Made in China, and works!

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I’m a sucker for quick fixes! I’m on that tightrope called the thirties and I know that my choices today will go a long way towards ruining or empowering the decades hopefully to come. Of course I want to drag and stretch what remains of my youth as far into my middle age as possible. My wife says my teens have so far bypassed my twenties and thirties as far as maturity and a sense of responsibility is concerned but what of the body?

Is there a way to stay fit and strong and youthful? I’m not happy with washboard abs and bulging biceps alone. I mean, sure I want them too, but I don’t want to end up like Don Youngblood, you know…

Don was an inspirational figure on the bodybuilding circuit in the early 2000s.  having spent his youth setting up a successful trucking business, Don took up bodybuilding when he was 34. Don took to the gym like a fish takes to water and soon grew bigger than some of the trucks his company owned.

In 2002, Don won the Mr. Olympia in the masters category. He was huge, about 111 kgs at 5’9”. Though he looked the very picture of health, strength and youthful vigour on the surface, inside his body was crumbling. His muscles and bones were like those of an immortal titan but inside, his organs were ageing, burning out before their time. At 51, three years after winning the Mr. Olympia title, Youngblood died of a heart attack, leaving a shocked family and incredulous fans searching for answers to questions they had never imagined they would ask. Don after all was the super strong, super fit hero who was supposed to stick around long after everybody else had gone.

Evidently, building strong muscles alone wasn’t what it took to live a long and youthful life. And when I say youthful, I don’t mean a lithe gym-toned body topped off with a wrinkled face fighting a losing battle with gum disease, cataracts, male pattern baldness and goodness knows what else, either.

Health ought to flow from inside out. So, where are we to find the guide-map to the fountain of youth that keeps the organs healthy and the skin glowing?

A few weeks ago, I had mentioned the Five Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation that promise health and youthful vigour. Not only is this system of balancing our chakras effective and potent but is also extremely efficient. In fifteen minutes a day, the body, promise the rites, turns back the clock bit by bit, and restores balance within the body.

But what about people whose physical limitations wouldn’t allow them to perform the five rites? Or what about people who need a little more variety in their workout? Is there a system that is as powerful and as efficient that can rival the Tibetan system? Hatha Yoga and even Tai Chi Chuan are amongst the most complete systems of health and longevity but the practice is elaborate, complicated and needs the guidance of a qualified teacher.

But there is one set of rather accommodating exercises within the greater system of qigong that is pretty much the king of health quick-fixes.

They (in this case, the Chinese) call it Ba Duan Jin. Ba means eight, for the number of exercises in the set. Duan denotes continuous practice (or that’s what I understood of it) and Jin stands for silk brocade for the system envelops the body like exquisite silk.

I chanced upon this qigong practice many years ago while doing some research about longevity practices.
Though not certified by Guinness officials, if one were to accept the records of the longest surviving civilization in the history of man, the oldest man to have ever lived would have to be Li-Chung Yun, a tall Chinese Taoist who was born in Kuei-chou, in the mountains of south-western China, in 1678 and whose death was reported by an envoy sent to look for him by Chiang kai-shek in 1930. His legend is rather popular with venerable martial artistes and healers all across China.

Stuart Olson, a westerner who studied tai Chi with the great T. T. Liang, who himself lived to be 104, wrote a book about Li-chung Yun’s incredible longevity practices. And the cornerstone of Olson’s book and his recommendations was Ba Duan Jin.

Olson said that in all his interviews, Master Li had always maintained that he practiced Ba Duan jin every day. Eight exercises, practiced seated or standing for just about 20-25 minutes a day, promise to   heal illnesses and ailments triggered by energy blockages and rejuvenate the whole body.

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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

Of gardens and grandeur

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With its rich museums, expansive gardens and history at almost every nook and corner, Teheran offers a lot for every kind of traveler, says Saurabh Kumar Shahi
It is surprising, and rather sad, that how the perception built in the media actually helps or hampers the chance of a city or a country to emerge on the international tourism map. The country that has suffered the most from this propaganda war is undoubtedly Iran. A country with a rich tradition of culture, heritage and literature, Iran has hardly figured on the radars of international tourists with the exception of Shia pilgrims who flock to Qom and Masshad.

However, lately, western tourists have started to see through the propaganda web of their respective governments and have started visiting Iran. It is expected that this trickle will only turn into a tide in days to come. And the destination that is expected to host the maximum tourists is capital Teheran.

Teheran (also written as Tehran sometimes) is a bustling city of 14 million Iranians and is situated at the foothills of the mammoth range, aptly named, Al Borz Mountains. In fact, the city was built in a grid from north to south and hence there is a significant altitude variation in different parts of the city. But that also means that on a same day and at the same time, different parts of the capital register a temperature difference of as high as 6 degrees.

Teheran has a dry, semi-arid climate with moderate temperature. February to June and September to early November are the best times to visit the city. There is an evident dryness in the air and the absence of trees intensifies it, therefore winters is not the best time to plan a visit.

Start with the basics. The Iranian Embassy in Delhi issues the visa and take a couple of days. One does not need a guided tour booking to get a visa but an advance booking in a hotel is desirable. Mahan Airways, a private Iranian airline, flies four times a week from Delhi whereas Iran Air flies from Mumbai. One has the option to take either the Dubai or Abu Dhabi route. The flight time is close to three-and-a-half hours. Imam Khomeini International Airport caters to all international flights and is situated 30 kilometers outside the city linked by an expressway. One can decide to hire a taxi or take a bus.

Inside the city, there is an envious network of public transport systems that leaves you with lots of choices. The city roads are clogged with traffic during office hours, therefore it is preferable to take public transport. The city has a swanky and efficient metro system that crisscrosses the city. The murals and bass relief at the metro stations are a sight in itself. When you are traveling by the metro, keep plenty of time in your hand to fully enjoy these murals that depict incidents from Islamic history as well as the history of Iran from the pre-Islamic days. The sheer scale of these murals and the use of colours will leave you stunned.

You can choose BRT buses for fast movement. The prices of the tickets are cheap and if you take seven days or one month cards, the cost in Indian rupee turns out to be negligible. The announcement in Metro system is in English and Persian. But if you feel lost, just approach someone in his teens or early youth. They are expected to be well versed in English and considering how warm Iranian people are, they will go out of their way to help you.

