Big Brother with you, always

The NSA's program is an affront to the idea of personal privacy

The post 9/11 world has seen the security apparatus spread its tentacles through use of surveillance technology in military, business and social establishments of the United States. One such surveillance program by the National Security Agency has not only made headlines but has also sparked considerable debate and controversy. The program in question is the NSA’s ambitious data mining partnerships with technology firms, which has been codenamed “Prism”. At least nine transnational internet behemoths are involved in Prism operations, including Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple and Skype. There have been reports of many instances of cooperation between these tech firms and the NSA on “Prism” operations.  If these reports are true there is a likelihood of the deal being thrust upon these firms by the NSA either by threat or through blandishments. However, most of these firms have vehemently denied their involvement. Facebook’s website says: “We do not provide any government organisation with direct access to Facebook servers.”

In any case, tech firms are obliged to furnish information under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and none of the information sharing requests done through it have been declined. However, the firms are not obliged to do the same for NSA. But reports about secret deals of cooperation being struck with the NSA and the firms listed in Prism have gained currency. The surveillance of millions of customers’ data is gross violation of an individual’s freedom and the right to privacy. The process is not transparent and to execute such an opaque and secretive mission on the innocent public is reminiscent of a Soviet style monitoring that Americans deeply abhor.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Shantaram's legacy

The Marathi film industry is getting out of a self-created slump and revenues are looking up, reports Chandran Iyer

At its peak, the Marathi film industry boasted of doyens that dominated the large screen, the hey days of V Shantaram, Acharaya P K Atre, Bhalji Pendharkar, Baburao Painter and Master Vinayak. Then it went into a tailspin, playing second or third fiddle to big brother Bollywood, its future largely uncertain. Now in the last three years, the Marathi film industry, once a pioneer in the business of film making, is in the process of reviving its fortunes.

For one, the number of Marathi films being churned out annually has gone up from two dozen odd to more than 100 films. The industry has been rejuvenated post-Shwaas with young directors willing to explore new themes and content. In 2006, the industry released 67 movies while 91 hit the screens in 2007. Now the number have gone up to more than 100.

Producers are willing to put in up to Rs two crores - a high figure for regional cinema - as compared to Rs 25 to 30 lakh a couple of years ago. This has also resulted in a sharp rise in the annual turnover.

A number of factors contributed to the decline of Marathi cinema; poor scripting, lack of quality directors, talent drain of good actors like Nana Patekar, Laxmikant Berde, Ashok Saraf and others to Hindi films, an irregular distribution network and spawning of multiplex theatres more interested in block buster Hindi films than regional Marathi fare.

Sanjay Chabbria, managing director of Everest Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, says the word revival has negative connotations. “I would say that it is now in the consolidation mode. Looking at the number of good films that are being churned out every year in Maharashtra, things are looking bright,’’ he points out. According to him,‘‘this revival began with the release of Shwas or Breath.’’ Chabbria has a point because in 2003, this Sandeep Sawant film broke the mould and captured the imagination of even non-Maharashtrian audiences. It won the Golden Lotus National Award in 2004 and was official entry to the 77th Academy Awards. Other films like Not Only Mrs Raut, Anahat and Saat Chya Aat Gharat too did well at the box office as well as get critical acclaim. Shrirang Godbole, managing director, Indian Magic Eye Motions Pictures, believes quality has improved thanks to satellite rights. “Marathi movies are earning good revenue from satellite rights. This augurs very well for business as it offsets production costs considerably”. According to industry sources, Deool and Shala received Rs 1.5 crore each as satellite rights.

Says noted writer and director Raju Phulkar, who has directed super hit comedy films like Gadhavacha Lagna (Wedding of An Ass) and 40 other mainly mythological films, “though Marathi films are now doing reasonably well, people often compare it to the Hindi film industry which is wrong. A commercial Marathi film is made on a shoe-string budget of around Rs one or two crores, a Hindi film budget ranges from Rs 50 to 100 crores. A hero or heroine in a Hindi film industry gets more money than the entire budget of a Marathi film. This is because our audiences are confined to Maharashtra while Hindi films have pan-India appeal.’’

What about Tamil and Telugu films which also do very well despite being confined to their respective states? Explains Chabbria: “You cannot compare Marathi cinema with Tamil or Telegu cinema because the audience there is very different. Culturally, Tamil and Telugu audiences go berserk when they see their stars. This is unheard of in Marathi cinema. If there is a movie starring Rajnikant, Tamil audiences will not miss it.’’

Godbole, however, terms this as brand loyalty of southern audiences. “In south India, people are very loyal to their language. Even TV viewership in regional languages is more than 50 per cent, which is not the case in Maharashtra.’’

Chabbria’s Everest Entertainment Pvt Ltd, an integrated media and entertainment company, has become a household name within the Marathi entertainment industry. It not just produces and commissions films but also distributes and showcases films globally across all formats: cinema, home entertainment, television and new media. It has pioneered a successful business model, releasing four to six new films every year across various platforms. The company also has an impressive film library with over 200 titles, making it one of the prime content owners in the business. Umesh Kulkarni, film director known for acclaimed Marathi films such as Valu (The Wild Bull), Vihir (The Well) and Deool ( Temple) says “young film directors are joining the fray which augurs well. Things are better but a lot more needs to be done.’’ His Girni won the National Film Award for the best non-feature film and Valu, released in January 2008, was featured at the Berlin film festival, as was Vihir at Berlin and the Rotterdam International Film Festival in 2010.

