Showing posts with label IIPM Admission. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IIPM Admission. Show all posts

Monday, October 08, 2012

ISRAEL-RUSSIA WAR OF WORDS: SPAWNS GENERATIONS... LITERALLY

And on why mothers and grandmothers of this great nation play a critical role in the Israeli-Russia spar

Is it religious proximity? That doesn’t seem to be the case as Georgia is a certified orthodox Christian state compared to the predominantly Jewish Israel. While one can easily trace deep relations between Israel and Georgia – be their arms trade or the presence of Georgian Jews in Israel – what slips under the carpet magnanimously is the fact that important political leaders of Israel and Georgia are actually blood relatives. For information, the chairman of the Georgian parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee Lasha Zhvania has an Israeli Jewish mother. God rest her soul, the grandmother of scam-fam Israeli Ariel Sharon is buried in Georgia. The ubiquitously sweet Georgian defence minister Davit Kezerashvili, holds the citizenship of, god rest our souls, Israel!!!

Strangely, despite its Pravda-driven spiel [Pravda skims close to being certified a lunatic bandwagon, with the past month’s chief story, for example, being Condoleezza Rice’s Sexual Worries], the Russian political powerhouse actually is still a big supporter of Israel. It’s not just about the recent acceptance of a visa free regime between Israel and Russia, even Russia’s nuclear fuel supply to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant – despite US rhetoric – is in fact an extremely clever move to dissuade Teheran from enriching its own fuel.

But as they say, there’s only this much that Putin can take, and there’s only that much that Israel can flirt with. Till the time Israel looks beyond US influence – and dare we say, even their mothers and grandmothers – and realises that Russia is actually on their side, this great nation might actually end up in creating their biggest foe in history! For hell hath no fury as Putin scorned, and it doesn’t require Einstein to know that!


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Saturday, October 06, 2012

EU DEBT CRISIS: WHO’S NEXT?

Ireland’s Rescue has Failed to Stem off Market Tensions from Euro Zone. B&E talks to Experts, Including the European Central Bank, to Analyse who will be the next Victim of Sovereign Debt Crisis. 

While Portugal is likely to be forced to go for a bailout, Spain still stands a fighting chance of avoiding the same fate, given that its current trends in bond yields come to an end soon. But then, things don’t look good here too. Ten-year bond yields on Spain have already jumped above 5.5% and are at the record high of 260 basis points just behind spreads of 400 basis points for Portuguese debt, 620 for Ireland, and 890 for Greece. What’s more? Spain’s gross debt will be over 60% of GDP this year (at 63.5% of GDP), which is the EU threshold under the Stability and Debt Growth Pact. In fact, with unemployment rate hovering over 20% and the budget deficit at 11.2%, possibility of Spain’s being the next epicenter can’t be undermined, particularly if Portugal asks for a bailout.

This is surely a big concern for European policymakers as it not only poses a threat of a much deeper recession than one recently experienced (when euro zone total output fell more than 5% peak to trough), but also raises questions about the survival of the single currency area. Raison d’être: The fourth largest economy in the euro zone would require more than $535 billion in bailout (way above the bailout packages of Greece, Ireland and Portugal put together) to see it through the next few years. This eats up more than half of the $1 trillion combined EU-IMF rescue fund, with only a little left over after the other three take their share. Not to say what will happen if another nation joins the beleaguered bandwagon (which has the highest probability). This certainly calls for an immediate action, both by the respective national governments as well as EU. Though both the nations have decided to cut upon their spending to bring down spiralling budget deficits (while Spain plans to cut its budget deficit to 9.3% of GDP this year from 11.2% in 2009, Portugal plans to slash it to 7.3% of GDP, from 9.4% in 2009), it will take them years before that actually happens (interestingly, EU’s threshold limit for fiscal deficits is 3%). Thus, as of now, a bailout seems to be the only possible answer to their miseries.

But then, bailouts too, in any case, are not the permanent solution since they only kick the ball down the road. The only stable remedy to Euro zone’s fiscal woes is a structural reform with national governments showing steadfast commitment to reducing budget deficits. It’s not as if the ECB doesn’t realise the magnitude of the fiscal troubles in Euro zone. In fact, Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the ECB, tells in a communiqué to B&E, “I would say that, for all countries, it is extremely important to substantiate the decisions that would allow the goals for fiscal deficit next year, i.e. 2011, to be attained, also taking into account what is going on this year, of course. But I am concentrating on next year. This is the very, very firm message that we have for all countries, including Portugal and Spain.”

