IIPM: 2008

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Shankaracharya

Shastri then issued a whip, causing the KVP meeting to be cancelled. But Shukla, Upadhyay and Pachauri formed a parallel body -- the Varanaseya Vidvat Parishad -- and went ahead with Amritanand’s abhisheka (anointment) as shankaracharya. “I have issued a charge-sheet against the erring KVP members. It is parallel bodies like these that have so denigrated eminent institutions like the KVP. The matter

calls for a thorough probe and the culprits’ prosecution.”

Swami Aviroopanand, however, disapproves of the KVP’s activities as well. “Of late this organisation has lost all dignity and prestige. No less than five persons in Varanasi claim to be its president or general secretary,” says the swami who is deputy of Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Badrinath and Dwarka.

Now as the murky side of Hindutva is coming to the fore, most of those who were involved in “anointing” Sudhakar Dwivedi feel safer underground or in finding alibis to deny their complicity. “Pachauri put my name on the invitation without my consent. I attended the function in my capacity as pro-vice chancellor of Sampurnanand Sanskrit University. The allegations that I took money for this are false,” claims Shivji Upadhyay. He also accuses Batuk Shastri of dividing the KVP.

The convener of the function, Ram Yatna Shukla, says he doesn’t know Amritanand “personally” and had protested against his anointment. Pachauri, meanwhile, has been untraceable since the ATS arrested Amritanand alias Dwivedi.

Such is the murky world of these new age shankaracharyas! There is no hierarchy and absolutely no checks and balances. For a price, anyone can claim to be a pandit, an acharya, a ramanujacharya, a mahandleshwar or a shankaracharya.

But no matter! Hindutva’s torchbearers are in no great hurry to look within. Their foremost concern, in the words of VHP leader Dr Surendra Jain, is to prevent the “vilification” of Hindu leaders by “pseudo-secular” politicians and “pliable” organisations like the ATS. Says Jain, “We will pay attention to this aspect too ."...Continue

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Saturday, December 20, 2008

A positive match

Often the making of a marriage is seen in the light of everything but love. Even in times when instances of courtship following marriage in

order of chronology are becoming rarer, arranged marriages still don’t raise many an eyebrow. But what are the implications of swapping medical histories in addition to the material reconnaissance that is a staple precursor to these alliances? Although “there are no conclusive evidences that prove pre-marital HIV testing has reduced the number of AIDS cases in places that have introduced this law”, according to Tripti of Lawyers Collective Mumbai (organization dedicated to solving cases related to HIV), it is largely the dominance and popularity of arranged marriages in our culture that has stirred debates about the viability of mandatory pre-marital HIV testing for both the parties. However perfect the idea of matching a HIV negative with a negative and rejecting a HIV positive might sound to the ears, there are some compelling contentions and reservations against making it a law that can’t be ignored.

While of all the causes of contracting the infection, “unprotected sex is the most prevalent form,” says Anil, a government employee (from his seven years of experience of creating awareness about the disease), it is the taboo attached to being a HIV+ that makes people refrain from getting tested. “I came close to this struggle that an HIV+ person goes through in terms of the way society treats them and the trauma that the family goes through only when my best friend went through it. Sadly, despite being in the medical profession, he made the mistake of visiting prostitutes. Even though his family stood by him, he remained without a marital partner until his death”, regretfully recalls Anil who after his friend’s demise started a portal www.positivesaathi.com to facilitate matrimonial alliances between HIV+ people across the world. His one and a half year old portal has already registered more than five hundred people and has helped many positive people find partners, the most recent being Chaya Tope of Pune and Yogesh of Canada....Continue

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Scared countries stay cool

The government of India may have triumphed and brought home its boys, the sailors from the pirated Japanese ship

MV Stolt Valor, but there’s little to celebrate, as yet another Yemeni ship was hijacked on November 25, infuriating the world. In fact, the bigger challenge at present is to rescue ships like MV Fiana, a Ukrainian vessel carrying 33 combat tanks and Sirius Star, Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying over two million barrels of oil which is worth over $100 million. Astoundingly, nearly 17 ships are being held to ransom in the region at present.

