India’s legal regulatory framework...

As per Jones Lang LaSalle’s 2006 Real Estate Transparency Index, India along with Japan is the biggest gainer in terms of the transparency. As Manisha Grover, Head, Strategic Consulting & Research, Jones Lang LaSalle (India), points out, “India’s legal regulatory framework, professional standards and transaction processes continue to evolve and set the pace for an even greater improvement in overall transparency in the immediate term.” But, it’s not only the stock market requirements, which forces a company to adopt ‘best possible management practices’. “Companies choose to be lead adopter of such practices because of several other reasons, such as, a signal of its high quality or to benefit indirectly from positive externalities that its adoption decision had on other firms in India,” opines Tarun Khanna of Harvard Business School. Many private companies are voluntarily adopting the latest governance codes. Cargill world’s largest privately held corporation is the best example of such ongoing transformation. The $75 billion trading giant, discloses material details of its off -balance-sheet dealings to outsiders. For more information on IIPM Editorial Article, please click here...,

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• IIPM Publications
• Business & Economy
• An IIPM and Management Guru Professor Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative
  

Source: IIPM, 4Ps, B&E

The Publisher & Editor of Jammag Magazine, Rashmi Bansal could not be traced at her office at Prabhadevi or her residence at Navi Mumbai, for more information please click on the following links:

• Hindustan Times Article - Publisher goes underground
• Rashmi Bansal (Editor of JAMMAG) eats humble pie; felicitates IIPM as being the top institute
• Rashmi Bansal (Publisher of JAMMAG)

The subtle power of the RPG group in India

Today, the sectors that the Goenkas have entered over a period of time are quite diversified from power to technology to retail etc., an effort of Keshav Prasad Goenka who started the diversification spree during the 1950s. It was he who took up expansion of this group and acquired companies like Octavious Steel and Duncan Brothers. He led the group into the automobile tyre sector by setting up three companies in the same. Keshav Prasad Goenka also led the companies to diversify in to sectors like Tea, Jute, Cotton and Electric cables. Currently, the enterprise is present in seven different sectors with more than forty companies in its kitty and boasts a total turnover of $ 1.3 billion. The present market capitalisation of the whole group is at $ 1.12 billion. It’s not only about business, but the RPG group has been equally good in its responsibility towards the society. The group’s main focus in this direction is in terms of educational and vocational training, health, community development and environment protection and conservation. That is the subtle power of the RPG group in India!

To read more on IIPM Editorial Article, please click here...,

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Source: IIPM, 4Ps, B&E

Profits, like happiness, can be disruptive...

The best business thinkers have always maintained that corporations must pursue profits in a manner that will reward the investor in the long run. Yet, modern American corporations seem to be in the grip of what is now called the tyranny of the Wall Street, where the quarterly profits of the company, and daily share price movements, matter more than its long-term health. In fact, many thinkers and analysts agree that it is this totally perverted definition of profit that has triggered the excesses that led to scandals like Enron, WorldCom and Home Depot, to name just a few. Profits, like happiness, can be disruptive when it is fleeting. If corporations take profits as a quarterly fling and not a long-term relationship, they will always end up in trouble – destroying shareholder wealth in the bargain. India has begun to celebrate the success of entrepreneurs and corporations. The billion-dollar question is, will India Inc. also be overwhelmed by the tyranny of Dalal Street? For complete information on IIPM Articles, please click here...

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Source: IIPM Editorial and B&E

Airfares No Sedive... so, go West!

Here’s some great news for all those who were planning to travel through to the West in the near future: fares are set to hit rock bottom over the next two months or so. Airlines have slashed airfares from India to the US and Europe by a whopping 15-20 % thanks to the drop in leisure travellers at this time of the year, together with a huge addition in capacity. One sector that’s bound to be a big hit is the India-London one: even a year ago, there were 14 flights to London every week; now, India has over 100 flights a week to London. The US sector too has expanded with American Airlines and Continental introducing flights from Delhi. Air India, for instance, is now offering Delhi-London-Delhi for just Rs 16,000, and flights to New York for all of Rs 31,000. So, whereas two months ago, fares on American sector were in the Rs 45,000 plus taxes region, they’ve now nosedived to Rs 31,000-35,000 plus taxes. Likewise, Lufthansa and British Airways are offering the India to New York sectors for Rs 43,000 (a fall of Rs 10,000 from just two months ago). Not to be left behind, even Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic is going the discount way: it’s now offering India-US for Rs 30,400, and Delhi-London-Delhi for Rs 16,000 (the fare was Rs 20,000 two months ago). On the eastern side of the world, however, it’s a different story. Fares to South East Asia are all set to go up from October, as that is going to be the busiest season travel to that part of the world. Analysts feel that this season of good fortune for travelers may not last for too long as fares are likely to go up by December again.
Westward ho!

