Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Is Pakistan Musharraf’s own country?

Chances of united democratic alliance against Musharraf are remote
Till date there hasn’t been any election in Pakistan without rigging, says Smruti S. Pattanaik, Research Fellow, IDSA. If this is a fact, then one more truth, which emerges from the current turmoil in Pakistan is that “never before in history of Pakistan, it’s civil society was so keen for elections,” Prof. Uma Singh, Centre for South Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, told B&E.

And Benazir Bhutto’s brutal assassination was perhaps the beginning of the rigging. It disturbed, as Saeed Naqvi, Editor, World Report, a syndication service on foreign affairs, said, “the arrangement in which Pervez Musharraf was to be president; Kayani, Army chief, and Benazir, PM, was fixed by the US.” Uma Singh said, “Only after the US gave the green signal, did Benazir returned to Pakistan & she never was critical of the US.” But Benazir’s death has made her Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians, like a ship without a captain.

Asif Zardari, Benazir’s husband, Co-chairman of the party, is not very popular, opposed by some PPPP leaders; and her only son, Bilawal, hasn’t finished his formal education. In such a situation, Asif Ali Zardari has designated Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Vice-Chairman of PPPP as Prime Ministerial candidate. “Fahim has run the PPPP in Pakistan during Benazir’s absence and didn’t show political ambitions,” Pattanaik told B&E. The elections have been postponed to February 18 for various reasons. Naqvi feels that PPPP & Nawaz Sharif’s party, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) might come together for the election. But, PPPP, with Nawaz Sharif, won’t be compatible to the US. And, for that matter, neither to Musharraf.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
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The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Europeanisation of Balkan nations

The increasing trend of Europeanization has impressed Balkans too
Though the sudden split of Yugoslavia and the US’ battle for democracy have given birth to many independent Balkan states, but it left many uncertainties about their future. Few of them got influenced by the US or West and rest remained in strict and straightforward way, pro-Russia, in the light of darkness and ambiguity. Interestingly, last few decades have witnessed a sluggish shift among these nations towards the European Union (EU).

The vulnerable Balkan region has been annexed, ruled and controlled by many monarchs, communist dictators. Ethnic conflicts, civil war in Yugoslavia have established many island as sovereign states, after 1991. But most of them remained unknown to the world.

With eventual realisation of democracy and growing awareness, human rights, trade, tourism and socio-economic development, Balkan nations started shifting towards European community. As a result, it is recently that the world explored Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia after they became permanent members of the EU. Tourism is flourishing in Slovenia. It has achieved the highest GDP per capita (touching over €14,800) in Eastern Europe. Croatia, Macedonia who are members of the EU have also experienced tremendous socio-economic reforms and Soviet-dominated Albania, Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro are also not lagging behind to divulge their potentiality through pro-active reform mechanisms.

While low fertility, population shortages kept Europe in deep apprehension; lack of investment, human rights, trade, tourism and most importantly global recognition of national identity have plagued these Balkan nations. Thus, the EU’s enlargement policy, with Balkan’s growing affiliation with the EU, will unanimously give its contribution to global peace and prosperity.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
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The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
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Monday, August 25, 2008

Extending the protection cover

Apart from consumers, ICICI Prudential Life also extends the protection shield to its employees
Life is like an intriguing mystery, with many twists and turns. And as the complicated plot called life unfolds, there are surprises and setbacks in store for all of us. Surprises add spice to your life, while setbacks make you sit back and take stock of the situation in which you have unknowingly landed. Whatever the case be, one can never really say for sure what turn destiny might take. This is one of the major reasons that many people seek ‘insurance’. However, the very word insurance carries a negative connotation. Hence, consumers are not easily swayed by the innumerable promises that insurance companies make. With the paychecks getting fatter by the day, Indian consumers are increasingly looking at alternate modes to plant their money, hence insurance cover takes a backseat. So even today, a vast Indian population is uninsured. Even those who have taken some sort of insurance cover are also grossly underinsured.

For close to 50 years after Independence, the sector was in complete chaos, with only one life insurance player, LIC, operating in the country. The penetration level was miserable as well as the awareness was low. The year 2000 was clearly the watershed period for the insurance sector, with the government allowing private participation in the sector. No sooner had the government announced reforms in the sector, a flurry of private players as well as international players made a beeline for this highly potential yet unexplored sector. One of the first companies to set shop was ICICI Prudential Life Insurance (a joint venture between ICICI Bank and Prudential plc – a leading UK-based international financial services group). Clearly in the past few years, insurance has emerged as one of the fastest growing sunrise sectors in India. Huge potential, intense competition and tax benefits have given a new lease of life to the insurance sector. Although LIC still continues to dominate the pack, but among the private players ICICI Prudential Life stands out as a clear winner with 7% market share (ICMR Survey).


