Contents

From the Editor’s Desk

From the Editor’s Desk
Hello Friends,
In conversation…
Letters To The editor We are pleased to release the June issue of Communiqué. We appreciate the
Events & Happenings enthusiastic contributions and cooperation of all the IRK-K members. In the last one
month we had witnessed many changes. Our three dear colleagues, Kasturi, Siddhartha
Cover Story
and Supratik are leaving us for a better opportunity. We wish them all the best for their
Business Scoreline coming future. Once again we are thankful to all the IRC-K members for actively
Snippets participating and contributing to turn communiqué from a mere newsletter to the voice of
Mind Your Language IRC-K. In this issue we choose “Quantifying of Subjective Information” as our cover story.
Comic Relief/Sudoku
Perspectives
The Tata Nano , called the people’s car in Tata's promotional material, is the least
expensive production car in the world. The standard version of the Nano is projected to
o Costing
sell for Rs. 100,000. But, controversies arose about Tata's planned manufacturing unit for
o Economy the car in Singur, West Bengal, where the state government of West Bengal has allocated
o Environment 997 acres to Tata Motors. The construction of the car factory on that tract of land will
o Technology require fertile agricultural land and the expropriation and eviction of ca. 15,000 peasants
o Social Issue and agricultural workers. The affected farmers fear they will receive inadequate or no
compensation and therefore lose their livelihoods. The Nano is also alleged to have
severely affected the used car market in India, as many Indians opt to wait for the Nano's
release rather than buying used cars, such as the Maruti 800, which is considered as the
Special Feature Nano's nearest competitor. The doubt remained whether Nano could be offered
View Point commercially at a price of Rs. 1.0 lakh?
Mind Game
Enjoy reading.

Regards!

Sweta Bipasha Senjuti

The future always holds something for the man who keeps his faith in it.
~H.L. Hollis

1
In Conversation…….

When A.G.Lafley had taken over the charge of P&G, the American goliath
was in bad shape. It had lost billion dollars of market capitalization. Most of the icon brands
started stagnating and the stakeholders as well as the media had lost its faith, which had
declared the death of this American consumerism symbol.

Few years down the line, P&G had regained its face and faith. Was it a simple turnaround
that we often encounter in dozens of company? Prima facie evidence suggests ‘yes’, but a deep
probing tells an altogether a different story.

P&G revived by trusting people, democratizing the decision-making process and believing in
collective wisdom without sacrificing individual brilliance. Moreover, it believed that
knowledge is widely dispersed and if connected and collected, could do miracle.

Democratization of knowledge, falling of hierarchy and trust on people-the new management

literature is full of these concepts. The competitive advantage for the twenty first century will
lie neither in technology nor in process, but on people. Long back, Prof. Sumantra Ghosal
argued in favour of this concept with his seminal article in Harvard Business Review. But if
we try to find out companies embracing democracy in its decision-making process, it might end
with few companies here and there. Most of the companies still follow the dictums of Taylor,
which divided brain and body. The foundation of management process boiled down to this
dichotomous line. Taylor with utter disbelief might laugh from heaven that his concept of
mechanization of human being still exists with full vigor in most of the companies’ beliefs and
management process.

It’s surprising that the notion of democracy, which happened to be the most successful in
running Nation-State, could not manage to enter the seraglio of most of the companies even in
twenty first century. What deterred it and why, could be the most challenging question that
the management has to solve.

I believe that management is still in infancy and will evolve in the way democracy evolved.
From the cradle of Lichhabis or Athens, democracy had to struggle, change and innovate.
Thousand years had passed by to make the correlation between democracy and development
believable. With just more than 100 years of its existence, management is too nascent to
embrace democracy as a whole. But the ray of hope is evident in companies as big as P&G and
as small as Semco. The change process has started and it needs a revolution to eradicate the
fiefdoms of power. The sooner it happens, the better for humanity.

~Kumar Satyaki Ray

Man is the Principle Syllable of Management.

~ C.T. McKenzie

2
Letters To The Editor

An honest effort from the editorial team members is distinct in the development
of communiqué. The communiqué is dealing with diverse topics and moreover it
is designed so colorfully that it attracts the attention of the readers. My
heartiest congrats to Sweta, Bipasha and Senjuti.

Wish you all the best for your upcoming issues.