Iran is a city of palaces, museums and parks. The sheer numbers of all of them will leave you overwhelmed. For example the city has over 800 well maintained breathtaking parks. It is therefore advisable to make a proper itinerary before setting out. Irrespective of what kind of sight seeing you prefer, allow at least 3 to 4 days in the capital before venturing out.

Of the city's main attractions, Azadi square and Azadi Tower comes right on the top. Constructed to mark 2,500 years of the Persian empire, the structure is a sublime mix of Sassanian and Islamic elements of architecture, thereby actually representing the zeal of Iran. The structure is surrounded by a park where families are seen spending time. This is also the site of several political marches and rallies.

Milad tower is another must-visit destination. This TV tower is the fourth tallest tower and 12th tallest freestanding structure in the world, and one can see it from practically everywhere in in the city. The tower boasts off a restaurant and an observation deck nestled near the top and offers a sweeping view of the city and beyond.

Among palaces and museums, there is nothing to Match Golestan Palace complex. The complex houses as many as 19 palaces, gardens, museums and grand halls. Once residence of Qajar dynasty, the palace has a breathtaking museum that has several exhibits of historical Iran on show. It also displays exhibits representing lives from all the provinces of Iran and is very interesting. It gets crowded with children in the weekends. Reserve an entire evening for this.

Another place unique to Iran is the very famous Treasury of the National Jewels near the iconic Ferdosi Street. The museum boasts of a collection of some of the most expensive jewels in the world including the world's largest uncut ruby, the world's largest pink diamond, and a golden globe made from 34 kilograms of gold as well as over 50,000 precious stones of all make and sizes among others.

The National Museum of Iran, on the other hand, will not just give you a peep into the history of Iran but also of the nations where the extent of the Persian empire reached in its hey day. The museum has two huge buildings displaying pre-Islamic and post-Islamic Iranian collections. A trip to this museum cannot but make you stop and ponder how history shaped this region.

It is difficult to make a choice among hundreds and hundreds of beautiful parks in Iran, but if one were compelled to do it, then the Jamshidieh Park, which is in the Niavaran district at the base of the Kolakchal Mountain, can be voted as the most picturesque of them all. Allow yourself to submerge into the world of green shrubs, trees and fountains of varied shapes and sizes. Niavaran park, which is nearby, is also worth visiting.

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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

Where the past breathes again

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For a decade now, the past has been coming alive every May on the Croisette, with the Cannes Film Festival showcasing restored prints of cinematic masterworks in its Classics section. So, even as the glitzy French Riviera event celebrates the finest and the most provocative of contemporary films, it also turns the spotlight on the steadily spreading global campaign to save world cinema heritage through the systematic restoration and digital re-mastering of old movie negatives.

The festival, in its 66th edition, has expanded the scope of the Cannes Classics sidebar to include 20 full-length features films and three documentaries. Among these films is Satyajit Ray’s iconic Charulata (1964), based on a Rabindranath Tagore novella. Its screening will be part of the Cannes celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Indian film industry.   

Many landmark films like Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Cleopatra (1963); a 3-D restored print of Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (1987); and a mint-fresh print of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) will be unveiled in the course of the festival, which runs from May 15 to 26.

Also in Cannes Classics this year are two French Nouvelle Vague (new wave) path-breakers – Alain Resnais and Jacques Demy. The latter’s Palme d’Or-winning 1964 film, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, the restoration of which was supervised by his 84-year-old widow, celebrated filmmaker Agnes Varda (herself a Nouvelle Vague pioneer), her daughter, Rosalie Varda Demy, and son Mathieu Demy.

Resnais, 90, competed for the Palme d’Or last year with You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet and is set now to start shooting a new film, Aimer, boire et chanter, based on British playwright Alan Ayckbourn’s Life of Riley.

Hiroshima Mon Amour, made in 1959, was Resnais’ first fiction film and a major catalyst for the French New Wave. The film, “reborn in sparkling digital form”, will be a major highlight of Cannes Classics 2013.

So will Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bete (Beauty and the Beast), which was selected for the very first Cannes Film Festival in 1946. A digitally re-mastered print will be screened to mark 50 years after the death of the influential writer, poet, filmmaker and painter who had an active association with the festival in the 1950s.            

“As cinema’s link to its own history was about to be turned upside down by the arrival of digital and because films from the past are an integral part of the Festival de Cannes, 2004 saw the creation of Cannes Classics, a programme presenting old films and masterpieces from cinematographic history that have been carefully restored,” the festival’s website declares.

“A natural, vital part of the Official Selection – and an idea which has made its way into other international festivals – Cannes Classics is also a way to pay tribute to the essential work being down by copyright holders, film libraries, production companies and national archives throughout the world. Thus, Cannes Classics lends the prestige of the Festival de Cannes to great works from the past, accompanying their release in theatres or on DVD.”

The screening of the four-hour-plus Cleopatra will be hosted by Hollywood star Jessica Chastain (Coriolanus, The Tree of Life, Zero Dark Thirty) and attended by Richard Burton’s daughter Kate Burton and Elizabeth Taylor’s son, Chris Wilding. The restored print of the film goes into distribution from May 22 in the US and elsewhere in the world.

Eighty-year-old Kim Novak is slated to be a guest of honour of the 66th Cannes Film Festival for the screening of Vertigo, a film that is generally regarded as the defining work of Hitchcock’s career. She will also attend the closing ceremony of the festival and give away one of the awards.

Legendary Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu died 50 years ago, in 1963, but that isn’t the anniversary that Cannes Classics is observing this year. Instead, the screening of his 1962 film Sanma No Aji (Autumn Afternoon) commemorates the 110th year of his birth.

Autumn Afternoon was Ozu’s final film – he died the following year. But his reputation has continued to grow over the years thanks to the many formal innovations he made in the art of cinematic storytelling and in the use of a stagnant camera often looking up at the actors.

Autumn Afternoon featured Ozu regular Chishu Ryu in the role of a widowed patriarch supervising the wedding of his daughter.


Cannes Classics will also honour 83-year-old Joanne Woodward (although her participation in person has not been confirmed yet) with a screening of the 2012 documentary, Shepard & Dark. The film about American playwright and actor Sam Shepard’s 50-year friendship with comedian Johnny Dark was produced by Woodward, renowned actress and wife of Hollywood icon Paul Newman from 1958 until the actor’s death in 2008.

