Tata Motors’ Nano Dream and Miserable Mamta – Some Afterthoughts

Posted on August 23, 2008 by indra

What Prakash Karat did to Man Mohan, Mamta is doing to Buddha. It was Indo-US Nuclear deal there, here it’s Buddha’s dream to revitalize West Bengal’s image as industry-friendly state with Tata Motors Rs 1600 crore ‘Nano’ manufacturing plant. In both cases, the nation’s interest remained the causality. Man Mohan Singh could manage the trust win with Amar’s tricks and formulae. Unfortunately, there is none to do that for Buddha. However, is there someone who can save the situation? Can Ratan Tata with his management skills and wonderfully attractive personality mesmerize Mamta? Only time can answer this question.

I am sure Tata Motors will come out with Nano from Singur itself. But then I am also sure Tata Motors must have a fallback strategy, though it denies. Very soon in future, Tata Motors can have another plant in perhaps Gujarat, Orissa or Tamil Nadu, this time near a port dedicated for export.

I shall like to go back to the downfall of Hindustan Motors near Singur. Though a poor management was the main cause, but the union played the role of a catalyst in accelerating the downfall.

It happened with many industrial establishments in West Bengal. Managers got gheraoed, and assaulted, investment stopped, and any productivity raising drive was opposed. Union leaders started running the show and the supervisors got demoralized. It was CPM then. It is Mamata’s Congress now. And this war is for supremacy between left and Mamata will be at the cost of the prosperity of the state and its people. Trinamul Congress has presented the first significant opposition to the 31-year leftist rule in West Bengal. But why should few wins in local elections make Mamata so mad, there are miles to go? She would have shown magnanimity and agreed for this plant keeping her options for future projects open.

While Tata threatens to withdraw, the Left Front staged a massive rally around the factory site in Singur. But Mamta is not ready to concede and is expected to go ahead with indefinite siege of the Plant. Buddha still hopeful about peaceful agitation.

How can with all these protests and agitations outside the boundary wall and a lurking fear of misbehaviour or assault, the employees of a new plant keep on working and solving the teething and complicated technical problems to productionize the manufacturing lines? Unfortunately, Mamta can’t understand that. In an ideal case for a country like India and a state like West Bengal, all the political parties would have ensured a congenial atmosphere and provided all assistances to the manufacturer to get the commissioning fast. Tata Motors is already late in putting Nanos in market. The auto lovers of world over are eagerly awaiting and so watching the development. Should it not be criminal offence against the nation and punishable too?

Let Mamata as well as Buddha understand clearly the damage has been done. Industrial houses will be hesitant hereafter to commit investment, even when Mamata occupies the CM’s chair. Tata Motors will never dream to have any expansion in Singur plant and will set up another plant in better location and surely in other state. One can only be sorry for such a state of madness.
 And who will be looser? Only the people of West Bengal. Is Ratan repenting today about his decision that he took with all good and honest intention to pull up West Bengal.

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Mamta Mercy and Nano

Posted on August 22, 2008 by indra

Tata Motors’ ‘Nano’ has suddenly and certainly put Indians’ innovation capability at higher platform along with the best in world. Many articles by western economists in media and their presentations at International conferences refer to ‘Nano’ as symbol of this emerging economy that many perceive as a prospective superpower. CK Prahalad is certainly one of those dreamers. Nano is very much a product for the bottom of the pyramid. Many think Nano can bring about a revolutionary change in manufacturing sector in a globe starving with fuel crisis. There are others too.

Karl Ulrich is Wharton professor of operations and information management and Kevin Dehoff, a partner at Booz & Company. One interview with strategy+ business on ‘High- leverage Innovation-Lessons from the Auto industry’, went on as follows:

Strategy+business: One of the things that we are seeing from Tata, in particular, is innovation at the bottom of the pyramid, if you will, stripping a car to its very basics. That is cost-in-manufacturing innovation.

