A promise not kept

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Six years gone & STF men who killed Veerappan get nothing

When the elusive forest brigand Veerappan was shot dead by the joint Special Task Forces (STFs) of both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on October 18, 2004, the then government had promised to reward the cops involved in this operation.

Dharam Singh, who was the Chief Minister of Karnataka at that time, had announced various incentives, including cash rewards and promotions to all the 754 Karnataka STF personnel involved in the operation. Also, he had promised to gift residential plots to brave officers at their respective district headquarters.

Now, almost six years after that incident it looks that the operation has been forgotten. The STF has been renamed Anti-Naxal Squad (ANS) and redeployed in the dense jungles of Western Ghatts. Different governments came and went, but nobody made an effort to fulfil the promise despite repeated reminders and pleas by potential beneficiaries.

Upset with the attitude of the government, some personnel resorted to legal battle. B.Venkappa Rai and D.R.Jayaswamy of Mysore, N. Jagannathan, B.K. Bhaskar and Ningappa of Bangalore filed a case in the court against the state government. Finally, the court ordered the state to sanction the plots to the petitioners. But the government didn't act. And when it continued to ignore the court order, the petitioners filed Contempt of Court petition against the state government. This time, the government acted and sanctioned residential plots to all the above petitioners. But the government can get into trouble if the rest of the personnel also approach the court. In such a situation, the government might find it difficult to provide the plots to all of them.

Therefore, it immediately swung into action and issued an order on May 17, 2010, (HD92 POP 2010). It stated that instead of giving plots to the personnel the government would give them money that is cost of the plots (Rs 510 per square-foot). Some officials said Rs 20 crore is going to be allotted for this purpose. They said the government reneged on its early promise because there is shortage of plots in urban centres across the state.

According to the promise, the personnel holding post of inspector and lower level were supposed to get 30/40 plots and those above the inspector level 60/40 plots. Some activists said the recent offer was nothing but an eyewash, for none could get a plot with the price the government has fixed as the land value has risen in the urban centres, particularly in metropolises like Bangalore. The government is trying to wash its hand off the whole issue.

Moreover, even if one goes by the price per-square-foot fixed by the government, the total amount needed is around Rs 46 crore. But, as per the order, only Rs 20 crore is going to be allocated. Is it another eyewash?

Kumar Buradikatti

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

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

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IS POP FINALLY DYING OUT

Non-film music albums, which were in vogue a few years back, have now suddenly taken a backseat. But then, who is to be blamed for this downward trend?

When was the last time you watched a music video (a pop music video) on MTV or on any other music channel for that matter? Better, when was the last time you bought a CD that had non-film Hindi music? Over the last two years, the genre of non-film music (or pop as some popularly call it) has been gaining in obscurity.

But sample this, and you hit the paradoxical digit wall: In 2009, there were as many as 30 pop albums (in Hindi) released. While music production company Tips released two pop albums, Sony and Saregama came out with three each during this period. Universal Music, however, had a comparatively better count of 16 non-film releases. Yet, the overall annual figure of pop albums is much less than what it used to be in the early years of this decade. Four years back, non-film music used to have 22-25% share of the music industry in terms of value.

Unfortunately, industry estimates suggest that this share has fallen by a good 50% as of now. Rajeeta Hemwani, VP – Content and A&R, Universal Music says, “Over the last two years, labels have completely shied away from non-film music due to the changing dynamics of the industry. Though the music industry on the whole has been on a slow track, but non-film music has taken a bigger hit than film music.”

This is completely opposite of how music labels operate in the West, with a mammoth share of 90% and above of the approximately $12 billion industry being accounted by non-film music sales (33% being digital downloads; and WalMart and Apple being the top two retailers). As per the FICCI-KPMG Media and Entertainment Industry report 2009, the size of the Indian music industry has fallen by about 12% to Rs.7.3 billion in 2008 as compared to Rs.8.3 billion in 2005. One of the primary reasons for this de-growth has been the erosion of sales of physical formats, a trend which is expected to continue in the future as well. Physical formats such as audio cassettes and compact discs, which accounted for about 87% of industry revenue in India in 2005 currently account for just 60%. What further adds to the woes of non-film music is its lackluster performance on digital front too. While film albums like Delhi6 and Singh is Kinng have easily made a few lakhs through the digital medium, collecting even a few thousands through the medium has been a tough battle for non-film music albums.

But it’s just not the falling proceeds of the music industry which is to blame for this extinction. Over the last three years, pop music has been strongly ignored by television channels and radio stations, which in turn has discouraged music labels to invest their money in pop albums. As Universal’s Hemwani points out, “Today, even the best of the pop videos with best artist gets played once or twice in a day on a music channel like MTV. We can’t expect 7-8 rotations per day of a pop video on music channels today.

If we don’t get a good air-play how can we expect these albums to get popular or even noticed for that matter.” The point raised by Hemwani is actually a result of changing business strategy of leading music channels like MTV and Channel V. Reality being the latest fad among the youth, music channels are now embracing more reality content in their programming mix at the cost of music.

Today a channel like MTV has only 20% share of music in its programming mix. Not just that, MTV has also dropped the phrase ‘Music Television’ from its logo in October 2009. Ashish Patil, GM – MTV India & Senior VP – Creative & Content says, “Dropping the ‘MUSIC TELEVISION’ tag from the logo is a big symbolic statement and finally closes the loop on the repositioning exercise MTV kicked off two years back. We were born of music, inspired by music, driven by music – but not limited by music… MTV is beyond music, beyond television.” Similarly, Channel V has just 60% of music content today. This is a significant fall compared to an 80% share that music use to have just two years ago in its programming mix.

Today music channels have less on-air time for music content and even lesser time for pop music simply because film music has a wider appeal than pop. Radio stations too don’t give significant air-play to non-film music. Thus, the non-film music content has to rely mostly on paid promotions (both on TV and radio) to get noticed. This in turn takes the marketing cost of these albums higher. That’s the reason why private albums of big singers like Mohit Chauhan (Fitoor) and Kailash Kher (Yatra), released in 2009, aren’t as popular as their previous albums. However, the good news is that the non film music has been climbing up through live events, thanks to a number music bands surfacing in the country. “Over the last two years non-film music has made significant money through events which is a good sign for the category,” says a media analyst. Industry experts too feel that this is in fact the area that will drive the growth of the non-film music category in future. Even as per the FICCI-KPMG report, “The public performance segment, with revenue of Rs.173 million in 2008, is expected to reach Rs.378 million by 2013.”

Industry experts are hopeful that with some support from TV channels and radio stations in the form of having a particular slot, non-film music could grow in future. Moreover, with new radio and TV channels getting on the block, the domination of mass music (in Indian context, films) will pave the way for niche content. Even if one or two pop music radio and TV channels go on-air, it can give the non-film music category the much needed boost.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

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

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