No one knows where these pirates get their support from. However, the US has ruled out any al-Qaeda support to these pirates. US Army Gen William "Kip" Ward said the chaos on the high seas is a reflection of the country's political chaos. Somalia has had no functioning government since 1991.....Continue

Saturday, December 13, 2008

The Old Testament tells how Cain killed his brother Abel and God’s wrath felled him. Is Andhra Pradesh’s Christian CM, YSR, ...

The Old Testament tells how Cain killed his brother Abel and God’s wrath felled him. Is Andhra Pradesh’s Christian CM, YSR, about to do the same to his brethren and invite the wrath of voters, the God of all politicos? asks TSI’s Nageswara Rao Thamanam

This ascribed identity to these groups has been debated for decades. "Being in the Hindu fold, the Dalit families are deprived of entry into the Hindu temples, and now the state government prevents us from using the welfare scheme to go to the birth place of Christ," said a Dalit Christian leader. Although YSR wants to win the hearts of the Christian community, his move has raised many questions on the genuineness of his commitment.

With the majority of Christians being excluded from the new scheme, it is unlikely their hearts would melt when he next coming pleading for votes. Contrarily, it will definitely provide ammunition for the demogogic Hindutva brigade in the state. The problem with this policy is that it did not recognise the fact that if Dalit Christians are excluded from the reservations for Christian community, it will only fuel their anger against the segregation. YSR government's exclusion of Dalit Christians’ to Holy Lands would permanently damage the sympathy YSR has among the Christian community: he himself comes from a Christian community, whose majority he is now alienating. The scheme will fuel the old fire of caste within the Christians and would split the community's loyalties.

With the general and Assembly elections approaching, this gesture by the ruling Congress government is seen as another ploy to turn every possible group into their prospective supporters. As a matter of fact, Andhra Pradesh is the only state in South India that is under Congress rule and from where Congress has 30 Lok Sabha members. Coming back to power in AP will ensure its strength in the next LS. With its sentimental opposition to separate statehood to Telangana, and being the only major political party to oppose it, the Congress is looking for alternatives to raid the vote bank. But it remains to be seen if YSR will succeed in winning the hearts of minorities.

Precisely at a time when attacks on Christians by the Hindutva forces in Orissa and Karnataka are rising, the populist initiative by the AP government will make the Christian community more vulnerable to the Hindutva forces. On the face of it, the CM is doing a great service to his own Christians brethren but in effect it will perhaps repeat the story of Cain killing Abel!...Continue

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Poll wars in cyberspace

Just as the hi-tech, high-pitch Barack Obama-John McCain campaign drew to a close, news arrived that India’s mainline political parties had lined up similar smart tools for the forthcoming Assembly elections. In at least four states in the Hindi heartland the contestants have migrated to highly sophisticated campaign methods.

They no longer rely exclusively on banners, posters, hoardings, cut-outs and graffiti -- and those old-fashioned sound amplifiers are swiftly being discarded for neater stuff. Indeed even the rural voters, long accustomed to politicians making their point through folk songs and local dances and art forms, are this time round being wooed in true firangi style.

While the Congress has fitted its campaign vehicles with General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) to track their movement, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is using social service networks, mobile telephony and FM radio stations to woo young voters. The Congress has also been aping the BJP’s 2004 campaign strategy by launching the appeals of its president Sonia Gandhi, Youth Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in recorded messages relayed through telephones. So don’t for a moment be surprised if your phone rings and the caller says, Main Sonia Gandhi bol rahi hoon (This is Sonia Gandhi).

