Monday, October 31, 2011

A cultural watershed

Khasi culture faces imminent threat of being overrun by gross modernism, but a valiant attempt by a few committed persons to create an annual Indigenous Festival is noteworthy

Cherrapunjee: the name is enough to conjure up images of constant rain. Constant. And this has become a cliché, with anyone hardly mentioning that Sohra (its original name) is also the land of the corollary of rains: the rainbows. Fantastic, huge rainbows straddle across the East Khasi Hills and the spectacular floodplains of Bangladesh. That is a part of Cherrapunjee too.

This December as always, it rained in Sohra, but it also rained culture in a tiny hamlet called Laimusiang, 52 kilometres from capital Shillong. And how. On a massive, ultra-modern stage, six boys and six girls glided in, the boys with fishing angles and the girls with nets. They were the ordinary village folk, who usually go out fishing in autumn when there is little rain and the harvest is ripening.

The boys went through the motions, and in the background the Phawar is ‘sung’, or narrated, giving out the story of fishing. At a point in the dance, the girls offer tambul and khwai (betel leaves and areca nuts). This combination has a deep significance in Khasi folklore and is the first offering made to guests as a symbol of love. In the background sang some boys and girls.

To the urbane me, there at first seemed too little movement: the boys and girls were practically standing at their positions, lifting their right and left feet alternatively, just so, above the ground and taking tiny rounds. The first round seemed boring, but then the ethereal beauty of this quiet dance emerged as one watched and became a sensation in the mind, a feeling of something, well let me use the cliché, so cute that I knew the image wouldn’t be forgotten in a hurry.
This was the ‘small fishes’ dance. Of course, I understood nothing of the words, but that is the beauty of simplicity: you need not understand when the musicians and dancers can well create that sensation without it. It almost felt like being under a rainbow! Then came the drum beats, followed by the gambler’s dance (!) and a majestic 15 minute improvised dance across the vast flat ground surrounded by mound shaped hills so typical of East Khasi Hills in Meghalaya.

This was at the first Cherrapunjee Indigenous Festival.

The programme started with Sen Khasi Sohra delivering a welcome song which, typically, was “a million thanks” to Sen Khasi, the God of Khasis who, though they have aeons ago converted to Christianity, have remained faithful to their original religion.

The Si’yem, or the ‘king’ of principalities still has command over social issues, and the Si’yem of Sohra was the guest of honour at the festival. The Si’yemship, like Sen Khasi, is an enduring social system that lends much colour to the Khasis’ culture. And in his presence, dances like the Shad Tynrai, Shad Kyntei Khalaimiaw Shad Suk Mynsiem, Shad Kynjoh Khaskain and other Shads, or dances rolled out one after another. The most lilting was the Shad Tynrai or the small fish dance, and the gamblers’ dance and Phawar was by far the most dramatic and somewhat volatile.

The beating of the drums came on, with a quaint old lady using a bamboo pole to work up a rhythm, followed on a small drum and local clarinet by two musicians. Then came the Bum, or the big drum. The old man played with such vigour that he seemed possessed. In fact, no one had ever seen so much of Khasi dance and music in one place at one time. And the sweeping dance performed by hundreds of girls of St Johns Sohra against the backdrop of mound-headed hills and the ashen sky, juggling old Khasi songs on the pride of Khasi’ism (if we may coin the term), took our breath away.

It was a magical dance, unbelievable in its simplicity of movements but also startling in the complexity of the choreography. One has seen such massive canvasses in Bollywood films, but the dancers at Cherrapunjee Indigenous Festival did not have the luxury of a ‘cut’ and ‘take two’, ‘take three’ and so forth. It was live and there was no scope for mistakes, for the dancers were so numerous in the comparatively small space that one mistake would have found them tumbling over each other.

“We have tried to mix a bit of modernity in this dance,” said Dr PW Khongjee, the MLA of Sohra, “but the original theme is the same.” The Cherrapunjee Indigenous Festival is the creation of Dr Khongjee. Locals told me that he had that sheer passion for preserving Khasi culture, and so he and his ‘three-star general’ EM Blah, worked their days and nights for the past six months to set this festival up. Of course, the on-ground efforts were echoed by suitable government aid. But even then, creating a world event in a hamlet that had never seen more than a few cars on its dirt-track roads is nothing short of a miracle.

Khongjee, surprisingly modest about his achievement, reminds, “Khasi culture has its roots here, and the mild-mannered Sohra people’s hospitable nature is famous. But we are fast losing out to pop culture. If something is not done, then our culture will become a victim of gross modernism,” Khongjee said.

As one travelled back on the last night of the four-day gala, driving through a scarily fogged-out mountain road, one felt compelled to make plans for another trip back here, and more importantly, do something to spread the word around.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Friday, October 28, 2011

Disasteracy: Democracy's role in disaster!

Disaster Economic System

Sample this: January 2010, Haiti: A 7.0 magnitude earthquake killed more than 200,000 people. February 2010, Chile: an 8.8 magnitude quake killed only 500 people. Surprisingly, an earthquake in 2001 in India killed around 20,000 people while a similar one in Pakistan killed more than 80,000.

The above mentioned trivia not only echoes the devastating capacity of a natural disaster but also brings forth an interesting fact about how natural disasters of similar magnitude have different impacts at different locations! Yes, population densities of affected regions do play a major role in varying death counts but an in-depth scrutiny of the whole issue reveals some other paradoxical correlations too. A study of the trends of such natural disasters (across times and geographies) shows that political and economi

c systems of a nation play a very important role when it comes to determining the extent of the death toll caused by disasters. In both the abovementioned cases (Haiti vs. Chile and India vs. Pakistan), the nations that saw less casualties were strangely the democratic ones. Taking the discussion further, in 1970, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in Peru took lives of more than 60,000 people and a stronger quake in 2001 in the same nation killed only 150 people. Again, in 2001, Peru was a democratic nation, which it was not during 1970 – Peru had re-established democracy in 1975.

It is observed that leaders in a democracy do everything possible to protect their people from natural disasters. It has also been observed that leaders actually win elections if their human rehabilitation efforts after disasters are effective. Democratic leaders dependent on votes do leave no stones unturned to save their skin and benefit out of disasters to win elections or to stay in power. Does this mean that non-democratic nations do not take care of their citizens in moments of disaster? Strangely, the answer is yes – and unfortunately, non-democratic nations are also the last ones that receive global aid when faced with massive natural disaster. From African nations to east European former countries that have witnessed even man made disasters like genocide, human life has a much lower value in non-democratic nations than democratic ones. Bush’s ratings collapsed to 41 per cent in October 2005 and a worse 38 per cent in November 2005 after hurricane Katrina. This was one of the reasons why Republicans lost elections in 2006 and 2008. As per a New York Times article, “Institutionalized autocracies tend to outperform non-institutionalized or corrupt autocracies as well as young democracies when it comes to preventing earthquake deaths.” Similarly, a study conducted by Geotimes in 2007 concluded that “the World Bank’s Democracy Index is a strong predictor of a natural disaster’s humanitarian impact than either the size of the event or the population density in the area of the disaster.” Out of all global disaster deaths from early 60s to early 2000s, 80 per cent were credited to nations having low democracy indices.

