http://drishtikona.com My online journal with thoughts, opinions, comments and more.. Thu, 17 May 2012 09:03:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.2 http://drishtikona.com/images/favicon.gif http://drishtikona.com en http://drishtikona.com/archives/manufacturing/003065.php http://drishtikona.com/archives/manufacturing/003065.php#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:54:07 +0000 Indra http://drishtikona.com/archives/manufacturing/003065.php report, ‘When to make India a manufacturing base’ in September 2005, McKinsey considered India lagging behind the rest of Asian counties in manufacturing. Multinational corporations never took much initiative to make India its manufacturing base. And perhaps the main hurdle for getting into globally competitive manufacturing businesses at that time was the poor level of infrastructure such as power, road, and port. In March 2012, McKinsey analysis finds that rising demand in India, together with the multinationals’ desire to diversify their production to include low-cost plants in countries other than China could help India’s manufacturing sector to grow six fold by 2025, to $1 trillion, while creating up to 90 million domestic jobs. It advises on how multinationals can win in India. By 2015 the market for manufactured goods from low-cost countries will more than double, to nearly $8 trillion a year. China will probably capture much of the growth. But as McKinsey estimates, ‘up to $5 trillion a year will be up for grabs as global companies seek to diversify production and sources of supply beyond China, both to address rising factor costs there and to chase domestic demand in other countries’. And India must grab that potentials at all cost. For quite some years, India at least wishes to improve upon the manufacturing sector. It reflected in setting up of National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council that finally culminated in recently accepted National Manufacturing Policy. With my association with auto sector, I can vouch for the progress made by the country in manufacturing sector. There is hardly any auto sector globally known company, be it in the business of commercial vehicles, passenger cars, two-wheelers or even tractors and naturally the components that are not present in India with its own manufacturing facility. Many have made their India facility as the global hubs for certain platforms of vehicles. While the older traditional locations such as Pune, Chennai, and NCR expanded its manufacturing facilities to world class standard and added product development centres, new manufacturing clusters are also growing. One such is coming up in Gujarat around Sananda that started with Nano manufacturing facility. Power equipment manufacturing that was the monopoly of BHEL has also seen addition of some big private manufacturing players such as Larson and Toubro, and Bharat Forge. I don’t know if these can stop the onslaught from the Chinese power equipment manufacturers from getting the major orders from the new power plants. It is interesting to note that foreign companies keeping on considering India in their priority and expanding the manufacturing. Recently, ZF Steering, General Cable and Piaggio did that. The government has kick-started domestic electronics manufacturing by pegging its huge orders to value addition done in India. As estimated, the import of electronics will be second only after crude oil. India’s electronic industry must get a boost up with the government encouragement. Innovation plays a key role in determining which countries and companies can succeed in global manufacturing looking two decades down the road. Over the years, India has significantly improved its innovation capability, be it Tata Motors or Mahindra and Mahindra or Godrej or many other small and big manufacturing companies. However, the government can further provide the boost to manufacturing by going aggressively in opening sectors such as defence and railways. A transparent system in government ordering and procurement may indirectly help manufacturing in a big way. The unscrupulous vendors from the countries such as China oil the people in the government and even the defence services to block locally produced manufactured goods. The recent story of Tatra and BMEL shows the loss to the nation’s manufacturing by preferring to continue with screw driver technology instead of phased local manufacturing. It’s unfortunate that the big industrial houses as well as young entrepreneurs still hardly show preference for the setting up of manufacturing businesses. The world is getting into Third Industrial Revolution through digitization of manufacturing as reported in ‘The Economist’: ‘Instead of bashing, bending and cuttng material the way it always has been, 3D printers build things by depositing material, layer by layer. That is why the process is more properly described as additive manufacturing. Additive manufacturing is not yet good enough to make a car or an iPhone, but it is already being used to make specialist parts for cars and customised covers for iPhones.’ India still remains laggard in keeping itself contemporary in manufacturing. Indian technocrats must excel in manufacturing. ]]> report, ‘When to make India a manufacturing base’ in September 2005, McKinsey considered India lagging behind the rest of Asian counties in manufacturing. Multinational corporations never took much initiative to make India its manufacturing base. And perhaps the main hurdle for getting into globally competitive manufacturing businesses at that time was the poor level of infrastructure such as power, road, and port. In March 2012, McKinsey analysis finds that rising demand in India, together with the multinationals’ desire to diversify their production to include low-cost plants in countries other than China could help India’s manufacturing sector to grow six fold by 2025, to $1 trillion, while creating up to 90 million domestic jobs. It advises on how multinationals can win in India. By 2015 the market for manufactured goods from low-cost countries will more than double, to nearly $8 trillion a year. China will probably capture much of the growth. But as McKinsey estimates, ‘up to $5 trillion a year will be up for grabs as global companies seek to diversify production and sources of supply beyond China, both to address rising factor costs there and to chase domestic demand in other countries’. And India must grab that potentials at all cost. For quite some years, India at least wishes to improve upon the manufacturing sector. It reflected in setting up of National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council that finally culminated in recently accepted National Manufacturing Policy. With my association with auto sector, I can vouch for the progress made by the country in manufacturing sector. There is hardly any auto sector globally known company, be it in the business of commercial vehicles, passenger cars, two-wheelers or even tractors and naturally the components that are not present in India with its own manufacturing facility. Many have made their India facility as the global hubs for certain platforms of vehicles. While the older traditional locations such as Pune, Chennai, and NCR expanded its manufacturing facilities to world class standard and added product development centres, new