IIPM-INDIA: 2008

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Om Mathur, an RSS pracharak drafted in the party for more than 25 years, has been made the BJP chief in Rajasthan since January this year.

There are reports that the Chief Minister neglected the organisation during the past five years, refusing to meet even her own ministers. And there is dissension, so how are you managing the cadre?
Such things happen only due to lack of communication. I came here in January this year and tried to remove the discrepancies. I organised regular meetings between the party organisation and

the government. Ever since, all government decisions are being taken in consultation with the party.

How true are reports of Vasundhara Raje’s corruption?
They are absolutely false. Why didn’t the opposition raise these issues inside the Assembly during the past five years of BJP rule? Why are such things being raked up only during the past 20 days through newspaper advertisements? In any case, people living in glasshouses do not have a right to throw stones at others.

Vasundhara is also being accused of being too arrogant, even more arrogant than Narendra Modi. How do you explain that?
Every person has a distinct personality and working style. Those seeing her from a distance may call her arrogant, but those who know her closely know how sensitive and magnanimous she is. Vasundhara is a lady of action, vision and quick decisionmaking.

What impact would the BSP have in these elections?
Rajasthan has traditionally been a state with only two parties. There was never scope for a third party. Election results would bear me out on December 8....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

Monday, December 22, 2008

Sun,sea and span

Inhaling the fresh ocean breeze while a cool subtle wind blew my hair away from my face, ignoring the 6 lanes of cars zipping by and the numerous diverse people walking and

conversing by me, I was lost in my own world enjoying one of the beauties of California. Standing on the Golden Gate Bridge, bundled up with a light layer of clothing, I began my 2.2 mile walk across the bridge on one of my frequent visits to San Francisco (SF).

However, what made this trip unique was that I had decided to see SF from a tourist point of view, like I had in 1989, during my first visit.

The highlights of San Francisco-day-life are just as exciting and varied as the infamous SF nightlife. From a walk or drive down the world’s most crooked street, Lombard Street, to a cruise to Alcatraz Island, the infamous escape-proof prison meant for the most dangerous criminals until June 11, 1962, when two prisoners broke out and yet died while swimming in the cold waters of San Francisco Bay. Originally built and used as a lighthouse, the ‘Rock’ (as it is locally referred to) has now become a favourite tourist destination, for which daily ferry rides from Pier 33 take place every 30 minutes to allow visitors to experience the ocean and also give them a guided tour of the prison and its history. Alcatraz is known to have held famous prisoners such as Al Capone, Robert Franklin Stroud and Alvin Karpis.....Continue

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Abbas-hamas head-on again

The Palestinian Authority's central council has designated to appoint Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian president. It is largely a figurative office, as a Palestinian state is yet to be formed. The position has been vacant since

Yasser Arafat's death in 2004.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud Abbas – who is facing a mounting challenge from Hamas to the authority of his rule – threatened that unless the Palestinian resistance group decides to reconcile with his Fatah movement, he is going to annouce fresh elections. Abbas threatened to issue a diktat early next year that will make both Presidential and Parliamentary polls mandatory. His term in office ends on 9 January. Hamas hurriedly discarded the bid, saying the thought itself was “unconstitutional".

“It's a symbol indicating the political problem that Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) and his group are facing while he is going to lose his official position as the (president) of the Palestinian Authority,” said Mahmoud Zahar, a key political figure in Hamas......Continue

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Who is Lt. Col. Srikant Prasad Purohit?

Well neither did it appear to anyone else until investigations of the Malegaon blasts after the arrest of Hindu activist, Pragya Singh, led the trail of the deadly explosions to Purohit and a retired Major, Ramesh Upadhaya, amongst others.

According to insiders in the army, Purohit was given the critical responsibility of raising 41 Rashtriya Rifles, a dedicated counter-terrorism force that operates out of Kupwara, in northern Kashmir. Kupwara remains one of the main points of infiltration of terrorists from across the Line of Control. His tenure in Jammu and Kashmir ended in January, 2005, while serving in the Awantipora-based 31-Counter Intelligence Unit of the MI. Well informed sources say that Purohit’s involvement in the cloak and dagger game dates back to his days in the crucial MI in a Kashmir valley defined by civil war conditions - days where for a military intelligence officer, it would often become very difficult to differentiate between foe and friend. Like all sensitive intelligence assignments, the job demanded establishing contacts with jehadis, a task considered vital for reading the rival’s mind. The purpose: to pick up and collate information and tactical intelligence.

