Living and the dead

The mysterious death of Khalid Mujahid in UP is a template for all that is wrong in the war against terror.Puja Awasthi reports
In death, Khalid Mujahid has a voice louder than the living. A voice, spoken in many tongues, that is threatening to shout down the Samajwadi Party government which finds itself in a bind over his custodial death. In the state which tops the ignoble list of such deaths, the tragedy of Mujahid (see box), a madarsa teacher from Jaunpur, 250 kilometre from the state’s capital Lucknow, is not just another statistic but a template for all that is wrong in the war against terror.

The FIR filed by Mujahid’s uncle Zaheer Alam Falahi names two former DGPs- Brij Lal and Vikram Singh (in addition to Manoj Kumar Jha,Chiranjeev Nath Sinha and S Anand) and the Intelligence Bureau as accused in a conspiracy to kill Mujahid. Vikram Singh who was the state’s DGP in 2007, stands by the arrests. “We broke the back of the terrorists. UP has been quiet ever since. We are on a high moral and legal ground”, he says.

Yet human rights organisations believe that if the case were to be investigated impartially, a proverbial can of worms would open. By logical extension, all the arrests that happened only on ‘leads’ provided by Mujahid and Tariq Qazmi would also be under a scanner, as would police claims of successfully working out terror cases.

Rajeev Yadav, spokesperson of the Rihai Manch-a forum for the release of Muslims jailed on terror charges says,“This is not an investigation into one case. It raises policy questions- why is the Intelligence Bureau doing what it is? Under what pressures is it working?”

Outwardly the government shows no signs of being perturbed. But the overtures are telling—an offer of security to Mohd Shoaib and Randhir Singh Suman (respective lawyers for Qazmi and Mujahid) and Rajeev Yadav, and a compensation for Mujahid’s family. The security cover was refused and the compensation turned down. The latter is also being challenged by a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) which argues that since Mujahid is still a terrorist in the government’s records, his family must deserve what comes its way. “These are just ploys to silence us”, says Shoaib. The government’s measures have come in fits, as it seems desperate to be seen doing something, doing anything for an important vote bank. While there is no word from the CBI on the inquiry, a committee of the Home Secretary and the ADG Power Corporation is also probing the incident as is the chief judicial magistrate of Faizabad.

Yet suspicions keep growing. “The government’s intentions were always doubtful. The half measures for Khalid's release ensured that he became a threat to the police. He would have been a prime witness in investigations into his arrest. How could they have let him live?” asks Falahi. The ‘half measures’ he speaks of, include the holding back of the Nimesh Commission report. That report is a key document in shedding light on the role of the police in the arrests. As half substantiated leaks flow out, Mujahid has acquired the tag ‘shaheed’ and a motley group of self servers are being drawn to it. Among them, Maulana Bukhari who has demanded that an independent agency, not the CBI, conduct the inquiry and an employment offer figure in the compensation package being offered to the family. Some emotion was also sought to be whipped by mentions of Mujahid’s deeply anguished widow who in fact does not exist. The BJP has piped in with a promise to side with the suspended police officials, not specifying what it would do, while another PIL has been filed to seek quashing of the suspensions as they had happened arbitrarily.

The only undisputed fact in this maze is that the fight against terror is flawed. Take the case of Walliulah Obaid Qazmi sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2009 for the Varanasi bomb blasts of 2006. Qazmi was convicted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act but let off from the more serious charges of waging war against the state, criminal conspiracy and sedition. The debate on whether he got away lightly because of sloppy investigation or paid for a crime he did not commit, has not ceased. As such debates grow so does the possibility of political manipulations and public discontent.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Nirbhaya's Ballia

This place boasts of a Prime Minister called Chandrasekhar. It is also 'hometown' to India's most talked about gang rape victim Nirbhaya. Puja Awasthi travels across Ballia to find aspirational Bharat clashing with resurgent India

“Myself, Shilpi Pandey. I am prepare for BHU Mass Communication and journalism admission (sic)”, bubbles the 21-year-old who lives in Sri Ram Vihar Colony in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia. Like Pandey, there is at least one member from every family in this midsized colony studying English at the branch of what is locally advertised as ‘India’s largest institute of spoken English’. Pandey spent three months -- two hours for five days every week — at the institute to fix a lack of confidence and came out convinced that she had finally set out on the path to a bright future, her ‘bright’ being a career in the television industry. “I will do whatever it takes and go wherever I have to,” she says with admirable determination once the conversation has settled into Hindi- a language she is more comfortable with.

Some 40 km from Pandey’s home, in the village of Medourah Kalan, that dream to make it big has propelled a few members from almost each of its 500 families to seek a life outside the district which offers few employment opportunities, despite being dotted by some 80 degree colleges. The victim of the gang rape that happened on December 16, 2012 in Delhi, belonged to one such family.

“When the incident happened, girls were scared to go to college which is 10 kilometres from here. But staying back is not an option. Development has not come to us. There is no future here”, says Paras Nath Yadav, the 40-year-old former pradhan of the village.

Yadav’s two brothers live and work elsewhere and he admits that had it not been for an early political initiation, he too would have quit.

Back in Ballia, Rajeev Kumar, the head of the political science department at the Shri Murli Manohar Town PG College sits in his airy, first floor office where a gleaming slim screen computer rests atop a dusty table, and explains that an acute feeling of insecurity is driving migration in the district’s 90 per cent-plus rural population. “Half of those who work as farmers do not own land. They suffer forced labour and sexual exploitation. Despite the river (Ganga) changing course, land surveys have not been re-done. Local elites have been permitted a free run in establishing unlawful control over land. Trapped in such dismal circumstances, low castes migrate with the hope that hard work elsewhere will allow them a chance at a decent life. In the case of the middle class, it is the spirit to exert which is at work”, he says. An example of that spirit having outpaced what the district has to offer is served by Kumar’s own work place where the library is in the process of being digitalised and the campus is being turned into a Wi Fi zone despite 10-hour electricity cuts being the norm. Below his office, girls make a beeline to fill in forms that will make them eligible for the state government’s free laptop scheme (aimed at those who cleared their class 12 examinations last year), but none of those questioned have an answer to how the machines will work in the absence of power. “That is why I want to get out”, says a science undergraduate. Fair point.

The push factors for migration (ie lack of employment opportunities) that work so forcefully in Ballia, are not unique to it. They spread across Uttar Pradesh, which makes up the largest slice of rural and urban interstate migrations that have contributed to adding approximately 22 million new people to the population of destination cities, of which Delhi remains the most popular.