Congress’s central unit has hired Crayon Advertising to push its campaign, leaving the state units to pick their own favourites. Another departure from earlier campaigns is to get comedians like Ehsan Qureshi and Raju Srivastava commanding high TRPS to pitch in. “With them we hope to make our campaigns livelier and thus hit the right cord among the electorate,” says AICC Media Committee chairman Veerappa Moily.

BJP’s campaign armour is being overseen by an unassuming IIM Ahmedabad alumni, Prodyut Bora, who is head of the party’s IT cell. Bora had quit his top job at a software company four years ago to join the party fulltime. He has not only updated the BJP’s website (he can’t hide his admiration for Barack Obama’s campaign website), but has also designed his party’s e-mail system with instant messenger (IM) facility. All of the party’s primary members are issued special e-mail ids to enable uninterrupted online chats with their leaders.....Continue

Monday, December 01, 2008

Oman, Muscat

IIPM Publication
The credit, for Muscat being a rather handsome city, undeniably goes to the present Sultan Qaboos bin Said. Apart from the great looking, low-lying urban landscape, the Grand Mosque near the

international airport is worth visiting for its grand chandeliers, hand woven carpets and splendid interiors. And, visiting this area is incomplete if one doesn’t visit Istanbuli, a Lebanese food joint popular for chicken and beef shawarmas with a slightly tangy chick peas based dip – hommus.

While Muttrah and Ruwi are the core multi-ethnic districts of the city, nearby destinations such as Nakhal (popular for misty waterfall), Nizwa (to experience the real Omani culture and history), the centuries-old Muscat Souq (a centuries-old market) and Bahla (for pottery and witchcraft) must not be missed. And the cherry on the cake really is that you can see all of that at a very relaxed pace, just the way the Omanis prefer it! ...Continue

Friday, November 21, 2008

Anni gives it to them!

New challenges ahead for Nasheed after free elections

fter three decades as the unquestionable Head of the State of the Maldives, Asia's longest serving leader was cast out this week by a past political captive in the nation’s first ever independent elections. Mohamed “Anni” Nasheed bagged 54 per cent of the popular vote to 46 per cent for President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, according to the Election Commission. Later, Nasheed, 41, held talks with Gayoom, 71, and then addressed the tiny nation of 370,000 people, who are predominantly Sunni Muslims, spread across nearly 1,200 islands.Nasheed is likely to be sworn in on November 11 – exactly 30 years to the day after Gayoom took office in 1978, in a largely symbolic gesture. Brought up and educated in Sri Lanka and Britain, Nasheed spent six years in detention for protesting against Gayoom's rule, prior to being granted political refuge in Britain in 2004. He returned to the archipelago and set up the Maldivian Democratic Party after Gayoom authorised formation of political parties. Reacting to the power transfer, Fayyaz Ali Manik, a political expert at the Maldives College of Higher Education told TSI, “Nasheed has been a former Amnesty International 'prisoner of conscience'. I think that speaks volumes about him. I just hope that the power transition will be smooth. There is no place for vendetta politics here.”Gayoom's faction claims he has radically changed Maldives, making it a country with the highest per capita income and facilitated a non-violent switch to democratic rule. But his detractors brand him a modern-day sultan who has siphoned millions of dollars from tourism and tsunami aid, and could give Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's notorious President, a run for his money in his resolve to hang on to power. Nasheed’s throne, however, will not be without thorns. Maldives’ very survival is under threat from global warming. He’ll also have to tackle serious challenges: preserving its profitable tourism industry, guaranteeing a fairer division of assets and dealing with the youths' drugs culture.

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Thursday, November 13, 2008

Post Leterme's resignation, further instability is feared in Belgium

Early this year, Leterme had set himself a deadline of July 15 to put to rights the parties from Flanders and Wallonia over sweeping reforms to the federal state. But the 47-year-old Flemish conservative failed on three separate occasions, and thus decided to resign. Reacting on the crisis, noted Belgian expert at the Free University of Brussels, Pascal Delwit said to B&E, “Three chances were more than enough, but he clearly failed to grab the opportunities that came his way. In fact, he went out of the way to set things straight. But his limited successes were always followed by psychodramas.”

