Indian Insitute of Foreign Trade

2007-08-30T01:27:00.000+05:30

The MotorCycle Diary

There are definitely far less painful and lot easier means of committing suicide. Not that I could fathom why Amartya wishes to get himself killed in the first place. Perhaps on that particular fateful night he just felt divinely possessed and invincible or, this with greater probability, he was playing downright daft. If ever there was a didactic of WHAT NOT TO DO while riding a bike, Amartya would have made an excellent case study! The good thing is that he is still a LIVE case study even though his excellent intentions might have been otherwise. Whoever said that miracles do not happen had no idea that Amartya is still around to prove him wrong.

There are two types of people in this world, those who know how to ride a bike and those who don't. Amartya unfortunately doesn't fit into any of those two categories. Those of you with dirty minds are trying to find a double meaning in that statement, please carry on. You see when you've ridden a bike for all of six times with a guy sitting behind you all the time - holding on for his sorry life, not knowing what to pray for, his life or his bike and by the time he has decided it might be too late for both - you can't really aspire to be counted in the coveted first category and we can discount Amartya out of the second just for the sake of feel-good-factor, albeit his feel-good-factor.

Precariously dangling between the two categories that he is, it is but natural that he would wish to elevate his position. The intent was right, the execution went horribly wrong. The best of the bikers to scorch the roads would tell you that safety comes first. By ‘safety’ they mean, carry your license, always wear a helmet, have the headlights turned on at night, preferably don’t exceed the speed limits and if you are a rookie then swap ‘preferably’ with ‘definitely’; if the roads are wet and there’s smog around then swap ‘safely’ with ‘imperatively’. Even a half-wit nut case with the minimum instinct of self-preservation would tell you that in the above conditions, with visibility not more than 10 feet, on a road infested with potholes unless you are drunk, doped, suicidal or homicidal you do not rave your bike over 70 kmph. Even though his mental and emotional states were to be debated for long after this incident, I would vouch for his sobriety though the difference between the worst of the sober Amartya and the best of the comatose Amartya is purely academic.

“I feel the need, the need for speed!” That’s what must be going through his head when he vroomed out of the college gate. Lately he had become a biking aficionado with an overdose of bike stunts from youtube but the life-altering fact that those stunts are performed by experts and under controlled conditions somehow slipped his mind. Neither was he an expert nor were the conditions in anyway controlled. I’ve already expatiated what a safe biker should be doing, well our beloved Amartya just callously forgot all of them and I mean every single one of them. When he hit the pothole - he says it was a pothole, not that he could see it - he was blazing 70 plus. He did what any other biker would do when he hits some obstacle at that kind of speed; he fell. The bike fell on top of him which dragged him a few meters before coming to rest. When you are catapulted off a running vehicle at that kind of velocity you don’t really roll around, get up, and dust off your clothes, pick up your bike and ride away coolly to glory. If you are still alive and conscious even after that bone-jarring crash, you lay there, oblivious of the pain - that would come later - your heart beating as fast as it could, adrenalin rushing through the blood stream, every muscle in your body taut, every limb trembling vigorously, wondering whether you have succeeded in making the transition into the next world. Amartya lay there doing just the same; ok, he might have wished that he had a bottle of whisky and a pack of Kings as well, I guess we’ll never know!

I could never appreciate the masochistic pleasure he got from such reckless, downright asinine activities but he did have the heart to actually extricate himself from under the bike. Bleeding as he was, he also had the mood to actually go hunting for his lost slippers! He could consider himself the luckiest bloke alive – the stress mind you is on ‘alive’ – to be able to stand albeit with difficulty. He always had his ways with ladies and not surprisingly Lady Luck was still smiling at him – discount the fact that she wasn’t so amused with him when he had the accident; what could she do if Amartya decided to play TopGun – the bike still purred and it must have been sweet music to his ears ‘coz if it hadn’t, Amartya at least was in no physical condition to haul it back to the campus.

