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

Saturday, October 06, 2012

We’re Saved!

Assange’s Arrest Notwithstanding, If this is the Worst WikiLeaks has Against the United States, The World is Saved!

Post Assange’s arrest on December 7, 2010, in UK on suspected rape and molestation charges brought up by two Swedish women, if one were to read released copies of the women’s original police statements, it would be hard to decipher the reasons for which Assange has been arrested – or even charged. The women’s transcripts document not only that both the women consented in full knowledge to having physical relations (on different dates, of course) with Assange, but also that both the women had initially gone together to the police station to simply force Assange (who apparently could not be contacted otherwise by these women) to take a medical test for sexually transmitted diseases – as at least one of them believed that the condom Assange had used during the physical session with her had broken down. And why blame Assange? Apparently, he knew about the alleged breakage during the act and refused to stop despite being told to do so – and this is evidently an offence under Swedish law.

Should that be considered an immediately arrestable crime? Well, the Swedes and Interpol (the International Criminal Police Organization) think so. It’s more amusing to imagine that the Interpol, which seems to have fallen over itself in arresting Assange, hasn’t acted in similar haste in other arrest warrant cases, a notable one being of Roman Polanski, who has literally been ignored and is moving scot free in France for years despite having already been convicted in US courts on rape charges involving a 13 year old girl, and despite having had the so-called red alert notices issued against him by Interpol time and again. And the most hilarious part in all this is that Interpol’s international headquarters is right there bang in the middle of France, in Lyon.

The answer to this is that while the French government protects Polanski despite his frivolous behaviour, the UK government sees the Assange arrest as an opportunity to bend its back to satisfy the Americans.

Having said that, the fact is that whatever has been churned up by WikiLeaks till date against the US establishment actually works to the benefit of the Americans and in fact does their image more good than harm. While the world used to imagine a deep, sinister cabal of US diplomats conspiring and conniving to assassinate high-profile leaders, the 2,50,000 US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks thankfully reveal none such matter – and whatever negative has been revealed, was already in the know of the global media.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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


 
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Monday, September 10, 2012

“We are moving to electronic platform funding”

Manas Kumar Nag, CGM-Small and Medium Enterprises, State Bank of India

State Bank of India (SBI), being the largest lender in India, has the benefit of a wide and deep presence in the Indian market. This also reflects in its performance with respect to extending credit towards MSMEs over the years. SBI has in fact emerged as one of the biggest contributors to meeting their financial needs in a profitable way. Manas Kumar Nag, CGM-SME, SBI talks to Bhuvnesh Talwar and shares the dynamics of the company’s SME business in further detail:

B&E: What is the eligibility criteria that you have defined for SMEs to avail loans with SBI?
Manas Nag (MN): MSMEs comprise of manufacturing, trade and services organizations. We have various customised schemes/products for different groups of borrowers. Therefore, eligibility would be as per the scheme. However, broadly speaking, we apply the Know Your Customer (KYC) concept, which includes identifying whether the borrower falls within the definition of micro, small or medium category and assessing the business activity and the borrower credentials to see whether the business can generate sufficient income. We have presently an internal system of rating, which is a prerequisite for sanctioning loans above Rs.25 lakhs. We have certain hurdle rates below which we do not sanction loans.

B&E: What are the major loan/credit products/schemes that you have launched for SMEs, in consideration of their diverse needs?
MN: We have several customised schemes and products and also have tie-ups with industry majors for funding vehicles or construction equipment or healthcare products. In addition, we also have schemes like Doctor Plus/School Plus, which are specifically tailor-made for such groups of borrowers.

B&E: The default rates for these products are generally a cause for concern. What has been your experience?
MN: Default rates are very low in certain schemes and in others, they are higher. For example, we have found that our doctor plus scheme has a much lower default rate as compared to our transport plus scheme. The nature of activity, choice of borrowers and the area of operation are the factors that determine the rate of default.


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

US: CHIEF OF STAFF

Agreed that he took charge at a time when the economy was struggling and that he was faced with an ambitious agenda (that of pushing through key reforms as promised by Obama in his Presidential campaigns which emphasised on Hope and Change). The hard-charging, high octane, arm twister Rahm, an enforcer who had a reputation of getting things done, was entrusted with the job of the White House’s Chief of Staff for steamrolling the change Obama planned. And Rahm – or Rahmbo, as he started getting nomenclatured came to be better known as being a foul-mouthed showman and backroom infighter, who managed, mauled and massacred dissent by standing on tables and screaming; of late even being viewed by many party activists as an instigator of a feud that was dividing the party.