manufacturing clusters are also growing. One such is coming up in Gujarat around Sananda that started with Nano manufacturing facility. Power equipment manufacturing that was the monopoly of BHEL has also seen addition of some big private manufacturing players such as Larson and Toubro, and Bharat Forge. I don’t know if these can stop the onslaught from the Chinese power equipment manufacturers from getting the major orders from the new power plants. It is interesting to note that foreign companies keeping on considering India in their priority and expanding the manufacturing. Recently, ZF Steering, General Cable and Piaggio did that. The government has kick-started domestic electronics manufacturing by pegging its huge orders to value addition done in India. As estimated, the import of electronics will be second only after crude oil. India’s electronic industry must get a boost up with the government encouragement. Innovation plays a key role in determining which countries and companies can succeed in global manufacturing looking two decades down the road. Over the years, India has significantly improved its innovation capability, be it Tata Motors or Mahindra and Mahindra or Godrej or many other small and big manufacturing companies. However, the government can further provide the boost to manufacturing by going aggressively in opening sectors such as defence and railways. A transparent system in government ordering and procurement may indirectly help manufacturing in a big way. The unscrupulous vendors from the countries such as China oil the people in the government and even the defence services to block locally produced manufactured goods. The recent story of Tatra and BMEL shows the loss to the nation’s manufacturing by preferring to continue with screw driver technology instead of phased local manufacturing. It’s unfortunate that the big industrial houses as well as young entrepreneurs still hardly show preference for the setting up of manufacturing businesses. The world is getting into Third Industrial Revolution through digitization of manufacturing as reported in ‘The Economist’: ‘Instead of bashing, bending and cuttng material the way it always has been, 3D printers build things by depositing material, layer by layer. That is why the process is more properly described as additive manufacturing. Additive manufacturing is not yet good enough to make a car or an iPhone, but it is already being used to make specialist parts for cars and customised covers for iPhones.’ India still remains laggard in keeping itself contemporary in manufacturing. Indian technocrats must excel in manufacturing. ]]> http://drishtikona.com/archives/manufacturing/003065.php/feed/ http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003062.php http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003062.php#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 01:49:57 +0000 Indra http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003062.php Auto sales, be it of the passenger cars, two-wheelers, or commercial vehicles, are good indicators of a country’s overall economy and the aspirations of the people. Besides creating employment in the manufacturing plants and auto components parts manufacturing facilities, it also enhances the engagement in service sectors such as dealers and after sales service providers at all levels. The sector creates employment in big way for the grassroots level of population with its demand of drivers. In India while the top end car owners employ chauffeurs, even a good percentage of owners of the compact cars also still prefer to keep drivers. Each commercial vehicle creates an employment of about 5-6 persons, while the three wheelers create self employment for the people, as these vehicles are in use for transportation of passengers as well as goods. Siam announced the auto industry sales figures for the last year. The passenger car sale in the domestic market during 2011-12 was 2,016,115 units, and the projected passenger car sales growth at 10-12 per cent in 2012-13. The total sales of commercial vehicles, in FY12 were 809,532 units, up 18.2 per cent. The segment is pegged to grow by nine to 11 per cent in FY13. The three-wheeler segment saw a decline of 2.4 per cent at 513,251 vehicles in FY12, Siam has projected five to seven per cent growth. The total two-wheeler sales were 13,435,769 units in 2011-12. Interestingly, it is the rural region that has kept the sector growing so fast. It showcases the aspirations of rural young men. India unlike China performs well in export of vehicles of all types. During April-March 2012, the industry exported 2,910,055 automobiles registering a growth of 25.44 percent. For the first time in history car exports crossed half a million in a financial year. Almost all the global auto makers who have set up manufacturing plants and some even the development centres, are doing good business. For some of their platforms, India has become their manufacturing hubs. One can also take pride in the domestic players such as Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, Hero MotoCorp, and Bajaj Auto that are on the road to become global players. It is evident from the growth in volume of production and their acquisitions abroad of manufacturing companies and R&D facilities. Mahindra and Mahindra is process of setting up an advanced engineering centre for R&Din Chennai. The Engineering and Research Centre (ERC) inside the Tata Motors' factory in Pimpri is the nerve-centre of the research and development effort. Today, Tata Motors has about 5,500 people working in R&D spread across India and the rest of the world. But a more interesting is the story of Hero MotoCorp Ltd that is one of the largest two-wheeler makers of the world. It has gone for building its own R&D capability after parting from Honda of Japan. ‘Hero’s newly created 300-member strong research and development team will be working closely with the engineers from Erik Buell to develop motorcycles. Erik Buell is expected to provide design inputs while Hero will develop its own engine with the help of Austria-based AVL (Anstalt für Verbrennungskraftmaschinen List). India’s auto sector is moving on the right course making almost all of the global manufacturers of passenger cars and commercial vehicles from the countries such as Germany and Japan to rush in India. I, myself wait for Mahindra Mini Xylo to be launched to decide between that vs. Maruti Ertiga as my next vehicle. ]]> Auto sales, be it of the passenger cars, two-wheelers, or commercial vehicles, are good indicators of a country’s overall economy and the aspirations of the people. Besides creating employment in the manufacturing plants and auto components parts manufacturing facilities, it also enhances the engagement in service sectors such as dealers and after sales service providers at all levels. The sector creates employment in big way for the grassroots level of population with its demand of drivers. In India while the top end car owners employ chauffeurs, even a good percentage of owners of the compact cars also still prefer to keep drivers. Each commercial vehicle creates an employment of about 5-6 persons, while the three wheelers create self employment for the people, as these vehicles are in use for transportation of passengers as well as goods. Siam announced the auto industry sales figures for