ICICI Prudential Life is the first life insurer in India to receive a National Insurer Financial Strength rating of AAA (Ind) from Fitch ratings. For ICICI Prudential Life, the key to success has been their highly motivated workforce (read agents), that have the real tough task to motivate consumers to buy an insurance policy. The company has seen a lot of activity in the last two years and its workforce has increased from 7,500 employees in 2005-06 to nearly 29,000 employees, today and still counting…

With such rapidly growing workforce, the role of HR becomes all the more critical in identifying and nurturing the right talent that will enable the company to build scale. While speaking to B&E on the people challenges faced at ICICI Prudential Life, Judhajit Das, Chief – Human Resources, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, points out, “With this kind of growth, our highest need is that of talent at the frontline level and customer service points, given our scale requirements.” In fact the entire financial services sector has a shortage of talent that is suited for middle management roles in corporate functions like finance, audit, human resources and specialist functions such as product development, underwriting, claims and actuarial. Consequently, the company too finds itself in a ‘war for talent’ situation, wherein there is a dearth of skilled professionals who have the domain knowledge of specialised insurance functions. Therefore, retaining high potential talent are the biggest challenges for the human resource function. To address the challenge of finding the right set of people ICICI Prudential Life has partnered with some exclusive business schools to launch a Post Graduate Program in Management and Insurance (PGPMI) to train and develop skilled insurance professionals, who can later join the company and help them build scale. In addition to this, the company has also adopted other innovative strategies such as identifying and nurturing talent among Indian Armed Forces and encouraging second career amongst the senior citizens, which also enables ICICI Prudential Life to strike a balance between young and mature minds within the organisation. To build further scale, the company has moved beyond the metros, to recruit talent from tier II & III cities as well.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
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The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Body Parts and Clothes

The appearance of the avatar can be customised in something called the editing laboratory. Options are available in two categories: Body Parts and Clothes. The first will allow you to adjust your height, weight, chest size, waist size and so on. Skin can be further altered according to skin details (like pigment), face detail, make-up, and body detail. Body detail means tattoos, and tattoos can be placed anywhere on the body, from head (if you’re bald) to toe (if you’re going to go barefoot). You also have complete control over the colour, length and texture of the hair, as well as colour, shape and size of the eyes, eyelashes & eyebrows. You can have different hair styles such as straight, curly or textured & hair colour such as blond, brunette or red head. You can change your skin colour & complexion. You can give yourself green or blue eyes.

You can sport a moustache & beard. You can have an athletic body or a muscular one. Choose from any number of combinations in clothes and accessories ranging from caps, hats, jewelry and glares. All articles of clothing can be customised by style & colour: shirt, pants, shoes, socks, jacket, gloves, undershirt, underpants, & skirts. Advanced Residents use Adobe Photoshop to design and create their own clothing. And these are only in human form. The avatar can also take other humanoid or non-humanoid forms. So if you fancy yourself to be a green dinosaur with wings, even that’s possible. Also called furries and wolfies, creature avatars are quite popular in SL. And finally, a single resident may have multiple accounts (Alts), and thus appear to be multiple residents. However, the resident must register them and pay a small fee.

SL adds the conversational dynamics of chat to create the social structure of communication. This is available in two forms: local chat and instant messaging (IM). Chatting is primarily used for public conversations between avatars and can be “heard” within 25 meters. IM is used for private conversations. You can move around in three ways. Walking obviously, is the most basic method. But avatars can also fly up to about 170 meters over the terrain without any special equipment! Yes, that’s right! And if that is unbelievable, there’s a third even crazier method: teleportation. Meant for instantaneous travel, all you need to do is punch in the coordinates of the location you want to go to and you just appear there. Of course you can also ride in vehicles such as the basic go-kart or Resident-made vehicles including submarines and balloons.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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

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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Fund manager handling the profiling

Another important factor to look at is the fund manager handling the profiling. A fund manager’s brilliance, experience & expertise contribute sizably to the fund’s performance and help the fund attain its investment objectives.

In fact, a combination of a disciplined fund house with a strong fund manager makes for a great combination. A disciplined fund house culture makes fund managers make intelligent yet cautious and well worked out calls. Parallely, a fund manager’s individual capabilities and research techniques aid in good portfolio development. Thus an ideal combination of the two adds to the fund’s performance.

