UNDERCURRENTS

Consulting Club of NSIT

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Also inside
5th Edition
Ever thought
of advertising
with the
Bond
Unravelling
the Keysian
era of
economics
Do fake goods
only benefit
you??
Think again
Tete Tete with Ruchir
Sonkar - Manager -
Reserve Bank of India
Let information be free
A tribute to Aaron
Swartz
2

What is C2N?
C2N is a self interest group which came into being in 2009. Its primary
goal was to be a link between the students of NSIT and the consulting
industry.
What are the Benefits for the members of C2N?
Gain exposure to cutting edge trends within the consulting industry.
Awareness about plethora of opportunities available as a student.
Better understanding of different work profiles, for making the right
career choices
Building a stronger network.
Equipping the members with right tools to harness their potential,
and excel in Placement interviews.

What are the Activities of C2N?
Weekly discussion on Case studies from multiple sources
Talks by ex-members and seniors currently a part of the industry on
strategy, leadership, industry trends, consulting tools, methodologies
and frameworks etc.
Workshops on resume building, case interviews and personal inter-
views to help students in preparing for the placements.
Networking forum- For greater interaction between the current batch
and the alumni working in the industry.

How to join C2N?
We at C2N have an open door policy. Any student can attend the
weekly discussions on Wednesday in the Connecting block or in
Block-V room no.217, and then decide accordingly if he /she wants
to pursue it or not.
C2N is looking for greater participation from the 1
st
and 2
nd
year stu-
dents in the upcoming semesters. So all those interested can join the
Consulting clubs Facebook page or the google group- consulting-
clubnsit-sig@googlegroups.com
You can also download the previous editions of Undercurrents from
http://www.nsitonline.in/students/studentinitiatives/consulting/
consultingclub.html
3

Editorial


Dear Readers,

We take great pleasure in presenting you with the 5
th
edition of Under-
currents, the official mouthpiece of Consulting Club of NSIT (C2N).
Every edition of Undercurrents has been an interface between the stu-
dent community and the consulting world. Besides serving as a pool
of knowledge, the magazine has consistently motivated the students to
come up with articles of their own, and hence being a part of it. Again
this year, we have come up with some great articles on issues ranging
from the Japanese Brands to the case of Aaron Swartz to the Keynes-
ian Economics, and much more. In this editions interview, Ruchir
Sonkar sheds some light on his work at The Reserve Bank of India.
Under Market watch, we trace the decline of Japanese Brands in the
recent times, followed by marketing where we discuss how movies
play a role in advertising. However, the readers can unwind through
witty quotes, As if you will get it, the ifunny instances, cartoon strips,
sharp brain teasers, and Book & Movie reviews.
Since its inception in 2009, C2N has worked towards creating aware-
ness about Consulting, and helping its members to develop acumen
for the same. For the upcoming semesters the C2N seeks for greater
participation from the 1
st
and 2
nd
year students.
We encourage readers to read the magazine cover to cover, relishing in
the veritable delight of widening your mental horizons, in exploring
the magazine. This quote is actually an embodiment of what the edi-
torial team requests all its readers focus on the journey, not the desti-
nation. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in pursuing it.

Wish you a GOOD READ

Consulting Club of NSIT
4

Counterfeits & Its effect on Luxury
The counterfeiting and the piracy market have shown colossal
growth all around the globe over the past 50 years and particularly
in the last decade. It is generally perceived as having a negative im-
pact on the sales and profits of the original manufacturers; in addi-
tion to life threatening consequences for the consumers if the prod-
ucts being faked are of critical importance like aircraft engines and
medicines to name a few.
In this article, we will focus on the counterfeiting of the luxury
goods and throw light on how these knock-offs help the manufac-
turers of original goods increase their sales. Thus showing why
they do not pose much threat to the sales as professed by the com-
panies.
Luxury goods are high priced, have high quality and relatively low
utility. These are primarily purchased as a social statement and to
position the consumer in the society. These goods do not obey the
normal rules of demand and supply which states that demand is
inversely proportional to price. Unlike normal goods, luxury
5

goods show positive price elasticity of demand, i.e. their demand
rises as their price increases. With luxury goods a rise in price in-
creases their exclusivity and hence their perceived value as a status
symbol. Conversely, as the price decreases, so does their exclusivity.
This in turn, decreases consumers desire for them as these are no
longer a social symbol. The objective of counterfeiting luxury
goods is therefore to trade upon the perception of and desire for ex-
clusivity and to extract its high value by deceiving consumers into
buying non-authentic and often low quality products.
The consumers play a very important role in rise of counterfeiting
and piracy markets. As long as there are people willing to buy the
counterfeit goods in order to climb the social ladder, there is noth-
ing that can stop the flourishing of this industry. The consumers of
luxury goods can be classified in a hierarchical manner distin-
guished by their aim to by luxury goods.

