l Unpaid Provident Fund dues of jute mill workers amounted to Rs 5 crore in 1977. They had shot up to more than Rs 200 crore by 2000, when Jyoti Basu handed over the baton to Buddhadeb Bhattacharya (a sobering history lesson for those who think Basu was busy creating a paradise for workers and the proletariat in West Bengal).

l The worst social development indicators and the worst representation in government jobs for Muslims happens to be in the ‘fanatically’ secular West Bengal (Another deliciously ironical historical nugget here. The devoted Marxist Nurul Islam died in police firing in 1976 during a food agitation. His death played a key role in Marxists coming to power in the state in 1977. His family was subsequently abandoned by the comrades and the brothers of Nurul Islam now actively work with Trinamool Congress!).

At least 13 out of the 18 major districts of West Bengal come in the category of the 100 poorest districts of India.

Not a single medical college was set up during the reign of Jyoti Basu.

Police firings on workers, tribals and farmers were routine during the regime. About 20 enquiry commissions were set up. Only one submitted a report whose recommendations were never implemented.

There is much more that can be proffered as evidence. But we know even voluminous tomes on the misdeeds of the regime will not sway the ideologically blinkered who are convinced that dogma is morally superior to facts. Yet, it is very important to set the record straight. There is no doubt that future historians will marvel at the naiveté of the nostalgic outpourings after the death of Basu when they contrast this with his actual track record. But such nostalgic naiveté can prompt India to make the kind of mistakes that Jyoti Basu and his fellow comrades, willfully or unknowingly, committed in their quest for Red glory. Quite simply, in this 21st century world of rapidly changing dynamics, India simply cannot help but renounce, abjure, condemn and castigate the legacy left behind by Basu and his Red warriors.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Politicians would have been the least expected to have mba qualifications

P. D. Rai, Member of Parliament from Sikkim, agrees that his knowledge helps him to do better planning with the funding he gets for performing activities in his constituency. “MBA is a capability qualification and so it can be said that analysis of issues would be done perhaps differently. An MBA is a professional degree and the attainment of professional outcome and values will certainly impact my own Parliament work and indeed in my political work. The domain is different but the principles of how to manage political issues versus say business issues do not change. In my own Parliamentary constituency, Sikkim, over the last 17 years, I have painstakingly built my political career and have balanced it with my professional work. This has been possible because of my educational qualifications.”

This is not to say that an MBA is essential in politics – in fact, it is not at all. For example, Rahul Gandhi, who formally joined politics in 2004 and has emerged within five years as a key strategist for the party, is not an MBA. But then, he too has worked as a consultant for a few years with management guru Michael Porter’s Monitor Group.

An MBA is becoming a more popular degree among current politicians in the US as well, especially experts in finance or management analysis. The most powerful woman in corporate America, Carly Fiorina, who once headed HP, plans to run for the US senate. She says that government spending is “out of control” and she may be able to make things better. Anne Mulcahy, Chairman Xerox, is a member of Obama’s Transition Economic Advisory Board. But popularity aside, from Manmohan Singh to Obama, it’s quite an accepted fact that qualifications in law, finance and related sciences beat management education hands down when it comes to the political circles. But then again, we have Chidambaram who not many know is an MBA graduate from one of the world’s topmost ivy league institutions, the Harvard Business School. Clearly, maybe one day, we could well have a Prime Minister who’s an MBA.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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“Like pharma, the pesticides sector is also changing very quickly...”

Salil Singhal, CMD, PI Industries Ltd. on the challenges of the pesticides sector

Having been associated with agriculture since 1967, Salil Singhal, CMD, PI Industries has a lot to talk about in a free flowing interview with Niharika Patra

B&E: What actually is the flaw with Indian agriculture?

Salil Singhal (SS): The input side of agriculture has issues. For example, if you compare the production to pesticides usage, India has a total cropped area of around 167 million hectares while the US has around 172 million hectares. In pesticides consumption, US figure is around $7 billion while for India it is $1.2 billion. Because of poor use of pesticides we are loosing crop to the tune of $20 billion per annum. The cost benefit ratio in agriculture is very high to the tune of Rs. 19 per Re.1 employed for some crops, and if you compare the $ 22 billion in fertilizer subsidies, we have grown the crops for the pests to eat it away. There are many other problems like procedures of introducing new seeds, the distribution of subsidies et al. There seems to be little focus.

B&E: How do you compare the era of 60’s and present. Do you think there has been any kind of deterioration?

SS: No. Undoubtedly, the Green Revolution gave us a lot. Today, even without favourable conditions we can produce 210-230 million tonnes of foodgrains. But looking at the changing food habits, what we have is not enough to satisfy this ever changing need. We have to double our food grain output and agricultural output resource to be able to do that. But we are not geared for that right now and agriculture needs structural changes.

B&E: What is the focus of the pesticide industry in relation to the productivity of the crop?

SS: Cost benefit is a very important input. The second important input is quality output. Organic farming doesn’t work for quality. Petsicides can give quality with high productivity and that is our focus.