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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

The ugly duckling

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He sat by the tracks and felt the line come to life. The rail road quivered, excitedly. And in his little toes, he felt the same excitement as the distant rumble rolled closer. He put down the diary in which he was giving words to his angry tears and got to his feet. The ballast poked and pricked at his bare feet but he couldn’t feel any of it.

The green engine loomed into view, and charged towards the boy like a ravenous monster gobbling up the horizon. The boy, turned and looked at the train, and from the fire in his eyes, you could tell he had been waiting… for this day, and for this train.

The train too seemed to know its nemesis. As it came closer, it picked up speed, as if sure of victory. The boy though was tired… tired of being picked on… picked on for being too scared, too fat, too slow, too dull and for being too black. He swore it would all end today.

The train drew near and was nearly upon the boy when those bare feet struggled against the ballast and propelled his tiny form forward. The diary, the stubby pencil and all that remained of his inhibitions were flung into the bluebells by the tracks as his arms carved the air like a buccaneer waving twin cutlasses. The train thundered past the boy as he turned his head from side to side in a desperate attempt to pick up speed. Blur against blur tore through the country side. The train was crashing towards the opposite horizon but the boy had an old oak standing in his path. As the oak drew near, the boy calves beat down on the dirt like pistons, his nostrils flared and eyes narrowed as he drew level with the train. For a frozen moment, engine and boy were locked in a frame, and then the boy inched ahead. The boy’s head turned as he pulled away and the fierce eyes took in the victory. In that moment, the boy returned to those eyes and as he sprinted past the oak, he broke into a wide grin. It was his first victory but it wouldn’t be his last.

The train would lose many more times, and years later, still fuelled by the hurt and anger that burnt up a childhood, Herschel Walker would trample down defensive line-men like a rogue bull-elephant crashing through a brittle bamboo fence. As a shy and timid child in racially charged Georgia of the 70s, he was often beaten up by white kids. He had a speech impediment and was ridiculed for it by both students and teachers. He was too fat and slow to be any good at sports.

Then one day, he started racing the train. He raced and raced till his legs hurt and his lungs burned and the day he won, he refused to ever feel fear again. While watching television, he started doing pushups during commercials. And he ended up doing thousands of them. Pushups, sit-ups, dips, hundreds even a thousand, each day. And he ran. He even tied a rope to a tyre and pulled it as he ran.

Young Herschel came from a poor family, and his school had no gymnasium to speak of. He was un-athletic and weak. But he let none of it get in his way. Within a couple of years, Herschel had become one of the quickest and strongest boys in school. No one picked on him now. But they did pick him for the football team. And college football in the United States, just so you know, is perhaps the pinnacle of amateur sports. The stands are always full and the best players are the biggest celebrities in the state.

Years later Herschel had said that he did not hold anything against the white boys who had heckled him, nor for the racist slurs or the constant taunting, for he said he realized that they are the ones who had problems. And they just took out their problems on weak and meek little Herschel. But it is they who fuelled the fire that forged Herschel Walker as we know him today. When he talks about them now, Herschel almost sounds grateful.

But those days in school, Herschel took out all that repressed anger in the football field. He was just too fast and too strong for the opposition. Colleges queued up for him and at the University of Georgia, Herschel found immortality. He became the biggest name in college football history and broke records and bones each year to win the Sugar Bowl for his college and the Heisman trophy for himself.  And while playing football like a pro, the ‘stupid black kid’ had also studied hard and smart to become a valedictorian.
The freight trains he raced as a child had come back to haunt those who stood in his way, for Walker would charge through line ups like his old racing partner.

Though a Hall of Famer Herschel didn’t quite win the same honours in the senior NFL (National Football League). That wasn’t because of Herschel’s lack of trying though. He still continued to break records as a running back. But the teams he played for just weren’t good enough those years to make good on Walker’s enormous talents. In 1997, Herschel Walker retired from football. Some would say his career did not attain the stratospheric heights his talent and power truly deserved. But Herschel would tell you that he soared further and higher than he or anybody else ever thought that timid little kid would go.

But why am I wasting your time over a retired football player? And that too the kind of football we neither play nor watch. Well, that’s because a few days ago, while preparing for a local martial arts tournament, I went to YouTube looking for videos of Fedor Emelianenko (for the sacrilegious few who don’t know who that is, Fedor is the Muhammad Ali of mixed martial arts -MMA) for inspiration. And there I ran into videos of a 50 year old Walker who had now started competing in MMA, fighting fighters half his age and winning.

Look around you. That man is in mindboggling shape at 50, far ahead of where most of us have ever been or will be, and therein simmers the purpose of this tale.

Herschel Walker doesn’t go to a gym. He doesn’t eat any fancy foods. In fact he just eats once a day. While in college he was too busy working, playing, studying and training to think about eating, and so the habit stuck. He might have a fruit or some water through the day but at night, around 8 or 9 pm, he has soup and salads and a little something to eat, but not very much. And no red meat… in fact not much meat at all. Incidentally, even our ancient yogis recommend eating just once a day.

And as for exercise, Herschel still cranks out 1500 to 5000 push ups and sit ups every day. And some handstand push ups to wrap things up. Then he runs, sometimes with a tyre, like he used to all those years ago. And he wraps it all up in the wee hours of the morning.

 Herschel doesn’t just look young. He fights like a young man too. Herschel’s cardiovascular fitness would rank higher than most athletes half his age, or for that matter, any age. That man seems to have the fountain of youth burbling inside him and all you just read seems to be all you need to do.

Strength, especially in the upper body, usually is the last to go. Which is why most of us who have gently crept past our mid 30s and are living out our lives doing little more than swiveling in a chair never find out how unfit we have become till we have to run a few paces in an emergency. Panting for breath, we resolve to renew that gym membership, but unfortunately that’s all we do – renew the membership, not our lives.

But Herschel’s life tells you that you have no excuses. That no matter how ugly the start today, there’s a gorgeous swan flapping its wings inside us, waiting to soar... All we need to do is build a  little will and take off from our perch.

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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

Why Ray's heroes are a breed apart...

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On the occasion of legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s 21st death anniversary on April 23rd 2013, Monojit Lahiri pulls back to provide both, a long shot and a close-up of what made his heroes so different, special and unique.

