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I I L M I N S T I T U T E F O R H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

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Vol-IV, No. 3, July 2007

FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK Standard economic literature prescribes, broadly based on cross-country empirical data, that as a country progresses up the developmental ladder, the share of manufacturers in total GDP will gradually overtake that of agriculture and in due course it itself will get dwarfed by the rising tide in the services sector. There are some exceptions through; some smaller African countries as well as few Asian countries, such as Nepal, have really skipped the intermediate phase of manufacturing ascendancy and graduated straight to the dominance of services sector from a basically pastoral background. India has, however, stuck to the rule book. Currently, share of services in India's GDP has already crossed the half way mark and will increasingly outdistance the other two components.

It has now almost become a cliché that in the emerging global economy of the 21st century, China will play the role of the central hub of manufacturing, while India will occupy the identical slot in the area of services. Both internal and external factors support this prediction.

Internally, India has a young population and with one of the largest secondary and tertiary education system in the world, it has an almost infinitely elastic labour supply with the required skill sets, even if, according to some, only quantitatively and not qualitatively.

Externally, outsourcing of services has now been accepted as a logical extension of sticking to core competency strategy of major MNCs, and even of their smaller brethren. The relative cast advantage of production and delivery of services is the key driver in favour of BPO business being directed to India. It is difficult to predict how long it will last. Some disconcerting facts are there however. The skilled labour market is being increasingly tight. The relative wage increase was higher in India compared to other competing countries last year. Several other countries such as China and the Philippines are closing in.

Still India should do well in services because some fundamental strengths are there. Most important, many Indian firms have developed a global mindset and that is what will count, if and when the crunch time comes.

B. Bhattacharyya

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CONVOCATION: ‘India is hub of opportunity’

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RETAIL-TAINMENT THE NEW BUZZWORD ON THE SHELF

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CUSTOMER IS KING, LONG LIVE RPOs

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CONTENTS INHOUSE MAGAZINE FOR LIMITED CIRCULATION Vol-IV No. 3 July 2007

28 31 33 35 08 14 20 25

BULL’S EYE VIEW OF STOCK EXCHANGES SUNSHINE FACET OF PSYCHOLOGY H2O FACTS THE PHILOSOPHY OF VAISHNAVI

INNOVATIVE CAREERS RISK OFF THE CAMEL’S BACK THE SAARC TRUTH THE MAGIC OF SIX SIGMA

EDITORIAL BOARD Mrs Malvika Rai Prof. B. Bhattacharyya Shree Dina Nath Mishra Prof. Kailash Tuli Prof. Pradip Chakrabarty Ms. Disha Dubey

EDITORIAL TEAM Preetinder Kaur

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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATION

41 45 49 52 56 58

PENSION REFORMS IN INDIA E-GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES IN INDIA BRIDGING THE RESEARCH GAP BOOK REVIEW STUDENTs’ CORNER CAMPUS NEWS

Published by IILM Institute for Higher Education Plot-69, Sector 53, Gurgaon-122003 Phone: 0124 4559300

Smriti Taneja Gauri Pasricha Gurtej Sandhu

Design: SUNIL KUMAR

Printed by Avantika Printers Private Limited 194/2, Ramesh Market, Garhi East of Kailash,New Delhi - 110 065

CONVOCATION

‘India is hub of opportunity’ T

he convocation ceremony of the second batch (2005-07) for the Post Graduate Diploma in Management of the IILM Institute for Higher Education Gurgaon, was held with great enthusiasm at the Institute on Wednesday, June 06, 2007.

Convocation is a unique celebration of the thought leadership of an academic institution. After completing two years at IILM Institute the graduating students saw their efforts translating into reality in an elegant function. It is always an emotionally charged occasion. On the one hand is the joy of completing a major step towards facing adult life on one's own while on the other a student is severing the formal link with The

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early life. The protection and guidance - occasionally harsh - available within the portals of an academic institution are gone forever.

Prof. Deepak Pental, Vice Chancellor of Delhi University was the chief guest for the conferring ceremony. Prof. Badal Mukherji, Director, IILM Institute for Higher Education Gurgaon, Dr. Padmakali Mishra, Dean, PGPX, respectable members of IILM Institute were present with guest of honour.

The evening began with the 'lamp lighting ceremony' by the guest of honor for the evening Prof. Pental (VC, Delhi University) and Prof. Badal Mukherji (Director IILM Institute). Prof. Mukherji, warmly welcomed invitees and the distinguished chief guest. He

expressed his sincere gratitude towards the presence of Prof.

Deepak Pental to grace the occasion.

Mr. Jasdeep S. Chadha (Associate Dean, PGP, Gurgaon) started the programme by announcing the names 106 successful students for the award of the Post Graduate Diploma in Management of batch 2005-07.

The PGDM is a two year full time programme, a unique mix of specializations designed to address the changing needs of the Indian industry. It is designed to develop students with strong conceptual fundamentals and skills required to manage businesses of the future, while giving them the vision to determine what the

future will be. The Institute endeavours to produce managers having professional attitudes, values and skills to be relevant in changing business environments.

The programme ensures thorough grounding of students in fundamental concepts in various fields and concurrently develops the requisite pragmatism to test and apply these concepts in real life situations. Students with different backgrounds, qualifications and learning styles are encouraged to use their experiences and perspectives as instruments of analysis.

With their heads held high, students walked up to receive their diploma. Prof. Pental

Convocation ceremony of the PGDM 2005-07

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awarded diploma to the respective students. Prof. Badal Mukherji conferred the diploma on the students who were present and also conferred on those absent.

Students were greeted by a warm handshake from the honorable chief guest in their moment of glory.

Prof. Deepak Pental presented the Dr. Kulwant Rai Gold medal and Dr. Kulwant Rai Silver medals instituted for overall academic excellence and securing first positions in the various fields of specializations to the privileged students.

The highlight of the ceremony was the speech delivered by Prof.

Pental. He began by extending his wholehearted congratulations to the Institute for creating a niche in short span of time. Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Pental said that the graduating students have opportunities aplenty in India and aboard. He said that as they look to the future, all students must keep in mind the interest of the country, because it is higher The

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education that has to give our country the required impetus to greater achievements. There is a

belief that educated people will steer their country into the future with their knowledge and students must justify that belief. He said that convocation is more than anything an occasion on which the degree-earners pledge themselves to put their knowledge to work for the cause of human welfare. He said that India was well on its way to becoming an economic superpower and said the country needed more young people to lead. He said India is passing through exciting times and an era of building up substantial intellectual capital wherein the youth have a very significant and leading role to play.

He encouraged graduating students to compete in the world by overcoming obstacles with ethics.

He enlightened the students on the current issues, encouraged them to fight corruption and to create a niche for themselves. He offered his best wishes to the young graduates. He advised

Lighting of the auspicious lamp by Prof. Deepak Pental, Vice Chancellor, Delhi University

students to keep an open mind to go on imbibing the ever increasing flow of ideas, information and skills. He reminded students that this can be achieved only if one kept the fire of inquisitiveness burning. Wishing them prosperity, he also said that the diploma could be an authorization to success only when students worked with and for others with veracity and commitment and use their knowledge as a permit to change the world. Prof. Pental wished students a good future and reiterating that while they should treasure this achievement, they should also keep learning. He concluded the function by expressing the hope that those who have graduated enjoy health, happiness and prosperous future. The convocation programme concluded with the optimistic students celebrating their graduation from IILM Institute for Higher Education and looking ahead to emulating the successes of the Institute's alumni.

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INNOVATIVE CAREERS

Post Graduate Programme in Retail AT GURGAON INDUSTRY PARTNER : Retailers Association of India Retailers Association of India (RAI) was launched in Mumbai on 28th September 2004 with the principal objective of being the voice of Indian retailers. The country's key retailers have come together to form this association and to spearhead the movement of organized retailing and its growth in India.

SECTOR OVERVIEW India is witnessing an unprecedented consumption boom. Indian Retail Industry is ranked among the ten largest retail markets in the world. The attitudinal shift of the Indian consumer in terms of "Choice Preference", "Value for Money" and the emergence of organized retail formats has transformed the face of Retailing in India. The Indian retail industry is currently estimated to be a US$ 200 billion industry and organized Retailing comprises of 3 per cent (or) US$6.4 Billion of the retail industry. With a growth over 20 percent per annum over the last 5 years, organized retailing is projected to reach US$ 23 Billion by 2010.

According to the 'Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) 2006' by the management consulting firm 'A.T. Kearney', India has retained it's topmost position in the annual study of retail investment attractiveness among 30 emerging markets.

Though organized retailing as a professional service-oriented setup is a recent phenomenon, the tremendous pace of growth has a potential of creating over 2 million new (direct) jobs within the next six years, assuming an 8 to 10 percent share of organized retailing in the total retail business.

The increasing scale, complexity and competitiveness of retailing require professional managers capable of running enterprise-class businesses.

This requires an education that responds to the growing demand for retail professionals who have the The

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intellectual and practical abilities necessary to cope with the pace of change in this industry. An education that is intensive, comprehensive and closely linked to the retail business world. There is a need for a programme, which has all the inherent features of a business management programme and includes experiential learning.

BRIEF NOTE ON PROGRAMME The Post Graduate Programme in Retail is offered by the IILM Institute for Retail Studies and has been designed with 48 weeks of Classroom Sessions and 36 weeks of Workshops/Case Studies session. It has been designed with the intention of inspiring and preparing young graduates to be leaders in the field of modern retail.

The IILM Institute of Retail Studies provides a stimulating educational experience that will equip you to develop into a retail professional with the strategic perspectives and tactical tools required for success in today's complex, and highly competitive marketplace. IILM Institute caters to

the demand of retail management professionals and prepares its graduating students for challenging careers through an intensive and rigorous curriculum. IILM Institute believes in holistic development of the students and their participation in the education programme, instills in them professionalism, critical thinking, ability to work hard, and take decisions.

The Institute also exposes the students to all aspects of the retail sector and its various facets like operations, environment, human resources and values, social responsibility, information and communication system.

IILM Institute's mission is to become a Center of Excellence in valuebased management education, training, research and consultancy.

It aims to develop tomorrow's retail innovators who create, manage and lead effective changes across diverse organisations. The Retail programme is designed to develop managers with strong conceptual fundamentals and skills required to manage retail of the future, while giving them the vision to determine what the future will be. The Institute endeavours to produce managers having professional attitudes, values and skills to be relevant in the changing business paradigms. The programme ensures thorough grounding of students in fundamental concepts in various fields of management and concurrently develops the requisite pragmatism to test and apply these concepts in real life situations. IILM Institute has core faculty strength of 61, who bring with them varied and extensive industry and research experience, ensuring the right academia - industry interface that IILM Institute is proud of.

All faculty members play an important role in administering the diverse academic and non-academic activities of the Institute.

Post Graduate Programme in Hospital Administration AT LODHI ROAD INDUSTRY PARTNER : Max Healthcare Max Healthcare is a subsidiary of Max India Limited, a multiple businesses corporate, driven by the spirit of Enterprise, focused on Knowledge, People and Service oriented businesses of Life Insurance, Healthcare and Clinical Research. Max Healthcare commenced operations in 2001 and is India's first provider of comprehensive, seamlessly integrated, world-class healthcare services. It is primarily focused on the National Capital Region (NCR), New Delhi, and is well on its way to become the region's Chief Healthcare provider in the private sector, targeting 900 beds in the NCR by 2008. Currently, it has over 800 leading doctors, 400 corporate clients and a patient base in excess of 3, 50,000.

SECTOR OVERVIEW There is greater concern for Health and its management today in view of the stressful life that we live. In India, issue of health and its management gets further complicated due to rapidly burgeoning population exerting tremendous pressure on existing health infrastructure, thus proving it to be inadequate.

Traditionally the health infrastructure in India has been under government control, but for the last few years, private sector participation in health management is on the rise. India is also emerging as a medical/ health tourism destination because of cost and expertise advantages.

Advent of new technology, demanding and aware consumers of health services entails all associated with health sector to acquire new set of skills coupled with knowledge of health care operations.

With the medical sector becoming increasingly competitive and capital intensive, the need for managing hospitals has become even more

acute. To meet the challenges of this fast expanding sector, there is need for a large number of trained health professionals. Realizing this, Max Healthcare (a part of the Max Group), India's first truly integrated healthcare system and IILM Institute for Higher Education have joined

hands to offer a Post Graduate Programme in Hospital Administration (PGPHA).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PROGRAM The Post Graduate Programme in Hospital Administration entails 48 weeks of classroom training and 12 weeks of workshops and projects. In addition, there are 2 blocks of hospi-

tal internship of 8 weeks and 28 weeks. The uniqueness of the PGPHA programme is in the strong industry-academia interface, conceived by and structured around industry need and jointly developed and offered by Max Healthcare and IILM Institute. It merges the clinical technicalities of diagnostics and treatment with human techniques of systems management and imparts them cogently to the students. It establishes a perfect balance of technical and commercial facets of health management enterprise whether in governmental or nongovernment sector. The curriculum is designed to provide an equitable input on technical and commercial impacts; with experts in respective areas having conceptualized, designed and committed to deliver these course. Continuous and rigorous field training in hospitals is an integral part of practical training.

Max healthcare will lend all technical and clinical inputs and IILM Institute would provide all management inputs.

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Postgraduate Programme in Banking and Financial Services AT LODHI ROAD INDUSTRY PARTNER : HDFC Bank Ltd The Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited (HDFC) was amongst the first to receive an 'in principle' approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to set up a bank in the private sector, as part of the RBI's liberalization of the Indian Banking Industry in 1994. HDFC Bank today has a widespread network of branches in over 300 cities.

SECTOR OVERVIEW Today in India, Banking has transformed into a technologyintensive and customer-friendly activity with a focus on convenience. The sector is set to witness the emergence of financial supermarkets in the form of universal banks providing a suite of innovative product and services from retail to corporate banking and industrial lending to investment banking. While corporate banking is clearly the largest segment, personal financial services is the highest growth segment.

Further, Mutual Fund market is growing at an impressive pace.

The growth in the Banking and

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Financial services in India is adding more than 100,000 jobs annually. With Private sector players making a big foray into the arena, the industry has become increasingly competitive.

The jobs require high degree of specialization, knowledge and skill.

BRIEF ABOUT THE PROGRAMME IILM Institute for Higher Education and Mr. PN Vijay, renowned financial analyst have joined hands in collaboration with HDFC Bank Ltd. to design and develop a Banking and Financial Services specific 1-year full-time Postgraduate Programme in Banking and Financial Services (PGPBFS).

HDFC Bank aims to support the programme for advancement of Academic and Business Exchanges. The Bank will bring in industry experience through faculty support and course development, as also case studies especially developed for this programme. The Post Graduate Programme in Banking and Financial Services is a 1 year fulltime program including 2 months of internship. The Programme aims at producing well qualified and rounded professionals who are abreast with all aspects of the Banking and Financial services.

Postgraduate Programme in Management and Insurance AT GURGAON INDUSTRY PARTNER : ICICI Prudential ICICI Prudential was the first life insurer in India to receive a National Insurer Financial Strength rating of AAA from Fitch ratings. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company is a joint venture between ICICI Bank-one of India's foremost financial services companies-and Prudential plc- a leading international financial services group headquartered in the United Kingdom.

SECTOR OVERVIEW The Indian Economy today is surging ahead as a key player in the global market and the Insurance industry in particular is poised to grow exponentially in the next few years. The critical success factor in the business environment today lies in the ability to manage change. Intense competition along with rapidly changing consumer expectations has compelled business to drastically reduce their transaction processing time and costs. The driving force and catalyst of change in any organization is its human resource. To be a leader in this intensely competitive global economy demands a high level of competency and skill coupled with speed of response and networking skills of a premium quality. Engaging these challenges for us requires a dynamic and state of the art exposure to the theory and practice of insurance management.

is based on two distinct yet related modules. There will be 6 months of intensive management curriculum. Practical skills along with sufficient academic rigour have been built into the programme structure. The second module will comprise 4 months of intensive Insurance and Finance curriculum. The programme structure for this module along with specific case studies will be provided by ICICI Prudential Life.

There will be a focussed 2 month Internship programme at one of the ICICI Prudential Life branches where the students will get to learn first hand the various facets of the insurance industry.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PROGRAMME The one year PGP in Management and Insurance has three distinct modules. There will be 6 months of management instruction, 4 months of Insurance studies followed by a 2 month Internship. The conceptual foundation of the programme The

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BUYING A NEW IDEA

RETAIL-TAINMENT The new buzzword on the shelf Y

ou have to turn your store into khomchawalas to international stana theme park to assure your dard food courts and what not! customers a good time.

The challenges for retailers have Retailing in India is seeing a sea continued to mount in the past few change. The consumer is changing years. Even as the e-commerce and so are their expectations. threat to brick and mortar spending Shopping trips are becomhas waned, economic ing leisure-oriented rather uncertainty has gripped than a boring chore. the dollar spending conShopping is no more sumers hard. Retailers restricted to products but are scrambling to estabhas diversified into the lish and revive methods to service sector as well. create memorable cusWith this kind of tomer experiences —hopchanges in shopping ing to grab and hold the habits and consumer pershopper's attention, build ception, and the resulloyalty and simultaneAnil Vashisht tant increase in the ously stimulating their Assistant Professor level of client expectasector. From here tions, retailing was emanates the new bound to change. buzzword — Retail-tainment.

From high street local retailers to The Indian customer is one whose multinational brands, from local cin- demands have varied and increased ema halls to multiplexes, from perpetually. Responding to this, the kirana stores to hypermarkets, Indian retailers have been innovatThe

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ing at a rapid pace. One of the innovations that is now becoming a trend is the combination of leisure and retail in malls.

Retail-tainment, as the name suggests, is a combination of retail and entertainment. It is not a new concept, although its effective deployment across the retail sector has boosted its usage in recent years.

Unlike passive samplings and demonstrations, retail-tainment events drive customer traffic to a specific location in the store and engage them in contests, game shows and giveaways.

If done properly, these activities generate more than a short-term return of initial excitement and impulse sales of featured products.

They can communicate the featured brand’s most compelling attributes and dimensionalise the brand experience for the customer, leaving an enduring emotional connection with

the brand — and a reason to return.

While marketing tactics such as an advertising function are more of a broad-brush approach, retail-tainment events can be customized to location and venue, allowing for greater opportunities to target prospective customers and reach existing customers in a unique way.

Retail-tainment or "Retail Entertainment" is the latest trend with the goal of getting the consumer involved in the fun and excitement at the retail level. Retail-tainment helps in: Longer consumer brand interaction Creating loyalty and repeat purchase Strengthening relationships with key retail accounts Relating to brand identity and themed environment Providing everyone with a fun and exciting experience When one looks at the developments in India, one can conclude that shifts in consumer behavior are fuelling this change. The primary mover in any business is the expectation of customers. Today's customer's primary expectation has become the demand for an "all under one roof shopping experience". There are many reasons for the development of such customer perspectives.

First and foremost, life has become fast for urban couples. With more and more households becoming double income groups, the time being spent with families has fallen drastically. It is for this reason that the desire to extract more out of one visit to the market has become very prominent.