~Arindam Mukherjee

Communiqué is a great medium to express our hidden talents apart from our
daily work schedule. Personally I welcome its effort for providing a
commendable platform before us. Its innovativeness, quality and intellectualisms
reflect the intelligence and potentialities of our work pull. I wish good luck to
Communiqué in near future.
~ Subhankar Dutta

“Communiqué" - our own newsletter. I think this is the best stage to express
yourself. Congratulation for the great effort of Editorial Team and the
contribution of whole IRCK Team.

All the best to the Communiqué in its journey.

~Bandana Basu

Every production of genius must be a production of enthusiasm.

~Benjamin Disraeli

3
Events & Happenings

Books Released and Cases Prepared in May

BOOKS RELEASED

1. Air Pollution and health Debashree Mukherjee,

Somnath Hazra
2. Pensions Reforms: Some concepts and country
Santap Sanhari Mishra
Experiences
3. IUP Series on Investment Strategies for Sujoy Kumar Dhar,
Individual Investors Arindam Mukherjee
4. Climate change and its effect on human health Asis Kumar pain
5. Development-Induced Displacement: Issues and Azmal Hussain
Implications
6. Customer Service In Airline Industry Amitabha Ghose, Ishita
Mukherjee
6. Girl Child: Issues, Perspectives and Initiatives Debashree Mukherjee
7. Rural Tourism Subir Ghosh

CASES APPROVED

1. The Tata Nano: A successful CSR strategy Rhea Khanna

2. Leadership: The Amazon way Rhea Khanna
3. Motorola to split the Cell phone Business-The Ishani Chakraborty
End of an Era
4. Low Cost car, Can “Nano” gain the first mover Ishani Chakraborty
advantage
5. Google Business Model an Enigma Abhijit Ray
6. Tata Nano Recreating the Tata Magic Sudeshna Bhattacharya

Prepared By Abhishek Ghosh

He who stops being better stops being good.

~Oliver Cromwell

4
Cover Story
Quantifying the Subjective Information

T he launch of the Nano, a small 623cc car developed by the Tata, on January 10, 2008 created
unprecedented levels of excitement in the Indian car industry. Skeptics had long doubted whether a car priced at Rs. 1
lakh was at all possible. As Ratan Tata head of the Tata Group drove the Nano into the Auto Expo, India’s largest car
show, these doubts seemed to have been laid to rest. Tata maintained that the price would remain Rs. 1 lakh as
indicated earlier. In an emotion choked voice, he announced over the public address system to the large crowds which
had assembled for the launch, “A promise is a promise.” However, the doubt remained whether the car could break
even at this price? Could the Nano be offered commercially at a price of Rs. 1.0 lakh? Or would it be an “introductory”
price that would be hiked almost immediately after the launch?

In IRCK, we’d love to write a case on Tata Nano by keeping this question open ended and subjected to debate. But,
can we come to a definite conclusion whether the project will be commercially viable or not? When the Nano will move
over from red? Can we mention the definite year and month, given that there are so many “if’s and but’s” and
subjective factors present. I’ll try to explain how can we objectify the subjective information and calculate the net
present value of the project:
Selling a car at Rs. 1lakh was viewed as an impossible task by most of the honchos of the automotive industry and
Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), considering the fact that the lowest priced car available in the Indian roads,
Maruti 800, costed around Rs. 1.95 lakhs.
A Comparisons of indicative prices (Ex Showroom New Delhi) of cars (Metallic Version)
Segment Name of the Model Price Segment Name of the Model Price
Tata Nano (Proposed) 100,000 Hyundai Santro EuroIII XL 349,434
Segment B: Hyundai Santro EuroIII
Segment A: Maruti 800 Std Bharat III 194,134 ABS 363,457
Maruti 800 AC Bharat III 215,550 Having fancy Alto Lxi 287,280
Entry level
segment Alto Std 234,980 things like power Tata indica V2 300,000
Alto Lx 268,660 steering, Euro III, Tata indica V2 Turbo 380,000
Tata indica GL BS III 252,964 power windows Tata indica Xeta 280,000
Ford Ikon 475,000 Fiat Palio 1.2 NV 399,995
Segment C:
Ford Fiesta 575,000 Mercedes Benz C180 2,000,000
D segments:
Status and Ford Fusion 569,000 Mercedes Benz C200 CDI 2,200,000
Comfort Hyundai Accent 632,819 Luxury cars Ford Mondeo 1,427,000
Maruti Esteem 450,000 Hyundai Sonata 1,369,000

The great Indian middle class, which consisted of more than 350million population, was one of the promising markets
for the low cost car segment. Many of the middle class families were opting for affordable two wheelers to four
wheelers which costed more than Rs 2 lakhs. About 7 million scooters and motorcycles were sold in India in 2007,
typically for prices between Rs. 30,000 rupees and Rs. 70,000 rupees. With the rising income levels, the chances of
middle class consumers preferring a car to a two wheeler were high if a car costed as low as Rs 1 lakh. Nano was
expected to take up atleast 2% of motorcycle volumes. If Tata could convince 10% of India’s two-wheeler owners to
upgrade themselves to Nano, they would sell 70,000 units a year and if another 300,000 units were sold to car buyers
who were attracted to Nano for its intrinsic appeal, Nano would be among the very few brands selling more than a
million units annually.

