THE SMALL CAR WAR IN INDIA

India presents a very unique opportunity for the growth of automobile sector specifically in car segment. With the better economic growth and increase in salaries, the small cars upto price ranges of 5 laks are very much in reach for the middle income group. Car makers from across the globe are looking to expand in India that too in the lucrative small car segment which is expanding at a very phenomenal pace.

It all started after independence when Indian government invited proposal for the “Economy car” and allowed Premier Automotive Ltd. To enter in a JV with Fiat for the production of FIAT 500. Later on 16^th Nov. 1970 Mr. Sanjay Gandhi founded Maruti Technical Services Pvt Ltd. To develop a people’s car. In 1971 Maruti Limited was founded under the companies act and the joint venture with SUZUKI happened. Today MARUTI is the leader in car manufacturing and has more than 50% share in the market. Today India manufactures more than 1.5 million cars in a year and growing at a pace of 25% (approx). In the small car segment today, every big player i.e. Chevrolet, Hyundai, Maruti, Toyota, Volkswagen, Honda etc has its presence. 

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Rwanda, an example of growing African country

Rwanda an economy which suffered heavily during the 1994 genocide which resulted in a large drop in GDP and destroyed all hopes of private and external investment. Rwanda has moved ahead in a positive direction and has been managed to strengthen it’s  PPP from $390 in 1994 to $951 in 2008

As per the report by world bank group Rwanda has been ranked top reformer country in 2010 by passing 7 reforms to encourage International & domestic investment. In this server of 183 countries Rwanda improved its position from 143 to 67. This is a remarkable growth for any country. Some of the points from these reforms are as follows

·         Registration of property, getting credit has been eased.

·         Building of  warehouses are simple in terms of procedures, time, and costs

·         The cross border trade has been more regulated.  Import and export processes have been made easier

·          an investor can now walk in the country and within two days start a business

·         There are new company law, labour law, the law on commercial recovery and settling of issues arising from insolvency.

There is  non-discriminatory policy on employment of people in private sector so for  example  person walk in hotels and he will be welcomed by Kenyans, he moves to a construction sites or a garages  he will find Ugandans are dominating the sector, if he wants  a hair cut and, person from the Democratic Republic of Congo  will offer the service. 

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Literacy in India & problems

Only 12% of the total Indian population was literate when India was declared a free country. Over the period of time the literacy rate has gone up by 52% (according to the 1991 census). Literacy rate among the urban population is higher than among the rural, higher among the men than among the women, higher in high class than SC &ST. As per the census of 2001 literacy rate has gone up to 65%. But underdeveloped countries like Srilanka, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand has achieved more literacy rate in shorter time span.

Reasons of poor literacy rate in India –

1. Inadequate infrastructure of school facilities in villages.         
2. Inadequate number of teachers in rural areas.
3. Forced dropouts of females by their parents. (Male literacy rate – 76% & Female literacy rate 54%)
4. High rate of poverty.
5. Lack of innovative teaching methods.
6. Lack of political will.

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Emotional Intelligence

We educate students with one main objective in mind: their success. What is the measure of success?

We can say that success depends on several intelligences and on the control of emotions. IQ alone is no more the measure for success; emotional intelligence, social intelligence, and luck also play a big role in a person's success.

Emotional Intelligence: It is being able to monitor our own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this to guide our thinking and actions. The emotionally intelligent person is skilled in four areas

-    Identifying,

--      using,

--  understanding, & regulating emotions

Emotional intelligence consists of five components:

1.       Knowing our emotions (self-awareness),

2.       managing them,

3.       motivating ourselves,

4.       recognizing emotions in others (empathy), &

5.       handling relationships.

STRUCTURE OF EMOTIONAL COMPETENCE

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We all are culprits!

It might sound harsh in my opinion our selfishness has turned us blind. For being corrupt may be the easiest way-or indeed the only way-to get what they want. Not only in terms of bribe but also in terms of bad deeds we all do in daily life.  

More than half of the population consider politicians the main culprits behind corruption in the nations, followed by high-ranking officials, entrepreneurs and lower-level officials, even though everyone of us are culprit in one or the other way.

Exercise to understand How Culprit are we?

Sit with ourselves try to analyze our daily activities don’t we see yourself doing any activity which is unethical/offensive or wrong… now surely you can understand what exactly I’m talking about are we all sinners!!!