By providing services such as creche, play areas and video games, store owners/developers enable young mothers to focus on their shopping more than on their children.

The other reason is the changing lifestyle of the youth in India.

Restaurants, pubs, discotheques and coffee parlours are becoming the most frequently visited places for the contemporary youth. When one combines these experiences with a visit to a retail store, one offers what can be called a complete experience to youth.

Why Retail-tainment: The Cost Benefit Analysis It is quite obvious that the combination of these two concepts is going to be beneficial. What is not obvious is how beneficial. Every businessman should invest into something for the cost benefit advantage it can provide. Let us see where this strategy can be of great use.

First, Retail-tainment is ideal in increasing walk-ins. By providing entertainment facilities, retailers and mall developers can grab the attention of customers, thus increasing the probability of their entering into the store.

For big cities like Delhi or Mumbai the distance of these malls/stores from the city center could be anywhere between 20-30 km. Traveling such distances for merely shopping may not be such a lucrative option for the Indian customer. Thus, the customer has to be lured through other means — like entertainment.

Retail-tainment events can be conducted around in-store promotions, including product sampling, product

demonstrations and technology product demonstrations.

It is often said that if you can retain the customer in the store for a longer period, you can make him buy more than he normally would and this surely gives an idea of how much to invest.

Although many shopping centers are now looking to incorporate entertainment into their strategy to maintain economic advantages, there have not been any empirical studies done to find out whether or not this works. Such a study can shed light on customer attitudes towards shopping and entertainment. It can help identify benefits of adding entertainment businesses to a store's mix in terms of cross shopping, increased expenditures, and future patronage intentions.

Retail-tainment is "about driving the experience and customer connection."

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BANK SURVEILLANCE

Risk off the CAMEL’s back In the past decade, bank regulators have introduced many measures to link the regulation of commercial banks to risk and financial viability. Risk-based capital requirements and deposit insurance premia are prominent examples. Recently, regulators have augmented this with a bank exam called CAMEL

O

ver the past decade, bank ing offsite surveillance — CAMEL regulators have introduced model — reflects the likelihood of several measures to link the both financial distress and regularegulation of commercial banks to tory intervention. risk and financial viability. RiskBank supervisors use both on-site based capital requirements and examination and off-site surveildeposit insurance lance to analyze Dr Sheeba Kapil premia are two and identify the prominent examfinancial viability Assistant professor ples of this. Most of banks. The most recently, the regulators have aug- useful tool for identifying problem mented this with a bank exam banks is onsite examination, in CAMEL rating model (early warn- which examiners travel to a bank ing, off site surveillance model) to and review all aspects of its safety include explicit examiner assess- and soundness. On site examinament of banks' ability to manage its tion is, however, both costly and performance. burdensome: Costly to supervisors Due to the nature of banking and because of its labour intensive the important part that banks play nature and burdensome to bankers in the economy (i.e. capital forma- because of the intrusion into their tion) they are and should be more day-to-day operations. As a result, closely regulated than any other supervisors also monitor bank contype of economic unit in the econo- dition off-site. Off-site surveillance my. In this context the early warn- yields an ongoing picture of bank

condition, enabling supervisors to schedule and plan exams efficiently and effectively. Off-site surveillance also provides banks with incentives to maintain safety and soundness between on-site visits.

Early warning system and CAMEL model: Operating and financial ratios have long been used as tools for determining the condition and the performance of a firm. Altman’s (1967) seminal work on identifying distressed firms radically changed a well-established tradition by introducing discriminant analysis.

Modern early warning models for financial institutions gained popularity when Sinkey (1975) utilized discriminant analysis for identifying and distinguishing problem banks from the sound banks and Altman (1977) examined the savings and loan industry.

Since then there have been numerous studies on the early warning systems that focus on the development of models to identify problem banks and/or to predict bank failure. Most of these studies have used a dichotomous variable

CAMEL: Capital adequacy, Asset quality, Management quality, Earning, Liqudity The

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approach by defining the dependent variable as a problem/nonproblem or failure /non-failure bank.

efficient and prudential banking linked to better customer care and customer service. The old ideology of social banking was not abandoned, but the responsibility for development banking is blended with the paramount need for complying with norms of prudence and efficiency. The banking reforms and various other economic structural and functional changes adopted by the Indian Government have lead to a emergence of changing and unpredictable environment where it has become very difficult to predict the future direction with certainty.

Now in the virtually open regime in India there are so many talks,

will either be acquired or can be an acquirer. Looking beyond this statement let us talk about the general health of Indian banking.

No doubt Indian banking needs reforms (structural and functional changes) but together with reform, it also needs a continuous economical surveillance of its reforms and their effect so that future banking can be commercial and profitable and is able to contribute positively to the economic growth of India.

In the light of the reforms undertaken by the government vis-Ă -vis banking sector this paper tries to analyze the banking performance, health and viability after the two phases of reforms, by applying early warning, off-site surveillance CAMEL model.

Indian banking: The Indian banking sector comprises the SBI Group and its seven associates, the 19 nationalized banks, the 34 existing private sector banks which were not brought into the net of nationalization, the 29 foreign banks with 144 branches.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is India's central bank. Though public sector banks currently dominate the banking industry, numerous private and foreign banks have made inroads in this sector. The performance of the public sector Indian banking needs reforms but it banks, in recent times, Camel model has been mixed, with a also needs an economical vigil of its variables: few being consistently reforms and their effect so that future profitable.

Unlike Altman's Several public sector widely accepted bankbanking can be commercial and profbanks are being restrucruptcy prediction variitable and able to contribute positively tured and Government ables for non-financial has already started to firms, there are no to the economic growth of India reduce its stakes. With a established set of stanview to increasing the dard variables that can efficiency of the system be globally recognized through competition, the RBI grant- researches, discussions and arti- for describing the soundness of ed licences to private sector corpo- cles, which talk about future and banks. Till now the researchers rate and large FIs like UTI, IDBI, present scenario of the Indian neither been able to identify a preICICI, IFCI etc to float banks banking. Business Standard has cise financial variable that reprefocused to propel the economy into made a very recent attempt where sents each CAMEL component nor the 21st century through state-of- a complete comparative database have they been able to develop a the-art technology and absolute and growth prospects have been standard set of variables for comidentification with the customer. discussed for various Indian com- posite CAMEL rating. Previous The onset of the 1990s witnessed mercial banks in its banking annu- researches have generated various the winds of change ushering in an al. The business Standard Banker variables that significantly relate to era of liberalization of the economy, of the Year (2003) Award has been CAMEL components and their ratwhich had its inevitable impact on given to Vaddarse Prabhakar ing. All the financial ratios taken in the banking sector. The report of Shetty, who has turned the once this study are quantitative and adethe Narasimhan Committee sug- troubled UCO bank around. quately represent the CAMEL comgested structural and functional However, replying to the future ponent. changes, which were to be intro- prospects of the UCO Bank, he duced in the existing banks in a states that the present Indian bank- First component: Capital Adequacy Capital adequacy signifies the phased manner. The advent of ing will undergo consolidation and banking sector reforms brought the not too many banks will survive level and quality of capital and thus the overall financial conditions of era of modern banking of global and be independent. standards in the history of Indian Banks will lose identity and will the institutions. Regulators view a banking. The emphasis shifted to look up to strategic alliances. Banks higher level of equity as a cushion The

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against future losses. This helps to protect the individual depositors (customers of banks) from incurring any loss and also reduces potential bailout costs to the taxpayers. Again higher capital adequacy of a bank implies higher alignment of the owner's interest with the success of the banks, thus reducing moral hazard.

For measuring capital adequacy, capital adequacy ratio has been taken. High capital adequacy ratio signifies the ability of the management to address emerging needs for additional capital i.e. enough capital to provide cushion to absorb losses.

Second component: Asset Quality Asset quality reflects the quantity of existing and potential credit risk associated with the loan and investment portfolios, other real estate owned, and other assets, as well as off-balance sheet transactions.

It also reflects the ability of management to identify, measure, monitor and control credit risk. Assets of banks are composed of a range of qualities. The US bankers and regulators designate substandard, doubtful, and loss loans as 'classified' loans. Indians use these same categories and call them as 'nonperforming assets'.

Here in this study our proxy for asset quality is NPA to net advances. Over the years (since 1991) rapid growth of credit disbursements and increase in consumerist culture and declining interest rates have lead to lower screening and monitoring efforts by banks.

It is assumed that higher levels of NPAs will result in reduction in asset quality rating and a correspondingly decrease in CAMEL rating. For measuring asset quality ratio of net non-performing assets to net advances have been taken.

High ratio implies that the bank is not maximizing its asset potential, as the quality of assets is poor.

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Third component: Management Quality This reflects the managerial competency and its contribution to value maximization of the banking assets.

Fourth component: Earnings The earning reflect the growth capacity and the financial healthy of the bank. High earnings signify high growth prospects and low risk exposure and smooth operations.

In the study the earnings have been measured by return on assets

Regulators have recognized that external market forces impact on the banks by the addition of systematic risk component to the original CAMEL system (ROA). This ratio describes the profitability of the banks and avoids the volatility of earnings associated with the assets. A high value indicates higher profitability and positive relationship with the CAMEL ratings is expected.

Fifth component: Liquidity Liquidity implies the cash position of the bank and the ability of the banks to meet its customer's day-to-day cash needs and to respond to sudden cash withdrawals. Liquidity can be stored or

purchased. Stored liquidity like loan to deposit ratio is highly correlated with the capital adequacy ratio and thus appears redundant.

However the purchased liquidity is better and represents both depositors' confidence plus interest rate conditions. A bank facing the liquidity problem will be forced to purchase funds at higher interest rates. In the study the liquidity is measured by cash-deposit ratio.

Banking authorities and academic researchers have tested the effectiveness of CAMEL ratings information inn indicating changes in the condition of banks. Using US call report data, Sinkey (1975), martin (1977) and Espahbodi (1991) developed models to identify factors that distinguish problem or failed banks from sound banks. A number of researchers have combined call report data with regulator's examination data to explore the efficacy of CAMEL ratings. Most of these studies conclude that CAMEL ratings reflect the soundness of the financial institutions. Internal factors have been identified as the most important cause of troubled banks, commencing with Sinkey (1979) and Hanc (1998). In particular, Sinkey points out that the internal factors causing bank failures are decisions over which the managers and directors of the bank have direct control.

Other studies attempting to improve upon the CAMEL ratings model have incorporated external data such as local and regional economic conditions (Gajewski, 1990) or market data (Pettway and Sinkey, 1980). Regulators have recognized that external market forces impact on the banks by the addition of systematic risk component to the original CAMEL system.

Robert D Young, Joseph P Hughes and Choon Geol (1998) state that due to the nature of banking (banks have opaque asset quality and a substantial portion of their debt is demandable) and the impor-

tant part that bank play in the economy (the payment system), banks are more closely regulated than other types of firms. Such a regulatory process is one in which the regulators write debt contracts and covenants on behalf of a bank's demandable debt holders, monitor bank compliance to safety and soundness regulations and if necessary enforce these costly covenants (e.g. higher deposit premia, more frequent and rigorous examinations, restrictions on investment activities etc.) when banks experience financial distress.

In this framework, CAMEL ratings reflect the likelihood of both financial distress and regulatory intervention.

According to Robert De Young (2001), bank supervisors pay closer attention to newly chartered banks than to similarly situated established banks. Federal reserve supervisors conduct a full scope examination for safety and soundness at a newly chartered bank at six-month intervals (established banks are examined every 12-18 months) and will continue to schedule exams at this frequency until the bank receives a strong compos-

ite CAMEL rating i.e. rating of 1 or 2 in two consecutive exams.

Although onsite examination is the most effective tool for constraining bank risk, it is both costly to supervisors and burdensome to bankers. As a result, supervisors face continuous pressure to limit exam frequency (R. Alton Gilbert, Andrew P. Meyer, and Mark D. Vaughan 2002).

Supervisors yielded to this pressure in 1980s and many banks escaped early examination (Reidhill and O'Keefe,1997). The Congress mandated the frequency of examinations in the Federal Deposits Insurance Corporation

Highly leveraged banks, banks with low earnings, low liquidity or risky asset portfolio are more likely to fail as compared to other banks. Also, banks with low earnings and low liquidity are less attractive for takeovers

Improvement Act of 1991 which requires annual examination for all but a handful of small, well capitalised, highly rated banks and even these institutions must be examined every 18 months.

This new mandate reflects the lessons learnt from the wave of bank failures in the late 1980s.

More frequent exams, though likely to increase the upfront cost of the supervision, reduce down-theroad costs of resolving failures by revealing problems at an early stage (R Alton Gilbert, Andrew P Meyer, and Mark D Vaughan, 2002). The mandatory exam frequency of banks has increased since the 1990s but bank conditions can deteriorate rapidly between onsite visits (Cole and Gunther, 1998; Hirtle and Lopez. 1999).

David C Wheelock and Paul W Wilson (2000), concluded that highly leveraged banks, banks with low earnings, low liquidity, or risky asset portfolio are more likely to fail than other banks. Further banks with low earnings, low liquidity or relatively high non-performing loan ratios are less attractive takeover targets.

The

Edge 17

CUSTOMER CARE

CUSTOMER LONG LIVE RPOs

IS KING,

Everybody in an organization has to believe that their livelihood is based on the quality of the product they deliver — Lee Iacocca

T

his famous quote holds true in the changing economic scenario and service industry.

The service industry's key to success is to deliver quality within the required time. Customer is king and customer satisfaction is a major priority for each company.

Indian companies have marked their presence in the Fortune 500 list, discovering in the course, innovation as the way to move forward these sectors, demand for trained and keep abreast of market competi- and skilled manpower is soaring. tion. During the last five years, a The misfit between demand and supstrong GDP growth, ply is inflating manpower booming stock market cost in many organizaand increased FDI have tions. A solution that most attracted many multinacorporates look forward to tionals to invest in India in is RPO. What is RPO? the rapidly expanding sectors like retail, BPO/KPO, Recruitment Process manufacturing and ITES. Outsourcing (RPO) is the Keeping an eye on this process of outsourcing a objective, every year, compart or entire recruitment panies are increasing process to a specialAparna Kaushik their employee ized organization.

Faculty Associate strength, recruiting Recruitment Process skilled and talented Outsourcing is an manpower to manage and meet busi- option for many organizations as it ness challenges. serves the industry with numerous In an altering economy with a advantages and fulfills organizations' boom in various sectors, talent short- recruitment needs within a schedage is emerging as the key concern uled timeline. An RPO could function for many companies. With growth in as client's internal recruitment funcThe

18 Edge

tion and strategic partner.

The RPO is increasingly being considered as the most popular solution in the domain of Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO). Outsourcing is viewed to reduce the firm's cost and achieve excellence with speed, quality and service.

Although these services have been provided by a lot many firms but the utility of the same was realized only in late 90s. A trade magazine HRO Today accredited "Recruitment Enhancement Services (RES)" as an innovator for RPO. Recruitment Enhancement Services started functioning in 1983. The term RPO was first used by the OS2i organization, but, HRO Today accredited Hyrian for the same.

A Nasscom-McKinsey report has projected that Indian firms' revenues from Human Resource Outsourcing (HRO) will increase to $3.5 billion by 2008. Gartner foresees, India can expect to win 10-15 per cent of the US HRO services market. As per a survey conducted by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the number of internet users seeking jobs online has increased by 71% since 2004-05, thus creating huge prospects for RPO service providers.

The UK and US markets have already recognized India as an economical service provider and a fair share has existing service relationships with Indian companies. Some of them have even set up their own operations to avail the cost advantage. Companies tend to target and use different RPO providers as per their expertise in a particular domain. For example, RPO services range from technical to non technical recruitment.

The use of technology has helped RPO providers not only to screen candidates, but also to create and maintain social networks which helps in building a strong database of prospective candidates.

Here are some advantages corporates derive from an RPO provider:

Brings expertise in workforce sadors to companies they are planning recruiting for. RPOs, in turn, can cre Helps organizations restrucate a brand name for themselves ture their recruitment process within the industry as a preferred Provide headhunting solutions partner of choice with big corpofor exclusive positions, middle rate brands and talent pools. level and mass hiring Opportunities create chal Matches candidate compelenges. The RPO industry will tencies and provides have to look at the following antecedents verifications to maintain a competitive RPOs have added value to talent Ensure that the human advantage in this extremely Resource division assured of unpredictable market. acquisition by corporates and the quality manpower can focus on Establishing credibility industry is poised to grow as other functions, including OD, of the candidate as mostly training and performance maninteractions are electronic more and more companies agement in nature, email and telerealize the effectiveness If companies want to achieve phone being the form of communication excellence in recruitment process of outsourcing Detection of fraud and misreprewith a tab on costs, RPO is the best sentation of facts option. With elevated growth in vari Competition among RPO ous sectors, organizational focus lies providers trying to carve a niche on skill-based hiring rather than experience-based hiring. The RPO basis. In US, however, there exists market for themselves helps in such processes for huge many employment options such as Shortage of HR specialists, recruitment plans where a particular Corp to Corp, W2, Contract to Hire, domain experts and recruiters withcompany is only looking for a desired Perm positions etc. These terms vary in the RPO sector skill set and domain expertise with as per the tax liability to the employ- Duplication of resume on the job matching competencies. er and the candidate’s visa status. portals is critical to RPO providers as Time lining and managing costs RPO providers out of India manage it hampers work efficiency and cost effectively, RPO service providers the recruitment process of many effectiveness In order to meet the above chalwith a team of dedicated recruitment US/UK/Australian firms. professionals and an extensive dataBenefits are not only reaped by the lenges, RPO providers should build base of candidates with required corporates outsourcing recruitment their own capacity by recruiting HR level of expertise, complete the but also the candidates who derive specialists, domain experts and talented recruiters. RPO employees search and hire process. the following: should undergo behavioral and Some companies even authorize Wide spectrum of employment process training before conducting RPOs to conduct commercial nego- opportunities within various sectors. the recruitment process. tiations on their behalf with the Process oriented selection with RPO firms should focus to inculcate selected candidates. After comple- feedbacks at every juncture. tools/methods to isolate high attrition tion of one assignment, the team of A transparent communication risk candidates. Recruiters should be recruiters is directed to other maintained between the candidate recognised as an asset to the firm assignment/project. and employer which helps to build rather than tele-callers.

The qualities RPO provider long term relationship.

Opportunities within RPO industry They should perform the role of a should have: career counselor to influence the can Speed and flexibility Employment opportunities in all didate and forge a lifelong customer Higher standared of service sectors are poised with huge relationship. Recruiting must move to Cost effectiveness and efficiency growth. With such a job scenario in talent relationship management and Business/requirement underthe coming years there exists begin to acquire more targeted, segstanding prospects for the RPOs to cash in on mented views of markets for talent.

Professionalism/communication such opportunities.

RPO service providers need to skills With such growth, the RPO redefine their strategies and brace Market reach industry is expected to grow at a for the changing industry in order to Proper feedback mechanism rate of 30-35%, thus creating more thrive on the opportunities and meet In India, employment terms are demand for such services. the challenges smartly. either permanent or on contract RPOs serve as brand ambasThe

Edge 19

REALITY BITES

The

SAARC truth T

Ashok Bapna

The

20 Edge

he SAARC, a group of eight South Asian nations, is among the poorest regions of the world. Six countries belong to the Low Income Category, and the other two to the Lower-Middle Income. The total population of this region was one-fourth of the world population of 6.4 billion in 2005. The HDI of SAARC nations is on the lower side. The region suffers from problems of poverty, inequality, conflicts, lack of woman empowerment and human rights.