According to the ATS, during one of the raids, the army seized 60 kg of RDX which, later Purohit informed his colleagues, had been dutifully dumped into the Jhelum river. In reality, it was smuggled into Maharashtra by the army officer and his accomplices and subsequently used in the explosions. Military sources told TSI that Purohit was later moved to Panchmarhi in Madhya Pradesh for pursuing a Chinese language course at the Army Education Corps College – his parent cadre - from where he was arrested by the ATS.....Continue

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

It's not just America that is celebrating the historic Obama victory. The entire world is in raptures, reports Solana Larsen in this special despatch

Obama said he depended on the national citizen movement that made him President to end the devastating

economic crisis the country suffered in the eight years under President George W Bush. "The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America — I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there," he said amid cheers. This was indisputably one of the most hotly contested elections in US history. Voters stood in record-busting lines that snaked around city blocks, and dared to hope what had seemed impossible two years ago when a first-term African-American senator from Illinois announced that he was running for President.

The jubilation was equally unprecedented. On election-eve 28-year-old Indian

blogger Aditi Nadkarni felt impelled to record, "I couldn't vote for Obama. But I wrote him." The young cancer researcher from India who lives in Rochester, Minnesota has been sharing her thoughts on the presidential elections on the South Asian group blog Desicritics.com. Here, she has recounted her personal experiences as an immigrant in the United States and raged against some supporters of John McCain for highlighting Barack Obama's middle name "Hussein" as a disqualifying trait. Indeed for weeks the campaign led by McCain and Palin had been attacking Obama for his alleged association with "a domestic terrorist" from the 1970s. And for some these false alarms actually worked — leading them to drum up wholly unwarranted fears about Obama's religion and ethnic heritage. Was Obama a Muslim? Was he an Arab! That was how it had gone!....Continue

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Urgent provisions needed to rescue the poor and destitute

Haris Gazdar, an economist associated with Collective for Social Science Research based in Karachi agrees that at least five per cent additional population has been pushed below the poverty line in recent months. He said it was high time that the

government introduce an employment guarantee scheme on the lines provided by India to combat poverty. "In fact, the Pakistan People's Party manifesto has such a provision, but it has not been implemented as yet," he said. Also he added that the poorest sections of the populace should be provided social security and a cash support programme, while their children should be ensured food support at schools.

Bengali who has been the National Coordinator Benazir Income SupportProgram (BISP) and Member National Finance Commission, believes the extent of economic crisis in Pakistan today is structural. He points out that it was in the making for 30 years but was aggravated during the last eight years. "Without the policies followed in the last eight years, we would have lasted a few more years but we were heading for a doom," he told The News on November 2.....Continue

Monday, December 01, 2008

Revive economy: key challenge for the new PM elect

IIPM Publication
At a time when the global financial meltdown has had a dreadful impact on a host of countries, to which the New Zealand and her 4.2 million denizens

are no exception, the key challenges before Key remain: slump in the housing prices, 25 per cent drop in currency’s value, 33 per cent fall in the stock markets, and above all, the worst recession in almost a decade due to which the $130 billion New Zealand economy contracted in the first half of 2008. In fact, the economic health of the country is so bad that its central bank has already slashed the interest rates by 1.75 percentage points since July.

To address all these challenges and unemployment in the country, which is at a five-year high, John Key has already proposed to cut income taxes and redirect spending to roads and a high-speed Internet network to help create jobs. He also has plans to instruct the head of various departments to undertake a line-by-line review of their spending so that money can be saved. Moreover, Key is even targeting to attend Asia Pacific Economic Forum in Peru to get external help. But until then, the trader-turned-politician will have to go through tough times to manage the country. ....Continue

Friday, October 24, 2008

rollins’ stones irk the boss!