Ulrich– I think that the Tata vehicle is going to be fascinating to watch because I think there will be Americans who will say, “Why can’t I have a $2,000 car?” And it will force us to really confront what is the minimal requirement on personal transportation. When the vehicle starts to approach the price of a nice mountain bike, you start to say, “Maybe I don’t need a 6,000-pound vehicle with a global positioning system in it to get to the grocery store.” So I think that innovations in the developing markets will actually have some repercussions in the Western and mainstream markets.

Strategy+business: It would be interesting to see how and if Toyota responds to Tata.

Dehoff: I think that that’s a challenge for Toyota in terms of how they take that successful product development model that I mentioned and globalize it. Right now it’s a very successful model; it’s largely a centralized model that works out of Tokyo. I believe that one of their challenges going forward is how do we replicate that model around the world.

Knowledge@Wharton: Karl, going back to your point about American consumers reacting to the [Tata] Nano. What roles do users or customers play in automotive innovation, and is the role growing?
Ulrich: Well it is interesting because users often can play many different roles. In some industries they can be innovators themselves.


It’s certainly a compliment to India’s innovative might.

Tata Motors is readying to start trial production of the Nano in Singur, famous by now in India and abroad less for the location of the manufacturing plant of Nano and more for the Mamata-led agitations against the acquisitions of the fertile agriculture land of petty farmers ffor Tata Motors plant. It may starts from September 1. The suppliers of auto parts are eagerly looking for the potentially huge business. And millions of customers including women, students and even farmers are waiting to see the little machines all around them. But an element of uncertainty hangs over because of the Mamata’s Trinamul Congress threatening to go ahead with an indefinite siege of the site from August 24. Can’t Ma (Mata) show her mamata (motherly kindness to Tata Motors dreams and the country’s pride? Why can’t Mamta Didi appreciate the prosperity of the region that the plant can bring about in the region? Why is so obstinate? Does she wish Tata to come to her and beg for it?

Let Mamta ask for all that she wishes to provide to the farmers or affected ones as compensation, but not create a situation that emanates a poor image of the state to the local as well as foreign investors. Let the Leftists only take the credit of hijacking prosperity of the state, as I am sure West Bengal unionism will not give up its traditional way of working for making every one poor.

—Latest
‘Worried’, Tata flashes Singur alert

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Car Engine Undergoes Innovational Transformation

Posted on August 20, 2008 by indra

To keep the global warming under check and for making the cars fuel-efficient and green, perhaps the maximum contribution can come through innovations in power train or engine. Engine being mechanical unit with many parts with combustion chambers as the nerve centers, a combination of mechanical features, close tolerances, surface finishes, and better materials can make the difference. However, the use of electronics and computerized control can further improve the fuel efficiency as well as emission.

On one hand the trend seems to turn to electric or hybrid cars with some trying to convert the hybrid with plug-in capability. However, the innovation works in old technologies are also fighting back. So new hybrid systems, fuel cells and electric motors will be chasing a moving target. The internal combustion engine will be getting better too. Some recent improvements are as follows:

1.Supercharger forces more air into the combustion chambers of engine. A new dual-speed supercharger provides its highest boost at low speeds, and thus gives the car a huge 40% increase in torque, or pulling power. The supercharger developed by Antonov Automotive Technologies, a British company, is purely mechanical and uses planetary gears to change speed. As claimed, it could be used to reduce the size of a car’s engine by up to 50%-so it would use less fuel and produce fewer CO2 emissions, but still provide good performance.

2.Fuel injectors can metre fuel more precisely than carburettors, and variable-valve control can optimise the opening and closing of inlet and exhaust valves to produce more power when accelerating or greater economy when dawdling around town. The same systems are also used in some big and thirsty engines to shut down a few cylinders when driving slowly.