If we do something unintentionally are we still considered as a culprit???

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SEZ -- Special Economic Zone

SEZ is a specific earmarked area inside a state which acts as foreign territory for tariff and trade operations. Govt. provides tax exemption i.e IT, Excise, customs, sales etc. and also subsidized water and electricity etc. SEZ can be sector specific or multi product sez. It helps in the development of infrastructure of the area around the SEZ, provides employment to people, and makes the exports more viable due to tax breaks. All this will help the country's products to become more competitive vis-a-vis providing all round development of region. 

It should be noted 60% of the total allotted area of the SEZ, is used to provide housing facilities, malls, multiplexes etc. Also Tax exemption is for specific period say for 10 yrs or so.

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Challenges and opportunities faced by Indian Retail

India is at this time facing the world’s most dynamic mixture of highly informed and demanding consumers on one hand and of swiftly increasing consumption levels across various retail product categories and geographies. Growing consumer demands and the resultant response of leading businesses have created a more complex and competitive marketplace;

• One that requires each firm / organization to be more adaptive to customer needs and second 
• More aggressive at exploiting their unique capabilities to meet those needs

In the situation of Indian consumer products and retail companies, this spells multiple challenges and opportunities for them. 

Having emerged as the world’s most striking market for global retailers, India still faces alarming issues that pose a serious problem to the growth opportunity that the retail industry promises for the country’s economic progress. The overall positive outlook of the present business condition is tempered by the fact the country is grappling with severe infrastructure and policy issues. Cold chain, warehousing and logistics infrastructure will fast become unmanageable challenges for India, if proactive action is not taken soon.

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Public Private Partnership (PPP)

AS it not a secret that India is among the top fastest growing economy, making it a destination of choice for investors across the globe. India being a democracy provides a stable environment and rule of law.

The most important criteria for continuous growth is quality Infrastructure. According to the planning commission, 8% of total GDP needs to be invested in infrastructure i.e telecommunications, electric power, water transport, road, rail, etc.

In order to meet these demands, various Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) are being promoted for implementation of infrastructure projects. PPP is often described as a understanding where government as well as a private sector undertaking form a partnership. Encouragement of PPP is therefore necessary since it can be fast track tool for direct investment to improve infrastructure and hence accelerate the economy growth

All these recourses will eventually provide better facilities to the Indians which at least decades after Independence they thoroughly deserve.

Unitedworld Executive.

One workplace, two experiences

As experts say that a bare three per cent women occupy senior positions in private companies across India. And most of the companies only have five to six per cent women employees.

Male representatives of private companies give various reasons for these appalling figures. Some blatantly say that they are traditional companies and don't hire women. Others cite safety as an issue. Still others say that maternity leaves are a serious interruption of work

Despite of the girls getting higher marks than the young men and performing better, they received less approval and recognition from male bosses and were slower to be promoted. They felt dejected and downhearted.

The dilemma of these young women is understandable. And I empathize with them. Boys are brought up to believe that they can get anything they want and are raised as such. Girls are also told that they can get anything they want, but are raised to have doubts about their ability, to put family first and to subsume their ambitions and dreams in the interest of family and society. They are never told how tough it is to negotiate their way in a world designed and defined by men. And they are not trained for it either.

The corporate world has been, and is one, where men can escape away from home and family. Men made the rules, and when women come into this world, they were not sure how to conduct themselves. In the Indian context, men learn to see women as mothers, sisters, wives and daughters. The idea of women as colleagues and as equals is very new and quite intimidating.

Truly twenty-first century corporations will be those that recognise and act on the fact that the world, as we know it, does come in two sexes. Both men and women bring valuable and different experiences, skills and expertise to the workplace. By creating an environment that is less hospitable to women, men deprive themselves of a challenge to work with women. Women in turn are cheated out of the opportunity to use their education and training to make a contribution to society.

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STIMULUS PACKAGE IN INDIA

Stimulus Package – Stimulus Package is announced at the time of downturn of the economy. Government of the country increases its expenditures and the Central Bank of that country announces the interest rate cuts to increase the demand in the market, therefore balancing the demand and supply equilibrium of the economy.