Technology too has improved. Films until 2003-04 were made on a 16mm format, usually used for shooting documentary and TV news. They would then be blown up for the big screen; technically the picture would be of poor quality without wide or long-shots. Using scissors to edit has made way for modern computer editing. The industry is now eyeing overseas audiences.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

The Entertainment Jockey!

He's not the typical Adonis you'd be gaping at in awe or the hunk whose built and biceps you'd drool over. But Ayushmann Khurrana's dimple-marked-smile, the melody in his voice and the boy-next-door-attitude have won him a place right up there with the reigning stars as well as in the audience's hearts. With Pratishtha Malhotra, Ayushmann shares the story of his journey until now...

You've come a long way since winning roadies, being a RJ, a VJ, an anchor and now an actor. How does it feel when you look back?
It feels great. In fact, I’m glad that it is a gradual transition from one medium to the other. I don’t believe in overnight success. I’ve seen the industry as an outsider as well and it gave me a different perspective in working with people. I started as an anchor, a media person who used to take interviews and now I am giving interviews. It’s quite surreal. ‘Ive enjoyed my journey.

You did theatre before venturing into films. Tell us something about that.
Ya! I formed two theatre groups in Chandigarh; Aaghaaz and Manchtantra in D.A.V College. We started this in 2002 when I was in 1st year of college and these are the two active theatre groups in Chandigarh which are amateur, but very passionate. It is visible even today when they come to Mumbai for IIT-Mumbai or any of the fests. They are very gung-ho about theatre and are a very passionate bunch of kids and it’s good to be associated with such creative groups.

Do you think doing theatre was an advantage as we saw a very mature debutant in Vicky Donor?
I think it comes with experience. I have been doing theatre since childhood. My first play was in 5th standard where I played Shylock’s character in Merchant of Venice, a Shakespeare play. I’ve also been doing public speaking, theatre, music etc.  Besides, I was fortunate to play a Punjabi character that connected with the youth. Being a Punjabi myself really helped me. I could relate to the masses and especially to certain Dilliwalas. So I think it is a right mix of opportunity and experience that counts.

Then Nautanki Saala, again, was a film that required a lot of spontaneity and comic timing like Vicky Donor. So does this spontaneity and comic timing come naturally to you?
I think it is a natural talent, but having said that there’s a lot of effort also that is put into it. I think doing radio, TV, theatre, live anchoring is counted as experience but, yes, a natural and inborn talent for it counts too.

How was it working with Rohan Sippy?
Rohan Sippy is a very good taskmaster. Actually, he’s a hard taskmaster. In fact, we did a workshop for the film for 20 days and we were so well prepared to take the film forward.  So I think he is a great disciplinarian and it was great working with him.

So were there times on the set when you were scolded?
(Smiles) Ya, sometimes. It was the first time he was working without Abhishek Bachchan and we were newcomers in front of him. We were not really scolded but, ya, he was more like a teacher than a director.

You bagged the best singer Filmfare Award for ‘Pani da Rang’ and you had an expression of disbelief on getting it. Were you actually shocked?
You know, I was expecting the debut actor award, since that was what I got in other award shows, but the award for best singer was quite a surprise because I never aspired to be a playback singer. I would sing as a kid, but never took it seriously. When I came to Mumbai, I came to be an actor and not a singer though I enjoy music.  It is my passion but I never intended to take it up professionally. I am not a trained singer and didn’t pursue it because I always thought that I was more of an actor. So when the announcement happened at the Filmfare Awards for the best playback singer, it was unbelievable. Hence the expression!

You’ve sung two songs in Nautanki Saala too. So are there pplans of seriously considering playback singing?
I’m an actor, who also sings and fortunately my songs are doing well. ‘Saadi Gali’ is a chartbuster and ‘Tu Hi Tu’ is doing pretty well. But still, I am an actor who sings and not a singer who acts.

We’ve heard you write poetry as well…
Ya. Infact, these songs, ‘Paani Da Rang’ and ‘Saadi Gali’ were written by me. I’ll be writing songs in the future too. I like poetry and I also have a blog in Hindi. I’ve done public speaking and theatre in Hindi. My mom is MA in Hindi and my love for literature comes from there.

You act, sing, write poetry and have done journalism as well. Were you planning on stealing everyone's job?
(Laughs) Not really. Basically, I didn’t want to study theatre because I was already doing theatre, but I wanted to study something and do my post graduation. Journalism and Mass Communication was something is chose because it was connected to the media industry and it really helped me to be a better presenter of television.

Your next is a Yash Raj Film with Sonam Kapoor. Tell us something about that…
It’s a love story in the times of recession where I play a guy who is a corporate person based out of Delhi and Nupur Asthana is directing the film. I’m very excited about it. The characters are very nice. There are three characters in the film - Rishi Kapoor Sir, Sonam Kapoor and I.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Curtains or a fresh lease?