the last year. The passenger car sale in the domestic market during 2011-12 was 2,016,115 units, and the projected passenger car sales growth at 10-12 per cent in 2012-13. The total sales of commercial vehicles, in FY12 were 809,532 units, up 18.2 per cent. The segment is pegged to grow by nine to 11 per cent in FY13. The three-wheeler segment saw a decline of 2.4 per cent at 513,251 vehicles in FY12, Siam has projected five to seven per cent growth. The total two-wheeler sales were 13,435,769 units in 2011-12. Interestingly, it is the rural region that has kept the sector growing so fast. It showcases the aspirations of rural young men. India unlike China performs well in export of vehicles of all types. During April-March 2012, the industry exported 2,910,055 automobiles registering a growth of 25.44 percent. For the first time in history car exports crossed half a million in a financial year. Almost all the global auto makers who have set up manufacturing plants and some even the development centres, are doing good business. For some of their platforms, India has become their manufacturing hubs. One can also take pride in the domestic players such as Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, Hero MotoCorp, and Bajaj Auto that are on the road to become global players. It is evident from the growth in volume of production and their acquisitions abroad of manufacturing companies and R&D facilities. Mahindra and Mahindra is process of setting up an advanced engineering centre for R&Din Chennai. The Engineering and Research Centre (ERC) inside the Tata Motors' factory in Pimpri is the nerve-centre of the research and development effort. Today, Tata Motors has about 5,500 people working in R&D spread across India and the rest of the world. But a more interesting is the story of Hero MotoCorp Ltd that is one of the largest two-wheeler makers of the world. It has gone for building its own R&D capability after parting from Honda of Japan. ‘Hero’s newly created 300-member strong research and development team will be working closely with the engineers from Erik Buell to develop motorcycles. Erik Buell is expected to provide design inputs while Hero will develop its own engine with the help of Austria-based AVL (Anstalt für Verbrennungskraftmaschinen List). India’s auto sector is moving on the right course making almost all of the global manufacturers of passenger cars and commercial vehicles from the countries such as Germany and Japan to rush in India. I, myself wait for Mahindra Mini Xylo to be launched to decide between that vs. Maruti Ertiga as my next vehicle. ]]> http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003062.php/feed/ http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003061.php http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003061.php#comments Sat, 14 Apr 2012 05:11:01 +0000 Indra http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003061.php Some have returned to reinvent new careers in India even on meager remuneration. Some instead of opting for working as a cog in the wheel on salaried assignments in respected companies decided to go for their own enterprise to try out their own idea of business and are making waves with their futuristic ideas and innovations. The story of Anish Joel, who runs My Earth Store in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, is one. My Earth store promotes organic and eco-friendly products made by NGOs and rural communities. Foradian, a small-town venture at Kasargod near Mangalore is another example. Some of the young men and women had worked hard as students and got over the hurdles of the most difficult entrance tests of the world and had joined IITs, IIMs with many sweet dreams, passed out with laurels that would have fetched huge salaries and the opportunities to work in the coveted MNCs to lead a comfortable life. However, they decided to work under the government scheme to spend 2 years assisting collectors in Maoist areas. 5 IIM graduates passing out in 2012 have decided to revamp the entire education system through their unique business models. And the few of the farmers took risk and went for a new way to farm. Darvespura village in Nalanda district of Bihar has added another first to its name by setting a world record in potato yield. The name sake of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, has harvested 72.9 tonnes of potato per hectare surpassing the earlier yield record of 45 tonnes per hectare held by farmers in the Netherlands. And it is not true that India lags in R&D. India currently has an R&D talent pool base of over 200,000 engineers growing at an average of 9 per cent a year for the last five years. Further the R&D segment witnessed a 13% salary hike and has managed to control attrition levels. The data show the satisfaction and achievement of the researchers. According to Zinnov, nearly half of the world's largest R&D spenders have their centres in India. Interestingly, many non-US companies have started looking at the country as a viable R&D investment option and planning to set up R&D centres in this lucrative market. At present, about 28 per cent companies with HQ in Japan, EU and APAC have their centres in India and this is likely to increase. India’s indigenous development of the products for the security of the nation showcases the potentials of Indians. India has successfully carried out the maiden test flight of its second indigenous Airborne Early Warning and Control System aircraft in Brazil. India is well ahead with its nuclear triad (ability to launch strategic weapons from land, air and sea). However, the indigenous nuclear-powered submarine INS Arihant will kick off sea trials this year. There are also certain achievements that must make every Indian proud. Perhaps India is unique in conducting all its election electronically on EVMs even with its largest electorate in world. India has also undertaken the Unique ID programme, which will enrolled its 1.2 billion population. The platform is designed internet-like to enable a huge range of vendors (currently government, but in the future who knows) to create applications to deliver services — public distribution system, subsidies to farmers, education vouchers, drivers’ licences, whatever. In addition to the huge boost to empowerment, this will do wonders for the budget deficit, always the single biggest constraint on India’s growth. The double-digit dream will still become a reality. The thought of India becoming an economic superpower is no longer outlandish. Some have freedom to differ, and some questions, ‘Who says India wants to be a superpower’? ]]> Some have returned to reinvent new careers in India even on meager remuneration. Some instead of opting for working as a cog in the wheel on salaried assignments in respected companies decided to go for their own enterprise to try out their own idea of business and are making waves with their futuristic ideas and innovations. The story of Anish Joel, who runs My Earth Store in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, is one. My Earth store promotes organic and eco-friendly products made by NGOs and rural communities. Foradian, a small-town venture at Kasargod near Mangalore is another example. Some of the young men and women had worked hard as students and got over the hurdles of the most difficult entrance tests of the world and had joined IITs, IIMs with many sweet dreams, passed out with laurels that would have fetched huge salaries and the opportunities to work in the coveted MNCs to lead a comfortable life. However, they decided to work under the government scheme to spend 2 years assisting collectors in Maoist areas. 