3.The e-Valve system is new development made by Valeo, a French automotive supplier. It uses electromagnetic controls to open and shut valves instead of pushrods operated by a camshaft. As each valve can be operated independent of any other, all sorts of tricks become possible, including shutting down cylinders and switching temporarily from the traditional four-stroke Otto cycle (as developed by Nicolaus Otto, a German engineer in 1876) to a type of Atkinson cycle (an ultra-lean system invented as a rival in 1882 by James Atkinson, a British engineer, but which suffered from a lack of power). As Valeo reckons, on average their e-Valve system can cut fuel consumption and CO2 emissions in a car by up to 20%. It could also be used to make three- and two-cylinder engines that run efficiently and smoothly.

4.Fiat’s new valve-control system, Multiair, uses hydraulics and electronics to optimise valve settings. When combined with a turbocharger (a supercharger driven by exhaust gases). The system can produce a “downsized” two-cylinder engine that can perform like a bigger four-cylinder one, but with fuel savings of some 20%.

5.Daimler’s DiesOtto engine will use a combination of variable valve-control, fuel injection and turbocharging. It can switch between operating as a petrol engine, with agility and power, to operating as a diesel, with economy and torque. The DiesOtto engine starts as a petrol engine with spark plugs igniting the mixture of fuel and air in its cylinders, and remains as a petrol engine when high performance is needed. But at low and medium speeds the engine switches into diesel mode, in which the fuel is ignited by compression and heat alone. A 1.8-litre four-cylinder test version of DiesOtto fitted to a prototype Mercedes S-class saloon produced plenty of power, but also returned an average fuel consumption of 5.3 litres per 100km (equivalent in America to 44.4mpg)-extremely good for a such a big car. The vehicle’s emissions were also lower.

6.Ricardo, another British automotive-engineering company has been working on an engine that can switch from four-stroke to two-stroke running. Two-stroke engines can provide very high levels of torque. Ricardo reckons such an engine could not only improve fuel economy by 27% over a traditional engine but also greatly reduce its size and complexity. And because small engines take up less space in a car, that means there will be more room for occupants, inviting more innovative designs.

By putting all these technologies together, small cars capable of breaking the 100mpg barrier will become possible. Getting more than 80mpg from some small diesel-powered cars is already feasible-with a very light foot on the accelerator. Hybrid cars as available today are still pretty costly. The internal combustion engine remains hot for innovations. Even Indian auto engineers and the research institutions must focus their work on it and help in developing the technologies to improve the performance of the engine.

Two developments indicate the direction in which the car developments wish to move. A new company Tesla Motors is building high performance electric cars. And a huge prize money in Automotive X Prize aims at driving the innovations in auto industry.

It is really exhilarating to know that ISRO is leveraging its expertise in cryogenic technology to design hydrogen fuel cells to store hydrogen, and has teamed with Tata Motors to develop a prototype of a hydrogen passenger car to be launched in the Indian market later this year. Can the synergies of technical knowledge with all the research institutions in the country produce a commercial viable solution for use of hydrogen fuel cells? Can India take a lead in making a breakthrough innovation to find alternative solution to fossil fuels that is causing so much of concern worldwide?

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Bihar- what is there to write?

Posted on August 19, 2008 by indra

After revealing all my dreams of a developed Bihar for so many years now, I feel lost and morose. With the tenure of Nitish slipping fast, I try to solace me with a question to me. Why did I think that he would be different? Now I realize my mistake. He couldn’t be, as he doesn’t have a single person in the ministry with an all India image. How can we expect someone to perform a good job if he doesn’t know what his job demands?

I don’t say Nitish didn’t try or is not honest to his work. But his successes are hardly significant for a state, which has remained at the bottom of the states in the country. He has, perhaps, hardly touched the peripheries of the problems pending due to decades of misrules in Bihar. I wish he could move fast on land reforms.

Bihar recently got an accolade of appreciation from no less a person than Sonia Gandhi for its success in installing user-friendly RTI model. Nitish jumped in sky with it. However, his own DM could put one man into prison for asking some embarrassing information, and another information seeker was asked to pay Rs 6 lakh for documentation cost.

