mjPost, Sept 2014

JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014 | VOLUME VI | ISSUE III

From the MD

D

ear junctionites,

The festive season has begun in right earnest and the third quarter of the year will see us revelling in some celebration or the other. The best part is that there is something in these celebrations for each one of us. India is a land of great diversity and a melting pot of cultures. These festivities are thus inevitably marked by unanimity, a spirit of bonhomie and brotherhood. I have always believed our country is a powerhouse of talent and united, we can indeed move mountains.

Among many other things, the successful launch of Mangalyaan leant credence to my belief. A remarkable achievement, it made every Indian proud and overshadowed a lot of negativities.

As we step into the third quarter, I wish to share with you something that may change mjunction’s position in the corporate panorama altogether. Ever since we began operations in 2001, we have largely been a company whose strengths were concentrated in the eastern part of the country. The reasons have been several, one of them being the coal and mineral rich region which have been our core areas of work. We did have our offices though all over India and of course our representatives who worked out of there. Very recently, however, we took a strategic decision to strengthen our regional bases. The process

is already underway. The south, north and west of India will now have strengthened mjunction offices. Senior executives will be posted there and will be responsible for not only ensuring business growth across the various mjunction verticals, but also identifying new service opportunities. The role will need to be directly and accurately attuned with the needs of the client and I believe this step will go a long way in serving our clients in those regions much better than perhaps what we are being able to do now. mjunction underwent the TBEM assessment in the second quarter. Business excellence is part of what we do every day. We do follow processes and the assessment seeks to test and ratify them.

Excellence is a continuous journey and does not end with the assessment. We scored higher than the previous assessment in the “good performance” band. However, there is no room for complacency.

As I said, it is a continuous process and we will participate in the assessment next year too. Though there is a team responsible for it, the assessment is an indicator of what each one of you is doing and how each one of you is contributing.

To my mind, a significant highlight of this year has been the Tata Volunteering Week and the spontaneity with which so many of you participated in the various activities that were planned out. This is the second time that tataengage spearheaded this initiative on such a grand scale. More than 40,000 Tata Group employees registered themselves on tataengage.

And around 150 junctionites participated across 23 diverse programmes. Some took cookery classes with underprivileged children, some played chess with them and yet others trained NGO organisations on project management. In the end, it was the spirit that counted and I am proud to say that it was indeed a labour of love.

Congratulations to all of you.

The ninth Movement for Efficiency and Transparency (MET) event in Bhubaneswar was once again a grand success and once again left the audience mesmerised with the kind of work that is being planned and executed on a sustained basis in our country. My heartfelt thanks to the four speakers who are working to make a difference – Madan Padaki, Co-Founder, CEO and MD of Head Held High Services, Kartik Ganesan, Senior Research Associate, CEEW, Nawal Agrawal, Founder and Director of Get Up 4 Change (RTI

Anonymous) and Shubhasis Pattnaik, Executive Director, Gram Vikas. The dream run started three years ago and it has only grown during this time.

And that is exactly why ejunction is so dear to me as I believe skill development and employability will drive the future. I am happy to share with you that ejunction is going from strength to strength.

We held a convocation for two batches recently and the successful students spoke about the difference ejunction has made in their lives. And that is where the satisfaction stems from.

Wishing you all safe festivities.

Regards,

WHAT’S INSIDE MD leads CII delegations to Bihar, Chhattisgarh

2

Bhubaneswar hosts 9th MET

3

ICT East in Kolkata

4

CII Unicef CSR hub

5

mj in the news

6

A new paradigm on innovation

7

milestones @ mjunction

8

8th Indian Coal Markets Conference

10

mj ki Adaalat

11

Travelogue: Bishnupur, Dubai

12

Know your junctionite

14

Tata Volunteering Week II

15

Client Speak

16

mj holds awareness sessions

17

Spot awards and new faces

18

Quiz corner

19

Gallery

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Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014

FROM THE

EDITOR’S DESK

Dear junctionites, A 17-year-old Pakistani crusader made history by becoming the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Malala Yousafzai’s win marks her efforts to make education available to children – especially girls – around the world. In early 2009, when she was only 11, Yousafzai blogged anonymously for the BBC about life under the Taliban regime. And in October 2012, she survived an assassination attempt by a Taliban gunman.

Since her recovery from the surgery, Yousafzai has taken her campaign to the global stage, notably with a speech last year at the United Nations.

The Department of Business Management, Calcutta University, organised a seminar on “Empowering the Managers for 2025; Harnessing the Demographic Dividend of India,” on September 20 in Kolkata. Our CEO and MD was the chief guest at the inaugural session of the seminar. Mr Oberoi said India needs “thought leadership” across the spectrum which will better enable the country to make the optimum use of its demographic advantage.

m

On the other side of the border, a 60-year-old Indian crusader, who has rescued almost 80,000 children from labour, is now adding this award to his name. But Kailash Satyarthi has always restlessly sought to do more.

junction CEO and MD, who is also the Chairman of CII-Eastern Region, led a CII delegation to meet the Bihar Chief Minister Mr Jitan Ram Manjhi in Patna on September 5 to discuss various schemes it is working on to improve economic scenario in the state.

The team apprised the Chief Minister of its work in the fields of agriculture, tourism, health care and food processing, among others.

Mr Oberoi said that Bihar has tremendous potential of emerging as one of the largest service sector hubs of the nation. “Bihar has a plethora of human power that, when utilised properly, can prove to be a huge asset for the state. Due to this fact, Bihar can be developed as the service sector hub that does not rely on land acquisition,” he said.

This year’s Nobel Peace Prize is shared between two individuals who are united by a cause – making the world a better place for children – but are divided by geographies, politics and diplomatic policies. These two crusaders belong to two nations, which was once one. The Nobel Peace Prize this year sends a strong message…of peace and humanity that flows freely across the borders that separate India and Pakistan.

From peace let’s talk about celebrations. It was the time of the year for which Kolkata waits with bated breath – Durga Puja. Lights, sights, sounds, creativity, razzle dazzle…the crazed city has it all.

When you see the Saccharum Spontaneum aka kaash grass on the horizons or when you wake up at 4 am to the sound of Birendra Krishna Bhadra’s Mahalaya, you know the Goddess has arrived.

She signifies power, she signifies family ties, she is an embodiment of love and blessings, but she has many other facets as well. Indian cinema has captured them quite well over the years. In a book on Durga that I co-authored titled “Durga: A Woman of Substance” I had captured the way cinema has been able to portray the Goddess in various avatars – a child, a woman, a mother, a warrior. Filmmakers, from Satyajit Ray to Rituparno Ghosh have successfully captured these facets over the years – be it the “child Durga” of Pather Panchali or the “bahu Durga” of Devi or the “woman Durga” of Antarmahal. When I watch these creations I feel I am celebrating Durga Puja.

I wish all junctionites a safe and Happy Diwali.

Mr Viresh Oberoi led a CII delegation for an interaction and discussion with the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh in September, on the development of the state.

Editorial Advisor Editor Madhuchanda Dasgupta Design Debal Ray, Sobhan Jas For suggestions, feedback and queries, please write to mjpost@mjunction.in

Visit us at www.mjunction.in Copyright: All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the prior permission of mjunction services limited. Please inform us if any copyright has been inadvertently infringed.

Disclaimer: This document is for information purpose only. Certain information herein has been acquired from various external sources believed to be reliable. While we have taken reasonable care to compile this report, we in no way assume any responsibility for any error or discrepancy in regards to information contained herein. Readers are requested to make appropriate judgement without any prejudice or compulsion.

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Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014

Bhubaneswar hosts

9th MET event

T

he ninth event of the Movement for Efficiency & Transparency (MET) was held at the XIMB Auditorium of Bhubaneswar on August 27.

Mr Viresh Oberoi, founder MET, and MD, mjunction, said: “mjunction has ushered in transparency and efficiency in the sales processes of steel and coal supply chains in India, as also to the sourcing and procurement processes across industries.

MET has been instituted to recognise those who have brought about efficiency and transparency across aspects of governance, corporate and social life. ” From Tata Steel, who was principal sponsor at the event, Mr Rajiv Kumar, VicePresident, Operations, Kalinganagar Project said: “Efficiency and transparency are not

Rajiv Kumar, VP Operations, Kalinganagar Project, Tata Steel

easy and Tata Steel, which is a global player, faced its own challenges to live up to its great legacy of ethical leadership.”