In India the first stimulus package worth $4 billion was announced by the Indian government in December 2008 to shield its economy from recession. A number of incentives have been announced in economic stimulus package of India. Incentive schemes worth total of $70 million have been allocated to boost exports. Medium and small businesses are being provided tax exemptions and tax holidays.

Value added tax has been cut at different levels and across products to increase spending i.e CENVAT reduced by 4%, has brought down the prices of cement, textiles and cars.

A 10-point stimulus package by Indian government had announced to provide cushion to the most badly affected industry sectors i.e. small & medium industries, housing, power, Infrastructure and automobiles. It was announced that this stimulus package will force manufacturers to operate in a most competitive environment and pass this tax benefit to the end users and in return this will infuse the demand in the market. These have been drawn up by government to infuse a sense of optimism in minds of investors and industrialists.

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Malawi…… a success story for the whole world. From starvation to food surplus

Malawi  a country in south-central Africa, with a population of approximately 11 million people. Malawi is the sixth poorest country in the world.

In 2002 and again in 2005, the country was hit by a severe drought which resulted in food shortages and deadly hunger. Around one third of the population was left severely malnourished. People were dying of starvation. The government was forced to import expensive corn and appeal to neighboring countries for food.

After this crisis of  2005, the Malawian government launched a bold and costly program to take country out of this hunger. They introduced a scheme which cost the government a huge sum of $60 million. They provided the high-tech seeds & fertilizer to the farmers with small land holdings at 15% of the market price. All major donors to the country de motivated the government for the such a huge subsidy, but the government ignored all advices.

At the time of the launch of this program farmers were given small share of these fertilizers & seeds enough to cultivate their small piece of lands and when the harvest time came, they had a bumper crop which was not only sufficient for their family but they have surplus to sell in the market. So now they no longer are thinking about the empty stomachs of their children but they are now sending their children back to school.

This Model will not work everywhere but it’s a good example for the world……

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John Sculley- Truely an inspiring Marketer!!!

Jonh Sculley has been an example and an inspiring marketer not only for the American corporate sector but for the entire globe. When he joined Pepsi in mid sixties after passing from a leading B school, he became popular with who’s-who of Pepsi.  His brilliant innovative ideas turned around the brand. His ideas of creative packaging were an amazing example for rest of the world. Not only that, his campaign of “PEPSI CHALLENGE” along with generation next theme was primarily responsible for gaining the market share from COCA-COLA. 

Even after being close to Donald Kendall (CEO of Pepsi from 1971-1986) and being an important executive for Pepsi, he took a brave decision to move to APPLE as its CEO. Steve Jobs, founder of APPLE has a great influence on Johh Sculley. John was inspired by Steve Jobs and played a very important role to define the marketing Strategy for APPLE products. He changes the perception of APPLE from the world of personal Computers to that of personal computing. Soon the difference between the Sculley and Steve started becoming visible and this friendship ended with a bitter taste. Steve was finally released by the board from some of duties and John Sculley was made responsible for the future of APPLE. With the clever marketing strategy and positioning of APPLE products, Sculley took APPLE out of trouble and took it to its original height.

His Book “Odyssey- Pepsi to Apple” is a must read for all the aspiring Marketers.

Unitedworld Executive.

THE HARE & THE TORTOISE STORY

Let us relive our Memories with a New Management Lesson;

Once upon a Time, There was a Hare and a Tortoise who plan to keep a Racing Competition…..

The Hare keeps Running and realizes that he is a way ahead than the Tortoise plans to take rest, and then when he is out of his dream, to his surprise the tortoise has crossed the finishing line and he wins the Race.

Moral of the story: “SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE”

But what we dint know is that, the story does not end here…

The Hare does not dishearten due to his failure but does Soul Searching and learns from his mistakes, he calls upon a racing competition again… this time the hare without stopping in between continues to run and finally he wins.

Moral of the Story Changes: “FAST AND CONSISTENT WINS”.

Unitedworld Executive.

BRAIN DRAIN

Brain drain is emigration of the skilled manpower from one country to another. As per the UNDP report we lose approx $ 2 billion every year because of this. Moving out of India for higher education add to huge brain drain for us & on the other hand outflow of foreign exchange also increases( $10 Billion every year). There are not much steps seen in our system to curb this issue. I would like to remind everyone that we are now moving into “2011” where we have best of the education institutions established in India in all area …… Technology, Research, Management and we have N number of Fortune 500 companies providing best jobs to the deserving candidates in India .It’s a time the youth should start evaluating Indian Institutions & companies with open mindset & should be ready to explore the best of the possibilities available with them.