Bihar has got few institutes of excellence such an extension of BIT, Chanakya Law University, Chadragupta Institute of Management, IIT and Institute of Fashion Design all in Patna. Perhaps very soon Nalanda University will start operating. All these institutes will certainly change the image of Bihar. However, it will not help the students of Bihar very much. Where are the professional colleges, ITIs and polytechnics that are required in hundreds to take care of the population of the students in Bihar? Look at Andhra Pradesh that I knew as laggard during our IIT’s days. It has now 685 engineering colleges. Why can’t the state look into the reasons that don’t attract any investor to come in Bihar, when other states even Orissa are getting hundreds of private engineering colleges? Can one imagine total drainage of the state’s money going to other states where most of the boys and girls are going for their engineering and other professional education? Why are these institutes mushrooming in other states but not in Bihar?

The whole country is buzzing with activities in SEZs and manufacturing clusters, in construction for hospitality sector, retail and tourism. However, the technocrat CM and his party head outright rejected the concept that has been universally accepted by all states. Are they the only socialists or the messiah of the farming community of Bihar? Sugar industry and food processing could turnaround the economy of some region. However, new entrepreneurs are still shy of coming in Bihar. Perhaps, because of a system called ‘rangdari’ or poor work culture of the people.

Railways projects at Chhapra and Madhepura, if executed properly, could propel Bihar as a significant player in manufacturing sector because of the vendors that it may breed. But it is getting delayed because of the who-takes-credit tussle of Lalu and Nitish. And who knows after the next election, if Lalu remains to pursue the project?

NREG Scheme could have helped Bihar significantly but for the corruption. Bihar wanted to make the workings of the scheme more transparent by e-enabling it. However, it has got stuck with certain confusion. While the Bharat Nirman is electrifying all the rural habitants in the country, Bihar’s performance is dismal because of the bitter fights between the ministers in Delhi and that in Patna.

What does news such as ‘Bihar clears investment proposals worth Rs 71,289 crore‘ say, when nothing is visible on the ground?

I wish the people of Bihar find a way out through praying the Gods, but as judiciary proclaims even Gods can’t bring about the desired change.

Why are the people so helpless?

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Professors Entrepreneurs

Posted on August 18, 2008 by indra

During my school days, my grandfather used to talk about Dr. PC Roy and his Bengal Chemicals. Prafulla Chandra Roy was perhaps one of the first professors in India who was also a successful entrepreneur. I don’t know why many did not emulate his examples. Perhaps, it was because India was not free. Somehow professors consider themselves great by saying they don’t worship the Goddess of wealth. Another reason might be the investment needed rather lack of funding for all these years even for good ideas. One had to be from a rich family to start a business.

While I was n USA in 2005, I came across a story of a reputed scientist who had established one of the largest commercial research laboratories in US. It is immensely interesting that Dr RA Mashlekar, the former Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), in his article, ‘The art of being World- Class‘ in Business Outlook’s Independence special with ‘India- Making of a Superpower’ as main theme refers to two professors who are also two of the greatest living scientists-cum-successful entrepreneurs: Professor George Whitesides from Harvard University and Professor Robert Langer from MIT.

Whitesides is the highest-cited living scientist in the world today. He has scaled the highest peaks of excellence in fundamental scientific research. At the same time, he has floated companies based on his research, whose combined market capitalization is about $20 billion. Langer from MIT has over 700 scientific research papers and over 400 patents. His pioneering research has earned him the Fellowships of the US national science, engineering and medical science academies-the only individual to achieve this feat. He too has floated a number of companies. He recently won the 2008 Millennium Technology Prize, considered the Nobel Prize in technology.

What is so special about Whitesides and Langer? Both Whitesides and Langer have done great science; have created great applications, which, in turn, have created great jobs and wealth for their country. In India, we seem to treat Saraswati and Lakshmi differently. We need to learn to see the route to Lakshmi through Saraswati. Academics from research-led universities lay the foundation of this route.

