Who directed Ek Tha Tiger, Khiladi 786,Son Of Sardar ? Who Cares? !

Monojit Lahiri probes the status of today’s B-town directors, rocking the fashionable Rs 100 crore club and discovers, shockingly, that most of them are invisible!

The redoubtable genius, stormy and controversial polish director Roman Polanski (Knife in the water, Rosemary’s Baby) had once categorically stated that “the director is always a superstar. The best films are best because of nobody, but the director. You speak of classics – Citizen Kane, 8 ½, Seven Samurai, Gold Rush and City Lights – it’s the director who is the star. He and he alone makes and creates the film.”  Actually, Europe has always been the Camelot for directors. Comparatively, in Hollywood, they were – thanks to the feudal studio system – on a tight leash. The director was usually a hireling along with the writer, cameraman and wardrobe lady. He was apprenticed at the studio where he got his tutoring and he tunneled (as best as he could) through someone else’s choice of cast, script and editor, as effectively possible. Sure there were exceptions (Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, John Ford, Billy Wilder) but then, most of them were Producer-Director. The rule was simple. The Producer ran the show and the studio put its stamp upon it.  Formulae were sacred. Directors were not, and eminently interchangeable at will!

In year 2013, doesn’t this diktat apply scarily to B-town as well?  Does any mainstream director have the guts to say, ‘I think of myself not as a director, but a filmmaker; someone who strategically and creatively uses people and equipment to make a personal expression that will resonate with my audiences?’ Before anything, however, let’s get some facts straight and perspective in place.  As SRK has repeatedly pointed out, stars in Bollywood dominate the minds and hearts of the Indian audience and their presence remains the single biggest magnet for the insane popularity and craze of the blockbusters.  The truth is there for all to see. The late Manmohan Desai and Prakash Mehra may have propelled some of Amitabh Bachchan’s greatest box-office successes (Zanjeer, Namak Halal, Sharabi, Muqaddar ka Sikander, Amar, Akbar, Anthony; Coolie, Mard) but what has been their scorecard before and after the Big B connect happened? Farah Khan’s twin successes were also with SRK (Main Hoon Na & OSO) and flops with Akki (Tees Maar Khan). And so on and so forth…

Cut to the present scenario. The recent Ajay Devgn starrer, Son of Sardar was a hi-decibel, hi-profile offering chewing miles of publicity due to its public spat with Yash Raj Film’s (YRF) Jab Tak Hai Jaan (JTHJ), remember?  Now, can you remember the name of the director?  Okay, who is the director of Akki’s return to the Khiladi franchise, Khiladi 786?  Next, the biggest, YRF’s Dhoom 3 is one of the most eagerly awaited release of 2013, both because of the dazzling and popular franchise value and the first-time-pairing of Aamir Khan (playing baddie!) and Kat Kaif. Guess who wields the megaphone? Do I see an entire ocean of blank faces? Chill. Not your fault, guys. The age and ritual of celebrating the director -  Bimal Roy, Mehboob Khan, Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor,  Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Gulzar and Basu Chatterjee among others – is clearly over and it’s the star who categorically calls the shots in the mainstream universe. Get any one of the Khans, Hrithik, Ajay or Akshay or even Saif  and chances are half your battles are over in terms of funds, audience connect or media exposure. Chuck in Katrina, Priyanka, Kareena or Deepika and the project, overnight, takes a life of its own! Which production house? Who’s directing? Who cares?! For your information, the director of Son of Sardar was Ashwini Dhar and the director of Khiladi 786, Ashish R. Mohan. For the Dhoom 3 project, the earlier helmsman Sanjay Ghadvi (now on a huge downer with two back-to-back bombs Ajab Ghazab Love and Kidnap) has given way to a Vijay Krishna Acharya, best known for a flop named Tashan.  Clearly, the powers are that have clearly seen and read the writing on the wall and run with red-hot star-charisma rather than promoting the director. When you have Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar and Aamir–Katrina as your headliners, does anyone give a damn about anything else? Sure there are exceptions – Karan Johar, Rajkumar Hirani, Rohit Shetty, Sajid Khan, Aditya Chopra – but (quite honestly) they too depend mostly on star power. Don’t agree? Okay, check out their strike rate with non-stars…