The long-term fate of the Congress in Odisha will crucially hinge on whether it can cash in on the anti-incumbency factor in the 2014 Assembly polls, writes Dhrutikam Mohanty

For Odisha Congress, there is hope in the air. But so is trepidation. Leaders of the state party may not admit as much, but they are acutely aware that the 2014 Assembly polls will be their last chance to bounce back after being out of power for a decade and a half. On the face of it, the current political scenario in Odisha seems to be in favour of Congress, which has been out of power since 1999. With the anti-incumbency factor kicking in, this is the party’s best chance to topple the Naveen Patnaik government.

Congress, which held uninterrupted sway over Odisha for 35 years after Independence, is now facing an acid test. If it can’t get its act together this time around, it could well mean the beginning of another long spell in the wilderness.

 The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) could face dissidence over distribution of party tickets. Its former strategist, Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, has floated a new political party, Odisha Jana Morcha (OJM), and has announced his intention to upset Naveen Patnaik’s applecart. Many BJD poll ticket aspirants could gravitate towards OJM if they are not nominated by the ruling party.

Having been BJD’s election manager in the last two elections, Pyari Mohan knows the party’s chinks. He will definitely play a role in diverting the BJD vote towards non-BJD candidates. This is bound to work to the advantage of the Congress.

The launch of Pyari Mohan’s new political party last week has stirred the pre-poll pot. He announced he would go in for an alliance with any non-BJD party to oust the “blind and autocratic government of Naveen Patnaik”. He claimed that national-level leaders of many political parties are in touch with him for pre-poll tie-ups. He said his alliance will win 80 to 85 seats (in the 147-member Assembly).

Asked about the possibility of OJM joining hands with Congress in Odisha, state Congress president Niranjan Patnaik says, “We are a national party, so any-poll alliance has to be decided at the central level. But Mohapatra has declared that OJM will contest 110 seats. This leaves only 37 seats for the Congress at best. How can we accept this?”

The results of the recent civic body elections in the state have been a shot in the arm for Congress. Candidates of OJM and Congress won most of the seats in the  polls in Hindol, Atabira and Nuapada.While in the newly-formed Hindol Notified Area Council (NAC), Congress won seven and OJM-supported independents won six seats, the ruling BJD managed to get only two seats out of a total of 16.


Similarly, Congress won seven seats in Nuapada NAC against BJD’s four. In the newly formed Atabira NAC, Congress and BJD won six seats each. Political analysts say this is the first poll setback for BJD after Pyari Mohan’s suspension.

But is Congress ready to make the most of the opportunity? “I don’t think so,” says senior political analyst Prashant Patnaik. “Organisationally, Congress is weak. The party faces acute infighting and the senior leadership is bitterly divided.”


Dissidence has indeed been the bane of Odisha Congress for the past decade and a half – a fact that has harmed the party’s stocks in the eyes of the public.

The last spell of Congress rule in Odisha was under Janaki Ballava Patnaik in 1995. It was chaotic and scandal-ridden. Corruption charges, scandals and weak leadership made the party unpopular. The party’s decline in Odisha began when it failed in relief and rehabilitation work in the aftermath of the 1990 super cyclone.

In the 2000 Assembly elections, Congress was down to only 26 seats from 80. In 2004, the party did marginally better, winning 38 seats. In the current Assembly, however, the party has 27 seats. Similarly, while Congress won nearly 35 per cent of the vote in 2004, its vote share declined to 29 percent in 2009.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi visited the state in February. During his two-day stay, he interacted with party functionaries at the district, block and panchayat levels and held marathon sessions. He wanted to figure out why Congress had become so weak in Odisha.

After Rahul’s visit, the state Congress leadership declared that grassroots workers would have a say in the selection of the party’s poll candidates, preference would be given to youth, and no family would be allowed to field more than one aspirant.

Sivananda Ray, state Congress vice-president claims, “People are no longer obsessed with the so-called clean image of Naveen. They are fed up with rampant corruption and irresponsible administration. I strongly believe Congress will return to power.”

If it does not, the party would be in danger of going into terminal decline in Odisha the way it has done in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh.

The Congress last ruled Tamil Nadu in 1967. Since then, it has only been riding piggyback on either of the two main Dravidian parties, DMK and AIADMK. The recent UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka was a good opportunity for the party to attempt a political comeback. But that opportunity was lost. Right now, the national party is seen as a liability in TN and no outfit would want to align with it to fight the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Similarly, Congress has been out of power for over 20 years in Gujarat, with Narendra Modi performing an electoral hattrick. Problems abound for the party in the state, once its stronghold.

The situation is no different in Chhattisgarh, where a factionalism-ridden Congress is struggling to make a comeback. The Raman Singh-led BJP is eying a hattrick in the state. Last year, soon after the Congress defeat in the Bastar Lok Sabha byelection, a young Congressman had accused the party of being “BJP's B team”.

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Source : IIPM Editorial,, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

BBA Institute

On the couch with the cat

I was walking behind my father on a narrow ledge when a movement behind my right shoulder caught my eye. I turned sharply and regretted it as my eyes met a pair of predatory pupils. I froze. Sudden or nervous jerky movement, I remembered reading, often triggers the ‘if it twitches like a hot prairie-dog, it must be one’ response in bears in Yellowstone.