But the region has vast unexploited potential of growth and, by the joint efforts of its members, can improve the living conditions of its people. By using their resource - complimentaries in sectors like power, transport, environment, disaster control and management, food supply, knowledge expansion and cultural exchanges, they can increase their

GDP in the next decade.

SID has been working with a missionary zeal in SAARC nations for the last half-a-century towards the socio-economic change in them. These nations are now moving from the domain of knowledge and understanding corridor to the action and implementation stage of modern ideas and new approaches for solving problems.

SID wants to play a more dynamic and active role in expediting the process of change in them through providing facilities for preparing practical action plans for change with the co-operation of international agencies.

In the 14th meeting of SAARC, in February 2007, some new initiatives were taken which augur well for the future of this organization.

Unfortunately, this group suffers from some internal endemic problems, such as trust-deficit between member countries, democratic-

deficit and demographic-deficit, amalgam of bilateralism, regional- the demographic front, the expecetc which need to be resolved to ism and multilateralism for build- tation of life at birth is more than face future challenges and exploit ing a prosperous global economic 62-63 years for each one of these suitable opportunities for their order. The SAARC is among the countries, excepting Lanka where betterment. poorest regions of the world. it exceeds 70 years and In this process they will have to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan where it is 46 only. adopt a two-pronged approach of Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan The Total Fertility Rate varies from change: First, they will have to belong to the LIG countries (per 2 for Lanka to 7.5 for Afghanistan. adopt internally the path of secu- capita income up to $875 in 2005) For other nations, it is more larism in its full form, and second, and Sri Lanka & Maldives to the than the norm of 2.1 for populaeconomically developed countries category of Lower-Middle Income tion stabilization level. SAARC will be required to give them all countries (per capita income $876 nations occupy lower ranks in HDI possible technical and financial - 3465) (WDR, 2007). due to lower per capita income, help without interfering in their The total population of SAARC lower educational levels and lower internal affairs. nations was about one-fourth of health status. Needless to say that Mere occasional and formal talks the world population of 6.4 billion these gloomy features can be not enough. They should be in a in 2005. India with 1.1 billion peo- removed by adopting suitable definite time-frame and lead to ple is like a big brother in the measures at national, regional and problem-solving on the ground. A block. Interestingly, Bhutan's pop- international levels by the agentotal change in the mindset of their cies concerned. leaders for helping the common Modern knowledge-economies people and for preserving and prohave penetrated various parts of moting their interests is the need the world and by harnessing sciof the hour. Time has come to entific and technological progress, inject human, ethical and moral the face of these nations can be values in their thinking as stratechanged as the experience of gic tools, without which the situaChina shows.

Vast Unexploited Potential of tion would go from bad to worse in Economic Growth all spheres of life.

Although SAARC nations are Under this situation, why not economically weak, their compleseek the guidance from some mentaries in visionary saints in We need to seek guidance from visionary resource-endowinternational conferences, because it saints in global meets because it is their time ments can enable them to exploit is now their time to to lead mankind from degeneration to regeneconomies of scale to lead mankind from darkness to light, eration. A U-turn in functioning alone can take improve the condition of their people. from conflict to coSAARC on the path of peace Shortages of water, operation and from food, energy, investdegeneration to regeneration. A U-turn in func- ulation is 0.9 million and that of ment and transit can be reduced tioning alone can take SAARC on the Maldives only 0.33 million. by collaborative effort which the path of peace and prosperity in This group consists of countries in would be unthinkable otherwise.

Nepal can supply hydel power to future. close proximity. By and large, agriSouth Asia should be driven by culture is the dominant economic a great extent to its neighbours. A human and ethical values for sus- activity of this region. Due to common energy grid can be set up tainable development. SID has underdevelopment of economies to allow flow of electricity across provided us an excellent opportu- in this part of the world, problems the region. India can help in nity to ponder over the develop- of poverty, inequality, conflicts due extracting, excavating and refining mental issues of SAARC nations to political, economic and social huge coal deposits of Pakistan. and to suggest concrete action- problems, lack of women-empow- Iran also belongs to the South plans for them. erment and other gender inequali- Asian Region and deserves to be Present Macro Status of SAARC ties plague this region. No magic included as the ninth nation in Modern world needs a healthy solutions are possible for them. On SAARC. More co-operation in the The

Edge 21

gas sector would then be facilitated. Although there is satisfactory progress in the implementation of Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline, the work on the TurkmenistanAfghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline can be expedited without any political controversy.

This is also the preferred pipeline of Bush administration.

The economy of SAARC nations would undergo a transformation when SAFTA is implemented in letter and spirit. At present, intraSAARC exports are only 5% of the total exports of this region. While for NAFTA, the level is 52%, for EU region it is 55% and for ASEAN 21.4%. Therefore, there is enough scope for promoting intra-regional trade of SAARC nations. More trade between SAARC nations and infrastructural development can drive the growth process and help in poverty-alleviation in these nations as also in attaining higher standards of living. Moreover, facilitating more people to people contact between these nations would not only promote strong cultural relationships but also enhance job opportunities, skillformation and increased earnings for people.

Role of SID in relation to SAARC The Society for International Development (SID) has been working hard with SAARC nations for five decades so that they adopt multidisciplinary and multisectorial approach to economic development and social change. This has helped them in adopting current patterns of globalization and in avoiding polarized confrontations.

SID's assistance in the areas of sustainable livelihoods, empowerment of women and cross-fertilization of ideas has led these nations from the domain of knowledge to action and implementation of programmes and policies for the good of the common man.

The time has come for helping The

22 Edge

South Asian countries to prepare concrete action plans with a welldefined time-frame so that the economic deficiencies of these nations are removed and they march from the low income category to at least the middle income category without loss of time.

SID, with its expertise on developmental issues, should be able to contribute a lot in this area.

SAARC can move in the direction of improving the living standards

of its people and SID can assist in preparing detailed practical workable action plans in collaboration with the SAARC secretariat and other international agencies like the IMF, the World Bank, WTO and ADB. New Directions and Decisions in 14th Meeting of SAARC In the 14th meeting of SAARC in New Delhi in February 2007, new decisions were taken which would revitalize, rebalance and re-ener-

SELECTED MACRO-INDICATORS OF 8 SOUTH ASIAN COUNTRIES Sr.No.

INDICATOR

INDIA

PAKISTAN

1

Population (in Millions 2005)

1095

156

2.

GNI Per Capita $ (2005)

720

690

3.

GNI Per Capita PPP $ (2005)

3460

2350

4.

% of people below $1 per day (latest)

34.7 (1999-2000)

17.0 (2002)

5.

Gross Capital Formation (Investment Rate) % of GDP (2005)

30

17

6.

Inequality Richest 20% to the poorest 20% (ratio)

4.9

4.3

7.

Conflicts with whom & their nature

Pakistan, political, & internal fragmented & frictional coalition politics

India, political & internal politics & lack of democracy

8.

Rank in HDI in (2004) (out of 177 countries)

126

134

9.

Rank in Gender related index in GDI (2004)

96

105

10.

Life Expectancy at Birth (years), (2000-05)

63.6

63.4

11.

Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (Births per Woman) (2000-05)

3.1

4.3

Some Results: (i) Total Population of SAARC countries about Âź of the world population in 2005. (ii) 6 countries in Low-Income-Group (Below $875 per capita in 2005) & only Sri Lanka & Maldives in Lower-Middle-Income-Group ($875-$3465) in 2005 (WDR, 2007)

gize this organization and set a new trail of development in it. It appears that SAARC has come out of its old groove and wants to march forward with greater speed.

The South Asian University, with India as its primary center, would open new vistas of knowledge-dispersal and skill-formation in them.

India has unilaterally announced tariff-free imports from least developed countries and liberalization of visas for students, pro-

fessors, journalists and patients as goodwill gestures for promoting cooperation between SAARC nations.

A food bank, with a supply of surplus foodgrains in it by member countries, would help in times of shortage in individual countries.

A development fund should help in poverty-alleviation programmes.

SAARC is likely to adopt a common currency and move towards forming a customs union, and finally,

Appendix

BANGLADESH

SRI LANKA

NEPAL

BHUTAN

MALDIVES AFGHANISTAN

142

20

27

0.92

0.33

28.6 (2004)

470

1160

270

870

2390

800

2090

4520

2090

1969 (2004)

4798 -

36.0 (2000)

5.6 (2002)

24.1 (2003-04)

-

-

-

24

26

26

-

-

-

4.6

5.1

9.1

-

-

-

Internal political Long conflict conflicts & with with LTTE (still India border issues, continuing) large Bangladeshi - immigrants in India

Earlier with Maoists, position still uncertain & fluid

-

-

Pakistan (Taliban factor)

137

93

138

135

98

Not included in 177

102

68

106

-

-

-

63.3

74.3

62.1

63.4

67.0

46.0 in 2004

3.2

2.0

3.7

4.4

4.3

7.5

Source: (i) World Development Report 2007 (relevant tables) (ii) HDR 2006 (relevant tables) (iii) TFR in Afghanistan 7.5, the highest, and Expectation of Life only 46 years, the lowest in that country. (iv) SAARC is the Least Integrated Regional Group so far (v) Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

an economic union on the lines of EU for more tangible and durable results in years to come.

Innovative Steps for Prosperous SAARC SAARC was established 22 years ago in 1985. But economic integration of the region has been a non-starter. It is ironic that Pakistan has been continuously harping on the “core� issue of Kashmir (in preference to trade and commerce), while India has been talking about the dangers of State-sponsored cross-border terrorism. There have been several rounds of talks to resolve outstanding issues between the two countries but no final and full tangible results have been obtained so far. There are talks after talks, talks about talks, talks on talks and walk the talk, but due to the lack of a clear roadmap, the missing time frame-work and absence of human, moral and ethical values for adopting people-friendly approach to resolving the issues, solutions cannot be seen on the horizon. The general mood is one of impatience and frustration over the slow pace of talks so far.

Unfortunately there has been misplaced emphasis on political and State security concerns, while human concerns of the teeming millions have been kept on the back-burner. The internal political situation of the countries of this region has also suffered from instability and conflicts. It is another irony of history that India and Pakistan possess nuclear capability (when Iran joins SAARC, the number would go up to three). They are developing intermediate range (Chinese to intercontinental level), ballistic missiles of long, longer and the longest distance as deterrents, (without specifying the exact nature of these deterrent), but do not sit down to solve the basic needs of their citizens.

The

Edge 23

Crime, corruption, callousness ic institutions and eschew versa. If sincere effort is made to and carelessness have weakened anachronistic and obscurantist implement a plan of fast and these nations. Scams and scan- Islamic radicalism which is not in inclusive growth in SAARC dals are the order of the day. tune with modern times. nations with the help of developed Under these circumstances, there Countries and regions like the countries, a highly prosperous is an urgent need of adopting a EU, US, China, Japan and South SAARC will emerge in no time. new radical and humane and Korea came as observers to the The following basic principle still humanistic approach to move for- 14th SAARC meeting. Now, they holds true for these nations — ward. The problem of trade- should make the Doha round of 'divided they fall and united they deficit is amenable to quick solustand'. tion, but the problem of trustSincere co-operative efforts on deficit needs to be tackled by their part would bring rich divichanging the entire mind-set of dends for their citizens and help the leaders of the concerned in poverty-alleviation and nations. resolving various types of In fact, it would not be conflicts that retard their wrong to say that progress.

Pakistan and Finally, it can also be Bangladesh exhibit suggested that in such 'democratic deficit' in conferences, some their political functionnoble visionary saints ing, as their ex-PMs and sages from respecwere forced to live in tive countries, more so exile against all democfrom India, which has ratic norms. We have to been rightly called Jagatwait for the safe return Guru (global teacher) due of democracy in Pakistan to its deep understanding even with the safe return of of human behaviour, should Benazir there under a possibe invited as chief guests to ble deal with guide the leaders to Musharraf, as radical adopting a different The EU, US, China, Japan and South Islam, military dictapath that may lead to torship and corrupt the lasting solution of Korea came as observers to the 14th parties cannot coexist their endemic probSAARC meeting. Now, they should assist for long.

Both lems and bring peace Pakistan & and prosperity in these SAARC by providing techno-economic Bangladesh have nations. In this conaid for the development of this region miles to go to restore flict-torn world, democracy in their Vedantic teachings can territories on a bring peace and hardurable basis.

WTO a success, and assist SAARC mony to mankind. The time has The following steps should be by providing techno-economic come to seek guidance from noble tried to build a prosperous assistance for the development of souls because talks at other levels SAARC: First, in modern times this region. Political interference have not shown lasting results for nations must adopt a fully democ- should be eschewed by them in the welfare of mankind so far. ratic and secular framework in the internal affairs of SAARC It is hoped that these innovative which different religious groups nations. Moreover, SAARC coun- and non-conventional measures live in peace and harmony in their tries should also stop the political would give a fillip to the building territories. prodding and goading of one of a more peaceful, integrated and Turkey is a secular Islamic country to the other for creating cohesive regional grouping in State, other newly constituted troubles in other countries, as has the world. These measures will Islamic States in South Asia been seen in the past, such as inject renewed energy to tackle should also practice secularism in Pakistan prodding Nepal, Nepal issues with new perspective and all possible ways under democrat- prodding Bangladesh and vice- new vigour.

The

24 Edge

TRICK TO PLEASE

THE MAGIC OF

SIX SIGMA

G

lobalization and instant access to well as performance in areas of environinformation, products and services ment and employment issues. continue to change the way our Why "sigma"? The word is statistical customers conduct business. term that measures how far a given Today's competitive environment leaves process deviates from perfection. The no room for error. Organizations should central idea behind six sigma is that if you delight their customers and relentlessly can measure how many defects you have look for new ways to exceed in a process, you can systemattheir expectations. This is why ically figure out how to elimithe six sigma quality has nate them and get as close to become a part of our culture. "zero defects" as possible. To What is Six Sigma? achieve six sigma quality, a It is not a secret society, a sloprocess must produce no more gan or a cliche. Six sigma is a than 3.4 defects per million highly disciplined process that opportunities. An "opportunity" helps us focus on developing is defined as a chance for nonand delivering near perfect conformance, or not meeting products and services. the required specifications.

Dr. Sujata Shahi Basically it is an approach This means we need to be Assistant Professor to quality improvement nearly flawless in executing that strives for perfection and aims at our key processes.

Key Concepts of Six Sigma eliminating defects in company process.

The six sigma approach helps a person Six sigma revolves around a few key to penetrate to the core of performance concepts: Critical to quality: Attributes most issues and provides guidance for future investments. It can focus on improving important to the customer Defect: Failing to deliver what the cusperformance in respect of cost savings, customer satisfaction and processes, as tomer wants

It is not a secret society, a slogan or a cliche. Six sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps us focus on developing and delivering near perfect products and services. Basically it is an approach to quality improvement that strives for perfect products and services.

Basically it is an approach to quality improvement

The

Edge 25

Six sigma is all about quality improvement and was first pioneered by Motorola in the 1980s. Over the last few years, this methodology has received recognition and several companies have adopted it in order to meet their targets

The

26 Edge

Process Capability: What your process can deliver Variation: What the customer sees and feels Stable Operation: Ensuring consistent, predictable processes to improve what the customer sees and feels Design for Six Sigma: Designing to meet customer needs and process capability Six sigma is all about quality improvement and was first pioneered by Motorola in the 1980s. Over the last few years, this methodology has received recognition and several companies have adopted it in order to meet their targets. Six sigma's clientele includes a long list of well-established manufacturers like General Motors, Ford Motor Co, GE, Honeywell and others.

However, there are still many non-manufacturing companies that have come to the conclusion that six sigma will not work for them. This is because six sigma was originally developed for helping the manufacturing industry. Organizations such as healthcare systems, financial service providers and education systems, all doubt the usefulness of six sigma.

Why the service sector feels that six sigma is not for them The most obvious reason why service companies keep away from six sigma is because they perceive it as a manufacturing tool. Service organizations feel that because their companies have a large amount of human workforce, there are no measurable defects to be corrected.

However, experts say this is not true. A recent survey has shown that service companies that have invested in six sigma are all saving millions of dollars for every project. Human resources make up a large part of all service organizations. To conquer this problem, leaders of the industry can be trained in six sigma to balance their employment expertise with statistic based analytical tools.

The fear of metrics is another obstacle that stands in the way of the service sector and six sigma. Most people feel that six sigma sounds too technical. The importance of metrics is to give an insight into the business working processes. Service based companies need to focus all their attention on developing six sigma projects that specialize in their business needs like

customer and cash generation.

Convincing the service sector about the merits of taking up six sigma has proven to be a big challenge. Most service companies still believe that six sigma can only benefit the manufacturing industry.

How can six sigma benefit the service industry?

Six sigma goes into the details of improving customer service, generating business expansion and gaining knowledge about the service sectors business processes. Most service industries revolve around areas of finance, human resources and sales and marketing. Hence, six sigma delves deeply into the subject of soft skills.

Six sigma can be applied to a company that provides housekeeping services.

Companies’ working processes would need to be understood. Using the DMIAC method for the define-measure-improveanalyze-control method, six sigma can implement quality in any industry.

As the main aim of this methodology is to reduce defects, the first step would be detecting the particular defect. Second, data will be collected to observe how, why and how often these defects occur. Next, the six sigma team implements an outstanding employee's method of working as the normal method for all employees.

Finally, new employees are taught the correct techniques.

Six sigma is useful in the field of sales and marketing as well. According to six sigma data, during sales, too much face time with the customer can prove to be counter productive. Changing this process can result in an increase in the percentage of sales per product. Other industries that six sigma has assisted in the past are the financial service sector, insurance companies, management companies, educational institutions, high-tech companies, state agencies and many more.

In education, six sigma pertains to improving the quality of matter taught, the character generated of the pupils, and the quality of study and school life. With the revolutionary usage of audio-visual devices, like projectors and video conferencing, the students can also be asked to write papers on a particular subject and after the presentation of papers, a discussion can take place on the respective sub-

ject. Under this method of imparting knowledge of literacy with quality, the thinking, writing and presentation skills of the students can be kindled.

In addition, the existing method of quality improvement through SQCC (Students Quality Control Circles) has created the value-based concept as a simile for the six sigma standards. It infuses a spike of excellence, emotional development, humaneness and self discipline.

Six sigma offers a disciplined approach to improve the service sector effectiveness (i.e. meeting the desirable attributes of a service) and service efficiency (i.e. time and costs). Six sigma is the relentless and rigorous pursuit of the reduction of nonvalue added activities and variation in core service processes to achieve continuous and breakthrough improvements in service performance that impact the bottom line results of an organization.

The focus is not on counting the defects in process, but rather on the number of opportunities that could result in defects.

In other words, we need to clearly define the ways a service could fail prior to determining the sigma quality level (SQL) of the given service processes. Six sigma methodologies have a major role to play under these circumstances to pinpoint the major problem areas and devise powerful strategies to tackle such problems which improve the customer experience.