The event saw four change agents sharing their stories. Mr Madan Padaki is Co-founder, CEO & Managing Director of Head Held High Services, a rural access accelerator that unleashes the power of the Rubans (a term for the neo rural-urbans) by providing career access to youth, business access to entrepreneurs and market access to corporates. He said Ruban is a combination of the rural and the urban and Head Held High attempts to bridge the gap in order to improve the Ruban economies or Rubanomics.

Mr Karthik Ganesan is a Senior Research Associate at the Council on Energy, Environment & Water (CEEW). He leads the research efforts in the area of energy access and the future energy consumption pathways of rural India, and the opportunities for industrial energy efficiency gains. He said that India has a large role to play in the global scenario of climate change. He also

Madan Padaki,Co-founder, CEO & MD, Head Held High Services

spoke about the importance of all forms of energies for the growth of the nation and importance of transparency and efficiency in the resource area.

Mr Nawal Agrawal is Founder and Director of Get Up 4 Change (RTI Anonymous), which facilitates filing of anonymous online RTI applications. His journey as a change agent started out of his sheer interest in policy making. He spoke about the importance of RTI for every citizen and also citizen’s rights to ask questions on usage of public funds and inspection of accounts and materials involved.

Mr Subhashis Pattnaik is Executive Director of Gram Vikas, one of the largest and most impactful NGOs in India. In the past 35 years, Gram Vikas has been a path breaker in modelling and implementing several grassroots level interventions that have been sustainable and transformational in nature for the rural poor. Specifically, its contribution towards providing water and sanitation to rural households has been phenomenal.

He said adding accountability, along with transparency and efficiency, is required for the benefit of the stakeholders. He invited the audience to come up with innovative ideas to help the larger cause of the community and the society.

The highlight of the event was a panel discussion on the topic ‘Efficiency and Transparency: The Key to an Ever Flourishing Society’. The discussion was moderated by Mr Oberoi, in which all the four speakers as well as Mr Kumar participated. It was followed by an enriching question-answer session. Scalability was one of the key issues which was addressed and taken up at the panel discussion.

Karthik Ganesan, Senior Research Associate, CEEW

Nawal Agrawal, Founder & Director, Get Up 4 Change

Subhashis Pattnaik, Executive Director, Gram Vikas

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Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014

MD chairs change leadership session

Mr Viresh Oberoi chaired a session on Process Models in Change Leadership at the 5th National Seminar on Leadership and Organisational Change on July 30 at the CII Suresh Neotia Centre of Excellence and Leadership. Noted industrialists attended this conference.

T

he mjunction CEO and MD, Mr Viresh Oberoi, delivered the welcome address at the 13th edition of ICT East: Digital Strategies for Challenging Times, organised by the CII eastern region, in his capacity as the chairman. Mr Abdul Latif Siddiqui, Hon’ble Minister, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Government of The People’s Republic of Bangladesh, graced the occasion with his presence at the event held in Kolkata earlier this month.

He led a delegation from Bangladesh to the ICT East. Dr Amit Mitra, the West Bengal minister for Information Technology & Electronics, Commerce & Industries and Finance, was also present on the occasion. Mr Oberoi, in his address, spoke about digital technologies and how they can be best put to use in these challenging times.

MPs hold forth on good governance Mr Viresh Oberoi attended a meeting with Members of Parliament from Bihar in New Delhi in August in his capacity as chairman of CII eastern region.

M

r Viresh Oberoi delivered a guest lecture at the Army Institute of Management in Kolkata on August 26, where he spoke on his own early days as a professional as well as mjunction’s. He said mjunction is an organisation for people where technology is the enabler and innovation is a need.

The session ended with an engaging interaction with the students who were keen to learn about Mr Oberoi’s journey from Tata Steel to heading the world’s largest e-marketplace for steel.

He stressed on making a positive impact in society as he said the joy of giving is far better than the joy of receiving. He emphasised on the creation of value in anything a person does. He ended the session with a strong emphasis on technology and the fight to survive in the everchanging global business environment.

O

ur CEO and MD and CII eastern region chairman Mr Viresh Oberoi attended an interactive session on August 29, which was arranged by the British Deputy High Commission of Kolkata and CII, in Kolkata. The session was called “Ushering Good Governance and Sustainable Development: The Role of an MP”, and was attended by four distinguished members of Parliament - Mr Dinesh Trivedi, Mr Sugato Bose, Mr Prem Das Rai and Mr Rajeev Gowda.

The British Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata Scott Furssedonn-Wood opened the discussion by remarking on how it was “exciting to be in India” when the country staged the “greatest demonstration of participatory democracy the world has seen”.

The panel of MPs agreed that the challenge for them was to balance the pulls and pressures of their constituency and the demands of politics with sustainable governance.

Mr Oberoi said the aim of sustainable development is to meet the needs of the present without compromising on the ability of the future generations to meet their own. “The need of the hour is to curb discretionary powers and to ring in judicial and police reforms,” he said, adding that it was not enough to pass laws, they also had to be executed well.

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Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014

CII-UNICEF meet

CII Eastern Region Chairman and mjunction CEO and MD, Mr Viresh Oberoi was the chief guest at CII’s Independence Day celebrations in Kolkata.

Mr Oberoi hoisted the flag in the presence of other senior CII officials.

On the occasion, he reiterated CII’s national theme of 2014-15 of Accelerating Growth, Creating Employment.

O

n July 6, the CII Eastern Region, led by our CEO and MD, organised a CII-UNICEF CSR Hub “Knowledge Seminar on Education” in association with UNICEF. The seminar was attended by Prof. Sugata Mitra, best known for his million-dollar TED prize for his “Hole in the Wall” experiment and widely cited in works on literacy and education. He is Chief Scientist, Emeritus, at NIIT. In a presentation, Prof. Mitra, who teaches Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, England, made a fervent appeal for an end to the Victorian way of education that stifles free mind and denies right to question. He also said students perform better when they are in a group.

“There happens an intellectual amplification in a group,” he said.

Prof. Mitra’s presentation and the questions he took thereafter brought out the core vision that he stands for, self-organised learning environment (SOLE), which advocates an open environment for children to study.

Mr Viresh Oberoi said, “The CII-UNICEF CSR Hub is very special to me as I have been associated with it since inception. I have seen the formation of the Hub and witnessed its growth and development, as it went from being a knowledge repository to an implementing tool. CII is working towards achieving a sustainable and inclusive growth curve and the CSR Hub is one of our many executive arms for the purpose.

“CII has been actively working in the areas of Policy Recommendations on Public-Private-Partnerships in School & Higher Education, Right to Education, Accreditation, Upgradation of School & Higher Education.”

Mr Asadur Rahman, Chief of Field Office – West Bengal, UNICEF, was also present at the seminar.

Mr Viresh Oberoi speaking at CII’s fourth Eastern Regional Council Meeting in Darjeeling in September.

Learning @mj

Eight senior mjunction executives have successfully cleared the tough Certified Professional in Supply Chain Management (CPSM) examination from ISM-USA recently. It is a degree course and one of the most prestigious courses recognised worldwide in the field of supply chain management.

The CPSM® degree certifies that they have the key knowledge and skills in areas such as finance, supplier relationship management, organisation global strategy and risk compliance and that they are leaders in the supply chain management profession.

The executives who have cleared this course are Mr Vinaya Varma, Mr Indranil Chaudhuri, Kaushik Sarkar, Mr Anirban Sarkar, Mr Ashish Goel, Mr Samya Mukherjee, Mr Indranil Karak and Mr Sourav Dey. The certification entails qualification of an individual through three successive levels each of which tests the individual’s capability to understand the concept of procurement as well as intellectual competence and decision taking ability.

Congratulations to all of them.

Mr Viresh Oberoi attended a CII eastern region Safety Symposium & Exposition on September 11 at the ITC Sonar in Kolkata. In the picture (from L to R): Mr P K Roy, Professor, IIT-Kharagpur, Mr Anand Sen, President (TQM & Steel Business), Tata Steel Ltd; Mr Viresh Oberoi; Mr Madan Mitra, West Bengal minister of transport & sports, and Dr Saugat Mukherjee, Regional Director, CII Eastern Region.

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Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014

mj in the news The Times of India

The Economic Times

Ananda Bazar Patrika

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Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014

A new paradigm on Innovation Dipankar Acharya

“Under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them..”