MIT has been a pioneer in commercialization of scientific innovation. ‘One laptop for every child’ is a product coming out of MIT, and there are many. Interestingly, I came across another story of an Indian couple who have helped creating a new MIT organization designed to aid engineering faculty entrepreneurs: The Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation. ‘A $20 million gift from Jaishree and Desh Deshpande launched the center in 2002. Desh Deshpande, who is a member of the MIT Corporation, is revered in New England’s high-tech circles as a cofounder of Sycamore Networks and Cascade Communications, two of the most successful telecom startup companies ever. By funding the center, Deshpande found a way to connect his affinity for spurring technology to market with MIT’s wellspring of innovation. Deshpande hopes that the center’s support will help MIT faculty and researchers address the growing “innovation gap” by moving more technology to market.’

As reported, in a move that would transform knowledge professionals into entrepreneurs, the Indian government plans to allow professors and research scholars to set up commercial entities while being employed in academic institutes. Academics will also be allowed to invest their knowledge and skills to pick up equity stakes in companies. For instance, a scholar may offer his skills and knowledge to a company to pick up equity in it.

I used to visit IIT-Kharagpur till Rakesh, my eledest son was there. A number of times, I went into dialogue with the professors in Mechanical Engineering Department requesting them to interact with industry more closely and make the problems of the industry their subjects of research and innovations. Some how I found them indifferent. They were happy with their computer generated long mathematically loaded papers. I may not know about many professors who have helped product development. As I write this paper I remember only of two professors- Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT- Madras and Anil Gupta of IIM-Ahmedabad who are helping commercialization of the innovations.

Why can’t the professors research, innovate and commercialize some products that can create employment and also wealth for them as well for the country? With many products and services in area of technologies not demanding huge investment and presence of many venture capitalists available for funding good ideas, many professors could have joined the bandwagon of entrepreneurs. At least they could have headed institutes of excellence in education sector as doctors such as Devi Shetty are doing. It is unfortunate that the entrepreneurs behind most of the country’s private engineering colleges are hardly from education background. However, I can’t forget at least one enthusiast friend, Dr. Kailash Narayan Singh and his rice mill in Kichha. Kailash after almost whole life in education endeavoured for that entrepreneurship. It may not be a great business, but the zeal requires recognition.

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Engineering Education: Some Questions

Posted on August 16, 2008 by indra

Man Mohan Singh in his Independence Day speech today from the rampart of Red Fort said, “We are establishing 6,000 new high quality model schools, with at least one school in each block. 373 new colleges are being opened in backward districts. We are opening 30 new universities, 8 new IITs, 7 new IIMs, 20 new IIITs, 5 new Indian Institutes of Science, 2 Schools of Planning and Architecture, 10 NITs, and 1,000 new polytechnics. I have called the 11th Five Year Plan our “National Education Plan”.

PM had announced the plan in last year’s speech too. Further, this wish list is not comprehensive. Why did he forget AIIMSs promised? Perhaps, India requires 5,000 polytechnics and a large number of medical professionals such as nurses and technicians.

India requires many more institutes in specialized areas of knowledge. But few questions as usual trouble me.

Why couldn’t Pandit Nehru devoted first few- two or more of his Five Year Plans just for educating India instead of getting into so many areas from penicillin to aircraft manufacturing simultaneously?

Why couldn’t some of the established institutes of technologies such as Bengal Engineering College, Jadavpur College of Engineering, Roorkee Engineering College, and some more such as BHU- Institute of technology, grow to global standard set by the institutes in US?

Why is the brand IIT is stretched beyond limits with so many proposed IITs to make it loose its achievements?

Why are at least over 150,000 of India’s brighter students moving to foreign countries from US, UK, Australia, and even China and are spending $3.5-5 billion in foreign institutions of higher learning every year?

Why couldn’t even some of the IITs become Stanford, Harvard, MIT, or Berkley?

Why couldn’t Delhi School of economics grow to London School of Economic level?

Why is there so much of disparity between different states in number of engineering colleges? According one such list, while Maharashtra is having 558, Tamil Nadu 525, Karnataka 485, and Andhra Pradesh 431, Uttar Pradesh has 241, Orissa 132, and Bihar only 50?