Looking back in retrospect, I think Amartya might as well have enjoyed the after-effects of the accident apart from the excruciating pain. He had a valid and legal reason to bunk classes, internal tests and perhaps end terms too. Was that what he was trying to do? Comeon! Wouldn’t that be too much? Knowing Amartya, when did he ever require a reason for doing all those things? When I later confronted him with the same , he flashed his best smile – that’s some feat considering he hadn’t brushed his teeth for the last two days ‘coz of the numerous bandages - and there was a twinkle in his eye as if saying, “You can only wonder dude, I know!”

Our Rishekesh Trip

2006-10-29T15:08:00.000+05:30

Awesome Fun...

http://picasaweb.google.com/raviteja.m/RishikeshWhiteWaterRafting

The First 100 Days

2006-09-07T23:00:00.000+05:30

This mini-elective is one of the most popular courses taught at France's INSEAD. Since 2004 the course has had students taking the reins of a simulated company during its first 100 days in business. Before they can even sign up for the class, students have to form a team of four, with one student serving as chief executive, another as chief financial officer, and the other two heading operations and marketing and sales. There is a limit of 10 teams per session, and you can't drop out of the course once you have won a seat in the competitive bidding process.

But the class is not your usual B-school simulation, where students input information to a computer that spits out results that show whether they did things correctly. Professor Patrick Turner relies instead on friends—real accountants, journalists, and lawyers—and his own acting abilities to give students a taste of what acquiring a new business is like. Turner serves as chairman of the board for each team's company, and when students send e-mails to employees in various departments of their company—such as Lucy in accounting—they're actually corresponding with their professor. And Turner at times brings in actual lawyers, for instance when students have to make legal decisions about their business.

"The First 100 Days" is probably one of the only classes that requires that students bring in their cell phones—and always have them turned on. Lisa Long, who graduated from INSEAD in July, recalls a 4 a.m. phone call to say production at her fake company was offline. It was her job to wake up and make a decision about how to proceed. Grades are determined by the chairman of the board (Turner), your teammates, and the real people you encounter along the way. "It was like The Apprentice and Big Brother wrapped in one," says Brendan Collins, who also graduated from INSEAD in July. But students won't tell you too much more than that. They sign a nondisclosure agreement at the start of the session so that Turner can keep surprising future participants.

Head here for some more courses that are off the beaten path...

On Entrepreneurship at IIFT

2006-08-30T10:54:00.000+05:30

Entrepreneurship Management is now a full blown course module at IIFT. As part of this program we will be interacting with many Entrepreneurs during our CRCs. In the next trimester we would have a compulsary paper on entrepreneurship management, and in the third of fourth trimester we will undertake a live entrepreneurship project or case study from the large pool available at the IIFT SME Centre

As a person who was always very keen on entrepreneurship, this bit of information from our Program Director, Pinaki Dasgupta came as an icing to top an already rather excellent cake!
Our PD ran us through the vision of this program as he was introducing our first speaker in this series Mr. Jagjot Singh.

Mr. Jagjot Singh is an IIFT alumni( Batch of 93) . He worked in the textile space for several years, starting with Arvind Mills and was the Secretary of the All India Terry Towels Association ( the only non promoter/owner to be honoured thus) and also the CEO of a large Terry towel making unit beore he decided that opportunities existed that were to good to pass up and plunged into his entrepreneurial venture. Today he runs "Confidence Buying" a buying house for large retailers across the globe , and has an annual shadow turnover of about 110 Cr.His talk was an absolute pleasure , right from the easy going start where he joked about how in his time students at IIFT were" dumbs" and todays students, i.e We, are a lot smarter bunch and hence his nervousness to address us.

But he quickly launched into one of the best talks I've been privileged to hear at IIFT,basically addressing issues like -
+ what the focus of an entrepreneur should be when he starts up
+ The process of becoming an entrepreneur, and the attitude
+ The challenges generally faced, with personal examples from his life
+ The road ahead

It was a personally extremely rewarding talk, and was followd up by another brilliant CRC by Mr C.K Sharma who spokeon sales distribution and trade marketing.I will be posting on our CRC lecture series separately, to keep a record of all the speakers whom we've interacted with here at IIFT on my blog ...