Benefits of six sigma in service industry Service-oriented business adopting six sigma business strategies will have the following benefits: Improved cross functional team work across the entire organization Transformation of organizational culture from fire-fighting mode to fire prevention mode Increased employee morale Reduced number of non-value added steps in critical business processes through systematic elimination, leading to faster delivery of service Reduced cost of poor quality (COPQ) cost associated with the late delivery, customer complaints, cost associated with misdirected problem solving Increased awareness of various problem solving tools and techniques, leading to greater job satisfaction for employees

Improved consistency level of service through systematic reduction of variability in process and Effective management decisions due to reliance on data and facts rather than assumptions and gut feelings The most commonly used tools and techniques in the service organizations are: Brainstorming Process mapping Root cause analysis Control charts Benchmarking Change management tools Six sigma is now increasingly applied to a variety of progresses ranging from manufacturing to service and variegated transactional processes. Six sigma has been proved to be a rigorous pursuit of the reduction of process variation and defect rate in all critical business processes to achieve breakthrough improvements in process performance that generates significant savings to the bottom line of an organization. Basically six sigma has three distinct elements- the statistical element, the management philosophy and the structural approach to project management.

The success and sustainability of six sigma programme depends entirely on selecting the right projects. The right high impact projects get buying throughout an organization and breed ongoing process.

There are many benefits from applying six sigma, but the most important results are the significant financial returns that stem from the elimination of rework, duplication non value-added activities and defects across business operations. It has also seen that major changes occurred in the culture of organization. This cultural change away from assumptions based thinking to a more rigorous, empirical and data-driven approach to decision making in changing the way companies are able to understand, review and improve their business. Overall, six sigma is changing the fundamental culture of the service sector and the way we develop people. It gives us the tool we need for generic management training as it applies as much in a service sector as it does in a manufacturing environment.

Overall, six sigma is changing the fundamental culture of the service sector and the way we develop people.

Six sigma gives us the tool we need for generic management training as it applies as much in a service sector as it does in a manufacturing environment

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ON THE EXCHANGE

Bull’s eye view of STOCK EXCHANGES

I

ndian stock markets are one of natively known as The Stock the oldest in Asia. Their history Exchange. In 1895, the Stock dates back to nearly 200 years Exchange acquired a premise in the ago. The earliest records of security same street and it was inaugurated dealings in India are meagre and in 1899. Thus, the Stock Exchange at obscure. The East India Company Bombay was consolidated. was the dominant institution in those Historical Growth days and business in its loan securiWorld War II broke out in 1939. It ties used to be transacted towards gave a sharp boom which was folthe close of the 18th century. By the lowed by a slump. But, in 1943, the 1830s, business on corporate stocks situation changed radically, when and shares in bank and cotton press- India was fully mobilized as a supply es took place in Bombay. Though the base. trading list was broader in 1839, On account of the restrictive conthere were only half-a-dozen brokers trols on cotton, bullion, seeds and recognised by banks and other commodities, those merchants during 1840 dealing in them found in and 1850. The 1850s witthe stock market as the nessed a rapid developonly outlet for their activiment of commercial enterties. They were anxious to prise and brokerage busijoin the trade and their ness attracted many men number swelled. Many into the field and by 1860 new associations were the number of brokers constituted and stock increased into 60. In 1860exchanges floated in all 61, the American Civil parts of the country.

Meena Bhatia War broke out and cotThe Uttar Pradesh ton supply from the Stock Exchange Assistant Professor United States of Limited (1940), Europe was stopped. Thus began the Nagpur Stock Exchange Limited share mania in India. The number of (1940) and Hyderabad Stock brokers increased to about 250. Exchange Limited (1944) were incorHowever, at the end of the American porated.

Civil War, in 1865, a disastrous In Delhi, two stock exchanges slump began (for example, Bank of Delhi Stock and Share Brokers' Bombay Share which had touched Association Limited and the Delhi Rs 2850 could only be sold at Rs 87). Stocks and Shares Exchange Limited At the end of the American Civil War, - were floated and, later in June the brokers who thrived out of the 1947, amalgamated into the Delhi war in 1874, found place on a street Stock Exchange Association Limited. (now appropriately called Dalal India boasts of the oldest stock Street) where they would convenient- exchange in Asia — the Bombay ly assemble and transact business. In Stock Exchange is 125 years old.

1887, they formally established in There are 23 recognised exchanges Bombay, the "Native Share and Stock spread across the country, but a Brokers' Association" (which is alter- process of consolidation is now

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under way. Many of the regional stock exchanges have started aligning themselves with one or both of the two large exchanges (the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange) both of which have VSAT networks that give them a nation wide reach.

The National Stock Exchange is an unlisted for-profit company set up by some of the leading financial institutions of India. Most of the remaining stock exchanges are broker-owned (mutual) organisations, but the Bombay Stock Exchange is actively considering demutualisation.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), apex regulator of the capital market has regulations that mandate a minimum number of outside directors on the governing board and provide greater autonomy to the professional executives in the day-to-day running of the exchange.

Ahmedabad gained importance next to Bombay with respect to cotton textile industry. After 1880, many mills originated from Ahmedabad and rapidly forged ahead. As new mills were floated, the need for a stock exchange at Ahmedabad was realised and in 1894 the brokers formed the Ahmedabad Share and Stock Brokers' Association.

What the cotton textile industry was to Bombay and Ahmedabad, the jute industry was to Kolkata.

Also tea and coal industries were the other major industrial groups in Kolkata. After the share mania of 1861-65, in the 1870s there was a sharp boom in jute shares, which was followed by a boom in tea shares in the 1880s and 1890s and a coal boom between 1904 and 1908. On June 1908, some leading brokers formed the Calcutta Stock Exchange Association. In the beginning of the 20th century, the industrial revolution was on its way in

TABLE — 1

Growth Pattern of the Indian Stock Market Sl. As on 31st No. December 1 No. of Stock Exchanges 2 No. of Listed Cos. 3 No. of Stock Issues of Listed Cos. 4 Capital of Listed Cos. (Cr. Rs.) 5 Market value of Capital of Listed Cos. (Cr. Rs.) 6 Capital per Listed Cos. (4/2) (Lakh Rs.) 7 Market Value of Capital per Listed Cos. (Lakh Rs.) (5/2) 8 Appreciated value of Capital per Listed Cos. (Lak Rs.)

1946 1961 1971 1975 1980 1985

1991

1995

7

20

22

1125 1203 1599 1552 2265 4344

6229

8593

1506 2111 2838 3230 3697 6174

8967

11784

270

753

32041

59583

971

1292 2675 3273 6750 25302 110279 478121

24

63

113

168 175

224

514

693

86

107

167

211 298

582

1770

5564

358

170

148

126 170

260

344

803

7

8

8

9

14

1812 2614 3973 9723

Source: Various issues of the Stock Exchange Official Directory, Vol.2 (9) (iii), Bombay Stock Exchange, Bombay

India with the Swadeshi Movement.

With the inauguration of the Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited in 1907, an important era in industrial advancement under Indian enterprise began. Indian cotton and jute textiles, steel, sugar, paper and flour mills and all companies enjoyed phenomenal prosperity, due to World War I. In 1920, the then demure city of Madras had the maiden thrill of a stock exchange functioning in its midst, under the name the Madras Stock Exchange with 100 members. However, when

What the textile industry was to Bombay and Ahmedabad, the jute industry was to Calcutta.

After the share mania of 1865, there was a sharp boom in jute shares in the 1870s

the boom faded, the number of members stood reduced from 100 to three by 1923 and so it went out of existence.

In 1935, the stock market activity improved, especially in South India where there was a rapid increase in textile mills and plantation companies. In 1937, a stock exchange was once again organized in Madras — the Madras Stock Exchange Association (Pvt) Limited.

The Lahore Stock Exchange was formed in 1934 and it had a brief life. It was merged with the Punjab Stock Exchange Limited, which was incorporated in 1936.

Post-independence Scenario Most of the exchanges suffered an eclipse during depression. The Lahore exchange was closed during partition and it later migrated to Delhi to merge with the Delhi Stock Exchange.

The Bangalore Stock Exchange Limited was registered in 1957 and recognized in 1963.

Most of the other exchanges lan-

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guished till 1957 when they applied to the Central Government for recognition under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956. Only Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Hyderabad and Indore, the well established exchanges, were recognized under the Act. Some of the members of the other associations were required to be admitted by the recognized stock exchanges on a concessional basis, but acting on the principle of unitary control, all these pseudo stock exchanges were refused recognition by the Government and they ceased to function.

In the early sixties there were eight recognized stock exchanges in India.

The number remained unchanged for nearly two decades. During the eighties, however, many stock exchanges were established: Cochin Stock Exchange (1980), Uttar Pradesh Stock Exchange Association Limited (at Kanpur, 1982), and Pune Stock Exchange Limited (1982), Ludhiana Stock Exchange Association Limited (1983), Gauhati Stock Exchange Limited (1984), Kanara Stock Exchange Limited (at Mangalore, 1985), Magadh Stock Exchange Association (at Patna, 1986), Jaipur Stock Exchange Limited (1989), Bhubaneswar Stock Exchange Association Limited (1989), Saurashtra Kutch Stock Exchange Limited (at Rajkot, 1989), Vadodara Stock Exchange Limited (at Baroda, 1990) and the recently established exchanges of Coimbatore and Meerut. Thus, there are 21 recognized stock exchanges in India, excluding the over the counter Exchange of India Limited and the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. Growth Pattern The table above portrays the overall growth pattern of Indian stock markets since independence. The Indian stock markets have not only grown in number, but also in listed companies and the capital of these companies. The remarkable growth The

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after 1985 can be clearly seen in the table and this was due to the favoring government policies towards security market industry. Now, we have only two stock exchanges i.e.

BSE & NSE. BSE contributes around 40% & and NSE contributes 60% in trading in cash segments.

The Indian securities markets architecture has undergone massive transformation in the last few years.

The NSE, not surprisingly, played the catalytic role in bringing about these transformations, substantially fulfilling the mandate for which it was set up. The securities market infrastructure now compares favourably with similar facilities available in many of the developed markets and has been one of the major contributory factors for recent resurgence in the securities markets.

MIND POSITIVE

SUNSHINE FACET OF PSYCHOLOGY P

sychology has helped many people in various domains of life, but often people shy away from explicitly saying that they are visiting a psychologist or a counselor.

Most people use words like shrinks, mental doctors or professionals dealing with crazy guys. The more prevalent image of Psychology is that the discipline mainly deals with sick emotions, frustrated minds, mental illnesses and various kinds of psychopathologies.

Recently, a researcher found that since 1887, of all the articles written on psychology, there was a ratio of 13 articles dealing with negative emotions against only one of positive emotions. That has, perhaps, been a reason that perception of psychology in the minds of people has remained under shadow, darkness and pessimism rather than light, brightness and optimism.

Psychology in this backdrop is, thus, viewed with apprehension and negativity.

It would be illuminating to know that in Psychology there is a positive side which is bright, beautiful, hopeful and attractive to many.

Research works by famous psychol-

ogists like Dr. Martin nities and countries. This Seligman, Director type of newly emerging Positive Psychology discipline is called Center, University of Positive Psychology.

Focus of Positive Pennsylvania, in recent Psychology years have resulted in the emergence of Positive Psychology has Positive Psychology (PP), some simple but effective which has contributed to presumptions. Like dealoptimistic thinking in ing with Kal, Aaj aur Kailash Tuli minds of Millions.

Kal, i. e. Past, Present This facet of and Future. Positive Professor Psychology highlights psychologists will tell the pleasant, good and meaningful you to "be content with the past, dimension of human behavior. PP happy in the present and hope for cheers up the mind and boosts the future". One guiding principle inner spirit with internal harmony is, "Power lies in the PRESENT". and emotional equilibrium. If there From a positive psychologist's peris focus on positive emotions, posi- spective, if there are lots of positive tive traits and positive thinking, emotions in positive people it then that results in creating posi- results in positive organizations. In tive families, institutions, commu- the long run, a positive outcome The

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will be that we shall have communities, which will ultimately lead to emergence of vibrating, buoyant and successful societies. Positive psychology is basically about sharing, creating and building of positive emotions and happiness. This leads to the emergence of an environment in which people think with optimism, create optimism and in the final outcome they attain success and harmony collectively. It is all about, "think good, do good and get good".

How to get Positive Attitude?

PP in the minds of men and women can be inculcated by positive thinking and an optimist outlook. It is quite fascinating that in India we have long had such concepts which are now being 'discovered' by psychologists in the West.

Swami Shivananda has written about marvelous techniques of positive thinking in his book, 'Thought Power'. He focuses on creating

productivity and profits, but also in terms of well-being of their personnel. Researchers from world renowned consulting and research corporations like Gallup, Fetzer and Templeton are testing the efficacy of PP in the context of individuals and organizations. They have identified that people with positive orientation and optimists thinking are a boon for any corporation.

Without loosing their time, energy and emotions for bickering and in-fights, positive people look forward towards concrete goals, Emotional Intelligence which are achievement oriented Human emotions are responsible and contribute to the overall and for various things which lead to multi-faceted growth of organizaemergence of various phenomena. tions. Further, these practices creEmotions are very powerful psyate lagoons of excellence in these chological energies. Quite often, corporations, which has direct these can go in negative directions, impact on the enhancement of corresulting in various psychosomatic porate image and a deeper sense and sickness-related problems and of satisfaction and involvement in disorders. If people endeavor to the 'World of Work'. Psychologists change their negative emotions into at the Stephen M Ross School positive emotions and of Business at use more of emotional If people endeavour to change their negative University of Michiintelligence, they can gan have initiated a emotions into positive ones and use more of Positive create better humans Organiin their hearts and zational Scholarship emotional intelligence, they can contribute thus contribute to bet(POS). Their focus is to better social groups ter social groups. to think positively, The management of appreciate, collaboemotions is a practical aspect of good thoughts of peace, happiness, rate, cooperate and create wellhuman behavior.

Take, for coexistence and love. For example, being and vitality among theminstance, a senior manager who concept of prayer, especially for selves. Such emerging teams are has to deal with a wide range of healing and cure, was known and very productive from human people having diverse behavior pat- till date practised in Indian culture. resource perspective. They call it terns. It is now his /her skill to han- Now, some research studies prove scholarship because it is based on dle efficiently this wide spectrum of its efficacy. Medical researches of rigor, theory, scientific procedure people within and outside the orga- brain physiology show that the pat- and precise definition in which this nization. Emotional intelligence tern of brain waves are more calm, approach of positive thinking and will be the best tool for him/her to quite and productive, when our working is grounded. It is showing handle people. So, learning the thoughts are peaceful. good results in various ways. proper use of intelligence with Development of positive thinking In a world ridden by strife, emotional intelligence creates a is possible by self affirmation and hatred, tooth-to-nail competition trustworthy relationship. These controlling or rather channeling and corporate rivalries, this positechniques aid in achieving full one's emotions. Thinking positive is tive approach gives rich dividends. realization of potential of a manag- possible and there are many psy- It may appear a radical approach, er. Human resource management chological techniques and work- but it is efficacious. Such changes requires these skills on the part of shops in which this training is require mindset alterations, but managers to fully utilize their man- imparted. Those organizations once new directionality emerges, power potentials within their orga- which employ such practices show the flow of thinking, behavior and nizations. better results not only in terms of activities brings in many changes..

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WATER BODY Water, water, everywhere Nor any drop to drink — Coleridge, The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, 1798

E

arth is a closed system, similar to a terrarium. It rarely loses or gains extra matter. The same water that existed on Earth millions of years ago is still present. The total amount of water on Earth is 326 million cubic miles. Water is the only substance on Earth found naturally in three forms - solid, liquid and gas.

Chemically, water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen, its molecule consists of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen - H2O. When water contains a lot of calcium and magnesium, it is called hard water.

Hard water is not suited for daily chores.

Water moves around the Earth in a cycle and regulates the Earth's temperature. The water cycle has five parts: Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration and surface run-off. In a 100-year period, a water molecule spends 98 years in the ocean, 20 months as ice, about two weeks in lakes and rivers, and less than a week in the atmosphere.

Water covers, 75 per cent of the Earth's surface — in oceans, lakes, rivers and glaciers. About 97.5 per cent of that is salt water, 2.5 per cent fresh water and two thirds is ice.

More fresh water is stored under the ground in aquifers than on the Earth's surface. Icecaps and glaciers hold 74 per cent of the world's freshwater. All the rest is deep under-

H2O

FACTS

ground, or locked in soils we are and also what the as moisture or permafrost. weather is like. It is recOnly 0.3 per cent of the ommended that we drink world's freshwater is at regular intervals found in rivers or lakes. throughout the day. An Less than one per cent of average person should the world's surface or drink 6-8 glasses of water below-ground freshwater daily, but we should vary is accessible for human the actual amount we use. Pure water (solely need to drink as per Dr. P. Malarvizhi hydrogen and oxygen our body to stay atoms) has a neutral hydrated depending Associate Professor pH of 7, which is neion our age, size and ther acidic nor basic. weight. One should always drink Water plays such a vital role in our more water when the weather is hot general health and well-being. Water as well as during and after any exermakes up 60 to 70 per cent (by cise, this will help us to avoid dehyweight) of all living organisms and is dration. essential for photosynthesis.

Drinking too much water too quickApproximately 70% of an adult's ly can lead to water intoxication. body is made up of water. At birth, Water intoxication occurs when water accounts for approximately 80 water dilutes the sodium level in the percent of an infant's body weight. bloodstream and causes an imbalWe can survive about a month with- ance of water in the brain. Water out food, but only 5-7 days without intoxication is most likely to occur water. Water is the naturally healthy during periods of intense athletic perdrink. It is free of calories and cho- formance. Water intoxication can lesterol and is sugar free so it can cause dizziness, respiratory probhelp us to have healthier teeth. The lems and even death as the body no amount of water we should drink longer has the vital minerals it needs. depends on our weight, how active Thankfully, cases of overdosing on water are rare. However, it could be caused if we consume large quantiWater makes up 70 % (by weight) of all living ties of water, for example 20 litres, organisms and is essential for photosynthesis. over a period of a few hours.

Water dissolves more substances Approximately 70% of an adult's body is made up of than any other liquid. Wherever it water. At birth, water accounts for approximately 80% travels, water carries chemicals, minerals, and nutrients with it. Cold of an infant's body weight

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water is absorbed into the body faster than warm water. Even at rest our skin can lose up to half a litre of water into the atmosphere every day, and during hot weather it will lose even more. Driving a car in the city results in the loss of as much as half a litre of water an hour which can trigger emotional changes that can lead to road rage. Our brain tissue is 85% water. Messages from the brain to other parts of the body are transported on 'waterways'.

While the daily recommended amount of water is eight glasses a day, not all of this water must be consumed in liquid form. Nearly every food or drink item provides some water to the body. Soft drinks, coffee and tea, though made almost entirely of water, also contain caffeine.