Belgium, which has merely been a unitary state since 1830, has endured a flurry of political predicaments. The resentment among the Dutch speaking Flemish and the French speaking Walloons goes a long way. However, being a Dutch speaking son of a French speaking father, Leterme's out of the box thinking had generated some hope. The boundaries of Europe's nation states are hardly immutable. Recent incidents suggest Belgium will be the next in the line.....read more

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

Read also :-

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Cricket World Cup 2011

IIPM Publication News

Immediately after the World Cup fever of 2007 subsides the fans would be counting the days to the next World Cup to be held in 2011. The 2011 Cricket World Cup will be the tenth time the tournament would be held. The World Cup of 2011 is scheduled to take place in the Indian sub-continent and the four countries that are going to host the 2011 World Cup are India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. India would host 22 matches, Pakistan 16, Sri Lanka 9 and Bangladesh 6. The final of the World Cup will be played at a state-of-the-art stadium to be built near the banks of the river Yamuna. The 2011 World Cup will also allow the non-Test Cricketing sides to compete.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

Read also :-

Friday, October 24, 2008

MICHAEL WE ARE STILL WAITING FOR THE ANSWER

Dell’s refashioning is largely to be better able to compete with HP, which under CEO Mark Hurd, has become a menacing threat. HP has been continuously leveraging its relationships

with retailers to better target consumers, which has helped considerably in increased PC sales. According to market research firm IDC, Dell increased its market share to 16.4% (as compared to 15.5% in the previous quarter) as against HP’s dominant 18.9%. Dell recorded a 21.4% y-o-y much ahead of industry growth rate of 15.3%, but the growth has been at the cost of a substantial 17% drop in Q2 profit, which drastically resulted in plunging of shares. Brian Gladden, CFO, Dell, said in a statement, “Strategic actions to accelerate growth in certain areas of our business have affected gross margins this quarter.” However, Michael Dell said he is pleased with his broad-based growth, though he accepted that there are areas where Dell’s price cutting was “a bit too aggressive.”...Continue

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

Read also :-

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Henry, put that cheque back on the table...

...and teach all Fed officials to do just that. Your ‘proactive’ revival might just work for sometime, but it isn’t enough to clean-off the mortgage mess! Right, Henry?!

“Big Daddy” has done everything possible... from rate cuts

& bailouts to granting a $168 billion stimulus package to contain the conflagration which is currently devouring the US housing and financial markets; how successful it’s been, is however questionable. First, the $30 billion Bear Stearns bail-out occurred. And then, the Northern Rock & IndyMac Bancorp disasters happened. Now, two mortgage giants – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are facing a common problem showcased in a unique wrap – both suffer from liquidity crunch (like their troubled predecessors) but at the same time are entities too big to fail, and collaterally, too big to rescue for the US Fed! To deal with this fiasco, the Fed expressed its willingness to follow a three-pronged approach [increase credit volume to government-sponsored entities (GSEs), authorise Fed to buy stakes in troubled companies, and finally, give Fed more authority to keep track of GSEs] to ensure reduced number of disasters in the future......Continue

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

Read also :-

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Hey, did I click on hot-male.com?

Cyber squatters are opening ‘spoof’ travel sites mimicking real ones

It should come as no surprise that the online travel market has become the buzzword among cyber squatters. Cyber squatters

have developed phantom travel sites (similar to genuine ones) to reap benefit out of this $2 billion worth segment. Cyber squatters are developing sites that are similar to generic sites (like indiatimestravel.com for travel.indiatimes.com and mytripyatra.com for makemytrip.com and yatra.com) in order to bluff the users. They further charge an exorbitant price and also provide sub-standard packages.