In epics, sagas, legends and folklore, the ‘hero’ is always Mr. Perfect. Brave, bold, truthful, chivalrous and noble. In the Mumbai-manufactured ‘masala’ movies, add sexy handsome and macho (and don’t bother to strain the brain cells too much!). For over three and a half decades the one hero who blazed the screen and scorched the imagination of millions was the towering and charismatic Amitabh Bachchan.  In recent times, the likes of Sunjay Dutt, Sunny Deol, Abhishek Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, The Khan combine (Saif included) and Hrithik Roshan have clashed swords for that coveted clot.

In serious cinema (parallel cinema that is) the concept of hero and heroism is not quite as bombastic. Here there is no specific agenda to titillate the wish-fulfillment aspect of the turned-on viewer.  He does not spew armpit rhetoric aimed at the front benchers.  He is a flesh and blood character, acting out real feelings with identifiable honesty, sensitivity and feeling. Agreed, he doesn’t always win, but who does?  Not you or me – only the larger than life caricatures in masala land!

The heroes of Satyajit Ray’s films are a breed apart.  They are even more rooted to the soil and milieu of their environment. Observes Chidananda Das Gupta with rare perception in the most definitive book written on the maestro, The Cinema of Satyajit Ray. “The natural character of an actor was important to Ray, not only in the case of the non-professional, but professionals as well. He must, in real life, reflect some of the basic qualities sought in the character to be portrayed. Acting against the grain of the actor’s nature is unacceptable in Ray’s scheme of things. That is precisely why Ray’s actors exude more or less the same impression of themselves in real life as they do on screen.  Soumitra Chatterjee, Dhritiman Chaterjee (Pratidwandi) or Pinaki Mukherjee (Jana Aranya), all have the unmistakable imprint on them of an intellectual pursuit and contemplative nature. The characters they play on screen are very like themselves.”

Let’s start with Apu in Apur Sansar, the third and last chapter of his unforgettable (Pather Panchali, Aparajito) trilogy.  Apu is a young  man who marries, writes his first novel and then loses his wife in childbirth. This tragedy sends him staggering into the wilderness.  His pathos is summed up in one magnificent image as he casts away the sheets of the novel. They flutter down the hillside in the luminous light of dawn, evoking an overwhelming sense of melancholy. Apu is filled with nostalgia, but when at last he is reunited with his on, it gives him a new vitality and joy with which to face the future.  Thus the wheel has turned full circle and the trilogy closes with Apu carrying his child just as it began with his grandmother rocking him in the cradle. Fittingly for the role of the sensitive Apu, Ray introduced Soumitra Chatterjee – an actor whose physical and intellectual parallels bore such striking resemblance to the character he was to portray, that it inspired the prestigious Time magazine to eulogise, ‘His actors act not with the usual combinations of oriental drama, but as though the camera found them alone and simply living; and they live as few characters in pictures do – real lives that swell to the skin with pain and poetry and sudden wit.’

Take Nayak where the great god, Ray, took Bengal’s (late) King of Hearts, Uttam Kumar for the first time, causing many to believe that the maestro had finally lost it!  Nothing of course was further from the truth. The essence of the film concerned itself with the emptiness that plagued the life of a celluloid superstar. The storyline oozes out of the empty confines of an air-conditioned coach carrying him to Delhi, where a State award awaits him. On the trip he meets an intelligent, young, woman journalist (Sharmila Chatterjee) in the dining car.  A rapport develops between them and in a rare moment of human contact, he tells her of his most private frustrations, doubts and weaknesses.  While it is commonly recognized that Ray’s best works are derived from literary sources other than his, his eye for impeccable casting has almost always been universally acknowledged. Uttam Kumar was Bengal’s reining superstar, whose mere name on the marquee set off serpentine queues. What Ray did was to write a script with him in mind, eliminating his popular, cliché-ridden mannerisms and concentrating on his seldom-tapped acting prowess. In this he succeeded magnificently, inspiring the late star to comment, “Manikda was the first director to really teach me what film acting was all about.”  This new insight was reflected in most of his subsequent movie roles.

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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

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Fighting the Hunger pangs

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Scams in ICDS projects can ruin India's human capital

When on the one hand India is adding to its indigenous list of billionaires in Forbes’s list and other journals it is also increasing the count of hungry children that is such an embarrassment for a country of extremes such as ours. Worse, the money allocated to mitigate the malaise is being diverted and misappropriated by the vested interests involved. It’s a worst form of socio-economic malady and a shame for the nation that should have raised the eyebrows of our institutions and administrations – but it didn’t!

India’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) has been unable to stem the rot in the system and must be revamped. It must be revamped because it is not armed with the power to monitor the government’s role in fund utilization. The funds released by the Central government are often misused by the states, denying the children the benefits of ICDS schemes. The worst offenders are the governments of Bihar and Jharkhand that through a nexus of politicians and bureaucrats diverted funds meant for nourishment of impoverished children. The mid-day meals are denied to school children and finances for the same are diverted to the fat pockets of the stakeholders! It has been a practise that has plagued not only to the two states mentioned but has been prevalent across the country in varying degrees. There are allegations of audit mismatch in the internal function ICDS too. The audit report notes that Rs.57.82 crore is diverted to the non-permissible schemes of ICDS in five test-checked states. There are further reports of fund diversion to the tune Rs.70.11 crore that have been parked elsewhere. The reports of poor infrastructure to deliver the schemes only add to the problem – 61% of the test-checked anganwadis in operation under the ICDS do not have a proper building of their own and 25% manage it through covered shelters. The unsettling effect continues with the vanishing medical kits in 33-49% of the anganwadis due to failure of the state governments in spending funds released by the Centre. Also 26% of the children’s weighing machines and 58% of the adult weighing machines failed to make it to the centres. The essential utensils required for providing supplementary nutrition to the beneficiaries are also not available in many places. A new survey conducted by Citizen's Alliance against Malnutrition and the Nandi Foundation drives home the shocking reality check that despite India’s economy tripling since the beginning of this century, the level of child malnutrition has not dropped. More than half of all child deaths are associated with malnutrition, which weakens the body's resistance to illness. The Nandi Foundation survey revealed that 42% of Indians under the age of five are underweight – a manifestation of inadequate nutrition.