Though Ratan Tata had announced during the launch of Nano, that there were no immediate plans of exporting Nano,
it was expected that exporting Nano to other countries would generate higher margins. There were many countries
which were showing interest in Nano and it was believed that different versions of Nano would be sold in the
international markets in the near future.
Tata Motors had invested around $450 million in the Nano project while the suppliers had invested approximately $150
millions. Suppliers were faced with tough price negotiations up to 80-85% and had to stretch their payback periods.

5
They had to reengineer their own products to cut costs by more than 15%. A 624cc, two cylinder engine tuned by Fiat
and powered by Bosch had changed everything from pistons to crank shaft and engine heads and reduced the cost to
a greater extent as engine comprised 26% of the direct material costs.

The five big areas of cost for building a passenger car

Areas of cost % of cost
Engine and Transmission 26%
The skin 8%
The Electricals 8%
Suspension and Wheels 9%
Interiors including seats and trims 6%

Maruti Suzuki produced 250,000 units of the Alto, the highest selling model in India with a net profit margin of around
8% in 2007. Tata Motors had to sell Nano in much bigger numbers at lower margin figures to break even. Also there
were high probabilities of launching competitive models in near future. There had been announcements of Bajaj-
Nissan-Renault’s low cost car which promised to be more fuel efficient than Nano. There were chances of fall in sales
with the increased competition from the rivals. Many analysts believed that Maruti 800 could afford to drop prices to a
competitive level, since its dies and tools were fully depreciated. If an aggressive Maruti, through its 185 True Value
outlets, offers a four- or five year warranty on its pre-owned cars, priced at a range of Rs.70,000 to Rs.80,000, it could
eat out a significant population of Nano’s potential buyers.

A major confront ahead of Tata Nano was increasing costs and inflation. There had been a very steep increase in input
prices of steel, tyres and various other inputs. In 2008, the steel industry was witnessing a 30-60% increase in prices.
However, a 4% cut in excise duty (from 16% to 12%) for small cars announced in the Union Budget 2008, came as a
major relief for this Nano project.

Another challenge was increase in pollution likely to cause with one million units of Nano being sold annually. In Indian
metros, the number of vehicles had shot up by 6.5 times since 2002. With India yet to create a comprehensive
transportation policy, the impending launch of the Tata Nano had worried analysts about its impact. If the Tata car does
accentuate an already serious traffic situation, the anti-congestion lobby was likely to restrict vehicles such as these to
rural and semi-urban areas.This would further delay Nano’s payback period.

Given all these above informations, the question remains:

• How can we calculate major cost items of Tata Nano?
• How much will be the variable cost, and what will be the fixed cost?
• What will be the profitability of Tata Nano?
• When will the project break even?
In this issue, I’ll discuss how all the above information can be objectified into calculation of BEP

The company had set up production facilities for the first year at 250,000 units and gradually plans to reach the current
projected market of 1 million units. If there is demand in excess of 1 million, which is very likely in international market,
the company can go for licensing the product in other countries. As a result in 2008, Tata Motors’ revenues would rise
by Rs 2,500 crore and if the company meets the million-unit mark, its revenues would go up by Rs 10,000 crore. There
will be proportionate increase in revenue in case of licensing.
Due to excessive cost cutting and pressure on margins, it was expected that Tata Nano would be generating a mere 3-
5% on net profit margin and 5-6% on EBIDTA margins. At that level of profitability, Tata Motors would need to sell at
least 4 million units to recoup the Rs 1700 crores ($450 million) investment. Going by the then prevailing margins, Tata
Motors was well poised to generate a profit of around Rs. 5,150 per unit (the calculation of profit margin will be
discussed in the next issue). With a cost of capital of 10%, the breakeven under different conditions under which Nano
would be sold might range from April 2011 to July 2013.