In 1983, it was to Delhi that Badri Singh, the father of the gang rape victim migrated in search of a better life. Working double shifts as a loader with a private airline and getting less than five hours of sleep a night, he had made peace with the realisation that while the better life would skip him, it would definitely come to his three children.

It is the tantalising possibility of this promise that feeds the migratory stream despite lowly skilled migrants mostly ending up in ghettos and drawing the ire of original inhabitants of the destination city. The perpetrators of the December 16 crime in Delhi which rocked an entire nation, also migrants from small towns and villages, were the ugly consequence of a fading of that promise and the resulting economic, social and psychological deprivation.

Yet, with each generation, the illusion of the promise grows more fantastic.“In big cities, it is easier to get returns on your hard work. You are not known for your caste. Your qualification and your job speak for you”, offers 17-year-old Vivek Singh who is a first year student of commerce at a local college. He is aiming for a “MBA with good marks” after which he hopes to find a “manager’s job in a financial company”.  His reference point is an uncle who is in the army, not his father who is a teacher.

To underscore his point on caste, Singh says that while the whole world was raising its voice in support of the 23- year-old Delhi gang rape victim, in Ballia, she was still defined by her standing in the caste hierarchy. “We took out a candle march and burned some effigies, but there was constant talk about her caste, and about her parent’s failure to control her. Imagine that happening in a big city where factories are well developed”, he asks, connecting economic prosperity with a more inclusive social milieu.

In the course of a day spent in Ballia, this is not the sole disturbing observation on the Delhi gang rape victim. Says Ramendra Dwivedi, a local journalist,“There was a muted but palpable sense of resentment that a family of lowly standing had garnered undue attention. The question kya mila (what did the family get) was of greatest interest. The conflict between big city values and small city aspirations was marked.” Dwivedi’s observation points to the complicated relationship between migration and acculturation, a relationship burdened by loss, alienation, dislocation and isolation. It hinges on a complicated equation--clinging to the security of a native identity hawked through culture and caste-based associations while reworking old ties through an economic lens.

Much of the blame for the lack of opportunities lies with the government. In the cause and effect logic of economic activity, the absence of basic infrastructure has turned industry off the region. Thus, while the per capita income of western Uttar Pradesh stands at Rs 15,869, 21 districts of eastern UP have an income of only Rs 9,288 per person.

Industry experts believe that focused hard sell can improve the districts’ economy, as the western region is saturated with industries. In the absence of that focus, eastern UP’s income has remained worse than even that of Bundelkhand which with a per capita income of Rs 12,878 attracts special packages from the centre and the state—a regional anomaly that is explained in part by the more acute nature of distress in Bundelkhand where debt and drought have fuelled farmers’ suicides and captured political imagination. The state’s freshly announced ‘New Infrastructure and Industrial Investment Policy, 2012’ which offers 100 percent exemption in stamp duty and a capital interest subsidy scheme for industries set up in the eastern districts of the state, is yet to yield results. Only the proposed airport at Kushinagar has drawn investor interest for its tourism affecting potential.

More specifically, of the 104 Industrial Entrepreneurs Memoranda (IEM) the initial application for approval to start an industry, filed between April 1, 2012 and January 31, 2013, not a single one proposes an industry for Ballia or for any of the other eastern district except Varanasi and Sonebhadra. This is a telling contrast to Noida, which has attracted 35 new proposals. Even the 1,047 km Ganga Expressway—an access controlled eight lane project that was announced in 2007, to connect Ballia to Noida and thus fuel a more even growth, has been stalled in court.

Ballia’s most recent cause for dissent came from this year’s Railway budget which announced a bi-weekly train to Delhi, but selected its point of origin in Mau (71 kilometres from Ballia), despite representations to the ministry that a train be introduced from Ballia in memory of the bahadur beti (brave daughter) as she is locally referred to.

Krishna Kumar Upadhyay, better known by his moniker `Kaptan’ is the convenor of the Purvanchal Vikas Manch, a body demanding statehood for the state’s eastern region. He connects the example of the train to the other slights that are regularly handed to Ballia. “From the inability to procure land to the disinterest of entrepreneurs, from the non-feasibility of having a medical university to the administrative logic of not setting up a university —there is always a ready answer for why things cannot happen in Ballia”, he says as he prepares to leave for Delhi to press for a route change for the train and demand a 50 per cent reservation quota for Ballia on it.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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The Curious Case of Imran Khan

Years ago when Imran Khan decided to join the political fray in Pakistan, he acted and sounded like a novice. More like a starry eyed teenager eager to please everyone than a seasoned cynical politico who knows the nuances of the game. Almost two decades later now, he has barely changed. But the political contours of Pakistan have. And that is why, just days before the historic general elections in Pakistan, Imran Khan has turned relevant, and uncomfortably so.

While the jury is still out whether Imran Khan and his PTI will manage to win the election or at least do well, what is certain that he will not remain at the sidelines as he was in the previous polls. In a nation where frenzies are whipped as easily as it can be, Imran Khan indeed expanded his base after years of dedication. The so called Imran Khan Tsunami that people are talking these days started with barely registered ripples in Pakistan’s otherwise volatile political water.

So, what has made Imran Khan so relevant? The answer is, changing times and demography. Asif Ali Zardari’s PPP indeed became part of the history by becoming the only elected government in Pakistan to complete its term. However, apart from that, it has pretty little to show or talk about. Its five years tenure has been marred by an economic freefall, spate of bombings and suicide attacks, energy crisis and more. Meanwhile, a whole new lot of youngsters have blotted the electoral rolls. This new, urbane and upwardly mobile, group has decidedly different aspiration from its preceding generations. But like most of the other places in the world, this generation is also dangerously apolitical, and proud about it. For such a generation, Imran Khan came as an obvious choice.

A man with the supposed magic-wand. A man who dwells on the surface of a problem and refuse to probe deeper. A man who gives simple (or rather simpleton) solutions to complex problems. In short, suitably suited for this generation.

For example, while he is a vociferous opponent of Drone attacks in Pakistan, he is clueless about what alternative options can Pakistan choose to replace this. Or, while he is a great advocate of dialogue with Taliban, he fails to mention how previous attempts to engage them in dialogue have only given them time to regroup and strengthen their position. Every uneasy answer is buried. No surprise that he caught the fancy of this generation.