The one area, however, where the director as a visionary and moving force works is the crossover / small films. Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Shoojit Sarkar, Sujoy Bose, Anurag Basu, Habib Faisal and gang have proved that they are the real stars and actors are their great, gifted collaborators helping them to flesh their vision with the appropriate passion and purpose. It is amply clear from Wasseypur and Shanghai, Vicky Donor and Ishaqzaade, Sahib, Bibi… and Paan Singh Tomar; who called the shots and whose shadow coloured the narrative. Critic Rauf Ahmed wraps up this discourse offering his learned observations. “There is a huge, mistaken belief that today’s movie-going audiences, unlike early times, are smart, sharp, knowledgeable and discriminating and will dismiss any film that is not focused and does not engage their attention. While it is true that this audience base has indeed powered several unknown non-glam directors and non-starry projects to win attention, awards and modest returns, for the larger part, clearly it is star power that has rocketed the big projects up, up and up!  Undoubtedly, the director had a part to play in the success of the hits, but can you honestly think of JTHJ without SRK, Dabangg 2 without Salman, Rowdy Rathore sans Akshay, and Talaash without Aamir? And how many people know (or care to know) and remember the name of the extremely talented Reema Kagti as the person who helmed Talaash?”  So, as SRK always reminds us, directors are wonderful and actors are great… However, in India and B-town, it is the stars who dazzle!

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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

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Movie Review: Lincoln

Portrait of America
The phenomenal Daniel Day-Lewis plays Lincoln with the immersive, invested method acting, only he is capable of. This is acting at its finest.

It is chilling to find an actor play a character with such impeccability where every little mannerism is taken into account and every little run of words carefully practiced.

Stephen Spielberg’s Lincoln is one of his most audacious projects till date. The expectations about such a film are just too great. Spielberg simply ignores those expectations and in doing so transcends them.

Lincoln covers the final four months of Lincoln's life, focusing on the President's efforts in January 1865 to have the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution passed by the United States House of Representatives.

For those who find politics too boring, this film isn’t much about politics. Even though, it talks about bills and amendments, the film ultimately shows the inner nature, flaws, weaknesses and workings of democracy’s greatest defender.

In adapting just a small part of Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, the 2005 bestseller about Lincoln and his Cabinet, screenwriter Tony Kushner blows the dust off history by investing it with flesh, blood and indomitable spirit.

Lincoln doesn’t spend time in flashbacks and backstory. It is all about forward thrust and urgency; verbal fireworks taking over visual stimulation. It is remarkable to see Lincoln using every single twist and turn in the book to pass the amendment and abolish slavery once and for all.

Spielberg, Kushner and Day-Lewis dare greatly in giving us this complex, conflicted portrait of a great American leader. The result, glitches and all, is a great American movie.

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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

Global Left is changing

successful experiments in Europe and Latin America are proof that the Left is not just alive, but has shun dogmas writes Saurabh Kumar Shahi 
In the slew of bad news coming out of European economies, readers can be forgiven if they missed a couple of good news. While relatively sound economies like Germany and Poland have started showing signs of slowdown, as the bad apples, Italy, Spain and Greece, show no signs of recovery; Ireland and Iceland have come up with alternative treatments that have stunned the world. Discarding the capitalistic and liberal economic measures, both the countries took some stringent measures and have bounced back. Ireland is expected to post a growth rate of 1.8 percent whereas Iceland is expected to grow at 2.4 percent.

So what is the remedy? Some stringent Leftist policies. Unlike the US and other economies where corporate giants and banks were bailed out when common people suffered from raised taxes and austerity measures, Iceland did exactly the opposite. It paid off loans for consumers and threw bankers in jail for corruption. Let homeowners wipe out debt up to 110 percent of the property value. It is not only declared loans indexed in foreign currency illegal and allowed middle-class debtors to pay back in its local currency, it went after the bankers responsible for the collapse and brought them to book. So, what appeared as a vicious cycle in other nations was effectively managed by the Icelanders.

Ireland too took some stringent steps. In contrast to the neighbouring Britain where an ‘export led recovery’ was grossly undermined by the chauvinistic view that people in developing countries were desperate to purchase British goods because of the so-called inherent prestige, the Irish held no such pretensions and instead adopted the basic comparative advantage road towards recovery. Who says Global Left is dead?