No doubt, EU has proposed the swift implementation of comprehensive consolidation plans, focusing on the expenditure side and combined with structural reforms, which will strengthen public confidence in the capacity of governments to regain sustainability of public finances, reduce risk premia in interest rates and thus support sustainable growth over the medium term, but then isn’t EU a little late in proposing these measures? Well, we would say … S#!t happens, when PIGS come out in the open!


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Saturday, September 08, 2012

For the win!

This one, to the mother of all Blah-Blah forums: Twitter! The microblogging service that reminded us of brevity being the soul of wit, with its 140-character limit on messages, is where you get to witness ‘change’, in real time. Recently Twitter got itself a new CEO, Dick Costolo, and even primped up its interface to make for a richer media experience. #CheckItOut!


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Saturday, September 01, 2012

The company saw sales & profits surge phenomenally

It was a stellar year for M&M, as the company saw sales & profits surge phenomenally. But M&M is now equally concerned about where its numbers come from, as it diversifies into new segments & geographies via M&As and alliances. by Pawan Chabra

Cash-strapped c auto major SsangYong Motors has provided the company a lucrative opportunity to enter the global SUV market. Besides acquisitions, the deal with Renault for Logan and the JV with Navistar for its commercial vehicle ventures are noteworthy. For the record, while the partnership with Renault wasn’t that fruitful as initially predicted by M&M, the company now has a 100% sake in the JV and is now planning to relaunch the model in the small-car segment.

Anand Mahindra recently said at the 50th annual convention of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, “The comics and novels that I used to read in the 1960-70s surely showed the use of mobile phones as a technology & laptops as devices, but the girls in the pictures were still blondes and men were still the same old gentlemen. The imagination of the author never had guys with pierced ears or girls with tattoos.”

Indeed, it’s a mantra he lives by now – that one has to be visionary enough to look at future possibilities and enterprising enough to place a bet on them. The investments being made and their possible impact on profitability do raise the question of whether M&M will be able to raise its position even further on the B&E Power 100 next year. But from the perspective of Mahindra’s vision to be a larger player on the global platform and to have a strong play in green vehicles, the course correction is unavoidable.


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Friday, August 31, 2012

IT IS NOW FOOLISH TO COMPARE INDIA TO CHINA. RATHER, IT WOULD BE MORE SENSIBLE TO LEARN A LESSON OR TWO FROM THE CHINESE!

 Recently, in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), China toppled Japan to secure the second position globally, after US. In fact, China was very close to achieving this feat the last year itself, but fell short at the last moment. As per reports, if China keeps growing at its current pace, then by 2025, it should topple the US to become the largest economy of the world. Who could have imagined that an economy, which was languishing till about three decades back, has put itself in such formidable position? What is even more amazing is the fact that at a point in time when the world economy is still recovering from the global recession, China kept on growing. The growth has been such that in 2005, it first overtook Britain and France; then in 2007, it surpassed Germany to secure the position of the third largest economy of the world. It is not that the growth did not bring in iniquitous distribution of wealth; but then, at the same time, China has managed to pull out a staggering 600 million people out of poverty – a record which no other country has achieved so far.

Going by media reports, it doesn’t seem that many experts are appreciative of the Chinese growth. In fact even now, most in the developed world still cannot fathom the fact that China can be a serious contender in the new economic order. Much of this is owing to the fact that irrespective of its number 2 position, China still remains a developing country, as its current per capita is still 10 times lesser of that of Japan. But then, what most miss out on is the fact that China is in no hurry to prove itself. China has moved step by step in terms of consolidating its position. They have never bothered about the criticisms that they faced on humanitarian issues, or the kind of global cynicism that they faced by keeping their currency purposefully undervalued. Their objective has been very clear – which gets reflected in the manner in which they have planned every step. From the very beginning, China has been extremely scientific and systematic in its approach. And more than that, the growth has come out of great sacrifice collectively made by the Chinese citizens. China has systematically moved people into manufacturing and today China manufactures almost half of the global produce. Thus today, a Walmart retains the topmost position in the Fortune list by selling goods that are being made in China. And all this has not come in a day. It has been an outcome of years of planning. China today boasts of an investment which is a mind numbing 40% of GDP! Even at its peak, the US managed around 18%. Even countries like ours are managing 18%. Additionally, the Chinese investment mobilization has been far more prudent than any other country’s efforts. They have systematically invested in infrastructure, which not only created jobs, but also helped in creating a world class environment for trade. But then, their biggest credit has been in terms of the investments that they made in education. As per reports in 1998, around 3 million students were undertaking Chinese higher education; this increased to around 8 million in a matter of just 4 years. And investments have just not been in higher education – starting from English training, to vocational training to the investments that they made in science and technology. Such has been the outcome that their investments in education alone add up to almost 6% to their growth; and this would be sustained over a period of time. Today, China produces patents, the number of which is only second to the US! Not just this, they received severe criticism from all quarters when they pro-actively went ahead with their engagement with Iran. They did so not just with Iran to but with Sudan as well, for they knew that energy security is key to their dominance in global trade.