James Surowiecki - The Wisdom of Crowds, 2004

I

n the current competitive market scenario, the definition and role of innovation has changed from simply facilitating competitive advantage, to something imperative for longterm sustainability of the organisations. Earlier, innovation was driven by only a select few in organisations. Now, however, organisations have realised the power of collective wisdom, and that is how innovation is driven.

This has led to “crowd sourcing”, using the power of Web 2.0, characterised by social media, virtual communities and collaboration. Since it is driven via challenges and problems faced by companies, it helps people to ideate in a more structured and result driven manner.

Companies like Proctor & Gamble (“Connect & Develop”) and Dell (“Ideastorm”) have set up platforms to gain ideas from netizens all over the world. The Tata Group has also utilised the crowd sourcing phenomenon in the concept of Tata Innoverse, a platform for ideation and innovation across Tata Group companies. As of now, 17 Tata companies are on Innoverse,

mjunction being one of them. More companies are coming on board on a regular basis.

In Innoverse, companies post challenges, which are detailed descriptions of problems or pain points being faced by them. Employees in the company and other Tata companies ideate, collaborate and build on ideas and offer solutions. Organisations

evaluate the ideas and select the feasible ones for implementation. A reward and recognition process encourages employees to participate.

Challenges Worth Solving (CWS) happens twice a year, in which the companies post their most difficult challenges. This process is managed by the Tata Group Innovation Forum, and the chosen solutions are rewarded and recognised at a group platform. In addition, employees can also submit ideas without challenges (called Individual Triggered Ideas), which may be general ideas for innovation and improvement to the company. mjunction went live on Innoverse on June 26, and till 12th October, we have posted 18 challenges, which have given us 244 ideas. This includes 122 ideas given to us by other Tata companies. We have also received

CHALLENGE

WINNER

105 ideas without challenges (called “individual triggered ideas”).

In the first round of evaluation, 5 ideas were selected by the organisation, out of which 1 idea was from outside mjunction. The winners of these selected ideas were given straightline gift vouchers and T-Shirts by the CEO and MD Mr Viresh Oberoi. Winners from outside the organisation were sent the rewards via courier In the second round of evaluation, 6 ideas were selected by the organisation, out of which 2 ideas were from outside mjunction. The winners of these selected ideas were given straightline gift vouchers and T-Shirts by the CEO and MD Mr Viresh Oberoi. Winners from outside the organisation were sent the rewards via courier In the third round of evaluation, 4 ideas were selected by the organisation. The winners of these selected ideas will be given straightline gift vouchers and T-Shirts in the November monthly get-together.

IDEA

What mobile applications can we develop that will add value to our B2B businesses

Shiladitya Saha

Loyalty services on mobile - points statement, gifts that can be redeemed, placement of orders vide the mobile phone, status of deliveries via sms, etc.

Adhiraj Bhaduri

Mobile app for the publications of mjedge

Make MET a brand promoting efficiency and transparency in public life.

Shiladitya Saha

Co-branding via tie-up with institutions, organizations, brands

Vini Amesar (Tata Capital)

Promote MET on Social networking sites. Start social media campaign

NA (Individual Triggered Idea)

Moutushi Roy

Blank space of office envelopes for promotional advertisements

Ashish Goel

Annually award leaders (non-political) who have become synonym of efficiency or transparency in public life

Piya Nandi

Give local communities a global voice - Network with Corporates, Govt, Donors and Development authorities

Subroto Mukherjee

Create a separate standby box via HADR (High Availability Disaster Recovery) through log-shipping mechanism which has a lag time of milliseconds and data transfer happens in real- time

Krishnakumar Puthenmadam (Tata Communications)

3 Approaches to enhance query performance via optimization of database structure

How to get Competitive Intelligence for performance benchmarking

Rohit Agarwal (Tata Motors Finance)

Utilize the Internal Employees expertise to gather the Competitive benchmark via an IT enabled system

Performance Measurement Techniques for Outsourcing Projects

Avinash Dhoot

Top 10 Metrics to Strengthen Organizational Procurement Practices

Make MET a brand promoting efficiency and transparency in public life.

Fetching real-time reports during peak business hours

Scalability of Business Beyond Promoter Clients Vijaykrishna Ramanathan

Consulting approach – provide common platform for access to corporates for banks

NA (Individual Triggered Idea)

Amlan Nag

Organizational Brand Building initiatives – Standardized templates, Brand shop

NA (Individual Triggered Idea)

Md Feroz

Application of standard costing in tracking Projects

NA (Individual Triggered Idea)

Sabyasachi Bhattacharya

SOP for activities & Documentation of process flow

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Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014

milestones @mjunction www.buyjunction.in

www.metaljunction.com

buyjunction aids procurement of copper cathode for SAIL

metaljunction facilitates auction of Tata BlueScope Steel scrap

SAIL used to conduct offline negotiations for copper cathode for seven of its units – Bhilai Steel Pant, Bokaro Steel Plant, Rourkela Steel Plant, Salem Steel Plant, SAIL Growth Works, Alloy Steel Plant and Durgapur Steel Plant – and the coordination for this buy was done by Bokaro Steel Plant. The annual procurement value of the buy was about Rs 100 crore and there were only three existing suppliers for the item namely Hindustan Copper Limited, Sesa Sterlite and Hindalco. Bokaro Steel Plant mandated buyjunction to devise an online strategy for procurement of 2,636 tons of copper cathode.

Tata BlueScope Steel Ltd (TBSL) mandated mjunction to sell secondary scrap and surplus material from its Jamshedpur plant.

Client objectives ♦♦ Obtaining the most competitive market rates; ♦♦ Reduction in cycle time from RFQ issuance to finalization of contract; ♦♦ Encourage more competition through appropriate bidding strategy.

Challenges ♦♦ To break the cartelisation among leading suppliers; ♦♦ Gaining mindspace of existing suppliers who were used to offline processes, convincing them to come forth and compete online; ♦♦ To encourage fair competition between the suppliers; ♦♦ To overcome the time constraint and enabling quick finalisation of contract by client.

The strategy The team began by analysing the cost drivers to understand market movements and devised a feasible negotiation strategy through e-platform.

Finally, a reverse auction was conducted on premium discount rate basis on the start bid price.

Deployment of right resources, review and monitoring processes and increased engagement with suppliers to ensure cycle time reduction were part of the strategy.

Outcome For the first time, an event of this backgrounds and size was brought on the online platform, and resulted in a 2% reduction from the sealed bid price. The cartel was successfully broken by ensuring a transparent and fair bidding process.

The total value of transactions during the event was Rs 100 crore.

Client objectives ♦♦ Higher price realisation; ♦♦ Faster turnaround time

Challenges The challenge with financejunction was to devise a scheme which would address all the issues which Jai Gurudev was facing with financing its buys.

The strategy

Challenges Before conducting the first event, metaljunction collected the selling data of the last four months from TBSL. The following were identified as challenges: ♦♦ Limited customer participation, creating monopoly for few customers; ♦♦ Lack of competition due to absence of new customers. This resulted in lower price realisation; ♦♦ In the absence of defined schedule for payment and lifting, auction cycle time was affected.

The strategy metaljunction began by reaching out to all potential customers across the country. Through proper display and information of materials, metaljunction also generated increased interest in the auctions.

Material specifications and photographs were displayed in the catalogue. metaljunction also ensured a fixed inspection schedule for interested customers before the auction, and was present there to guide them.

Outcome As many as 45 customers participated in the auction compared to the average of 12 to 15 in the previous events. The event also resulted in an overall 12.65% price appreciation.

www.financejunction.in

financejunction helps Jai Gurudev to increase business Jai Gurudev, a Ghaziabad-based trader, buys material regularly from steel majors through mjunction’s online auction platform for selling secondary steel, metaljunction. financejun Client objectives The bidding customer was unable to expand its

8

business and increase its buying capacity due to liquidity issues. It was also unable to take part and emerge as H1 bidder in the metaljunction auctions.

The following were the problems they needed to address as they were in constant need of funds to meet their working capital requirements: ♦♦ High interest rate ♦♦ Unavailability of unsecured funds ♦♦ Lengthening payment cycle ♦♦ Constrained buying due to inadequate credit limits

To bring about financial inclusion for the bidding customer, financejunction devised the Buyer Finance scheme with an objective to provide funds at competitive rates with minimum collateral. The availability of cheaper unsecured funds increased their auction participation. The increased buying power also enabled them to expand their business.

