Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Model A to Z of failure...

...rather of failure in terms of product innovation!

Alan Mulally may well be on his way to driving Ford out of its problems, innovatively sans any grants from the Fed, but that really doesn’t imply a century sans a single error at innovation! Ford’s Model A and Edsel are two cases proving the point. Ford’s decision to halt the production of Model A (as it was preparing the launch of its first low-priced V8) in 1932, cost it millions in dollar revenues. Why? Introduced in 1927, Model A was the second most popular product from Ford’s stable after Model T. Then came Edsel in 1952, which proved a bigger commercial failure, as the product wasn’t able to match buyers’ expectations after the success of the Thunderbird model. The car was positioned against GM’s Oldsmobile. But the old & conventional Ford design and more importantly, the name which resembled an image of a tractor (Edson) finally resulted in cooking up a complete product failure in the US automobile market.


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

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Sunday, December 9, 2012

Bu‘t[ea]chers’

Would electric shocks be next?

After witnessing the shocking incident of a teacher severely beating up students in Delhi, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has decided to start providing a special training programme on human rights education to teachers. It’s an incident not only just happening in Delhi Municipal Corporation schools but also schools all across the country irrespective of whether they are private or government run. There are several such news items carried by local or national level newspapers, of children severely beaten up by teachers, and even hospitalised. This kind of violence in classrooms among students and teachers is sadly rapidly increasing and to that effect, it is highly commendable and creditable that a council, that is generally considered the hallmark of a lackadaisical institution, has urgently brought into action the above mentioned human rights programme.

One hopes this initiative is immediately replicated across India. According to the NCERT, the lack of sufficiently trained teachers and the teacher training course are the main causes behind violence within classrooms. NCERT is now also planning to make such training more practical instead of theoretical. Consequently, the duration of the B.Ed course is proposed to be increased to two years instead of the present one.


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

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Friday, December 7, 2012

Dare you waste it

Mind your wallet if you waste...

If you are planning to eat Japanese food at Hayashi Ya Japanese restaurant on the Upper West Side of the US, be careful not to leave even bits and pieces of it on your platter. Or else you may end up paying $27.75 instead of $26.95. Amazed! The Hayashi Ya restaurant charges 3% extra if there are leftover of food in your plate. This may seem very weird to most in West who make it a norm to waste much of the food they order for. And it isn’t a home-grown hypothesis. WCBS TV confirms that 27% of all food in the US finds itself in trash bin (works out to a pound of food every day for every American), while Stockholm Water Institute study extends this figure up to 30% or food worth around $48 billion annually. This amusing food-wasting habit of the West leads to annual wastage of 30 million tons of food. However, the UNEP 2009 report depicts an even more grim picture. Food waste in the US could be as high as 50% which means around one-fourth of all fresh fruits and vegetables is wasted between the field and belly. Among all the food-wasted, 15% are never opened in spite of being within expiry date.


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

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Thursday, December 6, 2012

Trail of death and destruction!

Global Warming rears its ugly head in Australia, leaving a trail of death and destruction!

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) stating that the estimated 65% of fire-danger in the year 2020 may go up to 300% by 2050 under cruel warming scenarios. Studies prove that average temperatures have already risen by 0.9 degrees Celsius since 1950, with 2005 as the hottest year on record. Also, rainfall is predicted to lessen even further by up to 30 percent if greenhouse gas emissions are high. Dr. R. K. Pachauri, Chairman of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) informs, “The earth has started to give signals of imminent effects of global warming. It’s now that we take precautions and act on decreasing the amount of carbon emissions. Otherwise, the world will keep experiencing natural disasters.”

As the death toll is disputed upon discovery of fused corpses by forensic scientists, relief measures like sporadic tent settlements are being set up in Whittlesea by the relief agencies as temporary shelter for the dispossessed victims. Expressing his concern for the disaster, an Australian Green Party leader, Bob Brown, said, “The fires are a sobering reminder of the need for this nation and the whole world to act and put at a priority the need to tackle climate change.” (As told to Sky News). This upheaval is just a trailer for the entire race to reckon with the fury of Mother Nature; that it’s enough of playing possum towards the universal concern of Global Warming.


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

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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Cell phone cinema!

Here’s a new avenue for individuals to unleash their creativity: Cell phone cinema!

While the first is a film that shows what a human can achieve with his or her hands, including surreal achievements like holding sunlight in one’s palm, the second is a film about rain water harvesting. The best award for a still photograph with a prize of US $500 went to Dead Carrier can Die too by Kamal Mahrishi that showed a discarded van from a morgue. The winning films will be screened at New York University – Tisch School of the Arts Theatre.