But I wasn’t in Yellowstone. No not even in the same continent. I was many latitudes away in Northern Thailand, and the eyes staring into mine were of a large male Indochinese tiger, less than 10 feet away. But I must have only been a temporary distraction and I couldn’t hold its interest for long. The tiger slowly turned away from me and focused straight ahead. I followed gaze and saw it focus on my father as he, oblivious to the silent drama behind his back, walked on ahead. The tiger must have been following my father for a while for its whole body was poised in a straight line pointing straight at my father. And the tiger wasn’t approaching casually, but with purpose, its body streamlined and taut, as it slowly, with measured muscle, brought down a large front paw, heavy with intent, as it reduced the distance between itself and my father. As it crouched into a low pre-leap stance, my mind raced through a blur of questions. Was this a part of the intended script? Is the tiger just looking for a game of tag? Or has something in that moment triggered a deep primal urge in a once wild beast to express its fierce forest spirit? Should I do something to stop the tiger? And how…?

My questions did not get the time to bake their answers. In a flash, Lek, one of the trainers stepped between the tiger and my father and waved a baton in front of the great beast’s nose and broke the spell… for both of us.

This was Tiger Kingdom. A fantasy tourist outpost that had sprouted on the rim of the city of Chiang Mai. For a sizeable sum, visitors could cuddle cubs, run around with slightly older adolescent felines or if one dared, enter the cage of a full grown adult and go cheek to cheek for a photo op.

After chasing some of the cubs around their enclosure, my father and I decided to brave the perils of entering a tiger’s lair. My mother, and my wife who was carrying our son in her womb at the time, chose to watch from the sidelines. This wasn’t the untamed wilderness of Thap Lan National Park. This was a controlled environment where tigers had been hand-reared and tamed. They had names and thousands of visitors had touched and played with them. There were pictures all around us, testifying that it was all safe and easy, like a thrilling fairground if you will. So what could possibly go wrong?

Nothing at all, insisted the lady at the reception, and then with an air of practiced nonchalance, pushed a legal document for us to sign, releasing the management from any liability in case one got mauled, was dismembered or worse… ‘just a minor formality’, she assured us.

Then along came a tiger trainer and a staff photographer, followed by the rules. Don’t approach the tigers from the front. Don’t touch the front paws. Don’t put your fingers in the animal’s mouth. Don’t touch the tiger’s head. And don’t pull a stupid stunt that irritates the tiger. When you touch the tiger’s back, and mind you, only the back, be firm and steady with your touch. As long as we followed these rules, we should be fine. As we signed our lives away, I wondered if anything had ever gone wrong with the tigers…

The trainer and the photographer exchanged a few words in Thai, and chuckled, like they were ruminating over an old private joke. Leaving my question unanswered, the pair pried a wire mesh door open and then ushered us into the kingdom of the tiger.

Trepidation was swept away by a wave of excitement as a large drowsy tiger rolled on its side, mere inches away from our feet. The trainer went around and sat near the tiger’s head and motioned for us to take our positions next to its rump. My father loves animals, and he was like a kid on an Avengers movie set, running from one striped superstar to another. And it was while traversing the length of the enclosure from one tiger to another lounging on a wooden platform that he caught the attention of a third tiger that started mock-stalking him.

It is difficult to say what would have happened if the trainer hadn’t intervened. However, once he did, the tiger snarled, recoiled, and then its demeanour changed abruptly, and like a purring hose cat, it rubbed itself against a tree and then loped away without throwing a second glance our way.

A quick search on the phone while returning from the centre threw up a few unnerving horror stories. Ruth Corlett for instance, wasn’t so lucky. Ruth and her husband Stuart, aid workers from New Zealand had been posing for pictures with a tiger at the center when the trainer asked her to get up. As soon as she did, the tiger spun back and buried its fangs in her thigh. More than 50 stitches later, Ruth knows she is incredibly lucky to be alive. Reports say that at the time of the accident, there were no first aid facilities available at the centre and nor did the trainers and management seem equipped to handle or even prevent such an attack. Apparently, the trainer’s only solution in this situation was to strike the tiger on the muzzle in the hope that it would release its victim and then escape.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

BBA Institute

Return of a King

Rare is a book that makes you sit up and take notice. Rarer still is one that sends a chill down your spine. William Dalrymple’s latest offering, Return of a King, does both and then some. Over the last two decades, Dalrymple has firmly established his reputation as a writer who knows how to narrate history without making it boring. He does that without resorting to gimmickry. He has only improved upon that trait in his latest outing.

The Anglo-Afghan War, for many, is a lost tale. With the exception of Punjab where a few see the era through the prism of the triumph of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, it has been forgotten. In the West, racks of books have been written on the debacle, including many life stories of the protagonists of the Great Game, Alexander Burnes and Ivan Vitkevitch. However, over time it slipped out of popular imagination.

Edmond Burke famously quipped, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The story of this debacle has come back to haunt the West as another defeat looms large in Afghanistan.

Return of a King is the story of two warring tribes of what is now Afghanistan – the Sadozais and the Barakzais, and the British misadventure of hoisting one of the rulers, Shah Shuja, on the “usurpers” Barakzais and a largely unwilling Afghan population. This, followed by the bloody rebellion that wiped out the 18,000 strong Company Army came to be known as the First Anglo-Afghan War.