Outcome Jai Gurudev is associated with financejunction since August 2011 to avail of its buyer finance scheme. Since then, it has availed unsecured finance over Rs 40 crore via financejunction to fund their buys from metaljunction auctions. In the last three years, there has been an average 50% y-o-y increase in purchase for the customer.

www.valuejunction.in

valuejunction aids sale of Linde unit Linde India, formerly BOC India Limited, is a part of the Linde Group and the leading industrial gases company in India. They own and operate India’s largest air separation plant and run more than 20 production facilities and filling stations across the country. valuejunction received a mandate from Linde to sell their oxygen and nitrogen gas plant and its equipment at Tarapur MIDC (Chemical Zone), at Maharashtra.

Client objectives Linde wanted to sell the unit to the right buyer and expected valuejunction to ensure that they got a good price for it.

Challenges valuejunction had to abide by Linde norms, which did not permit the gas plant to be sold as a whole unit. It, therefore, had to be cut and sold. This would, however, lower the market value of the gas plant and the equipment on sale.

Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014 Strategy adopted Valuejunction carried out a detailed inspection of the gas plant, its equipment and machinery.

It estimated its value and submitted a detailed inspection report to the client with the estimated market price and sale strategy. Once valujejunction received the green signal from Linde, it proceeded. valuejunction reached out to eligible buyers from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi and Chennai.

Twenty-five buyers verified by valuejunction took part in the auction which was held online on the valuejunction portal. A two-stage auction strategy – sealed bid and forward auction – was followed to encourage competitive bidding and ensure a good price realisation.

Outcome valuejunction was able to complete the sale in less than three months and unlock a value of Rs 3.22 crore, 7.33% higher than the market price.

www.coaljunction.in

coaljunction helps sell Tata Power coal mill rejects Tata Power has a coal-based thermal power plant with a production capacity of 428 MW in Jojobera of Jharkhand. coaljunction was mandated to sell 3500 tons of Tata Power’s coal mill rejects.

Client objectives Coal mill reject is a by-product of the plant and the primary objective is quick disposal of stock to vacate premises.

Challenges Coal mill reject is not a regular product sold on the coaljunction platform. The primary challenge for the coaljunction team was to find the right buyers for this product.

Strategy adopted To start with, the coaljunction team took concentrated market making efforts and spoke to a number of customers to understand the right buyer segment of the product.

The team contacted the entire buyer base of Jharkhand, and also took the help of the agent network of Jharkhand and Bihar to discover buyers of the product.

Team coaljunction also ensured that there was speedy approval post the auction from the clients end thereby also ensuring buyer delight.

Outcome coaljunction was able to sell the entire quantity of 3500 tons. There was an increase in price. Quick approval from the customer resulted in buyer satisfaction.

mjunction provides rebar estimation solution to Natsteel mjunction delivers a diverse customised steel reinforcement and services through an Knowledge Centre. Its service include:

range of solutions Offshore offerings

Estimation ♦♦ Calculation of quantity of construction material required; ♦♦ Pre and post tendering estimation.

Detailing ♦♦ This happens in the post tendering stage using advanced detailing tools; ♦♦ Shop drawing of reinforcing steel units in the form of either MESHES, CAGES CUT/ BENT BARS. Cost savings to clients ♦♦ Savings due to labour cost arbitrage up to 63% ♦♦ Savings up to 30% due to process automation and higher productivity ♦♦ Savings up to 30% owing to a credible brand, lower attrition and thus higher productivity.

Natsteel Holdings Pte Ltd of Singapore asked mjunction to work out its rebar estimation and detailing requirements. The following were their challenges: ♦♦ Paucity of qualified skilled resources ♦♦ High ‘skilled-resource’ costs ♦♦ Absence of automation and standardization in the job process mjunction’s solution ♦♦ Qualified, experienced and skilled engineers made available ♦♦ Skilled resources at a reduced cost ♦♦ Software usage in detailing jobs introduced. ♦♦ Collaborated with principal for new software – TME, TBE, TCT etc. – increased automation and standardization of job processes Outcome ♦♦ Increase in throughput for Nat Steel by up to 80% ♦♦ Direct cost saving up to 63% ♦♦ Increased productivity and cost saving up to 30% due to elimination of manual interventions and faster corrective actions .

metaljunction achieves record pooled iron despatch in August metaljunction, the steel sales unit of mjunction, achieved a milestone in August 2014 – an alltime high despatch of 51,550 tons of pooled iron during the month, despite constraints such as city no entry from August 1 to 16, and several political rallies.

This milestone could be achieved through concerted efforts by both the Jamshedpur and Kolkata teams.

Jamshedpur Daily tracking of vehicles; Coordination for placement of vehicles in order to achieve maximum lifting; Resolving the issues related to transporters from Tata Steel end; Expedited DO release; Ensure client approval of H1 report on same day; Minimise the lead time by ensuring closure of DO within mentioned timeline.

Kolkata Decided apt auction strategy to achieve best results; Auction conducted with high precision to meet the sales target; Issuance of confirmation letter on same day of auction; Ensured timely payment from customers and expedited release of DO.

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Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014

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taring in the face of mounting supply gap, the Indian coal industry must bring in structural changes, remove the known obstacles and adopt best practices in vogue in countries like Australia and Canada. These were the three-point prescriptions offered by the experts that took part in the 8th Indian Coal Markets Conference held in Kolkata on September 14-16.

Altogether, more than 300 delegates took part in the three-day proceedings. The event was organised by mjunction services limited, HIS McCloskey and the Coal Consumers’ Association of India.

In the backdrop of the NDA government’s stress on power sector expansion and the Supreme Court’s observation on coal block allocations, the industry urged the government to take a pragmatic view of the situation and initiate effective steps.

One such step could be “electricity tariff rationalisation,” said T K Lahiry, CMD, Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL). As part of its effort to rationalise coal linkages, the government should also go for tariff rationalisation so as to enable coast-based power plants run their operations entirely on the basis of imported coal.

As for coal block allocation, India could look at Australia and Canada to “re-do some of our processes” for giving licences, said Harsh Sachdev, MD, S&T Mining Ltd. Kameshwar Rao, Partner, PwC India, noted how Indian planners can take inputs from incentives provided in coal exporting countries including Australia.

The speakers also emphasised on the need to go for detailed exploration and remove bottlenecks which are well known and oft-discussed. Only a minuscule part of India’s total forest reserves hold its coal reserves, pointed out an expert from the industry. Coal India representatives claimed the miner can produce 1 billion tons of coal within next two years if the structural bottlenecks such as land, clearance and logistics hurdles are taken care of.

The major focus in this year’s ICMC award winners conference was the issues plaguing the Imported Coal Trader of the Year: Indian coal consumers. V K Arora, Adani Enterprises Ltd President (coal services), Karam Domestic Coal Trader of the Year: Chand Thapar & Bros., said “Unless Indermani Minerals India P Ltd there is huge scale discovery of shale : Coal Inspection Agency of the Year gas, leading to restriction of demand Ltd s orie orat Geo Chem Lab for coal, the Indian coal consumers : Coal Mining Contractor of the Year should get ready for a hard time.”

Ltd s strie Essel Mining & Indu David Price, Senior Director, Coal Port Performer of the Year: IHS, said that the global market is Mundra Port looking at India after Chinese growth : story started slowing down. However, Coal Trade Finance Bank of the Year “still lots to be done before India IDBI Bank drives world markets as China has Coal Transporter of the Year: done. And the world market needs KCT Coal Sales Ltd direction now,” he said.

mjunction’s Guiding Force

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Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014

mj holds its Adaalat for second time

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he second edition of mj Ki Adaalat was held on September 26 at mjunction's Godrej Waterside premises. The accused of this edition was Mr Tapas Chakraborty who represented the sales function of mjunction. Mr Amlan Nag from HR was the public prosecutor and Mr Atin Banerjee of Automation, the defendant lawyer. Mr Deepak Bhattacharya of metaljunction and coaljunction played the role of the revered judge. Ms Nidhi Bist of HR was the coordinator of the event and also asked the questions on behalf of all junctionites.

The questions ranged from Mr Chakraborty's dressing choices to essential qualities in a salesperson.

Mr Chakraborty took all questions with his characteristic elan. At the end of the gruelling 45-minute session, Mr Chakraborty was absolved of all charges by the judge!