B&E: There is a lot of hue and cry about the excessive use of chemicals. What are your views?

SS: Pesticides usage has come up very recently while the fertilizers have been used for a long time. Today, we understand that there is a problem and we have identified it and it needs to be resolved.

B&E: Does pesticide industry face challenge from the genetically modified (GM) crops?

SS: Yes. The problem is that the science of pesticides is changing phenomenally. The whole science and technology of agri-chemicals has changed. Like pharma, the pesticides industry keeps changing quickly but that is not there in GM crops. The cost of new discovery is very high ($600-800 million and atleast 8-10 years to commercialise it). Then there are the regulations. Until 2005 companies were allowed ‘me-too’ registrations. This is where India has been the biggest looser The ‘me-too’ registration has nearly destroyed the Indian pesticide industry. We also have the most in-efficient and corrupt regulatory mechanism.

B&E: How do you see the growth by the Chinese market and its effects on India?

SS: There is a lot of illegal import by the fly-by-night operators from China. There are certain groups within the industry who are trying to bring in the Chinese agenda of reverse engineering.

B&E: How well suited are Indian pesticides companies for M&As. What about PI Industries.

SS: I have not seen many foreign companies taking up Indian companies. It would be too early to comment on this. We are definitely looking forward to M&As and are fully prepared to fit into any good deal that comes forward.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Tathagata bhattcharya seeks to find if the tail can still wag the dog

Naidu’s Vision 2020’s objective was to promote the commercial interests of the agribusiness companies (read foreign financial institutes and international bankers) and the IT hardware units. Thus, he was swept away by a tidal wave of the angry farmers.

The small and marginal farmers, in tandem with the landless labourers, who constitute nearly 80 per cent of Andhra's 80 million people, gave their verdict. The industry-sponsored economic initiatives of Naidu were anti-poor, he was weeded out in the elections.

Prior to the latest stir over Telanagana, TDP made a significant departure from its known ideological stand on a unified Andhra Pradesh. In its opportunistic policy reversal, the party agreed to a separate Telangana in its election manifesto.

“But, when the Union government made a statement favouring separation of Telangana, the usually media-savvy Naidu, who should have played the role of a responsible Opposition leader, has been in exile to evade clearing his party’s stand, which is the penultimate state of ‘Congressisation’,” Mukkamala said.

TDP is failing to meet the growing aspirations of communities that have been on the periphery for decades. It has failed to deliver development to most of the people it ruled for nearly two decades.

Vadakku vaazhgirathu, Therku Theykirathu (North is developing, south is losing) was the once favourite rhetoric of Karunanidhi, the DMK patriarch. But times have changed. The once separtist Dravidian party of Tamil Nadu has merged into the national mainstream and in Karunanidhi's own words, DMK has become, in the course of the last decade (the years DMK was in power at Centre), ''Dravidian national party".

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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From dream homes to empty nests

As the number of unoccupied houses in Kerala goes up every year with more and more people relocating overseas, Anu Warrier seeks to find answers to the social, economic and environmental questions these vacant houses raise

K.J. Mathew of Thiruvalla in Kerala had dreams of having a house once. He realised that dream 45 years ago. Now he regrets that. He built a small but decent house for his family of nine, including his parents. Later, his children renovated the house when they got employed in Dubai. All of them gradually constructed their own houses nearby. Today, Mathew finds himself as a housekeeper looking after four houses built by his sons and himself. “When I want to see my children, I look at these keys they entrusted me with. After the death of my wife, they engaged a domestic help to support me. Our main job is to clean each house at least once a month,” says a tired Mathew.

The story of Mathew is not an isolated instance. All across Kerala, there are parents like Mathew who are left alone in large houses while their children have migrated abroad. They are forced to look after the houses they have constructed. And then, there are houses constructed by their NRI sons and daughters. In some places, relatives are entrusted with the charge of looking after these houses. In some, housekeepers do the job.

According to the 2001 Census, around 7.3 lakh houses in the state remained unoccupied. The Economic Review 2006 puts the number at more than 10 lakh. The same document reveals that the number of homeless families in the state is 10.85 lakh. Most of the vacant houses are in Pathanamthitta district which accounts for the second-highest migrant population in the state.

Joseph Mathew, a native of Kumbanad village of Pathanamthitta, tries to reason. “Those who migrate to the Gulf countries are the owners of most of these houses. Once they get a good job there, they build huge and posh houses which blare out that they are rich and in a good position there. The size of the house and amenities inside it are status symbols here. They fly back to their workplace after the housewarming ceremony, locking them up. These houses might be occupied only once in one or two years. The rest of the time, these are looked after either by their parents or by housekeepers they employ.” In a way, building the house and its maintenance is mindlessly expensive.

The first generation of migrants to US and UK committed the same mistake. They built large houses for their parents and children. But the parents passed away and the children never wanted to come back to Kerala. Most of those houses were sold at throwaway prices.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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