On the 22nd of August ( that's about a week back) I'd ( along with my roomie Ishu Jain) attended a TiE mentoring session organised by Anurakt Jain and Ruchi Durlabhji. The speaker was Sanjeev Bikhchandani(SB) the founder of Naukri.com.He ran us through his story, and how they were among the last few dot coms to get venture funding ( to the tune of 7.3 crores from ICICI ventures) before the IT bubble burst in 2001.

The synergies between the talks given by Mr. Bikhchandani , and Mr. Jagjot Singh were alarming. Both of them stressed the tremendous advantage they leveraged from working in a big organization for several years before taking the entrepreneurial jump. SB also addressed the extemely delicate scenario of what you should do when you have a company growing at phenomenal rates, and you have a friend who with you has started the firm and nurtured it through the initial days, but is unable to sustain his learning curve past a particular size or scale of operatons. What do you do?

These sessions are such a huge value add...truly mind expanding... On the third of september there is another TiE mentoring session..will be attending it too, and will keep you posted...

2006-08-27T04:25:00.000+05:30

When in Deep Shit, Keep Your Mouth Shut

It's been quite sometime since my last blog. Life's been so fast and furious for the last couple of weeks that living on the edge would be an understatement of sorts. When you hit the deck at five in the morning and your alarm drags you out of the darkest caverns of slumber at six forty sharp (otherwise Shastriji would facilitate your first DGP) you don't just get out of bed, stretch n say 'morning to your roomies. Firstly you don't register where you are and more alarmingly you don't realize who you are! When realization does hit you, you have lost five precious minutes which would mean that you got to skip the loo. At least that way you would have an excuse for not going through the pains of the sacred Kapal Bhathi. That's how a normal day at IIFT commences. The hours fly by at an excruciating pace, which could be too fast or too slow depending on the situation you find yourself in, with you always trying to outsmart and outrun yourself. Everyday exposes you to a plethora of experiences. So varied are they that the mind often fails to register them later. Few of them would be so colourful that they'll manage to paint your memory bright and vivid forever.

We, at IIFT, are an innovative lot. So much so that we often tend to carry it a bit too far. So sleep deprived we are that it almost becomes our birthright to sleep during lectures. The art is that we can't afford to get caught; you know that fine line between a hero and a zero, but as Murphy's law goes, anything that can go wrong, definitely will, we often find ourselves on the wrong side of the line, with the wrong kind of people around. Such was the case with our dearest Mr. Anuj Jain. Now Mr. Jain is one of the most diligent folks of our batch. His motto seems to be, "Tension leneka aur deneka bhi!" Though he prefers to call it precaution for some obscure reason. As a result the gentleman doesn't get enough sleep in the night. The poor chap doesn't get to blink an eyelid in class as his permanent seat's right under the nose of the lecturer but as the saying goes every dog has its day and so did our beloved Anuj.

Our Economics lecturer, Miss Pushpa Kumari, allows us to sit as we please. That fateful morning Anuj managed to grab a seat in a strategic position; bang in the middle of the class! Geographically speaking it was a disaster in the making. The professor was through with almost an hour of the class. The class duration vs intensity of sleep graph is always exponential and there I was, really fighting a losing battle against myself to keep awake. Primarily because I din't wish to keep awake in the first place. My only aspiration at that moment was to fade away into the realms of the oblivion without Pushpa Kumari noticing the divine transition. An Economics class early in the morning can be a stronger opiate than most of its kind ever experienced by any drug abuser.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear. Many of us usually are so far gone beyond the realms of consciousness that we couldn't care less if the professor's watching or not. So the virtues of courage and judgement are quite irrelevant here. Nevertheless for people as diligent as Anuj, sleeping in class is an academic evil, precariously hanging on the verge of being a social taboo but that morning history was to be made 'coz Anuj Jain was about to doze off and more disastrously he was also going to get caught. You can't really blame the poor chap. He was no expert in the art of cognition faking. You sit in the middle of the class with no frontal cover, which is another way of saying that you are a sitting duck, and more importantly you also try to concentrate; buddy you could have as well stretched out on Pushpa Kumari's table!