At the top are the trend setters which mainly include celebrities
like actors and sports persons. Most of these are provided the
products by the elite brands themselves in order to promote their
designs.
The next are the cognoscenti. These are the elitist of the con-
sumers whose main aim is to exhibit their social standing. These
are the main target audience for the luxury brands as the strictly
buy only original products.


Next is the crowd. It comprises of two levels:
Aspiring consumers which consume to position themselves at
the top of the crowd. They consume a mix of authentic and fake
goods.
Conformers which consume so that they do not look different
from the others. They mix counterfeit goods with legal look
alike goods.
The counterfeit goods can be classified into four types with respect
to two parameters; namely quality and deception. These level of
these two parameters in the counterfeits is the determinant of the
fact if the good contributes to the loss of sales to the brand or not.
6

Type 1 goods tend to be imperfect copies, of low quality and even
though they carry the brand logo, they do not seek to deceive the
purchaser. They, therefore, carry little risk to the buyer and to brand
owner. The low quality and low price is hardly going to deceive the
buyer. For instance, few people buying, say, a $5 Breitling watch
or Gucci purse from a makeshift market stall in an area notorious
for counterfeiting such as Canal Street in New York or Petaling
Street in Kuala Lumpur could be under any serious illusion about
the origins.

Type 2 counterfeit goods are the ones which are high in quality and
low in deception. Such examples might include sports clothes and
trainers sold in a discount store or market place. Here the counter-
feiter trades more on the quality of the goods than the actual brand
and since buyers are in little doubt as to the origins they tend to be
happy because they receive, in their view, a good value for money.
These types of counterfeits are often called knock-offs. As it is
the design rather than the specific brand mark which is being cop-
ied, this form of counterfeiting is linked to design piracy. The or-
thodox view is that brand owners who own the design lose out. But
design piracy
7

helps in speeding up the fashion cycle.

Type 4 counterfeit generates the greatest concern for the brand be-
cause the goods are of low quality and also highly deceptive. For
example, if you place the cheap counterfeit Breitling watch in a
more plausible retail setting and at a higher price, then the potential
buyer who is not attuned to the style, look and feel of an original is
likely to be deceived. Such a scenario not only deceives buyers and
places them at financial risk because the goods are often still very
expensive, but it also creates bad feeling towards the brand owner
when the merchandise fails to live up to expectations. Not to men-
tion the fact that the brand owner also loses a valuable customer.







Thus, on carefully going through the characteristics and examples
of the four types of counterfeit goods as discussed above; we see
that not all sold counterfeits result in loss to the company. For in-
stance, the fakes which are low on deception are mostly bought by
people who would not have bought highly costly original luxury
goods. It is a flawed assumption that a consumer who buys a fake
would have otherwise purchased the genuine article. It is true that
millions of fake luxury handbags are sold each year. But (according
to reports in 2006) only 20% of purchasers of fake brands would
have bought the genuine article.
8

article

Brand owners suffer lose of sale, only when a consumer buys a
counterfeit good in the belief that it is a genuine product - Type 3
or 4 counterfeit goods outlined earlier where the level of deception
is high. In both of these scenarios the sale of a counterfeit good at
high price arguably affects the sales of genuine retailers. Also, the
brand may suffer reputational damage (primarily due to Type 4
goods because of the lower quality) through complaints from dis-
pleased customers, even though the goods were counterfeit. Con-
sumers tend to blame the brand and not the counterfeiter for any
failings in the product resulting in loss of consumer goodwill.

The brands benefit from their counterfeits in the sense that they
help in increasing brands geographical coverage and recognition
among the people especially in countries like China, where fakes
are in market even before the original product has been launched
by the brand.

Fakes are also often the first place where consumers develop an
awareness and aspiration for genuine luxury. After according to re-
ports, a third of consumers who bought fake luxury goods said
they would be more likely to buy the real thing in the future as a
result.

A major gain from counterfeits is that they contribute to the accel-
eration of the fashion cycle by saturating the market and causing
the elite consumers to seek out and buy new and more exclusive
products as symbols to separate them from other consumers and
help them maintain their elitist position.