Dalrymple brings in previously unused sources in English, including the fabulous translation of Maulana Hamid Kashmiri’s Akbarnama (the poetic biography of Barakzai Wazir, Akbar Khan), Waqi’at-i-Shah Shuja (Biography of Shah Shuja) and Naway Ma’arek. He has illustrated troubling parallels between the war fought 170 years ago and the one being waged now.

In fact, this stark resemblance is chilling: the British preference for heeding arm-chair bureaucrats rather than people like Alexander Burnes who reported from the ground, the desire to introduce Western customs, the knee-jerk reactions and more. The Americans today seem to have taken every leaf out of the debacle of their trans-Atlantic cousins 170 years ago.

The story also tells a lot about the Afghan mindset. Most of it is conveyed through the actions of a rather fractured Afghan resistance that took on the British. Backstabbing, treachery, and unspeakable brutality runs amok as readers realise that Afghans had no moral superiority over their imperial invaders. It also signifies how circumstances make legends out of strong characters such as Wazir Akbar Khan, who trounced the British in the absence of his father Dost Muhammad Khan, who otherwise would have been lost into oblivion.      

But what makes this book a class apart is the way several sources have been woven together to present a balanced account of the War. You have colonial sources, including diaries and letters of officers on the ground. The Afghan point of view is taken up through aforementioned books. Then you have diaries of the Gorkhas and other Indian sepoys who participated in the war, most notably that of Moti Ram. You also have this rather spectacular account by Mohan Lal Kashmiri who, although on the payrolls of the British, was  emotionally detached and rational to a frustrating degree. 

On the other hand, the author has also made a valuable contribution by stripping legends like Burnes and Ivan Vitkevitch of whatever flab they acquired in all these years. More than their brilliance, what stands out are their ultimately fatal failings. Burnes’ escapades make for an engrossing read whereas Vitkevitch’s rise from a Polish prisoner-in-exile under Russia to the protagonist of the Great Game leaves you stunned. Indians will also find it particularly intriguing how Maharaja Ranjit Singh is presented with his own share of triumphs, failings and eccentricities. 

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year

BBA Management Education

INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION: GENERAL MOTORS

When GM went broke four years ago, not many gave it a chance to come back from rehab. Those Cassandras are now eating their words as the lumbering giant strikes back with a vengeance.

But despite making the most of the opportunities in the past year, the real test of GM’s ability will be to consolidate and expand its market share without diluting its profitability. Already, Toyota has come out with its sales forecast of 8.48 million units for the current year, Volkswagen is pulling out all the stops to top the industry league tables by 2018 and Ford is on track taking its One Ford strategy to the next phase that might give it a fair shot at becoming market leader. In other words, GM is up against the most competitive automobile market in its history and its ability to continue delivering stellar results is bound to come under increasing strain. “GM has to push harder to get ahead of the curve to compete head to head with other companies in all market segments globally,” says Laurie Harbour, President, Harbour Results, an industry analyst.

But after clawing its way to the top the hard way, GM is not likely to give ground either. The company made $8 billion in profits last year (a record high!). In fact, it is planning to raise its profit margins from 6% last year to 10% this year (on par with its best-in-class rivals such as Hyundai and BMW). It is expected that this move will help GM to post $10 billion in profits in the current year. However, one irritant is its share price, which even after such a bullish forecast, is still hovering around the $25 mark. For the investors to recover all their money, GM’s share price should reach $53 (which is still a distant dream for the company). Another nettlesome issue is GM’s European business, which continues to haemorrhage copius red ink. The carmaker took a hit of $580 million in losses in the first nine months of 2011, and fourth-quarter results, whose announcement was being awaited when this story went into print, were expected to come in even worse.

Despite the odds, GM will continue to be the market leader this year as well. Toyota’s 8.48 million units sales forecast for this year will just be good enough to make it second best. But although GM sales are growing globally, the company will need to focus beyond sales numbers to improving its overall financial health. To avoid any kind of financial let-down in future, GM needs to beef up its profitability and pump more growth in the markets it operates in. To its credit it has been making serious efforts to amplify its product range with fresh line-ups and models. Last year it turned out new small cars and mainstream SUVs. Now GM is focusing on strengthening its roster of higher-profit, luxury models for its Buick and Cadillac divisions.

With sales on a rebound and with new products to offer, GM can look forward to keeping its competitive metabolism cranked up.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year

BBA Management Education

Policy uncertainty and the slow recovery

Policy uncertainty in the aftermath of economic crisis’ tends to slow recovery and suppress consumer spending

Financial turmoil, the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, and the weak recovery that followed ushered in a period of heightened uncertainty in the United States. Even a year after the recession ended, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke described the economic outlook as “unusually uncertain.”

Many analysts claim that uncertainty about economic policies and their consequences has been an important factor slowing recovery. Uncertainty about taxes and the effects of policy on interest rates, prices, health costs, and other economic variables can lead households to defer consumer spending, and companies to cut back on capital investments, new product development, hiring, and worker training. Because new projects are expensive to reverse and because workers are costly to hire and fire, companies have an incentive to wait for greater political stability and policy certainty before proceeding with new business undertakings. If too many companies adopt a cautious stance in response to policy uncertainties, economic recovery may not take hold.