But that is not to say that Imran Khan is merely a construct of circumstances. To insinuate that would be callous. If Imran Khan has made himself relevant in the ethnicity ridden South Asian politics, it says a lot about the man’s character.

“As such, Khan is a departure from leaders who hail from political dynasties, such as the Bhuttos or the Sharifs, and boast immense rural landholdings. Since the PTI boycotted the 2008 general elections and has no representation in parliament, the party's record is also clean. Khan is thus better positioned than the PML-N to denounce the corrupt practices of "Mr. Ten Percent," as Pakistan's President and co-chairman of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Asif Ali Zardari is widely known,” says noted Pakistani political commentator, Huma Yusuf.

Your correspondent had a chance to see his impact in Karachi, a city that epitomises ethnic fissures in Pakistan. In a city where voters have traditionally voted either for MQM, ANP or PPP depending on whether they are ethnic Urdu speakers, Pashtuns or Sindhi, and where voting away from the ethnic line is considered even worse than betrayal, Imran Khan has attracted votes across ethnicity. Although he is still expected to bag more of Pashtun votes than those of Mohajirs, it is no surprise that he has made a mentionable dent in both ANP as well as MQM’s vote.

It is because the issues he raises are of national and international importance and affect average Pakistanis in more ways than one. Take for example his opposition to America’s involvement in Pakistan in particular and the region in general.

“Anti-American rhetoric is common among Islamist hard-liners and religious party leaders, but Khan’s urbane appeal as a former cricketer who won international acclaim means he can reach a wider, less religious audience and position himself as the acceptable face of anti-Americanism,” says Badar Alam, editor of Pakistan’s Herald Magazine. “When mullahs talk, people don't stop to listen. "But when a Western educated clean-shaven man does the same, it does suit them.”

Also, compared to both Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan can actually brag his selflessness. For example when Parvez Musharraf asked him to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan, he promptly refused. It was a rare gesture in a region where seasoned statesmen have been known to become Prime Minister for as less as 13 days even when it was clear to them that they will not be able to gather the requisite numbers to survive.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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The unputdownable!

Subrata Roy Sahara should come out winning on all fronts in the current face-off with SEBI! And why the erroneous Supreme Court judgment against Sahara goes beyond Parliamentary Acts and is being misused by SEBI to its own benefit! BY Arindam Chaudhuri

There are a few things about Subrata Roy Sahara that even his harshest critics accept. That the man is a visionary – his mammoth investments in media, housing, hotel, sports and other industries being compelling evidence. That his open assertions of being a patriot have their weight in the various behemoth social initiatives undertaken by his group – with no apologies to the slanted English media in India which, I feel, hypocritically slanders anyone who represents the ‘other’ India (lest you should forget, it was this very media that shamelessly reported gossip a few years ago about him being ‘critically ill’ and on his deathbed; no surprises then that the same English media chose to ignore reporting how sprightly he was while meeting UK Prime Minister David Cameron a few weeks back in a closed door meeting discussing educational and research initiatives). And yes, that the man religiously knows his numbers and has a financial acumen that is better than the combined intellect of all Indian regulators in the industries where he operates.

There are a few things about India that even its damnedest supporters don’t deny. That the License Raj era spewed out a few handfuls of family businesses that shamelessly chewed away the very idea of India, criminally sucking it hollow by monopolising industries, encouraged by corruption soaked politicians – and encouraging them in return. That this venomous combination over the decades led to a jaundiced India that today has hundreds of millions of illiterate people below the poverty line; that has no global brands to speak of, but many billionaires borne out of the excesses of the License Raj era (I call most of them ‘blood billionaires’, given that they’ve made the money on the blood of Indians). That the same group of blood billionaires, in cahoots with a similar group of corrupt bureaucrats (regulators included) and politicians, have fought and will fight tooth and nail, criminally and illegally, to ensure that there is no new honest and ethical claimant to their industry space, especially if such an entrepreneur were from the proletariat.

That Subrata Roy Sahara titles himself as the Managing Worker of his group only adds to the ire of India’s caustic bourgeoisie, which, hand in hand with the English media, would be loath to have such an unabashed community representative of workers amongst their well ‘oiled’ and ‘greased’ group. So every time Subrata Roy Sahara and his likes attempt to tread the path of diligent and astute effort – assuming the same equated to returns – they’re pulled down acerbically and vindictively by the group representing the old, feudal India. You see, this group believes that only they know how India should be run and by whom. Look around and you’ll see many examples strewn across India of how honest upstarts have been trampled upon by the powers that be before they could gain ground – wherever there has been anyone attempting to improve the condition of India, they’ve had a horde of regulatory, tax, police and judicial bodies running up their door to initiate the so-called enquiries and ‘search’.

The current face-off that Subrata Roy Sahara has with SEBI actually exemplifies all this too well. A group that has issued OFCDs (Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures) since the year 2001 with all relevant government permissions, and which has regularly submitted all details as required by the concerned government authorities, suddenly gets a prohibitory order from SEBI in November 2010 against the OFCDs issued by two unlisted group companies (Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd. and Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd.) – and this despite the fact that just seven months before that, SEBI had, through its own communication to Ministry of Corporate Affairs, commented that as these were unlisted companies and had not filed a draft red herring prospectus with SEBI, any complaint with respect to these two companies should be handled by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. What changed between April and November 2010 that led SEBI to issue such expansive orders without appropriate investigation? Especially when, as per SEBI’s own rules, they had and have no role to play in the case of unlisted companies that have no intention to list in the future. Was it that the Commonwealth Games scam and the telecom scam (both of which reached their zenith in mid-to-late-2010), was getting too hot to handle for the parties in power and they needed diversionary tactics?

SEBI was undone by some scrupulous individuals within the system itself. In December 2010, the Department of Legal Affairs, Government of India, noted in its official report (FTS No.4140/LS/2010), “The company in the given case being [an] unlisted company and not intending to get its securities listed...cannot be said to have gone in the fold of SEBI by merely becoming a group company of an unrelated separate company which has no intention to get its shares listed...” Ministry of Corporate Affairs, in its written submission to the Allahabad High Court in 2010, mentioned, “The issuance of OFCD [by] the petitioner company after the registration with the Registrar of Companies has been permissible under law. The Central Government remains the regulating authority for the company.” The Additional Solicitor General of India, Mohan Parasaran, in his official opinion note dated February 8, 2011, confirmed with extreme clarity after documenting multiple pages of logic, “For the reasons mentioned above and in my considered view, SEBI has no jurisdiction over unlisted companies like the Sahara Group of Companies, which are not intending to get themselves listed.” Two days later, in an official noting, the Minister of Corporate Affairs, Veerappa Moily, noted, “I agree with [the] Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran.” It should be noted that Parasaran is now the Solicitor General of India.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Bogged down by capacity constraints

Given the growth in cargo traffic and maritime trade, ports in India are in urgent need of capacity augmentation in order to meet the country’s growing economic needs and also to grow its share of international trade.

