Showing posts with label UAE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UAE. Show all posts

Friday, December 07, 2012

North by west... to the killing fields

A billion dollar firm with a billion reasons to be called inglorious

The last one among the world’s largest defence contractors that deserves to be in our inglorious list is Northrop Grumman. It is more famous for its designing, system integrating, and manufacturing of defence electronics and many other military and commercial weapons. Among various kinds of military products that the company produces are aircraft, aircraft carriers, military vessels, missile satellite systems, electronic censors and information systems. Northrop is one more truant company witnessing growth in employment and sales revenue. During 2007, there were about 122,600 people employed in the firm globally; by the end of 2008, the figure reached 1,33,570 – an 8.9% increase in employment in 2008 during the current global economic mess. And one doesn’t need to wonder about the reasons. Similarly, its sales revenue has also gone up from $30.11 billion in 2006 to $32 billion in 2007 and finally to $33.9 billion in 2008. Northrop is one of the firms filing the highest number of patents – in 2007 alone, the company filed over 8,511 patents. Northrop acquired companies like Integic Corporation in 2005, Essex Corporation in 2007 and 3001 International in 2008.

Expectably, Northrop Grumman has equal contributions in war crimes. Although 90% of its products go to the US government, most of its weapons go to US aided undemocratic countries who are accused time and again of breaking international laws. Its sophisticated deadly weaponry also goes to countries like Korea, Taiwan, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Saudi Arabia and UAE apart from Australia, India, Japan, UK, US, NATO, Italy, Germany etc. An example to their reach is that Israel’s reserved A-4 attack aircraft, TA-4 training aircraft and even the AH-64 attack helicopter are made by Northrop Grumman.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.


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Thursday, August 09, 2012

THE PHOENIX PERFORMERS

The indian gems & jewellery sector must now reorganise itself to be able to sustain growth in the coming years. by Angshuman Paul

However, the recovery is only visible for the polished diamonds segment. The gold and other jewellery segments have not evinced a rejuvenation post the slowdown. So the million dollar question over here is what happens to the 450,000 goldsmiths and 100,000 gold jewelers (CII data) of this country? “India is being considered as a hub for polished diamonds but when it comes to finished goods, our specialized jewellery will help us in the long run,” comments Rajiv Arora, MD, Amrapali. This Rajathan-based jeweler, buoyed by its edge of ‘kundan’ and ‘mina’ jewellery has opened stores in places like London. The recession might have caused a slowdown in their global expansion plans, but Amrapali is now optimistic that in the long run, they will be able to come back on track. They plan to open 4 more stores in Europe by 2011.

Coming back to the diamond business, if other segments of jewellery business pay attention to innovation in their finished goods, adopting professional best-in-class practices and leveraging direct presence, then Indian players should be able to cater to newer markets both domestically and internationally and also command better margins. Moreover, players need to increasingly reduce their vulnerability by focusing on newer markets. Countries like China, Middle East and Russia account for 40% of the world’s sales and Indian players have a very miniscule presence in these places. The slowdown chapter may hopefully be a thing of the past soon, but the lessons learned should not be easily forgotten.



NOT SO BRIGHT YET

The country of Uncle Sam accounts for around 50% of the world’s sales of gems and jewellery and with US being browbeaten by recession, the overall exports and imports of gem and jewellery across the globe were visibly disturbed till the first half of 2009. According to the US Commerce department, US’ total imports (units) from India saw an alarming dip by 21.7% in 2008. In dollar terms, the imports stood at $25.76 billion, which was a 6.5% fall w.r.t. 2007. The situation was quite similar in other major gems and jewellery markets like China, Hong Kong and the UAE. However, although Asian markets have begun to revive, the US is still not sparkling bright. This highlights the importance of geographical diversification for Indian players.


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