As I understand, there are 1,200 engineering colleges in private sector with total student capacity of 1,440,000 and revenue of Rs 234,000 million. And by 2012, some 800 more engineering colleges will be added. How will the quality of the education be ensured? Will it be left to market to decide?

And still the industries in India are finding it difficult to get employable engineers.

Should these questions not be debated and answered to arrive at a what-to-do plan?

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Blog, Bachchan, and Bachhe

Posted on August 16, 2008 by indra

>Any blogger must be craving for a lot of readership. As I keep on writing on varying subjects of my interests, I dobn’t expect many. And again many a times, my viewpoints are pretty harsh and caustic that many may not like. However, I always expect that those who like my views will try to pass on to their friends and then the cycle repeats. Thereby, a group of people of similar views may get established and grow.

Stories that are personal certainly will have only few to read. But I expect my dear ones to at least look into my blog to keep on updating about my mental direction or also to get some glimpses from my life.

As it appears there is at least one person who goes through my blog religiously. She is Shannon, my youngest daughter-in-law. I know it must be pretty difficult for her these days to find time, but perhaps that is her uniqueness. I get a heavenly pleasure when she asks or gets asked a question from inside the body of the entries.

I got a little sentimental when I went through in media about the concern of Abhishek Bachchan about his father’s blog.

What really gets him hassled is his father not writing his blog regularly. One Mandvi Sharma of Times News Network reported this story:

There is something that gets AB’s baby (Abhishek) upset – “when dad doesn’t write his blog,” Abhishek exclaims. “I want to wake up in the morning and log on to the blog. Just his talent for writing makes the blog an everyday part of my life. He is my father, so I know these things about him, but I love the way he writes. Even as a kid, he would teach me how to write essays and letters. For fans to get to know the workings of his mind, and that it’s been put across in writing, is wonderful.”

Shannon gets worried when she doesn’t find my entry, as I keep on writing something almost every day. Once she asked Anand to find out if it was all well with me here in India when she didn’t find my entries for few days. Anand replied, “Dad and mom must have quarreled so is the miss.” Shannon said, “No, when papa and mummy fights, papa puts in more entries.” Perhaps she had understood my mind better. When they narrated the story, both of us, myself and Yamuna laughed and got touched.

With so many whom you knew or know, hardly few try to understand you rightly. It’s difficult world and more difficult is the relationships. Words don’t express what one wishes to convey.

I am not a busy man. Big B is. Big B must have hundred and one reasons for not keeping the discipline of putting an entry in regularly. But I have none.

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Indra@69

Posted on August 14, 2008 by indra

God has been very kind to me. He has bestowed on me what was the best for me. What more I would have got: a supporting wife,three lovable sons, beautiful daughters-in-laws, and cute grand daughters and grand sons living near around each other sharing love and affections with each other in the best part of their dream country. And how can I forget the presence of some of those who love me and keep remembering me. And I am sure He will keep his kindness rain on me, and all around me till end.

And I pray ‘Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah, Sarve Santu Niraamayaah (May all be happy; May all be healthy) and let Him take me from ‘Tamso maa jyotirgamaya’ (from darkness to Light).

I do also remember, salute and pray on this day my grandfather who made me what I am.

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Ma.. Maya.. Maya Devi or Maya Memshahib: Carpet Bombing for PM Chair

Posted on August 14, 2008 by indra

It is nothing new. Since good old days, some elites, mostly of higher caste have made king out of commoner. As history tells, an enraged Brahmin Chanakya made the son of a low caste woman the first emperor of India in Patliputra.

And today again some are working with a missionary zeal to push Mayawati to the highest position of the country. There is nothing wrong in that, particularly in democracy. But can we evaluate Mayawati by the work done when she was the chief minister of the largest state of the country at least four times? I wish Mayawati had at least done some real grassroots level work to improve the education and skill levels of the downtrodden class too instead of just raising statues of Kansiram and making all members of her clan millionaires through her benevolence. Can she openly declare wherever she goes that all the children in the age group of 6-14 years in SC, and ST must attend school, and she will finance them till they keep on studying?