Caffeine can prevent water from traveling to necessary locations in the body. Here are some fascinating facts about water content in some everyday foods: Baked potato 70% water, Mushrooms 90% Tofu 85% Pineapple 80% Tomato 95% Apple more than 80% (about 4% of an apple is made of vitamins and minerals) Chicken 75% A dairy cow has to drink 4 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of milk.

World Water Day is celebrated on March 22. The theme for 2007 is 'water scarcity'. On current trends, over the next 20 years humans will use 40 per cent more water than they do now. The WHO report says even in areas with plenty of rainfall or freshwater, water scarcity occurs. It is because of the ways in which

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We should drink at least 8 to 10 glasses of water at regular intervals throughout the day. But we should vary the actual amount as per our age water is used and distributed, there is not always enough water to fully meet the demands of households, farms, industry, and the environment.

Water scarcity affects every continent and four of every 10 people in the world. The situation is getting worse due to population growth, urbanization and increase in domestic and industrial water use. By 2025, nearly 2 billion people will be living in countries or regions with acute water shortage.

Water scarcity forces people to rely on unsafe sources of drinking water.

Nearly 200 million people in Africa face serious water shortages. By 2025, nearly 230 million Africans will face water scarcity, and 460 million will be living in water-stressed countries.

Water power is of economic importance. Water, like population, isn't distributed evenly. Asia has the greatest annual availability of freshwater and Australia the lowest. But when population is taken into account the picture is different.

Currently, over 80 countries, representing 40 per cent of the world's population are subject to serious water shortages.

Conditions may get worse in the next 50 years as populations grow and global warming disrupts rainfall

patterns. Since 1950, global water use has more than tripled. According to the UN, 20% of the world's population in 30 countries faces water shortages. This is expected to rise to 30% of the world's population in 50 countries by 2025. Individual daily domestic use of freshwater in developed countries is 10 times more than in developing countries. In the UK, an average person uses 135 litres of water a day. In the developing world it is 10 litres. The US uses three times as much water a day as the average European country and many times more water than most developing nations. An average American individual uses 100 to 176 gallons of water at home each day. The average African family uses about 5 gallons of water each day. More than 200 million hours are spent each day by women and female children to collect water from distant, often polluted sources.

Over 40 billion work hours are lost each year in Africa to the need to fetch drinking water. Approximately 70% of the rural population in the developing world has neither access to a safe and convenient water source nor a satisfactory means of waste disposal. Ninety per cent of wastewater in developing countries is discharged into rivers and streams without treatment.

Let’s be part of a water-conscious community. Don't waste water just because someone else is footing the bill. As employers promote water conservation in the workplace through training programs.

Conserve water because it is the right thing to do. Do your part by conserving, recycling and protecting water more efficiently.

GOODNESS OF BEING

The Philosophy of VAISHNAVI Bahut log thhey jo waqt ke saanche mein dhal gaye, kuch log thhey jo waqt ke saanche badal gaye (Many people melted in the frame of time, but there were some who changed the frame of time).

T

he need of the hour is leaders who can change the frame of time. In the 21st century, there will be no place for organisations managing change. There will be place for organisations leading change. There cannot be any effective change without good leadership.

For those who aspire to build learning organisations, it has to be a particular kind of leadership.

Management education should see itself as nursery of tomorrow's leadership and behove them to consider how such leadership is to be nurtured.

To win, survive and excel organisations will have to lead. Ethical gov-

ernance will be the way of (We will be successful one life. Creating intellectual day), but the fact is that we capital will survive rather do not even know we will than only creating physibe successful and in what. cal assets. The philosophy Why don't people achieve behind the Vaishnavi is to excellence? The big reacreate a kind of leader son is the lack of vision or who can change the frame limited vision. We need to of time. Vaishnavi denotes dream beyond what is the attributes, which possible. Everything the young managers Dr. Nachiketa Mishra that we see today of today should inculwas a dream before it Associate Professor cate in their lives, became reality. Live and it guides their path to achieve with enthusiasm, direction and a the success. sense of purpose. Get your advice Vision: In Sanskrit, sense of vision from successful people and not from is known as drishti. A person with- living failures who will tell you how out drishti is blind. It is very neces- to not succeed. sary for an individual to have vision. According to an oriental saying: All the successful persons set bench“Where the vision is one year, mark for themselves and once the cultivate flowers benchmark is set the struggle starts.

Where the vision is ten years, Generally, what happens is that we cultivate trees do not set any target and keep on Where the vision is eternity, singing hum honge kaamyaab ek din cultivate people.�

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Attitude: A study by Harvard University found that when a person gets a job, 85% of the time it is because of his attitude and 15% of the time because of how smart he is and how many facts and figures he know. Surprisingly, almost 100% of our educational investment goes to teach facts and figures which account for only 15% of success in work. The foundation of success regardless of our chosen field is attitude. People with positive attitudes have certain personality traits that are easy to recognize. They are caring, confident, patient and humble. A person with positive attitude is like a fruit of all season. He is always welcome.

Innovation: Great Guru Peter Drucker said in 1986 that most advanced knowledge of today will languish in ignorance tomorrow.

Such will be the state of invention and innovation both. Speed will be the critical hallmark. As someone said very powerfully that if you want to stay at the same place you must run. Too much analysis leads to paralysis and we have to get away from analysis to some kind of action.

The action should also involve creativity, which primarily means originality in ideas.

An original idea is considered to be the one that has never occurred before. A young school student, when asked, "Why we build brick houses rather than wooden houses?" replied that it was done to save forests. This was a novel response.

The routine response would have been that a brick house is stronger and more resistant to fire.

Accordingly, originality can be associated with "those ideas, which result from manipulations of variables which have not followed a rigid formula and in which the ideas have other sources of strength." The world as we know it now would not have been possible without creative ideas put into production. So, innovation is the most important aspect of the organization and asset of the The

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individual.

Self-Esteem: It is the way we feel about ourselves. When we feel good within our selves, relationships improve. There is a direct communication between feeling and behavior.

It is the general tendency of individuals to attribute causes of success to internal factors and causes of failure to external factors. Self-introspection is the most important factor to build self- esteem.

If you want to build positive selfesteem quickly, one of the fastest ways is to do something for others who can’t repay you in cash or kind.

As human beings, we all have the

Peter Drucker said the most advanced knowledge of today will languish in ignorance tomorrow. Such will be the state of invention. Speed will be the critical hallmark. As is said, if you want to stay at the same place you must run. Too much analysis leads to paralysis and we have to get away from analysis to some kind of action

need to receive and take. But a healthy personality with high selfesteem is one that not only has his need to take but also to give.

Organizationally, high self esteem people are high performers while low self-esteem contributes to poor performance, which in turn reinforce low self-esteem.

According to Abraham K. Korman: "People of high self-perceived competence and self image should be more likely to achieve on task performance than those who have low self-image concerning the task or job at hand, since such differential task achievement would be consistent with their self-cognition. This assumes that task performance is seen as valued."

High self-esteemed persons are very friendly, affectionate, find it easy to form interpersonal attachment and find good in other people.

Low self-esteemed people are usually critical of others, are generally depressed and blame others for their own failures.

Honesty: Sometimes the brightness of truth does not enlighten but blinds evil. Honesty means to be genuine and real versus fake and fictitious. Be labeled or build a reputation of being trustworthy. Not keeping commitments amounts to dishonest behavior. Honesty inspires openness, reliability and frankness.

It shows respect for one's self and others. Honesty is in being, not in appearing to be. Lies may have speed but truth has endurance.

Nationality: It is necessary that people e loyal to the society they belong, the organisation they serve and the nation that is theirs. The feeling of nationality is very important to be inculcated particularly among the youth. There is an inclination towards the western culture which is not bad but not at the cost of understanding of one's own culture because, in India, culture and religion play important roles in the workforce's perception of work, social ethics, moral discipline, and

human relations.

Many Indian people are deeply spiritual and religion plays a very important role in shaping their socio-cultural life. Therefore, in India, business managers and leaders have to display high levels of understanding and sensitivity towards workers' values and beliefs so that the workforce can be managed effectively. Managers are required to have a good social skills understanding of the national culture in order to comprehend their employees in terms of their needs, values, social norms, beliefs, and working and learning abilities. A country's culture has to be studied and managed in order to effectively lead an organisation towards Total Quality Improvement.

Awareness: People should be fully aware of their environment in which they are surviving because just existence is not sufficient what is important is to live. To live one should be a strong learner. The internal as well as the external environment of the person is full of changes and one has to be aware of those changes and keep updating themselves accordingly. The knowledge economy demands people who can think creatively and critically solve problems and make decisions, and are self directed life long learners. In a super competitive marketplace the right knowledge at the right time makes all difference to performance. It is speed and knowledge among other things which gives the edge. People do not learn unless they want to learn. Real learning comes when there is a need to apply. Need to apply will emerge only when the person has the awareness about the environment.

Values: Values play an important role as far as our behavior is concerned. A person of values would be one who has qualities such as fairness, compassion, courage, integrity, empathy, humility, loyalty and courtesy. What makes a person with these qualities a good person? It is

because these are the kind of people who are dependable, stand up for justice, help the needy, make life better for themselves and those around them. When our value system is clear it becomes a lot easier to make decisions and commitments, for example you cannot make a commitment to your country by selling secrets to the enemy. You cannot keep a friend by revealing to others what he told you in confidence.

You cannot keep a commitment to a job by trying to do as little as possible. Some considers values such as responsibility, integrity, commitment, and patriotism old. These may

If you want to build positive self-esteem quickly, then the fastest way is to do something for those who can’t repay you. As human beings, we all have the need to receive and take. But a healthy personality with high self-esteem is one that not only has his need to take but also to give

be old values but certainly not obsolete. They have stood the test of the time and will be here forever. It is the value system, which makes a person good or bad, committed or non-committed, and ethical or unethical.

Try not to be a man of success but rather try to be a man of value — Albert Einstein Interpersonal Relations: It is easy to make relations but hard to sustain the relationship. This aspect of personality is also very important. The current era is the era of networking and building relationships. Because in this complex world one has to take help from others to achieve one's target. George Washington said: "Be courteous to all, but intimate with a few and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.”

We don't have business problems.

We have people problems. When we solve our people problems, our problems of business are substantially resolved. People knowledge is more important than product knowledge.

Successful persons build pleasing and magnetic personalities, which is what makes them charismatic. This helps in getting friendly cooperation with others.

A pleasing personality is easy to recognise but hard to define. It is apparent in the way a person walks and talks, the warmth in him and his confidence. A pleasing personality is a combination of attitude, behavior, and expression. Wearing a pleasant expression is more important than anything else one wears.

Relationships based on talent and personality alone, without character, makes life miserable. Charisma without character is like good looks without goodness. To sustain a good interpersonal relationship the person should have the required and winning combination of character and charisma.

These characteristics of “Vaishnavi” are important for young managers to become the potential leaders of tomorrow.

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KNOW HOW

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATION K nowledge Management is a processes involve creation, disseminew branch of management nation, renewal and application of for achieving breakthrough knowledge toward organizational business performance through the sustenance and survival. synergy of people, Growing interest in processes, and technoloknowledge management gy. An organization's stems from the realization competitiveness is meathat in the knowledge era, sured by its knowledge organizational knowledge base. Some companies is a strategic corporate appear to have a better asset that needs to be gargrasp of knowledge mannered, retained, updated, agement. Others are disseminated and applied struggling to meet to future organizathe challenges.

Ved Narayan Singh Rawat tional What is KM? problems.

Librarian The focus is on So much has 'doing the right thing' instead of been written and talked about 'doing things right.' In our thinking, Knowledge management. That an knowledge management is a frame- overall picture is lacking and it work within which the organization becomes a herculean task for a views all its processes as knowledge beginner to grasp its various angles. processes. In this view, all business In simple terms KM is "the task of The

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managing what the organisation knows and what it needs to know."

What it knows comes from organizational memory, experience, intellectual capital and people. What it needs to know is possible through either knowledge transfer or knowledge creation or both.

For example,' these two tasks can be categorizes at operational level and at strategic level.

Managing what it knows falls under operational level. The operation could be anything-manufacturing or software development.

Managing what it needs to know falls under strategic level. For instance, should Raymond's, a textile company, take a strategic decision to invest in nanotechnology research? Do they need this knowledge for long term? Is it going to impact them in anyway? This is a

strategic decision and its link with business strategy is direct.

Knowledge management, which is a repository of tacit and explicit knowledge in an organisation, is an integral part of company's strategy.

Effective knowledge management would include, people, processes and strategy, with the human factor and culture comprising the maximum percentage; technology is an enabler. KM is a set of processes, tools and structures that aim to leverage collective abilities of the organisation’s knowledge workers in a business situation. Doing it effectively means effective knowledge management.

Every organization has a wealth of knowledge. This knowledge may exist as explicit knowledge in the form of a databank, repositories or the yellow pages. This explicit knowledge is available to all those who have access within the organisation.

Besides, there is individual knowledge existing in the form of tacit knowledge that may reach full potential only if converted into organisation knowledge. In knowledge management both explicit and tacit knowledge are harnessed to the maximum for enhancing the overall competitive nature of an organisation.

"Knowledge management is effective only if it is aligned with the business strategy of an organization and becomes an integral part of its culture".

Knowledge management requires linkage of information with information, information with activities and information with man — so as to realize the sharing of knowledge.

Free flow of information both from the individual to the organization and vice-versa is the key to mining information for quick and timely decision making.

The main thrust of knowledge transfer is to facilitate the spread of knowledge among the employees of the organisation, so that they are at

the same level of knowledge.

As a key step, all this should be preceded by fixation of KM goal. If you look at companies with successful KM implementation, you will notice that all of them worked towards a goal. The KM goal has to be in tune with the business goal.

KM initiative Once it has been decided that as an organisation you have to implement KM, where do you begin? To start with an organization, one must prepare in five stages: Process, management, technology, people and marketing.

1. Processes: Let us first understand by asking a question: Why do we need a process

Unless a process is defined, capturing information becomes a very difficult task. Take an example where one of your employees has won a multi-million-dollar order after a hard-fought battle with many of your competitors in contention.

Information such as how the order was won, some of the key players from the client's side who tilted the balance in your favour and the reason behind this, how the client can be retained for future business and so on need to be captured. If we do not have a well-laid out plan, this information will be totally lost to the organisation.

A good example of what started as an informal practice and then was

Every organization has a wealth of knowledge. This knowledge may exist as explicit knowledge in databanks, repositories or as yellow pages. This knowledge is available to all those who have access within the firm

before we embark on defining a KM map for an organisation. The answer is pretty simple though most of us tend to overlook this factor. We know that the information available at the right time is knowledge. We also know that information is available in plenty in the organisation.

In order to share this information, there should be a clearly defined process that helps employees to not only store information in a common location but also easily locate and retrieve it.

formally laid down as a process is the experience of Xerox Corporation with 'Eureka — a medium to share experiential knowledge.' Eureka, the organisation's knowledge directory, is based on the assumption that the "best medium for knowledge is the human brain and the best networking protocol is human contact."

Here, every Xerox employee who is in contact with a customer as a service representative can post his/her learning. Anyone who is in need of a certain kind of information first logs The

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on to this site and gets the information that he/she is looking for.

Through this initiative Xerox has been able to save man-hours spent while servicing equipment, thus nullifying the effect of downtime on a client's business.

Organizations can also initiate actions towards network development by establishing processes that ensure productive interaction between employees. These include creating, maintaining and enriching knowledge forums, collecting and formalising best practices, and deploying the best practices across

nitely lead to serious effort being put into cultivating the culture of knowledge sharing. Also, grassroots involvement alone is typically not enough to sustain a knowledge network. If processes are to function smoothly, management must formally allocate adequate and qualified resources to them. Unstinted support and involvement from all levels of management, their full commitment to KM initiative in terms of their continuous effort to break down cultural and behavioural barriers are all key factors of success.

KM doesn’t mean merely implementing a portal. One has to update content management through e-mail, and blogs. It is a combination of intellectual capital and management support from within an organisation that will make it a true knowledge organization

the organisation.

2. Senior Management Knowledge Management, to succeed at least during its initial stage, needs a lot of handholding. A lot of commitment is required from people at the top. Unless top management does some pushing, the whole effort may turn out to be a failure. For initiatives such as KM, it will take some time for results to show. So the question that the top management needs to ask before venturing into implementation of KM is how long will it take and would they wait? And are we really serious about this initiative? Such introspection will defiThe

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3. Technology As Bill Gates pointed out, "Technology itself is available to everyone. So, it's how you use these tools inside the company that's going to provide the competitive differentiation." Some of the technological tools that can help in achieving objectives set out as part of KM initiatives are a knowledge repository that stores all reusable documents, a well laid-out intranet with information hubs where people can share knowledge and get credit for doing this and yellow pages for precise identification of talent.

We should also be careful when it comes to technology. Too much stress on technology may not lead to successful KM implementation.

Technology is a means for KM to be successful but not an end by itself.

The most important factor in the success of any KM initiative is the acceptance of the whole idea by the people.

4. People: sharing knowledge It is well known that about 75-80 per cent of all knowledge in the world is held in people's mind. The rest could be found in repositories or libraries. Thus, all form of knowledge begins and ends with people. The key to success of any KM initiative, therefore, lies in getting the entire organisation to adopt a culture of sharing knowledge and expertise and to instil the practice of a learning corporation.

Convincing people to share knowledge is a herculean task considering that it involves changing the whole way one looks at under present circumstances. It involves change in the way one thinks, an attitudinal change about sharing knowledge and most importantly the enlightening required to make one understand that hoarding knowledge does more harm to you than any good.

5. Marketing KM In-house marketing is essential looking at the whole company as a customer base. People should be made aware what the system can do for them.

Organizations have to innovate so that KM reaches every employee though road-shows, holding seminar, e-learning, chat, training sessions, web-conferencing and groupwares. KM doesn’t mean merely implementing a portal. One has to update content management through e-mail, blogs and wikis. It is the combination of intellectual capital and management support from all levels within an organisation that will make an organisation a true knowledge organization.

RETIREMENT PLANS Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to man — Leon Trotsky

PENSION REFORMS IN INDIA

"Will I have enough to live on when I retire?" This question of oldage financial security is being asked across the world with growing apprehension. India is no exception. Three reports have examined oldage financial security for Indians and are now being studied for implementation by the Government. These reports are: 1. Project OASIS Committee Report, December 29,1999 (OASIS Report) 2. Pension Reforms in the Unorganized Sector, IRDA, October 2001 (IRDA Report) 3. Report of the High Level Expert Group on New Pensions System, Government of India, February 2002 (Bhattacharya Report named after its chairman) The first report was prepared and funded by the privately financed OASIS Foundation. The other two, provide a road map to implement the framework provided by the OASIS report for the unorganized sector and civil servants respectively. The OASIS report draws heavily not afford to pay for buildfrom the World Bank's ing a reasonable retirerecommended multi-pilment income. These are lar system to provide for based on the principles of oldage financial securisocial insurance and who ty. The three pillars are: are finally financed by the 1. A mandatory, pubstate either out of general licly managed, taxtax revenue or by some financed pillar for social kind of special tax or cess. insurance The US, for example, Navneet Saxena 2. A mandatory, levies a social security privately managed, tax on all working peoLecturer fully funded pillar ple to finance this pilfor old age savings lar. The second pillar requires that 3. A voluntary pillar for those people save mandatorily for old age who want more protection in their and benefits are actuarially linked old age to contributions. It should preferThe first pillar resembles public ably be privately managed, fully pension plans, providing a social funded, and managed competitivesecurity net for the old and poor, ly. The third pillar, voluntary savparticularly for those whose life- ings and annuities, is meant to protime income was low or who can- vide supplemental retirement

income for people who want more generous old age pensions. The World Bank suggests that the first pillar providing basic security needs must be publicly managed, and only the second and third pillars are to be privately managed.