So, we may conclude that counterfeiting of luxury goods is not det-
rimental to the brands once we carefully weigh the positives derived
from it. In fact surveys suggest that there appears to be a high level
of consumer support for counterfeit luxury goods often voiced by
consumers with the claim that luxury brand owners charge inacces-
sible and over-inflated prices for their authentic products.
By Raunaq Sawhney (ICE, 2nd year)
9

The Curious Case of Japanese Brands

Not that long ago, Japanese companies such as Sony, Panasonic
and Sharp were considered premium brands. They made virtually
everything in the consumer electronics world, from televisions to
microwaves and digital music players. There seemed to be no way
to stop their momentum. Their products often carried higher price
tags to reflect their perceived quality, and people snapped them up.
After years of bets gone wrong and lost opportunities, three of Ja-
pans consumer electronics giants are showing some signs of falter-
ing. Sony reported a net loss of $5.7 billion while Sharp Corpora-
tion too reported $4.66-billion loss. Toshiba stayed in profit , but its
net profit fell 46.5% at $937 million. Investors are losing their faith
on these marquee brands as their shares have slipped to below Yen
1,000 after decades. As a result , Sony, which was
10

worth $125 billion in March 2000, is now valued at less than $13
billion.

So how did the likes of Sony and Sharp lose their way?
As with many other downfall stories, these companies failed to pay
attention to shifting trends and were outmaneuvered by overseas
competitors.
While Sharp is in the most serious trouble, the three companies
woes are similar at the core. All three make good quality, even cut-
ting-edge products but so do their overseas competitors, usually
at lower prices. None of the three have managed to generate the
brand pizazz of Apple, or the marketing muscle of Samsung Elec-
tronics. As consumer markets shifted to digital media and games,
mobile devices, software apps and the Internet, the Japanese strug-
gled to keep up. External factors like the rising value of the Japa-
nese yen, which made products exported from Japan more expen-
sive abroad and cut into margins at home, further squeezed the
companies. In addition, a stubbornly strong yen continues to sap
their competitiveness, while Japans territorial dispute with China
has hurt sales there. The scale of the losses is the result of specific
missteps, from huge investments in the wrong technologies to a re-
luctance to exit loss-making businesses.

Television
The decline in the Japanese television business present best illus-
trate their downfall. Sony, Sharp, and a myriad of other Japanese
companies were dominant in the television business when bulky
tube TVs ruled. Few of them managed the transition to flat-panel
display televisions all that well . In their place were companies such
as LG and Samsung. Samsung, in particular, focused on building
higher quality flat-panel TVs, packing them with a larger array of
features and selling them for a competitive price -- and steadily
boosted its share.
In consumer electronics, outsourced manufacturing became the
norm. Still, Sharp did not change course. It built a new factory in
Sakai, Japan, which could make 6 million large LCD panels a year
more than the size of the global market at the time.
11

a year more than the size of the global market at the time. Pana-
sonic, for its part, also bet heavily on plasma televisions in 2003,
pouring some 600 billion yen into a series of factories in Ama-
gasaki, not far from Sharps own plant. It also bet on solar panels
and rechargeable batteries, buying Sanyo in 2009. But with plasma
now a fading technology and solar power struggling, Panasonic is
saddled with major losses.
Another problem lies in the sheer breadth of products these compa-
nies offered, many of which barely exist anymore. Do people buy
digital music players or DVD or Blu-Ray players at a time when
everything is streamed?

Missing out on mobile
The Japanese similarly missed the boat on mobile. Panasonic and
Sharp were too insular and focused on their home market to be ef-
fective enough to compete around the world. Sony was tied down
by its joint venture with Ericsson, which actually saw some success
with basic phones.
But when Apple came knocking a few years ago with the iPhone,
these companies quickly found themselves unable to compete.
When Google and Android arrived a bit later, the Japanese compa-
nies were slow to adopt the burgeoning platform and found them-
selves far behind as Samsung and HTC took the lead.
As with the television market, the smart phone business has proven
incredibly cutthroat, with only a few winners in the business. Along
with Apple, Samsung is the only other major player able to gener-
ate significant profits with its smart phones.

New pressures
While all have laid out a path back to profitability, the truth is the
pressure will only get worse. The competition isn't just coming
from the U.S. and Korea, but increasingly from China. Lenovo has
shown its dominance in the PC business. On the smart phone side,
Huawei and ZTE are making strides around the world with both
low and high end
12

phones In the television market, the Chinese companies represent a
potential threat.