For complete information on IIPM Research & Publication Article, please click here...

Editor: Arindam Chaudhuri; Source: IIPM Publication and Business & Economy

Some other IIPM Editorial Articles:

• And now, Big Mac to grow southwards



• Garib Rath ready to roll out



• Netting in more users



• New heights for low costs



• Anil Dhirubhai Group



• Deadly Duo on fast track



• Get more out of ghee!



• Beauty with brains

The SUV mania

From monstrous Hummers to sturdy Pajeros to the suave Mercedes M-class, we love them all. But the SUV rage has been hit globally as the tension continues to mount over fuel prices. The sales of SUVs in the US declined by a big margin, which had made a huge dent on companies like GM, Ford etc, whose major part of the sales come from the SUVs (or tough trucks) segment. However, in India, it’s like a chalk and cheese story. Mahindra & Mahindra is the clear leader in the SUV segment. Scorpio, in fact, outperformed Tata’s Sumo and Safari combined. Sales figure for Scorpio for the month of August stood at 3794 units, an increase of 20% as compared to the previous year. Tata’s Safari and Sumo accounted for sales of 3451 units, a growth of 29.7%. For M&M, the utility vehicle segment grew at a healthy rate of 11.7%. Given comparable prices, what seems to be the reason? Urmil Negandhi, auto analyst, Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services Limited remarks, “Mahindra Scorpio, due to its European styling, completely hammers its peers.” In view of the topical trends and booming economy, the SUV segment seems to be continuing to remain hot amongst Indian consumers and auto manufacturers. Industry analysts have still not been able to decipher away the significance of increasing fuel prices over SUV sales. And now, with even mini-vans (like Innova etc) being attempted to be sold under the SUV tag name by dealers, perhaps the bigger competition for true blue manufacturers is from these Johny-come-lately substitutes.

For complete IIPM Research & Publication Article, please click here...

Editor: Arindam Chaudhuri

Source: IIPM Publication and Business & Economy


Some other IIPM Editorial Articles:

• Growth in motorcycle market
• Are Indians finally rich?
• Recently, a group of senior lawyers and business executives ...
• The Cost of Capital: An International Comparison
• The chameleon changes its colour again
• Iraq war kills one more…politically
• Sydney Opera House
• The average rent per day in five star hotels in the city towered to as much as Rs.11,000...
• Don't walk out of your home
  

The third angle is controlling ‘precursor chemicals’...(IIPM Editorial)

Also, India is one of the few nations that has legit opium cultivation for medicinal reasons. There are 60,000 to 65,000 farmers growing opium over 8,700 hectares of government land in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Some of this opium is inevitably diverted into the open market. The third angle is controlling ‘precursor chemicals’, meaning chemicals used to make drugs in laboratories. There’s no control here because these are largely kitchen labs. In India, only three first-rate drug labs have ever been busted: One in Hyderabad by the DRI, one in Kolkata by the NCB and one in Mumbai that was shut down ‘under NCB pressure’. Some of the pressure appears to be working. Drug consignments are typically multi-kilo when authorities get complacent. But there have been three to four seizures of half-a-kilo of late. This is unusual in drug trafficking. There’s one more oddity: Though the quantity of drugs entering India is more, seizure of Heroin (white & brown) is being shown as almost constant at 1,000 kilos a year.

For complete IIPM Research & Publication Article, please click here...

Editor: Arindam Chaudhuri

Source: IIPM Publication

Will ‘oil’s toil’ for Little Venice ever end? (IIPM's B&E Publication)

Overview: Venezuela’s economy
The GDP of Venezuela expanded by 9.3% after a record 17.9% expansion in 2004. Venezuela continues to be highly dependent on the petroleum sector, which accounts for one-third of the GDP. Private sector participation continues to play a significant role in the economy, as it grew by 11.3% in 2005. External debt declined from $4.4 billion in 2004 to $3 billion in 2005. Unemployment continues to hover at around 14% of the total labour force.