Apart from spending time and effort to select a fund house meticulously, an investor should remember three basic principles of investing viz. Systematic Investment, Asset Allocation and Long Term Investment Horizon. Market cannot be timed to precision every time as a common investor lacks the expertise and bandwidth to do so hence systematic investment approach is advisable. Similarly, depending upon individual risk appetite and investment objective, an investor should design an asset allocation pattern, which should be rebalanced time to time. Lastly, investors should remember that equity markets behave in a volatile manner in the short term, while over the long term, the returns are far better than other asset classes and hence patience is extremely critical.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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

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Monday, August 11, 2008

Virgin Radio a goodbye

But what comes to Branson as a bonanza may be a bad start for BCCL, as right at the onset they have to kiss the ‘all-popular’ brand name Virgin Radio a goodbye. However, industry experts feel that Virgin Radio buyout is not a bad deal for BCCL. Sample this: BCCL has bought Virgin Radio from SMG for $106 million (in 2000 SMG bought Virgin Radio for $500 million at five times higher price). With the assets of the company valued around $136 million and the radio channel commanding a regular listenership of 2.7 million, this means that even without the brand name it’s a lucrative deal for BCCL. Amita Sarkar, Media & Entertainment Head, FICCI, feels, “BCCL is a huge success in itself as far as brands are concerned. Given the infrastructure of Virgin Radio, creating a new radio brand in UK won’t be a difficult task for BCCL. Brand creation is something that it knows the best.”

BCCL will invest approximately $30 million over the next few months to re-brand the acquired company. However, the challenge remains to establish a brand, which will be equally adored by UK radio listeners. The competition is definitely going to be tough as a lot of consolidation is happening in the UK radio sector. Moreover, in the times to come Richard Branson himself will launch a new radio station under the Virgin brand itself. That again will be a big challenge for the Indian media house. But with the growing Indian population in UK and a cult-following for BCCL-promoted TOI, the going won’t be tough for it.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

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Thursday, August 07, 2008

Anand Bhushan (28), Euro RSCG


IIPM Ranked No. 1 B-School In Global Exposre - Zee...

Anand Bhushan (28), Euro RSCG. A jobless Chemistry graduate, Anand literally stumbled on to the advertising scene. A close friend suggested that he should try out advertising – a field, which he had absolutely no clue about. He nevertheless went ahead to try his luck. Soon his dormant creativity could be seen with the ‘Bajate Raho’ campaign for Red FM (a truly revolutionary campaign for a radio channel), which brought him instant recognition in the industry. That one campaign was enough to propel his career to great heights. He has also worked for brands like Mortein and Appy Fizz, among others. He feels, “Everybody is creative. Anything you do differently is creativity. In advertising doing things differently is creativity.”

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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

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Wednesday, August 06, 2008

A Mobile Castle

That’s the slogan all mobile retailers are chanting, but who amongst them stands a better chance? surbhi chawla analyses...

A 1977 British tele-serial had the shy young Roland Wright dealing with his tormenting existence at home (with nagging parents) and at school (with bully peers & despotic teachers). One day, Wright falls down a lift shaft where everyone in his life transforms into hideous doubles and Roland must overcome his enemies to become “King of the Castle”! The plot is reminiscent of modern day chaos in the organised mobile retail segment, wherein each protagonist must uncover a series of vital keys to become King of India’s lucrative mobile retail castle. On stake is the Rs.70,000 crore and growing mobile market of India, of which, analysts estimate, at present only about a miniscule 7-10% comprises organised retail. From the Essar promoted The MobileStore to the price-warriors like Subhiksha Mobile to big daddies like Reliance Digital, everyone is keen to jump on this ship before it sets sail to moolah land. And each player is trying to create that winning differentiator that separates the wheat from the chaff.

But before we get on to that, let’s just briefly look into the biggest challenge that this retail format faces, and one which is making players in the segment sick with worry. Till date, more than three-fourth of the mobile retail business continues to be done through the unorganised segment and grey markets. In fact, most players consider the unorganised segment as their biggest competitor, as opposed to other organised players. Yet, there is big time optimism in the air that sooner than later, the organised players will win consumers over and that the share of the grey market will go down. “The major advantage they are offering customers is price and organised retailers are already trying their best to give lowest cost advantage.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Vantage position

But if this is the case, then how does one explain the advocacy of this initiative by the leading online players, especially considering that they enjoy a vantage position in terms of user base and community? If experts are to be believed, this is a response by the biggies to the heat being generated by the enviable success of Facebook. Zuckerberg’s brainchild had pioneered this idea in 2006 when it allowed developers to use its platform to create applications. It created massive buzz and a huge user base for Facebook which was instrumental in fetching it a valuation of $15 billion.

So what Google is doing with Open Social is something similar i.e. to develop a common application programming interface for social applications across multiple websites. By doing this, they hope to combat Facebook’s growing domination in the social networking space and create a similar impact in terms of user mindshare. With these standard Javascripts, developers would be able to create applications that can access the participating social network’s friends and update feeds.

But like every innovation, this one also comes with a catch. If one were to sum up in the words of Nikhil Pahwa, Editor of ContentSutra, “A user’s behaviour on different sites is different and if there is a means to tap all this information, this will add tremendous value by providing great insight into consumer behavior. However, if this information leaks out, it also has the potential to cause substantial damage to user privacy.” Well, on the whole, it is a move by the Internet giants Google and Yahoo! to counter the growing dominance of Facebook in the social networking arena. But will this move actually pay off? Even the giants can do nothing more but guess.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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

Top Articles on IIPM:-
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
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