Multi-pillar System In India In India, the first pillar is almost non-existent. The Government does have some poverty alleviation programmes but they are too insignificant compared to the country's needs and their implementation is mostly political in nature. In case of need, old people generally rely on immediate family members and private charities. With the breaking of the joint family system, it has become inevitable that people plan for their old age financial security while they are young and working.

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All the three reports have extensively referred to the first pillar of social security but none contains any recommendations to provide for it. Some mistakenly believe that pensions paid by the government to its employees constitute the first pillar since they are paid on 'pay as you go basis' (PAYG) from current tax revenue. Pension to civil servants are more akin to deferred wages paid by the employer and according to the World Bank's guidelines should be included in the second pillar of the multi-pillar pension system. The second pillar is found mostly in the organized sector and is in the form of employment-linked schemes. Against a working class population of 400 million, only 35 million have access to a pension system. Of these 35 million, 11 million are in civil service (central and state governments) and 24 million are members of various employees' provident fund and pensions schemes.

Need for Pension Reforms In India The IRDA Report identifies the following reasons for reform in the pension sector The growing burden of civil services pensions Measures needed to meet pension liabilities of the state-owned enterprises Liberalization of the insurance sector and entry of potential players who can offer pension products Recognition of the need for reforms in the functioning of EPFO According to IRDA, the need for reforms arises from the following reasons: Government and State-owned enterprises as employers are finding it difficult to fund their pensions liabilities and the proposed system will relieve employers from their pension liabilities.

EPFO and employers' managed funds are return inefficient, service deficient, and not in a position to meet their liabilities.

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Private companies, particularly insurance and fund managements, are waiting in the wings at the prospect of handling investible funds and presumably would offer better old age security to retirees for the contribution they make.

IRDA Committee Recommendations for Non-Governmental Sector. The IRDA Committee's recommendations for reforms in the non-governmental sector are largely based on the OASIS report. The recommendations are as follows: Establish a system based on privately managed, individual funded defined-contribution accounts.

Lumpsum payments and/or annuity on retirement would be actuarially based on funds available.

Privatize assets management

All the three reports have extensively referred to the first pillar of social security but none contains any recommendations to provide for it functions of EPFO and exempt funds and allow private insurance firms to provide annuities.

For persons not covered by any scheme, allow a limited number of private asset managers to operate, each offering three investment portfolio options.

Employers' and fund managers' responsibility to participants would be that of 'principal and agent' and fiduciary in nature.

Government would need to provide tax subsidy to encourage acceptance of privately managed funds.

Government should allow facilitated access to the system through its postal and banking network throughout the country to keep the

administrative cost low.

To supervise and regulate the system, an independent regulatory authority called the Indian Pensions Authority should be set up.

Bhattacharya Committee Recommendation for Government Employees An unfunded defined benefit, pay-as-you-go scheme (PAYG), or a pure defined contribution scheme is not suitable for government employees; instead a hybrid defined benefit/ defined contribution scheme is recommended. This is a two-tier scheme. In the first tier, there is a mandatory contribution of 10 per cent each by the employer and the employee. The accumulated funds would be used to pay pension in annuity form. The second tier is to promote personal savings and there is no limit for employee's contribution but employer's contribution would be matching and limited to 5 percent.

Funds collected in the first tier would be deposited in a separate fund and would be invested in both debt and equity. However, irrespective of fund performance, government would remain liable for pension to its employees based on predetermined benefit formula.

Contribution obtained in the second tier will have a separate institutional structure and the employee would have a choice of funds to invest in.

The new schemes would apply to new employees only.

Evaluating the Proposed Pension System India does not have the first pillar as suggested by World Bank. The Government does not have enough resources to provide a social safety net for the aging population. Funds have to come from the working population who plan their own retirement and, thus, the second pillar is the core programme for the population. Today, most employment-related pension schemes

(whether in civil service or private sector) are defined-benefit plans and incorporate a collective income protection programme for disability and survivor's benefits.

There are proposals that retirement benefits should be converted into defined contribution plans and implemented through privatized individual accounts.

Before making the switchover, one should ask what should be the form of the core pension programme. There are certain public policy issues which need to be explored first before answering the question "will the new system provide better retirement benefits and greater coverage of the population?"

1. Risks under Different Plans (Defined Benefit vs. Defined Contribution) Under-defined contribution plans, variations in assets yields and assets prices or unexpected changes in longevity affect the pension that will be paid. Under defined benefit plans, pension-relevant surprises change how much the defined-benefit will cost. In the first scheme, the pensioner takes the risk, while in the second, the provider of pension (employer or a public agency like EPFO in India) takes the risk. Risk is inescapable.

The choice between defined contribution and defined benefit plans depends on more than actuarial and economic outcomes.

2. Publicly Managed vs. Privately Managed Funds If individual accounts are adopted, should the reformed system more toward private and decentralized collection of contribution, record keeping of individual accounts, management of investments, and payment of annuities, or should these functions be administered by a government agency (EPFO) and employer-managed exempt funds? Advocates of privately managed personal

accounts and contribution-defined pension plans claim that even if pensioners are subject to greater risk, the returns are so large that virtually everyone will come out a winner.

Unfortunately, this is not true.

Even if returns in privately managed funds are slightly higher, the reason for return differential has nothing to do with privatization. It has more to do with the restrictions governing investment of funds.

3. Investment Policy: Portfolio Diversification All three reports suggest that funds available in the pension system should be deployed in equity markets where returns are significantly higher. The proposed pension system would offer three kinds

Employees do not have knowledge of investment to make sound choices (even in growth, balanced and income funds) and some may not wish to do so of funds: Safe income, balance income, and growth. For the first five years, all domestic equity investments should be made using index funds on the NSE-50 or the BSE-100 indices. Later on, actively managed funds can be offered to pensioners.

Employees do not have knowledge of investment to make sound choices (even among the three kinds of suggested growth, balanced, and income funds) and some may not wish to do so. In particular, they are concerned about the risk form poor investment choices and from the accident of retiring when the market value of assets is low or the cost of annuities is high. There will be calls for the

Government to ensure some returns for mandated savings, particularly after a financial disappointment. Guarantees arranged in advance, including a premium charged for the guarantee, are preferable bailouts. The OASIS report indicates such role for government guarantee in overcoming residual risks.

Minimum Guaranteed Pensions In principle, guarantees can mitigate the riskiness of individual retirement saving. Guarantee could be in the form of minimum return and/ or providing minimum basic pension on retirement. In Germany, financial institutions providing new accounts must offer a guarantee of principal; that is, savers must get back at least the cash value of their contributions. Another type of guarantee is a minimum pension, common in countries such as Chile that have converted the pension system to privately funded accounts. If an individual account delivers a pension income less than a quarter of average earnings, the Chilean government will use tax revenue to top it up to that floor.

4. Government Pension Liabilities: PAYG vs. Creating a Separate Fund Since the Government is finding it politically impossible to reduce the promised pension benefits and/ or provide funds from current revenues the Bhattacharya report has come up with a hybrid system for new employees. The Bhattacharya committee estimates that the government would have to pay out more on account of pensions to its employees for the next 38 years, before the new scheme starts showing reduced government expenditure on account of pension liabilities. Today's pension problem arises largely from the over-enormous increase in pension benefits, and has nothing to do with funding arrangement.

The recommended changes are not going to solve the problem by The

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window dressing, and hard decisions like withdrawal and/or reduction in benefits which are not employment related.

Unemployment, disability, and survivors' benefits which are akin to social insurance should be abolished and/ or should be funded by employee contributions.

5. Government Fiscal Policy Tax treatment of pension is a critical policy choice. A generous tax treatment may promote saving but may be costly in terms of revenue forgone. Apparently, an exercise in balancing is necessary. The process of saving through a funded pension scheme involves three transactions, each of which provides an opportunity for taxation: When money is contributed to the pension fund When investment income and capital gains accrue to the fund When the members receive benefits on retirement Conclusion Indians do not have the first pillar funded and supported by government and, therefore, the second pillar becomes the basic pillar - a core retirement plan. In this plan people are looking for secured income when they retire, and, therefore, as recommended by the World Bank the plan should be publicly managed. Problems with privatization include the following: Current retirement benefits are barely adequate and a retiree wants a reliable source of income.

Privatization contains no social insurance components like disability and survivors' benefits.

Having individual retirement accounts in private pension funds The

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Pension reforms cannot occur overnight. The focus should be on improving existing systems rather than replace them with new ones. Efforts should be made to find ways of supporting new systems that may supplement existing systems would be prohibitively expensive to administer.

Privatization gets the employer off the hook. Risk shifts from corporations to employees. Most employees prefer the stability of pension plans to higher volatile monetary value of fund. For less wealthy, assured income has always been economically better

than higher but volatile and uncertain financial wealth.

There would be the added problem of agency risk, which has not been take note of. Government would have added a so-called '0 pillar' that will guarantee a minimum pension to employees whose own defined pension falls below a specified minimum.

Along with a tax subsidy, policy makers should factor into the cost of government providing guarantees for policyholders.

The priority should be, therefore, be putting in place a policy vision and road map with specific goals in relation to pre-determined milestones.

These include the tax financed and meanstested system for lower income groups. If Government cannot afford it, then it has no moral or political justification to even consider providing further tax benefits to privileged income groups. If there are no Government funds for the first pillar, the third pillar should remain out of policy discussions.

Emphasis should be on strengthening the second pillar.

Pension reforms can not not occur overnight. Thus, the focus should be on improving existing systems rather than replace them with new ones. Efforts should be made to find ways of supporting new systems that may supplement existing systems.

References: - Pension Reforms in India: Myth, Reality and Policy Choices, R. Gupta, IIMA - Invest India Economic Foundation website - A Consolidated Model of Pensions for India, Nandita Markandan, ccsindia.org

SUPER POLITY

e-governance CHALLENGES IN INDIA

I

n the age of Information and Technology of e-Government revolution after the Internet where its advent has enabled faster and and e-commerce revolutions. efficient products and services delivery "Developing countries can no longer expect mechanisms, this at the same time has gen- to base their development on their comparaerated a paradigm shift which is tive labor advantage — that is, on characterized by Citizen and busicheap industrial labour. The comness focus integration. This has parative advantage that now had a major impact on public govcounts is in the application of ernance. The manner in which the knowledge." (Drucker 1994a).

State is delivering services has "These two significant economic undergone a radical change. The phenomena-money flows and use of technology in administrainformation flows-are not even tion has developed into Electronic trans-national; they are nonGovernance. In the post-liberalizanational." (Drucker 1994b).

The Concept of Good tion era, the State Sangeeta Yadav Governance Governments across the counLecturer try have been engaged in Political thinkers like Plato improving internal efficiencies, responsive- and Aristotle tried defining the concept of ness, coordination and integration between good governance. But whatever may be the various government departments and exter- form of Government what is the most essennal agencies, citizens and businesses. The tial fact is that it should have the greatest global trends also point out to the emergence good of the greatest number.

Good governance is expected when different interests are accommodated in a socially acceptable balance. In strict public administration terminology we can say good governance involves formulation of public policies and efficient utilization of public resources.

Governance: An Information Perspective According to John Stuart Mill, "Ideally, the best form of governance is representative

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government". But for democracy to be the ideal form of Government, it requires the presence of ideal-conditions.

In the representative democracy, decision-making assumes the wider participation of the citizens. But the basic pre-requisite for this is the access to information.

Right to Information is being increasingly accepted as a necessary tool to participatory democracy the world over. With the advent of information technology the means of knowledge seeking has changed.

"As a great social leveler, information technology ranks second only to death. It can raze cultural barriers, overwhelm economic inequalities and even compensate for intellectual disparities. High technology can put unequal human beings on an equal footing, and that makes it the most potent democratizing tool ever devised." (Pitroda 1993).

Thus has evolved the new concept of e-governance. E-governance means the use of information technology to various aspects of governance. Under e-governance, critical information is made available to citizens online, changing them from passive information and service providers to active involvement. It creates a single source of information for citizen, more accessibility to information, intergovernmental participation, involving various stakeholders, stimulating debates increasing participation by citizens in decision making.

The basic objective is to involve the citizens in the administrative process and thus achieving greater transparency, accountability and efficiency in the process of governance.

Transparency Transparency means that the traditional culture of secrecy in public administration must be overcome.

Accountability: E-governance facilitates accountable governance, it supports people’s right to know - to The

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know what their Governments are doing and how they are doing things.

Efficiency: Improved mechanisms of delivery of services promotes greater efficiency and increased productivity.

E-governance and India The success of e-governance in India is broadly determined by the access of people to ICT services, and level of literacy in the country. But at the same time another factor is affecting positively the growth of egovernance in the country — the large number of software and ICT professionals.

During the last few years, the Government of India, as well as various State Governments have taken major initiatives towards the use of information technology for bringing

As a great social leveler, information technology ranks second only to death. It can raze cultural barriers, overwhelm economic inequalities and even compensate for intellectual disparities

e-governance.

History The history of e- governance can be traced back as early as 1975, since it was the time the National Informatics Centre was set up by the Government of India.

The idea was to introduce decision support systems within Government Ministries and departments. The basic objective being the successful execution of the various economic and social programs.

Further, the setting up of the National Association of Software Service Companies in early 1990's acted as the main pillar of e-governance. A new Ministry of Technology was created in 1999.

The growing emphasis of using technology for governance can also be seen in Government's effort to set up a National Institute of Smart Government as a tripartite venture between government, business and community.

A National Task Force on IT and software development has been constituted by the Prime Minister's office. Taskforce has already submitted its report. Taskforce has set a target of US$ 50 billion for software export from India by 2008.

Domestic software industry is targeted to reach the level of US$ 30

billion by this time.

Many of the recommendations of the report have been implemented by the ministries concerned. What is a very important feature of this faskforce is that it considers Citizen-IT Interface as one of the key areas to service the information requirements of citizens through deeper penetration of IT in society.

Together with Nasscom, the Government is pushing e-governance in India as reflected in the announcement of Information Technology Act 2000; initiation of National Internet backbone setting up; announcements of national long distance service beyond the service area to private operators; free right of way facility with no charge to access providers to lay fiber optic networks along national, state highways and interconnectivity of government and closed user networks.

SCOPE OF E-GOVERNANCE It has the following main dimensions: 1. Government to Citizen (G2C) Means the connecting of citizens to Government. This would lead to better services to the citizens through single point delivery mechanism and will involve areas like: a) E-Citizen b) E-Transport c) E-Medicine d) E-Education e) E-Registration 2. Consumer to Government C2G means the interaction of the citizens with the Government.

Areas where it can be useful is election, census and taxation. a) E-Democracy 3. Government to Government (G2G) In this better networking between various government departments can take place leading to better management and cutting of cost. a) E-Secretariat b) E-Police c) E-Court 4. Government to Enterprise (G2E)

This will constitute the various services a business house needs to get from the Government, which includes getting licenses etc.

5. Government to NGO (G2N): E-Governance Framework: The Prerequisite for E-governance in India For e-governance to succeed in India, 'e-readiness' must be built.

Thus it is important to build Infrastructure: Largescale computerization, multilingual capabilities of IT systems Institutions Laws to facilitate smooth development of e-governance projects.

Leadership and commitment Change in the mindset of the Government functionaries Human capacities Technology Data systems- like data encoding, application logic, for common applications, data dictionaries and userinterfaces C h a l l e n g e s & O p p o r t u n i ti e s o f E-governance The first challenge for the public sector is to capture the potential effi-

ciency gains from the information revolution: To improve the quality and efficiency of public services, to strengthen Government information flows internally, to promote accountability and transparency, to procure goods and services fairly and efficiently, and to raise quality standards for information technology suppliers.

In most developing countries, Government procurement accounts for 40% to 60% of the consumption of information technology. [Moussa 1995] The most challenging problem acting as an impediment in the successful implementation of the e-governance of presence of a large population. The income of individuals in a country is one of the most important variables for determining per capita consumption of most goods and IT is no exception. The average PC penetration of India, according to World Bank data for 2000 and 2001, was 5.2.

However, using the estimated coefficients for the above variables, the The

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fitted value for India works to be 9.33. The latter could be considered as the potential penetration for India considering the average values of significant variables in India vis-Ă -vis the sample countries. As against this the actual PC penetration of comparable countries such as China and South Korea are much higher at 17 and 251, while their potential PC penetration works out to be 10.8 and 149 respectively. And also the availability of internet facility especially in remote and rural areas acts as the basic constraint.

The second main important challenge is the shortage of funds. The evolution of e-governance involves the computerization of all state and central level government departments. Funds are necessary to invest in hardware, software and infrastructure.

Another problem is the attitude of government officials and bureaucracy to change the way they have functioned since last so many years.

The deep down rooted systems and conventions are not so easy for them to throw away. This is also to do with the effect of dissemination of information on the power they wield over people.

Proper infrastructure across the length and breadth of nation is a very basic requirement for the success of e-governance. Even a basic necessity like electricity has an erratic supply. Also the market signals are weak especially for public goods for which quantification of profits is always a problem.

Another problem relates to the approval of projects. When they are sent to the Government and to finance departments there exists no expertise for examining such projects from the technical angle.

Apart from that no priority is given The

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to the projects and mere approval takes about a year.

Human capacities: Finally, all the above requirements even if they are fulfilled cannot be a real success, if the education agenda of government is not in tune with the information revolution and market demand. Acceptance of changed processes, their proper understanding, adoption and improvement by citizens is extremely pressing need. Education determines a country's prospects for human development and competitiveness.

The efficiency of education needs to be improved via distance education, assisted learning, multimedia textbooks, education networks, and so on.

Apart from the above general challenges there exist many other

standards there is duplication of efforts by various departments.

Challenge exists in implementation in rural areas. It is very difficult to assess local needs and customize solutions. The connectivity is poor, and finances needed are large.

There exists no interdepartmental collaboration.

There are various departments like women & child, social welfare, health, education pensions etc which till now have not benefited from information technology.

Various projects have been computerized but without process reengineering, thus no benefits have reached to the common man.

Opportunities E-governance offers many opportunities in terms of: Use can be made of indigeThe actual PC penetration in China nous and costeffective techand South Korea are much higher nologies more at 17 and 251, while their potensuitable for rural tial PC penetration works out to be areas.

Use of local 10.8 and 149 respectively language for greater accessiproblems and challenges. bility in rural areas.

Lack of unified e-governance pol- Use of best technical resources icy: There is no proper co-ordina- from Microsoft, oracle can be tion between various departments made. which take independent decisions Allowing greater public- private often resulting in duplication of partnership for effective delivery of efforts and wastage of resources e-governance services. worth million of rupees per year. Existence of a large number of The connectivity between different skilled IT professionals. departments is also many a times Possibility of large number of non-existent and as a result the electronic services thereby unified e-governance policy cannot increasing scope further. work in practice.