If European examples are unbelievable, the experiment in Latin America has shown miraculous results. The personal charisma of leaders like Hugo Chavez, Lula and Evo Morales, and their experiment with enlightened Socialism has borne results that are undeniable and incomparable. Even if you compare some basic indices in these countries to the pre-socialism days, the contrast is stark. And the best part of it all that it has been achieved without capitulating financially or politically to the First World. So what is it that has led to this revival?

First, unlike the Left in India, the Global Left has not been shy in reinventing itself and its message. There appears to be little appetite for dogma and every country has adopted the local ethos in the message of Socialism. So, for example, an ardent Communist in Latin America can be a regular Church-goer. The idea is neither to get stuck up with dogma neither  to let religion rule one's senses. As long as it is in the private sphere, it is ok. This has helped Left parties expand their base.

Even in France where the Socialist Party won the election, the leader Francois Hollande tried to achieve maximum maneuverability that can be achieved within the European Union system and managed to send the message to the masses that an alternative economic system is possible.

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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

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Flirting with danger

From times immemorial, man has been drawn towards the unknown – be it Ferdinand Magellan and his trip around the world or Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in their quest to conquer the highest mountain peaks in the world. As these men challenged the limits of their endurance and courage, there were hundreds others who stood behind them with vital support – both economic and moral. While India has had its fair share of daredevils, mass support and more importantly media exposure has largely been absent. For example, Colonel Kotiyal, who has been atop Mount Everest twice and back, is a completely unknown figure. However, there is growing a breed of Indians who are making a name for themselves in the international community by nurturing as well as indulging into the spirit of adventure.

Take Anchal Khurana for example. While she is not exactly a popular public figure, the circle of people who take an interest in sky-diving know her well as someone who is doing her bit to make the sport accessible in India. She is running the Kakini Enterprises which is working specifically to provide opportunities to more and more people to jump from the skies, quite literally. Her team of instructors have got the ratings in free fall and tandem jumps, having made their mark in para jumping in the armed forces.

Anchal's work has not been easy nor is she anywhere near her goal. A lot of work and streamlining remains to be done before skydiving becomes a popular sport. “This sport needs meticulous preparations and a lot of money to train people. You require an aircraft or a helicopter to jump from and then you require a parachute which will cost upto Rs 5 lakhs" says she. Apart from money, there are a number of permissions that need to be taken like clearances from the Director General, Civil Aviation, the nearest Airport and the local administration.

Similarly, Ajit Chouhan and his band of friends have been hard at work to promote adventure sports in the backwaters of Raigarh. Self funded, this group of 13 that calls itself the Friends Foundation has started organising a congregation of a whole gamut of adventure sports since 2012 in an event they call ‘UDAAN – flight to your dreams’. Ajit talks about the interesting story behind this initiative: “All of us are into business and whatever time we get, we try participating in one of the many adventure activities. And then suddenly it struck us,: if instead of going on individual adventures, we did this on a larger scale, it would let both our families and other people participate. Thus, in February 2012, we made a beginning.”

TSI visited Raigarh and witnessed this event which is one of the few platforms where every activity in the adventure category is available. Para gliding, hang-gliding, para sailing, bungee jumping, rappelling, hot air balloon, all terrain biking; these are are just a few of the  activities that were on offer. What is interesting to note is that a large part of the adventurers were women. Many of them had come with their families, like Natwar Aggarwal, who was encouraging his teenaged daughters to jump off from a huge height with bungee cords tied to their feet. Kakini Enterprises was a part of it as well, with the response being overwhelmingly large. “We had to turn people back even though they were ready to pay us as much we wanted,” says Anchal.

There has been some positive response from the government as well. Many states have come up with their own plans to help in organising adventure sports and activities. Speaking to TSI, Chattisgarh Tourism Minister Brij Mohan Aggarwal said, “I was not aware that UDAAN is so well organised and is of this high scale. We are giving them a support of Rs 10 lakh and are busy formulating policies to help such activities.” TSI got to know that the Chattisgarh state government recently took the help of professionals to devise methods to make Chattisgarh a adventure sports hub. Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh are helping to get such activities organised as well, and for good reason.