A disaster only shows its true colour when its devastating effects become difficult to manage. It is undoubtedly impossible for human beings to prevent them from happening. But a noble initiative in order to limit their immediate impact is the call for the day. Even Amartya Sen received his Nobel Prize for proving that there has never been a famine in a country with a truly free press. He also stated that when potential victims of famine are able to publicise their plight, governments will be forced to respond. Thus, disaster is the final call for a sinking government to play the right cards. And democracy the call to fight disaster.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM ranks No 1 in International Exposure in the 'Third Mail Today B-School Survey'
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"Thorns to Competition" amongst the top 10 best sellers of the week.
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Vegetable price effect on politics

"Thorns to Competition" amongst the top 10 best sellers of the week.

Onion's teary tales
Price of onions rise to Rs.70 per kg…

The ever rising price of onions and other vegetables since the last few weeksOnion is adversely affecting our economy and is also a matter of grave concern for the ruling government at the central level!

A figure released by Ministry of Commerce and Industry reveals that wholesale price index for food climbed 2.3 per cent in the first week of December, and inflation ascended y-o-y from 9.46 per cent last December to 12.43 per cent this year. Interestingly, a decent monsoon this year could not provide the silver lining, as untimely rainfall in Maharashtra and Gujarat (major producers of onions) destroyed the crops to a large extent. Hoarding of crops by the big traders also contributed to
this trouble.

Onions and a few other vegetables make up the staple diet for India’s poor and just above poverty line citizens (a massive 700 million plus segment that survives on less than $2 a day) – they exercise huge political clout, being the biggest demographic segment. The staple food prices are more important to them than economic growth! To influence this segment, political parties are always on the lookout and forever ready to hold demonstrations across the country. The Left has been particularly vocal against the UPA (more so because of impending state assembly election in West Bengal) and has frequently protested against the rising prices. BJP too is not leaving any quarters untouched in its vicious attack against the UPA regime.

To neutralise this onslaught, the UPA government is resorting to desperate measures. The exports of onion has been banned, and for those who have already been issued ‘no objection certificates’, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) has been instructed to augment the minimum price of export from $525 per ton to $1,200 per ton. In Delhi, NAFED and National Consumer Cooperative Federation (NCCF) has regulated the price of onions between Rs.35 to Rs.40 per kg, hitherto hovering at Rs.70 to Rs.80 per kg.

The minimum wage for unskilled workers is Rs 100 a day – the same goes for their rural counterparts under NREGA – and these are the people who are struggling to make both ends meet. A radical and structural solution is the order of the day… and not a quick fix one… The incumbent government might otherwise have to pay a heavy political price. If the government is imagining that consumers will simply choose other cheaper vegetables and forget onion consumption, they have two issues. One, other vegetable prices are also rising. Two, onions are election critical.

India, with 40 lakh tonnes of onion consumption, is the second largest producer after China. And this costly vegetable is the hotbed for political battles, which is almost a decadal phenomenon. Janata Party in the early eighties lost the Lok Sabha election to Indira Gandhi’s Congress (I) because of expensive onions in northern India. Sushma Swaraj in 1998 lost the Chief Minister’s chair of Delhi because of spiralling prices of onions that rose by 600 per cent! For the current government, the suggestion is simple – forget corruption, get the onion first.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM ranks No 1 in International Exposure in the 'Third Mail Today B-School Survey'
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM
IIPM Excom Prof Rajita Chaudhuri
Kapil Sibal’s voters want Jan Lokpal, not Government-proposed Lokpal Bill

IIPM: What is E-PAT?
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'Thorns to Competition' - You can order your copy online from here
IIPM Mumbai Campus

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Gulliver’s travails: Seemingly cool idea to modernize an epic misfires due to scrappy writing

IIPM Excom Prof Rajita Chaudhuri

Of all the people you might imagine as Jonathan Swift’s intrepid voyager, Lemuel Gulliver, Jack Black would probably be the unlikeliest candidate. Which is why his casting in this 21st Century update of the classic tale is quite the twist.

Alas, the rest of the film is mostly predictable and in your face product placements and a constant torrent of self-referential jokes (for the studio – 20th Century Fox). “Gulliver’s Travels” is converted into a dyed in the wool Jack Black comedy, with our man Black playing a good for nothing slacker who listens to rock music and dreams of making it big as a writer. There are obvious shades of Dewey Finn, a character Black played in “School of Rock”. In order to impress the travel editor Darcy Silverman (Amanda Peet), who he has a crush on, Gulliver writes a plagiarised article and lands his first assignment – investigating the Bermuda Triangle, or more accurately, hunting down a man who happens to know about it. In the Caribbean, he gets lost in a storm and lands up on the shores of the land of Liliput, inhabited by little people who treat Gulliver as a giant beast who’s come from another land. The rest of the story is fairly well known among children and adults alike – Gulliver saves Liliput from the nearby evil kingdom and befriends the royal family but a General in the Liliputian army conspires to have him banished off the land.

With the rewriting for a modern time, the funny situations with the Liliputians had a lot of potential but beyond a few sparks (like the scene on the Foosball table), there are hardly any laugh worthy moments. For a majority of the audience the story would appear predictable, given their knowledge of the source material before hand. And that is where the studio wastes the opportunity of having Jack Black play the lead character. Gulliver with a dash of Jack Black’s classic comic style would have been loveable but the portrayal here is a little too safe to be irreverently enjoyable.

Modernising a classic tale is one thing, but limiting your imagination only to the visual setting is a criminal waste. The miniature Times Square that Gulliver creates in Liliput is quite a fun idea; one wishes the rest of the movie were more so. The edge and bite of Swift’s satire and wit that populated the original work sadly receive neither an upgrade nor a mention.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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"Thorns to Competition" amongst the top 10 best sellers of the week.
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
'Thorns to Competition' - You can order your copy online from here
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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Spreading cheer in the New Year!

Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM

You’ve seen the remarkable strength of the Deols, now judge their comic timing as Dharmendra, Sunny and Bobby attempt to start the year with a rip-roaring comedy. Bobby Deol speaks to Anu Gulmohar about their film “Yamla Pagla Deewana,” his reverence for his father, the power of Sunny Deol, and lots more…

Bobby Deol’s very first film “Barsaat” released in 1995, which made him the heartthrob of teenagers. The fan following only strengthened in the latter 90s as he ‘soldiered’ on delivering hit upon hit. As I lay my eyes on him at the newly opened Jynxxx club in New Delhi, I am reminded of his hit club number from “Gupt” and the crush I had on him in my teenage years. And I can't help but notice that 15 years post his debut, this Jat boy is still quite a looker. “You cannot be a favourite of teenagers always,” he comments to me in the middle of this interview. He goes on to reason, “Teenage is a very fickle age, one day they like something, the next they like something else. The flavours keep changing. Every new boy who comes into the
industry becomes a teenage sensation and then it changes, but that’s not what’s important. What’s important is eventually how long you’ve been here and how much people still want to see you.” He declares all this pragmatically, confident that people are indeed waiting for his next film, “Yamla Pagla Deewana,” which stars him alongside his father Dharmendra and elder brother Sunny Deol. It is a special film for the family, not only because it marks the second film starring all three Deols, but because it is being released in the 50th year of Dharmendra’s career in
cinema.