Calculation of Break Even in different situations

Without Competition (Not considering opportunity Without Competition (considering opportunity
cost) cost)
Profit per unit Sales Cumulitive Profit Profit per unit Sales Cumulitive Profit
Year (Rs) (Unit) (Rs) (Rs) (Unit) (Rs)
6
 2008 5,150 250,000 1,287,500,000 5,150 250,000 1,287,500,000

2009 5,150 750,000 5,150,000,000 4,682 750,000 4,798,863,636

2010 5,150 900,000 9,785,000,000 4,256 900,000 8,629,442,149

2011 5,150 1,000,000 14,935,000,000 3,869 1,000,000 12,498,713,373

2012 5,150 1,200,000 21,115,000,000 3,518 1,200,000 16,719,736,528

2013 5,150 1,500,000 28,840,000,000 3,198 1,500,000 21,516,353,748

2014 5,150 1,800,000 38,110,000,000 2,907 1,800,000 26,749,027,080

2015 5,150 2,200,000 49,440,000,000 2,643 2,200,000 32,563,108,559

BEP 9,600,000 April 2011 9,600,000 February 2012

With Competition & Restriction (with opportunity
With Competition (considering opportunity cost) cost)
Profit per unit Sales Cumulitive Profit Profit per unit Sales Cumulitive Profit
Year (Rs) (Unit) (Rs) (Rs) (Unit) (Rs)

2008 5,150 250,000 1,287,500,000 5,150 250,000 1,287,500,000

2009 4,682 700,000 4,564,772,727 4,682 400,000 3,160,227,273

2010 4,256 800,000 7,969,731,405 4,256 600,000 5,713,946,281

2011 3,869 900,000 11,452,075,507 3,869 800,000 8,809,363,261

2012 3,518 1,000,000 14,969,594,802 3,518 900,000 11,975,130,626

2013 3,198 1,166,667 18,700,297,085 3,198 1,000,000 15,172,875,440

2014 2,907 1,377,778 22,705,553,215 2,907 1,166,667 18,564,422,970

2015 2,643 1,651,852 27,071,008,333 2,643 1,377,778 22,205,564,907

BEP 7,846,296 June 2012 6,494,444 July 2013

Cost of capital @ 10%, considering the interest rate paid by WB government
Compitition In anticipation that Bajaj Auto and Renault's low cost car would be introduced in 2010
Restriction: Considering restrictions on use at metro cities by Anti Congestion lobby
Here, It has been assumed that without any competition, Tata Motors would be able to sell 1 million units by 2011. The
launch of competitive model might delay achieving this sales figure by another year. And if regulatory restrictions come
into place, it might take one more year to achieve the sales of 1 million units.

Annual profits are taken at their present value after discounting it by opportunity cost of 10%. The PV of profit in the
year 2015 has thus become:
Rs. (5150/ (1+0.10)7) = Rs 2643
The BEP’s are calculated through interpolation. If cumulative profit is 16,719,736,528 and 21,516,353,748 in 2013,
then the BEP will be somewhere in between 2012 and 2013. The BEP thus can be calculated as (scenario: without
competition considering the opportunity cost):
2012 + 17,000,000,000- 16,719,736,528
21,516,353,748 - 16,719,736,528

Hopefully, we can discuss the calculation of major cost items and the profit per unit (Rs 5150) in the next issue.