The Road Ahead?
These companies are in for some drastic changes in the coming
years -- if they survive.
Sony and Panasonic have chosen divergent survival paths. Sony
has moved to slash costs and jobs and sell off some unprofitable
businesses, refocusing the company on digital cameras and imaging
technology, video games and mobile devices. This quarter, the sale
of its chemical products business, which made materials for LCDs
and optical discs, helped alleviate losses. Sony is now making a
push into the medical field with an investment in the endoscope
maker Olympus.
While Panasonic is looking to expand its businesses in appliances,
solar panels, lithium batteries and automotive components.
Rather than consumer products, Sony and Sharp have found some
headroom supplying to other more popular companies. Sony, for
instance, provides the camera for the iPhone, while Sharp is one of
several display suppliers to Apple's smartphone.
No one knows if any of them will succeed. What is clear is that
they all have a rough road ahead.
By Piyush Panwar (ICE,3rd year)
AS IF YOU WILL GET IT
A Greek, a Portuguese and a Spaniard ask God when their
countries' debts will be paid off. God says, In 100 years for
Portugal and in 150 years for Spain. Disappointed, they say:
But, well be dead by then. When the Greek asks, God re-
plies, I don't know I'll be dead by then.

The euro zone leaders were looking for a stimulus package.
and Silvio Berlusconi suggested two Viagra and a Red Bull.
13

Aaron Swartz: A Federal Criminal or Hero?
Aaron H. Swartz was a computer programmer, writer, political or-
ganizer and an Internet activist. By the age of 14, Swartz had
played a key role in developing the RSS software that is still widely
used to enable people to manage what they read on the internet. At
the same age, he also played a vital role in the creation of Reddit, a
social networking site. When Reddit was bought , Swartz received
a huge sum of money making him something of a legend in the
internet and programming world before he was 18.
Swartz was also involved with the campaign to prevent SOPA
(Stop Online Piracy Act) Bill from passing that tried to check Inter-
net for copyright violations and also would have made it easier for
US Government to shut down websites accused of copyright viola-
tion.
Following the defeat of the bill, Swartz was the keynote speaker at
the F2C:Freedom to Connect 2012 event in Washington, D.C., on
May 21, 2012. His speech was titled "How we stopped SOPA and
he informed the audience:
There's a battle going on right now, a battle to define everything
that happens on the internet in terms of traditional things that the
law understands... [Under SOPA], new technology, instead of
14

criminal hack when I see it, and Aarons downloading of journal
articles from an unlocked closet is not an offense worth 35 years in
jail", the maximum length of incarceration that might have been
imposed had Swartz lost at trial.
On the morning of January 11, 2013, Swartz was found dead in his
Crown Heights, Brooklyn, apartment by his girlfriend. A spokes-
woman for New York's Medical Examiner reported that he had
hanged himself. Suicide is allegedly blamed on the vindictiveness
of prosecution.
Several members of the U.S. House of Representatives - Republi-
can Darrell Issa and Democrats Jared Polis and Zoe Lofgren - all
on the House Judiciary Committee, have raised questions regarding
the government's handling of the case. Rep. Lofgren introduced a
bill bringing us greater freedom, would have snuffed out fundamen-
tal rights we'd always taken for granted.
Swartz also volunteered as an editor at Wikipedia, and in 2006, he
ran for the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Directors, but he was
unsuccessful.

It is speculated that he was also a source of Wikileaks.
In 2008, Swartz downloaded and released 20%(approx.) of the
Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) database of
court documents. PACER was charging 8 cents per page for public
court documents that was created at public expense which offended
Swartz. He believed that this data should be free as government
produced documents are not covered by copyright. He donated the
documents, amounting to 19,856,160 pages, to Malamud's pub-
lic.resource.org . For that act of civil disobedience, he was investi-
gated and harassed by the FBI, but never charged.
But in July 2011, Swartz was arrested for unlawfully obtaining in-
formation from JSTOR (Journal Storage), the online digital library
that digitizes and distributes scholarly articles written by academics
and then sells them, often at a high price, to subscribers. As Maria
Bustillos detailed, none of the money goes to the actual writers
(usually professors) who wrote the scholarly articles - they are usu-
ally not paid for writing them - but instead goes to the JSTOR
15

In 2011, The New York Times wrote of the case: "A respected Har-
vard researcher who also is an Internet folk hero has been arrested
in Boston on charges related to computer hacking, which are based
on allegations that he downloaded articles that he was entitled to
get free."
Swartz was a faculty member at Harvard University which pro-
vided him with a JSTOR account. Over the course of a few weeks,
he downloaded the documents from a network wiring closet at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and, in the process, crashed
some of JSTOR's servers..
After his arrest, JSTOR put out a statement saying it would not
pursue civil litigation against him, while MIT did not comment on
the proceedings. Prosecution of the case still continued, with
charges of wire fraud and computer fraud, carrying a potential
prison term of up to 35 years and a fine of up to $1 million.
Alex Stamos, a computer forensics investigator wrote, "I know a
Aaron's Law, to exclude terms of service violations from the 1984
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and from the wire fraud statute.
Lawrence Lessig wrote of the bill, This is a critically important
change... The CFAA was the hook for the governments bullying...
This law would remove that hook. In a single line: no longer would
it be a felony to breach a contract." Polis called the charges against
Swartz "ridiculous and trumped up", while referring to Swartz as a
"martyr"Issa, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, an-
nounced that he is investigating the Justice Department's actions in
prosecuting Swartz's case.In a statement to the Huffington Post,
Issa praised Swartzs work toward open government and free ac-
cess to the people. Issa's investigation has garnered some biparti-
san support.
Lessig wrote :
A kid genius. A soul, a conscience, the source of a question I have
asked myself a million times: What would Aaron think? That per-
son is gone today, driven to the edge by what a decent society
would only call bullying.
In my books hes a hero and the prosecutors in this case should
hang their heads in shame for the overzealous prosecution
16

(bullying) of Schwartz. He was facing 35 yrs in jail for a crime he
was not getting a penny from. The punishment was completely out
of proportion to his gain. His act was not criminal in nature. What
kind of a case did the prosecution want to pursue where the
victim did not feel wronged and yet there was a guilty person
driven to the edge.
To think of it ,if he would have walked into the offices of JSTOR
with a gun still he would have gotten at the most 20 yrs of prison
time. You certainly can see insanity pouring out of it now.
He could have easily opted for a life of huge riches with the money
he earned yet he chose to fight instead for good causes that he be-
lieved in. Now, thats not how I describe a federal criminal but then
its for you to decide
By Praneet Singh (MPAE 3rd year)
17

Keynes in a nutshell
Be that the 2008 G-20 Washington summit or while addressing a
business community at Mumbai, Indias economist PM Dr. Man-
mohan Singh has often quoted the man who is widely held to be
the most influential economist of the Twentieth century. Dr Singh
has repeatedly talked of reviving the animal spirits of the econ-
omy, the belief that markets are revived by a spontaneous urge to
action, when people have substantial trust and confidence and a
term widely advocated by economist John Maynard Keynes.

Born in 1883 at Cambridge, to a middle class family, Keynes had a
largely comfortable and supporting family consisting of an econo-
mist father, a social reformer as mother with two more kids.
Keynes childhood went through the times of Queen Victoria and
King Edward VII, both of whose governments were largely stable
and peaceful. It was also a time when Britain ruled the world econ-
omy. And so Keynes passed on to India Office in 1906, as a clerk
for the British Government. And although he worked hard, he was
soon bored and went back to Cambridge to work on probability
theory, while coming out his first book Indian Currency and Fi-
nance in 1913. Keynes was amongst the very few who highlighted
the fact that British investments on Indians were far less than re-
quired and the and the pity condition back in India
18

After the First World War, when the popular opinion in England
and other allied powers was to punish the government of Germany
asking for heavy reparations and concessions, John Maynard
Keynes rightly argued that such penalties on Germany would even-
tually trouble the worlds economy in the coming years. Keynes in
fact came to public prominence with his blunt denouncement of
the Treaty of Versailles and in his bestselling book The Economic
Consequences of Peace; he continued to argue his viewpoint. The
treaty has been argued by several historians as amongst the chief
causes of the rise of Hitler and subsequently the World War II.
With the central idea that when the amount of money saved ex-
ceeds the amount being saved, unemployment rises, Keynes began
to work on a theoretical work on his massive Treatise on Money.
A liberal man he was, Keynes favoured a policy of low interest
rates and found the policy of budgets deficits as not unhealthy.
Thus, at the height of The Great Economic Depression of 1920-
30s, when unemployment was high and there was an atmosphere
of pessimism all over. Keynes published his The Means to pros-
perity, a set of recommendations for the Government in Britain in
particular so to recover from the depression.
Keynesian Economics
At a time when most classical economist were in favour of increas-
ing taxes on the super rich so as to reduce fiscal deficit and balance
the government budget. Keynes advised for tax cuts instead to in-
crease spending. He argued that when the economy was at an all
time low, demand for products was less and unemployment high,
the governments must intervene and solve such problems because
according to him-in the long run, we are all dead. Keynes re-
jected the need for cutting down labour costs or abolishing mini-
mum wages as was advocated by the classical economic theories of
that time. He rather highlighted the multiplier effect, an effect
wherein the government increases its spending on public outlays,
thereby making the money available to people. The people who re-
ceive this money spend the most of it on consumption items,
thereby making the money available to people.
19

The people who receive this money spend the most of it on consump-
tion items, thereby causing business activity and causing rise in de-
mand for goods and services. This in turn shall allow businesses to
hire people and the process continues.

This was in complete contrast to the classical notions, who believed
that increasing government spending would decrease the labour sup-
ply and raise wages, which may end up alienating private investment.
This also contradicted to Says law which, in short stated that Supply
creates its own demand. However Keynes followers largely argue that
over a period of time, money gets hoarded in the hands of individuals
and firms, which is not spent on purchasing products and often leads
to decrease in financial activity. While the simple classical notion at
this time would argue for cutting the interest rates, as to make the sav-
ings by these people less attractive, Keynes rejected their idea as for
him most people do not invest for short term gains but rather for long
term profits. He believed that monetary policy should be used but for
regulating the economy.
20

Keynesians era
Soon after the depression of the 1930s, Keynesian economy poli-
cies were largely adopted by the entire developed world and many
in the developing nations. Although he soon met his successor in
Friedrich Hayek, eminent economist(s) such as Paul Krugman,
Paul Anthony Samuelson have been influenced by his work, while
many other governments including those of Barrack Obama(US),
George W. Bush(US) and Gordon brown (UK) continue to take in-
spiration from his works.
By Rahul Dhingra (MPAE 3rd year)
AS IF YOU WILL GET IT!!!!
21

Product Placement: The Future of Advertising?
Product placement may date back to the 19
th
century, but in todays
times it has garnered the status of being one of the most important
and significant part of a brands marketing strategy. For those new
to the concept, product placement is a form of advertisement,
where branded goods or services are placed in a context usually de-
void of ads, such as movies, music videos, the story line of televi-
sion shows, or news programs. For ones who have still not fol-
lowed; hope you remember how Daniel Craig tries to sell you a
Heineken in the movie Skyfall.
Product placement is an investment for brands trying to reach a
niche audience. The investors have high expectations that film
product placement will increase consumer awareness of their
brand. A big-budget feature film with a reputed star-cast is assumed
to attract many such product placement offers; however, its up to
the films production house to evaluate if a product fits with the im-
age of the film.
22

Products that are integrated within the plot of a movie are better
remembered than those that are not well integrated with the plot of
a movie.
The James Bond films have been associated with product place-
ment since their inception. The role of Bollinger (champagne), Jag-
uar, and Aston Martin was looked at in three vignettes from James
Bond movies. In each of these vignettes, these products took on a
personality and a role that consumers would want to indulge in and
take on. For example, the Aston Martin seemed to be heroic while
the Jaguar seemed to be villainous and their roles within the movie
held true to these characteristics. The Bond film The Man with the
Golden Gun (1974) features extensive use of AMC cars, even in
scenes in Thailand, where AMC cars were not sold, and had the
steering wheel on the wrong side of the vehicle for the country's
roads. Three of the Bond films that star Pierce Brosnan feature
a BMW car. After pressure from fans, the producers returned to us-
ing the traditional Aston Martin.
The one movie which has very well captured this phenomenon of
product placement prevalent in todays films and presented it to the
audience in a very thoughtful manner is The Greatest Movie Ever
Sold. Directed by Morgan Spurlock, this movie on product place-
ment has been produced entirely by the funds provided by the vari-
ous companies for placing their brands in the movie. In the movie
after hustling between boardroom meetings filled with cautious
corporate executives and paranoid PR reps, Spurlock convinced
enough sponsors - Ban deodorant, Sheetz, Jet Blue Airlines, Mini Cooper
and Pom Wonderful amongst the most prominent - to buy product
placement in his documentary, which was being filmed as they
spoke, right there in that boardroom.
My favorite scene from the movie has to be the boardroom scene in
which Morgan Spurlock presents his out of the box ideas describ-
ing the various scenes in which Pom Wonderful (a pomegranate juice
23