Falling market share pushed Michael

to come back in 2007 to regain the reins and push aside Kevin Rollins, who he had named his successor in 2004. Rollins had worked at Dell for over a decade, handling varied positions like Senior VP, Corporate Strategy (1996); President, Dell Americas (1996-2001); President (2001-2007) and CEO during 2004-2007. It was Rollins who commenced a campaign in 1997 called “The Soul of Dell”, which paid off highly in altering the company’s culture. And also the man behind the push for a $60 billion annual sales target. Rollins had engineered the alliance between Dell and EMC, which results in $100 million sales per quarter, as per industry sources.....Continue

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

Read also :-

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Under attack!

Ranbaxy won’t be affected much

Daiichi’s acquisition of the Indian Pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. has stirred the hornet’s nest in the pharma industry.

And the talks about the deal haven’t even died down when Ranbaxy has to face yet another glitch in the form of adulteration charges in its drugs from the US authorities: the Food and Drug Administration and Department of Justice. Ranbaxy’s stock faced a severe knocking since, falling by 18% to Rs.437 as on July 18, compared to Rs.538 on July 10, when the controversy broke.

It was a foregone conclusion that Big Pharma would not be happy with the deal, which merges a generic giant with an R&D major. But the matter became more complicated due to the statement made by Malvinder Singh, Chairman & CEO, Ranbaxy, to the press on July 18, when he said, “All these issues have emerged after the deal with Daiichi Sankyo... an MNC is trying to derail Ranbaxy’s deal with Daiichi Sankyo.”...Continue

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

Read also :-

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Mom, can I have a ministry too?

Is portfolio shuffling a born trait or can it be learnt? B&E’s deep review

A few months ago, a research done by the most prestigious Yale University revealed that Indian politicians are extraordinarily intelligent. Well, we should mention they prove to be equally intelligent as ‘fund’

(or should we say, ‘post’) managers to have learnt how to arrange ministerial portfolios to minimise political risk.

Some months ago, when UPA coalition partner, DMK leader Karunanidhi, called back Minister of Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran, who was replaced by another party loyalist and Environment Minister A. Raja without any stated specific reasons, even the Prime Minister had no say on it. And Minister of State for Home, S.Rogupathy, another loyal DMK leader, was brought to the Environment Ministry. Similarly, in the era of the NDA government, Suresh Prabhu, who was the then Power Minister, was also forced to leave the Ministry and was replaced by another party leader Anant Geete, a protege of Shiv Sena Chief Raj Thakeray.....Continue

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

Read also :-

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Surge, then upsurge

Iraq will not heal till the last of the US occupiers remains on its soil
As was all along suspected, the US military "Surge" i

n Iraq invited an Upsurge: this one involving rival Shia clans. For the first time the dissonance between US strategic thinking and the ground situation in Iraq is as clear as the ultimate outcome is clouded, considering nobody in Washington is really sure about how many soldiers should stay around and for how long. (Quitting for good being out of question because that would look too much like defeat to allow for dressing up as victory – cowboy style. Also, what about the oil and the reconstruction booty, buddy? ) The much publicised surge did bring down violence – but expectedly the good news lasted only for a while. For hardly had the fruits of the good David Petraeus' work begun to register than the Bushies decided the time was ripe to wipe out the formidable Mehdi militia.

Actually, as the widening crisis shows, the time was anything but ripe. And with the Americans disregarding Sadr's repeated desperate calls for a ceasefire, it is clear to all that they will stop at nothing till the oil has been fully and permanently tapped, in keeping with Uncle Sam's scheme of things. Basra in southern Iraq, the stronghold of Sadr, is an oil-rich region – and what was the illegal war waged for if not for the oil?....Continue

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

Read also :-

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Unmade for each other

Indeed all privately doubt that any of this is for real

The Presidents of Sudan and Chad have agreed to cease

hostilities “in principle”. Yes only in principle: for hardly had the words been uttered than the rebels, whom the pact officially aims to subdue, dismissed it as “meaningless”.

This of course is not the first time that Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir and his Chadian counterpart Idriss Deby have “agreed” to cease warring – a war complicated by rebels of various stripes in the territories of both. (In Sudan they allege the country’s western part has been deliberately neglected to favour the Muslim North.) Under the latest non-aggression pact a monitoring group, comprising foreign ministers from both countries, will “ensure” that no more blood is shed.