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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

Who rules next?

Prahlad Kakkar (Ad Film Director)

Ranbir Kapoor will be the next big star because he has the charisma, he has the pedigree, he has the talent and girls love him! Until now, it was the Khans who ruled because of their talent and charisma. Also, they were very different from each other. Shahrukh was a romantic hero, Salman was the maar dhaad type and Aamir was into very serious roles and very strong story lines. Right now, Salman is on a winning streak though.

To be a superstar, one has to have a very strong female following. That’s it! Women are very particular about whom they like and whom they don’t like. If there is a ‘female’ side to an actor then that’s the part that keeps him alight and that’s the part that makes him likeable because that’s what women look for. These days it’s not about roaming around flexing your biceps and saying ‘mere dole feel karoge?’ Women will any day go for a guy who would say ‘give me five minutes and I’ll change your life’. And Ranbir has that!



Anupama Chopra
(Author, Journalist and Film Critic)

There has to be something special in an actor for him to be a superstar. The Khans have been ruling the industry for over two decades now and each one of them has a special quality. Salman has the ability to project a larger-than-life character and he does it effortlessly. Aamir is a great actor and has this incredible instinct when it comes to choosing films. Shahrukh has been the greatest romantic hero. So, special qualities about them made them superstars. And talking about the next one to take over, I think it will be Ranbir Kapoor. He is exciting and is talented and everyone has huge expectations from him. He will be the next one to rule the industry. 

Arbaaz Khan
(Actor, Director and Producer)

There is no question about the fact that Salman is the most bankable actors now. It’s all there for everybody to see that, today, the gap between him and his contemporaries has also widened a bit. He is clearly and surely head and shoulders above the rest in terms of box office success. From any point of view, he is the star.

Rakesh Roshan (Director and Producer)

I don’t agree with this concept of superstars. All the actors are there in this race, which has no finishing line. Sometimes one is ahead and sometimes it’s the other. Yes, some actors have ruled the industry for many years and that is not only because of their acting, but because of their charisma. Some actors have a personality or something to do with their appeal that immediately attracts the audience. And that’s why The Khans, Hrithik, Akshay have got so much love. Now who will rule the industry in 2013 will really have to do with the box office success of movies, but among the new crop of actors, I think Ranbir Kapoor is the one who has a lot of potential and will make it big.

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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

Parties Play The Caste Trump Card

With national political parties finding themselves out on a limb in Karnataka, it’s the caste-based regional outfits that are calling the shots. Will the political cookie in this southern state crumble the way of Uttar Pradesh?

Karnataka is gearing up for Assembly elections in April. With the fortunes of the ruling BJP and the Congress hitting the skids in the state, caste-based regional formations are likely to gain in the post-poll scenario.

Karnataka is set to go the Uttar Pradesh way. UP is India’s largest state and is accustomed to electoral fragmentation on caste and community lines. Karnataka, only one third the size of UP, is not. So, if a hung Assembly is what the April elections yield, the development would mark a paradigm shift in Karnataka politics. Congress, BJP and Janata Dal are the three parties that have traditionally jostled for seats in the Vidhana Soudha. Two new forces have lately jumped into the fray. Former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa’s Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) and Badava Shramika Raitha Congress (BSR Congress), led by B Shriramulu, the right hand man of jailed mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy, are likely to queer the pitch for the national parties by taking away a chunk of their votes.

While none of the five contenders are in a position to sweep the polls, KJP and BSR Congress could both wrest enough seats to give the principal parties a run for their money. But in the run-up to the elections, none of the political formations is keen to get into any alliances, preferring to wait and watch the for eventual outcome. For Congress and Janata Dal (Secular), the April polls could be just another electoral battle. But for BJP and KJP, it would be an acid test. The BJP would be out to demonstrate that it has the strength to live down Yeddyurappa’s exit. For the party leaders who have been instrumental in pushing Yeddy out of the BJP, the likes of KS Eeshwarappa, Ananth Kumar, Sadananda Gowda and Jagadish Shettar, the upcoming election would be an opportunity to prove a point.