~Snehasish Choudhuri

7
Business Score line
In The News
National
Xerox launches mono printers, MFPs
On May 20 , Xerox Corporation announced the
th
global launch of eight mono printers and multi-
function printers (MFPs), the company’s first such
event in India. It also plans to increase the number
of channel partners and marketing activities in India.
Aditya Birla Group to invest Rs. 75,000 crore in
Orissa
Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla
on May 22nd said that different companies of the
group would invest around Rs. 75,000 crore in
Orissa in different sectors over the next few years.
Bajaj set to foray into AMC biz
Bajaj Finserve, Rahul Bajaj's new firm, is set to
make it to the stock exchanges. Bajaj group is in
talks with Allianz to make a foray into AMC business
and NDTV has learnt that Allianz will pick up a
majority 51 per cent stake in the venture.
Dhanus Technologies launches V- Tel Mobile
On 23rd May, Dhanus Technologies Ltd. one of
India’s fastest growing technology companies
announced the launch of its V-Tel Mobile service
which will be available for all GSM based
subscribers and can be used across 229 countries
with more than 250 mobile phone service providers.
Providence invests $640m in Idea Cellular's arm
Providence has invested USD 640 million in Idea
Cellular's arm Aditya Birla Telecom. The transaction International
is subjected to regulatory nod and is expected to
close by August 2008. Aditya Birla Telecom owns a
licence for Bihar circle. It also holds 16% in Indus
Towers.
Reliance Globalcom to buy UK's VancoRCom
arm Reliance Globalcom is set to acquire Vanco, a
UK-based virtual network provider.
Eicher approves agreements with Volvo
Commercial vehicle maker Eicher Motors Ltd (EML)
has approved draft of definitive agreements to be
executed with AB Volvo, Sweden (Volvo). The
agreement is to carry out commercial vehicles
business along with components and engineering
design services business.
Bank of Baroda plans 10 more offices abroad
Bank of Baroda which has a strong international
8
National
• Value of Indian IT exports increased by
41.5% to reach 36 billion for the fiscal year
2006-07 compared to previous year.
• Inspite of global rise of crude oil price and
steepened inflation, Sensex in India hover
around 17000, bringing some relief to
investors and industrialists.
• India and Pakistan are set to resume peace
talks for the first time since Pakistan’s new
civilian government took over from military
rule.
• Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin
announced that she wanted to come back to
India which she referred as her second
home. Whether Indian government gave her
permission or nor remained to be seen.
• U.S. President George Bush directly
accused India for being the cause of
Global inflation as according to his logic,
huge India population, the second highest in
the world, is consuming most of world crops
and making demand-supply inequality.
• According to a national survey, 49 million
people in India accesses internet, but
surprisingly women represent less than a
fifth among all Indian net accesses.
• In one of the most deadliest cyclone named
Nargis, at leat 30,000 people were killed
and another 20,000 got injured in
Mayanmar.
• More than 1,000 people died in China in a
strong earthquake that struck in the
Western region of the country. A series of
flood is also feared as an aftermath of the
quake.
• India and U.S. discussed over sensitive
issues like market access and farm
subsidies in the Doha round of negotiation
for a global trade deal.
• Japan is going through a precarious string
presence with 71 offices in 25 countries is planning
to expand its overseas presence by adding 10 more
offices and branches during the current fiscal.
NDTV, NBC conclude strategic partnership
News and infotainment group, New Delhi Television
Ltd (NDTV) and NBC Universal (NBCU) have
successfully concluded their strategic partnership
initiative for the NDTV Networks business.
Nimbus enters home video biz with Showtime
Nimbus Communications has ventured into the
home video rental and sale business under the label
Showtime.
International
Bharti Airtel Calls off Merger Talks with South
Africa's MTN
India's Bharti Airtel Ltd. called off its merger talks
with South African telecommunications major MTN
Group Ltd., saying that the deal structure proposed
by MTN was "unacceptable."
Yahoo's Director Steps Down
Yahoo announced that board member Edward
Kozel has stepped down from his position as
director.
Microsoft's Ballmer: Yahoo Wasn't Part of
'Strategy'
Microsoft Corp., Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said
his company never regarded a possible purchase of
Yahoo Inc. as strategic, and that dropping the bid
meant Microsoft now had $50 billion to spend on
other deals.
MTN Switches to Reliance After Indian Rival
Bharti Pulls Out
MTN Group Ltd., Africa's largest mobile-phone
company, may merge with Reliance
Communications Ltd., India's second-biggest, to
offer wireless services to 1.7 billion people after
talks with Bharti Airtel Ltd. collapsed.
~ Ayan Ghosh
If business were not a part of the joy of living, we might almost say that we have no right to live.
9
of suicides involving detergents. The
suicide rate is highest in Japan across the
world for the year 2007.
• Given the dubious attitude of manufacturers
from China, India and Egypt, National
Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and
Control (NAFDAC) has said that
pharmaceutical products from these
countries would be doubly screened before
released in international market.
• Europe’s increasingly dire struggle with
illegal immigrants, especially from least
developed countries, reached a new
extreme when a group of them started
hunger strike demanding basic needs for
survival from which they are deprived.
• In the face of increasing shortage in food
across the world and Japan’s continuously
low in-house production of food the country
is running under the threat of drastic diet
change of national citizens.
• After prolonged conflict and unrest, Nepal
stepped forward as republic country,
ending the era of monarchy.
• Major players hiked fuel and LPG gas
prices. Already hobbled with increased food
and electricity prices, this rise definitely
added to the woes of consumers.
• British universities are becoming too
expensive to study among all countries and
thus facing the risk of loosing potential
foreign students.
~ Senjuti Ghosh
~George Brown
 Mind Your Language