Certificates awarded to ejunction passouts

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n ejunction convocation was held at mjunction’s Godrej Waterside premises on September 24. Certificates were awarded to 34 successful students who completed ejunction’s fourmonth module. Of them, 22 were from ejunction’s independent centre at Godrej Waterside and 12 from the captive centre at Hemchandra Library in Khidirpore. These batches were conducted between April to August 2014.

Registered students for a new ejunction batch also attended the convocation ceremony.

Speaking on the occasion, the vice-president of mjunction services, Mr Vinaya Varma, congratulated the successful students and welcomed the new. He said it is up to the students to take advantage of the hard work put in by the trainers and everybody at ejunction.

The managing trustee of ejunction, Mr Suvajit Chakraborty, said ejunction can only help the students to strive for better lives. It can act as a facilitator but the effort has to come from the students themselves.

The certificates were given away by other senior officials of mjunction.

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Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014 Travel far enough, you meet yourself David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

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uckily for us, however, we did not have to travel too far. It was mid-July and amidst stifling humidity in the city, a welcome email from a close friend suggested a break during an impending extended weekend. I was looking for an opportunity and a trip to the neighbouring district of Bankura in West Bengal seemed ideal.

Our trip was to be centred around Bishnupur, a town in the Bankura district. Bishnupur town is famous for the terracotta temples made from the locally available laterite stones. The Malla rulers were Vaishnavites and built these temples during the 17th and 18th century.

It was a five and half hour bus journey from Esplanade and I certainly felt taking a train would have been far more comfortable and convenient. Our hotel was a five-minute walk from the Bishnupur bus stand, and yet insulated from the cacophony of the town. After checking in, we promptly headed for the Susunia Hills which is situated at the north-western part of Bankura District. It is known for its holy spring, its natural beauty, its rich flora and the rock faces on which many of the famous mountaineers of this region started their journey. It also has one of the richest reserves of medicinal plants. A heavy downpour on the way added to the beauty of the rocky journey. Of course the rains and the fading daylight made it impossible to climb the hills so we had to be content with drinking a cup of tea at the base of the Susunia.

We then headed back to Bishnupur to see some heritage temples maintained by the ASI. I must also make mention of some artist studios that we visited. Unfortunately, they were cramped, unventilated and shabby and that is the conditions under which these artists pursued their art. One art form which left a lasting impression was the ‘Dashavatara cards’ which are produced from natural dyes. These were earlier used to play games and now with the games nearing extinction, these were now used as pictograms of the royal Bishnupur art.

The next morning we woke up to the sound of chirping birds, which is a rarity by itself in the brick and mortar of city life. After a quick breakfast, the day began with a visit to the famed

Of adventure, heritage and natural beauty Aniruddha Ghosh, buyjunction

temple of the Malla regime, ‘Rasmancha’ which is the oldest brick temple built by King Bir Hambir.

The temple has an unusual elongated pyramidal tower, surrounded by hut-shaped turrets, which were very typical of Bengali roof structures of the time. After that we also visited the Jor-Bangla Temple, Pancha Ratna (Shyam Ray) Temple, Madanmohan Temple, Lalji Temple, Radhya Shyam temple, Nandalal Temple, Kalachand temple, Mrinmayee Temple and Chhinnamasta Temple. Apart from the last two temples where goddess Durga is worshipped, at all other places Lord Vishnu is being worshipped in one of his avatars or the other.

We also went to the nearby Gum ghar which was used by kings for storage purpose. Legend goes that it was used as a dungeon or prison.

A watch tower and the 1600 AD metallurgical marvel, a Dalmadal cannon, comprised some of the other attractions. Bishnupur locals believe that Lord Madanmohan or Krishna fired that weapon with his own hand to protect His city from the inroads of Maratha dacoits or borgies.

After lunch we travelled for another two hours to reach Mukutmanipur via Jhilimili, which is at the confluence of rivers Kangsabati and Kumari.

Also known as Kangsabati Project, a 38 m high and 10,098 m long dam called Mukutmanipur Dam was constructed at the border of Purulia and West Midnapore. We had a great boating experience for nearly two hours, and went over

to the other side of the river which has a reserve forest and a deer park.

“Travel in all the four quarters of the earth, yet you will find nothing anywhere. Whatever there is, is only here.”

On the third day we went to Jairambati, the birthplace of Ma Sharada and Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa. Nobel Laureate Romain Rolland said Ramakrishna Paramhansa is the “consummation of two thousand years of the spiritual life of three hundred million people. “He said, “Allowing for differences of country and of time, Ramakrishna is the younger brother of Christ.”

This was the last leg of our holiday. After offering our prayers, we moved to Kamarpukur, the place where Ramakrishna spent his early days.

Very soon, it was time for us to get back to the grind and that was the end of a fulfilling break.

Though we had a great trip, one cannot help but feel a tinge of regret at the woefully pitiable condition of a place which could have been easily transformed to a tourist hub. Only three temples of Bishnupur have been preserved which depicts its characteristic art, and which is an epitome of the grand culture of 17th century Bengal. The others are either poorly maintained or left to the mercy of nature. Perhaps a lot of history of Rarh-bangla is lost to neglect and ignorance. Also, there is not a single guide book in English. That is a serious lacuna if the place has to be sold even nationally as a viable tourist destination of West Bengal!!

OFF TO THE LAND OF ARABS Sagarika Bhattacharya, coaljunction

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month-long planning finally found me along with my family on a flight to Dubai sometime in the summer. As Sheikhs dressed in their traditional attire helped us with immigration, the feeling finally hit me that I was indeed in the land of the Arabs.

As we reached Dubai, we checked into our hotel and soon after headed for the Dhow Cruise which was pre-booked for late evening the same day. Dhow Cruise cruises down the Dubai Creek.

Dividing the charming 'city of lights' into two commercial districts, Dubai Creek epitomizes the city's personality. Here, the magnificent sophistication of the 21st century walks hand in hand with the simplicity of a bygone era.

Having dinner on a Dhow Cruise with the fascinating lights of Dubai creek together with Music and enjoying the famous Tanura Dance show with an elaborate barbecue buffet was an experience to live for. Onboard we were greeted with ‘Kahweh’, the Arabic coffee followed by a sumptuous buffet dinner. It was indeed an unforgettable evening with the height of opulence combined with a heartwarming sense of Bedouin tradition as we glided down the shimmering creek on our Dhow Cruise.

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continued on page 13

Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014

Business plan contest at St. Xavier’s College

mjunction participated in the Minerals, Metal, Metallurgy & Materials (MMMM 2014) expo, an International Exhibition and Conference from September 4 to 7 at the Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. Steel Insights was the media partner at this prestigious event. Mr Sumit Jalan and Mr Chiranjib Dutta Chaudhuri represented mjunction at this expo. Professionals from the steel and metal industry participated in a big way.

Mr Mahul Brahma, Head, corporate communications and branding, of mjunction was invited to judge a business plan competition ‘The Inhouse B-Plan 2014’. The event was organised by the Entrepreneurship Development Cell of St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta his alma mater, on September 26.

This event aims to encourage students to develop entrepreneurial skills on creative grounds and provide a platform to explore the same.

Out of over 25 registered teams five were shortlisted who made it to the finals.

The five teams presented the detailed business plans that included USP, marketing strategy, capital infusion requirement, detailed financials with profit and loss accounts, competition analysis and exit strategy.

The ideas presented by these teams ranged from renting clothes online, to selling personalised merchandise, to running a truck company and to selling coffee on a van. Rendezvous, whose project “She’s bean there” which plans to sell exotic coffee on a mobile van, won the competition.

Mr Brahma shared with the students the legacy of the college and also the importance of entrepreneurial spirit. He spoke of mjunction’s CEO and MD Mr Viresh Oberoi’s vision and how since inception the organization has been firmly rooted in the virtues of innovation, transparency and efficiency. He also shared with them the real-life example of how mjunction is nurturing such business ideas in the Incubation Cell and about the critical role of Horizon 3.

continued from page 12 Unwinding on the white sands of Jumeirah Beach next day was a refreshing experience. We quickly chalked out a plan for our next four days.

Palm Jumeirah is the world’s largest man-made island and consists of a 2-km long trunk, a crown made of 17 fronds and a surrounding crescent.

It comprises 4,000 luxury villas and apartments owned by rich Arab Sheikhs. Some of our Bollywood celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan have been gifted a house here.