Hey wait guys! This is not the end of the fiasco. In fact it's just the beginning. Anuj probably had never ever found himself in such an embarrassing situation in his ever so serious, no non-sense life. He perhaps was already elevating himself to the status of a martyr, albeit without a cause, when he thought better of it and decided that drastic situations call for drastic measures. But my dear friend not when you have just come out of a nice little nap. "Mam, I wasn't sleeping. I was actually thinking about what you said with my eyes closed!" No more, no less. Anuj Jain at his innovative or inventive best (I leave it for you to decide) made this statement in all due earnest, with a perfectly straight face, in the middle of the class. There was pin drop silence for all of five seconds. Even I was sitting wide awake trying to figure out if what I had just heard was due to some post-nap effect or figment of my imagination when I ran out of time. The roar of laughter that thundered in the room for the next two minutes had said it all. I mean people were like, "DUDE, WHAT WERE U THINKING?" A perfect copy book example of thinking on the feet, or perhaps thinking with the feet would be more appropriate! I am sure Anuj would rate this very 'thoughtful' incident as one of his most embarrassing moments but he inadvertantly also taught everyone of us present there a very important lesson - when in deep shit, keep your mouth shut!

Indra Nooyi

2006-08-19T21:14:00.000+05:30

Read these articles...

The first one is really very good. Its her graduation speech...

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/may2005/nf20050520_9852.htm
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/08/14/1793852.htm
http://www.blonnet.com/2006/08/15/stories/2006081502670900.htm
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13129-2276257,00.html

Some Clarity on the Brands

2006-08-19T20:50:00.000+05:30

Coca Cola
=============
Coca Cola
Diet Coke
Fanta
Sprite
GoldSpot (now extinct)
Maaza
Nestea (along with Nestle)
Real Fruit Juice
Thums-Up
Limca
Kinley (Mineral Water)
Georgia Gold

PepsiCo
=======

Slice
Mountain Dew
Pepsi
Tropicana Products
Mirinda
AquaFina (Mineral Water)
Frito Lays
Gatorade

Nestle
=======
KitKat
Maggi
Milo
Nescafe
Nestea
Crunch
PureLife (Mineral Water)

Perfetti
==========

Alpenlibe
Big Babol
Center Fresh
Center Shock
Chloro-mint
Cofitos
HappyDent
Mentos
Frut-tella
Chatar Patar

Cadbury
=========
Dairy Milk
5 Star
Caramels
Crunchy Nut Butterscotch
Almond Magic
Gems
Perk
Milk Treat
Celebrations Assorted
Temptations Gift Pack
Crackle

Plz do have a dekko at this...

2006-08-18T11:00:00.000+05:30

Guys please check out this post on my blog!...well, all i can say is hats off to Shoi!!