It is only by co-incidence that this remarkable achievement is being commemorated with a film in which his son Bobby mimics one of the most memorable scenes of his career –the water tank scene from “Sholay”. “I don’t think I can better his performance, and when I was doing the scene I wasn’t thinking of bettering it either, because I can’t,” states Bobby rather humbly. “The character I play, Gajodhar, is a fan of “Sholay” and Dharmendra, and he looks up to this actor and thinks that ‘I can be like that…if I do that will I get the girl?’ So, Gajodhar stands on the tank trying to be Dharmendra, thinking it will happen. But then his brother shakes him and says hello, times have changed and you can’t climb tanks and get what you want. I was definitely nervous because it was something my dad had done, but it was fun also; to have a moment like that was something special.” There are other times that Bobby has imitated his father off-screen. “My gestures are like my dad because when I was a kid I was like any child who looks up to his father. I used to always watch him and I picked up his habits.”
Where this film is a tribute to Dharmendra, Bobby’s immense respect for his father keeps recurring during our chat, even when talking about all the fun they had shooting in Punjab. “We haven’t gone together to Punjab since so long, and we were all there together for 45 days, shooting right next to my mum’s village; so we got really great food from there! My dad is an amazing actor, his comic sense is superb. So, when you’re working with him, you improve too, and you start enjoying it even more,” smiles Bobby.
“People think that it’s easy for an actor’s son, but there are so many actors’ sons who have not made it. Definitely, there is a very big hype around your launch because people want to see Dharmendra or any big actor’s son, but then after that it’s your own work that speaks for you,” claims Bobby. But the going hasn’t been going so good for Bobby in the last few years, and many of his films have been rather disappointing. “Every day is a new day. Things may be going right for you one moment and the next they’re not, but these things keep happening,” states the star.

From sending a chill down our spine with his thrillers to now trying to tickle our funny bone, Bobby seems keen on testing new ground every time. “For me, I would love to do every genre…I have not done many comedies and it’s very difficult to make people laugh.” Action is after all the forte of the Deols, Sunny in particular. But Bobby assures that there will be action in “Yamla Pagla Deewana” too. “There are action scenes obviously, as there is Sunny Deol. But the action is something everybody will enjoy, because people will find it funny, yet the power of Sunny Deol will come across.”
Film magazines by the dozen are able to cash in on the interest people have about knowing more about celebrities and their families. So, why shouldn’t the celebrities themselves profit from our banal and rather invasive curiosity? “The USP of this film is the chemistry we share on-screen too, and that is what people enjoyed when they saw the promos,” remarks Bobby casually. Get ready to see a lot more of this chemistry between the father and sons, and for some crazy fun with the Deols in 2011!

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM ranks No 1 in International Exposure in the 'Third Mail Today B-School Survey'
IIPM Excom Prof Rajita Chaudhuri
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"Thorns to Competition" amongst the top 10 best sellers of the week.

IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
'Thorns to Competition' - You can order your copy online from here
IIPM Mumbai Campus

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Ordinarily, desktops would have gone full circle in India and still experienced stellar growth;

however, laptops, and now netbooks and tablets threaten to put the desktop run to a grinding halt, and soon. By neha saraiya

The Indian PC market is now experiencing a strange phenomenon where growth in desktop sales is being cut midway by a striking rise in sales of notebooks. When you look at the 3Q 2010 PC Industry Tracker by IDC, the overall Indian PC market sales reached 27.9 lakh units during the July-September 2010 quarter recording a 27% growth on year-on-year basis. While desktop sales accounted for nearly 60% of total PC sales (16.7 lakh units) – representing a 15% increase yoy – the sales of notebook computers grew by 52% yoy and crossed the 11.1 lakh units mark. Over a period of time, the notebook market in the country has registered a growth of 148%, 108%, 81% and 85% for years 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively; while desktops, on the other hand, have witnessed a downward curve with a fall of 19%, 12%, 7% and 5.4% respectively.
It is quite clear that notebooks are going strong with every quarter. But that was not the phenomenon in the late part of the last century, when desktops came at a price of Rs 5 lakh and were just restricted to corporate offices only. At that time, the desktop market kept growing at a moderate speed of around 35% on an annual basis. But what’s interesting to note is the fact that it almost took 17 years for laptops to reach the one million mark in terms of sales. Apple, on the other hand, sold a record-breaking 300,000 iPads on launch day itself.

Commenting on the changing scenario, S. Rajendran, CMO, Acer India says, “If you look at the penetration levels currently, the notebook market is growing at a fast speed. As of now, we also just have 30% of the notebook share in our portfolio but a crossover between the notebook and the desktop would surely happen in next three years time.” The company’s global shipments of PC products climbed by 43% over last year with 10.8 million units sold during the first quarter. Banking on this, the company is planning to flood the market with its entire family of Internet devices including smart phones, tablets, and 3D-enabled notebooks. Besides this, it is also basking on the server market and plans to garner revenue share of 4% from it by the end of this year.
One major reason why mobility devices (particularly notebooks) have picked up so instantly is primarily because of the strategy adopted by the companies. Hardware majors adopted the route of bulk manufacturing in unison by using low-margin processors and operating systems in order to bag a larger market share. This wave intensified at the time of recession when everyone was looking far more intent to cut into the competition. This offensive tactic adopted by the companies (primarily by Acer and Lenovo) lead to the outburst of a slew of portable products including the notebooks, netbooks and tablets.

Another factor that has led to the slow momentum of the desktops is the steep fall in its Average Selling Price (ASP) that has bucked the trend of the fall of 14% in 2009, 4.3% in 2008 and 1.3% in 2007 followed by an expected downward surge of 5% in 2010 and 6% in 2011. Even though the notebook segment is not so high on profits, the volumes are growing exorbitantly.

Yet another stimulus has been the interesting trend with respect to the increased consumer adoption of netbooks and tablets, which show that even the notebook market is up for grabs and not immune to changing trends. Though the market for netbooks in India is still at a nascent stage and the awareness level is limited, it is expanding with the pace of tablet products entering in the market. As worldwide market trends indicate, there will be an escalation in the demand for tablet PCs in the coming months. Sample this – the worldwide smartphone market is expected to escalate by 36% to reach 247 million units in 2010 from 182 million in 2009. The demand is expected to be driven by portability, connectivity, and compelling applications and services that are distinct from those found on PCs. As per Forrester, by beginning of 2012, tablets will outsell netbooks; by 2014, more consumers will use tablets rather than netbooks. By 2015, tablets are expected to constitute 23% of PC unit sales. Like the notebooks majors, even Asus is upbeat about launching its Tablet PC and the Eee Pad by early next year. Alex Huang, Country Manager for System business at ASUS India, avers, “We are very enthusiastic about the feedback and support gathered at their debut in Computex 2010. Hence we have a lot of hopes on this new genre of mobile computing device. Besides we plan to spend as much as Rs 50 million in India by 2012 to ensure that our products and brand find sufficient recognition among the masses in India.”
However, a section of industry experts also feel that the tablets getting big time in to the mobility segment would not be able to bring the kind of disruption which the cell phones had bought to the landlines. As Ramprasad, GM - Channel Sales, Fujitsu India echoes, “Currently the desktop forms 50-60% of the PC space, but it is growing at a slow speed. But at the same time my projection for the growth of tablets is flat largely because of its second fiddle utilities.” However, netbooks are in a much better position to disrupt the market in India at least. They crossed the one lakh mark in the second quarter of 2009-10 for the first time. Interestingly, they are driven primarily by households in India, which goes heavily in their favour. As far as tablets are concerned, they are still largely enterprise driven, and there is a concern that IT departments may not be too keen on their rapid deployment till they become a lot cheaper.