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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

Proxy war rages in Karachi

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Pakistan has become a playground for global players and the main issues affecting common people have been overlooked, reports Shahid Husain

More than 45 innocents, including those hailing from the majority Muslim Sunni sect, were killed and 135 injured when marauders struck again at the thickly-populated entrance of Abbas Town on Abul Hasan Ispahani Road in Karachi at about 6.50 pm on Sunday evening.


A visit to the site by TSI presented an unbearable and grotesque picture. The powerful bomb had ripped two apartment buildings namely Iqra City and Rabia Flowers situated on opposite sides of the road. The target obviously was Abbas Town but religious extremists could not reach there and preferred to bomb the entrance of Shia-dominated Abbas Town.

Tragically, even by Monday morning, when the TSI reporter was present there, there were no security personnel in sight.Maulana Talib Jauhiri, a Shia scholar and Senator Faisal Raza Abidi, of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) visited the crime scene but top political leaders preferred to give statements from the safety of their offices.

The City District Government Karachi (CDGK) led by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) did a commendable job in removing the debris. Similarly, Edhi Ambulance Service and Chippa Ambulance Service played their usual dynamic role in shifting the dead and the wounded to public and private sector hospitals. Doctors, nurses and para medical staff too did their best and salvaged the situation under great odds and stress.    

By all counts, this latest outrage is part of the deadly proxy war which has been going on in the sprawling port city of Karachi with an estimated 20 million population. The Americans and NATO forces after having lost the so called “War on Terror” in Afghanistan are too eager that the deadly weapons they used there do not fall into the wrong hands.

The previous Afghan War against Soviet Union was fought with the help of drug money. In turn it has brought misery to the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistan happens to be the transit point of drugs and arms smuggling and that was why President Barack Obama asked the Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to “do more.” The armed forces of Pakistan fully aware that they will have to bear the brunt of the fall out of the Afghan War, are moving cautiously and dictating their terms.

A senior American journalist wrote a couple of years ago that the US itself creates a monster - and then it fights it. This is how its war and arms industry has flourished and unprecedented employment created there. But this war expenditure has almost crippled the US economy; recession is at its peak and millions are surviving on food stamps.

A former US national security advisor wrote some time ago that it was easy to deal with President Asif Ali Zardari because he has no hang-ups. Unlike twice Prime Minister and chairperson PPP Benazir Bhutto, her husband, and the party's Founding Chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Zardari does not suffer from delusions of grandeur. Eleven years in prison and exile have transformed him into a shrewd politician.

With millions in search of jobs, including highly qualified Pakistani youth and inflation at its peak, why would the army stage a coup? General Kayani, a former ADC to Benazir, has shown remarakble restraint.

The flooding in Sindh and Balochistan in 2010 and 2011 uprooted millions of rural households, hit the tribal and feudal structure in these impoverished provinces and also induced demographic changes. For the first time, these uprooted people lived the lives of their more urbane brethren, sent their children to schools and enjoyed healthcare despite being condemned to live in make-shift camps provided by international NGOs. Their standing crops were destroyed and a large number of flood victims were not ready to go to their ancestral homes. Hence demographic changes have taken place in cities such as Karachi and Hyderabad.

Since the creation of “New Pakistan” in 1972 when President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took over the reins of power and the kick started the “Dubai Syndrome”, millions of plumbers, technicians, labourers, doctors, nurses and engineers opted for the Middle East.

Their remittances brought rich dividends to their families back home but along with remittances came a conservative culture and a brand of religion that was radically different than the tolerant religion in the 1950s and 1960s when Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Parsees and other minorities lived in peace and harmony.

In sharp contrast to migrants who have moved to the US, Canada, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Sweden, Norway and other advanced western countries, overseas Pakistanis who toiled hard in the Middle East brought with them money - along with big doses of conservatism.

Little wonder that the Pakistani society was Talibanised. The conservative mindset not only asserted itself in the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) and the northern areas of Pakistan, but even in the country's financial hub Karachi that happens to be amongst the 10 largest cities of the world.

This mindset came to dominate the middle classes - lawyers, judiciary, doctors, journalists, teachers and even the armed forces. Little wonder that former Chief of the Army Staff and President General Pervez Musharraf failed miserably to undo the religious extremism promoted by Pakistan’s worst military dictator, General Zia ul Haq. The poisonous seeds sown by the general have now become a full-fledged, vast tree which is threatening the very fabric of the Pakistani society.

Ethnicity, sectarianism, intolerance and chaos prevalent in the country today are essentially remnants of the Zia era. It has manifested itself in many ways: there has been resistance to the anti-polio campaign and conspiracy theories dominate the thinking pattern in Pakistan today. The media, social media and civil society too have played a role. Greed has become the domin

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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

The right moves

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The inaugural hockey India league has hit the ground running with an eye on the goal ahead...
Years ago, when I saw my first hockey match in a stadium, the rot had already deepened. The introduction of AstroTurf had taken the game out of the realms of India and Pakistan, the traditional champs, and ushered in new champions in the form of Spain, Netherlands and closer home, South Korea. To set  things right, ESPN had devised Premier Hockey League (PHL) and it ran for three seasons before dying quietly. However, the experience was great. Unlike cricket, where you hardly get to see what's happening on the field, hockey is played as the close encounter. If you love the game, the experience of watching it on the field is unmatched.

However, sometime at the end of 2012, when Hockey India decided to start a league based broadly on the model of English Premiere League (EPL), frankly, I was not very excited. Another league, I thought? Only the previous year, at the star-studded World Series Hockey (WSH) matches, I saw officials selling tickets at discounts outside the stadium.

By early January, my cynicism deepened and turned into pure frustration. With only two weeks to go, the official website of Hockey India League (HIL) remained static with no information about dates, players, venues or tickets. However, a week before the tournament, somebody realised that these was important information and suddenly the website and the tournament's Wikipedia pages came alive. The nation was set for a superb hockey experience.

Let's talk about the structure first. The very idea of each team playing three matches against the other team with two or one match at home and similar numbers away, gave the tournament the desired respect. Unless you do home and away matches as is done in football, nobody takes the game seriously. Also, it was decided that unlike the EPL where all the matches are done on a round-robin basis, HIL will have semi-finals, play offs and a final match to bring in more excitement. Technically speaking, this might lead to some undeserved heartbreak with the best team losing in the knockouts, but it will indeed bring more spectators.