In order to have a better understanding of what the Chinese have achieved in the last two decades, one needs to compare it with India. The Indian economy, which used to be almost 80% of that of Chinese economy as recent as two decades back, now remains a menial 25%! While the Chinese feel underachieved at a staggering $4 trillion plus economy, we celebrated our $1 trillion mark! While sometime back there, China created history by hosting the greatest sporting spectacle, Olympics, we all know what we are doing to the Commonwealth games! Increasingly, any comparison between India and China is getting banal! It is not that we do not have our own advantages, but the Chinese have gone far ahead and are increasingly going farther. If reports are to be believed, we too would reach the number 2 position economically by 2040; but that too, if we keep growing between 8 to 9% year on year, which in itself is a huge challenge.


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Thursday, August 30, 2012

What, how and why of GPM!

A benchmark index to measure relative well being of income classes
 Wish to know where you stand in your profession with respect to your global peers? Global Poverty Multiple (GPM, visit www.globalpovertymultiple.org) is an internationally comparable ratio developed by IIPM Think Tank in collaboration with B&E presents a comparative picture of the standing of various income receiving classes of a nation against the poverty line income (the latter decided by the nation and/or by international organisations).

GPM is a globally portable ratio that, on one hand, is easy to calculate, and on the other hand, presents a very clear and comprehensive comparative picture of economic well being of various income-receiving classes of countries across the globe. There are many globally accepted indices with a similar intention. GPM does not take life expectancy or literacy rate into consideration. It divides the population into various income-receiving classes and compares their annual per-capita income with the standard poverty line income. Since GPM is a ratio (per capita income/poverty line income), a GPM of “1” of an income receiving class indicates that his income is just on the poverty line, he is neither better off nor worse off. The higher the multiple, the better the economic well being of the particular income receiving class. GPM therefore further allows an inter-country comparison of economic well being of people in different professions by using the poverty line income as the base for comparison. Comparably, the PPP method and the GPM method are quite similar due to the fact that inter-country comparisons become easier.


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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Water is my right!

The UN declares water a basic human right. You mean it wasn’t one till now?!

In a far-flung village in Africa, women wake-up every morning and walk for more than a kilometre to fetch the basic necessity of life – water. On some days they even get lucky and find clean water. Such is life for not only the people in Africa but about three billion people in the world, who have no access to running water within a kilometre of their homes. Alarmed by the scarcity of safe and clean water, which is responsible for claiming upto two million lives every year, the General Assembly of United Nations held a summit on the human right to water for the first time and declared that access to clean water is now a human right.

In the recent past, various attempts have been made to spread awareness of saving water and electricity, but with growing population and expansion of industries, it is estimated that by 2030 the gap between supply and demand of water will increase to more than 40% (according to a World Bank report). Let us take into consideration the Indian scenario. More than half of the population resides in rural areas, where let alone running water, even access to clean water is a luxury, and people dying of water-borne diseases is a common occurrence. The fluoride and arsenic content in groundwater endangers the life of more than 70 million people and 10 million people respectively. The so-called sacred water of the Ganges has now been contaminated to an extent that contact with it may lead to skin eczema, digestive and respiratory disorders. “In the last few years, I have seen that cases of water-borne diseases have risen to a great extent. And more people in the rural areas are being affected because they don’t have access to clean drinking water. We doctors are also helpless because we cannot provide them with this basic amenity,” laments Dr. Singhal, a medical practitioner in Delhi.