5 IIM graduates passing out in 2012 have decided to revamp the entire education system through their unique business models. And the few of the farmers took risk and went for a new way to farm. Darvespura village in Nalanda district of Bihar has added another first to its name by setting a world record in potato yield. The name sake of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, has harvested 72.9 tonnes of potato per hectare surpassing the earlier yield record of 45 tonnes per hectare held by farmers in the Netherlands. And it is not true that India lags in R&D. India currently has an R&D talent pool base of over 200,000 engineers growing at an average of 9 per cent a year for the last five years. Further the R&D segment witnessed a 13% salary hike and has managed to control attrition levels. The data show the satisfaction and achievement of the researchers. According to Zinnov, nearly half of the world's largest R&D spenders have their centres in India. Interestingly, many non-US companies have started looking at the country as a viable R&D investment option and planning to set up R&D centres in this lucrative market. At present, about 28 per cent companies with HQ in Japan, EU and APAC have their centres in India and this is likely to increase. India’s indigenous development of the products for the security of the nation showcases the potentials of Indians. India has successfully carried out the maiden test flight of its second indigenous Airborne Early Warning and Control System aircraft in Brazil. India is well ahead with its nuclear triad (ability to launch strategic weapons from land, air and sea). However, the indigenous nuclear-powered submarine INS Arihant will kick off sea trials this year. There are also certain achievements that must make every Indian proud. Perhaps India is unique in conducting all its election electronically on EVMs even with its largest electorate in world. India has also undertaken the Unique ID programme, which will enrolled its 1.2 billion population. The platform is designed internet-like to enable a huge range of vendors (currently government, but in the future who knows) to create applications to deliver services — public distribution system, subsidies to farmers, education vouchers, drivers’ licences, whatever. In addition to the huge boost to empowerment, this will do wonders for the budget deficit, always the single biggest constraint on India’s growth. The double-digit dream will still become a reality. The thought of India becoming an economic superpower is no longer outlandish. Some have freedom to differ, and some questions, ‘Who says India wants to be a superpower’? ]]> http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003061.php/feed/ http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003060.php http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003060.php#comments Wed, 11 Apr 2012 05:09:20 +0000 Indra http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003060.php reports, Bangladesh is the next hot spot and the country’s ready-made-garment industry identified solid apparel-sourcing opportunities. Why has India with the great past of textiles and with maximum producer of cotton failed to remain high? It could have provided millions the necessary engagements and means to remain out of poverty? Indian small businessmen keep on talking about the long hours of power cuts, the high cost of every infrastructure input, the slow turnaround time at ports, labour law, and of course red tape and inspection raj as excuses. But most of them wish to make big money in easy way rather than having a mission to create jobs for the needy country men with some investment and hard work in manufacturing. The hero of 90’s revolution is in mute and ‘statue’ mode. The political class is too busy in everything else but helping to raise the development speed of the country. India’s young entrepreneurs, business leaders, and society have overlooked the potential of rural India in multiplying the manufacturing potential of India by taking it to the unemployed cheap rural labour. Organizing the rural potential with selecting and training interested groups for some outsourced work would have kept the cost down in many of the manufacturing jobs for the producing the things required for mass use. The government has failed effectively in providing electricity without which nothing gets produced these days in competitive manner. Not that there are no rural ventures, but it has not penetrated and scaled up to the desired extent. In a similar manner, India is missing the bus in BPO sector too. As reported, in a 2008 report NASSCOM and Everest, the Indian BPO industry would have earned $30 billion from exports by 2012. However, in the last six years, voice contracts coming to India, as estimated, have fallen by half. The industry may clock less than $16 billion this year, and it is all because Indian entrepreneurs and education system failed to provide the right spoken skill for that type of work. Is it not surprising that India has lost to Philippines? And the loosers are the young boys and girls with education up to class X or XII standard with good communicating ability in English from lower middle class, and not the established entrepreneurs who switched over the location or upgraded the work and the services of much higher value additions. But every one can’t pick up the high end BPO that requires higher education and better domain knowledge. Philippines became the biggest provider of voice-supported services as its BPO industry jumped 21 per cent to $10.9 billion. As reported in ‘Business Today’, ‘at pure voice operations, the Philippines, with $5.2 billion in revenues, has already become No. 1 in the world, pushing India, at $4.8 billion, into the second spot’. India must go for few policy decisions for creating industries that will provide jobs for the new generation that is getting into the market. Indian PSUs such as BHEL and BMEL, must grow much bigger outsourcing whatever can be done with the vendors. Defense production must encourage the private sector to enter and establish factories. Indian policy makers must realize the extent of national loss by opting for import rather for local manufacturing of the huge defence requirement. ISRO and other high tech establishments as well as the national research establishment such as CSIR and DRDO must help establishing manufacturing facilities in the country as a national mission and take the country forward in manufacturing of electronics. Let India not miss the bus this time. ]]> reports, Bangladesh is the next hot spot and the country’s ready-made-garment industry identified solid apparel-sourcing opportunities. Why has India with the great past of textiles and with maximum producer of cotton failed to remain high? It could have provided millions the necessary engagements and means to remain out of poverty? Indian small businessmen keep on talking about the long hours of power cuts, the high cost of every infrastructure input, the slow turnaround time at ports, labour law, and