could be placed in the movie in order to attract a younger audience
towards the brand. The ideas bring out the benefits of drinking
pomegranate in a humorous tone targeted towards the younger
populace; and the rejection of these ideas by the board members
shows how brands are conscious not to take steps which could hurt
the sentiments of their existing consumers.
This documentary also throws light on the loss of creative freedom
on the film makers part. Generally most brand managers try to
manipulate the script; at times forcing the film maker to add new
scenes in order to showcase their products in a more prominent
movie scene.
The brands placed in The Greatest Movie Ever Sold became the site
for promoting the movie as well. For instance, in the weeks leading
to the release of the movie, as the JetBlue flights took off, Morgan
Spurlock popped up on the in-seat television to congratulate pas-
sengers on getting a seat on The Greatest Airline Youll Ever Fly
and suggesting passengers might want to check out his similarly
branded documentary.
Be it the scene in which the actor, stands at a Sheetz gas pump, eat-
ing a fresh Sheetz sandwich, filling his Mini Cooper (which he refers
to as the greatest machine ever made) with reliable Sheetz fuel
and calling the Volkswagen a piece of shit as they refused to be a
part of the documentary; or the scene in which Morgan Spurlock is
shown enjoying the luxurious and lavish suite of Hyatt, one thing
which he has stressed continuously in the movie is that he is not
selling out but buying in.
He wanted to make sure that the audience doesnt feel as if they are
watching a 90 minute commercial; which could have been the case
had he compromised his creative freedom, which is what most
filmmakers do and hence end up selling out. Spurlock's last word
is an offhand: "Best I can do is just show you it's out there."
After going through this article the readers will definitely be in a
better position to catch product placements in films. The products
are so nicely integrated in the movie scenes that one often ends up
turning a blind eye towards them without realizing. A recent Bolly-
wood blockbuster Dabaang 2 was replete with such placements.
Hope your eye had caught them!!! By Raunaq Sawhney
(ICE 2nd year)
24

Tte Tte With
Ruchir Sonkar

Ruchir Sonkar is a Batch09
pass out from the Division of
Manufacturing Process and
Automation (2009 batch) and
is currently working as a man-
ager at RBI. In the following
conversation he tells us about
his job profile and the work en-
vironment at RBI. He also
talks about his experience in
college and things he misses
the most about NSIT.
About RBI
1. Please tell us something about your job at the RBI?
I am a currently working as manager at RBI. We are the peo-
ple who attend to the core statutory function of note and coin
issue and currency management. This involves forecasting the
demand for fresh banknotes and coins, placing the indent with
four printing presses and mints, receiving supplies against
those indents and distributing them. My Department is also
responsible for keeping an account of banknotes in circulation
and also the stocks at RBI offices and currency chests.

2. What exactly is a currency chest?
We maintain a extension of our services with commercial
banks where the fresh and re-issuable banknotes are stored
and these banks are allowed to withdraw cash for its require-
ments and deposit its excess cash. This is known as a currency
chest. Soiled banknotes are also stocked in the chests pending
transportation to RBI.

25

3. We usually see the Finance Ministry and RBI going over dif-
ferent ways over dealing with the current economic situation?
Why does that happen?
Perhaps the problem arises, because the RBI being an
autonomous body can go ahead on to the path which it feels
as correct. However, the Finance Ministry is a bit con-
strained, since its fate is also decided by the peoples percep-
tion of its policy and also the reaction of political groups. So
there are some small diversions. But still, I think both of
them do an outstanding job, managing the economy of a bil-
lion people.

Career Related
4. After completing engineering (a technical course) how did
you end up working for the RBI? Was it tough given your en-
gineering background?
After graduation I worked in HCL for a short period. I
wanted to serve the Government of India and also had a stint
for economics. Eventually I singled out on RBI. Being in RBI
has helped me to pursue my interest, while at the same time I
have the opportunity to grow my knowledge in this area.

Obviously it is tough for an engineering graduate to make it
through the RBI entrance exams. The Grade B officers exam
tests the applicants ability in the field of economics, finance
and general awareness; which are generally not known to an
engineering student. The selected candidates are grilled in an
intense interview which is full of questions related to eco-
nomics and finance. But hard work eventually pays off.