India, which has a long and meandering coastline stretching 7,500 kms, expects its ports – 13 major ports and around 200 non-major ones spread across the nine maritime states that dot its western and eastern corridors – to demonstrate efficiencies to sustain the demands of its growing international trade. About 95% by volume and 70% by value of the country’s international trade is carried on through maritime transport. Over the past decade, Indian ports have seen a sharp surge in traffic, which grew four-fold to 9.7 million TEU (One TEU represents the cargo capacity of a standard intermodal container, 20 feet long and 8 feet wide or 6.1 m long and 2.44 m wide) in 2011, from 2.4 million TEU in 2001 – a staggering growth of 395%.

Unfortunately, India’s ports are ill-equipped to meet this surge in traffic demand as they have not been able to significantly ramp up their capacity and efficiency. Several port projects in the PPP as well as private mode are facing delays on account of regulatory approvals. Take, for instance, projects such the mega container terminal of Chennai, 4th container terminal of JNPT, Vizhinjam port project of Kerala, Rewas port of Maharashtra and the offshore container terminal of Mumbai port, all of which have been delayed. Delays in getting the security clearance, complicated bidding process, poor response of developers and legal issues are the major factors holding up these projects.

Among the PPP port projects that have been hit worst by delays include the construction of six riverine jetties at Kolkata port with 4.5 million tonnes capacity worth Rs.3 billion. Besides, at the Paradip port Trust, construction of the new coal terminal is still in limbo due to want of certain clearances. Some of the other projects awaiting security clearance include conversion of berth No. 8 as Container Terminal at V. O. Chidambaranar (Tuticorin) port. Private players in infrastructure like the Adanis and Punj Lloyd have been denied security clearance for the coal import terminal at the government-controlled Mormugao port in Goa. Similarly, Lanco Infratech has been denied permission for developing a container terminal project for cargo berth facility at Tuticorin port.

As a result of these project delays and unwillingness on the part of the government to award private players port development projects, India has not been able to achieve the target of its capacity expansion. According to the Planning Commission, the capacity of Indian ports will have to nearly double to 2,302 million tonnes (MT) over the next four years to be able to handle the fast growing cargo traffic. The total capacity of the port sector is envisaged to be 2,301.63 MT, to meet the overall projected traffic of 1,758.26 MT by 2016-17, as per the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) document. The Planning Commission estimates that cargo traffic by the end of the 12th Plan would be 943.06 MT and 815.20 MT for the major and non-major ports respectively, with corresponding port capacities of 1,241.83 MT and 1,059.80 MT respectively. In light of the fact that our port-handling capacity is way short when compared to the throughput of major ports globally, the Planning Commission has set a target of expanding the annual capacity of major ports to 1229.24 MT by the end of March 2017.

However, till date, no Indian port is capable of handling large container vessels. Most international cargoes are off-loaded at Colombo or nearby ports and then transported to India in bits and pieces. This incapability robs Rs.10 billion from traders. Worse, the turnaround time for ships entering our ports is inordinately high, aggregating 4.67 days and leading to high levels of congestion. The high turnaround time at our ports also leads to pre-berthing delays for ships, which can vary from 2 hours to 40 hours, depending on the port and cargo with the overall average for FY12 being 11 hours.

Addressing concerns related to turnaround and pre-berthing time calls for urgently ramping up our port infrastructure. Already, the dilatoriness in resolving such issues is beginning to impact our cargo trade adversely. Traffic at Indian ports grew by just 2% in 2011-12 (a sharp contrast from 9.2% CAGR recorded during 2005-06 to 2010-11), points out Prof. Sham Choughule, Visiting Faculty, Mumbai University and Member, Port and Logistics Committee of Maharashtra Chambers of Commerce & Industry. Clearly, innovative solutions are needed to stem the tide of declining port traffic. L. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, suggest that alternative means of transport such as coastal shipping and inland water transportation should be promoted inviting PPP along with larger viability gap funding by the Government. He also warns about how the tariff guidelines of TAMP (Tariff Authority for Major Ports) are harming private initiative. “The tariff cuts enforced on private terminal operators by TAMP are not benefitting exporters/ importers but are actually getting passed on to international shipping lines.” He suggests that this anomaly needs to be corrected since no authority similar to TAMP exists anywhere else in the world.

To boost capacity augmentation of our existing ports and develop newer ones to meet the demands of growing trade, the Indian government has come out with an action plan spanning ten years. The Maritime Agenda 2010-2020 envisages an investment of Rs.1,650 billion in the port and shipping sector by 2020, of which the majority will be from private investors. The Ministry of Shipping also proposes to build an overall port capacity of 3200 MT by 2020 to cater to the projected traffic demand. This near tripling of capacity in less than a decade’s time is proposed to be achieved by undertaking upgradation of existing ports and development of new major ports.

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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
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Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
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1951 & 1986:The Blunder Years

How the inherently secular Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi succumbed to regressive forces. And India still pays the price, says Sutanu Guru

Every which way you look, the curse of identity politics and victim-hood is becoming even more rampant and poisonous in 21st century India. Literacy keeps growing, as does intolerance and prejudice towards other identities. The more we are integrating with the world, the more insular we seem to be becoming. The more we see of social and economic mobility, the more we see regressive behaviour based on faith and identity rather than reason and common sense. Says Naved Hameed, General Secretary, Movement for Empowerment of Muslims, “To be honest, communalism never ended in this country, though there is no doubt that there has been a lot of talk to end communalism at various levels. The Indian society and system is totally biased against Muslims and Dalits in particular”. For all you know, there might be an organisation called Movement for Empowerment of Hindus and its General Secretary will be as candid as Hamid. The only difference will be that he will say that Hindus are discriminated against in their own country because of vote bank politics.