of course red tape and inspection raj as excuses. But most of them wish to make big money in easy way rather than having a mission to create jobs for the needy country men with some investment and hard work in manufacturing. The hero of 90’s revolution is in mute and ‘statue’ mode. The political class is too busy in everything else but helping to raise the development speed of the country. India’s young entrepreneurs, business leaders, and society have overlooked the potential of rural India in multiplying the manufacturing potential of India by taking it to the unemployed cheap rural labour. Organizing the rural potential with selecting and training interested groups for some outsourced work would have kept the cost down in many of the manufacturing jobs for the producing the things required for mass use. The government has failed effectively in providing electricity without which nothing gets produced these days in competitive manner. Not that there are no rural ventures, but it has not penetrated and scaled up to the desired extent. In a similar manner, India is missing the bus in BPO sector too. As reported, in a 2008 report NASSCOM and Everest, the Indian BPO industry would have earned $30 billion from exports by 2012. However, in the last six years, voice contracts coming to India, as estimated, have fallen by half. The industry may clock less than $16 billion this year, and it is all because Indian entrepreneurs and education system failed to provide the right spoken skill for that type of work. Is it not surprising that India has lost to Philippines? And the loosers are the young boys and girls with education up to class X or XII standard with good communicating ability in English from lower middle class, and not the established entrepreneurs who switched over the location or upgraded the work and the services of much higher value additions. But every one can’t pick up the high end BPO that requires higher education and better domain knowledge. Philippines became the biggest provider of voice-supported services as its BPO industry jumped 21 per cent to $10.9 billion. As reported in ‘Business Today’, ‘at pure voice operations, the Philippines, with $5.2 billion in revenues, has already become No. 1 in the world, pushing India, at $4.8 billion, into the second spot’. India must go for few policy decisions for creating industries that will provide jobs for the new generation that is getting into the market. Indian PSUs such as BHEL and BMEL, must grow much bigger outsourcing whatever can be done with the vendors. Defense production must encourage the private sector to enter and establish factories. Indian policy makers must realize the extent of national loss by opting for import rather for local manufacturing of the huge defence requirement. ISRO and other high tech establishments as well as the national research establishment such as CSIR and DRDO must help establishing manufacturing facilities in the country as a national mission and take the country forward in manufacturing of electronics. Let India not miss the bus this time. ]]> http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003060.php/feed/ http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003059.php http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003059.php#comments Thu, 05 Apr 2012 13:02:42 +0000 Indra http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003059.php McKinsey Quarterly stated, ‘India is moving quickly to capture its place on the world stage’. India has arrived and it is getting visible at all the international platforms of some consequences, India is still cost effective and labor intensive economy. It has its educated talented mass too. IT sector has established and upgraded itself to carry out all sorts value added outsourcing of work from developed countries. Even with competition and various other challenges, India continues to drive leadership in the global sourcing market with a 58 per cent share. Indian companies are building a hub of centres across 70 countries that create a seamless solution for the clients. Indian companies are also investing and providing employment in the developed countries. IT exports from India totalled about $69.7 billion during financial year 2011-12. India has also created a strong manufacturing and export oriented industrial framework. All global automobile makers worth name are having manufacturing facilities as well as product development centres. Some such as Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Ford and even Toyota along with trying to take the maximum advantage of the large domestic market are also making the country an export hub for at least some platforms of their cars. Indian manufacturers such Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra are busy in fulfilling their dreams of becoming a global company with acquisitions abroad and have developed world class products through their Indian and overseas R&D centres. In motor cycles, Hero and Bajaj are already among the top few in the world, while for tractors, Indians are the largest manufacturers. In heavy engineering industry too, L&T, Crompton Greaves, BHEL have earned their place. http://www.economywatch.com/indianeconomy/india-and-global-economy. The Tata Group is the largest manufacturing employer in the UK. Ireland’s richest person — Pallonji Mistry — is an Indian. Coal India is the single largest coal producer in the world. India is the largest whisky manufacturer in the world. Indian management has established itself globally by turning around the acquired companies such as Corus and JLR. While Ford failed, Tata Motors could make it profitable as jewel in its crown. Globally known brand names such as Citigroup, Pepsi and Motorola are associated with an Indian CEO. And in US, as per one estimate, over 50% of total patents filed for industrial innovations in the US have Indian brains behind them. Similar may be the number for new startup entrepreneurs in US. (I got reminded of the stories of persons such as Dr. Suhash Patil that I came across in ‘The Game Changers’.) Indian academicians have achieved distinctive place with many Business Schools of American universities having deans of Indian origin. Soumitra Dutta, the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University; Nitin Nohria, dean of the Harvard Business School; Sunil Kumar, dean of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business; Dipak C. Jain, the current dean of INSEAD ( French business school), was the dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management until 2010; Jaishankar Ganesh at the Rutgers School of Business-Camden and G. (Anand) Anandalingam at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Through frugal innovations that includes, Nano, the cheapest car in the world from Tata Motors; Aakash, the cheapest tablet PC in the world, priced at $46; and other cheap tablets; Chhotukool from Godrej Appliances provided a cooling solution, at nearly half the cost of an entry-level refrigerator. India today has earned respect for its designing talent. And that is the reason that companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, Intel, etc especially in IT that generates maximum value from innovation, rely on resources from India. It might have started with Texas Instruments and GE but today almost every globally established company