The story of clones, one guesses, has just started. A spoof site, ‘webcameron.info’ was developed within two days of the launch of ‘Webcameron.org.uk’, that featured the speeches and vision statements of United Kingdom’s Conservative leaders. Even Liberal Democrat MP Mark Oaten was a victim of cyber squatting as his rival hacked his site ‘markoaten.co.uk’ and directed users to his own site, thus stealing potential voters.....continue

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

Read also :-

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

China torched on Darfur front

Sudan's biggest arms supplier is silent on the atrocities

Global heavyweights singing the anti-China chorus –

citing the Dragon's Olympian disregard for human rights – have found yet another explosive premise to stump it with. After the Tibetans used the excuse of the Olympics to keep their free-Tibet Torch blazing, their supporters complain that China's stance on the Darfur conflict equally merits global condemnation. China is being accused of "abetting genocide in Darfur" – no less – causing the UN military presence there to suffer the jitters.

The save-Darfur drive – promoted under the banner of Genocide Olympics – has won scores of celebrity endorsements, including those of Hollywood star Mia Farrow and former Olympic swimmers Shannon Shakespeare and Nikki Dryden. They have all mailed an "open letter" to Chinese President Hu Jintao, signed by eight Nobel laureates, 13 Olympic athletes and 46 parliamentarians. This is a charge that China is finding even harder to rebut, than the one it faces in Tibet. For the Dragon does have enormous influence on the Khartoum government, being its principal arms supplier. Amnesty International USA says China sold Sudan weapons, aircraft and spare parts worth $83 million in 2005 for its proxy invasions of Chad. (That is the latest year for which figures are available.) China buys about two-thirds of Sudan's oil exports, and nearly 70% of the latter's oil revenues go to its murderous military force.....Continue

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

Read also :-

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Media marauders

The newsmakers are the news

Frequent assaults on scribes covering the Sri Lanka-LTTE conflict have triggered outrage among both local and international media rights groups. On March 14 morning a miscreant, wielding an iron club, ambushed Anurasiri Hettige as he waited for a bus in a Colombo suburb. Hettige became the fifth employee of the state television corporation Rupavahini to be attacked or threatened in the last three months.

Media rights groups say the attacks are linked to the December 27 incident that saw government minister Mervyn Silva storming into Rupavahini and abusing senior staff. Silva, who was upset by a news programme, had then allegedly been assaulted and daubed in paint by angry Rupavahini employees.

But Poddala Jayantha, secretary of the working journalists association, claimed that the authorities had failed to identify the assaulters, and instead indiscriminately targeted all Rupavahini staff. Soon after the Rupavahini incident unidentified goons launched a vicious midnight raid on the house of another journalist, Jayantha.Continue....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

Read also :-

Monday, September 22, 2008

Misery breeds opportunity

As the cost pressure rises in the US, it only means better business prospects for Indian BPO industry
Uncle Sam’s plight has implications for a range of sectors,

and one would quite obviously agree that the Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) sector would be among the most affected. As they are already awake for most part of the night, it’s now time for them to wrack their brains even during the day – all to minimise the devastating impact of the crisis.

Affirms Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman Hero Corporate Service Ltd., “If our clients get affected so do we…” No doubt, the $11 billion Indian BPO industry, which according to NASSCOM, accounts for approximately 40% of the Global Business Process Offshoring (further expected to grow by whopping $50 billion by 2012), is under the scanner. The worst ones being thrashed by the blow of this merciless subprime crisis are the mortgage and banking firms, which ironically are the second largest outsourced vertical, next only to IT. In fact, IndyMac Bancorp, one of the largest independent mortgage lenders in the US, has already cut down its staff (primarily based in India) by 27%. If that’s not enough, the slowdown has also forced Parsec Interact Inc., a California-based mortgage firm into bankruptcy. It has closed down its shop in India – Parsec Loans.