Last month’s trust vote benefited Mayawati the most. The egoist Karat with all his inferiority complex couldn’t debate and discuss the pros and cons with highly mature Man Mohan. Instead Karat with other leftists rushed to seek Mayawati on his side to defeat Man Mohan on a wrong issue. Mayawati and her sycophant lieutenants started working overtime to push her to the ultimate height. Unfortunately, by some fair and fowl means, Man Mohan won and the dream dashed.

Why is Mayawati in so much hurry? If the politics of India do not undergo some drastic restructuring, she will automatically get what she wants. Unfortunately, none of the national political parties have any charismatic leader who can hit at the core of the people’s heart and impress upon that they must make the national parties strong enough so that when in government it can take some necessary reforms to take the country ahead instead of wasting time in managing many odd allied parties headed by whimsical persons.

Advani is still not acceptable to Muslims neither to many Hindus too. Sonia’s charm is fading. Rahul is still to learn the tricks and prove. In such circumstances, Mayawati is working hard to reach her goal faster. With sarbajan she is trying to break her casteist image. Mishra, Akhilesh and now Natwar are trying to make her image transformed and acceptable to all social groups. According her enemies, Mayawati is interested in the projects such as Taj and Ganga Expressways that she can milk well. And she manipulated to choose the contractor of her choice such as JP Group. She is no more Manuwadi and aims to bring all caste Hindus in her fold. She is now kind to Krishna and has allotted Rs 250 crore to development of Mathura and Vrindavan. I wish one day she does something for Varanasi too.

Mayawati is also charming some media biggies to build her case. Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar writes, ‘The world will love Mayawati as PM‘. Prabhu Chawla has brought her on cover page of India Today and wrote the story, ‘Can She Rule India?‘

I don’t know what must be the ingredient of a prime minister? Is honesty and integrity essential or necessary? Should India go for a prime minister of Man Mohan Singh caliber who becomes victim of ultimate obedience or should India try Mayawati if she picks up the job properly and does justice by default? After all, if the country can tolerate Dev Gowda as Prime minister, why can’t it bear with Mayawati?

How does it matter if she is one with assets worth Rs 52 crores or multiple of it, all accumulated in four years, and the highest income tax payer among the politicians and that too out of the money her so-called bhaktas have donated? Will it make the politicians bolder to declare higher assets in affidavits for the next election? Will it lead to legislation by those who rule for themselves and by themselves to make them out of the reach of the judiciary?

Mayawati may be arrogant, crude, and even abusive, besides being corrupt. But who is not? Voters who matter have come from a social system where ‘uppari aamdani’ is respected and adored. She may hardly believe in internal democracy in party. But still she commands unparallel respect among her men and she will keep on getting it with a majority of deprived India. Mayawati is ambitious to the extreme. If Mulayam can build his hometown, why should Mayawati not do it better? I wish she could accommodate some great brains of India in her durbar, and they will love to do that. However, I don’t think she is comfortable with established celebrities and prefers sycophants as other politician community as whole does. Interestingly, she has now selected a successor too who is eighteen years younger to her in age.(“The name will be disclosed only when I am dead”.) But why’s that?

As Prabhu Chawla opines ‘with diminishing clout of the national parties, Mayawati may be a natural winner.’

I don’t know if I shall be able to see her ultimate rise (or political death).

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The Bunty Syndrome and Dhoni Effect

Posted on August 12, 2008 by indra

>

Top Moradabad Hotel and Bottom inside of Ludhiana resort

Have you heard of it? If you are pursuing ‘marketing’ as major subject for your MBA, or if you are in marketing job and wish to be heard by your peers and go fast ahead, you must know about it.