has or is in the process of setting up its R&D centres on India. According to an estimate, the number of foreign R&Ds operating in India till December 2011 was about 900. With 100 companies of over a billion dollar market cap, India has established its position globally. Indian bankers have established themselves all around the world for efficient financial management. Indian banks have significantly less bad loans versus pretty high in China. Bangalore has more Grade-A offices than Singapore India is the largest diamond cutting and polishing centre in the world. India is the largest sugar consumer in the world. Parle-G is the world’s largest selling biscuit brand KEC is global leader in tower production capacity There is no dearth of IT entrepreneurs in India today. Infosys N R Narayana Murthy has become the icon of Indian IT industry and was recently selected as one of the 12 “greatest entrepreneurs of our time” according to a Fortune magazine list that was topped by Apple’s late chief Steve Jobs. But Indians are exploring many fields other than IT, ITeS or pharma sector. For example, Ram Karuturi, CEO of Karuturi Global, had already made his company the world's largest cut flower exporter. And Ram is not the only Indian looking to African countries for setting up farming enterprises with a huge potential to meet the India's shortage of edible oil and pulses. India is the largest exporter of rice this year and can do the same with sugar too. It will have 90 million tons of wheat this season. India feeds 17 per cent of the world population with barely 2.4 per cent of the arable area, 4.2 per cent water and 11 per cent livestock. A young farmer of Darveshpura village in Nalanda district has set a world record in potato production through organic farming. Few months ago, a group of farmers in the same village had created a "world record" producing 224 quintals of paddy per hectare. I get reminded of the time when India was dependent on foreign grains. And when it comes to compare India with China, I get reminded of the size of media. India has the largest number of newspapers/publications any country in the world has. There are over 72,000 publications currently registered with the Registrar of Newspapers of India. And over 700 TV channels have been permitted to uplink or downlink from the country; over half these claim to be 'news and current affairs' channels. The number of FM radio stations has zoomed and will go up further - from over 250 now to around 1,200 in the next five years. India is pushing ahead in its own unique way, perhaps, in spite of the mediocre political leadership. ]]> McKinsey Quarterly stated, ‘India is moving quickly to capture its place on the world stage’. India has arrived and it is getting visible at all the international platforms of some consequences, India is still cost effective and labor intensive economy. It has its educated talented mass too. IT sector has established and upgraded itself to carry out all sorts value added outsourcing of work from developed countries. Even with competition and various other challenges, India continues to drive leadership in the global sourcing market with a 58 per cent share. Indian companies are building a hub of centres across 70 countries that create a seamless solution for the clients. Indian companies are also investing and providing employment in the developed countries. IT exports from India totalled about $69.7 billion during financial year 2011-12. India has also created a strong manufacturing and export oriented industrial framework. All global automobile makers worth name are having manufacturing facilities as well as product development centres. Some such as Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Ford and even Toyota along with trying to take the maximum advantage of the large domestic market are also making the country an export hub for at least some platforms of their cars. Indian manufacturers such Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra are busy in fulfilling their dreams of becoming a global company with acquisitions abroad and have developed world class products through their Indian and overseas R&D centres. In motor cycles, Hero and Bajaj are already among the top few in the world, while for tractors, Indians are the largest manufacturers. In heavy engineering industry too, L&T, Crompton Greaves, BHEL have earned their place. http://www.economywatch.com/indianeconomy/india-and-global-economy. The Tata Group is the largest manufacturing employer in the UK. Ireland’s richest person — Pallonji Mistry — is an Indian. Coal India is the single largest coal producer in the world. India is the largest whisky manufacturer in the world. Indian management has established itself globally by turning around the acquired companies such as Corus and JLR. While Ford failed, Tata Motors could make it profitable as jewel in its crown. Globally known brand names such as Citigroup, Pepsi and Motorola are associated with an Indian CEO. And in US, as per one estimate, over 50% of total patents filed for industrial innovations in the US have Indian brains behind them. Similar may be the number for new startup entrepreneurs in US. (I got reminded of the stories of persons such as Dr. Suhash Patil that I came across in ‘The Game Changers’.) Indian academicians have achieved distinctive place with many Business Schools of American universities having deans of Indian origin. Soumitra Dutta, the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University; Nitin Nohria, dean of the Harvard Business School; Sunil Kumar, dean of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business; Dipak C. Jain, the current dean of INSEAD ( French business school), was the dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management until 2010; Jaishankar Ganesh at the Rutgers School of Business-Camden and G. (Anand) Anandalingam at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Through frugal innovations that includes, Nano, the cheapest car in the world from Tata Motors; Aakash, the cheapest tablet PC in the world, priced at $46; and other cheap tablets; Chhotukool from Godrej Appliances provided a cooling solution, at nearly half the cost of an entry-level refrigerator. India today has earned respect for its designing talent. And that is the reason that companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, Intel, etc especially in IT that generates maximum value from innovation, rely on resources from India. It might have started with Texas Instruments and GE but today almost every globally established company has or is in the process of setting up its R&D centres on India. According to an estimate, the number of foreign R&Ds operating in India till December 2011 was about 900. With 100 companies of over a billion dollar market cap, India has established its position globally. Indian bankers have established themselves all around the world for efficient financial management. Indian banks have significantly less bad loans versus pretty high in China. Bangalore has more Grade-A offices than Singapore India is the largest diamond cutting and polishing centre in the world. India is the largest sugar consumer in the world. Parle-G is the world’s largest selling biscuit brand KEC is global leader in tower production capacity There is no dearth of IT entrepreneurs in India today. Infosys