Rajesh Mokashi, Executive Director, Credit Analysis and Research Ltd, is also of the opinion that “this crisis has adversely affected the mortgage, property and other related markets. This is leading to slowdown of some of these businesses and as Indian BPOs are dependent on these clients they will also get affected. However, bigger BPO’s won’t feel it much because of their diverse portfolio.” Undoubtedly, businesses are getting affected but then there are some who sense an opportunity to be tapped even in this nightmare. Yes, the subprime crisis is getting them more business. And if you look at what Wall Street is doing, you too get the feel! The more cost pressure these financial firm face, the more they would look towards outsourcing as a measure to save cost.

This could mean additional business for many BPO firms operating in India. “Two key reasons why clients outsource to India are cost and availability of talent. And no doubt the subprime crisis is enhancing the cost pressure on the global financial services industry, but the talent is still there,” agrees Joydeep Datta Gupta, Executive Director, Deloitte and Touche Consulting, India.

Raman Roy, CMD, Quatrro voices, “Less than 5% of the total opportunity in this BPO sector has been tapped till now, which is indicative of the enormous growth potential available to the industry”. Although the present may look dark and bleak for some organisations but surely this is not the end of the road in terms of business prospects. But Indian BPO’s will have to be particularly careful to ensure that they lap up this opportunity or they could lose it to aggressive competition from Philippines, Vietnam or even for that matter China.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Saturday, September 20, 2008

Recent liberalisation will boost investments

“Policies were aimed to provide healthy competition, and level-playing field”
How will the merger of Indian and AI help in terms of route distribution and profitability of the new entity?

The merged airline is working towards providing seamless connectivity of regional operations, short to medium haul trunk operation, and long haul operation – thus offering improved product through wider network coverage. The new airline is the largest in the country with a fleet size of almost 120 aircrafts, comparable to other airlines in Asia and more aircrafts are on order. It is enabling the enentity to have national and international footprints, achieve synergies, and reduce costs. The merger will also provide significance synergy for procurement, sales and distribution, besides affording an opportunity for elaborating common assets.

What about the other logistical issues, best management practices, allocation of cadre and staff, division of labour, trade unions, and hierarchy? The interests of the employees have been taken due care of through the scheme of amalgamation approved by the ministry of corporate affairs. All employees of the erstwhile Indian, and Air India, have become employees of NACIL without any breach or interruption of service and on terms and conditions not less favorable than those applicable to them earlier. A three-tier grievance redressal machinery has been put into place to address employee grievances.

AI has offices on stations that do not have any flights. What are you going to do with these extra stations?

Air India is re-working its route plans, and with acquisition of more aircrafts, it plans to connect many more places where hitherto it was not able to, operate to due to the lack of availability of aircrafts.

Are you thinking in terms of increasing the number of flights, and is there any positive movement towards signing more bilaterals?

Traffic rights of international operations are specified in the bilateral air services agreement with foreign countries, which are reviewed from time to time as part of ongoing process depending upon traffic demand, balance of benefit to our carriers, overall interest of national economy, diplomatic and political consideration. Actual operations including route selection are however left to the commercial judgment of the airlines. Presently, India has air services agreements with more than 100 countries.

How do you balance the government’s commitment to social security which means no retrenchment or golden handshakes, and economic common sense which emphasises on trimming staff and maximising output?

In the aviation sector because of its phenomenal growth there has been no need to cut down on staff. In the airport sector, the AAI is modernising 35 non-metro airports and bring them to world-class level. Besides, a number of unused airports and air strips are being made operational and, hence, the question of decreasing staff strength in this sector does not arise. Even for the merged airlines, Air India, the requirement of staff strength will only go up as new aircrafts, orders for which have already been placed, are being delivered and as the airlines scales up its operations. What about disinvestment?

Air India is expected to bring out its IPO towards the end of this year. The airline will be working out details of this programme along with its consultant for the consideration of the government.