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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Dependants of jawans killed by Maoists struggle to stay afloat. A report from Orissa by B&E’s Dhrutikam Mohanty

A few days after the surgery, not only did her department pester her to report back to duty, she also received a phone call claiming that she had taken a loan of Rs . 40,000 from the PWF and that the amount would be recovered from her. She was totally stunned. Pratima alleges that an additional Rs. 20,000 was withdrawn by the SP, Cuttack against her name. Says Pratima, “While the government has promised to bear the complete cost of my medical treatment, it is painful that people from the department are fraudulently withdrawing money in our name and then trying to recover it from us.”

When the doctor treating her learnt that the police department wasn’t going to bear her expenses anymore, he stopped taking proper care of her. He discharged her even though she had not recovered fully. She continued to receive notices from her department to join back.

At her tether’s end, Pratima met the then Director General of Orissa Police, Gopal Nanda, as a last resort. He not only waived off her loan but also ordered that she be assigned an office job. She could now see light at the end of the tunnel. But Pratima is still nursing the wound in her leg. It hasn’t healed because of the unseemly haste with which the doctor discharged her from hospital. We ask her how much she has got by way of compensation. She replies, “What compensation are you talking about? I haven’t received a single penny.”

Pratima points out that it has taken the government two years to set up a board to prepare a detailed report on those who were injured in that Maoist strike. She adds, “As for my own case, one of the two board members who examined me was the same doctor who discharged me untreated. I, therefore, don’t have must expectations from this board.”

Now meet Jayakrishna Bardhan, a superannuated government employee who resides in the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. Though he retired in 2004, he still does the rounds of government offices. Sometimes he is in the provident fund section of the police headquarters requesting the dealing assistant to push his file. At others, he is seen in the pension section inquiring about the release of his family pension. It isn’t his own retirement benefits he is chasing. Jayakrishna’s policeman-son was killed in a Maoist attack and all he is asking for is the legitimate compensation for an irreparable loss.

Bardhan and his family reside in a single-storey building in Gadakana area of Bhubaneswar. It has neither a boundary wall nor a proper approach road. The entrance has no door bell. So we knock on the grille. The family’s pet dog, Blackie, barks in response. Jayakrishna is soon at the door to usher us in.

His elder son, Ajit Bardhan, was an Orissa police sub-inspector posted in the Maoist-infested Sundargarh district. While on patrol duty, Ajit was overpowered by a group of Maoists and abducted. The very next morning – the date was July 16, 2009 – his body was found near Jharbeda. Darkness descended on the slain cop’s family. Unable to withstand the shock, Jayakrishna suffered a heart attack. Ajit’s widow, Rosalin, who was expecting her first baby on August 7, experienced acute labour pain even as arrangements were being made to take her husband’s body to Puri.

The Orissa chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, came down to Ajit’s residence to express his condolences to the bereaved family. When he learnt about the condition of the cop’s father and widow, he immediately instructed senior officers to make all arrangements for them.

But nothing moved after that. Say Jayakrishna, “I am still wandering from one office to another for the release of my son’s provident fund amount and family pension. They haven’t even paid a small amount of Rs. 17,000, which I spent on my treatment after the heart attack. The CM had declared the government would bear all the expenditure. I have been to the Rourkela SP’s Office and the IG Operation’s office on several occasions, but nothing has been done. It is humiliating. It is as if they are going to do us a favour. Did my son lay down his life in vain?”

Ajit Bardhan, in a letter to his wife Rosalin, had once written that it would be the happiest moment of his life if he were to die serving the nation. If only he knew what would be in store for his family after his death, he might have changed his view. Rosalin, who recently got a police job under the rehabilitation scheme, is still waiting to get her other dues. She says, “My father-in-law has taken much pain to get my husband’s legitimate dues and I couldn’t help him because of my job and daughter Arushi.” Arushi is only eight months old.


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Saturday, August 11, 2012

You know you’re going wrong when fashion trends transform your wardrobe from being cool to terribly cruel...

Larger animals have clamps or a rod applied to their mouths while rods are inserted into their anuses, and they are painfully electrocuted. Gassing, decompression chambers, and neck-snapping are other common fur-farm slaughter methods. A video shows raccoon dogs in China – where most of the world’s fur comes from – being hit in the face with metal pipes, picked up and slammed hard on the ground, skinned alive and thrown in a bloody pile, still alive. One dog in the video lifts her skinned head and blinks her eyelashes at the camera as if to say, ‘why?’