The price of policy uncertainty indeed could be high, according to a recent study titled, Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty undertaken by me and Stanford University professor Nicholas Bloom. We developed a new index of policy-related economic uncertainty. The index reaches historically high levels after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and again over the past year in reaction to the eurozone crisis and the US debt ceiling impasse. We estimate that an increase in policy uncertainty of the size experienced from 2006 to 2011 leads to a fall in real Gross Domestic Product of 3.2%, a sharp drop in business investment spending of 16%, and a loss of about 2.3 million jobs.

The financial crisis and recession presented new and difficult challenges for policy makers. We believe that unusual policy challenges created by extraordinary economic disturbances were the main sources of elevated policy uncertainty in 2008 and 2009. The most threatening aspects of the financial crisis were contained by the middle of 2009, causing our policy uncertainty index to fall substantially in the latter part of 2009.

The index rises again in 2010 and 2011, however, reaching even higher levels than it did at the peak of the financial crisis. High levels of policy uncertainty in the past two years partly reflect deliberate policy choices and political gridlock. A clear example is the debt-ceiling dispute in the summer of 2011 between Democrats and Republicans, which created a real threat of a partial government shutdown. Congress eventually raised the debt ceiling, but agreement came at the last minute and with huge market volatility. Much of the high levels of policy uncertainty in 2011 were caused by policy decisions and policy maker conflicts over how to proceed.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

 

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

“We had predicted it in 2005, but no one took it seriously”

Arun Maira, Member-Planning Commission, reveals to IIPM Think Tank’s Sray Agarwal and Ganesh Roy about why the need of the hour is to have a faster decision making procedure

B&E: The Indian economy is going through a slowdown. What’s the way forward for the economy now?
Arun Maira (AM): What is happening in the Indian economy is just a phase of an economic cycle and it is not going to be the situation forever. In the present scenario, the investors are shying away from coming to India but there is a dire need to understand that this slowdown is temporary. One of the main reasons for this picture is lack of power in decision making. Hence, the need of the hour is the ability to have a faster decision making module. The trust of our people in the government is shaky right now. It’s not only the case with India but in US too that people currently are low on confidence in the government and there too it is very difficult to bring reforms, whether health care or industrial. Both these nations are on the same page and the transformation seems difficult; but since the US has much larger economy they do not get much affected by investors. We at the Planning Commission perform tasks which do not change with these economic cycles – rather, we do a combined and collective research taking views from common people, environmentalists, people from civil society and many more and try to find out what could be the best possible outcome for any situation; and then we proceed from there. We had predicted long back in 2005 that the Indian economy will grow at around 8% to 9% growth rate; but none of the institutions took our prediction seriously; yet eventually we were right!

What policy reforms should we take to tackle the current issues?
AM: This is a fundamental thing and this has happened over the last 2 years and this has not happened overnight. We have predicted that if policy making and decision making are faster, we can achieve a growth rate of over 9% and we have done that. But again, we also have said that things if not done properly will equally affect the economy, as is the case that you see now. I agree with the fact that the economy is not in a good position; but if things like policy making can be done immediately, we can recover from this economic slowdown very fast.

The growth in the economy has made many persons rich but what about the lower strata of the society? They are deprived of the benefits of liberalization so the ultimate challenge for us is to bring these people into the main strata of the society. The political lock-jam which has happened is also one of the reasons for this condition currently.

The institutional and economic reforms if not implemented will make the scenario even worse than what it is prevailing right now. I am not talking about reforms like FDI in retail or the banking reforms but the way in which jobs are created in the country. It is a major issue of concern for us. For example, the main problem with the Naxal affected areas is that the things which were promised to them were never fulfilled; so to get those promised things, they take the help of arms! This is one example of a main policy failure which we have in our system as of right now.
 

Read more....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

 

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

Meet the enemy of the internet – Facebook!

We all know Facebook as the dorm room idea that popped out of no where and changed the world. And recently bombed at the bourses. But then, there’s also the counter argument...

Before I explain how, let me first give you a quick background about why Facebook is in a position to threaten the internet.
 The story behind the network
Till about the rise of online media as a means to access news, print, radio and television were the only options. But soon, Google came along and mainstream media was no longer the only gatekeeper of news, It was a great way to express oneself and anyone was free to post anything anywhere on the internet, My blog is an example of the same. Most of the online content was relevantly available through search giant Google. With the rise of social networks, the concept of sharing came into prominence. Twitter and Facebook bring news straight into our News Feeds and we do not have to go anywhere else searching for news.

If it is not shared on Facebook it does not exist! While Twitter still remains a niche network with a small percentage of active users who make all the noise, the dominance of Facebook has been so overwhelming that almost everyone we directly know is a member there, and quite active too. Apart from this, we have celebrities and brands who keep long for us to ‘LIKE’ their pages on Facebook at the expense of their own official websites. Facebook pages are far more attractive to them because that is where all the people are. In due course of time Facebook has become not just another website but the Internet for many

This places Facebook in a position of great power. As such, we expect Facebook to act with maturity as people depend on it to bring them the news. Instead, it is slowly turning out to be a very smart villain and with the IPO money, things can get really bad. Therefore, the focus of this piece is on Facebook, on how it treats ‘The Internet’ as its arch enemy, and why we should be concerned about it. When I say ‘The Internet’ I mean the internet that exists outside the walls of Facebook.