N R Narayana Murthy has become the icon of Indian IT industry and was recently selected as one of the 12 “greatest entrepreneurs of our time” according to a Fortune magazine list that was topped by Apple’s late chief Steve Jobs. But Indians are exploring many fields other than IT, ITeS or pharma sector. For example, Ram Karuturi, CEO of Karuturi Global, had already made his company the world's largest cut flower exporter. And Ram is not the only Indian looking to African countries for setting up farming enterprises with a huge potential to meet the India's shortage of edible oil and pulses. India is the largest exporter of rice this year and can do the same with sugar too. It will have 90 million tons of wheat this season. India feeds 17 per cent of the world population with barely 2.4 per cent of the arable area, 4.2 per cent water and 11 per cent livestock. A young farmer of Darveshpura village in Nalanda district has set a world record in potato production through organic farming. Few months ago, a group of farmers in the same village had created a "world record" producing 224 quintals of paddy per hectare. I get reminded of the time when India was dependent on foreign grains. And when it comes to compare India with China, I get reminded of the size of media. India has the largest number of newspapers/publications any country in the world has. There are over 72,000 publications currently registered with the Registrar of Newspapers of India. And over 700 TV channels have been permitted to uplink or downlink from the country; over half these claim to be 'news and current affairs' channels. The number of FM radio stations has zoomed and will go up further - from over 250 now to around 1,200 in the next five years. India is pushing ahead in its own unique way, perhaps, in spite of the mediocre political leadership. ]]> http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003059.php/feed/ http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003038.php http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003038.php#comments Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:43:07 +0000 Indra http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003038.php While going through the profiles of 18 scientists of Indian origin in Forbes India who are changing the world, I got excited to find that many of them were engineers who completed their graduate courses in engineering in Indian colleges. And besides from the IITs, some were from less known institutes. Are these scientists anyway inferior in their achievement than those serving the unscrupulous financial enterprises of US and other developed nations. If the management supremacy was the only reason for US becoming so successful, what was behind the success of Japan, Korea and now China that didn’t have management studies as its priorities? A glimpse of the illustrious list of Indian scientists and mathematicians over the ages will certainly convince the younger generation that form the top of their respective institutes. Even those who were not that brilliant as them have found their ways to the developed nations and pursued higher education in their subjects of interest and reached the pinnacle. MIT’s Technology ‘TR 35’ list every year includes a number of Indians of Indian origins (View ‘MIT Technological Review’s Top 18 Indian Innovators Under 35’). If the young generation prefers to go to US and other developed nations with better educational facilities in the field of technologies and science, there is nothing wrong. Their achievements are excellent. The government is also rising to the occasion and coming out with many policy changes to encourage R&D. Proposal for creating 1,000 doctoral and 250 post-doctoral fellowships in reputed foreign universities with monetary support, Indian Innovation fund, The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, National policy on Electronics are some initiatives. Many world class research institutes such as Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, are getting set up. The remunerations are improving. May be very soon, the country will free the possibility of employing even good teachers and researchers from the developed countries. With a large number of R&D centres of MNCs in India, the prospects for the highly qualified are getting better and all that provides a lot of encouragement to the students in colleges to pursue higher and specialized qualifications. But the most important thrust must come in improving the quality of the grassroots education particularly in rural India that will provide the largest number and that is not participating as on today in the game of higher education. However, unfortunately the top management of the Indian industrial houses is still not contributing by collaborating with the educational institutes or by providing significantly higher remunerations to better qualified technocrats, scientists and mathematicians. ]]> While going through the profiles of 18 scientists of Indian origin in Forbes India who are changing the world, I got excited to find that many of them were engineers who completed their graduate courses in engineering in Indian colleges. And besides from the IITs, some were from less known institutes. Are these scientists anyway inferior in their achievement than those serving the unscrupulous financial enterprises of US and other developed nations. If the management supremacy was the only reason for US becoming so successful, what was behind the success of Japan, Korea and now China that didn’t have management studies as its priorities? A glimpse of the illustrious list of Indian scientists and mathematicians over the ages will certainly convince the younger generation that form the top of their respective institutes. Even those who were not that brilliant as them have found their ways to the developed nations and pursued higher education in their subjects of interest and reached the pinnacle. MIT’s Technology ‘TR 35’ list every year includes a number of Indians of Indian origins (View ‘MIT Technological Review’s Top 18 Indian Innovators Under 35’). If the young generation prefers to go to US and other developed nations with better educational facilities in the field of technologies and science, there is nothing wrong. Their achievements are excellent. The government is also rising to the occasion and coming out with many policy changes to encourage R&D. Proposal for creating 1,000 doctoral and 250 post-doctoral fellowships in reputed foreign universities with monetary support, Indian Innovation fund, The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, National policy on Electronics are some initiatives. Many world class research institutes such as Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, are getting set up. The remunerations are improving. May be very soon, the country will free the possibility of employing even good teachers and researchers from the developed countries. With a large number of R&D centres of MNCs in India, the prospects for the highly qualified are getting better and all that provides a lot of encouragement to the students in colleges to pursue higher and specialized qualifications. But the most important thrust must come in improving the quality of the grassroots education particularly in rural India that will provide the largest number and that is not participating as on today in the game of higher education. However, unfortunately the top management of the Indian industrial houses is still not contributing by collaborating with the educational institutes or by providing significantly higher remunerations to better qualified technocrats, scientists and mathematicians. ]]> http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003038.php/feed/ http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003037.php http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003037.php#comments Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:44:27 +0000 Indra http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003037.php Forbes India March2, 2012 issue, ‘Enough about Aryabhata’ may be a pleasant and inspiring reading to technocrats in India. It tells that cutting edge science is coming back to India. The issue also profiles and refers to many Indian scientists who with their pioneering works in their field are changing the world. Mriganka Sur, the neuroscientist has done pioneer work in revealing how the brain works. 