For the desktop market to keep growing, the players need to focus on capitalising on the opportunity of growing their desktop consumption in smaller towns and cities, which are now experiencing a wave of computerization. As per an IDC report, by 2013, small form factors like the All-in-one PC have the potential to make up for nearly 38% of the overall desktop market. But the fact is that pushing netbooks may become that much more easier for players owing to their low prices and ability to run basic applications that most first time users need. On the other hand, segments of the population, like the hardcore computer game addicts, may be one of the few groups to keep buying desktops that offer greater processing power for memory-intensive applications. So, there is a little hope. The desktop may not die out altogether but keep its presence in certain niches of the market. Otherwise, by virtue of the way the players are moving the market and the way customers are preferring the mobility aspect with declining prices, desktops seem well headed the landline way.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM ranks No 1 in International Exposure in the 'Third Mail Today B-School Survey'
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM
IIPM Excom Prof Rajita Chaudhuri
Kapil Sibal’s voters want Jan Lokpal, not Government-proposed Lokpal Bill
IIPM: What is E-PAT?

"Thorns to Competition" amongst the top 10 best sellers of the week.
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
'Thorns to Competition' - You can order your copy online from here
IIPM Mumbai Campus

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Karunanidhi is too seasoned a politician to be swayed by circumstances,

but by snubbing the PM during the latter's Chennai visit the DMK supremo revealed that he isn't averse to rocking the UPA's boat

As the new year dawned upon Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), it had many things to ponder. In normal circumstances, January 3 should have been a day of showing off its camaraderie with the Congress. As the 58-acre Eco Park in the Adyar estuary of Chennai had failed to get clearance from the Union environment ministry, the inaugural function scheduled to be attended by the Prime Minister was cancelled by the Tamil Nadu government. A far cry from the days when DMK got the nod for its Kalaingar TV channel in 24 hours.

When Dr Manmohan Singh arrived in Chennai on January 2 for the Indian Science Congress, the Tamil Nadu chief minister made no effort to conceal his displeasure with the Centre. Breaking the customary protocol, he sent his son and deputy chief minister MK Stalin to receive the PM at the airport. Later that night, he also skipped the scheduled meet with the PM and went to a book launch function instead.

Karunanidhi went on to amuse the crowd by narrating a story of an ancient Tamil king who comforted a sleeping poet by waving a large hand-held vensamaram (fan). “This is the land where kings gave high respect to poets. That's why I came here instead of going to see the PM,” he told the gathering in a luxury hotel located near the airport.

After the function, Karunanidhi drove to the new secretariat building, keeping everybody guessing. Knowing his father had given the PM a miss, Stalin and K Anbazhagan, TN finance minister, rushed to meet Karunanidhi. It is their pressure and some senior Congress leaders' intervention that finally led to the Karunanidhi meeting the PM at 8.30 the next morning.

Informed DMK sources told TSI that the already strained ties with the Congress in the aftermath of the spectrum scam was further stretched due to the delay in approval to the Eco Park. A senior DMK leader listed out a few of the party's concerns vis-a-vis the Congress. One, in the spectrum issue, it was promised that everything would be normal once Raja tendered his resignation. But the Congress went back on its word.

Moreover, Congress leaders like EVKS Elangovan are openly critical of the DMK government. Appeals to the Congress central leadership to rein in the former Union minister have fallen on deaf ears. It is whispered that a DMK-Congress alliance in the coming assembly polls would be disastrous.

What has made matters worse is that Rahul Gandhi, on his numerous visits to TN, has given the impression that he supports the anti-DMK sentiments within the local Congress unit.

It is now widely accepted that the DMK's image has been severely dented by the spectrum scandal. The selectively leaked Niira Radia tapes have only added fuel to the disaffection. A large chunk of the media controlled by the DMK clan was quiet when the scandal erupted. But other media houses and the opposition took advantage of the issue and unleashed a blitzkrieg of sorts. Thanks to Raja, Jaya TV (of AIADMK), which was at the bottom of the TRP charts, grew in popularity as it led the attack on Raja and his party. The CBI raids made matters worse.

Kanimozhi, Rajya Sabha MP, escaped being raided by CBI. But the fact that the investigating agency came to the premises of Tamil Maiyam, an NGO close to her, showed that she had escaped only by a whisker.

Having lost the moral high ground, the DMK boss decided to throw his weight behind Raja. It is reported that Stalin and MK Alagiri, Karunanidhi's other son, favoured expelling Raja from the party but the DMK chief decided against it. Alagiri resigned from his party post and the Union Cabinet in protest.

The party, on its part, has launched a statewide campaign (aptly dubbed by the media as the 'Save Raja Campaign') supporting the former telecom minister. The campaigners took pains to explain that a CAG report is only speculation on the loss and it is not incontrovertible proof of a scandal.

A possible DMK-Congress split will affect the equations at the Centre. DMK's strength of 18 members may well be compensated by AIADMK, JD(S), and SP. But the price that the Congress has to pay for it will be heavy. The Congress top brass is yet to take a final decision, sources say. Can they put the survival of the government at the Centre at stake for a few seats more in a state Assembly poll? A tough call that.

In an election year (the TN assembly polls are scheduled for May this year), a scandal as huge as the one involving spectrum allocation is enough to sink any party. Ironically, thanks to the scheme of distribution of free colour televisions, many in Tamil Nadu actually know about the scope and nature of the spectrum scam. Yet DMK leaders are confident of electoral success as they have done enough in terms of doling out freebies to the poor, right from rice at one rupee a kilo to the recent free housing scheme.

A DMK leader told TSI that in the coming elections his party would draw strength from the support of the beneficiaries of successful government schemes rather than from an alliance with the Congress.

When Dr Manmohan Singh was about to leave Chennai, he assured the waiting media that Congress ties with DMK remain strong. Are we supposed to then read between the lines and beyond the spoken word? That's what politics is we guess...

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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"Thorns to Competition" amongst the top 10 best sellers of the week.
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'Thorns to Competition' - You can order your copy online from here
IIPM Mumbai Campus

Monday, October 10, 2011

Hoga Koi Aisa Bhi Ki Ghalib Ko Na Jaane...

IIPM: What is E-PAT?

On the 213th Birth Anniversary of Mirza Ghalib, Gulzar and some others attempt to resurrect the legacy of the greatest icon of Urdu poetry

A theory pegs John F Kennedy to be the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln. We dare say there might have been a similar soul-surrender in the direction of Gulzar after Ghalib’s lifetime. Considering the creative genius and aesthetic purity of either, it sounds quite probable. Besides, watching Gulzar eulogise the master of Urdu poetry on his 213th birth anniversary at the poet’s haveli in Gali Qasim Jaan in Ballimaran, Old Delhi, could make it sound further convincing.

On December 26, 2010, a bust of Mirza Ghalib was unveiled by the Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dixit, at the Ballimaran haveli, which has now been renovated and partially transformed into a museum. It was the least the long derelict landmark – where Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan, better known as Ghalib, spent his last years – could ask for. The legacy of Mirza Ghalib, arguably the greatest Urdu poet of all times after Mir Taqi Mir, is nearly forgotten except by a few. Gulzar, who made an entire television-series on the legend, narrated how Mirza Ghalib is an important element of Indian history and culture on the occasion. Every year on the eve of Ghalib’s birthday, Gulzar is joined by his friends, and fans of Ghalib, for a candle march from Townhall to Gali Qasim Jaan. Ghalib’s poetry has been translated by several scholars; his writings remain a collector’s delight. And yet attempts to restore his glory and re-introduce new generation to his works have been found to be dragging along.