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

Read also :-

Monday, September 22, 2008

The ‘flu’ that grounded a state

After battling with massacres and riots, WB’s cup of woe still runneth over with the attack of the killer virus!
The legendary town of Hamelin infested with rats (sans the rescuer Pied Piper) comes to mind as soon as one hears of the Bird Flu

menace in West Bengal that has engulfed nearly the entire state by infecting 13 districts and 42 blocks with the pestilent H5N1 virus. The city of Kolkata is under siege by the deadly virus. And, before the death knell sounds for the metropolis, government bigwigs in the Writers’ Building have taken all possible actions to circumvent the spread of the virus into the city, such as, banning entry of all the poultry products in the city. The posh Salt Lake City (satellite town of Kolkata) in fact, has not only banned the entry but also sale of chickens & ducks. However, according to a police officer, the fool proof implementation of such a plan is next to impossible. For instance, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has allowed entry of products from 14 authorised poultry farms.

The state has incurred colossal losses worth Rs.500 crores in poultry business and above three lakh people have lost their source of livelihood since the virus was first detected in Margram in Birbhum district 12 days back. Making a choice between human life over chickens by worldly standards of rationality, the culling process continues, albeit slowly. By far 200,000 chickens have been culled (as on 29th Jan’06), while 300,000 chickens will be culled in the next few days. The cost of losing one’s source of livelihood (indemnity) as announced by the State Finance Minister, Asim Dasgupta is a meagre Rs.500 per affected family. While he claims of giving the compensation money on the spot during the culling operation, the B&E team’s findings from a primary source deduce otherwise.

In spite of the world despising the ‘sick’ birds that are relished when in the pink of their health, the heart of their owners reaches out for them, every time it is about killing them in the name of culling.

It was recently that about 45 chickens were found dead in the Nolpur village of Howrah district. “We took the initiative and sent the blood samples for testing,” said Sunil Bagh, a member of the Gram Panchayat in a concerned voice. Three days later, reports confirmed that the chickens were indeed infected with Bird Flu. As a result, the district magistrate arranged for culling within 10 kms radius of Nolpur (that included seven Gram Panchayats). “More than 2,000 chickens have been culled as of 26th January (in the undergoing operation) with an estimated loss of Rs.70,000”, said Mr. Bagh. Amidst the culling of infected birds, while several poultry owners grieved at the loss of money, several like Kiran Naskar who owned close to 300 birds fretted, “My chickens were not even infected, therefore culling of all chickens wasn’t right.” To most, it is about the industry and trade loss, while to many who own the birds as pets, it is like losing a loved one. Thirty-two year old, Shaikh Ludh Rahman, who owned six chickens and four ducks, handed them over, on his own, half-heartedly, to the culling team. So did Younous Mallick who had 12 chickens and repeatedly said, “We weren’t into the business, we loved them.”

Another newly infected area, the historical city of Budge Budge had a relatively different atmosphere. The vibes were more of fear and concern for well-being of the people than trade and business. Forget about, pitying the poor little souls under ‘operation culling’ that are going through the highly contagious bird disease, said to rarely infect humans. The panic at the sudden outbreak of Bird Flu in the area was clearly visible in everybody’s eyes, right from the rickshaw-puller to the gram Panchayat members. To add to the woes, the process of culling the infected birds couldn’t begin in Goborjhuri village where 100 birds were found dead in a single day, since the confirmation reports in this certain case were pending. Anxiety was at peak when the Panchayat Pradhan, Mokhuri Doloi haggled with the authorities and urged them to “Please solve the matter quickly for us”.

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

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

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Saturday, September 20, 2008

Recent liberalisation will boost investments

“Policies were aimed to provide healthy competition, and level-playing field”
In a high growth sector, there is no need to trim staff.

With the sector booming, every one can be accommodated, Union Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, tells B&E’s Ranjit Bhushan in an interview. The minister, who is credited with turning around the civil aviation ministry in his four-year-stint, adds that far-reaching changes are going to be brought in its FDI policy to encourage private investments.