It is often said that a trip to Dubai would not be complete without the Desert Safari into the heart of the desert. The rapture of an exhilarating dune bashing across the tranquil red sand dunes of Arabia left us captivated. We felt an adrenaline rush as the swanky SUVs made their way through the desert. En route to the Desert camp, we stopped for a breath-taking view of the picturesque sunset and camel farm giving us an opportunity to enjoy the serenity of the place in the company of ships of desert and their owners.

Our fantasies of Arabian Nights came true as soon as we reached our Desert Camp. ‘Majlis’, the low Bedouin cushions seemed inviting. The camp site was full of culinary attractions and we faced a tough time tasting all of them.

While my parents chose to relax in the camp and enjoy the serene atmosphere; accompanied by my sister, I headed for a camel ride, dressed up

in traditional Arabic costume and got our hands decorated with exquisite henna designs. Arabic costumes added up to one more page to our photo story. Hubbllee Bubblee (shisha), Sand Skiing, and Quad Biking were some of the other activities.

While refreshing beverages and snacks were making rounds, we were left mesmerized as the belly dancer swayed on the pulsating Arabic music under the starlit sky. We were left further spellbound by the magnificent famous Arabic Dance, Tanura .This was accompanied by a delicious barbeque dinner.

Dubai is a bustling city with an individual charm of its own. A century ago, it was a tranquil town whose gypsum huts housed Bedouin traders and pearl divers. Dubai’s evolution has been dramatic. Today the merchants have gone international and the extensive skyscrapers like any other world class city hide the horizon.

The Dubai City tour took us gliding through the mystical past from the glorious present. We explored the magical aroma of the Spice Souk and the dazzle of the Gold Souk leaving us mesmerized. We also saw some of the world’s most beautiful places like Atlantis Hotel, Burj Al Arab, Burj Khalifa, Grand Mosque. Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, is a world-class destination and the magnificent centerpiece of Downtown Dubai. Dubai's new urban masterpiece, Burj Khalifa has redefined what is possible in the design and engineering of

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supertall buildings. By combining cutting-edge technologies and cultural influences, the building serves as a global icon that is both a model for future urban centers and speaks to the global movement towards compact, liveable urban areas.

Located in the heart of the prestigious Downtown Dubai, described as ‘The Centre of Now,’ was the Dubai Mall, the world’s largest shopping and entertainment destination, known to be the world’s most-visited shopping mall. It was a mall of epic proportions. Along the mall’s sprawling waterfront promenade, we saw the world’s most spectacular outdoor musical water fountain – The Dubai Fountain. The musical fountain show inside the Dubai Mall is a scene to watch.

While on a Abu Dhabi city tour, it was hard to believe that just 50 years ago, Abu Dhabi the island capital of the United Arab Emirates was an obscure fishing and pearling village. Today, it has large gardens, green boulevards, sophisticated high-rise buildings, rich shopping malls, cultural centres and events that offer one-of-a-kind experience all the year round.

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque at Abu Dhabi was an expression of a visionary leader, Late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan who believed that nothing is impossible and conceived that the most gracious achievements start from the heart. This architectural work of art is one of the world’s largest mosques, with a capacity for an astonishing 40,000 worshippers. It features 82 domes, over a 1,000 columns, 24 carat gold gilded chandeliers and the world's largest hand knit carpet. The main prayer hall is dominated by one of the world’s largest chandeliers –10 metres in diameter, 15 metres in height and weighing twelve tonnes. Reflective pools surrounding the mosque amplify its beauty. The mosque is well known for its diverse Islamic architecture and pure white colour. White marble clads the external walls and columns and features carving of verses from Holy Quran and Islamic ornamentation.

Days flew like hours and it was time to head back home. On the last day of our trip which was exclusively earmarked for shopping, we shopped for some of the antique pieces of glittering gold in Arabic designs.

A power packed vacation, it gave us memories to cherish for a lifetime.

Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014

KNOW YOUR JUNCTIONITE I have been in mjunction since: November 2007 The three words which describe me the best are: Honest, friendly, introvert My childhood was spent at: Hooghly My major in college was: Statistics If I was not working at mjunction, I would be: A social worker My favourite movie is: Goopi Gyne Bagha Byne, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar My favourite singer is: Asha Bhosle

My favourite food is: Posto, hilsa fish My favourite sport is: Swimming My favourite book is: Khirer Putul by Abonindranath Thakur If I could have tea with a fictional character, it would be: Prof. Shonku My dream travel destination is: Kerala, Mecca The three things I would definitely do on an ideal day are: Play endlessly with my daughter, talk endlessly with my best of friends and take a ride on a bike My family consists of: Two sets of parents, husband and daughter

My childhood was spent at: Kanpur My major in college was: Commerce If I was not working at mjunction, I would be: A government employee

Vikas Sonkar I have been in mjunction since: 2007 The three words which describe me the best are: Simple, loving, kind

My favourite movie is: Mukhbir My favourite singer is: Lata Mangeshkar

My favourite singer is: Sonu Nigam

If I could have tea with a fictional character, it would be: Chacha Chaudhary My dream travel destination is: Australia The three things I would definitely do on an ideal day are: l A visit to the Lord Shiva temple l Spend time with my family l Spend time with my friends

The most important event of my life so far is: The birth of my son

My favourite sport is: Badminton, tennis

My favourite movie is: DDLJ, A Walk to Remember, Twilight

Panchatantra ki kahaniya

My favourite sport is: Cricket

Chhole Bhature

The three words which describe me the best are: Optimistic, determined, emotional

If I was not working at mjunction, I would be: Not sure. May be working in some other IT company.

My favourite book is:

My family consists of: Mother, father, brother, wife and son

My favourite food is: Punjabi and Chinese cuisine

My major in college was: Information Technology

The most important event of my life so far is: Birth of my daughter Sarah and later each and every moment of growing up with her‌.

My favourite food is:

I have been in mjunction since: July 2008

My childhood was spent at: Kolkata

Aalia Baksh

My favourite book is: Harry Potter series If I could have tea with a fictional character, it would be: Batman My dream travel destination is: Greece The three things I would definitely do on an ideal day are: Sleep, sleep and sleep.

My family consists of: My husband, in-laws, parents, brother and sister-in-law

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Richa Khanna The most important event of my life so far is: Family trip to Florida last year

Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014

mjunction takes part in Tata Volunteering Week II

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iving back to society is an integral part of the Tata Group ethos and we at mjunction have not only adopted but internalised this ethos through our various initiatives. As an extension of this philosophy, mjunction participated in the Tata Volunteering Week II from September 5 to 11. The first part of this unique initiative was successfully held between March 3 and 9 this year.

While giving back is a continuous process for the Tata Group, the two volunteering weeks every year is a unique opportunity for every employee to register with causes of their choice. A total of 150 employees, 20 family members and 50 group employees from other Tata Companies joined hands to make it a success.

Employees had to register with Tata Engage, a volunteering platform organised by the Tata Sustainability Group.

Junctionites volunteered for 23 different kinds of activities that were planned for them. Nine different NGOs partnered with mjunction for the cause.

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Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014 4 Feet, Retrofit Glare- Free LED Tube Light 6000K, Extra Bright, 1600 Lumen, 1500 Beam Angle. There was active bidder participation resulting in a total of 94 bids and substantial savings of 34.64%.

Kamal Mitra, AGM MMD (Purchase), Alloy Steels Plant, Durgapur

Client Speak

Kudos to metaljunction for successfully conducting auction of iron ore from Bailadila sector on behalf of NMDC. M. Mahadeevan, Jt GM (Commercial), NMDC metaljunction conducted a successful auction sale of precious metal crude dust for Rourkela Steel Plant. It gave us substantial revenue and the entire sales cycle was completed in a span of only 15 days.

The metaljunction team should be lauded for their efforts in making this a success.

M. Kumar, DGM (Marketing), SAIL Rourkela Steel Plant

The customer is at the heart of all activities at mjunction and their feedback is of utmost value to us. We bring to you a few voices of the customer.

Two reverse auctions done through your platform were both very successful. The reverse auction for Secured Landfill yielded a savings of `49.52 lakh. The one for Refractory Management of Tundish yielded a savings of `61.60 lakh.

We appreciate the efforts made by the concerned team in making both these events successful.

A.K. Roy, DGM-I/C (MM), Salem Steel Plant

Kudos to buyjunction for its excellent and successful reverse auction for procurement of ferro vanadium. The event saw active bidder participation as well as resulted in substantial savings of `2.21 crore for us.