Talking of spectators, in all the five matches I watched in Delhi, there was no dearth of enthusiasm. The opening day saw a turnout of 11,000 where as all the other matches drew a crowd of somewhere between 5000-9000. That might not look enthusiastic but to put it in perspective, the matches of PHL and WSH never drew more than 2000. In fact, the attendance at the WSH was in the lower hundreds. What is great about HIL is not merely the numbers, but also the quality of spectators. In every match, you could easily see that even in the general stands, people around you knew the nuances of the game.

 I was surprised to see kids as young as nine or ten actually follow players from the Netherlands or Spain to the point that they knew their local clubs in their respective countries. Another clear distinction that can be made here is that spectators who turned up loved hockey as a game and not just India. In a clear contrast, a typical Ranji Trophy match draws merely a fraction because there is no “India” to support, so to say.

After the rickety start, the quality of the matches improved exponentially to achieve world class standards that was expected from it. I cannot begin to say how helpful this tournament is for young hockey players from the subcontinent (hopefully Pakistani players will play in the next edition). Playing with the likes of Jamie Dwyer, Moritz Fürste, Teun de Nooijer, Jaap Stockmann, Ashley Jackson, Joel Carroll, Lloyd Norris-Jones, Nicolas Jacobi, Andrew Bel Mir and Simon Child, among others, will do a world of good to the youngsters. It is evident that these foreign players have lifted the level of the game and have prompted Indian players to match their commitment. Already, the tournament has found stars in the likes of Mandeep Singh, Manpreet Singh, Malek Singh and Imran Khan.

Another important aspect is field formation. India and Pakistan are typically known to play 5-3-2-1 matrix where defenders hardly cross the mid-line. However, in HIL, almost every team preferred the 3-4-3-1 matrix or a variation thereof. The idea is to hammer in the concept that in hockey, you have 10 defenders and 10 forwards. So, for a typical 70 minutes of an HIL match, everyone is a  fullback, halfback, midfield/inner and striker. This works for AstroTurf and will do India much good. Also, most of the matches are scheduled late in the evening. It is because of these small changes that the matches have turned exciting, bringing in both spectators and viewership. TAM data suggested that among the non-cricket tournaments, HIL bagged the highest viewership, beating even the recently held European Football Cup. The environment in the stadium too was exhilarating, to say the least.

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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

Beyond recommendations

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Recommendations for changing rape laws might gathering dust

Time and again, the anomalies and inefficiencies of the Indian laws and judicial system have been exposed. Often, justice has been far from served. Moreover, law and governance have failed to keep the growing crime rate under check or act as a deterrent. The increasing number of crime cases against women (more so in Delhi) is a case in point here. As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), rape is the biggest crime in India with 24,206 cases registered in 2011 (22,172 in 2010). Moreover, the dismal conviction rate – at a mere 26 per cent between 2008 and 2011 – is a bigger worry.

Many would argue that this is a trivial number in comparison to the cases registered in some of the Western countries like Sweden, England or even the US. But the reality is, in the Western countries, the definition of rape covers a much broader crime cases related to sexual assault. For instance, British law considers any form of sexual assault as rape. In Scotland, intentionally touching a woman sexually or coercing a person to be present during a sexual activity to humiliate the person is also considered as rape. In India, only sexual intercourse is considered as rape and is punishable under Section 376 of the IPC – any other forms of sexual assault is charged under Section 354 (outraging a women’s modesty) which is bailable. Due to such an expansive application, many cases of rape go unreported – that is, if the police even agree to record the crime.

However, the government seems to have finally woken up on the backdrop of massive protests in the capital after the recent brutal gang-rape case. A committee headed by Justice JS Verma was formed to suggest amendments in the IPC by studying the best practices from the Western countries to make it more stringent to prevent rape cases. The committee received an overwhelming 80,000 suggestion from advocates, judges, police, politicians, NGOs and activists. Although the report has done away with capital punishment or chemical castration, the severity of punishment has been increased to lifelong imprisonment and the punishment for gang-rape cases has been increased to 20 years minimum from seven. For repeating the crime, a life-term in jail has been suggested. The committee has also recommended a Bill of Rights for women to be introduced on the lines of what is practised in New Zealand and South Africa. The fact remains that many committee recommendations have never been formally accepted. Of course, more than laws, literacy and changes in civic mind-set are imperative to increase the respect for women; yet, the change would start only once the recommendations are finally made into law.

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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

How will the ‘Age of Big Data’ affect management?

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Will access to Big Data further enable fact-based decision-making or analysis paralysis? Will analytics, as well as the supply of analytics-savvy managers, so badly lag ‘big data’ that it will only lead to confusion and misguided decisions? An exclusive HBS Working Knowledge article.

Ideas and trends converge from time to time in a way that suggests the possible shape of the future. Sometimes I think I can comprehend what they may mean. But other times I know I need help. This is one of those times.

Just two decades ago, we didn’t have Google and other information sources; storage constraints would not have permitted Google to provide everyday access to the ‘world’s information’. If we had had the information, we couldn’t have accessed it effectively anyway. Email systems were not widely available, let alone mobile devices with capacity to access the data. Now the capacity to store and access information through cloud computing is so great that we are entering a post-Google era in which new organisations like Factual (founded by a former Google employee) have set as their goal that of providing access to all of the world’s facts. Presumably this means data such as the location of every factory in the world, data that has not already been massaged and spun. Some facts have to be acquired and organised. Other facts are generated by so-called digital sensors operating worldwide in industrial equipment, autos, and the like. By linking the sensors, an ‘industrial Internet’ can be created. These trends appear to have ‘opportunity’ written all over them, particularly for those who are training now for jobs in data analytics. In addition to less wasteful marketing efforts (we should be able to know, for example, ‘which half’ of advertising is effective, thereby making an old marketing saw obsolete), they should produce more effective business strategies and inject added certainty into the appraisal of opportunities for new business startups. Furthermore, analytics (not the data) should be a source of continuing competitive advantage. In his new book, Charles Duhigg describes how the retailer Target uses data on consumption patterns to discern and address promotions to pregnant customers, perhaps even before they’ve announced their pregnancy to friends (and Target competitors). This is particularly important because pregnancy is one of those life events associated with significant shifts in consumption habits.

A problem is that the shortage of experts in data analytics (some call them ‘data whisperers’) is so acute that it may be years before a sufficient supply can be trained. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that up to 190,000 are needed now in US, along with 1.5 million managers capable of using their work. The shortage appears to be growing along with the potential for competitive advantage associated with data analytics.