Your tenure has marked a definite turnaround in the prospects of the civil aviation sector. What do you attribute this upturn to?

The aviation sector has evolved over the past few years. The change in mindset in both the public and the private sectors has led to more competition, competitive and affordable fares, and more passengers. The reasons are clear and strong policies of the government have been aimed at providing healthy competition and level playing field to both the public and private players. The government has played a great role as being a facilitator in this sector. Your speech at the US-India Aviation Summit last year was impressive.

What are the gains that you see accruing from the deal? Also, technologically, the US aviation industry is light-years ahead of us. Which are the areas of common interest between the two countries?

The purpose of the US India Aviation Cooperation Programme is to improve coordination of US assistance to the Indian civil aviation industry, including the identification of aviation training and technical assistance meets, communication meets, and improving coordination with the US Government entities including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), US Trade and Development Agency (USPDA) and the US Department of Commerce.

The programme will be funded with the assistance of USTDA and would enhance safety, operational efficiency and system capacity of the aviation sector. The Union government has also approved a Memorandum of Agreement with the US in the civil aviation sector, which will provide the framework for seeking assistance of the Federal Aviation Authority in developing civil aviation infrastructure in managerial, operational and technical areas, as and when required.

You talked about attracting FDI, about more US involvement in Indian aviation. Is that going to be a reality?

The Union government on 30 January, 2008 liberalised and enhanced the FDI policy in the civil aviation sector. This is expected to greatly boost investments by not only American, but also other foreign companies in Indian aviation.

The market share of national carriers has gone down with more private competition coming in. And a lot of it has happened during your tenure as the minister. Do you see a situation wherein the national carriers could become minor players in the company of many private operators, big and small? Although the number of passengers carried by the national carriers has increased considerably, registering a growth of almost 25%, the market share has been impacted due to the entry of private airlines, availability of low cost carriers, decline in capacity share, and delay in acquisition of new and latest technology aircraft. However, a number of initiatives have been undertaken like acquisition of new aircraft, merger of Indian and Air India, aggressive marketing and sales initiatives, which has resulted in marked improvements in market share.

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

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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

Top Articles on IIPM:-
'This is one of Big B's best performances'
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Silence – hardly a golden virtue!

Microsoft’s Sync redefines the in-car-entertainment system

How about talking to you iPod or your mobile phone for that matter? Imagine if you could actually command these gadgets to perform different functions. And what if you could do all that while driving your car?

Well, this might sound like an excerpt from a 2020-based

Sci-Fi movie but this has actually been made possible by Microsoft, which has developed Sync, which is a fully integrated and voice activated in-car-entertainment system, for the Ford motor Company . “Sync offers hands-free phone operation and iPod or any other MP3 player connectivity. It’s built on a software platform that is upgradeable and will allow us to offer new features by simply upgrading the software” says Derrick Kuzak, Group VP, at Ford.

In fact, with Sync, an individual actually gets to master the complete in-car entertainment and communication system. All you need to do is connect your Bluetooth enabled device with Sync and its innovative voice command feature will follow your commands and will enable you to make calls from your mobile, read aloud your text messages and play your favorite music, without disturbing you while driving.

While on one hand, Sync is completely transforming the in-car-entertainment market, which earlier just constituted of a good audio system and may be an additional GPS device, tech companies are already gearing up to the consumer expectations of “seamless connectivity while on drive”. One such product is SIRIUS Travel Link, which will provide people with the required data while they are still driving. “This service from SIRIUS feeds important data right into our vehicles. It is easy to access and always available”, says Jim Buczkowski, Director of Electrical Systems Engineering at Ford.

With the technology companies infusing revolutionary features like Sync and Sirius Travel Link to the dashboards, one thing’s for sure – boring, and silent long drives would soon be deemed a thing of the past.

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

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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

Top Articles on IIPM:-
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Taking stock

Are there lessons for all from assassination of Benazir?
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has been perhaps one of the most tragic incident in recent history. This incident not only has weakened the cause of democracy but has also thrown Pakistan far into a zone of no return. While many have been trying to play down the entire incident as just the continuation of the Pakistani legacy of military coups and assassinations, this episode of the same has put the future of South Asia at a real crossroad. Now that the dust is settling down and things are relatively coming back to normalcy, are there important lessons and observations to be drawn from this tragic happening? Well, to start with, Benazir’s assassination once again brings forth an increasingly menacing trend of this era, i.e. nations are subject to more risk from within, than from outside.