Unitedworld Executive.

Qualities of a Good Manager

Traits of a Good Manager

In simple words good managers need some qualities. Actually what are they? It’s a combination of leadership, abilities of decision-making, understanding nature, considerate and confidence at top of all. An effective leader needs to think out of the box!

Skills of good manager:

Keep yourself cool

A good manager does not loses his/her cool even while facing a difficulty, be cool in all kinds of situations. He/she is able to correct the team members without going wild.

Listen with Concern

He/ she should able take everyone along. An effective manager must motivate his/her team members and be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of each of them. He/ She should be a good listener to listen to the team member’s problems, be open to their views, and accept a constructive criticism from them.

Leadership 

By fair leadership it means he/she should have skills to guide the team members, encourage them towards attaining organization’s goals and take the right decisions at the right point of time. A good manager has confidence in his/her abilities, and is thus innovative enough to experiment while nevertheless being brave to admit mistakes. 

Plan and Delegate

A good manager has a foresight that helps him/her plan effectively. A good manager divides the task into subtasks and delegates them to his/her team members.

Intelligence

A very uncommon common sense is something that is seen in a good manager. A good manager possesses complete knowledge of his field and is confident about that knowledge

These were some of the traits of a good manager.

Now can you spot a ‘good manager’ in you? Can you dream bigger than what could have executed and head the team to turn the dream true!

Unitedworld Executive.

WOMEN ENTERPRENREURSHIP (Challenges & Opportunities)

Women in Indian family system (both in urban and rural set up) have been playing very important central pivotal role.

• sustaining the family values
• caring / looking after the family &
• Goining beyond to generate extra income

Since time immemorial dating back to prehistoric era women entrepreneurs all over the world and in all civilizations have faced challenges both within the family and outside due to social stigma. 

Post Independence, women entrepreneurship have significantly contributed in building modern Indian economy generating not only wealth but creating employment and worth repeating success stories which are too numerous /several to count. However and sadly in men dominated society, the challenges faced by them are too many but the personification of “Shakti-D Indian Women” has successfully overcome these barriers and created the “Whole new world of opportunities” where they have established and crafted edge over their male counterpart.

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Why and where MBA?

Yes it is the most important (and still unanswered) question everyone has to answer, but sorry to disappoint, the answer has to come from inside. Out of 100, 00 (or more) <BA colleges around the globe, it is more important is to find your perfect match, interest you have College for you, Getting into one of the best B school in the world us an achievement in itself, but as someone once told me, don’t ever dream of getting into the best B school, instead have a real goal in your life and work on using your MBA program to achieve that dream.

Unitedworld Executive.

2G SPECTRUM SCAM

Spectrum (Airwaves) – A rare national asset.

Central government awarded licenses and second generation telecom spectrum to 9 companies for different circles across India in 2008 for 122 circles for offering mobile telephony services. These licenses were awarded in an injudicious and non-transparent manner for an inconsiderable sum of Rs. 1,658 crores, which was the price estimated in 2001, with the mobile subscriber base of 4 million. This abnormally low price was fixed without taking into account the remarkable increase in mobile subscriber base of 350 million in the country, and the precious and the finite spectrum was allocated on a first-come, first-served basis without calling for proper competitive bids and without regard to experience in telecom sector. There was no fixed criteria for awarding licenses to the applicants and also the date were preponed. The subsequent sale of spectrum so cornered by fly-by-night operators for many times the fee they paid had caused enormous loss running into tens of thousands of crores of rupees to the public exchequer.

Based on the subsequent auction of spectrum for 3G services, which generated nearly Rs. 63,000 crores, and that for broadband access, which fetched over Rs. 35,700 crores, the loss to the nation due to under pricing of 2G spectrum is estimated by the CAG to be a whopping Rs. 1,76,645 crores !!