Of the stalwart, Gulzar reminisced, “His poems, his lifestyle and his thought process were an inspiration. In an era when people laid emphasis on religion, Mirza Ghalib talked about humanity. Even though Ghalib was saddened by the loss of his seven children, there was never a dull moment in his company. He was known for his sense of humour and presence of mind. His quick witted one liners were not mere remarks or statements, but had literary depth in them. There is no doubt that Ghalib was an egotist. But he was aware of his potential and standing as a poet, hence he possessed a huge ego.”

Ghalib was quite a rebel as far as his thoughts were concerned, and hence was a little too scathing of his contemporaries. He was appointed tutor to Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar after the death of Zafar's ustad, Sheikh Ibrahim Zauq, in 1854. In addition to being poet-tutor, he was appointed the royal historian of the Mughal court. Although Ghalib never worked for money, his kith and kin were kind enough to take care of his frugal needs. Once jailed for gambling, Ghalib is believed to have reveled in the experience of being behind bars! The unveiled bust of Ghalib, commissioned by Gulzar and sculpted by the skilled Bhagawan Rampure of Sholapur, will hope to highlight the legacy of the master, lest we find Ghalib’s lines ringing true all over again.

Khaak ho jaayenge ham tum ko khabar hone tak
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"Thorns to Competition" amongst the top 10 best sellers of the week.
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Friday, October 07, 2011

Justice under a cloud

"Thorns to Competition" amongst the top 10 best sellers of the week.

The pressure on former SC Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan to step down as NHRC chairman mounts as allegations of unaccounted wealth against his kin become more insistent

The cloud hovering over National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairman and former Chief Justice of India (CJI) KG Balakrishnan has just got a bit darker. First it was his alleged covert attempt to influence a high court judge in Tamil Nadu in a bail hearing involving a father and son duo accused in a marks scandal in Puducherry. And now, members of his family are under fire for having amassed wealth beyond their known sources of income during his tenure as CJI.

The NHRC chief’s son-in-law and lawyer PV Sreenijan, who is also a politician, another son-in-law MJ Benny and brother KG Bhaskaran, senior government pleader, are facing charges of financial misconduct.

Bhaskaran was subsequently summoned by the Kerala advocate-general CP Sudhakara Prasad to explain his position. A move is reportedly afoot for his dismissal as a government counsel.

Following the allegation that Balakrishnan had sought to intervene in favour of two accused persons believed to be close to former telecom minister A Raja, Justice VR Krishna Iyer told the media that the ex-CJI should immediately quit his NHRC post. Advocates Prashant Bhushan and Fali S Nariman supported the top law expert in this regard.

All the eminent personalities who have demanded Balakrishnan’s resignation have referred to the alleged disproportionate assets of the NHRC chief’s daughter Soni and her husband, Sreenijan, both lawyers. This VIP son-in-law was a Congress candidate during the last Kerala Assembly elections in 2006. He was until recently the state vice president of the Indian Youth Congress.

During the recently concluded Kerala Youth Congress organisational elections, PCC chief Ramesh Chennithala's faction alleged that Sreenijan had spent hundreds of thousands of rupees for ensuring the victory of the faction supported by powerful leader Oommen Chandy. Chandy's blue-eyed boy Vishnunath, MLA, was elected state Youth Congress chief.

It is alleged that the lawyer couple has accumulated properties worth crores of rupees during the last two years. In 2006, in his declaration to the Election Commission, Sreenijan had revealed that his wealth was to the tune of only Rs 25,000. Today he is worth several crores of rupees. He isn’t regarded as a force to reckon with in his professional field. The wealth amassed by him has, therefore, taken the people of Kerala by surprise.

Now, it has come to light that another son-in-law of Balakrishnan’s, MJ Benny, bought properties worth Rs 80 lakh in Tamil Nadu during the NHRC chief’s tenure as CJI. Naturally, public opinion is steadily turning against Balakrishnan, the first Keralite and Dalit to make it to the posts of CJI and NHRC chairman.

Kerala chief minister VS Achuthanandan, in a surprise move, has instructed home minister (in charge of vigilance) Kodiyeri Balakrishnan to order a probe into the disproportionate assets scandal. Defence minister AK Antony, too, has gone on record to say that the facts of the case should be exposed. He added that if there is evidence against his kin, stringent action should be taken.

The Oommen Chandy faction of the Congress in Kerala has demanded an inquiry into the allegations against Sreenijan. But the fact that has particularly raised eyebrows in the state is the conspicuous silence from the CPI (M) leaders who normally miss no opportunity to swing into action in such situations.

Left leaders here are excessively aggressive in their criticism of sitting judges and their verdicts and do not mind risking contempt proceedings. But when the Sreenijan scandal came to light, they chose to remain tightlipped. If at all the state secretary of DYFI, the youth front of the CPI (M), and a state committee member issued statements to the press on the matter, the party's mouthpiece Deshabhimani blacked them out.

The grapevine has it that Justice Balakrishnan had helped CPI (M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in the Supreme Court. The story goes like this: when the Kerala governor gave permission to prosecute Vijayan in the SNC-Lavalin case and it came up before the Supreme Court, the then Registrar had recommended expediting the proceedings so as to help Vijayan’s cause. The Registrar had taken the step allegedly at the behest of Justice Balakrishnan.

Even though Union law minister Veerappa Moily has give a clean chit to Balakrishnan, the number of vocal critics is increasing by the day. VM Sudheeran, considered to be the 'Mr Clean' of Kerala politics, has come out with a suggestion that inquiries should be conducted about the wealth of even retired judges of both high courts and the Supreme Court.

Former NHRC member Sudarshan Agarwal and eminent lawyer Rajiv Dhavan have also sought Balakrishnan's resignation. Even the Scheduled Caste-Scheduled Tribe Aikya Vedi has made the same demand.

The latest salvo has been fired by Justice VR Krishna Iyer. He has advised Balakrishnan to face an inquiry and come clean on the entire issue. Iyer alleged that an emissary, a judge, had recently approached him on behalf of the former CJI and requested him not to write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek action against Balakrishnan.

Pressure is clearly mounting on Justice Balakrishnan. It is not simply an individual who in the dock. It is the nation's highest seat of justice and the last resort of the common man that is under a shadow. Unless those involved in the mess clear their names, people will lose faith in the judicial system for good.


For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM ranks No 1 in International Exposure in the 'Third Mail Today B-School Survey'
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'Thorns to Competition' - You can order your copy online from here
IIPM Mumbai Campus

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

A village of pristine distinction

IIPM Excom Prof Rajita Chaudhuri

A tiny village in Meghalaya, Mawlynnong, is now Asia's cleanest village! TSI's Dulal Misra visits the village to find out what worked in this clean oasis, which is also home to a 150-year-old living root bridge. photos by: Ranjan Basu

As an emerging economy, India has the image of being one of the principal pollutants on earth. But, a tiny nondescript village in Meghalaya, about 90 km from Shillong, has scripted a different story, turning this image turtle. Mawlynnong, straddled between the mounts of the East Khasi Hills district, has earned the unique recognition of being the cleanest village of Asia, following a Discover India magazine announcement in 2003.