11000 words and then some on IIFT

Our Very Own Gas Master

2006-08-07T20:50:00.000+05:30

Life at IIFT was never going to be easy and neither was I expecting it to be. I've been through the so called Hostel Life during my engineering years and I've been there, seen this and done that. Life can be very monotonous if it isn't for the awe inspiring and colourful characters who you'll invariably bump against in a hostel. IIFT has been no exception. I was thinking about starting off my blogging career and what better way to start than to talk of our very own Gas Master. You'll come to appreciate the entire concept and importance of gas here at IIFT once I'm through with this blog.
It's been only three weeks here and already we've been able to categorize our mates here in accordance to their forte. I, for one, am unparallel at sleeping almost anywhere imaginable and perhaps unimaginable but that is not the topic of discussion today. Like in any classroom you will definitely find a group of eager students pretty desperate to impress the lecturer or perhaps someone else. It's no different here. Here at IIFT we've some bajuwords (read buzzwords). These enthusiasm personified characters are tagged for their ACP (Arbitrary Class Participation) and DCP (Desperate Class Participation). Incidentally our DCP king is also our Gas Master; apna very own Naval Goel!
Why exactly Naval has the dubious distinction of being crowned the Gas kingpin will be evident in a little while. Just keep reading. It was just another soporific, innocuous statistics class. I wouldn't have been able to recall the class today if it wasn't for the antics of Mr. Naval Goel. The topic of discussion in class was probability and the lecturer was using that historical cliche of the two die. He had just finished saying that obtaining a 3 and a 4 are two different cases and was about to proceed with a more complex example when entered the scene the Gas Master. "I've a question sir," he said with curiosity blazing in his eyes. "Sir, in that case if we get a 4 and a 4 then they should be considered as two different cases, right?" Though no one will ever doubt Naval Goel's IQ level (he's a very intelligent chap) but whether that was a genuine doubt or he did it on purpose, no matter how obscure that purpose may be, I'll never know. It's gas at its very best. I don't know about the lecturers but to the students Naval has been catapulted to an iconic status in no time. He has mastered the art of opening his mouth at the wrong time and at the wrong place. Strangely he invariably gets away with it. Probably it's his all-thirty-two-out face or maybe the lecturers just consider it below their dignity to react to his stupidity. Attribute it to his ever smiling countenance or his friendly know-all nature, you actually end up thanking him for his foolhardiness. If not for him and his likes classes would have been a painful drudgery.
Naval's escapades can fill up a diary as thick as our Kotler perhaps. Ask him why he does this and you will a grave reply, "Arrey yaar kisiko tho responsibility lena padega na thum sleepy boys ko jagake rakhne ka." In a way he is right. I can't fault his impeccable logic. Never mind the fact that the gas emitting from him can be very often downright asphyxiating. As if he's permanently afflicted with acute acidity but he's not perturbed and we are slowly getting used to this very arbitrary gassing. If you guys want to know more about gassing and the intrigues of the Gas King please feel free to let me know. After all he sits right next to me in class. I have often considered wearing a gas mask. Okay, I admit, that was a sad one but then so much of gas is bound to have its effects, isn't it?

--------> By Niladri

P.S: plz rush to the orkut community "Naval Goel's Fan Club" and join up for pointers from the gas master himself..:)

The Great IIFT Jigsaw!!

2006-08-07T19:53:00.000+05:30

So what are the learnings of the Jig-Saw Game...

One extra learning I had was...always be careful with the stuff you write to others in an email...it can land up anytime on any presentation anywhere....

Here it is:

Plz help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!send all ur inputs and learnings regarding thepuzzle sent by maam T.devi.ITS VERY URGENT need it 2Nite.
thanksPreeti, divya, anupam and arka.

Arun Sriram:
1. A senior is a senior is a senior2. All girls at IIFT may or may not be my sisters.3.Some things cannot be quantified4. In case of any problems close your eyes and sing DEVUDA DEVUDA.Please call me for any help....Phone No. 1234567890
Runy.

M.A.R. Ravi Teja:
Key Learnings:
1. Cute Photos are selected first for any critical assignments.2. Dont play jig-saw with any faculty at IIFT3. Urgent things can wait sometimes.4. Co-Ordinating is an important Management Activity.5. You can always fall back for help to good friends like us.
Cheers!
Hope my pointers do contribute in your assignment.
Amit Kumar:

Key learnings:
1.never ask people like us for any help regarding assignments.2.when time comes,people don like to play games on PC.3.IIFT is like a concentration camp.4.most important---must learn how to speak for 7 mins. without any topicand with 2 PPT slides.

goooooooooood lucccccccccck

Abhishek B. Menon:

from all what i can gather below,lemme give u some tips to get thisdone.u need a few slides na, so take points from the mails below.waise bhi we blabber on all occasions, so that wont be much of a problemfor any.and the best learning i guess anyone wud get is....... Dont expect anyhelp from anyone...cries for help can cause further help neededelsewhere....

abhi

PDPzz and more..

2006-07-30T03:37:00.000+05:30

This one was the longest..(well..many more from wher that came from)..Yet, I must add.. I am unable to sleep and its almost 4 am..Life's sure has changed since 2 weeks ago. 9 subjects trying to get the better of me.

The day/night is packed. Guys sleep in minutes, and breakfast and lunch is jus almost reaching that chaotic stage..

Looks like Maslow's pyramid has crumbled right onto my head. My needs are a big mess now..