Generally, it we have seen that while writing cases or articles,

many case writers or authors makes several common mistakes. Apart from the
mistakes of Punctuation, capital Letters, grammars, etc., confusion of words is
another dangerous mistake that a writer often makes. Sometimes, they want to
mean something different and the readers end up understanding something else.
The confusion is also among the writers also. Many words in English sound or look alike, frequently
causing confusion, these can also lead to a change in meaning. These kinds of practices should be
buried and the proper use and meaning of the term should be known. In this issue of the
newsletter, I would like to discuss about the proper usage of Homonyms. In linguistics, a homonym
is one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have
different meanings.
List of Homonyms:
♦ Currant: type of small berry/ a small seedless raisin, produced chiefly in California and
in the Levant, and used in cookery and confectionery.
Example: The black currant is a shrub with maple-like leaves with toothed edges.

♦ Current: up to date/ new; present; most recent.

Example: The current scenario is tragic.

♦ Curser: Someone who swears or wishes misfortune on another/ a formula or charm

intended to cause such misfortune to another.
Example: Selfishness is the greatest curser of human race

♦ Cursor: a blinking symbol indicating position on a computer screen/ A bright, usually

blinking, movable indicator on a display, marking the position at which a character can
be entered, corrected, or deleted.
Example: In computing, a cursor is an indicator used to show the position on a
computer monitor or other display device that will respond to input.

♦ Arc: portion of a circle/ A segment of a circle.

Example: The stars that arc across the sky.

♦ Ark: vessel/ A chest, or coffer.

Example: Bearing that precious relic in an ark

♦ Ascent: The climb/ The act or process of rising or going upward.

Example: His ascent to the governorship came after a long political career.

♦ Assent: to agree/ Agreement, as to a proposal; concurrence.

Example: I gave my assent to the plan.
Mastery of Language affords remarkable power.
~Frantz Fanon

10
 An Intelligent Letter Who’s Who?
Dear Mr. Bill Gates,

This letter is from Banta Singh from Punjab.

We have bought a computer for our home and
we found problems, which I want to bring to
your notice.

1. After connecting to internet we planned to

open e-mail account and whenever we fill the
1 2
form in Hotmail in the password column, only
****** appears, but in the rest of the fields
whatever we typed appears, but we face this
problem only in password field. We checked
with hardware vendor Santa Singh and he said
that there is no problem in keyboard. Because
of this we open the e-mail account with
password *****. I request you to check this 3 4
as we ourselves do not know what the
password is.
2. We find there is 'Run' in the menu. One of
my friend clicked 'run ' and has ran up to
Amritsar! So, we request you to change that
to "sit", so that we can click that by sitting.
5. One doubt is that any 're-scooter'
available in system? As I find only 're-cycle',
but I own a scooter at my home. 5 6
6. There is 'Find' button but it is not working
properly. My wife lost the door key and we
tried a lot for tracing the key with this '
find', but unable to trace. Is it a bug??
7. Every night I am not sleeping as I have to
protect my 'mouse' from CAT, So I suggest u
to provide one DOG to kill that cat.
8. Please confirm when u are going to give me Answers To the May Issue:
In the same sequence):
money for winning 'HEARTS' (playing cards in
games) and when are u coming to my home to
Anthon
collect ur money. Don Rober Edwar Michael
y Michae
9. My child learnt 'Microsoft word' now he Pepp t d De Schumac
Robbin l Porter
ers Reich Bono her
wants to learn 'Microsoft sentence', so when s
u will provide that?
Best regards,
Banta Singh
A Man is not poor if he can still laugh.
~Raymond Hichkock

11
Perspectives

Technology

The Role of Semiconductor Chips in the Computer Industry

T he semiconductor chip is a tiny wafer of silicon containing miniature electric

circuits that can store millions of bits of information. Therefore, the demand for the
semiconductor chips had been growing with the information age. Chips had become
essential components for all consumer electronic products as well as many industrial products. The range of
chip buyers varied from the manufacturers of computers, digital consumer appliances, mobile
communications, industrial controls and others. This initiated the growth of global sales of chip. The global
chip sales were $227.5 billion in 2005 which was an increase of 6.8% from 2004. The computers consumed
41% of the chips, whereas, the consumer appliances and the mobile communications consumed 19% each.
The industrial controls consumed 8% of the chip sales. In the others category which consisted of automotive
and wired components consumed 13% of the chips. Therefore, it was found that the major consumer of
chips had been the computer manufacturers.