Yeddy too, would be determined to make the BJP, a party he served for four decades, pay for the folly of neglecting a regional mass leader with the backing of the dominant Lingayat community.

The BJP will also have to contend with the BSR Congress. Yeddy’s mass support and the Reddy’s money power had catapulted BJP to power in Karnataka in 2008. With both now gone, it would be an uphill task for the party to retain power. BJP is unlikely to win more than 50 to 60 seats. In that eventuality, it would be back on the Opposition benches.

In the past, the Congress has had to suffer the consequences of sidelining Veerendra Patil, who was not only a mass leader but also had control over the party’s rank and file. This was something that Yeddy lost no opportunity to remind the BJP’s central leadership of.

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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

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State governments have not augured well for the Indian mining sector

The mining ban in Karnataka, transport bottlenecks in Orissa, and a rising pendency of applications awaiting action from various state governments have not augured well for the Indian mining sector. Although the reopening of a few mines in Karnataka could bring some reprieve, issues related to the regulation, taxation and fiscal policy are bound to further stress miners

While the mining industry can be partially held responsible for the current mess and its adverse impact on allied industries, there are examples where the state governments have been accused of creating instability in the business environment. Currently, there are over 40,000 mineral concessions and about 25,000 renewal applications pending with different states. In Orissa, for instance, even a company like Tata has not been given renewal of their mining leases by the state government. “We have a huge reserve in this country, but production is not being encouraged. Instead, imports are being allowed,” says former Planning Commission Additional Secretary L. P. Sonkar. “Not only that, people are even trying to remove import duty. It’s strange,” he adds. In Orissa, there has been violation of environmental law. If production increases beyond the permissible level, there are provisions in the Environmental Protection Act where you can penalise the companies. “But to restrict the movement for people who have not been carrying out operations illegally, like they did in Karnataka, is not right,” says Sharma, referring to Orissa government’s transport restrictions.

As per the data available with the steel and mines department of the Orissa government, in the first quarter of the current fiscal, traders in Joda mining circle (the largest mining circle in terms of iron ore production in the country, accounting for 25% of India’s total output) lifted 57% less iron ore for export purpose over last year’s figure, despite sharp rise in production. Even for FY2012-13, the state government has capped the iron ore production for Joda mining circle at 40 MT. As a result, a maximum of 400 trucks can be allowed in a day to carry material from this circle for the purpose of export.

Even the proposed Mines & Minerals (Development & Regulation) Bill (MMDR Bill) 2011, which wants mining companies to share 26% of their net profit with the local community, has had miners worried for long. They fear that the new profit-sharing formula could well be an end of the road for the industry. Countering the industry’s contention that the proposal to allot shares to project affected persons (PAP) will change the holding pattern of the firm with time and, thereby, is not a workable idea, the ministry has argued, “The concept of allotting the share to the PAP is to inculcate a sense of belonging among them with that mining company. They will be a part of the process by attending the general body meetings of that company.”

The MMDR Bill 2011 laid in the Lok Sabha is currently being debated by the Standing Committee. The bill provides for hefty fiscal burdens on miners in addition to what they already pay to the state governments and other utilities by way of fees, tax, royalty, freight, etc. “The MMDR Bill will ruin the mining industry. With such stringent laws, you will not get any FDI or technology. Domestic firms that invest will also suffer from negative growth and only illegal miners will prosper,” says Sharma. Another major point of contention is states getting full powers of grant of mineral concessions.

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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

Has BJP lost the plot in its entirety?

At a time when it should ideally have been gunning for the UPA government’s head for its failures, the saffron leadership finds itself busy dousing in-house fires. With just over a year left for the big elections, the BJP leadership looks surprisingly bent on giving the Congress another term on a platter.