How did things come to such a sorry pass in India? How did secularism become an empty slogan and a term that everybody twists to score ideological points? Quite obviously, the principal blame lies with prejudiced Hindus and Muslims who seem to value faith more than national identity and pride. It is people like Akbaruddin Owaisi and Praveen Togadia who are responsible for spreading prejudice and hatred. But that is stating the obvious. The question to ask is: what caused people like Owaisi and Togadia to rise in prominence after India became an independent country?

If you ignore pop analysis of the instant kind and do some serious historical soul searching, the past does provide some clues for the fragmented identity polity of contemporary times. You could even call it counter history since some icons appear in the firing line. In India, it is very hazardous now to point fingers at icons. Libraries are burnt down if there is even academic analysis of the great Shivaji. Dalits activists throw shoes and more at people who criticise BR Ambedkar.

People take to the streets and indulge in violence if someone targets the Dravidian icon Anna. Fawning Congressmen react angrily and aggressively if there is any criticism of the Nehru-Gandhi family. The list is now becoming longer and longer. And yet the behaviour of some icons do need to be examined and some deeply held beliefs must be reexamined if we are serious about the reasons behind the rise and rise of malevolent identity politics.

The headline of this feature talks about 1951 and 1986 to be the blunder years. It is events and decisions during these two years that have played a very large role in not only encouraging identity politics, but also creating communal divides. This historical blotch is sad enough. Even more sad is the fact that the blunders were committed by leaders who were enormously popular and virtually unchallenged in their sway over popular sentiments when they took the fateful decisions. We are talking about Jawaharlal Nehru in 1951 and his grandson Rajiv Gandhi in 1986.

Readers with even rudimentary knowledge of history will know that soon after independence, a Constituent Assembly was created to create a new Constitution of India. Even as the Assembly debated and argued over the future of India, Jawaharlal Nehru as prime minister coped as well as he could in leading a country ravaged by partition and communal bloodbath. History buffs will also know that Nehru, though immensely popular, was not unchallenged. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was an equally towering leader and not always in agreement with Nehru's world view and ideology. In 1950, Patel died and Nehru was, in a manner of speaking, the undisputed king. Meanwhile, the Constitution had been drafted and one of the lofty promises made in that document was to have a Uniform Civil Code for all citizens. Dr BR Ambedkar was the Union Law Minister and was aggressively pushing for that. Apprehensive that Muslims might feel insecure and think that their religious identity was being threatened, Nehru and a reluctant Ambedkar decided to first pass a modern civil code for the Hindu community. Quite obviously, right wing Hindu groups were violently opposed to the idea. It was also an open secret that India's first President Dr Rajendra Prasad was not very excited about the idea. He did write to Nehru expressing his unhappiness with the proposed civil code for Hindus.

Let's quote a few lines from India After Gandhi written by Ramchandra Guha, believed by many to be a definitive history of post Independence India: “Nehru chose not to challenge the President. In any case, the progress of the bill in the Provisional Parliament had been painfully slow...In the end, the session ended, the bill was virtually talked out and it lapsed. The man who was most hurt by this was the Law Minister Dr Ambedkar who had staked his reputation on the bill, meeting criticism and calumny with equal resolution. That Nehru had finally chosen to give in to the opposition pained him deeply. In October, 1951, he resigned from the Union Cabinet”.

Do remember, India was yet to conduct its first Lok Sabha elections that happened in 1952. As mentioned earlier, Nehru had virtually unquestioned authority as well as popularity. There are many who feel that it was only Nehru who had the stature and hold over public opinion to pass not just a civil code for Hindus, but a uniform civil code for the entire country as committed by the Constitution. Many scholars and analysts think that this one decision taken by Nehru, though hardly ever talked about, had repercussions whose effects are still being felt.

“The driving force behind Baba Saheb's insistence on passing the Hindu Code Bill was emancipation of women. But the Caste Hindus, including women, who deemed this move as an endeavour to attack the sanctity of Hinduism opposed this radical bill. In his robust defense to this Bill, Dr Ambedkar maintained that the ideals enshrined in it were derived from the Constitution of India, which is founded on liberty, equality and fraternity. Dr Ambedkar was so fed up with the opposition that he left Nehru's cabinet. He said, “It (the Hindu Code Bill) was killed and buried, unwept and unsung”. Dr Ambedkar's influence on women is still overt particularly in the Maharashtrian Buddhist women, who are not only empowered but frequently take apart the mainstream Feminist movement as the Brahmin Women Movement. “The repercussions of that failure still resonates,” says Ratnesh Katulkar who is an Ambedkarite activist and scholar at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar National Institute of Social Sciences.

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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

Wah Astad!

A virtuoso dancer-choreographer, Tagore’s timeless poetry and a group of multi-talented boys come together to create magic with a blend of modern dance, puppetry and music, writes saibal chatterjee

The nature and scope of contemporary dancer and choreographer Astad Deboo’s work are such that resting on is oars is never an option for him. Constant, rhythmic and perfectly orchestrated movement, both creative and physical, is an integral part of his life and art. And it invariably assumes hypnotic proportions when he weaves it into a top-notch stage performance.


It did just that and more on the evening of February 11 in a packed Kamani Auditorium in New Delhi as the 65-year-old virtuoso, in the company of eight one-time street children that he has been working with for close to five years, interpreted four poems/songs of Rabindranath Tagore.

Although the 80-minute performance was woven around only four of Tagore’s poems, the sheer range of Deboo's choreography was absolutely stunning.

From the Yogic stillness of the opening piece (Surrender) – staged with three of the boys – to the mesmeric blend of Kathak chakkars and dervish-like whirling in the final solo act (Awakening), Interpreting Tagore was an experience that allowed the audience to come face to face with an array of moods created through a blend of music, light, sound and, of course, dance.    
  
Deboo and Tagore go back a long way. It was in 1995 that the internationally celebrated choreographer first worked with Gurudev’s poems in a solo performance in Kolkata. In the programme note on Interpreting Tagore, the dancer writes: “I zeroed in on three poems – Akla Chalo, Your Grace, and Every Fragment of Dust is Awakened. When I read them, I was deeply touched. For me, they were resonant of my own struggles with the forces of traditionalism and the resistance to new ideas of a stone-hard bureaucracy.”

Deboo’s new Tagore work is an expansion of the earlier performance, with a fourth poem, Surrender, added to the repertoire. Interpreting Tagore was conceived as a tribute to the poet on his 150th birth anniversary and premiered at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai in November 2011. It has since been staged in many other cities, including once before in Delhi. “The earlier performance in Delhi was for a limited audience,” says Deboo. “This is the first public show of Interpreting Tagore in the city.”