Implementing e-commerce solu There is also problem with the tions for marketing rural prodsecurity audit which has not taken ucts,. place for many applications.

It is clear that information tech Proper documentation like the nology influences the economic, detailed project report (DPR) and political and social fabric of India software requirements specifica- and the concerns raised require tion (SRS) has also not been writ- that both policy makers and the ten and so there is non-acceptance citizens adapt to the changes that by the successors. In case of data are being brought about.

STUDY CIRCLE

BRIDGING THE

T

RESEARCH GAP

here is significant absence in academic literature, textbooks and practical teaching tools for advising or guiding student learning, in a practical non-prescriptive manner, toward research topic selection and development. This paper attempts to promote academic discussion on a pedagogic gap that is broadly overlooked, and to examine how business academics can better instruct dissertation students in the area of dissertation topic selection and refinement. A framework for topic selection is presented to commence further discussion on developing methods to close this pedagogic gap.

PRESCRIPTIVE DYNAMICS IN TOPIC SELECTION Many textbooks prescribe a number of issues to be considered when selecting dissertation topics. However little by way of practical advice is offered to the novice researcher on how to use these guidelines for their own research process. EasterbySmith et al (1991:18) point out that: 'It is very rare for students to have a clear focus from the outset of their research, and yet many find the lack of a clear focus is a major impediment to getting started'. Some prescriptive items include (Saunders et al 2003); 1. You should select a topic of interest.

2. You should select a topic that is easy.

3. Can you gain access for primary data collection?

4. Beware of the resources & time available to you!

5. Select a topic that will get you a job!

While these are just five points, step-bystep guides to implementing them are often absent. One possible reason for this is that textbooks prescribe what is 'academically sound' or 'ideal' (Harrington & Booth 2003).

Telling students that 'you need to narrow down your topic' or 'you should be interested in your topic' is limited in terms of meaningful direction. The ideal research process requires levels of resources beyond that of most individual students. Therefore practical compromises, underpinned by rigour, have to be considered when developing research objectives. These 'compromises' have an immediate impact on the chosen topic and the classroom teaching associated with it. An effort must be made now to elucidate the non-prescriptive issues surrounding the teaching of dissertation topic selection.

NON-PRESCRIPTIVE DYNAMICS & TOPIC SELECTION There are a number of non-prescriptive guidelines that can be used to help students understand 'how' to go about finding a viable research topic. The following teaching framework is by no means a strict rule or exhaustive list of issues but is presented as the basis of commencing some academic debate. The method of instruction that is recommended is but one method reflecting

Conor Horan Faculty of Business, Dublin Institute of Technology

Practical compromises, underpinned by rigour, have to be considered when developing research objectives. These have an immediate impact on the topic and classroom teaching

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Edge 49

Dissertation topics can reflect an internal or external bias. For example, a topic studying resource allocation issues within the firm reflects internal decision-making procedures.

This is a different research process to study interorganisational relationships or market dynamics, which are external phenomena

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anecdotal evidence and the authors' own classroom experiences. Empirical data should now be collected to support the following teaching framework.

External vs Internally Focused Dissertations The Issue: Management literature reflects an internal versus external analysis dichotomy reflecting the pedagogy of many strategic marketing or business policy textbooks i.e. SWOT analysis and Porterian Theory (Porter 1979) etc. Indeed the unit of analysis of 'the firm' underpins much of economics as a discipline.

Dissertation topics can reflect an internal or an external bias. For example a topic studying resource allocation issues within the firm reflects internal decision-making

procedures. This is a different research process to study inter-organisational relationships or market dynamics, which are external phenomenon, The body of literature required to study the former is fundamentally different to that body of literature that will be consulted for the latter. Being aware of the unit of analysis is one method that can be used to focus a dissertation topic.

Academic Questions The key academic questions a student might address are: Is my dissertation topic an internally or

externally focused topic?

What broad body of literature am I considering?

What is my unit of analysis?

Does this body of literature broadly focus on one unit of analysis?

The Recommendation: From a teaching perspective it is recommended, that students tend to focus on either an internally OR externally based topic. A project that tries to attempt to cover both will divide the efforts of a student by splitting coherent research objectives, forcing the student to look at two diverse bodies of literature and potentially multiple units of analysis. This concern often arises with an MBA cohort, who attempt to complete a 'business plan' type research report. This reporting style often covers both internal resource allocation issues and external market analysis, ultimately diluting the research efforts of a resource strapped candidate. In conclusion, proposals that result in a split in literature reviews ought to be avoided. The embedded nature of concepts in the marketing discipline does make the separation of units difficult for students.

Which stakeholder should be researched?

The Issue: A common requirement for a dissertation is for a stakeholder group to be researched. In marketing there is a particular emphasis on the consumer and consumption behaviour (Holbrook 1987). If we try to list the stakeholder groups that dissertations focus on we realise that the number of groups is quiet limited from a 'dissertation topic' perspective. Indeed these groups can be aligned with the external and internal focus taken above. A dissertation proposal that focuses on internal corporate issues but then considers researching external consumers is bound to raise concerns for the reasons expressed above. Thus there has to be alignment between the focus of the dissertation; internal or external and the stakeholder group being researched.

Academic questions students could ask: What stakeholder group do I want/need to collect 'data' from?

What are the types of questions I can ask my stakeholder group?

Do I intend to ask questions from more than one stakeholder group?

The recommendation: The recommendation here is to focus broadly on one stake-

holder group. This helps to focus the writing of the research objectives around one group within either an externally or internally focused dissertation. As a consequence of this the literature that the student considers will broadly take on a unified form.

Whereas the recommendation is to focus on one stakeholder group there are some examples of research that covers more than one group i.e. opinions of employees and managers. This is a more demanding approach requiring access to two different stakeholders while care is taken to ask the same 'questions' of both groups. Where this happens, for whatever methodological reasons, the student's research skills will be tested further.

What type of dissertation will be produced?

The Issue: A dissertation that is internally focused and with questions directed at internal stakeholders i.e. senior managers will result in becoming a 'strategic' type dissertation. By addressing managers the issues that can be tackled in detail are limited to strategic 'decision making' or 'resource allocation' concerns. This reflects the introductory chapters of most Strategy or Business Policy textbooks e.g. DeWit & Myer (1998).

Thus questions that are addressed to shareholders, by their very nature, will be financial or strategic in nature unless they have a vested interest that can be shown in other non-strategic topics. Indeed, the latter (strategic issues) will filter down to financial concerns as the student progresses through the dissertation process.

Academic questions students could ask: What type of dissertation do I want to produce?

Do I want to produce a Strategic Dissertation? Who will I be talking to?

Do I want to produce a piece of research that is looking at the behaviour and attitude of consumers?

The Recommendation: Many students fail to see the broad body of literature and thrust of a potential topic early on (Easterby-Smith et al 1991). By becoming aware of the type of dissertation process one is going to engage in at an early stage a student can avoid locking themselves into a topic they are not interested in.

Some dissertation topic ideas are presented as functional specific topics i.e. a study of

consumer behaviour, which is clearly linked to the function of marketing management.

Indeed, this is linked to internally focused topics that look into the mechanics of marketing management issues i.e. decision making or resource allocation issues. From a teaching perspective it is recommended, that students tend to focus their attention within a broad functional area.

Conclusion The above framework represents an expanded approach to teaching topic generation in a non-prescriptive manner. This approach, while not the definitive answer, may be used to highlight the broad structure of management literature, the stakeholders involved in marketing research and the broad types of dissertations that can be produced in management fields. By breaking down the pedagogical steps this paper has attempted to commence filling the pedagogic gap surrounding dissertation topic selection highlighted by previous researchers .

Note: The full version of this paper was presented at the Marketing Educator's Association Conference, MEA, San Francisco, April 2006.

References: DeWit & Myer (1998), Strategy: Process, Content, Context, 2nd Edition, Thomson Business Press.

Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. & Lowe, A. (1991), Management Research: An Introduction, London: Sage Publications 1991.

Harrington, J. 8& Booth, C. (2003), Research Methods Courses in Undergraduate Business Programmes: An Investigation - A Report to the Learning and Teaching Support Network, Business Education Support Team, Bristol Business School, July 2003.

Holbrook (1987), What is Consumer Research? , Journal of Consumer Research, Vol 14, June 1987.

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BOOKMARK

A case for workforce strategy

H

R leaders can no longer earn strategic partner status by designing and delivering state-of-the-art programs.

Our efforts should result in measurable actions that build the desired culture and develop tomorrow's strategic workforce, while achieving today's customer and ownership objectives.

The workforce scorecard provides practical, result-oriented tools that challenge traditional thinking about human capital management, says Mark Gilstrap, senior Vice-President and Chief People Officer, American Century Investments.

Of all the controllable factors affecting firm performance, a workforce that can execute the firm's strategy is the most critical and underperforming asset in most businesses. The problem is not that CEOs and senior managers do not recognize the importance of human capital. Rather, they lack the tools for measuring and holding line managers accountable for the impact their workforce has on strategic success.

Building on the bestselling HR Scorecard, Mark Huselid, Brian Becker and Richard Beatty have taken the revolutionary balanced scorecard model to the next level of performance management in the book entitled 'The Workforce Scorecard'.

The first chapter outlines three challenges organizations must take on in order to maximize workforce potential: View their workforce in terms of contribution rather than cost; replace benchmarking with metrics that differentiate levels of strategic impact; and make line managers and HR professionals jointly responsible The

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BOOK REVIEW Shweta Khanna Lecturer

Title: THE WORKFORCE SCORECARD Author: Mark A. Huselid, Brian E. Becker and Rechard W. Beatty Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation Year of Publication: 2005, USA Hard Bound/Pages 278. Price: US$ 29.95

for getting the workforce to execute the strategy. The remaining eight chapters present, in a detailed and comprehensive manner, mechanisms to develop a customized workforce scorecard which enables managers to Identify the critical few measures that really matter Translate those measures into specific actions and accountabilities Clarify what is expected of employees and how they can improve Identify high and low performing employees and provides differenciated compensation and incentive systems Determine supporting HR management systems and metrics Specify the role of leadership,

the workforce, and HR in strategy execution The workforce scorecard lays out clearly and cogently how to turn strategy into strategy execution by focusing on HR success in four distinct categories, workforce success, workforce mindset and culture, workforce competencies and workforce behaviors.

Further, the book points out that not all employees or workforces are equal and the harsh reality of managing people is that differenciation must occur with some employees more equal the others. The authors have laid out tools and frameworks for making equity a reality.

Dave Ulrich has written fowward and he points out that HR practices are like the infrastructure of a house — the plumbing, heating, lighting, electrical and spacing — none of these systems is noticed unless they break down. But they often shape the quality of living within a house.

Likewise, when workforce success measures are woven into HR practices of work design, staffing, development, performance management, rewards and communication, the infrastructure is in place to sustain success.

To summarize, Huselid, Becker and Beatty have presented a compelling case for a workforce strategy as the key requisite for strategy execution that leads to high performance in any company.

The book is a must-read for not only HR professionals who want to quantify the value they create, but also for line managers who wish to translate practices into strategic results. I strongly recommend the book as an excellent insight into leveraging human capital for achieving business success.

Small things about big business Despite all difficulties and frustrations, there is a joy in having done something as well as you could and better than others thought you could

BOOK REVIEW Sangeeta Yadav Lecturer

— J R D Tata

D

id you ever get puzzled by the low price range of Big Bazaar? Do you want to know about the success stories of Pantaloons and Big Bazaar? The book It happened in India by Kishore Biyani will tell you all.

It happened in India is a story of the entrepreneur Kishore Biyani popularly nicknameed as KB, born in a middle class traders family, who started his career selling stonewash fabric. Years later, as the “Raja of Retail” he redefined retailing business in India with the launch of Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar and many more retail formats.

Title: IT HAPPENED IN INDIA Author: Kishore Biyani with Dipayan Baishya Publisher: Rupa & Co. Year of Publication: 2007, New Delhi PB / Pages 268. Price: Rs. 99

modern business. The book contains interviews of more than a hundred people, which provide the reader an insight to the psychology of Indian consumer.

The book is the mirror of Kishore’s business philosphy and beliefs. He tells you how nurturing relationships is important, be it at home or in business. He stresses on the long-standing Indian principles of humility, simplicity and confidence.

"Most businessmen make the mistake of creating an environment wherein only they win. They see life only as a competitive arena and not a co-operative one.

Relationships are built on principles, not on the basis of power and position," he says.

The beauty is that KB is very open in accepting his failures, especially in the chapter on Bollywood Calling which touches one such phase of his life.

The book is a must read for

It happened in India is a story of the entrepreneur Kishore Biyani, born in a middle class traders family, who started his career selling stonewash fabric. Years later, as “Raja of Retail” he redefined the retailing business in India with the launch of Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar and many more retail formats. KB, as he is popularly known, tells you how nurturing and managing relationships is the most crucial component of building up a either a business or a sound home The book is divided into eleven chapters which tell the story of the making of KB. In the first chapter Kishore recites the story of what happened on January 26, 2006 when Big Bazaar announced its first-ever mega-sale in all its outlets across the country for three days.

The next chapters takes you down the memory lane of his col-

lege days, to his factory for making trousers, to his first Pantaloons outlet and to his inorganic and organic growth along the pathway of radically different paradigms of business.

The book is written in a simple style which is characteristic of Kishore’s straightforward approach to the complexities of

wannabe entrepreneurs. It is the journey of a person who with his foresight, persistence, consenciousness, hard work and indomitable spirit realised his dreams. The price of book is just Rs 99, telling us that indeed KB understands the average Indian consumer and his spending priorities.

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Life and times of India I

ndia after Gandhi tells the fascinating story of India as a country right through Independence to the early nineties.

It is a seminal book which describes the trials and tribulations of the birth of a new nation and the process of transforming a religious and iniquitous society into a secular, democratic and stable country.

The relevance of this book lies in the fact that one gets to know the historical background of many of the issues and problems like Jammu and Kashmir, border issues with China, Tibet, caste reservations, status of minorities, tension between regional and national parties, the Naxalite movement, issues around industrialisation and development, which India has been confronting for the last 60 years. Reading all this will help you understand these debates from the historical perspective.

The book celebrates the success of Indian democracy while pointing out its flaws and weaknesses. While reading, you get a feeling of watching a movie on India with all its drama, colour, intrigue, irrationality, hopes and failures.

It is a happy coincidence that Ramchandra Guha who has established himself as one of the finest public intellectuals in India, has taken this stupendous task of writing the story of this fascinating and complex country.

This versatile author writes like a novelist which makes this book an absorbing reading. He has done justice to this by not taking an ideological position on controversial issues which makes it objective and accurate.

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BOOK REVIEW Rahul K. Mishra Assistant Professor

Title: INDIA AFTER GANDHI Author: Ramachndra Guha Publisher: Picador (Pan Macmillan) Year of Publication: 2007 Hard Bound/Pages 900. Price: Rs 695

The book celebrates the success of Indian democracy while pointing out its flaws.

While reading, you get a feeling of watching a movie on India with all its drama, colour, intrigue, irrationality, hopes and failures. It is a pleasure for the readers that Ramchandra Guha, who has established himself as one of the finest public intellectuals in India, has taken up the stupendous task of writing the story of this fascinating country

He has tried to understand the events and explains these to readers from an independent perspective. In these times of sharp ideological polarization, this is indeed a big achievement.

Guha is truly representative of the new India which our leaders and philosophers wanted — a South Indian with a Bengali sounding name and one who did his schooling in Dehra Dun, went to college in Delhi and Kolkata, and after years of teaching in the best universities in the world, returned to settle down in Bangalore. In a way, all his life's experiences have gone into the writing a book of this magitute.

For many, India was an unnatural nation. Winston Churchill had warned that if the British left, the entire gamut of public services created by them — judicial, medical, railway and public works departments — would perish and India would fall back quite rapidly through the centuries into barbarism and privations of the middle ages.

The strong belief of our great leaders in the idea of India and the selfless sacrifices made by them and countless well-meaning individuals across India, laid the foundation of this young country with an old civilization.

Sixty years after independence, India is now the world's largest democracy, emerging economy and power and the world looks up to her with increasing respect.

Guha captures this story and the essence of this wonderful saga of a nation on the forward march.

Juxtaposing the book with current events, one learns a lot.

Recently, China's claim on Arunachal Pradesh in the border talks and the incoherent Indian

response make one go back to ple there are in India. Some staoped ones remains the biggest recent history. After China tisticians have concluded that a challenge which modern India annexed Tibetin, Sardar Patel had mere 15 per cent live below the faces. urged Nehru to be alive to the new poverty line while the more pesThe book, however, excessively danger from China and to make simistic estimates put the figure concentrates on politics, forgetIndia "defensively strong". He outat 35%. ting several success stories like lined a series of steps to enhance Prevalence of poverty and the space program and green revsecurity. He thought that in the inequality is sobering reminder of olution. view of the rebuff over Tibet, India how the success story of India is In the last chapter Why India should no longer advocate China’s still incomplete. "Still there are a Survives, Guha writes and I quote case for entry into the UN. The huge number of poor people in the full last paragraph: "The 19th suggestion was ignored and India India — close to 300 million — if century poet Ghalib thought that paid a big price subsequently in one sticks to the official estimate,” God was, indeed, on the side of 1967.

Guha writes. in this opinion India. All around him were conflict The book is replete with examand privation, but doomsday had ples of how institutions which we not yet come. ‘Why does not the take for granted came into exislast trumpet sound?' asked Ghalib tence by the foresight and vision of a sage in the holy Benaras. of Nehru and other talented ‘Who holds the reins of the The book is replete individuals. Guha writes final catastrophe?’ This was with examples of how instituabout PC Mahalnobis, the the answer he got: man who brought modThe hoary old man tions which we take for granted came ern statistics to India. pointed towards Kashi into existence by the foresight and vision He set up the Indian and gently smiled The of talented individuals. PC Mahalnobis, is one Statistical Institute architect, he said, is (ISI) in Kolkata. He fond of this edifice example. He brought modern statistics to India helped establish the because of which and set up the Indian Statistical Institute in National Sample there is colour in life; Survey, and the He would not like it to Kolkata. He helped establish the National Central Statistical perish and fall."

Sample Survey, and the Central Statistical Organization (CSO).

Ghalib and his The NSS and CSO are interlocutor were Organization. The NSS and CSO are reasons the reasons why India speaking of India, the why India’s official statistics are more has a set of official statiscivilization. Speaking of reliable than those anywhere else tics more reliable than India, the nation State, one those anywhere else in the must insist that its future lies in the non-Western world non-Western world. not in the hands of God but in A student of Indian economy the mundane works of men. So and management must read the long as the constitution is not chapter named “Riches” which is amended beyond recognition, so about how the Indian economy long as elections are held regularly and society are getting transeconomic growth is marked by and fairly and the ethos of secularformed. Quoting from the book: considerable disparities of region ism broadly prevails, so long as "In the year 2000 there were and class. The Nobel prize-wincitizens can speak and write in the 3,40,000 software professionals in ning economist Amartya Sen worlanguage of their choosing, so long India with some 50,000 fresh engiries that as these inequalities as there is an integrated market neering graduates being recruited intensify, one half of India will and a moderately efficient civil serannually. About 20% of these prolook and live like California and vice and army and, lest I forget, so fessionals were women. By 2004, the other half like sub-Saharan long as Bollyood films are it was employing 6,00,000 people Africa. watched and their songs sung, and exporting $13 billion worth of Already prosperity exists with India will survive.” services." misery and technological sophistiReading this book is an activity Guha writes about the interestcation with human degradation. of self exploration — it tells you ing, vigorous and scholarly debate The effort of making the poorest rather lucidly why we are the way on precisely how many poor peoregions of the country into develwe are in India.