But isn’t it nice to use Facebook to access content from all across the web, shared by our friends and pages that we like, all in one News Feed? Why should we be bothered about the rest of the internet? Here’s why. Facebook hides more stuff than it shows! At any given time, the News Feed shows only a small percentage of all content that is shared by our friends and Pages that we like. If we try and change the settings to show Most Recent posts, we might find few more updates, but still, a huge percentage of updates are hidden from us. That also means, whenever we post status updates, they reach only a small percentage of our friends. Facebook itself has said that the reach is around 12% to 16% of total friends. Beat that, more than 84% of our friends don’t even see what we are sharing or talking about even when we are online at the same time! Isn’t this a violation of our fundamental right to speech? Shouldn’t we be deciding whose updates we need to see in our news feeds and shouldn’t our voice be heard by our friends?

Facebook says that it does it to control noise in the News Feed. Too many updates can inundate the users feed, so Facebook devised an ultra sophisticated mechanism that reads our minds (It always asks “What’s on your mind”, so that it knows) and shows us what it thinks is appropriate and relevant to us.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

 

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

Intel inside, arm outside!

When Intel Chief Paul Otellini announced that his company had secured the commitment of Lenovo and Motorola Mobility to put ‘Intel Inside’, it was considered as a significant development in the computing world. But the launch of Intel’s first processor in Lava’s XOLO X900 instead was a bit of a dampener. B&E looks into Intel’s strategy and attempts to dig out the chip maker’s odds of succeeding in the smartphone segment

The funny thing about most great corporations is the fact that they are great only for a limited period of time. The greatness stays around for one generation and might even extend to two generations. But the moment they begin taking market forces and technological change for granted – they lose their cutting edge and eventually their greatness. This is the very reason why Microsoft – a company once referred to as the 1000 pound gorilla of the computing industry – doesn’t quite ring that loud a bell today.

The time when powerful – and cash rich – companies could afford to ignore external forces is long over. So when the Santa Clara based semiconductor giant Intel announced that Lenovo and Motorola will have ‘Intel Inside’ their smartphones at the Consumer Electronics Show in January this year, the news made headlines but was hardly surprising. It was about time that Intel made a move into the smartphone market, dominated by chips using designs from ARM of Cambridge.

Consider a few statistics. According to data complied by research firm IDC, 491 million (almost half a billion) smartphones were activated in 2011 – a 61.3% increase over 2010. Samsung, Apple, Nokia, RIM and HTC shipped 94 million, 93.2 million, 77.3 million, 51.1 million and 43.5 million units respectively. The remaining 132.3 million smartphones were sold by players like Sony, LG, et al. How many of these carried an Intel processor? Not even one! Although Intel remains the undisputed supplier to PC manufacturers globally, this market grew by a mere 1.8% last year.

Under these circumstances, the chip major’s interest in smartphones was palpable. And then came the big dampener in the form of Lava’s XOLO X900 powered by an Intel Atom Z2460. At a time when investors and analysts were expecting an Intel equipped Motorola or Lenovo handset, Intel chose to debut in the smartphone category with a lesser known Indian brand. The Intel powered Lava smartphone is impressive no doubt. Even if the processor is not a dual core or a quad core, Intel’s 1.6 GHz CPU with Hyper Threading allows for an exceptional multitasking experience while promising a battery life comparable to competing smartphones. But here’s the catch. It’s priced at Rs.22,000. No matter how well packaged the smartphone is, Indian consumers will hesitate to invest that kind of money when they have an option to go for a Samsung, HTC or Nokia smartphone. The association with Lava therefore appears to be nothing more than a pilot test for the Atom Z2460. That the stock market did not react to the development (Intel’s share price in fact fell by a few percentage points) indicates that investors did not see this launch as a major breakthrough for the chip major.

So, despite extensive expertise in developing processors, why is Intel having such a hard time replicating it’s PC success with smartphones? The answer lies in the architecture. While you have an entire motherboard on a PC which can accommodate everything from Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) to peripherals, all these have to be put on to a single chip (SoC – System-on-a-Chip) in a smartphone. The technology to make this integration possible has been developed by ARM Holdings – a British multinational with revenues of roughly $772 million – which licences it to ecosystem partners like Qualcomm, NVIDIA, Samsung and Texas Instruments.

Read more......

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

 

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

“True entrepreneurs don’t start rich”

Stephan Gary Wozniak, Co-founder of Apple Inc., in an exclusive interview with B&E talks about the notable traits of successful entrepreneurs, and how he rates the late Steve Jobs as an entrepreneur-leader

B&E: How do you define “entrepreneurship”, since you were key to creating Apple as a company, and what prime qualities should an entrepreneur possess?
Steve Wozniak (SW): I don’t have a good definition of entrepreneur. I’d go with the popular opinion. It’s usually a young person but could be an older person who is young at heart. It’s a person who wants to start a company and get going on his or her life toward making a lot of money.