“When a 150th anniversary tribute to Tagore was suggested to me, I decided to revisit the earlier work, expand its scope, and bring these young performers into the act,” says Deboo.

While the veteran dancer is an acknowledged master of his art, the boys have brought an amazingly spontaneous level of energy and verve to the performance.

The two centrepieces of Interpreting Tagore are each remarkable in their own way. Your Grace is enlivened by the use of striking masks and larger-than-life puppets. Walking Tall, a translation of Akla Chalo, is a dramatic rendition of the iconic anthem of stoic defiance.

“Some of these young performers know how to operate puppets, so I incorporated these giant figures into Your Grace, which is about Goddess Kali. The poem gave me the scope to bring in a whole ritualistic act – the young boys and I, as devotees, offering our sorrows to the Devi because that is all that we have,” explains Deboo.

Walking Tall, the legendary choreographer points out, is “semi-autobiographical”. He says: “It is my dig at the Indian classical dance mafia, the cultural bureaucracy and corporate sponsors. In spite of these people, who have constantly been a hindrance, I continue to do my work on my own terms. I continue to walk tall.”

Echoing Deboo’s experiences while seeking sponsorships to fund his projects, Walking Tall depicts dancers and corporate executives negotiating with each other and ordinary artistes earning the latter’s support while the genuinely creative dancer is shooed away disdainfully. Deboo informs the piece with a mix of anguish, anger and humour. 

The Tagore poems, translated by Delhi academician Aruna Chakravarty, are read prior to every piece by veteran film and theatre actor Akash Khurana. “These poems,” says the thespian, “are so deeply felt, profound and lyrical. They contain echoes that can touch every life.”

Deboo seamlessly moves from the personal to the universal and from the here and now to the metaphysical in his interpretation, an act supported by an array of eclectic musical pieces drawn from diverse sources. Among the musicians whose work the choreographer uses in these performances are Italian composer Frederico Senesie, singer Amelia Coni, Finnish pianist Iiro Rantala and Japanese composer Yoichiro Yoshikawa.

Deboo is especially proud of the eight former boys of Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT) who are now a part of the Astad Deboo Dance Company, having earned their spurs through years of intensive training with the master. “This group of boys is quite unbelievable,” he says. “My group in Manipur is very good too, but these boys are something else. They have raised the bar to a point that makes working with them a challenge.”

The youngest in the group is 18-year-old Rohit Kumar, while the oldest is the 28-year-old Mohammed Shamsul. “The latter is getting married tomorrow,” reveals Deboo. “As the foster-father I will have to be there at the wedding.”

The young performers have come a long way since they first met Deboo in 2008. At that point, they were a group of 14 raw youngsters, including four girls. After six months of rigorous training, they were ready to perform alongside Deboo – the result was a series of shows of a six-piece routine titled Breaking Boundaries. It was designed specifically to serve as a showcase for the street children out to claim their place in the world.

The group, which has now been pared down to eight, embraces multiple talents – puppetry, graphic design and animation, among other skills. Two of the boys, Shamsul and Avinash Kumar – Deboo describes them as “my left and right eyes” – are assistant choreographers. “They ensure that the rehearsals happen without let and the dancers stay in touch during the long breaks between one performance and the next,” says Deboo.

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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

Can Naresh Goyal turn around Jet Airways like he did a decade back?

The airline industry does attract colourful figures like the media-shy Naresh Goyal. It would seem that the smell of gasoline encourages more emotions than economic decisions. Bleeding bottomlines, a confused operational model, a mixed fleet and an unforgiving environment. How can Goyal rescue a company in such turbulence?

It’s impossible to capture Naresh Goyal’s style of running his airline in a simple phrase. Rather, if there’s any one who loves dirty little business secrets, this czar of Indian aviation is right up there. We are not referring to his ownership of 18 lesser-known companies, or even how he manages the cash flow at the Isle of Man-based Tail Winds Limited (which owns a 79.99% stake in Jet). It’s his decision-making style that keeps people guessing which foot he will put forward next. If there is a CEO in India Inc. who can fire 2,000 employees and recall them in a day by politely blaming his management in public for keeping him in the dark, it is the very diplomatic Goyal (in October 2008). If there is a businessman who can dare to risk souring a two decade-long relationship with a supplier as powerful as Boeing by placing a $3 billion-worth order for 15 Airbus A330s only because Boeing couldn’t assure ‘immediate’ delivery of the aircraft he’d wanted, it is the impatient Goyal. ‘Gut-feel’ is the word that explains how he takes decisions at Jet. Till date, his intuition has led him down the right lane in a market where the honours are unevenly divided. But the common sight of heavy losses at Jet in recent quarters, and the revelation that the airline had been trying to save Rs.350 million by delaying service tax payments (in March this year) makes many believers doubt this fact.

But he isn’t new to having his back to the wall. A decade back, Goyal had come to face with a similar situation. An airline bleeding for four consecutive years (losses totalling Rs.5.25 billion between FY1999-2000 and FY2002-03) in an industry that had only bad news (losses of airlines in India during the period amounted to Rs.25.51 billion) made critics question the longevity of Jet. But Goyal brought his airline back into the black (Jet made profits of Rs.10.35 billion in the four years leading to FY2006-07). He did well by paying attention to cost-cutting and better utilisation of Jet’s fleet – between FY2002-03 & FY2006-07, Jet’s annual expenditure per aircraft dropped 41.13% to Rs.971.41 million and its load factor increased 39.21% to 71%.

The present situation is in part a reflection of what occurred ten years back. During the past four years, Jet’s losses have risen to Rs.11.14 billion (with an accumulated loss of Rs.17.3 billion) and the industry is struggling for life (losses of Rs.244.68 billion). The challenge for Goyal is clear – save the airline. Problem is – this time, the numbers read worse. That the company has reported negative earnings of Rs.10.62 billion in just the past four quarters (leading to Q3, FY2011-12) is only a quick summary of the trouble tale. Over the years, competition has intensified implying a division of the revenue pie, Jet’s market share has plummeted (from 48.7% in 2002 to 28.8% today), swinging moods in EU and US markets haven’t helped Jet’s international operations (which contributes to 55% of its topline; during Q3, FY2011-12), ATF prices have skyrocketed (by 235.5% in the past eight years), a weakening rupee has made aircraft-leasing, en route navigation costs and fuel more expensive and recent actions by the fuel supplying companies and the IT department have only made living tougher for Jet. What should Goyal do?