Last year I had been to Ludhiana and Moradabad. In Ludhiana, I stayed for the night with a family and my host took me to a restaurant. So far Moradabad is concerned we just passed through it and took our lunch in a hotel almost right on the road. Whatever, I saw in both places, I just couldn’t believe Bharat has gone so far and fast ahead. I can appreciate both the Bunty Syndrome and Dhoni Effect better. Perhaps the propounder of the syndrome and effect assume that all Indian households are familiar with both the names. For just refreshing those who may still get confused, let me remind that Bunty was the hero of the famous movie ‘Bunty and Bubli’ and Dhoni is the cricketer who has become icon of youngsters. Both came from small or tier II towns. “Bunty and Babli are popular names for boys and girls in small-town India.” Interestingly, my cousin Nirmal named younger son and daughter as Bunty and Bubli 15-16 years ago. Knowledge Wharton came out recently with this interesting paper.

Two related studies are: “The Bunty Syndrome,” by advertising agency Euro RSCG India in October 2007, and “The Dhoni Effect: Rise of Small Town India,” by Ernst & Young in March 2008.

According to the 2008 edition of the RK Swamy BBDO Guide to Market Planning, 51 districts in India have at least one town with a population of more than 500,000. Together, they have twice the market potential of the four metros (Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata) combined.

According to a study by the Future Group, the Indian retailer, and the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), the ratio of spending to earning is higher in Tier II towns such as Nagpur, Jaipur, Surat and Coimbatore than it is in the metros. An earlier NCAER study, in 2004, had shown a higher percentage of the rich in Middle India than in some metros. For instance, the North Indian state of Haryana had a small-town crorepati density of 280. (Crorepati density is defined as the number of families who annually earn more than Rs1 crore — about $250,000 — per 1 million people.) The relative numbers for Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai were 180, 191 and 291, respectively.

The Bunty Syndrome study provides examples of how companies are adapting to the needs and demands of Middle India.

·Grasim, a brand of suits, through the message of “be self-made,” has saluted the “We’ll get there no matter what” spirit of the youth. The message is enhanced by the use of a celebrity (the actor Akshay Kumar) who has made a name for himself on his own in a field where relatives already in the profession are seen as a prerequisite for creating equity in the industry.

·Idea, a mobile-services brand, has propagated caste equality, while Tata Tea has tried to appeal to the young in Tier II cities with a call to “wake up to the issues.”

·Durables brand Voltas has challenged the monopoly of Korean brands in the air-conditioner space by projecting itself as “India’s own AC.”

·The concept of being able to give back to parents has been used to good effect by MasterCard and HDFC Bank.

The Dhoni Effect identifies a phenomenon where rapidly growing small towns of India are taking center stage.

Spending power moved from downtown Mumbai’s Marine Lines to the distant suburb of Malad many years ago. Now it is going further, to Madurai and Moradabad. And demands are different. One example: In the last few years, the male skin whitening category, which didn’t even exist a decade ago, has grown 150% annually to $100 million. Most of this growth has come from Middle India.

Of the 80 million households that constitute the Indian middle class, only 25 million are in Tier I cities. Close to 55 million belong to the smaller towns. Mercedes sells more cars in small-town Ludhiana than it does in Mumbai.

For products such as Vim Bar dishwashing detergent and Head & Shoulders shampoo, the Indian market easily absorbed price hikes of 13% and 18%, respectively, in 2007. Yet for years, candy manufacturers have been trying in vain to increase prices from 50p to Re 1. Value sensitivity, not price sensitivity, is the buzzword. And look at the Titan’s experience.

Last year Titan had a high-priced collection called Raga Crystals as part of its sub-brand Raga, which is aimed at women. This collection, which was studded with Swarovski crystals, was priced at around $200 at the top end of the range. We estimated a certain amount of sales, most of it from the metros. But when we actually introduced the product, we found that it was selling right down to smaller towns. “While the realities of the Middle India consumer may be different from the urban or metro consumer, his expectations and aspirations are the same,”

Is not India leapfrogging ahead?