It does not feel like a part of this country, the roads are dry but dustless. Every single tree leaf on the road is swept aside. The headman tells TSI: “We, the people of this village, do not litter or discard garbage in the open, but dump it in a pit where it is converted into organic fertiliser. This is used to increase the yield of vegetables.” Dominic Sangma, a villager, points at the extensive use of dustbins. The customary village body looks after the cleanliness of the village and every household donates a bamboo dustbin. The villagers of Mawlynnong have banned the use of plastic bags. Local college student Runila says, “We used plastic bags earlier too. But the Khasi Students’ Union and local village committee took an initiative to ban plastic in our area. Instead of plastic, we use earthen pots and paper bags. The village committee slaps a fine on whoever violates this rule.”

A group of people clean the village roads with brooms every three hours. A 60-year-old woman, part of the cleaning force, greets TSI: “God has sent us to earth to make it beautiful. We believe that through this, we worship God.” A point to be noted is the 100 per cent literacy rate of the area when juxtaposed against the not-so-satisfactory performance of Meghalaya in the same field.

Mawlynnong is a smoke-free zone. As per the guidelines of the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003, all places in the village come under the purview of the same. The Voluntary Health Association of Meghalaya keeps a strict vigil to restrict smoking. Students of St Edmunds College visit this village regularly to create awareness on conservation of ecology among villagers as well as visitors. Mawlynnong comprises 82 households. Every child birth in the village witnesses the parents planting a tree for the well being of the baby. They do not only plant the tree but also nurture it to growth.

A tourist from Kolkata, Shyamal Ghose, says, “I have visited several places in India. But I have never seen a village so clean and systematically maintained. People are honest and hard working. They respect tourists and make sure that visitors face no problems during their stay here.” Foreign tourists also find their way to this picturesque village. A small hospitality industry has sprung up around the eco-friendly image of the place. Completely eco-friendly lodging is provided by villagers. The ‘tree houses’ consists of two or three bed rooms and everything from the construction to furniture is wooden.

Mawlynnong is also home to a unique bridge made of living tree roots. Fifteen-year-old Fullmoon Khongjra counted the ticket counterfoils… 44 of them. At Rs 5 per ticket, the collection came to Rs 220 for that day. The day before, 47 tickets were sold to visitors to the amazing site of the living roots bridge that spans a 40-feet gorge which is just about a feet under water in the winters, but becomes a furious, 14-feet torrent during the rains, which lashes this wet desert near Cherrapunjee for the better part of six months. The six-feet wide bridge has been created out of the roots of two rubber plants by men of the two villages separated by the gorge. That must have been about 150 years ago.

The narrow and cobbled stone pathway becomes moss-laden, slippery and dangerous in the monsoon. But on the cloudy December afternoon that team TSI visited it, it was dry and firm.

It's like being tree-walkers, walking over roots, something humans have not done for past few million years ever since we transformed from apes.

“During the rains, the river runs as high as the bottom of this bridge, so it becomes impossible for the people of the two villages to cross over. So may be some 150 years ago, the wise old men of the two villages decided to biologically merge the roots of two rubber trees so that the whole thing became a bridge,” says Lumlana, a local Christian priest. He says that earlier, people from the villages tried to tie up boats and make a boat-bridge across the river. “But that failed, for the torrent was so furious that it took everything away. That is why the ancients hit upon this idea,” he adds.

Apparently, the elders decided to train the roots of the two trees with bamboo and bring them across. Then they tied them up using grafting techniques and over the next 30 or 40 years, the intertwined roots became a bridge. The amazing thing is that the roots are still living, vibrant, for if they were to die, they would crack up and the bridge would crumble.

The surrounding area is a primary forest, untouched for the past thousand years, inhabited by local people who are aware of how a forest must be lived in, used and yet not damaged.

Can India ever hope to replicate this in all our villages?...

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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"Thorns to Competition" amongst the top 10 best sellers of the week.
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'Thorns to Competition' - You can order your copy online from here
IIPM Mumbai Campus

Monday, August 29, 2011

Break Ke Baad: Buzz kill

IIPM Mumbai Campus

Fresh on the surface, stale inside

Having cast Deepika Padukone, a bit of a new age heroine and Imran Khan, the fresh faced underdog in the Bollywood face of the future race, Danish Aslam did manage to pull off an unconventional lead pair. If only his story in “Break Ke Baad” was not this conventional. “Break Ke Baad” is a dyed in the wool romantic comedy but the romance is quite intolerable and the comedy is sparse. And the been there, seen that feeling is all over, what with a bunch of half cooked romcoms having hit the screen this year. Aaliya (Padukone) is the ambitious girlfriend and Abhay (Khan) the loyal childhood sweetheart. And there’s the usual gripe about space and distance as Aaliya takes off to Australia to follow her dream of becoming an actress only to find Abhay come tumbling after.

The supporting cast and characters, like Abhay’s aunt played by Lilette Dubey and Aaliya’s mom played by Sharmila Tagore are interesting but never rises beyond the impact of a line or two. And while lovely Australian locales and some peppy tunes from Vishal-Shekhar try to uplift the visual appeal and make things look ‘cool’ they can’t mask the lack of substance. You could ignore all that and go by the earnest effort of Imran Khan and call this a one time breezy watch. But a few minutes beyond the innovatively crafted opening credits sequence and it becomes a drag. You’d only be humming Queen’s “I want to break free” by then.


For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Friday, August 26, 2011

Red: Rollicking, Extremely Delightful

IIPM Mumbai Campus

Too many cooks don't always spoil the broth

The formula for this one was simple - assemble a mammoth cast, something productive will self-generate and the movie will draw viewers in flocks. And that is exactly why Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Karl Urban, Mary-Louise Parker and Brian Cox were all roped in!

Loosely inspired by a comic series of the same name, RED (Retired, Extremely Dangerous) is a strange love-action-comedy-thriller. Frank Moses (Willis) is a lonely retired CIA Agent, living a quite retired life until the vehement peace in his life is scattered. He realises that someone is attempting to kill him, his phone-friend and former fellow CIA operatives who served with him in Guatemala. One would have to wonder just how many more times Bruce Willis would play the retired bald-old-man who can shoot-a-gun.

Marvin (Malkovich), a paranoid schizophrenic played to perfection, is painfully funny. The script is not worthy of such an elaborate cast but the performance
of the seasoned actors give it a neck.

The concoction of talent may prove disastrous more often than not, as made evident by a certain ‘Valentine’s Day’ this year. But a definite green light for RED.


For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM
IIPM Excom Prof Rajita Chaudhuri
Kapil Sibal's voters want Jan Lokpal, not Government-proposed Lokpal Bill

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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Is the Indian realty space now getting too hot to handle?

IIPM Mumbai Campus

2010 has seen a huge rebound for real estate in urban centres, particularly Mumbai, but also raised fears of overheating. We went to the developers and found out their original point of view. By mona mehta

Six years ago, when a resident of suburban Vile Parle in Mumbai bought a 1BHK flat for Rs three million, he wouldn’t have realised that the price of the same property would appreciate by three times. The same property now fetches an amount of Rs 11 million, and is poised to rise even further. This is one short-term windfalls that home buyers in the city are enjoying currently. Property prices have appreciated by 30-60% in Mumbai in this year itself.

