Thursday, January 22, 2009

Downright impractical

According to Prof. Nicholas Stern, IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, India Observatory, LSE, “The world needs to cut carbon dioxide emissions to 2 tonnes per capita by 2050 and India would need to do the same. Therefore, India needs to look ahead now.” Easier said than done, as – even for the Indian government – to move over to the so-called green fuels in one shot is not only prohibitively costly, but downright impractical.

Add to it the fact that carbon trading, as a concept, and as a monetary unit, still lacks global acceptance. Said Bill Sneyd, Director, Advisory Services, The Carbon Neutral Company to 4Ps B&M, “There is still a lot of volatility associated with the carbon price. This is caused primarily by the economic downturn – the expectation is that there will be lower demand for Allowances under the EU-ETS because companies are contracting (or at least not growing as fast as was expected).” Add to it the fact that there have been growing voices in the EU that post 2012, India and China should be restricted from trading in the carbon market unless they also take mandatory sector-wise energy efficiency targets. Clearly, unless Indian companies learn the art of being as unethical as developed economies and their companies have been, perhaps India will continue getting carbon-date raped!
For Complete IIPM 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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Monday, September 29, 2008

The plan to clean up the Yamuna is flawed

Suresh Babu suggests an alternative. “Simultaneously, steps should be taken to achieve dilution in the river–mainly by reducing the demand for freshwater by upstream cities like Delhi. Fiscal instruments – like taxing water-guzzling flush toilets – can work. Simultaneously, an attempt needs to be made to revive the water bodies and their catchments to store maximum run-off, which could then be used for local water needs, or could be released into the river for dilution.“

Now, let’s take a look at what’s happened with the cleaning up of the Ganga. According to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, the monitoring mechanism for the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) has collapsed, leading to little progress in the river clean-up scheme, The Committee mentioned in its latest report that it “was astonished to note that the monitoring system of such a prestigious and important plan is its weakest link. There was no detailed record of the outcome of the field visits and review meetings with implementing agencies by the National Rivers Conservation Directorate, as also of the follow-up action as has been envisaged in the Plan itself.”

On the funds utilisation under GAP, the Committee has said that while, on the one hand, states have complained of lack of funds as the main reason for delays and failures to achieve targets, on the other, several implementing agencies have failed to spend the money made available to them. “The Committee is of the firm view that no amount of additional resources would rejuvenate the GAP till the system stops tolerating officials who do not perform. This requires amelioration in governance through improved performance and accountability through public participation,” the report added. Worse, in the absence of an effective control mechanism, state governments took full advantage to divert and misuse the funds. Bureaucracy, lack of political will, useless schemes, and government apathy have collectively turned the Ganges and Yamuna – two of the most sacred rivers in India – into cesspools. But successive governments have kept ignoring the issue. After all, cleaning up rivers doesn’t really translate into electoral votes. Therefore, the two rivers continue to flow, and be polluted. And the river action plans get muddied.

the snapshot

Nearly Rs.1,500 crores has been spent to clean up the 22.4-km stretch of Yamuna in Delhi

The initial aim is to lay 50 kms of interceptors, 2-3 metres in dia, to intercept 150 small drains discharging into three main drains of Delhi

There are plans to add another 50 kms of interceptors at a cost of Rs.1,950 crores to intercept sewage from another 150 minor drains

The Problems

The Yamuna Action Plan is not based on any scientific estimate of sewage spawned by Delhi

The plan would require millions of litres of freshwater to dilute the intercepted and treated sewage; the city has no such reserves

In the case of the Ganga Action Plan, the monitoring system was its weakest link; there was no detailed record of any follow-up action

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
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IIPM Campus

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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Windows

Microsoft has also come out with a stand-alone virtualisation server that won’t require Windows Server 2008 operating system, which will be available by March 31, 2008. Sun, HP, Citrix & Red Hat are also envisioning a future in this industry. Talking to B&E, Richard L. Ptak, Managing Partner, Ptak, Noel & Associates says “Virtualisation will become easier to use and a major headache for IT as they scramble to catch up to the ease of use of this technology and the lack of a complete management solution for it. IT operations have to learn about the technology, its benefits, pitfalls and the real threats associated with it”.

This type of virtualisation will allow linkage of various resources and is fueled by growing demand of centralised resources access. Through virtualisation, the users will realise a simpler, scalable & economical technological infrastructure. Virtualised storage space will increase overall business resilience by providing a system through which tribulations can be foreseen and addressed. Moreover, it does wonders for total cost of ownership. Just what the CIO needs to drive the ‘blues’ (pun unintended) away!