The infighting within the country’s principal opposition party is certainly not a revelation. Neither is the fact that the BJP has failed to arrive at a consensus over its prime ministerial candidate. These are issues that could have been easily brushed under the carpet for a later day; had the timing not been so crucial for the party’s ambitions of coming to power, and if only the BJP had acted responsibly as the Opposition. However, a chain of events has exposed the absence of decisive leadership in BJP and the turmoil that it faces internally. As the country’s principal Opposition party, it was the BJP’s responsibility to expose the chinks in the Congress-led UPA government’s armour. However, unable to handle its own problems, that job was rather easily ceded to Arvind Kejriwal and his team. As Kejriwal and Co. went on an attacking spree against the who’s who of the Congress’ leadership, the BJP was left with no option but to be satisfied with merely reacting to the allegations levelled by India Against Corruption. The BJP’s inability to tend to its weaknesses has not only given the Congress a breather; it has also helped Kejriwal hijack the issues that were predominantly in the Opposition’s kitty earlier. Be it price rise, corruption or black money, Kejriwal has used these issues to position himself as perhaps the BJP’s biggest rival. What is worse is that the lack of decisive action against allegations of corruption made on both leading national parties has lent more credence to Kejriwal’s attempts to paint both the Congress and the BJP with the same taint brush.

The BJP’s reactions to the claims and the allegations made by Kejriwal have also put on display the conundrum that party strategists are reeling under. Soon after Kejriwal attacked BJP president Nitin Gadkari for receiving 100 acres of agricultural land in Maharashtra in what appeared to be a quid-pro-quo deal with the Congress-NCP government in the state, the party trashed the allegation as false and baseless; and borne out of Kejriwal’s attempts to hog prime time limelight. “A lot of hype was created about the press conference; as if some big bomb is being exploded... Kejriwal tried his best to dig out some scam but could not find anything,’’ maintained Sushma Swaraj, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha.

Contrary to the party’s understanding of what the press conference achieved, Gadkari now finds himself in the middle of a major controversy surrounding his dubious business dealings. Moreover, his refusal to step down from his post has rendered himself, and the BJP, extremely vulnerable to charges of being soft on corruption. This, until recently, was the BJP’s persistent agenda against the Congress!

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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

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"States are taking initiatives to develop solar power"

In an exclusive interaction with B&E, Inderpreet Singh Wadhwa, CEO, Azure Power, talks about how solar power production is evolving in India and its prospects for the future

B&E: What was your outlook about the solar energy sector in India when you started Azure Power and how has it evolved since then?

Inderpreet Singh Wadhwa (ISW): When I founded Azure Power in 2008, most of the solar energy efforts in India were targeted towards rural electrification. However, there were very few large-scale solar projects then. This was the real inspiration for us. We built our first plant in Punjab at the tail end of the grid. There were about 32 villages around the plant which were getting electricity from the Bhakhra Dam through nearby substations. By the time power would reach the substation, there was a lot of transmission loss. So we constructed a 2-megawatt plant in Awan near Amritsar. This plant not just reduced all the grid disparities but it also created a sustained income for the community as we had leased the land instead of buying it. The National Solar Mission has also played a very important role in setting the tone for solar energy generation in the country since then. Various solar energy purchase obligations for distribution companies have benefited solar power generation companies.

B&E: How do you plan to scale up your operations and what targets you have in mind?

ISW: Our aspiration is to become the most affordable solar power producer in the country. We build and own power plants and sell the electricity on a long term contract. We have got a project each running in Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan and have also got two more projects coming up in Gujarat and another one in Rajasthan. The upcoming Gujarat project is going to be a 2.5-megawatt rooftop project in which roof owners will get lease rent. The key here is to aggregate many roofs so that one can take the advantage of economies of scale.

B&E: How do you find the regulatory environment for the generation of solar power in the country?

ISW: Solar power plants can be built anywhere in India barring a few northern and north-eastern areas where sunlight is not available throughout the year. Nowadays, almost every state has policies favorable for the sector. The central regulator has put regulations in place for every distributor to buy a certain proportion of their portfolio from solar power. Hence, all the states are following it. States like Gujarat have taken even larger initiatives to build one of Asia’s largest solar energy parks.