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STUDENTs’ CORNER The art and science of managing

M

ANAGEMENT comprises directing and guidModern management as a discipline began as ing a group towards achieving a goal. Man- an off-shoot of economics. Classical economists like agement often involves the allocation and manip- Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill provided a theulation of human, financial, technooretical background to resource-alloMOHIT LUTHRA, UG-3 logical and natural resources. Mancation, production and pricing issues. agement can also refer to a person or people man- By the late 19th century, marginal economists Alaging. fred Marshall and LĂŠon Walras introduced a new Management operates through various func- layer of complexity to theoretical underpinnings of tions, often classified as planning, organizing, lead- management. Joseph Wharton offered the first tering/motivating and controlling. tiary-level course in management in 1881.

Planning: Deciding what needs to be done in fuBy 1900, one found managers trying to place ture and developing plans for action their theories on thoroughly scientific basis. Exam Organizing: Making optimum and right use of re- ples include Henry R. Towne's Science of Managesources required to enable the successful deploy- ment, Frederick Winslow Taylor's Scientific Manment of plans. agement, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth's Applied Mo Leading/Motivating: Exhibiting skills in these ar- tion Study and Henry L. Gantt's Charts. J. Duncan eas for getting others to play an effective part in wrote the first college management textbook in achieving plans.

1911.

Controlling: Monitoring plans which may need In the 21st century, observers find it increasingly modification based on feedback. difficult to subdivide management into functional Management of a large organisation may have three categories in this way. More and more processes silevels: multaneously involve several categories. Instead, one Senior management tends to think in terms of the various processes, Middle management tasks, and objects subject to management.

Low-level management

The race between India and China

I

NDIA will exceed France's GDP in 2020, Germany's enough incentive for private sector to get into it. in 2025, Japan's in 2035 to become the 3rd And the Government is looking at a very high largest economy in the world by 2050. The ser- deficit.Thus cutting deficit and improving the tax vice sector now accounts for more base are the two most obvious soluGURTEJ SANDHU, UG-1 than half of India's GDP: 51.16 per tions to stimulate infrastructure incent in 1998-99. This sector has gained at the ex- vestment. pense of both the agricultural and industrial secOn the other hand, China is facing many othtors through the 1990s. The edge that India has er problems. Learning English being the least of been able to develop in the services sector is main- them. The average annual income in Shanghai, ly because of the human edge that it has over 3 14,800 yuan ($1,790), is seven times as high as million scientific & technical manpower and a stock in rural Anhui, 2,100 yuan. In a nutshell, the anof over 0.8 million post graduates in science and nual income of a farmer in today's China is only over 1 million graduate engineers, 0.4 million doc- one-sixth to one-seventh that of an urban protors, 0.3 million graduates in agriculture and vet- fessional but he pays three times as many taxes, erinary sciences. Today India turns out more than plus a plethora of local taxes of dubious legality.

50,000 computer professionals and 3,60,000 enThere is however, a new outlook to this situagineering graduates each year. tion. Europe as well as US-Canada are examples But in order to be able to cope with the com- of how geographic proximity need not be a result petition that China is providing, it is very impor- of negative competition. tant for India to face the problem that it faces with The road ahead has opportunities for both Inits infrastructure in core sectors (public goods like dia and China. Their success in overcoming the chalroads, irrigation and ports) the investment has to lenges and amplifying the advantages will detercome from the Government because there is not mine the impact on their economic growth.

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Successful global managers

G

LOBALISATION impacts management strongly.

Global managers demonstrate a set of compeThere is an imperative need for corporates to tencies which accounts for their success as busicome out of their shells and attack the global mar- ness leaders. Business leadership in a global comket to achieve its bottomline: Profit. pany holds specific challenges, like GOURI PASRICHA, UG-3 Global management, thus, refers to inbuilding alliances with foreign multitegrated management activities considering the nationals, gaining a particular market share, slashworld as a single marketplace beyond the border. ing costs via import-export and outsourcing. OthFor example, in Latin America, relationships are er challenges lie in being responsive and flexible to based on personal trust. One usually gets to know the market, culturally aware and communicating a Peruvian or Colombian boss before presenting the corporation's values. him/her with a formal contract of business. In Personal leadership which involves being culFrance, one deals directly with the powerful head turally aware, includes the ability to understand, at the top of the firm. empathize and work with multiple cultures. The In Germany, written rules and procedures are old model of multinationals was styled according considered to be of vital importance — if a foreign to how the British ran their empire, where each manager wants to speak to a German CEO then country manager was considered to be a sovereign he/she will be directed to the appropriate depart- and their was little shared between subsidiaries ment head. In contrast to this, the Japanese op- which was considered to be a good approach in erate on strict unwritten rules, known as kata. Job a limited set of industries. However, in the globsecurity is considered in America to produce a al context, team leadership and personal leadermediocre employee, but in Japan, the lack of job ship hold greater importance. Executives who aim security could do the same. The French advocate to be global managers should take a good look intellectual prowess, the Americans short-term suc- at what their capabilities are and what is expectcess and Australians on the other hand are often ed of them when working outside the home base wary of both. of the organization.

Global change needs global action now

G

LOBAL warming is the biggest issue facing mod- consensus regarding the science of global climate ern leaders. But there is a huge mismatch be- change. The world is undoubtedly warming. This tween what people say they want to happen and warming is largely the result of emissions of carbon what they do for it to happen. There dioxide and other greenhouse gases PREETINDER KAUR, UG-1 is great uncertainty about the effects from human activities including indusof climate change, but all too often if you discuss trial processes, fossil fuel combustion, and changes these you are accused of not caring, or of being in in land use, such as deforestation. Continuation of denial. Even if one accepts the seriousness of the historical trends of greenhouse gas emissions will threat, there is uncertainty about the value of any result in additional warming. Addressing climate policy. change is no simple task. To protect ourselves, our It is, invariably, one of the most serious challenges economy and our land from the adverse effects of facing us today. To protect the health and economic climate change, we must dramatically reduce emiswell-being of current and future generations, we sions. must reduce our emissions of heat-trapping gases The solution of global warming is not that simby using the technology, know-how, and practical ple. To reduce global warming CO2 emmision has solutions already at our disposal. to become less. That means that there be strict rules However, it is quite likely that mankind will not for factories and development and building of cars limit climate change to any great extent, at least not from which emmision is a lot less than nowadays. quickly. This may partly be because the Third World On the other hand mankind should be very careful wants economic growth. So here's a huge question. with the (rain) forests on this planet. As individuDo we want the Third World to get richer? Is that als, also, we should try and make a difference with compatible with having a "safe" climate? even petty things like choosing a clean fuel and lookThe scientific community has reached a strong ing for an energy star in all new applications.

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CAMPUS CAMPUSCAM

NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEW

MDP on International Marketing for Handloom and Handicrafts Export Corporation Executives An MDP on International Marketing was conducted for Managers of Handloom & Handicrafts Export Corporation from 21 to 24 March, 2007.

There were 15 participants.

Key concern areas pertaining to marketing of handicrafts and

handloom products abroad were addressed in the four days.

The objective was to help the executives update their knowledge and sharpen the skills on the job.

We received excellent feedback at the end of the program from

the participants who felt that it was highly useful for them.

CMD of HHEL, Mr K K Sinha, took personal initiative in the program and took time off to interact with the participants in one of the sessions. He also distributed certificates on course completion.

MDP on Media Marketing for Rajasthan Patrika Another MDP on 'Media Marketing' for 15 middle-level executives of Rajasthan Patrika, Jaipur, was conducted from 23rd to 27th April. Fifteen participants attended. While a majority of the executives were from Jaipur, a few were from the Delhi office, and some others from other locations in Rajasthan. The participants rated the program as informative, wholesome and useful for honing their skills in media marketing.

Prof. D. Bandopadhyay was the Program Director for both the MDPs. The

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MPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS

WS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS

Indian Statistical Service officers trained in Econometrics The 27th batch of the Indian Statistical Service officers was imparted training on Econometric Theories, Applications, Time Series Analysis and Forecasting Techniques in a four-week (April 30 - May 25, 2007) program conducted by the IILM. The program was inaugurated by Mr. Debashis Choudhuri, Director, ISS Training, Central Statistical Organisation (CSO).

The training was spearheaded

by Dr. Tarun Das, Professor of Economics, IILM Institute for Higher Education, who was the key faculty along with

Mr. Sachchidanand Karna, Asst. Professor, Economics.

Eminent economists, academicians and researchers of the likes of Prof. V.R. Panchmukhi, (Former Director, RIS), Prof.

Rajesh Mehta (Senior Fellow, RIS), Dr. C.S.C. Sekhar (AERC, Delhi School of Economics), Dr. Badal Mukherji (Director, IILM Institute for Higher Education, Gurgaon) and Dr. Raj Agrawal (Director, CMS, IILM Academy of Higher Learning, G. Noida) contributed with lectures on a range of topics on Econometric Methods and their Applications.

It was one of the rare occasions that ISS officers underwent training at a private academic or research institution as part of their two-year probation. The program provided a good mix of classroom teaching and interactive sessions.

Participants appreciated the emphasis on application of econometric techniques.

Prof. B. Bhattacharyya, Director, IILM, encouraged participants to take up the challenge to be counted among the top statisticians of not only developing countries but also the developed world.

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CAMPUS CAMPUSCAM

NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEW

Undergraduate Business School Alumni Cricket Match

On the very eventful morning of Sunday, 3 June 2007, The UBS Alumni Association welcomed its alumni back to the campus for an enthralling cricket match. The match received wide participation

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from all batches. It was a 20-over Alumni XI vs Alumni XI match.

The two teams were led by Abdullah Hameed and Sameer Kachru of the 2000 batch.

Sameer Kachru's XI won the

match and he was declared the man of the match.

The alumni enjoyed the experience to a great extent and have been playing every week to keep up the momentum.

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NEW ENTRANTS KAILASH TULI Professor (OB & HRM)

He is a Masters and Ph D in Psychology from Delhi University and was Senior Post Doctoral fellow at Vienna University (Austria). His academic work experience in psychology spans for more than 35 years. His research work is primarily in the field of Stress, Media Psychology, Gestalt Therapy and Yoga. He has participated in six international and national residential workshops. He has been the editor of Journal of Personality and Clinical Psychology for four years. He has presented many papers in various national and international conferences and has several publications in the form of papers, various articles and a book to his credit. He is often invited as resource person in NCERT.

SUMER S. YADAV Professor (Production & Operations Management)

He is an Engineering Graduate from MREC (Now, MNIT), Jaipur, PGDBM from IMT, Ghaziabad and PhD (submitted) from BIT, Mesra. He is a Certified Trainer in Training Techniques from Thames Valley University, UK. He had been to Japan for a short term assignment in the area of IT-HRD on behalf of Govt. of India. He has nine years’ experience in Management Education, Training & Research and 13 years with corporate & PSUs in the area of Operations Management.

His last assignment with corporate sector was Joint General Manager in Indian Ordnance Factories (Defence PSU). Early in his career; he was associated with Jindal Steels Limited (Now, Jindal Steel & Power Limited) as Senior Engineer.

His teaching interests includeProduction & Operations Management, Total Quality Management, Project Management, Logistics & Supply Chain Management, Productivity Management, Business Process

Reengineering, E-governance, Training & Development and Training Techniques.

AKHIL SWAMI Associate Professor (F&A)

He is an Electrical Engineering Graduate from IT, BHU and MBA from Allahabad University. His total work experience includes 26 years in Industry and 5 years in Academics. He has worked with organizations like Sriram Fertilizer, State Planning Institute, Lucknow as Joint Director in Socio

Academic achievements Prof. KAILASH TULI Professor (OB & HRM) ❘❘❙❙ Paper entitled, "Paradoxical Happiness in Jungle of Seductive Technology and Affluenza" accepted for ISTP 2007 conference at York University, Toronto ❘❘❙❙ Twice invited by Sahara TV for talk show on expert advice on Psychological Counseling on the occasion of CBSE Plus 2 results ❘❘❙❙ Reviewed the book, "The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra" for the IIAS News letter of International Institute for Asian Studies, Amsterdam

Dr. P. MALARVIZHI Associate Professor ❘❘❙❙ Published an article entitled " Corporate Environmental Accounting and Reporting - A Green Framework" in " The Accounting World - Special issue on Financial Reporting" - of ICFAI, INDIA - June 2007. ❘❘❙❙ Presented a paper entitled "Evolution of corporate environmental Accounting & Reporting" in the International conference on Management challenges in the present era, May 5, 2007 - organized by Guru Nanak Institute of Management and Technology, Ludhiana, India.

Economic Research function, PICUP, which is a state investment corporation of UP in Project Appraisal, Disbursements and Recovery and DS group as Business Head. He also has wide experience in the field of Merchant Banking as Category 1 Merchant Banker. He also acted as Director in the Boards of Transasia Carpets (Yash Birla co), Eastern Silk Industries (S S Shah co), Raunaq Automotives (Raunaq Singh co), Onida Savak (Sonu Mirchandani co), Manu Mahrani hotels Ltd (DS group co), Kanpur Plastipack, Tikaula Sugars Ltd. Mr Swami's areas of interest include Project Appraisal and Finance, Corporate Finance, Security Analysis and portfolio management, Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management

SUJIT SENGUPTA Associate Professor & Area Head (Marketing)

He is a post graduate in engineering from IIT - Bombay with a diploma in management and with over 35 years of industry experience in sales, marketing & servicing. He started his career as a Management trainee in Philips India Ltd. where he served for 19 years in both service and marketing functions and rose to the level of Marketing head.

He has worked in different capacities in various companies like BPL Sanyo Utilities & Appliances Ltd. & National Panasonic India Ltd., Usha International (Shriram Group). Mr Sengupta set up his own Management Services consulting firm in the year 2006 after leaving Usha International which focussed towards corporate training. In the past one year he has conducted training programmes at LG Electronics, Usha International, Daikin Airconditioning, and Black & Dekker for their front- liners, management/ graduate trainees and service personnel. For the past 8 years Mr. Sengupta was associated with several management institutes in New The

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NEW ENTRANTS Delhi as a visiting faculty member teaching different topics related to Marketing, Sales & Distribution and Services.

Dr. R.K.PAL Dean, Post Graduate Program in Hospital Administration.

He is a medical doctor and Health Management expert having Executive Masters in Public Health degree from University of North Carolina, USA and training in Hospital Management from National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi. He has 26 years of work experience, which includes teaching Hospital Management courses at IIHMR, Jaipur and NIHFW Delhi and working with the World Health Organization for 9 years. He has the experience of managing and monitoring the Health Care and Development Projects in different states of India funded by World Bank, NORAD, MEMISA, USAID, DANIDA, UNICEF and World Health Organization. The projects coordinated by him so far, include the functional areas of Maternal and Child health, Hospital Management including the Hospital Preparedness for emergencies and disasters, Adolescent friendly health services including HIV prevention, Disease Surveillance and control including Polio eradication project of WHO and Government of India, Improved monitoring and implementation of immunization and RCH services and Blindness control. He has also played an active role in developing and monitoring projects for Tsunami affected regions in the area of Health Insurance, Environmental Sanitation and Psycho Social Support.

Dr. SHUCHI AGRAWAL Assistant Professor (OB/HR)

She is a Post graduate in Psychology from Allahabad University and PhD in the area of Organizational Psychology.

She has cleared her UGC-NET exam. She The

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has a 9 year Research and Teaching Experience. She has taught in various business schools like UIM Allahabad, GJ-IMT Chandigarh and GGSIP University Delhi. She has also conducted training programmes for companies like Xansa.

SUJATA KHANDAI Assistant Professor (Marketing)

She graduated in Economics from Madras University. After completing her PGDM from XIMB, she joined Bajaj Electricals Ltd. Thereafter, she was involved in an entrepreneurial venture in the export market. Ms. Khandai has been in academics for the last ten years.

She spent considerable number of years associated with the Marketing Area of the School of Management at Kathmandu University. She was also actively involved in conducting training programs and workshops. Her areas of interest include Consumer Behavior, Brand Management and Services Marketing. Ms. Khandai has coauthored a book Consumer Behaviour In the Indian Context, published by Galgotia Publications in 2002. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD in the area of Marketing Productivity from GGS Indraprashta University.

SURENDAR KUMAR Assistant Professor (Quantitative Techniques)

An MSc (Statistics) and PhD from Kurukshetra University, Dr Surender Kumar has over four years of academic exposure in university and management institutes. He has presented several papers at national and international conferences on Stochastic Modeling and Management.

He has published research papers in reputed journals and is a member of professional organizations like SCRA Forum for Interdisciplinary Mathematics (life membership), Indian Science Congress Association (2003 -

2004), Operational Research society of India (2004-2005), and Punjab Commerce & Management Teacher Association (2005-06). His area of expertise is Quantitative Techniques & Operations Research which includes Stochastic Modeling, Operations Research, Business Statistics & Econometrics. He has received many awards and honours in his career. He also has a university diploma in German language.

ANU SHARMA Assistant Professor (Marketing)

She is an MBA, Marketing and PhD (submitted) in Customer Relationship Management from the Institute of Management Studies, Kurukshetra University. She has six years of teaching experience in leading B-Schools in Delhi and NCR, her last assignment being Senior Lecturer, Marketing, at the Asia Pacific Institute of Management, New Delhi. She has a research experience of three years and has two research papers to her credit, titled: Customer expectations from a cellular service in Haryana and Factor Analysis of Mobile phone usage patterns amongst students in India: With special reference to Delhi and NCR Her current areas of interest include customer relationship management, consumer behavior, marketing communication and marketing management.

VIPIN AGRAWAL Lecturer (Marketing)

He did his B.Com ( Hons), MBA both from BHU and subsequently qualified for UGC NET JRF. He worked with Jaypee Cement Ltd and then shifted to academics. He taught at the School of Management Sciences, Varanasi and NIFT, New Delhi. He was also the unit incharge, International Centres Unit, at NIFT. His areas of interest are Marketing Management., Consumer Behavior and Brand Management.

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The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at, when we created them.

Albert Einstein

Be careful of yesterday's success, because success tastes so good it dulls the appetite for risk.

The first two rules of investing: 1. Don't lose capital. 2. Don't forget rule number 1.

--Alvin Toffler

Warren Buffett

The five steps in teaching an employee new skills are preparation, explanation, showing, observation and supervision.

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.

Bruce Barton

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement.

Marketing takes a day to learn and a lifetime to master.

Peter Drucker

Kotler

Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later work belongs.

Albert Einstein

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Institute for Higher Education