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
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Top Articles on IIPM:-
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Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Per capita income rising

Then there is the rather weird strategy that Manav adopted during 2007 – of expanding his fleet size (which currently stands at 9 Cessna jetplanes) by ‘zero’. Yes, you read that right; at a time when perhaps only the Martians were making money (with their UFOs?!) in the domestic aviation business, and everyone had taken up ordering planes as their newest found hobby, Manav sat quietly. “We took a decision to consolidate and not to add even a single extra aircraft in 2007. The primary reason being that if capacity expansion took place at such irrational speed, breaking even would become impossible,” explains Manav. With infrastructure improving and with the per capita income rising (implying more clients for Club One), Manav now plans to add more aircrafts to his fleet. He explains further, “We are also thinking of launching subsidiary companies to cater to different segments. We are going to focus a lot on building our own infrastructure and will add aircrafts as our infrastructure gets stronger by the day,” adding that the company already has two maintainence, repair & overhauling (MRO) facilities in Delhi and Mumbai.

In its bid for careful expansion, Club One Air is now looking at the hub and spoke method with hubs being established in big cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, et al, and spokes in smaller cities like Chandigarh, Kanpur and Mysore. Some would call it a dilution of focus from carriage to MRO business, yet in this era of competitive bloodfights and rising air fuel costs, Manav’s focus is on earning additional revenues from every possible quarter. “We will take another 25 years to reach the levels where airlines in US have reached. They have 130,000 small planes there today. In India, we only have a tiny 250! In another 25 years US will have another 250,000 million, but we will be much closer then,” asserts Manav.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Jodha Akbar solves Paheli

Tanishq builds an ‘emotional’ connect through its ads and movies

Come Valentine’s day and you will feel the power of love once again, the mighty power of 16th century’s romance, that the valiant Mughal emperor Akbar and beautiful Rajput princess Jodha Bai shared. And guess who takes all the credit for the ornamentation of the romantic saga; it’s none other than our modern Ratan Tata; all thanks to his successful venture called Tanishq, which of late has also been making news at the box office and how! As 4Ps B&M had disclosed the details in the issue dated January 4, 2008, the beginning of February this year will also see the TVC showcasing the Jodha Akbar collection from Tanishq; indeed an advertising strategy, which goes much beyond what the power of the Hrithik-Ash duo alone can dare to achieve!

Advertising in movies is not something new for Tanishq though. It has always resorted to the right movie for promoting its products. Remember the King Khan starrer period film Paheli? Yes, of course, the film bombed at the box office, yet Tanishq gained, thereby increasing its turnover substantially during FY-06 as Bhaskar Bhat, MD, Titan Industries affirms, “It gave Tansihq a platform to convey its brand image and at the same time we also launched a ‘Paheli’ collection”. So what are the big launch plans for Jodha Akbar? Well, the film also presents another big platform for Tanishq to showcase its offerings. So even if UTV fails to mint moolah from Jodha Akbar, Tanishq has its own advertising strategy in place to reach its target audience. “The movie will be released in overseas film festivals and we want to reach the NRIs and promote it for their marriages,” explains C. K. Venkataraman, COO-Jewellery, Titan Industries.

A unique strategy indeed and goes well with Tanishq’s brand image of commemorating the heritage of the glory days of India. Yes, that’s palpable from Tanishq’s earlier ads, which promoted the product as a classic immortalised design. Agress Alpana Parida, Head – Marketing & Merchandising, Tanishq, “That helped us to become the most trustworthy brand but then it became important to reach out to the masses also.” Surely, this well justifies Tanishq’s revelations of many TVCs, which showcased marriages of different cultures, rich masses indeed! “Tanishq has been always a progressive brand, which has been able to create a trustworthy brand image among the niche as well as masses,” elaborates Vikram Tyanath, Team Leader, Lowe. Concerning its latest ad-splashes, Venkataraman has a word to share, “Tanishq is a brand for the youth also and that’s precisely what we plan to promote through our ads. At the same time, we won’t compromise with the ‘trust’ image.” He is also open to tie-up with movies and to create special TVCs. “Such association has always helped us to sustain our brand image and we needn’t talk about trust anymore. Rather, now our ads will talk about craftsmanship & designs,” reveals Parida. So whether Jodha Akbar works at the box-office is a tale for another day, but as far as Tanishq is concerned, it couldn’t have imagined a more romantic side to history!

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative