Tuesday, October 30, 2012

We are no less than family

Bangladesh may not be very rich but the nice ambiance inside the embassy and a healthy conversation revealed the warm hospitality. B&E caught up with the gentleman, Enamul Hoque Chowdhury, a senior Embassy official in New Delhi who revealed interesting facets to share. Some excerpts:

“5 things Bangladesh appreciates about India...”

EDUCATION: Indian education system is among the best in the continent and at par with that of some of the developed countries. Institutes like IITs, IIMs and even private colleges are world class. Bangladesh would be grateful to have them in their country. The government is ready to consider its regulations in that regard.

HEALTH CARE SYSTEM: Like education, in health care also, India is in the league of top countries. Be government or private hospitals, they are truly world class and hence attract lakhs of medical tourists from across the world. It is cheap and easily accessible. Thousands of people from Bangladesh visit India every year for medical treatments.

PEOPLE: Indians are truly generous, unlike India’s polity and policies! There is lot to learn from Indians on how to prosper in a diverse society. Achieving unexpected pace of growth with such a huge population is praiseworthy and beneficial for the region and the world at large.

HUGE YOUTH POPULATION: A country with 300-400 million youth population raises high expectation. Bangladesh looks forward to India to participate and contribute more in world leadership with such a massive talent pool.

INDIAN POLITICAL SYSTEM: India’s biggest achievement is perhaps its democratic government. Bangladesh has a lot to learn from it. “And the 5 things we dislike...”

BE MORE RESPONSIBLE: Bangladesh often feels that India behaves like a Big Brother while it expects India to be more generous. For example, Bangladesh takes Indian students according to the SAARC quota to provide them free higher education while even after being such a big country and economically progressing, India still hesitates to take students from Bangladesh or other neighbouring countries.

CULTURAL EXCHANGE: Bangladesh also considers people-to-people exchange is extremely important. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to have been any positive response from the Indian polity so far.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012. An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Monday, October 29, 2012

Steaming hot bath

Hop onto a train or drive through the lush London countryside to reach the invigorating city of Bath. Set at a distance of 120 miles from west of London, Bath, a World Heritage City in 1987, was predominantly a Roman city with the original Roman baths and remains. The city is built at the mouth of an extinct volcano and is surrounded by seven wooded hills and is nurtured by the crystal waters of Britain’s natural hot springs. Bath offers rich diversity of museums, galleries, gardens and Roman baths, much to the explorer’s delight! Once in Bath, one can marvel at the impeccable architecture of The Bath Abbey – the last of the great medieval churches of England. The Royal Crescent displays an array of houses and is one of the architectural delights that the city has to offer. And, while a romantic walk on the Pulteney Bridge shouldn’t be missed, the natives recommend that the bridge is best viewed from Parade Gardens park by the crescent weir.

After a day of exploration, one should be forgiven for giving in to an alluring massage offered by the many spas that dot every nook and corner of the city. Travellers to Bath should definitely make the most of tours like boat cruises, MP3 audio walking tours and bus tours that are organised in the city. But one shouldn’t forget to pack in a pair of sneakers as Bath is a city best explored on foot! Interestingly, the main attractions of Bath are all packed close to each other; lest the walking drains you out, there are spas aplenty!

For those who fancy a royal treatment, an ideal day’s itinerary should include a visit to the magnificent Roman Baths Temple followed by a lavish lunch spread at the Pump Room and a refreshing spa break at Thermae Bath to end the day.

Those who like to live it up at night, Bath has a plethora of options to choose from. Theatres showcase performances catering to all age groups and tastes, and for the movie buffs, there is The Little Theatre Cinema. All for a little amusement, there is the Bizarre Bath, a night tour of the city, which is sure to tickle your funny bone. There’s no dearth of watering holes either, and many pubs and bars play all forms of music, from electronica to Irish folk…


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Sunday, October 28, 2012

Just ‘USO’ it!

Wireless networks are not enough

So when was the last time you spent a decent amount of time talking to your acquaintances on your good ol’ landline? Hard to remember, right? And to think that a little over a decade back, a mobile was supposed to be the privilege of the ridiculously rich.

As per data revealed by the CIA fact book, total number of mainlines in use in 2005 was 1,263,367,600 while number of mobile cellular users reached 2,168,433,600. While the total number of land line connections in China is 365.4 million, mobile connectivity was galloping ahead with 547.286 million in 2007. In US, the number of land lines is 163.2 million with 255 million mobile users. If these figures are stark, then the Indian context is shocking! While total number of land line connections in India is 37.75 million in 2009, mobile connections reached 362.3 million.

However, that does not in any way mean that we would be getting rid of wires; as we need to move beyond the concept of communication being predominantly restricted to voice. The wireless infrastructure has to be supported with a wireline infrastructure as well.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Friday, October 26, 2012

STEVEN PHILIP WARNER answers…

low-priced buyouts, cost control & ensuring sustainable revenues, did the trick for sun pharma. what next? STEVEN PHILIP WARNER answers… 

There is also the fact that Sun has always remained a cost leader in the generics drugs platform. Sun’s net operating margin is a tremendous (43%) as compared to a modest 10% for the other top ten pharma players. Has it simply a play on the raw material sourcing or is there some critical strategic intent in this situation? Sun claims that this has been because of their focus on costs, which has been the biggest priority for them; and the claim does not come without empirical evidence.

For example R&D! Sun also doesn’t believe in over-investing in R&D. Its R&D budget allocation ratio is only 0.5% of its revenues (for FY2008-09), while that figure for the industry stands at a much higher 14-15%! As per a report by E&Y, “Only 2% percent of projects in the pre-clinical phase are expected to make it to Phase I testing and, of these, only one in five are likely to be approved.” So what’s the average success rate of your primary compound finding a place as a pill in the market? A tiny 0.4%! Rahul Sehgal, President, Nestor Pharmaceuticals also propounds how Sun is taking the right route in this regard as he states, “The R&D which are required, involves a lot of cost. There was never much point in Indian manufacturers spending too much on R&D. R&D spending should now be ratcheted up – significantly and rapidly.”

Surely, Sun seems to have fared better at maintaining the balance between costs and returns during the past year; however the question stands – will this sun continue to shine even in the current year?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Thursday, October 25, 2012

The pocket size of the poor is bearing fruits

Bringing technology to the bedside of patients and ensuring that it fits the pocket size of the poor is bearing fruits for GE Healthcare in India

For starters, GE Healthcare India has reversed the trend of importing medical care technologies to India. In fact, it has built a portfolio of innovative indigenous products that are being sold globally, including developed markets of US & UK. V. Raja, President & CEO, GE Healthcare, South Asia comments, “The answer (to bringing prices down) came in the form of local manufacturers as it was cheaper as well as import duties were not applicable. However, local manufacturing called for significant investments in the form of buildings, tools and manpower. Moreover, there was this myth that locally manufactured products are not good in quality.” Indeed, relying upon local manufacturers for global quality products and that too at local costs is risky business. In fact, the only way out is acquisition and GE has been consistent with this strategy to invest in high technology, innovative businesses that deliver healthy toplines & bottomlines.

Besides, GE Healthcare India has invested a huge amount in R&D of medical equipments, and also unveiled a multi-billion dollar initiative called “Healthymagination” that aims to have a significant impact on improving health of patients worldwide by increasing access to cost-effective, quality health care products and services. GE Healthcare has partnered with the Government of India, state governments, and various Indian healthcare experts, thus making the initiative truly reflective of India’s healthcare needs. Further, at a time when others are shying away from investing in R&D (given the time & investment it requires) GE has gone ahead. In fact, it plans to spend $3 billion over the next six years on R&D that will help deliver better care to more people. In addition, GE has committed $2 billion of financing over the next six years to drive healthcare technology in rural areas, plus $1.5 billion for partnerships, content and services.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The Kim & I’ran

Iran can’t be treated like N.Korea

There are two countries the US seems to be fed up with, Iran and North Korea (no George, ‘Putin’ is not the name of a country). While the reasons of getting fed up seem quite the same – namely, quest for nuclear power/missile capability – the fact is that Iran should not and must not be treated by Obama at the same level of North Korea, a mistake he seems to be committing with his recent comments against the elections in Iran.

A comparative analysis exemplifies that there is a big contrast in these two countries and Obama must respect Iran for the same. Firstly, Iran’s constructive involvement in regional development is unquestioned. Iran has strong leadership in the Middle East. North Korea has almost never contributed constructively to regional issues, leave alone global. Iran is a founder and active member of many regional as well as international bodies like UN, NAM, OIC and OPEC; while North Korea – a derelict member of NAM – has always isolated itself. Freedom of expression, though controlled sporadically, is generally found at ease in Iran. Try that in Korea. Iran believes in socialistic capitalism – Iran has 10% of world’s oil reserves, and commands production respect.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Monday, October 22, 2012

The Dalit gambit

Meira Kumar’s elevation as Speaker is the Congress’s first major offensive to retake the Dalit vote.

When Meira Kumar left the Congress in a huff nine years ago for a very short freelance stint and returned after promises made by Sonia Gandhi, she could scarcely believe that the Congress president would keep her words in such grand style.

Her elevation as Speaker of the Lok Sabha recently could be rightly considered Sonia’s first deft move to get back the estranged Dalit vote bank and would be seen to be particularly helpful in the case of Bihar where Meira’s father Jagjivan Ram once constituted the Dalit bulwark of the Congress party.

Meira’s estrangement with the Congress began in 2000, reportedly at the instigation of Sitaram Kesri. Kesri seems to have sensed Meira’s dark mood. According to party insiders, she was considered as close to Kesri, a fact not unknown to Sonia. The fact was that Jagjivan Ram’s high profile daughter was sidelined in party affairs because Congress had all but forgotten Ram’s contribution to strengthening its great rainbow coalition. Things reached such a pass that the Congress party was unwilling to accommodate her demand of declaring 10 Krishna Menon marg as a Smarak or memorial in memory of her legendary ‘Babuji’. It took then a BJP Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to do the honours. But Sonia Gandhi was keen to make amends. Veteran Bhajan Lal – once a foot solider of her father – was deputed to woo her back. Meira was positively reassured when she talked directly to Sonia herself. Her return then was a question of detail.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Saturday, October 20, 2012

Corporate India’s most high profile sibling rivalry

It’s slated to be the largest non-pharma deal this year (till date), if successful. But the Bharti-MTN deal is much more than that, for it can potentially be a major game changer in corporate India’s most high profile sibling rivalry – that of the Ambani brothers

The reverberations of that ‘switch’ are being felt even today; even as the second instalment of the UPA regime settles down to govern the country. You guessed it right again. We are talking about the latest bombshell that was dropped by Sunil Mittal recently when Bharti announced a ‘New Deal’ (You can call it an agreement, a merger, a reverse merger, an acquisition or whatever word takes your fancy!) with MTN, the South Africa-based telecom giant. An excited Sunil Bharti Mittal has said on that deal, “We are delighted at the prospect of developing a partnership with MTN to create an emerging market telecom powerhouse. This opportunity also represents a first of its kind in developing an Indian-African initiative that would serve as a shining example of South-South cooperation.”

One year ago, it looked as if Anil Ambani was all set to steal the thunder from Sunil Mittal when ‘agreement’ talks between MTN and Bharti collapsed and Reliance Infocom emerged as the new and favourite suitor. One year down the road, you could say that the wheel has turned full circle and the lead established by Sunil Mittal and Airtel as the unquestionable number one telecom player from India now looks unassailable.

Some simple facts – most of them known to you by now – will establish why Sunil stands taller than Anil. The $23 billion deal – the largest non-pharma deal in the world in 2009 so far – will create an entity that will automatically become the fourth largest mobile service provider in the world with more than 200 million subscribers. Just recently, when Airtel had announced celebrations to mark the accomplishment of a 100 million subscriber base, Sunil Mittal had already hinted to this magazine (see exclusive interview) that the 200 million milestone will come far more quickly. If the deal goes through – as most analysts and insiders expect it to – what Sunil had hinted at will have already happened! And it will happen thanks to a mind bogglingly complex ‘agreement’ that will involve both cash and fresh equity. Once the deal goes through, Bharti will hold slightly less than 50% of MTN equity while MTN, in turn, will hold a 36% ‘economic interest’ in Bharti. The term ‘economic interest’ is jargon being bandied about right now because there is still some confusion about how much equity foreign investors can hold in an Indian telecom entity. As of today, foreign investors, including the largest shareholder Singtel, hold almost 74% of the equity in Bharti – the limit allowed as per existing rules.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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