For rest of the world, nothing could have been better than to see the gradual restoration of faith in democracy in hearts and minds of the average Pakistani and releasing him/her steadily from clutches of fundamentalism. It’s some elements within Pakistan, aided by global fundamentalism, which have given a death knell to restoration of democracy in Pakistan. In the same league, for an LTTE, it makes more sense to continue with mayhem than to find reasonable political solutions for the cause of Sri Lanka’s Tamil minorities and thereby putting Sri Lanka at risk more from within than outside.

The same is the case of Bangladesh which through its ascension as well as assertion of fundamentalism is increasingly proving that, once, it was rightly called East Pakistan. Today Bangladesh, and Nepal too has more threats from within than without. A wider scrutiny of Asia at large and even of Europe would vindicate that the same malaise is plaguing them too, be it IRA is UK, ETA in Spain or PKK in Turkey. For the whole of 20th century, nations put more resources to mitigate external threats. And in their quest to securing external boundaries, they literally undermined the problems germinating within. As a result internal security was always considered less of a priority than external security.

The trend is continuing even now with billions of dollars of budget being put to buy weapons for conventional wars whose probability is decreasing by the day while most nations are thoroughly ill-equipped to deal with an omnipresent virtual enemy. India in this case is no exception either. In fact the level of internal distrust that is prevailing in Pakistan is evident from the fact that the Musharraf regime had to involve the Scotland Yard to demonstrate its commitment for a fair investigation.

The other striking observation from the entire Benazir death saga has been the reaction in India. There was perhaps not a single soul in India which was not in grief and which didn’t share solidarity with the beleaguered Pakistan. The wrong-doings of Pakistan in the past didn’t come in the way of expressing shock and shedding tears for someone who, for an average Indian, was a little more than just another politician of a rogue Pakistan. There was an attachment much beyond that. Perhaps the virtual bondage of the umbilical chord cut in a hurry still having its presence felt. And it is perhaps because of this that it is not just a need but a necessity for India to see that Pakistan doesn’t collapse. In that case, when history would be written half a century from now, it would not be Pakistan but India’s brethren that collapsed, would be sculpted in history books.

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

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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

Top Articles on IIPM:-
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Monday, August 25, 2008

Apart from consumers

“Whilst we continue to grow, our mantra to hire people with the right kind of attitude and then training them has served us well in building an extensive learning and development proposition to empower our people with the domain knowledge,” reveals Das. The work environment in ICICI Prudential Life is committed to creating a learning environment and a performance driven culture, which is reinforced through effective performance management of the employees.

The first step in the performance management comes in by linking individual performance objectives to business objectives and evaluating the performances consistently. Asserts Das, “We’ve pioneered the frontline capability development through a strong performance management system that has enabled us to provide our employees with an accelerated career path from the very first day.” The HR think tank of the organisation has also put in place a robust career acceleration program that links training & certification of frontline employees and a strong talent management program for employees in middle & senior management cadres to identify their strengths & development areas and then groom them for leadership roles later.

Going by management guru Jack Welch’s prescription, ICICI Prudential Life too strives to provide a high performance meritocratic work environment with differentiated rewards and recognition opportunities for its top talent. Das adds, “As one of the key players in the high growth sector we also use ESOPs as an effective tool in value creation for the middle and senior management, which helps in creating ownership within the organisation”. Most financial companies have been struggling with a nerve-wracking problem called ‘attrition’. To tackle this problem in an effective manner, ICICI Prudential Life has devised an attrition dashboard that helps track attrition for each function and location. Looks like the program has worked, as 80% of the senior management have been with the organisation for over five years now.

For ICICI Prudential Life, the “Jeetey Raho,” philosophy not only works for the consumers but also for its vast workforce. And for this vast employee network, ICICI Prudential Life’s mantra is to ‘stay and grow with us’ and this is what keeps this organisation ticking.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008