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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

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"We'll stick to what has made us a winner globally"

Vikram Bakshi, MD, North & East, McDonald’s India, on the chain’s aggressive strategies to meet its 2015 goals amidst intensifying competition among QSRs

B&E: What has been the core strategy responsible for McDonald’s good show over the last few years?
Vikram Bakshi (VB): Our main strategy has been to get closer to customers in a meaningful way. So we have been experimenting with formats like drive-thru’s. Since we can’t operate all these formats in cities, we have opened on national highways and satellite towns. Then we have been very successful in working in tandem with retail development. We ensure that we get the corner space in big malls, and it has worked really well for us. Also, we are moving into newer places with our brand extensions. Like opening our restaurants at gas stations, at Metros and cinema halls. We’re also getting aggressive with home deliveries; it’s doing very well for us. Then we have 24-hour open format restaurants on national highways. So for every standalone restaurant, we are doing three brand extensions, which can be anything from a 24-hour format on national highway to a kiosk, a delivery or a drive thru.

B&E: So what is your expansion target over the next three years?
VB: Currently we are doing about 257 restaurants. In three years we will reach about 500 restaurants, and another 700 brand extensions, which we are not counting as separate restaurants. So I would say I will have over 1,000 customer touch points.

B&E: You have cut down prices of some products. What’s the strategy behind it considering that almost every FMCG company is hiking prices due to rising input costs?
VB: It’s a very clear strategy aimed at attracting more consumers to our restaurants. So I would not say it’s cutting down prices, but more of a rationalization of prices of some items. What we are doing is what any smart brand will do in a market like this. We want to sell more at a time when people are pulling back on spending due to rising inflation. So we’re making our products affordable for them. I never look at money in percentage terms (e.g. bottom line or profit) but more in the absolute value of it, as we are still in a growth and expansion phase here. Next year is important for us, as we plan to grow far more aggressively than we have grown this year.

B&E: What has been your growth rate in the last fiscal and what’s your target for the ongoing one?
VB: We have grown in excess of 40%, and expect to grow by more than 50% in this fiscal year. We have doubled the number of restaurants in the last three years, and our target it to double it again in the next three and a half years, by the end of 2015. If you look at it, this means we aim to achieve by 2015, what we have achieved in the last 15 years. It’s a tough target and we need to stay focused and on course.

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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

 

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“We seek to apply our solutions in multiple contexts & markets”

Meera Sampath, Director, Xerox Research Centre, India, asserts that Xerox would like to work on ‘locally inspired, yet globally relevant’ innovations

B&E: How important is the Xerox India Innovation Centre to the company’s emerging market strategy?
Meera Sampath (MS): All our research centres support Xerox’s innovation needs across its different lines of businesses – be it our traditional documentation technologies-related research, which would be research related to our design and development of our devices, the works/ applications connected with that, et al as well as associated services in our existing lines of business, like management of large imaging centres, taking over and running infrastructure of large enterprises as well as SMEs and creation of customer communication material. Other lines of business that have recently been added to Xerox post the acquisition of ACS, have been innovation that supports the IT outsourcing (ITO) business and innovation in support of the BPO business. Two things were very clear from the outset when we set up the R&D centre here. The first was that the centre had to support innovation for expanding and rapidly growing Xerox’s businesses in emerging markets. The second was that given India’s unique set of skills and competencies and given Xerox’s need to expand its services over and beyond emerging markets, this research centre would endeavour to leverage the talent in India to significantly contribute to accelerating innovation in services delivery for our global customers. 

B&E: In your experience, how are needs for developed and developing markets different? 

MS: It depends on the vertical or market segment we are looking at. In terms of large enterprises, the needs and pain points may not be so significantly different as compared to developed markets. But in other segments, we may be significantly different. For instance, we are developing a smart banking solution to significantly improve costs and operational efficiencies and turnaround times for the banking industry. This leverages unique expertise in terms of the capabilities of our devices, document management or smarter document technologies and our capabilities in imaging, et al. This is a solution that we found – locally inspired but globally relevant. Interestingly, we have found takers for it in Brazil, Canada, Mexico and even US. We at our research lab consider that as the typical space we would like to play in. We develop fundamental technologies, fundamental concepts and solve research problems, which can be applied in multiple offerings, contexts and geographies.

B&E: How do you tackle the critical talent shortage issue in India?
MS: It becomes important for us to form the right partnerships, rather than competing for talent. We work with partners to ensure that they become part of the Xerox research family and the Xerox research group without becoming ‘employees’ of Xerox. Every researcher has a mandate to not only work on internal research projects, but to also actively participate in open research projects in partnership with universities.

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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

 

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