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

International

Intel: change of guard

Otellini’s successor to come into a hard landing

The Paul Otellini era at Intel Corp is drawing to a close. Intel’s legendary CEO will call it a day in May 2013, after working for an astounding 40 years in the service of the world’s largest chip maker. The news came as a shocker, as Otellini, 62, surprised the tech community by announcing to retire three years before Intel’s mandatory retirement age. He has had a stellar record at the helm of Intel since 2005. Intel’s revenue increased by 57% to reach $55 billion at the end of 2011. He also settled an antitrust suit against Intel for $1.25 billion, and went on to convince Apple to put Intel chips in its computers.

Otellini will hand over the baton to a new incumbent at a critical juncture in the company’s 44-year-old history. Until not very long ago Intel strode the tech world like a collossus, enjoying over 80% share of the global market in computer chips and processors. But those days of glory are now a fading memory as new rivals and upstarts such as Qualcomm and ARM Holdings have eaten into the turf that was once Intel’s happy hunting ground. The company also found itself turning up late for the party as new players made rapid gains by moving in fast and capitalising on the big shift towards mobile devices.

The Intel board has begun its search in earnest for a worthy successor who can turn around the flagging fortunes of a company beset by an eroding market share and falling PC sales. Last month Intel’s Q3 net income fell by more than 14% to $3 billion on falling PC sales (its core competence area). According to market research firm Gartner, PC sales fell flat for the seventh quarter in a row during the second half of 2012 and the outlook for the future doen’t look bright either. Will Otellini’s successor be able to step up to the plate and revive Intel’s business in these challenging times?

HP: DEAL gone sour

Autonomy deal blows up in the face

Bad luck seems to have become a constant companion of the US technology major Hewlett-Packard (HP). The latest downer is it’s purchase of Autonomy, a British software company, for a whopping $11 billion last year. How HP, an old warhorse of the tech race, could have been so naive to jump at a deal, which had disaster written all over it from the word go? Autonomy’s numbers were fishy to begin with. Its stated profit margins of around 50% did not seem to translate proportionately into cash flow and its claim of double-digit organic growth in software license revenue appeared too good to be true. And despite being warned by analysts that it was forking out too high a price for the acquisition, the computer maker went ahead with the deal. Not surprising that it has now unravelled with destructive force leaving behind a toxic trail of accounting rigmarole. HP is now engaged in salvaging the situation and limiting its damages. The company has written down $8.8bn in the value of the deal. It has also fessed up to “serious” accounting improprieties at the British company. However, it will take some time before HP is able to clean up the mess and leave the stink behind.

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

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Distinguished teamwork

Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to participate in the Inside China article (Business & Economy cover story for the month of August 2012). I am impressed by the knowledge and expertise of the authors and the overall quality of production. Your staff did a terrific job of adding graphics, tables, photos and editorial changes to my humble story. It has received positive reviews from friends, family and colleagues for its level of professionalism and polished appearance. I especially enjoyed reading the China: Read. Learn. Repeat article by Prof.A. Sandeep. The focus on the Chinese auto industry was spot on and well written. I am pleased to be associated with such a distinguished collection of experts. Thank you once again.

Arthur C. Wheaton
Director, Western NY Labor and Environmental Programs & Faculty of Industrial Relations, Cornell University ILR School

Great issue on Reverse Innovation/Exnovation

The Business & Economy issue on ‘Reverse Innovation/Exnovation’ (cover story for the month of October 2012) was simply a great issue and I totally loved it. You have exactly captured the essence of reverse innovation. In my view, Reverse Innovation represents the biggest opportunity for India in sectors as diverse as transportation, energy, health care and education.

Prof. Vijay Govindarajan
Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of International Business, Tuck School of Business University of Dartmouth

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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 Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

BBA Institute

Exorcising the demons of the 1962 Indo-China war

Fifty years ago, India and China fought a bitter and brutal war sparked off by mutual distrust and acrimony. Today, though both countries continue to build and strengthen bilateral ties, the memory of that war still haunts the two countries .

The commemoration of 50 years of the India-China war is now upon us. On October 20 1962, China launched a two-pronged offensive in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line, overrunning Indian forces in both theatres and capturing Rezang la in Chushul in the western theatre, as well as Tawang in the eastern theatre. Then, a month later, on November 20, the Chinese declared a ceasefire and announced the withdrawal from the conflict zones.

After the war, India claimed that China was occupying about 33,000 square kilometres of its territory in the Aksai Chin region of Ladakh. China laid control over Aksai Chin, a high altitude desert, and established the current Line of Actual Control following the short border war. Despite the region being nearly uninhabitable, it remains strategically important for China as it connects Tibet and East Turkistan, China’s occupied western frontiers.

Excuses have been thrown up for the Indian military debacle. India was ill prepared; it believed in non-violence; it trusted the Chinese and in the ‘Hindi-Chini bhai bhai’ shibboleth. Fingers have been pointed, most famously at then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, defence minister Krishna Menon, and Lieutenant General B.N Kaul, who was in charge of the army on India’s eastern frontier. But even fifty years later, people of India are not still unaware of the circumstances and reasons that led to India’s defeat.

Successive Indian governments have refused to release the Henderson-Brooks report that investigated the lapses of 1962. The report submitted by Lt.Gen. Henderson Brooks and Brigadier P.S. Bhagat in 1963 was presented to prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and a couple of ministers. Unfortunately, the report remains “top secret” till date. The government made a statement in Parliament on May 10, 2012 that the Report of the Operations Review Committee on the 1962 war will not be published following an order of March 19, 2009 by a Bench of the Central Information Commission as it is likely to have a security bearing on army’s operational strategy in the north-east and deployment of forces along the line of Actual Control.

According to a widespread view among many scholars of the India-China war, China wrongly believed that India was going to seize Tibet after providing political asylum to the Tibetan leader Dalai Lama. Also, India’s forward policy of building new outposts along the de facto line of control, even pushing that line forward, annoyed China immensely. According to a recently published book on the India-China war by a senior Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) official K.N. Raghavan, India erred in unilaterally fixing her borders with China in 1954. This, along with India’s decision to give asylum to the Dalai Lama, made China suspicious of India, says the book, titled ‘Dividing Lines’.