5. Most valuable trait you learnt/developed while you were at
NSIT.
Leadership and human resource management have to be the
most valuable trait I developed at NSIT. Being a part of
Moksha and Innovision helped me develop my leadership
skills and gave me an opportunity to manage such high pro-
file events. I am proud of myself that I accomplished this
task to the best of my abilities and succeeded in making
26

these a renowned brand among the corporate and college go-
ers in Delhi. To be chosen to lead the students union was also
a life changing experience. I was the representative of my fel-
low batch mates and served as a link between the students
and college authorities.

6. Your further plans? Thinking of pursuing an MBA?
I have no plans of MBA as of now. RBI provides you with
opportunity of continuing your education. To enhance your
skills I would like to take it and maybe look forward for a de-
gree in Economics. Whatever I do I shall continue with my
stint at RBI. It offers huge perks and the work environment is
awesome. You get to see some of the most intellectual people
in the country. It is indeed a privilege to work in one of the
worlds best central banks and to have great minds around
me.

Personal
7. One thing about NSIT you miss the most in your busy pro-
fessional life?
There are not one but many things I miss about NSIT. First
in my list is the early morning drizzling which paints the en-
tire campus in green. The rains at NSIT are one of the most
beautiful things that I can remember during my college days.
A close second is the experience of sitting at the fountain
during winter months with warm sunrays falling on me. It
was truly a heavenly experience. Also, the experience of liv-
ing in the college hostel was truly out of this world. We had
our share of mischief and fun at the hostel. I would recom-
mend everyone to go through this experience as I feel with-
out this one can never enjoy college life to the fullest.

8. What kind of internships/ projects would you recommend
for students at NSIT?
Try to search for the field that interests you and come out
with some really great ideas into that. I would advise you to
not join the rat race. Instead, look out for things that matter
to you, that interest you,
27

where you would like to see yourself in the next 30-40 years.
In case you want to know more about the work environment
at

9. Your advice to juniors at NSIT.
Firstly, I would like to tell them that all the students at NSIT
are very talented and are capable of being successful in their
endeavors. One should never under-estimate oneself. My ad-
vice to juniors is to take part in everything you can put your
hands on while at college. You might feel burdened but this
will be the time where you will be able to realize what inter-
ests you. Once you can identify what fascinates you then you
can work in that direction unreservedly.
As told to
Rahul Dhingra
Raunaq Sawhney
UC RECOMMENDS : Books

The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from
the World's Greatest Manufacturer
In factories around the world, Toyota consistently makes the
highest quality cars with the fewest defects of any competing
manufacturer, while using fewer man-hours, less on-hand in-
ventory, and half the floor space of its competitors. The Toy-
ota Way is the first book for a general audience that explains
the management principles and business philosophy behind
Toyota's worldwide reputation for quality and reliability.
Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists:
Unleashing the Power of Financial Markets to
Create Wealth and Spread Opportunity
Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists is a groundbreaking
book that will radically change our understanding of the
capitalist system, particularly the role of financial markets.
They are the catalyst for inspiring human ingenuity and
spreading prosperity. The perception of many, especially in
the wake of never-ending corporate scandals, is that financial
markets are parasitic institutions that feed off the blood,
sweat, and tears of the rest of us. The reality is far different

28

ACROSS
1. Machinery, equipment and money for production
2. A situation where country's economy declines
5. Situation where banks greatly reduce the amount of money
they lend to one another
6. To be penniless
8. Revenue of a company minus the expenses
9. All human resources-workers

DOWN
1. One who buys and/or uses goods or services
2. Regular income of a company
3. Sole legal right to sell good, service or artistic work
CROSSWORD
29

INDIAN POLITY
Congress
BJP
Or
AAP???
30


In case you wish to contribute for the next editions, feel free to con-
tact us.
Designed and Edited by
Rahul Dhingra : MPA 2010 : rahuldhingra92@gmail.com

Writers
Piyush Panwar : ICE 2010 : piyushpi91@gmail.com
Raunaq Sawhney : ICE 2011 : raunaq.chelsea@gmail.com
Praneet Singh : MPAE 2010 : praneet.0206@gmail.com

Special Thanks to
Vikram Juneja : BT 2009

Consulting Club 2013
Copyright for the cartoons used lies with the respective owners

The views expressed in this article are those of the
author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and
should not be attributed to, Consulting Club NSIT