Amidst the scenario, in calendar year 2010, real estate developers feel that it is time for flat buyers, even from the middle end of the market, to tap the opportunity of buying a second home; be it on rent basis, and later sell their first home to invest in their second home on ownership basis. Commercial space is on a similar rebound. DLF, for instance, has witnessed growth in leasing commercial spaces in Delhi/NCR from 0.9 million sq. ft. in 2009 to three million sq. ft. in 2010.
Navin Raheja, MD, Raheja Developers, told us, “During this calendar year, many projects were launched and were sold at a much better pace than last year. We hope real estate would come on the fast track within 6-8 months.” Currently, the Rs six trillion Indian real estate sector gets 80% contribution from the housing finance sector, which means that banks are willing to lend for good projects. Even if a flat buyer from the middle-end of the market may refrain from buying a 1 BHK flat worth over Rs 10 million on ownership basis, the attitude changes when the perspective is introduced of financing EMIs by giving out the newly purchased flats on rent.
For instance, talking to us, an accountant, who stays in Thane in Central Mumbai and has recently booked two flats in a project, told, “This is because I feel that since my new home is closer to my office, I can save commuting time, and that when the prices appreciate in the short-term, I would sell one flat and purchase another flat on ownership basis.” According to a senior official from Mumbai-based Satellite Group, “Due to steep price appreciation, a flat buyer can recover triple the amount they would have invested in buying a flat in the short-term.”

This is exactly the kind of warning sign doomsday prophets look for to predict a property bubble. Joy Sanyal, Head – Development Initiatives, Jones Lang LaSalle India comments on the Mumbai scenario, “The market for residential property in Mumbai started showing signs of stability since the third quarter, most visibly in South/Central Mumbai, where investors had begun to outnumber actual end-users by then. But the deeper suburbs (Borivali and beyond) and far suburbs like Thane and Navi Mumbai continued to be dominated by end users.” More madness is anticipated now that the Navi Mumbai airport has the approval of the environment ministry.

Now the RBI has most certainly taken notice of the kind of upsurge being seen. Earlier this month, the central bank took a string of measures. It raised risk weightage to 125% for houses priced above Rs 7.5 million, capped loan to value ratio to a maximum of 80% and hiked standard asset provisioning to 2% for home loans with teaser rates. RBI Governor Dr D. Subbarao had said in the Q2 policy review, “Although income levels of households and earnings of corporates in India have continued to rise, a sharp rise in asset prices in such a short time causes concern.” That concern has been exacerbated just recently when CBI unearthed a shocking bribery scam, where developers were bribing officials to get loans for their expansion projects, for which they took undue advantage of the easy liquidity and the surge in property prices. Clearly, the fundamentals for the sector are getting a bit loose here.

However, realty players aren’t exactly of that view. Raheja opines that demand in the market is already outstripping the supply – especially for housing and commercial office spaces – because of which the upward trend in prices will continue. And due to the upswing, realty developers can now easily raise money from banks and avoid reducing property prices to boost volumes. For example, as media reports suggest, Mumbai-based Oberoi Realty’s Exquisite residential project at Goregaon has sold over about 7 lakh sq ft in 2010 and that's despite increasing its prices thrice this year.
There are listed debt-ridden real estate developers such as DLF, among others, who will be able to repay 60% of their debt by FY ‘12, feel analysts. Param Desai, real estate analyst of Angel Broking told us, “Looking at the scenario, I don’t think developers will be planning to hike their property prices. Instead, certain developers who are currently selling properties at 10-15% discounted rates are benefiting in sales transactions.” Mumbai and NCR have already seen a steep price appreciation this year and could sober down. But Bangalore and Chennai are expected to experience a hike of 20-25% in the short term.

In the midst of this is the ‘affordable’ housing market, which is the last mile, and is not getting the thrust it deserves. Some mainstream realtors still feel that it is not an easy territory to enter into. DLF Group Executive Director Rajeev Talwar comments to us, “One of the main concerns remains the price of land.” DLF’s own consolidated net profit took a hit for the quarter ending September 2010 by 5% to Rs 4.18 billion, despite an increase in revenues by 39% to Rs 25.1 billion. Evidently, the ‘affordable’ segment is more suitable for players who are accustomed to the factory model and can set up residential projects in quick succession. Reports suggest that realtors were keener on the phenomenon when recession struck, but quickly changed gears once revival began towards luxury housing and the top 20%. Besides curbing an asset bubble in the urban centres, the government has to spur demand in this sector, with a nearly 25 million housing shortfall as on date. That kind of market will take quite a while to even start looking like a bubble.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM
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Kapil Sibal's voters want Jan Lokpal, not Government-proposed Lokpal Bill
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on For Salman Khurshid, it is a big challenge ahead; and I personally look forward to a revolutionary couple of years ahead!

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Saturday, August 20, 2011

Abida Parveen needs no introduction.

IIPM Mumbai Campus

Abida Parveen of the surreal voice, the one that renders the poetry of Khusro, Bulle Shah, Waris Shah and Sultan Bahu into a divine communion, is to Sufi music what romance is to youth. In an exclusive interview with Vimalendu Kumar Singh, Abida Parveen reflects over the worldly majlis, music and Maula..

Abida ParveenYou have touched the pinnacle of your career. How difficult has this journey been?
I have achieved whatever I have thanks to Maula; I owe it to the blessings of my elders and saints. We only make an effort, to make an untrained voice sound sweet is the work of God. With rigorous practice, and if you have the right training and God's blessings with you, nothing is impossible.

How did you choose this profession, considering it was taboo for female Muslims to sing...
My initiation into music was done by my father Ghulam Haidar saab. He used to run a music school at Larkana in Sindh. He was equally adept at classical music and Sufiana kalam. Although I was not a part of his school technically, my training started when I was all of three years old. In fact, music was all around me in my house. When I was 12, my father sent me to Ustad Salamat Ali Khan in Lahore for further training in music. I learned all the nuances of music under him.

Tell us about Ustad ji. How was it learning from him?
Ustad (Salamat Ali Khan) ji polished me and showed me the path. I have not seen another singer like him when it comes to layakari and range. I consider myself fortunate that I trained under him.

Why did you opt for Sufi music and not pure classical?
Actually the place I belong to, Sindh, has a different aura – that of Sufiana. Such is the popularity of Sufism there that every man is somehow addicted to it. My father loved Sufi music, and that infected me too. You can see him in my music and my temperament.

What is it about Sufiana music that sets it apart from other genres?
The greatest virtue of Sufiana is Ruhaniyat. Its relation with spirituality is very deep. It is the thirst to attract the attention of God; to be close to Him. Songs are all good, but the music for Allah and saints has a different feel. It puts you on a different, higher level. None can remain untouched by it.

But there are other genres too that are dedicated to God...

I don't claim that the only way to Allah is Sufiana. There are the bhajan, kirtan and the Drupad styles as well. All of them have their distinct feel and all of them take you to God.

Sufi songs, as you said, connect one to God. What have your experiences been like?
The path takes you to God. Whenever I sing, I consider it the first and last Majlis (forum). So I take that opportunity to seek blessing from saints and God. And they deliver.

The world likes to hear you sing. Whom do you listen to?
I hear all old and new singers. And I try to learn from them. I hear Bade Ghulam Ali Khan with concentration. I also love Ustad Aamir Khan of Indore gharana. Among females, I love Kishori Amonkar and Begum Parveen Sultana. Amjad Ali Khan is one of my favourites. I have hundreds of CDs of these singers. I hear them in solitude and keep crying. It enriches the heart. Their voice is the voice of God. I am also inspired by Salim Gilani. I have never heard another exponent of ghazal like him.

Can anybody really learn Sufiana or does it come from within?
Ruhaniyat and yearning cannot be bought. And a heart that does not yearn is not a heart at all. The one who has not experienced yearning cannot understand what the heart expresses in words. That is the real inspiration; real addiction.