Things went awry in August 2009, when Rahm, in one of his weekly strategy session featuring Liberal groups and other aides (who were planning to air ads attacking conservative Democrats who were balking at Obama’s healthcare overhaul), was back to what he was best known for. He responded to the criticisms by calling the liberal activists as “F***ing retarded.” Although that particular instance was not the sole reason, that presumably was the tipping point, where members got push converted to shove and demanded a port of departure call on Rahm’s war-carrier. David Weigel, Political commentator at Slate, based in Chicago, had this to say to B&E, “After nearly two years of Rahm Emanuel, liberals are pretty much confident that he was a paper tiger, a drudge who never missed an opportunity to undermine the progressive agenda and a man whose alleged formidability never rendered to big, substantive triumphs over Republicans.”

My favourite vaudeville performer Will Rogers once said, “There are two theories to arguin’ with a woman. Neither one works.” You could say that while arguing with Rahm too, where thanks purely to Rahm’s whimsical and fanciful style of debating and arguing, the President had a roller-coaster ride in the White House in the last 20 months. Be it Rahm’s crossing swords with Nancy Pelosi (speaker of the House of Representatives), or his failure to press home the President’s political message in the way Obama wished, or his handling of the economy and Wall Street regulation, Rahm’s pugilistic approach was solely blamed by commentators for delivering defeat. The President needed a Chief of Staff who had the wisdom to help him chart out a bold and progressive path. Someone who could successfully play the role of the President’s gatekeeper, like what James Baker did for Ronald Reagan. Rahm (who also doubled up as the President’s top political adviser and legislative strategist) at least did the gatekeeper part pretty well. But given that the mid-term elections in November would be a bloodbath for Democrats (in all probability, the elections could transfer the control of the House and even the Senate from Democrats to the Republicans), Rahm’s exit was strategically planned to minimise losses. Simply put, this is the return of favour that has been meted out to Rahm for the mistake he committed of pushing Obama too far to the middle.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Monday, September 03, 2012

Family democracy, Lanka style

Rajapakse is turning the Lankan constitution into a useless shred of paper

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse brought in a landmark change in the country’s constitution on September 08, 2010 by scrapping the two term limit rule for serving presidents in the midst of both protests and cheering across the country. Consequently, Rajapakse, who is serving his second term as president, can stand for another term in the next voting to be held in 2016!

Apart from this, sweeping powers were handed over to him as a result of this amendment, by which previously autonomous institutes have been brought under his control. He will now directly appoint the main officials in judiciary, election commission, human rights commission and the central bank. Ending all controversies spurred up by the opposition, who stressed for the need of referendum to change the constitution, the Supreme Court ruled that such requirement is unnecessary. This has paved the way to end all possible legal roadblocks to Rajapakse.


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Friday, July 27, 2012

The Devil, Deep Sea & The Debt

Troubled EU Economies have to Hastily rid themselves of their debt; but why hasn’t The EU fined Eurozone Members for their Financial Profligacy?

The great recession of this century exposed a fundamental truth of economics; huge imbalances in real economy and/or trade can never be covered up for long. In fact, the longer they are covered up, the harder they get back at you.

After nearly 18 months of struggle, major blocs of the world have been able to emerge from the effects of the crisis, but the situation with the 17-member strong Eurozone remains questionable, especially with Greece, Ireland, Portugal & Spain so perilously poised. Economists have stated that Greece’s mountain of debt of €325 billion is almost twice the sustainable level and the situation is graver than the 2001 Argentina crisis.

As per the Stability and Growth Pact in Eurozone, any member state exceeding the annual deficit limit of 3% of GDP will be fined. In 2005, Portugal, Germany and France crossed the limit, but no steps were taken. Most interestingly, 14 out of 17 members except Estonia, Luxemburg and Finland crossed the deficit limit in 2010 as per Eurostat. Ireland with a government deficit of 32.4% of GDP, Greece with 10.5%, Spain with 9.2%, Portugal with 9.1% and Slovakia with 7.9% are at the highest risk.