CAG Report on 2G Spectrum Scam

• Spectrum is considered as rare national asset and it should have been auctioned.
• Estimated total loss caused to exchequer through spectrum allocation to 122 licenses and 35 dual technology license in 2008 was Rs. 1,76,645 (Calculation of loss based on 3G spectrum auction earlier this year).
• Advice of PM, TRAI, Law Ministry & Finance ministry ignored by Raja.
• Entire process lacked transparency. Spectrum was awarded as first –come-first serve basis, without asking for auction, which was against the rules. The deadline was also pre-poned by a week.
• Rules were molded to benefit SWAN. SWAN got the license at Rs. 1537/-crore while it sold its 45% stake at Rs.4200 crore.
• Relience has given spectrum ahead of others.
• TATA teleservices among others who got undue benefits.
• Unitech Wireless got the license at Rs. 1661 crore while it sold its 60% stake at Rs. 6200 crore.
• Idea & Spice not given spectrum on grounds of proposed merger – this was against the government rules.

The spectrum was awarded as per the prices in 2001. That time total mobile subscriber base was 4 million while in 2008 the mobile subscriber base was 350 million.

Since, now Supreme Court has ordered CBI to investigate, we can hope that justice will be done and those guilty will get their due.

Unitedworld Executive.

Reid & Taylor Files for IPO

Reid & Taylor is likely to be launched in the US market within eight months.

The brand is reportedly looking to raise around 1000 crore from public offering which are expected to be utilized for expansion plans. Textiles and apparel firm S. Kumars Nationwide Ltd. confirmed that its subsidiary Reid & Taylor has approached SEBI for permission to tap capital market with an initial public offering. It has filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with Securities and Exchange Board of India on December 9.

The proceeds from the IPO would be utilized to expand Reid & Taylors manufacturing capacity and retail network in India and overseas—said Mr. Ashesh Amin, Director, S. Kumars.

Unitedworld Executive.

Support for the anti-war movement

Julian Assange, who has become the iconic public face of Wikileaks, made it clear that the purpose behind the release of these classified records was to uncover the brutality and futility of the American war in Afghanistan. Already some of the newspaper reports, using these records, have detailed some especially heinous actions, and the cover up of civilian deaths. There is some evidence of war crimes as well, of shooting sprees by U.S. troops, and a revenge attack by a Polish unit, that blasted an entire village with mortar fire. We learn more of the dark side of counterinsurgency, of special dedicated units of killers and that counterinsurgency is not what the embedded media told us a series of acts of kindness, of candies for children.

The leaks are just shining a light on the reality of the war in Afghanistan.


Unitedworld Executive.

Scope of IT in education Sector

The education industry is one of the largest user of Internet. Therefore institutes these days are using the most advanced Wi-fi solutions. All this give birth to the great demand in high speed connectivity & security tools. With wireless connectivity on campuses there are also increase in new threats, and institutions want to ensure that no one misuses the infrastructure. This means that there is an opportunities in providing security solutions. 

Universities & education board are also working towards connecting all colleges & schools through internet for eg. Andhra Pradesh Education Council is working on connecting 300 colleges. Companies like Cisco are also promoting technologies like “Telepresence” which enable higher education institutions to conduct interactive sessions using internet as the base technology. If we look at the scope of opportunity in K12 segment only we have more than 5 lac schools in India which can be user for the new technologies emerging worldwide.


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Indian Politics going through a bad phase- Monster called corruption is affecting the common man

Year 2010 will be known for bad reasons in Indian history. Instead of celebrating CWG-2010 and celebrating 100 years of Delhi as Capital of India, Delhi is burning with the news of corruption.

CWG Scam, 2G spectrum scam, Adarsh Society Scam etc. have exposed the Indian politics and Politicians. On one side we are claiming to be one of fastest growing economy in the world and on the other hand we are still not able to kill this monster. 

Even after 62 years of our Independence, World-Bank estimates 456 million Indians (41.6% of the total Indian population) lives under the global poverty line of US $1.25 per day. These scams are further cutting the pockets of a common man and making the rich community richer.

Imagine the amount of money telecom industry is earning from us as common citizens of our country and in return they have pea-nuts to the government (as per 2G scam) .Hence imagine the amount of money Indian Government have lost which could have helped the cause of so many poor people living in our country.

I think us as youth of the country needs to take responsibility and participate much more actively to overcome this problem.  It’s high time we not only respond but probably REACT to this situation. We should make the greedy politicians understand that the time has come that they start valuing our votes and work for the betterment of society rather for their selfish needs.

Unitedworld Executive.