The Semiconductor Industry – Its origin and growth

At present we probably cannot think of a life without semiconductors. It

starts with talking over cellular phones, enjoying music in an iPod and also
working on a computer, all require semiconductor chips. But the origin of the
semiconductor era was dated back in 1947 when William B.Shockley and
the engineers from Bell Laboratory devised the solid state transistor. There
had been a problem in wiring the circuits until the invention of Integrated
Circuits (IC) by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor during late
‘50s. This reduced the difficulty as a large number of transistors could be combined on a single IC chip. In
line with Moore’s law the components on the IC chip continued to increase over the years. But history was
created in 1971 when Intel accepted the offer of one of its clients, Busicom to design 12 custom chips for its
calculator. This was the turning point in the chip industry as Intel’s engineer Marcian E. “Ted” Hoff designed
a chip that could function as 12 chips. This resulted in the invention of the world’s first microprocessor.

12
Microprocessors had been working as the central processing unit especially for a computer system. The
development of the improved version of the microprocessor continued since its inception. The major players
in this competitive segment had been Intel and AMD. Intel was founded in 1968, as the Integrated
Electronics Corporation by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore whereas AMD was founded by Jerry Sanders
and his seven friends on 1st May’1969.

The semiconductor products and its growing demand

The semiconductor products ranged from discrete devices to integrated circuits. The transistors, resistors,
capacitors were electronic components with just one circuit element and therefore they were termed as the
discrete devices. The ICs formed the other part of the semiconductor product which was built from several
circuit elements in one package. In an IC a wafer can hold hundreds to millions of transistors, resistors and
capacitors. The ICs were of two types namely, analog and digital. But the digital ICs were the most
demanding ones as they were mostly used in computers and consumer electronic products. The digital ICs
were of two types namely, memory and logic chips. The memory chips consisted of RAMs whereas the logic
chips consisted of microprocessors. Both these RAMs and microprocessors were the essential parts of a
computer.
The chip industry’s major customers were computers, digital consumer appliances and mobile
communications. This industry experienced growing demand due to increasing semiconductor content for
electronic products. It had been estimated that the chip industry would reach a new height during the next
few years due to the growth of wireless and consumer electronics and computers. It was also expected that
the chip demand for the computer industry was likely to increase in the next two years due to Vista,
Microsoft’s new operating system. Vista required that the computers be equipped with more DRAMs.
Therefore, due to Vista the amount of DRAM in a PC would get doubled. It had also been predicted that the
Asia-Pacific would be the largest and fastest growing regional market in chip revenue.

To be continued..

~ Siddhartha Paul

Study without reflection is a waste of time; reflection without study is dangerous.

~Confucius

13
Perspectives

Environment

Conserving Biodiversity: Displacement and Relocation Issues

Displacement of natives caused by the establishment and

enforcement of protected areas has often troubled relationships between
conservationists and indigenous people in many parts of the world. In
the present day context, biodiversity conservation is one of the most
talked about jargons setting the pretext of such enforcements.
Conservation of biodiversity and reduction of poverty are often seen to have a conflicting
relation thereby creating an ethical dilemma that arises more directly in park creation programs,
especially if an area intended for a park is inhabited by poor indigenous communities. The
“solution” is cast more or less in either terms, having a long entrenched bias going against
resident or mobile population in parks. Displacement of these people is the usual
recommendation, which is implemented in most cases. For the Consultative Group of
International Agricultural Research, it is imperative to tackle this dilemma through adoption of
an integrated biosocial research apposite to lead to conservation policies and interventions that
are socially responsible. Both native’s livelihood and biodiversity call for solutions that is
required for achieving “double sustainability”.

The recent World Summit on Sustainable Development recommendation that at

least a tenth of the land area in the world should be protected as a joint social
and biological research is being increasingly necessitated by national parks
(Hussain, 2008). Cernea and Schmidt-Soltau (2003), after a thorough analysis
and summing up of a range of conservation-induced displacement and
relocation experiences argued that as a mainstream approach, the
displacement strategy has exhausted its potential as well as credibility. It has
allegedly produced much damage without fulfilling the expectations placed on it. Worse, it has
compromised the real cause of conservation of biodiversity and park/forest by inflicting forced
poverty on countless people. They have strongly recommended a policy level change in
intervention that could favor joint management approaches by de-mainstreaming the
displacement approach. Guided by the model for Impoverishment Risk and Reconstruction
(IRR), and the involuntary resettlement policy standards of World Bank and Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development, they argue for poverty reduction as well as social
sustainability for the conservation-caused refugees, and for application of reconstructive
strategies for securing livelihood and development of the displaced people while protecting the
biodiversity.