You are among the few singers whose popularity transcends the border. How does it feel when you sing in India?
Music cannot be bound by language or border. For me, Pakistan and India are like blood brothers. India is like my second home and that's why I keep visiting here. People give me immense love in both the countries.

A fan of yours in London once said that if Abida ji lends her voice to a shopping list, even that will sound spiritual. People in the West don't understand Urdu, Punjabi or Sindhi, and yet you have a tremendous fan following…

Sufism is the connection between two hearts. To understand the emotion and to connect with God, one requires no language. In the US, Britain and Scandinavia, people give me a lot of love. They wait for me for hours. They become part of the
performance.

Your trademark style of long kurtas and the Sindhi Ajrak is unique too. Is it an attempt at branding?
You call it branding, but it has become my identity for years. The Ajrak that you see on my shoulders comes straight from the Dargah of Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif. It is not merely a show-off. I live this life.

Why have you stayed away from Hindi films even though Sufiana is a rage here too?
Artists from Nusrat Fateh Ali to Rahat Fateh Ali and now Amanat Ali have lent their voices...

I have submersed myself in Sufi music and my aim is to popularise it. I'll stick to serving Sufiana genre for the time being.

Shariyat considers music to be haraam. Did you ever face any protest?
Shariyat does not consider it haraam. Why would Shariyat do that? The voice that we hear came first. Shariyat came later. The 12 sur were not made by men. It came before Shariyat. Music is a gift of Allah. These 12 sur consist of all the voices of the world. It is omnipresent. Whatever the language, the sur remains the same. It is the message from God. When we recite the Quran, even that is music. Don’t we love the Azaan when we hear a good voice?

India and Pakistan are always at loggerheads. As a cultural ambassador, what do you feel about it?
Where is the tension? If it is there, I cannot see it. I would not have been sitting here talking to you. That’s all politics and artists have nothing to do with it. The only wall is a visa.

These days many misunderstand Islam to be synonymous with terrorism. What has gone wrong?
Terrorism is not new. Islam is not to be blamed. Islam is a gift from Allah that runs in harmony with the world and humanity. The problems are man-made. One needs to keep the thought process pure. We will have to increase the purview of education and culture. There is no better tool to tackle it with than love.

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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

No state in India has as many Kisan Credit Card holders as Orissa. Yet the farm sector in the state is in the doldrums

IIPM Mumbai Campus

The Numbers don't add up

In a land of many ironies, here is another one. Orissa's farmers top the list of Kisan Credit Card (KCC) beneficiaries but the agricultural scenario in the state continues to be dismal.

Asked about his farm productivity and income, Gopinath Mallick, a farmer of Aul area in Kendrapara district who owns two acres of land, says: “I cannot buy quality seeds and fertilisers nor can I adopt modern technologies. From my land I earn just about enough to take care of the needs of my family.”

Hasn't Gopinath heard of KCC? “No,” he replies. “Last year, I did try very hard to get a loan from the cooperative society but I failed. They wanted to be bribed. I had no money.” He is among countless Orissa farmers who could do with some organised financial support but do not know where to look for it.

Given the number of KCCs that have been distributed in Orissa, securing an agriculture loan should have been a cakewalk for Gopinath. If it isn't, it is simply because farmers in the coastal belt of the state have no clue that they are entitled to this credit facility. Over the years, the government, both in Bhubaneswar and Delhi, has announced various schemes for farmers. But these programmes have remained on paper even as official records show that everything is on course.

Though Orissa has got the distinction of bringing the largest number of farmers under the cooperative ambit, the reality on the ground tells a different story. A private survey confirms that lakhs of farmers in the state do not know what KCC is. “Even those who have cards are unable to draw the benefits due to lack of awareness,” says R.N. Rath, AGM of Orissa State Cooperative Bank.

Orissa's is primarily an agrarian economy. Farming accounts for nearly 30 per cent of the Net State Domestic Product (NSDP), with 73 per cent of the work force engaged in this sector. Cropped area in the state is about 87.46 lakh hectares out of which 18.79 lakh hectares are irrigated. Therefore, climatic conditions and soil play a vital role in the state’s agricultural productivity. Though there was a breakthrough in agriculture in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh during the mid-1960s owing to the use of new seeds, fertilisers and water technology, the onset of the Green Revolution was delayed by about two decades in the case of Orissa.

The increase in yield rate in Orissa was marginal compared to the agriculturally advanced states. Agriculture has stagnated here over the the last two to three decades. The growth rate has hovered around one per cent during this time span. While the average value of yield was only Rs 5979 per hectare in Orissa it was Rs 15,626 in Kerala, Rs 14,073 in Tamil Nadu, Rs 13,597 in Punjab and Rs 7388 in the rest of India. In Orissa, the compound annual percentage growth rate of yield was only 1.3 whereas the all-India figure was 2.3 in 2009. Moreover, the yield rate of foodgrains in Orissa is only 1080 kg/ha, whereas the all-India figure is 1620 kg/ha.

Says Bimal Pandia, a well-known agricultural activist: “The reasons for low agricultural productivity in Orissa are varied. It is a combined effect of climatological, institutional, technological and infrastructural factors. The often cited reasons are inequality in land ownership and operation, small size of land holdings, land fragmentation, high incidence of concealed tenancy, inadequate irrigation facilities, ineffective extension services, bottlenecks in input supply, warehousing and marketing, frequent occurrence of natural calamities like droughts, floods, cyclones and the like.”

Pandia emphasises the role that constricted agricultural credit has played in slowing down growth in farm output in Orissa. "In recent years, due to fiscal compression public investment in agriculture sector has decelerated. But non-availability of financial support in form of loans to farmers, which they could use to increase productivity from agriculture, is a major reason of low productivity,” he explains.
A progress report of the KCC scheme reveals this failure in the agricultural sector. Orissa also lags behind other states in average loan disbursement. According to Reserve Bank of India sources, while the average loan amount drawn by a KCC holder in Orissa is merely Rs 26,600, the average loan taken per KCC holder in Gujarat stood at Rs 14.6 lakh.

Sanjeev Patro, a senior journalist working in the agricultural sector, says, “The average landholding size in Orissa is around 1.3 hectare against 2.33 hectare in Gujarat. As productivity is directly proportional to the increased input use in the field, higher use of inputs necessitates more loan amount per KCC holder. A recent Nabard study has clearly documented that crop yield per hectare has been higher for farmers holding KCC as they have access to adequate and timely inputs for their crops.”

That brings us back to the fact that Orissa has the highest number of farmers in the country under the KCC scheme. RBI data confirms that over 5 lakh farmers in the state have been registered for KCC, while this figure is around 3 lakh in Gujarat. But the irony is that here credit size far outweighs the benefits.

Rath agrees: “Absence of sealing and small land holdings are a major stumbling block in the way of smooth running of the farm credit system in Orissa. We have more than 2714 credit cooperative societies in the state and of the total of 52,88,00 farmers, 37,80,687 have already availed of credit facility. However, as 90 per cent of these farmers are small and medium land-holders, the credit amount is bound to be relatively low.”

Though the government seems to be happy with the state of affairs and the nodal agencies responsible for disbursement of agricultural loans claim credit for executing pro-farmer programmes with huge success, our farmers are still waiting to be informed about KCC. “The farmers of the state still don't have adequate knowledge about KCC and its use,” he asserts. He should know.

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