But its good..Well..gettin better..the first party would set things right.. (an old post..the first today did almost take be back to my world..)

might is write

2006-07-14T11:39:00.000+05:30

Many days into this blog..phew and not many contributions coming in.. Well there could be umpteen reasons for this..One of the questions in the mind of most of us would be.. Why should we write.. We communicate so much.. We see each other, write scraps on forums like orkut.. What is this whole idea of writing blogs??? Information sharing is but a small part of it.. I believe there is more to it.. This is something I found from my cupboard while clearing trash (thank God, I had written it on a piece of paper at some point in time).. We are blessed that we have blogs and other media to express ourselves. If you can't convince yourself about the importance of writing, please read what a 14-year old had to say (hope it doesn't sound too pompous)..

"Thoughts, particularly ideas, know no bounds of time and space. They can crop up at any time and place. How many ideas are retained in our mind and how many are lost? I think a majority of great thoughts and ideas are soon forgotten because we do not treasure them. I am a strong believer that if we start treasuring our thoughts in the form of writings, it can bring out a whole lot of hidden traits and dimensions of our personality. Above all, many readers of our writings can relate the ideas to themselves. Haven't you ever wondered.. oh gosh.. that's what I feel..or I could have thought like that..This is the magic of written word.

We, as human beings, tend to soon forget our past. If we jot down a few lines about our daily happenings, then a few years down the line, we can see how far we have travelled in those years. Whether we have been able to better our lives or those of people around us. "

Investment Banks

2006-07-14T09:50:00.000+05:30

Investment banks assist public and private corporations in raising funds in the capital markets (both equity and debt), as well as in providing strategic advisory services for mergers, acquisitions and other types of financial transactions. They also act as intermediaries in trading for clients. Investment banks differ from commercial banks, which take deposits and make commercial and retail loans. In recent years, however, the lines between the two types of structures have blurred, especially as commercial banks have offered more investment banking services.Other terms for the Investment Banking Division include Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) and Corporate Finance.

Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, UBS, JPMorgan Chase and Merrill Lynch are some of the top investment banks.

Investment Bankers are not really investors and not really bankers, they are hired as agents for companies who need advisory services on mergers and acquisitions, raising capital etc.

Before IIFT

2006-07-13T01:29:00.000+05:30

ok..how abt some variety folks ? Here's a so-so day in my life before I come to IIFT..

Past month or so...
8 am - wake up
8.01 am - go back to sleep
10 am - wake up and sit in bed
10.30 am - brush teeth...blah, blah,..
11 am - too hot outside..so internet / games/ movies / books
1 pm - lunch made by caring mom
1.30 pm - back to the pc
4 pm - pals come knocking
4.30 pm - play something / go out for a movie / beach / just stay home
8 pm - eat out / eat home
8.30 pm - TV / internet/ games / movies / books
midnight - chatting
past midnight - doing something like writing this post
zzzzz.......zzzzz.....

Who knows what life will be after july 17th. Maybe we could share our experiences after july 17th in this blog. All I know is that I can't wait to come to delhi.

Facts about Currencies

2006-07-12T20:15:00.000+05:30

Pound is the national currency of which two countries?

Britain and Egypt.
The Egyptian Pound is divided into 100 piasters. It is mainly a paper currency but coins are used for fractions of the pound. Egypt's paper money has two faces - an Arabic and an English. The Arabic side has pictures of some of the historic mosques in Egypt. The national currencies for Malta and Switzerland are Maltese Lira and Swiss Franc. That of Denmark and Norway is Krone.

R$ is the symbol of which country's currency?

Brazil.
Since 1994, the Brazilian currency has been the Real (plural: Reais), symbol is R$. Because of the very high inflation rates, which Brazil had in the 1980s and early 1990s, the country had to change currency several times during that time.

National currency of which country also stands for rain?

Botswana.
In Botswana the word for rain, is "pula," which is also the country's national currency. The name is in recognition of the economic importance of rain in this desert country.
The national currency of which country is also a rock band?
China. The Renminbi or yuan is the official currency of the People's Republic of China. New York City-based indie rock band, Renminbi first came together in early 2003.