For complete IIPM Editorial Article, please click here...

Editor: Arindam Chaudhuri, Source: IIPM Publication

There will be no new Middle-East...

In part, though, this madness is homegrown. I sat with some young Syrian writers and listened to a discussion between a young woman, talking about how she would prefer to see Israel disappear, another writer who argued that Nasrallah was an Arab disaster, and an Arab journalist who described the “pride” and “dignity” every Arab felt at seeing Hezbollah fight Israel to a standstill. When will the Arab-Muslim world stop getting its “pride” from fighting Israel and start getting it from constructing a society that others would envy, an economy others would respect, and inventions and medical breakthroughs from which others would benefit? There will be no new Middle-East – not as long as the New Middle Easterners, like Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, get gunned down; not as long as Old Middle Easterners, like Nasrallah, use all their wits and resources to start a new Arab-Israeli war rather than build a new Arab university; and not as long as Arab media and intellectuals refuse to speak out clearly against those who encourage their youth to embrace martyrdom with religious zeal rather than meld modernity with Arab culture. Without which, we are wasting our time resources, and the Arab world is wasting its future. It will forever be “on the eve of modernity.”


For complete IIPM Editorial Article, please click here...

Source: IIPM Publication, Editor: Arindam Chaudhuri

IIPM Editorial -> The Wizardry of Oz

The Sydney Opera House: Has the world baying for an encore

Within us all, whether we deign to acknowledge it or not, there lurks this eager beaver always seeking with the precision of a guided missile all that is adventurous and rejuvenating for the soul. And if your heart yearns for exotic locales, cordial locals and scenic beauty arguably incomparable to anywhere else on the globe that is sought, where better to head off to than the land down under, Australia?!! From sun-kissed beaches to heavenly horizons to undulating rainforests scattered across the length and breadth of this isle, it boasts a rich fusion of culture as wide ranging as its topography. But I felt like an infinitesimal speck of dust or a boat sans its rudder in a nation as mammoth as this, as I sprang a foot-and-a-half into the air, courtesy a titanic ripple across my back. “G’day Mate!”, was the good natured greeting thrown in my direction by Brendan, a man of floppy hair, diminutive stature and a smile wider than the SCG. I instantly took a liking to this affable Aussie and knew that my trip would only get better from this point on.


For complete IIPM Editorial Article, please click here...

Source: IIPM Publication, Editor: Arindam Chaudhuri

IIPM Editorial : The construction of the giant polyhedrons...

The poor visitor wasn’t spared the fate, who died a month later from his excursion to the tomb. But confounding the curse was the fact of Howard Carter’s final goodbye not until after sixteen more years. The mystical wind around the pyramids of Egypt doesn’t stop whistling here. The construction of the giant polyhedrons, each stone of which weighs close to 2500 kilograms, placed at heights greater than hundred metres is another intriguing facet leading to lots of schools of thought. Some take cues from Herodotus’s accounts by imagining usage of long levers or construction of straight or long spiral ramps for carrying stones though no archaeological evidences are available of the same.

For complete IIPM Publication Article, please click here...

Source: IIPM Editorial

Facing the music, but the show must go on (IIPM Publication)

The world’s fourth largest music company, Warner Music Group Corp. has rejected a $4.23 billion acquisition bid from rival EMI Group Plc. The London-based EMI Group, the world’s third-largest music company had offered to buy each share of Warner Music for $28.50 in cash and EMI shares. This is yet another unsuccessful merger attempt between the two music companies and the third one in the last six years, as the music industry, facing the threat of piracy, is getting into a consolidation mode.

For complete IIPM Editorial Article, please click here...

Source: Publication, IIPM

One day in January …when the steel titans clashed

Investors held on to Arcelor and stocks soared

“If Mittal Steel makes a bid exclusively in cash that values the company properly, the board will re-examine the situation,” Arcelor Chairman Joseph Kinsch declared at the annual general meeting in Luxembourg. If the bid is successful, the combined company would be a 100 million tonne plus steel producer, besides capturing more than 10% of the global market share. In verbal wars, Mittal had consequently declared that it would sell off Dofasco (acquired by Arcelor recently) to Thyssenkrupp at a low price if it succeeded in taking over Arcelor. Meanwhile, without consulting the shareholders, Arcelor directors handed over the newly acquired Canadian steel company Dofasco to Strategic Steel Stichting (S3), a Dutch trust. S3 has independent selling rights over Dofasco for the next five years. However, this further complicated matters for Arcelor, as the latest ‘crown jewel sale’ is being viewed as an example of poor corporate governance.

For complete IIPM Publication article, please click here...

Source: IIPM Editorial

A recent Merrill Lynch report...

The list includes insufficient terminals, shortage of commercial pilots, unpredictable conveyor belts, and badly trained air traffic controllers. However, most importantly, these airlines also have to ensure that the sector does not slow down because of unclear expansion strategies to increase fleet and a nebulous financial base. Air Sahara’s recent call for bidders to cover its losses could just be the fuel to the fi re of uncertainty that has started prevailing along with euphoria in this sector. A recent Merrill Lynch report also predicts that with the expansion in fleet size, the consequent higher capacity will put enormous pressure on the ‘yield’, which in turn could really put off investors. Airlines are already facing the brunt of wary investors. For instance, Spice Jet had got commitments of $20 million from two private equity firms for its expansion plans. However, only UAE based Istithmar invested $12.5 million; the other prospective investing firm of Temasek Holdings backed out.

For complete article, click here...

Source: IIPM - Business & Economy

Indo Rama looking to now get into global markets

The turnaround story of Indo Rama? Well that is an old phenomenon. Now, the company is poised to take the giant leap into the global polyester market post the quota regime. In technical collaboration with Kvaerner, Indo Rama has planned to double its capacity to 600000 tonnes per annum from 300000 tonnes per annum by the second quarter of 2006. The undisputed market leader Reliance Industries with over 50% market share in India has already announced mega expansion plans to its polyester capacity back in 2004, besides looking for overseas acquisitions. Although it is no longer into losses, Indo Rama has seen the rough patch in the past when it treaded the tough route of competing with Reliance. O. P. Lohiya, chairman, Indo Rama has remained determined through out that a key sector like polyester must not be monopolised, so today Indo Rama is the only other major player in the Indian market other than Reliance. Read More...

Source: IIPM - Business & Economy

Pakistani children suffer from malnourishment

Disgracefully, around 70% of Pakistan’s budget gets eaten up by debt repayments and military expenditure. So how much of its budget does the government spend comparatively on education, health and other most necessary public utilities? A pathetic 9%. It’s no wonder that 8 million Pakistani children suffer from malnourishment and are illiterate. Rather than hypocritically requesting the outside world for aid, all Musharraf needs to do is to reduce Pakistan’s irrationally high military expenditure and reorient it towards society’s development.

Read More about B&E Article...

Source: IIPM - Business & Economy

Ethiopia - A land locked country

Although Ethiopia’s stubbornness is natural, in view of the fact that it had been reduced to the status of a land locked country since 1993 (when Eritrea gained its independence), its continued conflict with Eritrea would only go to isolate it further in the world forums. And hasten its decline and fall. More on IIPM Editorial...

Source: IIPM - Business & Economy

A sudden fall in demand and denim prices led to big losses...

The development plan was funded with loans borrowed from financial institutions. The whole exercise backfired as a sudden fall in demand, and denim prices, led to big losses and a huge debt burden. Suddenly, Arvind Mills was staring at bankruptcy filing and negative investor sentiments. Sales margins and operating profits in 2001 went down by almost 24%. “Arvind Mills should have done a lot of background work before following the recommendations,” points out Sourav Chatterjee, director, Planman Consulting.


Source: IIPM - Business & Economy


For More IIPM Publication related information, click here...

Falcons

Ever since the inception of this sport, the efforts in the daily training, feeding and maintenance of the falcons have earned them immense respect, especially as this lifestyle garners great regard with people of the Gulf. The inhabitants of the Emirates look upon falconry as a vital facet of their national heritage, while by and large it has been losing ground with the populace of the west, though falconry continues to thrive in US and Europe through various clubs. For More information...

Source: IIPM - Business & Economy

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