C.R. Mishra, DGM MM (Purchase), Durgapur Steel Plant buyjunction provided excellent service by successful conduct of reverse auction for supply, installation and commissioning of 16 Watt,

BJ2 MIS Cloud: An Online KPI Management Solution Gaurav Biswas, Technology

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he managed sourcing services wing of buyjunction or BJ2 as it is more popularly known, is engaged in delivering sourcing services to end clients, in specific low criticality, high volume spend categories. This is achieved by coupling a client facing onsite team with offshore backend personnel who expedite all the sourcing activities to come up with guaranteed savings within stipulated cycles of time.

Since the two keystones of the service delivery are ‘savings’ and ‘cycle time’ it is only but natural that a great volume of data be sifted through, to monitor the activities. When this is juxtaposed with the notion of having onsite teams and offsite delivery teams, a more complex picture begins to take shape; that of data mismanagement. Add to it is the fact that the procurement space is widely disparate, both in terms of practices and systems. While PSU clients prefer to stay put with archaic notesheets, flat files and legacy systems, the private clients have progressed to more sophisticated ERPs. Even with the ERPs implemented, the customization at each client end is so disparate that more often than not, the end reports, though uniform in ethos, are wide apart in formats.

Against such a backdrop, it is no rocket science to figure the challenges that are up for the BJ2 team, who instead of being able to focus on the core service delivery scheme often have to grapple with insurmountable volumes of raw data to come up with meaningful insights for both client and the mjunction management.

That said, whenever there is a flux of confusion, there always exists the scope for interventional process change and technical enablement. That is how it all started. A young and effervescent team comprising Sourav Dey, Indranil Karak and Soumyasubha Ghosh led

by Kaushik Sarkar came up to the Technology function with a case – a case to leverage technology to devise a solution to push all the data into the web. As business objectives, the following were set before us: • Increased convenience in data entry • Reduction in errors and time for data entry • Drillable dashboard for accountability and increased management of deviations from SLA • Wide array of reports/ MIS with capabilities to add more such, on the fly • Singular rich repository of data for further data mining opportunities When first faced with the raw requirements, there seemed to be little to it other than wishful thinking. How on earth were we supposed to be able to generate reports when we were unsure of the underlying data in the first place? Surely the typical SQL queries would need to know the RDBMS table structure beforehand. Coming to think of it when we realized that let alone the reports, even the data formats would not be known prior to runtime, we knew it was time to think outside our run of the mill web application domain. Dynamism was the need of the hour and we had to address it. Deciding to take one thing

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at a time we began fleshing out the requirements.

To add details to matter, the greater context started emerging. There was a dire need to build a logical cage – a framework which would be capable of accommodating any format of data, customizable as per client needs yet quick to read through and retrieve. A dynamic application with even the menus customizable, new reports generable and replete with drillable dashboards all logically strung together with sound rules of access control.

Having been able to freeze the requirements in the month of October 2013, we embarked on an exercise to analyze and design the solution.

The BU took on a parallel exercise of costing and value quantification. Using a purely XML/ configuration file based approach we were able to arrive at a logical housing for the raw data. What then faced us were the herculean tasks of report, dashboard building and role defining. Realizing that this would be used only be MJ personnel we tied the application to our Lightweight Directory Access Protocol database, meaning that the usual MJ domain credentials would suffice to login. With the bare bones prototype ready, we wanted to milestone the progress. The BJ2 team was consulted for a midway review.

Multiple iterations of BU consultation and solution tweaking later we arrived at the final design in April. The next few weeks were devoted entirely to building the specific reports. As an continued on page 17

Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014 continued from page 16 outcome of the efforts we were able to come up with an application which would branch away at the client level, in terms of data template and format, yet have strong business governance rules. It was a case of punching data straight into the ‘cloud’ and generating reports/ insights from any geographic locations. In June 2014 we put our application up for the users’ acceptance test.

Many trials and tests later we were able to pass the acceptance test and go-live with the new application in late June 2014. As this goes to print, the application has been rolled out to over five clients with data being uploaded and reports being generated regularly. Many more clients are to be onboarded and the business team has a detailed roll-out plan.

There are little pleasures as great as being able to see in production, what was just a figment of a few minds’ imagination till a few months back. The efforts put in by the business team to verbalize their needs, both explicit and implicit, the hours put in by the technology team working and reworking, have all culminated into something which is much bigger than all our initial thoughts put together. The result being https://.mss.buyjunction.in.

The road ahead seems fraught with possibilities to take this technical architecture to new levels. The kernel of our thoughts being, the cloud computing concept.

SAFETY CORNER Fire Safety – Building Evacuation Method Get out quickly, before the smoke gets thick!

If smoke gets thick, please crawl

Whatever burns never returns

Gather at designated ‘Assembly Point’ only

mj hosts session on women’s safety

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n interesting session on women’s safety and its legal provisions were held at the Kolkata office premises on July 16. The session touched upon issues such as legal provisions, preventive measures, self-defence mechanisms and the various redressal mechanisms.

The session was attended by ADCP, Bidhannagar Division, Mr Debasis Dhar, ACP, Bidhannagar Zone-II Mr Sandeep Mondol and ACP (Detective Department), Bidhannagar, Ms Ritu Dhar.

Mr Dhar provided some crucial information regarding the location of nine police stations in the Sector V area, and also said soon a police station will come up which will be run by women only.

Mr Mondol made the audience aware of legal provisions when it came to stalking and other forms of harassment. He said it is important for all women to be aware of redressal mechanisms within and outside the workplace. Ms Dhar said that with more and more women working in the graveyard shifts, the role of employers becomes very crucial.

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mjunction holds awareness session on Sexual Harassment at Workplace Policy

n awareness session on the company's Policy on Sexual Harassment in line with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, was conducted on September 25 by Ms Sunita Thawani of “Full Circle”. She is the ex-Legal Head of JUSCO and also has experience of working as a lawyer in the Supreme Court.

Ms Thawani touched on several key issues during the course of her discussions with the senior management of mjunction as well as members of the Internal Complaints Committee. Ms Thawani also helped participants to clear some common misunderstandings and perceptions regarding the issue. She said it is mandatory for any company having 10 or more than 10 employees to have an Internal Complaints Committee. mjunction has its own Policy on Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment at Workplace (POSH) in place with an objective to create and maintain a healthy, safe and productive work environment, free from discrimination and harassment, provide equal opportunity to all employees without regard to race, caste, religion, colour, ancestry, marital status, gender, sexual orientation, age, nationality, ethnic origin or disability.

Accordingly, the policy has been framed with the intention of preventing Sexual Harassment at workplace, that includes prohibition and redressal of sexual harassment should it occur. All employees are expected to uphold the highest standards of ethical conduct at the workplace and in all their interactions with business stakeholders. This means that employees have a responsibility to: ♦♦ Treat each other with dignity and respect ♦♦ Follow the letter and spirit of law ♦♦ Refrain from any unwelcome behaviour that has sexual connotation (of sexual nature) ♦♦ Refrain from creating hostile atmosphere at workplace via sexual harassment ♦♦ Report sexual harassment experienced and/or witnessed to appropriate authorities and abide by the complaint handling procedure of the company.

The policy details out behaviour of what kind constitutes sexual harassment. Being an equal opportunities employer, the policy at mjunction applies to both men and women, though Ms Thawani stressed that the Indian law in its present form protects only women.

The details of the committee are made available to every junctionite through various forms of internal communication. If a junctionite believes he or she has been sexually harassed, he or she needs to make a complaint, in writing, to ethics@mjunction.in, within a period of three months from the date of incident and in case of a series of incidents, within a period of three months from the date of the last incident.

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Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014

www.autojunction.in was the online partner for the Exide Rotary Car Rally for the Blind, which was held in Kolkata on July 27. The rally was presented by the Rotary Club of Calcutta Midtown, and flagged off at 9 in the morning from the South City Mall. There were two categories – Expert and Amateur – including trophies for an All Ladies Team.

The rally distance was roughly 80 km and the navigators were visually impaired.