B&E: How critical is passion as a success factor for an entrepreneur to succeed?
SW: Some entrepreneurs are motivated by passion to do a particular thing. Others just want any opportunity to have a business of their own. They all want to, at least partly, escape from working for others on this project. Usually entrepreneurship involves creation and engineering. Bright engineers get ideas and become entrepreneurs to bring them to fruit. Often an engineer or scientist creates some sort of working model in their home or garage first.

B&E: And what do you have to say about young graduates who make a mark in the world of entrepreneurship?
SW: These days many graduate from college with entrepreneurship training and they look for ideas or come up with ideas with little or no understanding of what it will take or if it’s possible. They assume that once they get funding for an idea on paper they can find engineering as a resource anywhere in the world. This is the business graduate. The best is when both disciplines, engineering (science) and business, are in the same person.

B&E: How would you rate the late Steve Jobs as an entrepreneur and what were his top qualities (and weakness, if at all) as an entrepreneur and a leader?
SW: Steve was one of the greatest. He didn’t do the engineering but he understood it better than pure business types. He always recognised the importance of it and hired the greatest engineers. I was his key in the early days but he did not make a mistake. In later times it was clear that he understood the importance of all the departments of a large company and insisted on hiring some of the best people in the world in every one of these departments.

B&E: So you say that for Steve Jobs, being around engineers helped him emerge as a successful CEO-leader?
SW: When Steve was young he had a huge spirit to form a company as a way to bring his great ideas to the world. He thought fast and had ideas about everything and he was very outgoing about it. He was around a lot of engineers and knew when gold had struck, with the Apple II.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

 

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

B&E Annual CEO Report 2012-13 results*

Why CEOs do what they do

Methodology

In 2011, NYSE Euronext commissioned the NYSE Euronext CEO Report, the seventh annual CEO survey. The survey ascertained expectations of respondents on various business and economic conditions. 317 NYSE CEOs, 119 emerging CEOs of US non-public companies, 205 MBA students were covered in the research report.

Based on the NYSE Euronext CEO Report, the Indian Council for Market Research (ICMR) with research support from the IIPM Think Tank conducted a nation-wide survey amongst CEOs and top managers for both listed and unlisted/emerging companies from India Inc., apart from MBA students. Responses were taken via face to face/telephonic/e-mail interactions, and the survey generated 100 responses from CEOs/top management executives of Indian-listed companies, 100 CEOs/top management executives of unlisted companies and 300 Indian MBA students.

With exclusive permission from NYSE-Euronext and IIPM Think Tank-ICMR, Business & Economy presents the B&E Annual CEO Survey 2012-13, comparing business and economic sentiments of CEOs/top management and MBA students in the US and India.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

 

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

“Egypt has undergone a sea change after the revolution”

Adel el Masry, Director of Egypt Tourism Authority, is upbeat on his country’s tourism prospects, which had taken a hit following the political uprising in the country. In an exclusive interaction with b&e’s Dipshikha Das, Masry talks about how Egypt’s tourism is back on its feet and what his country is doing to promote tourism

B&E: The political turmoil caused by the Arab Spring, the subsequent fall of the Hosni Mubarak regime and the current fragile state of affairs in Egypt have taken a heavy toll on tourism in the country. What are you doing to help it bounce back?
Adel Masry (AM): Tourism to Egypt is returning to stability after a long movement for political democracy. Egypt is receiving immense support from several nations who are helping improve the situation by lifting travel advisories against Egypt. The Egypt Tourism office in India is aggressively taking part in all important trade fairs and travel expos for giving maximum exposure to and showcasing the country’s tourism industry to the entire South-east Asia market.

B&E: In the Egypt tourism’s scheme of things, where does India fit in?
AM: Tourism is an important driver of our economy and the annual growth in this sector has risen to around 30%. Last year we received 16 million tourists, and earned around $11,000 million. Currently tourism contributes approximately 11.8% to Egypt’s GDP. In 2009, we had 87,000 Indian tourists and, in 2010, it stood at 1,14,000, up 36% against the previous year. We are expecting at least a 35% increase by the end of this year.

B&E: After the turmoil that your country has been through, how difficult do you think it would be to lure foreign tourists to Egypt?
AM: It’s true that we suffered a huge loss in terms of tourist flows from Asia and elsewhere in the wake of the people’s movement that Egypt faced. However, we have been taking steps to lure the Indian tourists back. We have doubled our tourism promotion budget in India from a half million dollars to $1million in the current year. We are aggressively targeting Indian tourists in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai and Jaipur. But it’s not just the big cities but also the tier II cities we are looking at now. We have adopted an experimental marketing approach by organising tours for our travel partners to witness the destination in the aftermath of the political unrest and see for themselves that Egypt is now once again as safe and secure for tourists as it has always been in the past. Also, we have increased the limit on baggage allowance for tourists travelling through Egypt Air as well as increased the frequency of our flights to five days in a week from Mumbai to Cairo and vice versa. Post the movement in Egypt, the “Tahrir Square in Cairo” has generated a lot of interest for people to see and visit the place since it was the epicentre of all activities during the movement. We had recently organised FAM trips for the Indian media to witness and see how Egypt has undergone a change after the democratic movement. Also, to raise our profile in India, we have participated at important tourism events like SATTE in Delhi, TTF & OTM in Mumbai, and the recently held PATA travel mart in Delhi.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

 

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face