Euro is the currency of which of the european countries?

The euro is the currency of twelve European Union countries: Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Finland.
Euro banknotes and coins have been in circulation since January 1, 2002.The euro was introduced to world financial markets as an accounting currency in 1999 and launched as physical coins and banknotes in 2002. The euro will be introduced in Slovenia on 1 January 2007, replacing the tolar. The euro is managed and administered by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank (ECB) and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) (composed of the central banks of its member states).

IIFT

2006-07-10T03:23:00.000+05:30

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade
Where the finest intellects parade

They all come here as zeroes
Fulfill their dreams and become heroes

With a good infrastructure and great teachers
Whom students consider as preachers

Shaping lives and building the nation
I'm sure gives them much elation

It is amazin to be part of such institution
We promise to give our best contribution!!!!!!!

2006-07-07T20:57:00.000+05:30

India’s Public Sector A Brief
History

In the Indian context, Public Sector or the PSEs primarily constitute the corporate bodies where 51 percent or more equity is held by the government, created under the special acts of legislature, or registered under the Companies Act, 1956. The Indian stake of Public Sector is huge considering the nationalized banks, financial institutions, insurance companies defense enterprises, and transport undertakings. Even the railways and airways are repositories of massive public investment.

Two hundred years of colonial rule crushed Indian Industry and exhausted resources. At the point of Independence, the leadership was convinced that political freedom without economic freedom was of little use. However, most of the private entrepreneurs did not have the vision, resources or capability or even the will to undertake heavy investments in core sector industries which have long gestation periods. Besides, given the ideological environment and shortage of supplies, it was only natural for the government not to choose a system controlled by the private enterprise.

Initially, the public sector was confined to core and strategic industries. Projects like the Damodar Valley Cooperation, Sindhri Fertilizers and Chemicals, Indian Telephone Industries, Hindustan Machine Tools, steel plants, aircrafts, shipbuilding, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Oil and Natural Gas Commission, and a host of others. The second phase saw mainly three trends, a nationalization spree, and takeover of sick units from the private sector, and entry of the public sector in new fields like, manufacturing consumer goods, consultancy, contracting, and transportation etc. Many foreign firms like Jessop & Co, Braithwaite & Co, Burn & Co etc were nationalized. Several hundred life insurance companies were absorbed into the Life Insurance Corporation. Hundreds of coal mines were transferred to the Coal Mines Authority. Then the public sector entered into fields like making medicine, weaving cloth, and running hotels. During the 1970s and 1980s the growth was phenomenal, wherein it undertook works like providing power and potable water, laying roads, constructing townships with basic amenities like schools, markets, hospitals and recreation clubs.

The public sector attracted the best talent in the country. It not only provided jobs to people in different regions, but invariably employed all the displaced people as well.

The public sector has to a large extent succeeded in meeting the objectives and laying a strong foundation for the industrial development of the country. It is widely recognized that the public sector management is based on strong systems and processes which is not usually the case with the private sector. At the height of its development, the public sector was less concerned with making profits and more with nation building activities. Also, huge investments were made in sectors which did not promise adequate return on the capital invested.

Post-1991, with declining revenues, and budgetary gaps, the government withdrew its budgetary support, and increased the pressure on them to produce profits, and thus dividends. While, their social and other gains were taken for granted, PSEs were criticized for not producing adequate profits and for entering into fields like Tourism and food supplies. This was partly the result of the global movement to private industry.

Over the years, a focused bureaucratic and inflexible approach led to the sapping of the autonomy. Somewhere down the lane, the government lost clarity in its roles of governance, as investor, regulator and business manager. The government paid little heed to the constitution of the board of directors, and hardly empowered them.

There are a large number of private sector units today, where ownership rests with government owned finance institutions. These companies are not hampered by bureaucratic control, and therefore are able to perform much better. Privatization may have served as a panacea to some of the developed countries, but a country like India has to find its own solutions bearing in mind its needs. There is a virtue in following a middle path.

Source: A Pictorial History of Indian Business (Extracted from an essay by M.A. Hakeem)

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2006-07-06T19:00:00.000+05:30

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