Akshay Marwah, the festival director, quotes film director Pankaj Prashar to enumerate the criteria for choosing the winners, “the main idea was not replacing a film camera by a film camera, but to see that a mobile phone can capture moments that film cameras can’t, and that is one of the most important criteria and of course technicalities and quality would follow.” Mr. Rawail, one of the jury members, said, “Whatever the technology, it is ultimately the content which should hold the attention of the viewer, and therefore those who create, must realise that their responsibility has increased”. “These short films can provide a good laugh and some can be for social causes and be informative as well. There could be videos on ‘How to wear a tie’ and ‘How to cut salads in style,’ which would be handy for everybody. However, this cinema is not competing with film cinema and is an off-shoot of cinema,” adds Akshay Marwah.

With film makers like the Barjatyas wanting to edit films like Hum Aapke Hain Kaun for cell phone users, cell phone cinema certainly has a promising tomorrow.


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

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Monday, December 3, 2012

G8 SUMMIT: SWISS ALPS, DISNEYLAND TOUR ALSO OPTIONS...

The summit will also include paragliding, water sports, bungee lessons

 Evian, France, 2003: “Iraq has WMDs! And everybody better contribute to kill that damn nuke-bomber Saddam!” We told you, Bush churns out gas better!
Georgia, USA, 2004: Main agenda: Extending the controversial Heavily In-debt Poor Countries [HIPC] initiative for debt-relief and to vaccines development. Achieved: Magnanimous relief to Iraq’s $120 billion debt on US insistence.
Gleneagles, Scotland, 2005: This summit, like all years before, was again aimed to provide $50 billion debt-relief to Africa [Nothing new! Nothing achieved!].

Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2006: For the first time in recent history, the G8 leaders proactively agreed on energy security, fighting diseases and encouraging education. Oh yes, it didn’t at all mention them providing any financial assistance!
Heiligendamm, Germany, 2007: Top agenda: Africa! Promises made in 2005 [in Scotland] of $50 billion aid to Africa: More or less overlooked! Creditably, developed nations in all have donated around $2.5 trillion since 1960 to LDCs. However, official estimates confirm that even this falls short of the required – and so called ‘promised’ – aid amount by a mammoth $3.5 trillion. As per the World Bank, it will cost developed countries just 2.8 cents per person per week to meet the promise. But we believe the first world still hasn’t understood the cheapness of life’s existence for the poor.

Having said that, we have a strategy for poor beleaguered Nick. We suggest that instead of being uselessly exposed to global criticism year after year, the G8 should officially confirm that leaders would meet simply to have a good time. After that, hand over the event management to our team [please, we insist]! Disneyland, Star Cruise, bungee lessons, paragliding, you name it guys, we’ll have that for you. And what about least developed countries? Goddamn those Africans...
 

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.



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Sunday, December 2, 2012

CITIGROUP: BAILOUT

Despite the heroic 'parachute' attempt by the US government, Citi's landing seems hardly soft

Pandit is aiming to reduce expenses by 20% across the board. And he touched new highs (or lows) when, earlier this year, Citi banned color photocopying & single sided printouts across the company.

Citi has already closed down nine of its hedge funds. In July this year, it sold off its German consumer banking business to Credit Mutuel for $7.7 billion. This was followed by selling of Citigroup Global Services to TCS. Pandit has pledged to raise $400 billion by sale of assets to bring Citi back in shape and size. Citi is also renewing its focus on the core banking business and more on emerging markets. Dr. Jonathan Woodier of Citigroup says to B&E, “About 35% of Citi’s business is in markets outside US. We want to add further on to that and increase our share of the pie”. But Citi will definitely sell off its stakes in many other companies (more than 30 in India alone) to counter its liquidity crunch.

Despite such painstaking measures, Citi is still not guaranteed to come out of the woods. The depth of uncertainty in the balance sheet (and off it), actually overwhelms the entire Treasury bailout package for the US economy! On the balance sheet, Citi has $2 trillion worth of assets and some $1.23 trillion aren''t even reflected on it. Richard Wilson, Founder of Hedge Fund Group'', comments to B&E, "The $1 trillion or so off balance sheet assets of Citi were invested through SPVs. The market thinks the mess is much bigger than what it appears on the balance sheet. Now if these assets turn toxic, it will be a problem for Citi." There''s a feeling, though, that the Treasury must have considered that (hopefully not based on claims by the bank itself on their worth!). Just to remind doomsayers that Citi should continue to interest them for quite a while. So there''s hope for them yet! The doomsayers we mean!


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

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