jobs’ influence on Apple was pervasive – maybe too much. Prof. James L. Heskett of Harvard Business School questions in an HBS working knowledge paper on whether Apple faces an almost impossible task in replacing the visionary founder.

Discussions of management succession have been triggered once again in boardrooms around the world by Steve Jobs’ demise. Regarding Apple, of course, the question is what will the Jobs-loss mean for its future? If leaders often become “cult heroes,” to use a term coined by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Steve Jobs was the cult hero’s cult hero. The assumption is that cult heroes are unique, one of a kind, impossible to replace, and that succession is the biggest challenge facing any company led by one. But is this the real problem confronting the company with the departure of a Steve Jobs?

Apple watchers cite several important contributors to the company’s success: 1) Its product development relies less on finding out what customers want than it does on what its employees think would be “cool”; 2) Its strategy is based on the introduction of a stream of thoroughly tested and proven products and new models, all based on a common platform, that often cannibalise each other, and that are simple, elegant, and easy to use; 3) It borrows good ideas from organisations such as Xerox and Gap but practices secrecy with its own ideas; 4) Its strengths and interests reflect its cofounder’s interest in hardware, not software. Possibly as a result, it relies heavily on partnering with others in the development of application software; 5) Its product development is organised around sometimes competing teams operating under a regime with the philosophy that “The system is, there is no system … (as opposed to discipline and) great processes,” as Jobs put it.

All of this occurred under the leadership of a person who practiced hands-on management, sometimes personally making detailed decisions. Jobs’ influence on Apple was pervasive. As one visitor observed, designers are the most respected people in the organisation at Apple, as opposed to Microsoft where the technical people rule.

In some respects, Apple’s experience with Jobs has parallels with Starbucks’ history with Howard Schultz, also a hands-on, detail-oriented leader who created the innovative concept of a “third place” outside the home and workplace where customers could enjoy an experience that included great coffee. However, after he stepped away from the CEO’s job (in 2000), Schultz watched apprehensively as new competitors entered the market and his successors succumbed to Wall Street’s expectations for even greater success than Starbucks’ had enjoyed under Schultz. Wall Street demanded increasing growth, internationalisation, better productivity, and new products. And Schultz’s successors responded by opening up to 5 new stores per day; extending business to new foreign markets; introducing a faster, higher capacity espresso machine that, because of its bulk, created a barrier between the barista and the customer; and offering new products. In 2008, Schultz had to step back in to save the company.

Read more....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
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

Still double digits

B&E: Passenger cars have seen negative growth over the past few months. Do you see a similar trend impacting the Indian two-wheeler industry as well?
AM: Challenges like rising fuel prices and interest rates are currently the main hurdles in the growth of the industry. As these two have a bigger effect on the passenger car buyer, the segment has not been able to grow as per initial estimates at the starting of the financial year. It is expected that the two-wheeler industry will also face tough times. In case of two-wheelers, there is a high chance that the growth will moderate but it will still be in double digits at the end of this financial year. As most purchases in the two-wheeler sector take place on cash, the rise in interest rates does not effect the growth of the two-wheeler sector to an extent.

B&E: India is currently the second largest market for two-wheelers across the globe. Do you believe that the relatively new entrants have a fair chance of making deep inroads in the coming few years?
AM: India is one of the most competitive markets when it comes to two-wheelers. Over the past one decade, many new names have entered the segment. But one needs to understand that for a new player, it is very tough to get the product strategy right in the first instance. Moreover, rural India has a lot of potential but to harness it optimally, one must create a strong distribution & service network.

Read more....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
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

Inbox : This Fortnight

INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS, ECONOMY & FINANCE
Meg in, leo out!

When Leo Apotheker was named CEO of HP in October last year, there were doubts about whether a the former CEO of a software company (SAP) would ever be able to handle a mix of hardware and software at the world’s largest IT company (in terms of topline) as the CEO. After analysing the situation and his competencies, B&E did a story titled, “Wrong person. Wrong place” (issue dated November 11, 2010), in which we concluded that “The new CEO is a software guy and has prior experience only in enterprise sales – A clear mismatch with the current philosophy of HP – the largest IT company in the world”. When he announced his decision to sell off HP’s hardware division and buy out Autonomy for $11.69 billion in the last week of August 2011, we ran a follow-up story titled, “Is Apotheker destroying HP?” (issue dated September 15, 2011). This was our claim: “Apotheker, had little clue about what could potentially be done with a PC-plus-services portfolio. Post sell-off of the PSG unit, the company stands to lose $400.74 billion in expected revenue earnings over the next 20 years (arrived at using a binomial regression forecast model; R2=0.99; Eqn: y = -37.75x2 - 1395x + 42154).” The expected followed. Apotheker was booted out of the company. HP’s Board confirmed this publicly on September 22, 2011.

First question: Did he really deserve the bullet so soon? Actually, Apotheker has done enough in 9 months than what humans are usually capable of. Under him, HP’s m-cap shrunk to $47.52 billion – a fall of 51.52% since he took over!

Interestingly, the very moment the Board announced Apotheker’s exit, they pulled out another “typically-HP Board” trick. Former CEO of eBay Meg Whitman, with no prior experience in the field of hardware, was handed over the crown.

This brings us to the second question: Is a lady, who in the past four years was known only for two less-than-glorious acts – she resigned as eBay’s CEO in 2007 and then unsuccessfully ran for the office of the Governor of California (after spending $322.5 million in election campaigns) – fit to become the CEO of the world’s largest IT firm? Apparently, she is a fast learner. And what HP needs right now is someone with a vision. Remember, it was her vision that made eBay buy Skype for an inflated $4.1 billion in cash in 2005 (and which was later sold at $2.75 billion in 2009). But at least a move like this will keep HP’s hardware and software units going for some years! Apotheker destroyed more than 51% of HP’s m-cap in less than a year. How long will Whitman take to wipe out the rest? Difficult to say. But, if she manages to convince the HP Board to eat its own words and retain the hardware and mobility units (with webOS), she would have scored a one on ten to begin with in our books.

BNP Paribas’ $96 billion asset sale

BNP Paribas’ $96 billion asset sale In a move to insulate itself from the impact of the Greek debt crisis, BNP Paribas, the largest French bank, plans to sell $96 billion of risk-weighted assets to allay investor fears about the bank’s leverage and funding. The bank will also reduce its US dollar funding needs by $60 billion by the end of 2012. Unlike some of its main rivals like Société Générale and Crédit Agricole, BNP has been lucky to escape Moody’s Investors Service’s review without a change in rating. But that’s not a long-term remedy as the agency said it would extend its review for a possible downgrade of BNP’s long-term debt and deposit ratings. The bank in a statement on its website said the asset sales would reduce its balance sheet by around 10%. Of late, leading French banks have been fighting to restore confidence after suffering a summer of sell-off by investors, as they feared the banks are ill equipped to cope with the fallout from a Greek debt default. It’s not that BNP has been alone. Even smaller rival Société Générale unveiled a similar plan after post talks of a possible Moody’s downgrade. By selling assets, BNP will be in shape to reach a core Tier 1 ratio of 9% by Jan. 01, 2013, under the new Basel III regime, which calls for more stringent capital requirements.

Read more....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
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