Despite the 1962 war, the border dispute between Indian and China has proved to be a tough nut to crack. The two countries share a border that is approximately 4,000 kilometres long but border disputes continue to prevent the full normalization of relations despite almost a quarter decade of negotiations. The Sino-Indian war crystallized and enshrined the suspicions and stereotypes that each side held of the other. To this day, Beijing suspects that India, with the help of the U.S., strives to undermine its rule in Tibet in order to balance against China’s growing power.

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

Honda is out. Hero goes on... but with challenges multiplied! What next?

With Honda, Hero was growing in stature. Now that the Japanese are gone, questions are being raised on how well can Hero master in-house engine technology. Can Pawan Munjal silence his critics?
 
I n the Indian two-wheeler market during the 1980s, the closest you could get to being a rockstar was working for Bajaj Auto – the scooter maker. Thirty years later, much has changed. Bajaj no longer rules the minds of commuters in India. From occupying over 80% of the Indian two-wheeler market, the company today has a loose grip over only 18.15% of the category. Two reasons. Competition is the lesser excuse. Hero MotoCorp is the main. The Pawan Munjal-led giant controls 45.46% of the market, and at no hour seems to be losing the elasticity of its youth!

The company’s leader is an introvert. But that is where the shyness ends. Munjal, over the past few years has increasingly started to love sunlight. Today, at every new product launch, you can see the 57 year-old share his excitement with onlookers. Pawan Munjal, MD & CEO of Hero MotoCorp, is the new rock star of the Indian two-wheeler industry. His employees too, perhaps, feel the same. But many critics in the industry don’t feel as upbeat about his company. They are open about it. Some say that there isn’t much happening at Hero MotoCorp – not after Honda decided to abandon ship. Truth is – the Honda-goodbye was an important Munjal-plan that worked.

Those who are familiar with Munjal know this is true. According to him, the JV was proving a deterrent for the Hero Group to expand at a rate that it was capable of. Add to this, Honda’s presence not only meant allowing a future to shape up that had a crippled-for-technology Hero Group struggling with competition but also the fact that it had to play by Honda’s rulebook as far as expansion into international markets was concerned (implying a no-expansion policy for Hero in Asia & Latin America – markets where Honda bikes were sold).

And so it happened in December 2010. Honda was out. Eight months later, Hero Honda became rechristened as Hero MotoCorp, and there was apparently no happier a man in the whole of London (where the unveiling of the new identity was done) than Munjal. The launch of Hero-branded products like Impulse followed and the company ended 2011 on a happy note, with sales of 6.12 million units during CY2011 – a y-o-y growth of 19.2%. The numbers following the ouster of Honda looked encouraging. But questions were still being asked about the company’s future. “What will happen when Honda stops allowing Hero MotoCorp to use its technology in June 2014?” was the most common.

Munjal was silent for months. Then in the fourth week of February 2012, he spoke. He announced his company’s partnership with US-based two-wheeler manufacturing company Erik Buell Racing (EBR). The partnership was the answer to people who wondered what Hero would do after Honda. First, it will begin by borrowing technology to make its machines by paying a royalty that is lower than what it paid Honda (Rs.1.87 billion per quarter). Second, it will invest in R&D to create its own technological platforms to serve the global market starting mid-2014. Looks good on paper, but easier said than done.

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

Right idea, wrong radar

Competition Commission of India has notified its norms to prevent M&As from creating monopoly like situations. But they may prove ineffective and even counterproductive in their current form by virat bahri

Chances are bright that you will not catch the usually staid Bill Gates make a politically sensitive statement. But in one of his very famous comments a few years back, he had made three of them in one go. He lampooned his own country for not being able to catch Saddam Hussein, called the EU a passing fad (doesn’t look so way off anymore!) and also exclaimed that he was sick of fascist lawsuits! Gates’ reaction was to the different lawsuits that Microsoft had to confront on either side of the Atlantic. A number of companies like Microsoft have gone through hell facing legal ire when they are deemed to have reached dominant positions in their respective industries and also misused these positions to generate supernormal returns, kill competition or exploit customers.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has recently taken some steps to prevent the possibility of M&As leading to monopoly-like situations in India, whether they are solemnised within or beyond its borders. The norms stipulate that post merger/acquisition entities with combined assets greater than Rs.15 billion (or > $750 million globally and at least Rs.7.5 billion in India) or belonging to a corporate group with turnovers greater than Rs.60 billion in India (or >$3 billion globally & at least Rs.7.5 billion in India) will have to notify. Similarly, combinations with turnovers greater than Rs.45 billion in India (or > $2.25 billion globally & at least Rs.22.5 billion in India) or belonging to groups with turnovers over Rs.180 billion in India (or >9 billion globally & at least Rs.22.5 billion in India) will have to seek approval. Industry people hail it as a great decision for a country that is seeing increasing M&A activity. But will these norms be effective enough? Or can they prove counterproductive instead?

As per data from PwC, M&A deals in India reached $36.15 billion in 2010, a growth of 85.67% yoy. The more interesting part is that $10.7 billion from the value is accounted for by the Bharti-Zain deal, one of the key strategic bases for which was the unparalleled extent of competition in the Indian telecom market! A point that needs to be underscored is that when you are discussing the entire concept of past and current monopolies in the Indian market, a number of names would actually come up from the public sector itself like Coal India, SAIL (when you consider captive ore mines) NMDC, BHEL, or Indian Railways!

Even a company of the size of Reliance Industries could not monopolise retail in India as competitors had feared. The latest is the claim of the company that it had become the country’s largest food & grocery retailer with a business of Rs.25.13 billion from Reliance Fresh was quickly countered by Pantaloon CEO Kishore Biyani in the media. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart is gaining traction and international players like Carrefour would further open up the market. However, one cannot ignore that when it comes to the private sector in India, a number of situations amounts to oligopolies or monopolistic competition across industries. And when it comes to understanding whether a monopoly situation exists or is being misused in diverse sectors, financial benchmarks can fall short. For instance, in aviation, even a Jet-Sahara (which just managed a profit of Rs.96.9 million in FY 2010-11) or a Kingfisher-Air Deccan combine (net loss of Rs.10.27 billion for FY-2010-11) has found it tough to stay in the black. And these players are actually monopolising some key sectors in the aviation space! In industries like cement and steel or even real estate, the dominant issue that has pestered the government has been cartelisation. Indeed, private companies in such sectors have succeeded in duping customers and artificially raising prices, but can M&A laws specific to one combined entity/corporate group really help there?

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

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