In India, the leather industry plays an important role in the economy, and while leather leggings thankfully haven’t yet made their way to this side of the globe, wallets, belts, shoes etc, are made out of leather. While most Indians are proud of this industry’s growth, its methods of operating are shameful. “Cows, sheep and other animals are crammed into trucks in such high numbers on their way to slaughter that their bones snap, they get trampled, suffocate or die en route. At the slaughterhouse, all of these animals have their throats slit in full view of their companions,” reveals Poorva. While style icons like Madonna will continue to wear fur, other more responsible and compassionate celebrities like Michelle Obama and Charlize Theron are a better example for those eager to stay in step with fashion. And if you must have the fur, opt for faux fur, and so ensure that at least you have no blood on your hands.


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Wednesday, August 08, 2012

BUFFETT NAMES POTENTIAL SUCCESSOR

 He’s bluffing. Period! The man is a master of contrarian logic and knows how to call a spade an ox and even gets away with it. Warren has no intentions to give away his position in Berkshire and all talk about a successor should be relegated to the bin. Steven Philip Warner in a delightful analysis...

THE ORACLE IS NUMBING

Let’s talk numbers now. Since February 2008, due to his own accepted thumb-sucking wrong investment decisions, Buffett’s personal wealth has plummeted by a ghost-summoning 45.7% to just $38.34 billion today! Berkshire Hathaway’s Class A shares have not been spared the hot iron rod either, having fallen by a neat 30% in just the past 2 years to touch $75,000 per share as on March 5, 2009. And what to talk about the recent bloopers (and big ones at that) in his investment decisions. As B&E had reported much before, not many would have realised that the company had already begun 2008 with an unrealised $1.67 billion loss on its derivative contracts, and further lost on the same. These derivatives, which are directly linked to overall markets and the credit health of companies, worsened further in the third quarter of 2008 and spelled disaster for Berkshire, thus leaving behind a mammoth loss of $2.21 billion.

His largest investments fell not only in the critically-hit financial industry (for example, American Express, plunged 51% ), but also in the relatively booming FMCG industry that has not seen happier times of late too (for examples, Coca-Cola dropped 25% and P&G declined 12% in the same period). If 2007 saw a seat-of-the-pants investment in TTI Inc. [a private, electronic components distributor] and VF Corp’s ‘intimate apparel’ business for a huge $1.6 billion, 2008 has seen mammoth Buffett acquisitions in Marmon Holdings [a trust running 125 manufacturing and service businesses], 63.6% of which was bought by him for a steep $5 billion. Beyond all this, he had also committed $6.5 billion more in April 2008 to help Mars buy chewing gum-maker Wrigley.

Buffett is surely panicking with respect to his investment calls; and much of it can be attributed to the fact that modern day capital theory is getting more complicated and technical than can be summed up in just one line (as is usually done by Warren to justify his investments – “I’m looking for businesses I can understand,” is how Buffett explains his logic of buying Wrigley).

Worse, during the last quarter of 2008, Warren assigned another $5 billion of Berkshire’s cash for a stake in Goldman Sachs, a company which later even gave up its primary investment banking business. No wonder, the opening line in his letter to the shareholders runs as: “Our decrease in net worth during 2008 was $11.5 billion, which reduced the per-share book value of both our Class A & Class B stock by 9.6%.”

you can’t take the call!

Conclusively speaking, Buffett is still the man calling all the shots, and one who still owns 32.68% of Class A shares at Berkshire (with super-voting rights); and he’s also the Chairman of Berkshire. Buffett could very well choose to give away his throne to any of the three we mentioned earlier; or to 82 year old Charlie Munger (his right hand man and billionaire partner), or to David Sokol (Chairman, MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company; a multi-billion dollar Berkshire company). Or even to his eldest son Howard Graham Buffet (who serves currently on Berkshire’s board of directors) or to his younger son Peter (well, a musician). But you know what, he won’t! If even a line of what he told Daily Telegraph has to be believed, Warren will hold on steadfastly to the reins of Berkshire till the day he dies. And then guess what, it’ll be the Berkshire board that’ll decide the successor, irrespective of Warren’s letter.

But hey, really, if Ajit Jain can be the one, why can’t it be me? Think about it, why not? Well, I have insurance experience (auto industry; especially motorcycles; in fact, one motorcycle, mine); I too lead 30 odd people (at least, I’ve found them really odd); and even my godforsaken boss calls me every night for Chrissake! Warren, I’m calling your bluff here and now... I’m your guy, not Ajit... If you really have to choose him, choose me.

Warren... Warren, can you hear me?!?!


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