This all raises many questions. Will the age of big data eliminate most or all uncertainty from business decisions for those most able to make effective use of ‘all the facts in the world?’ Will it fuel the next ‘gold rush’ for talent in a quest for competitive advantage? Will analytics, as well as the supply of analytics-savvy managers, so badly lag ‘big data’ that it will only lead to confusion and misguided decisions? Or is this just the latest management fad? How, if at all, should this affect education for management? What do you think?

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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

Nothing wrong in wanting to get richer

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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

I maintain that there is nothing wrong with a youngster who is aspiring to make a lot of money as long as it is via legal and ethical means. You cannot become a saint at 20 and you shouldn’t. What is important is for you to realise that by seeking respect from every stakeholder, you will actually become richer in wealth. That is the trick that we all have to follow. That is why, right in 1981 when we started the business, I said that we must seek resect from everyone – right from customers to investors to vendor partners to employees to government to the society at large. If we sought that kind of respect, we would not short change anyone. We would adopt the finest principles of corporate governance, be fair to our colleagues, not violate any law of the land, pay our taxes properly and create goodwill with the society. We went ahead with the thought process that if we follow these tenets, revenues, profits and market capitalisation will automatically come. We said that we will separate management from ownership of shareholding and also laid down a fundamental principle that none of our family members will take up a non-merit based role in the company. So there is nothing wrong with youngsters seeking a path to get richer; all I am saying is that there are multiple paths to get richer. And one of the paths that this company has found to be effective is to seek respect.

The people I chose to partner me in this venture were chosen because they had very similar value systems. They were part of my team at Patni. Since equity, fairness, respect, value systems, et al were paramount to my mind, I took an unprecedented decision of making them equal stakeholders in the business. I have not come across any entrepreneur who picked up people with 1-1.5 years experience and gave them 15% equity. I have not seen any other case in the history of global business. Why did I do it? I did it because I believed in equity, encouraging youngsters and having good values. Even at the national level, I do strongly believe that these values will make India a better place.

When we started Infosys in 1981, India was a very different place as compared to what it is today. First of all, there was huge friction to business in the 1980s. For example, it was very difficult to get a bank loan. When we wanted to import our first computer, we went to multinational banks seeking finance – Citibank, Bank of America… where my nephew and my friends worked. They said, “We don’t give money to you guys. We only give money to very rich people.” These were the MNC banks. The Indian banks were also sceptical. Finally, we got funded by the state financial institutions. Secondly, in those days, infrastructure was very poor. It would take us two-three years to get a telephone connection. Thirdly, there were no data communication facilities in those days. We used to sometimes fax the source code to US. Fourthly, travelling outside India required approvals from the RBI as we did not have current account convertibility. We couldn’t hire consultants from outside India in quality, brand building, et al. Those are all taken for granted today. Today, it is all about competing in the marketplace based on innovation and based on how market-worthy you really are. Therefore, there is a lot of difference between the 1980s and today, and for the better.

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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

Ever heard of a loss-making cartel?

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Kingfisher is desperate for cash flow. Spicejet is aiming at market share. Jet desires to get back to its old profit-making habit. IndiGo wants to win through discounting. And Air India is simply paralysed. In such an unstable environment, will the formation of a cartel to control price satisfy the varied agendas of our aviators?
 
Economic crises breed dark ideologies. That is as true for Indian domestic carriers as it was in the case of global financial powerhouses that were forced to fall to their knees when times got tough.

Years of competent planning and incompetent execution caused havoc in the Indian domestic airline circuit. Bleeding financials, consolidations in the name of survival, illogical price wars and millions of rupees worth of checks defaulted are proof of this. And in the past few years there have been many-an-instance when the Competition Commission of India (CCI) was sent an alert that an enquiry into the activities of domestic airlines needed to be activated to check whether ethically, they are headed in the right direction. Both in 2010 and 2011, CCI gave a clean chit to airlines in India in this respect. But doubts still prevail.

Even today (in October and November this year), wisemen claim that in their attempt to turn over a new leaf, the carriers are involving themselves in an act of monopoly creation, setting floor prices, killing demand and working together behind closed doors to earn fat margins.

Such claims make it hard for onlookers to live peacefully. That the full-service carriers (FSCs) make it hard for no-frills (LCCs) to decide independently on entry price slabs isn’t amusing. There is some truth in their claims. In the past quarter (Q3, 2012), demand fell due to price hikes by airlines in the country (traffic stood at 12.61 million - a 11.16% dip y-o-y). This fall in demand, which experts claim is alarming, actually, isn’t. And the fact that demand hasn’t shrunk despite floor fares rising anywhere between 15-80% across various sectors y-o-y is good news for airline cartels operating in the country.

Various studies have attempted to arrive at a conclusive benchmark figure to explain price-demand elasticity (Ep) in the airline industry. As per a December 2007 report titled, ‘Estimating Air Travel Demand Elasticities’ by InterVISTAS, elasticities of air travel range between -1.24 to -2.34 (as concluded by Oum, Zhang, and Zhang). Another study by Oum and Yong of the Unversity of California, Berkeley, titled, ‘Concepts of Price Elasticities of Transport Demand and Recent Empirical Estimates’, puts this figure between -1.15 and -1.52. IATA adopted an econometric approach to bring out a more accurate estimation. The figure arrived at? -1.3 to -1.5 for the Intra-Asia market. At present, the busiest Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Bangalore, Delhi-Kolkata and Mumbai-Bangalore routes account for over 60% of domestic traffic. Air fares on these routes have increased by over 50% since December last! How should this translate into demand fall? Going by IATA’s calculated Ep of -1.3, price hikes on these four routes alone should have caused demand to fall by 65%. Assuming that prices across other hubs and spokes have remained the same since the start of 2012 (which obviously isn’t true, given that a one-month advance air ticket price on a hub-spoke route like Delhi-Guwahati has increased by 55% in the past year), the four busiest routes alone should have caused overall air demand to fall by about 40% (39% to be precise). That obviously hasn’t happened. For the first nine months of 2012, demand has fallen only by 0.99% y-o-y. Conclusion: economics fails to explain why the fall has been marginal. If the conspiracy theory is true, and airlines actually are functioning in a cartel and fixing prices, then it has benefitted them. Not a bad outcome for a loss-making sector! But as we said before, it’s a theory on paper. At least till the CCI proves someone guilty.