Though debt to GDP ratio of the Eurozone is less than US or UK, the bigger challenge is ensuring an effective political mechanism to tackle the crisis. Renegotiation of debt has to be taken to a logical conclusion through consensus. This is not currently the state in Greece, for instance, where Greek PM George Papandreou has been struggling to get new austerity measures accepted so that a fresh bailout package may be approved. Moreover, EU should adopt a balanced trade policy as in the current context; Germany enjoys an enormous trade benefit while Greece and Slovakia suffer with a small product base.


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Tuesday, October 23, 2007

First blood...

Bull runs, whether in Spain or at the NASDAQ, have a very predictable course of events… the excitement, the euphoria, as well as the bloodbath that follows. For quite a while, a bull-run led by PE firms is sweeping across markets, like a tsunami at the height of its ferocity. “In 2003, there were only 16 pure private equity listed entities with a daily turnover of more than $1 million & an M-cap greater than $250 million. As of 2007, these numbers have nearly doubled,” says David Blitzer, MD & Chairman, Index Committee, Standard & Poor’s.

The recent buyout offer for Bell Canada (a 127-year-old Canadian telecom operator) by a group of PE firms, for a whopping $48.5 billion is the latest crest of this wave. The offer is the biggest in the history of private equity, outshining the $45 billion acquisition of TXU Corp. by KKR & Texas Pacific Group, Blackstone’s offer of $26 billion for Hilton Hotels & a $22 billion bid for Virgin Media by Carlysle group. A result of this bull-run is overpriced offers with elephantine premiums. Take the Blackstone offer: it represents a 40% premium over Hilton’s closing price the previous day.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source: IIPM Editorial, 2006
An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative
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Friday, October 05, 2007

“They were killed because in the narrow jungle track the animal has nowhere to turn”

It is a war that is no longer subject to just scorching summers and consequently disappearing water-holes.“They were killed because in the narrow jungle track the animal has nowhere to turn” At Hajongbari village, less than 10 kms from Guwahati, a human-elephant had just happened a day back – killing two locals at the nearby Amsing reserve forest that is now being demarcated a sanctuary. “They were killed because in the narrow jungle track the animal has nowhere to turn,” says Dilip Daimari, who will now have to leave his ancestral home in the jungle, to make way for a safe home for elephants.

“Earlier, we could chase them away quite easily but with time they now stand their ground and oft en attack,” says Anil, a farmer, who has seen others’ crops destroyed by the animals. The future is ominous: there are less than 10 groups of Asiatic elephants with member count of 1,000 or more in a contiguous area, cutting down on the animal’s chances of survival in the long run, reports of an increase in population notwithstanding.
If statistics could save species, the scariest would be the one that says tropical forests that contain more than half the world’s wild species, lose 17 million hectares a year. Amsing is only one among tens of others on the planet where the elephant now stands threatened.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source: IIPM Editorial, 2007
An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative
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Tuesday, September 11, 2007

India needs to subtly tell China where to get off...

Yet, such hard won success once again seems to be threatened by a creeping tendency to be ‘soft ’ Sutanu Guru- Executive Editor, Business & Economywith negotiators and potential antagonists. There is the nuclear deal with the United States, where Uncle Sam is steadily moving the goalposts and trying to stifle and choke India’s strategic ambitions. There is Australia that claims that it will not supply Uranium to India even if there is a nuclear deal with Uncle Sam, because India violates international nuclear weapons control regimes. There is Pakistan that continues to mollycoddle terrorists while claiming that terror camps have been shut down. Most significantly, there is China which brazenly announces that Arunanchal Pradesh is an integral part of the Middle Kingdom, and hence refuses to give visas to people from the state.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source: IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative
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Wednesday, September 05, 2007

...the new motto of tech-world

Though IBM might be promoting it as a Green initiative, the fact is that the whole Project Green of IBM targets to make a lot of money by helping the corporate data centres (suffering from energy constraints) with its high efficiency servers. According to analyst firm IDC, roughly 50 cents is spent on energy for every dollar spent on the hardware. This is expected to increase by 54% to 71 cents in the next four years.”

In such a scenario where investments towards energy conservation are increasing by the day, companies like Intel have also decided to initiate their own energy saving green projects. “Intel is taking an aggressive stance towards environmental sustainability, from the elimination of lead and a focus on greater energy efficiency of our products to fewer air emissions” says Nasser Grayeli, VP, Intel.

Well, with threat of global warming creating a ruckus, the only saviour for this seemingly dying planet seems to be these Green Technologies. And if technology companies are able to make money out of their green plans, there could be no reason for us to complain.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source: IIPM Editorial, 2007
An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative
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