Animesh Raj Nanak Anirban Ghatak Ashok Kumar Bisoyi Avik Saha

Biswajit Banerjee Chandan Mahato Chandrajit Chakraborty Debojit Saha

Sohini Banerjee of coaljunction receiving the Best Management Trainee award from Vinaya Varma, VP, mjunction

Debraj Gupta Dharmendra Singh Diganta Biswas Dipak Macwana

to the mj family administration Dipak Barua Poulami Bhattacharyya Rudra Prasad Lahiri Sakuntala Biswas Samrat Moulik Sayanti Pal Subrata Mandal Sukhen Kumar Chowdhury

metaljunction Abhi Banerjee Amit Karmakar Anjan Bose Aritra Bhowmick Arup Chatterjee* Ashok Kumar Roy Avijit Bose Ayan Roy Choudhury Biswajit Agarwal Biswajit Ghosh* Chandrika Bose Chandrasish Dasgupta Gautam Rakshit Jaita Bose K Chandra Sekhar* K Manivasagan K. Sivakumar Kamlesh Kumar Ghode* M K Badrinarayan Madhurendra Kumar Manish Ranjan Dey

Jyoti Kumari Kanchan Majee Kushal Bose Manish Kumar Sharma Mukesh Kumar Gupta Neeraj Sharma Nityanand Choubey Prabhansu Jana Priyam Chatterjee Priyanka Das Rajib Mishra

Ramesh Singh Ravi Kumar Uppu Rupak Chakrabarty Saurabh Kumar Shashi Kumar Chaurasia Srikant Panda Subhau Bhattacharya Subrata Bhattacharyya Suresh N Maheshwaram Suvhendu Banerjee Vikas Kumar

Spot Awardees for July - Sept 2014

Md Shahnawaz Alam Md. Anamul Haque Nabaruna Paul Niraj Kumar Vaishnaw Paromita Bhattacharya Rajan Kumar Pandey* Rajib Kr. Nayak Rakesh Kumar Singh S. Raghavendra Saket Kumar Singh Sanchita Pal Sangeeta Roy Sanjib Das Sanjoy Gopal Singha Saranathan Srinivasan Shahid Imam Somnath Mukherjee Sudhakar Danam Dandu Tania Chakraborti Tanmoy Ray* Vikash Kumar Shukla Vishwanath Pandey

financejunction Sourav Bhowmick Subarna Gupta Subhashish Mukherjee* Southern region Saranathan Srinivasan

corporate accounts & finance Abhishek Majumdar Bikram Kumar Pal Mohammad Feroz Ruchi Jain Sourav Ganguly EAM- TIS Group Ravi Goel Satyesh Kumar Singh human resources Nidhi Bist

technology Abhishek Kar Alakh Niranjan Baksi Ambuja Kumar Sahu Asif Jamal Debika Dasgupta Gaurav Biswas Kabir Hossain Kallol Ghoshal Prabir Ghosh Prashanta Ray Pratyusha Dan Puja Chakraborty Rajashri Saha Richa Khanna Roshni Saha Sai Vedula Saikat Barman Sameer Ingole* Sandip Singh Srinjay Nath Subha Ranjan Mallik Subhajit Syam Choudhury Subhankar Gupta Subhankar Mitra* Surya Bhushan Singh

marketing - B2C Anirban Mondal Jaydeep Chakraborty

coaljunction

procurement

Imtiaz Ahmed Imtiaz Ahmed Sayantan Dutta Chowdhury

Suvadeep Banerjee * indicates junctionites who have received the award more than once

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incubation cell Chiranjib Dutta Chaudhuri Jaideep K Boruah Raj Kumar Mitra mjunctionedge Debal Ray* Rachita Das transaction processing Biswajit Mondal valuejunction Gaurav Das* Jamsheed Hosi Daver* Nitin Kumar Singh Raunak Bose Suvasis Paul*

straightline Abhilash Chatterjee Arijit Banerjee Debasish Chakraborty Kaustav Kobi Mayurakshi Dey Rituparna Mukherjee* Shahzada Sarfraz Alam Siddharth Bhatia Suddhasattwa Datta Sumit Barman Sushil Kumar Rai

buyjunction Amit Kumar Anamika Datta Arijit Ghosh Ayan Pal Bhaskar Sahu Chandi Charan Debasish Chandra Barman Dev Prakash Mishra Manish Nandwana Monalisa Shaw Naaz Ansari Narendra Kumar Panchali Bhattacharya Pradip Kuma Behera Pradosh Kumar Mohanty Priyanka Biswas Priyata Chatterjee R Viswanathan Riti Mukherjee Sanchita Gupta Satyajeet Bhoi Sharmistha Mukherjee Paul Sibnath Bera* Soumi Srimani Subhra Sarkar Sudip Ranjan Giri Susmita Paul Tarak Mondal Tushar Jana

Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014

The newborns

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Baby Anayah born to Javed Islam of metaljunction

p Alfiya, the little angel born to Mohd Shabir Khan of buyjunction

Precious Ananya born to Rajashri Saha of Technology

p

p

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Alby, little princess of Anew Nag Sarkar of Technology

Soupreet, the little bundle of joy of Sourav Dey, buyjunction

QUIZ CORNER

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4. Which two entities recently got the banking license from RBI to open banks in India?

5. When this car brand was released in 1961, Enzo Ferrari called it “The most beautiful car ever made”?

very quarter we bring to you this quiz column which empowers you with knowledge and engages you differently.

Please mail your answers to mjpost@mjunction.in and you may win 250 straightline points.

6. What began in 1922 under the auspices of Dean Wallace Donham and was intended to be the “highest type of business journal that we can make it and for use by the student and the business man”.

Congratulations Sujay!

7. Which book written by James Champy & Michael Martin Hammer was instrumental in leading the business community towards Business Process Reengineering.

The winner of last quarter’s quiz is Sujay Dhar of Technology.

Following practice, the winner of this quarter’s quiz will also be decided after conducting a lottery among all-correct entries. The decision of the quizmaster will be binding and final in all respects of this quiz.

8. Which iconic brand soon to be shut down has the tagline “if you have the inclination we have the time.”

9. Which ticker symbol has been allotted to Alibaba on the NYSE.

The questions are as follows: 1. Digital Domain is an American visual effects and digital production company founded by Stan Winston, Scott Ross and which other famous personality?

2. Who is the official Airline partner of Liverpool FC, its name is derived from a Dutch poem by a Javanese scholar and began its operation in 1949 in India from Calcutta to Rangoon?

3. Zapmail launched in 1984 was offered to customers by Fedex as a means of express delivery of documents through which mode of transmission.

10. The IBM Simon personal communicator was a first in which category.

The answers to last issue’s quiz are as follows: 1. Blackberry - the phones run on an operating system software called BB10 2. The Judo Strategy 3. 7 UP 4. The anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare 5. Burger King’s successful campaign for ‘unfriending’ on Facebook 6. Parle 7. National Geographic 8. Cafe Cuba 9. Joseph Stalin on Henry Ford 10. Bhutan. It introduced television in 1999.

Compiled by Debashish Mukherjee of Corporate Accounts and Abhishek Kar of Technology

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Volume Vi | Issue III | JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014

Naveen, son of V S Prasad of buyjunction on his first day of school Arka Banerjee, son of Atin Banerjee of Technology, after ranking 22nd at the statelevel Spell-Bee contest

Sounok K Ghosh of Corporate Marketing trains his lenses on these avian beauties.

Collared Kingfisher (Todiramphus cloris)- Mostly available in mangrove swamps.

Photo taken in Andaman Islands.

Ruddy Kingfisher (Halcyon coromanda)- Dwells in dense evergreen forests near canals, mangroves and streams.

Photo taken in Bhitarkanika WLS in Odisha.

Baal Gopal: Nirek, son of Niraj Kumar Vaishnaw of metaljunction, dressed up as Lord Krishna on the occasion of Janmashtami

Black capped Kingfisher (Halcyon plieata)- Mostly available alongside creeks and estuaries. Photo taken in Bhitarkanika WLS in Odisha.

Common small blue Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)- Mostly dwell near canals, streams and ponds. Photo taken in Kaziranga NP in Assam.

MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY Macro photography is extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects, where the size of the subject is greater than life size.

Subroto Mukherjee of Technology uses the technique to capture nature’s bounty.

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Lesser pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis)- You can find them near stagnant waters like jheels, resevoirs and slow moving streams. Photo taken in Sundarbans in WB.

For Private Circulation Only Regd. Office: mjunction services limited, Tata Centre, 43 Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Kolkata 700 071, Website: www.mjunction.in Corporate Head Quarters: Godrej Waterside, 3rd Floor, Tower 1, Plot V, Block DP, Sector V, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700091, Tel: +91 33 6610 6100, Fax: +91 33 6610 6187 CIN: U00000WB2001PLC115841

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