1 Prof. Jayant Baliga working at GE developed the IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) “because of which the world has not had to build at least 600 hydroelectric dams of the size of the Hoover dam!”.2 Harry Bhadeshia who invented some of the best alloy steel including superbainite, the strongest low alloy steel ever produced that is more than six times stronger than conventional steel. 3 The eighteen scientists selected by a panel of Jury and profiled in the issue are as follows: The next three Chaitan Khosla developed a treatment for celiac sprue and also did globally significant work in biodiesel. Krishna Palem devised a new microchip that uses less energy and also developed solar powered notepad, iSlate. Rakesh Agrawal works on efficient and cheap energy production from renewable sources such as solar and biomass. Arvinda Chakravarti, a geneticist has provided insights into many diseases, including hypertension. Chennupati Jagadish’s work can make solar cells far more efficient through clever use of nanotechnology. Ajit Lalvani is working on TB prevention and has reported a radical new TB vaccine. Vivek Sharma is in the research for the Higgs boson that will make us understand the origin of the universe. Sangeeta Bhatia uses micro- and nano-technology to treat diseases like cancer. Veerabhadran Ramanathan wants Indian villagers to help fight pollution by using efficient stoves. Vamshi Mootha showed a correlation between reduced mitochondrial activity inside cell and type2 diabetes. Anil K Jain is one of the pioneers of biometrics. Rajiv Doshi developed a new class of therapy apnea. Prashant Kumta works in the field of energy and medicine, and also in gene therapy, developed a safe and efficient way to deliver genes to cells. . Rakesh K Jain is a pioneer in tumour biology and vivo imaging, and has shown that blood vessels can be exploited to improve cancer therapy. Ajay V. Bhatt was the lead architect responsible for one of the most ubiquitous technologies in the computing world: The USB. The list might not be the comprehensive. However, it gives a glimpse of the fields of scientific research being carried out by the Indians. Forbes India made me feel happy, when I was morose after reading a report: Anand Kumar of Super 30, Patna on a visit to China told The Hindu in an interview in Beijing, “In the coming 15 years, I believe that all Nobel Prize winners and Fields Medal winners will come from China.” There is a hope. I wish some of the Indian journals start reporting about the scientists and technocrats doing some wonderful jobs in many labs and institutions such as IITs, IISc, TIFR etc. The people of India must know about the innovators. And who knows some from among this lot may be the first to get a Nobel. I do also wish that the IIMs and other management schools discourage brilliant technocrats from taking their courses just for initial high salaries. ]]> Forbes India March2, 2012 issue, ‘Enough about Aryabhata’ may be a pleasant and inspiring reading to technocrats in India. It tells that cutting edge science is coming back to India. The issue also profiles and refers to many Indian scientists who with their pioneering works in their field are changing the world. Mriganka Sur, the neuroscientist has done pioneer work in revealing how the brain works. 1 Prof. Jayant Baliga working at GE developed the IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) “because of which the world has not had to build at least 600 hydroelectric dams of the size of the Hoover dam!”.2 Harry Bhadeshia who invented some of the best alloy steel including superbainite, the strongest low alloy steel ever produced that is more than six times stronger than conventional steel. 3 The eighteen scientists selected by a panel of Jury and profiled in the issue are as follows: The next three Chaitan Khosla developed a treatment for celiac sprue and also did globally significant work in biodiesel. Krishna Palem devised a new microchip that uses less energy and also developed solar powered notepad, iSlate. Rakesh Agrawal works on efficient and cheap energy production from renewable sources such as solar and biomass. Arvinda Chakravarti, a geneticist has provided insights into many diseases, including hypertension. Chennupati Jagadish’s work can make solar cells far more efficient through clever use of nanotechnology. Ajit Lalvani is working on TB prevention and has reported a radical new TB vaccine. Vivek Sharma is in the research for the Higgs boson that will make us understand the origin of the universe. Sangeeta Bhatia uses micro- and nano-technology to treat diseases like cancer. Veerabhadran Ramanathan wants Indian villagers to help fight pollution by using efficient stoves. Vamshi Mootha showed a correlation between reduced mitochondrial activity inside cell and type2 diabetes. Anil K Jain is one of the pioneers of biometrics. Rajiv Doshi developed a new class of therapy apnea. Prashant Kumta works in the field of energy and medicine, and also in gene therapy, developed a safe and efficient way to deliver genes to cells. . Rakesh K Jain is a pioneer in tumour biology and vivo imaging, and has shown that blood vessels can be exploited to improve cancer therapy. Ajay V. Bhatt was the lead architect responsible for one of the most ubiquitous technologies in the computing world: The USB. The list might not be the comprehensive. However, it gives a glimpse of the fields of scientific research being carried out by the Indians. Forbes India made me feel happy, when I was morose after reading a report: Anand Kumar of Super 30, Patna on a visit to China told The Hindu in an interview in Beijing, “In the coming 15 years, I believe that all Nobel Prize winners and Fields Medal winners will come from China.” There is a hope. I wish some of the Indian journals start reporting about the scientists and technocrats doing some wonderful jobs in many labs and institutions such as IITs, IISc, TIFR etc. The people of India must know about the innovators. And who knows some from among this lot may be the first to get a Nobel. I do also wish that the IIMs and other management schools discourage brilliant technocrats from taking their courses just for initial high salaries. ]]> http://drishtikona.com/archives/industrymanagement/003037.php/feed/