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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

Can Us afford to go over the fiscal cliff?

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With President Obama’s re-election, the countdown begins for lawmakers to address the 2013 fiscal cliff and the Treasury’s statutory debt limit. But unless the President and House Republicans agree to change the current law, these crises cannot be resolved.

It’s been just three weeks since US President Barack Obama won the re-election, but a doubt whether he can forge a productive second term in a divided political system has already started doing the rounds across political arenas. No doubt, the Presidency is settled, but little else is. Policy uncertainty has been one of the biggest obstacles to Uncle Sam’s economic growth over the past few years, and the outcome of the recent Presidential election is unlikely to change much. The scenario could become even worse as Washington’s fiscal debate intensifies. Reason: President Obama has two big decisions to make and that too by early 2013.

The first is what to do about the so-called fiscal cliff – the substantial tax increases and government spending cuts scheduled to hit next year under current law. The second is how to achieve fiscal sustainability; that is, what long-term tax and spending changes will make future budget deficits small enough so that the nation’s debt-to-GDP ratio (103% of US GDP) stabilises. What Obama decides today will determine how the US economy performs tomorrow.

The fiscal cliff describes what will happen if the Bush-era tax cuts, this year’s payroll-tax holiday, and the emergency unemployment insurance programme all expire on schedule, just as government spending drops according to the terms of last summer’s deal to raise the Treasury debt ceiling. Those would be on top of several temporary tax and spending adjustments that Congress normally extends each year, affecting the Alternative Minimum Tax (the so-called “AMT patch”) and Medicare’s reimbursement schedule for doctors (known as the “Medicare doc fix”). If policymakers do nothing before the end 2012, the resulting tax increases and spending cuts will total $715 billion in 2013, equal to about 4.3% of GDP.

Fiscal sustainability is attained when a country’s debt grows in tandem with its GDP. The Great Recession, by contrast, resulted in a near doubling of the US debt-to-GDP ratio over the past five years. If the fiscal policy remains unchanged, the debt load will continue to outpace growth, eventually triggering an economic crisis. Under reasonable economic assumptions, Obama needs to reduce the annual budget deficits by $3 trillion over the next decade to attain fiscal sustainability. This amount includes the $1 trillion in spending cuts agreed to as part of last summer’s increase in the Treasury debt ceiling, but not the $1 trillion in automatic spending cuts, known as sequestration, that also were part of that deal. If Obama makes these necessary changes, deficits by 2020 will equal no more than 3% of GDP. Given the expected pace of GDP growth, that will stabilise the debt-to-GDP ratio.

Going by this logic, the solution to Uncle Sam’s problem seems to be simple. Obama should decide to do nothing, stick to current law, and let the nation go over the fiscal cliff. This would solve the fiscal sustainability problem: Higher tax revenues and lower spending would make future budget deficits small enough to bring the debt-to-GDP ratio back on track. Sounds like a great plan, but only on paper. In reality, the cost of this option would be another recession in 2013. In fact, the Moody’s Analytics model of the US economy shows that going over the cliff would cut real GDP by 3.6%, below what it would be if current policies were extended next year. This outlook may be optimistic, but the risks are definitely greater on the downside. The US economy is pathetically fragile at the moment. While unemployment rate is still over 8%, the trend in the three months through October shows manufacturing down more than 3% year-on-year, the worst outcome of the recovery till date. In fact, there are several such scenarios which can nullify the initial positive effect on fiscal sustainability.

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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

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The scope for resettlement and rehabilitation

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Even after much delay over a controversial bill on land acquisitions, the same questions over the extent of required consent and the scope for resettlement and rehabilitation continue to obstruct the creation of a sound law

Even otherwise, it has been observed that the bill has been heavily diluted. “It is extremely unfortunate that putting aside every possible democratic precedent and institutions, progressive pronouncements of the Supreme Court, the UPA government is bringing a law to legitimise forcible acquisitions by the government for private and PPP projects in the name of development,” says Medha Patkar, leader of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM). NAPM’s opposition to the bill in its current form, is based on the fact that it fails to accommodate key recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee comprising members from different political parties. The standing committee on land acquisitions has said that no acquisition should be allowed for private and PPP projects. “Small benefits like a house plot to those displaced are being taken away by increasing the time of residence from three years to five years prior to displacement,” said NAPM in September. It further pointed out that a separate legislation on urban evictions and displacement was the only way out.

Reportedly, Jairam had convinced Sonia that the new Bill has the best Resettlement & Rehabilitation (R&R) package as it covers families of all farmers, landless and livelihood losers who have resided in the area for five years or more with a house or one-time financial grant in lieu thereof plus annuity of Rs.2,000 per month per family for 20 years, adjustable to inflation, or employment. However, the UPA chairperson is said to have insisted that the broad contours of the bill drawn up by the National Advisory Council were in public interest and should not be rejected ‘because of lobbying by the vested interests’. Other dilutions in the bill from its earlier form include compensation of four times the land value and not six times as proposed earlier. Land size thresholds on private purchases have also been left to the discretion of states instead of the 100 acre in rural and 50 acre in urban areas decided earlier.

Rajagopal says that the biggest problem with the bill is that it refuses to see the sufferings of the people. “It is more progressive than the first one. But again, it is not a land redistribution bill, it is a land acquisition bill. That is my problem – without considering land redistribution as a major agenda, the government is acquiring land for industry,” he says.

Recently, a group of farmers, who met the rural development minister also sought stringent provisions for acquiring farm land. Disappointed with the watering down of the draft of the bill by the GoM, the farmers who had come together under the banner of Kissan Mahasangh, said that while initially, land owners had given up surplus land to the landless immediately after independence to help establish a social set up with equitable assets and opportunities, it was ironical that laws are being made to facilitate accumulation of thousands of acres of land by private companies and individuals. “Over 300 SEZs have come up on the fertile land of farmers who have not benefited from them in any way. As per the Ministry of Finance the nation has lost over Rs.1.63 trillion in revenues till 2010,” the delegation has claimed. That the delegation has also objected to the acquisition of land for private companies; creation of land pool of unutilised land and leaving the decision of the calculation compensation of land vague, was confirmed by Devinder Seharawat, the co- convener of the Kissan Mahasangh.

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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