Some outstanding issues of the aviation industry remain unresolved, like ATF prices. Operators say that with ATF prices as they are, it would be difficult to maximise output, revenues and efficiency. What are your views? Fuel alone accounts for more than 40% of the total operating cost for airlines in India. ATF rates for domestic operations in India are 60-70% higher than international benchmark. This high price of ATF is contributing to the large losses that are being incurred by the Indian aviation industry. Recently, I and senior officials from the civil aviation ministry have met Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and requested him to give some concessions in the next Budget. We have asked him to consider giving ATF the status of ‘declared goods’, and reducing customs and excise duty on ATF.

Some private players are upset at what they call ‘old and archaic’ rules that govern the aviation industry in India. They say it is a hindrance to growth. Do you intend to bring about changes or significant amendments?

In past three-and-a-half years, the rules of aviation industry related to the government have undergone a sea change. Various amendments have been made. There have been changes in airport infrastructure rules – a new, airport infrastructure policy will soon be in place. FDI policy in various departments of aviation has been changed – the economies of scales will now justify huge investment in areas like MROs, jet engine shops, cargos, ground handling. India will be the fourth in the world to install satellite navigation system enabling handling of higher volumes of air traffic safety, a merger and acquisition policy has been put in place to facilitate consolidations in the sector. The new civil aviation policy is under the consideration of the government, a ground handling policy has been formulated in every sector of aviation.

Finally, how do you see the aviation sector in the immediate future, let’s say at the end of this decade?

The government has put in place the merger and acquisition policy to aid the mergers and the consolidation taking place in the sector. The government has plans to scale up the air cargo business in the country as well as helicopter operations. The Indian aviation sector will be one of the major drivers of the economy in the near future. It is expected to bring in investments to the tune of $115-120 billion. Besides being one of the top sectors for investment, it would also be one of the top sectors for employment generation where the air traffic is expected to growth at the rate of at least 25% for the next 10 years; by the end of 2008, there should be at least 100 airports in the country and this number will only grow because India needs at least 400 airports across its length and breadth.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Life at the ‘4’front

Fast mobile data transfers will take a while
In a scenario where ‘staying connected’ seems to be the

inherent mantra of the organizations and people worldwide, the technological advancements in the mobile broadband arena are being watched closely by the tech experts. Recently, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSNs) completed the multi-user field trial using the new Long term Evolution technology (LTE).

Noticeably, this was the world’s first filed trial in an urban environment, which offered mobile data rates of up to 173 Megabytes per second. Interestingly, before this, such high speed mobile data transfers were absolutely unheard of, considering the fact that the traditional mobile broadband offers an infinitesimal speed of 7.2 Mbps and the promising mobile Wimax can only stretch up to a speed of 70 Mbps.

Such trial is important considering the fact that the use of mobile multimedia services over the internet is on the rise and requires quicker response time and faster data transfer rates. ”As the world continues to move closer to our vision of 5 billion people connected by 2015, mobile operators will need to use all of the available spectrum with minimum network complexity and maximum cost efficiency,” says Stephan Scholz, CTO of NSNs. “This field trial is an important initial proof of concept for LTE,” he further adds.

Interestingly, the fact that NSNs achieved the highest mobile data transfer rates of 173 Mbps over several hundred meters point towards the high efficiency levels of LTE technology as compared to that of WiMAX. If deployed on a large scale, LTE can help the mobile broadband companies in connecting maximum number of people using the minimum spectrum. “We can demonstrate that LTE meets the high expectations set for this new technology,” adds Matthias Reiss, who is the head of LTE Radio at NSN, further emphasizing on the evidence (extracted out of this trial) that future LTE networks can run on existing base station sites and mobile operators can build LTE networks without requiring new antenna sites.

Interestingly, LTE, which is a modulation technique designed for GSM based technology – seems to be a bit of a late entrant when clubbed with mobile WiMax, another wireless technology, which is now already in practice in certain pockets of UK. However, these are just packets of individual technologies that find themselves in a race to proclaiming the 4G crown. The crown, in contrast, lies way beyond for now.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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