~Azmal Hussain
To think is to differ.
~Clarence Darrow

14
Perspectives

Social Issue
South Asia: In the Clutches of a Social Bane
Continued……
NEPAL

T he southern part of Nepal is known as Terai region where the custom of dowry in a
marriage has become very common. This region accommodates 46% of the total Nepali
population and is very close to the Indian border. Because of its location, this area is highly
influenced by Indian culture.

In Nepal, dowry is commonly known as Tilak and it is a deciding factor of the status of both
of the bride and bridegroom’s family. Status of a family can be measured by the amount of
dowry the son’s family receives. The amount of dowry varies from $2,000 to $ 14,000 in
accordance with the qualification of the bridegroom. Not only money but also refrigerator,
television, car etc are given by the bride’s family as dowry.

Though the Nepal government has enacted “Social Customs and Practices Act” to prohibit
dowry related violence yet surprisingly nobody has ever been found to get punished till date
under this law. To combat this problem of dowry many nongovernmental organizations and
international organizations are starting awareness programmes by encouraging women to
education, increasing participation of women in administration, political parties which can better their
position in the society and bring the respect they deserve.

Conclusion
In this article the present situation pertaining to dowry in some of the South-Asian countries have been
highlighted. But this is just tip of the iceberg. The real scenario is more frightening. In most of these
countries not only men but women also encourage the custom of dowry. Women consider this dowry as
their only possession which they get from their own family and on which they can exercise their rights. But in
reality these gifts always remain inaccessible for them. They can not claim their rights on those gifts.

But it is our responsibility to make the world better for us. Governments are also entrusted with the
responsibility of devising appropriate property inheritance laws by which woman’s life could be made more
secure. The main problem in these countries is not with the existence of laws against dowry but with the
execution of these laws. So, transparency in governing body is equally important. More NGOs should also
come forward and make a conscious effort to educate people and make them think about dowry.

In the whole process, media has an enormously important role to play. Today media plays a pivotal role in
controlling our line of thinking and our action. Media has also its accountability to expose the guilty to put a
check on the whole custom of dowry. In order to bring decency, security, dignity and equality in women’s life
we all should fight together to organize civil society movement against dowry. However at this stage it can
be pronounced that all said and done collectively is good but the need of the hour is that women themselves
must make the plunge in every case, as Pandit Nehru once said, “To awaken the people it is the women
who must be awakened”, for it is the women who have always been at the receiving end.

~Sangeeta Lahiri, Subhashree Basu Roy & Debdutta Gupta

Empty Heads are fond of long titles.

~ German Proverb

15
Perspectives

Economy
Indian Agriculture: Essential for Growth Yet Neglected

I ndia in recent years has been suffering from rising food grain prices. In the capital,
Delhi, rice prices have risen by 20% and lentil prices by 18%. These two items
constitute the average food basket of most of the poor Indians. Indian government is
blaming the global food price rises as the main reason behind this escalating food prices. However at the
crux of the crisis lies the poor pace of production in the most significant yet neglected sector of India-
agriculture. Indian economy in the recent years has been growing at a pace of 8.5%. While most of this
growth is contributed by service and manufacturing sector in India, agriculture’s share is mere 18.46% (at
factor cost). For a sector that supports almost 60% of the total Indian population, this result is disastrous. If
we compare the productivity of Indian agriculture with that of the other countries, we will find that India is
way behind. As for instance with only 100 million hectare of land China is producing 400 million tons of grain
whereas with 146 million hectares of land India is producing only 108 million tons of grain. Recent studies
show that the rate of growth of food grain production in India has decelerated by 1.2% over the period 1990-
2007 lower than the annual growth of population which is 1.2%. Consequently per capita availability of food
grains in India has declined.

One of the major issues regarding the deplorable conditions in Indian agriculture is lack of substantial
investment. Indian agriculture is suffering from the scarcity of adequate irrigational facilities and proper
infrastructure. There has been no new technological breakthrough in this sector for
a long time. A substantial investment in this sector can eradicate these problems by
building up proper infrastructure and promoting research and development.
However the government is busy in planning populist strategies that are ultimately
not very useful. The 600 billion worth of loan waiver to the farmers announced in
the recent budget can explain this. Such a strategy is not very applicable in Indian
scenario where the small and marginal farmers are more open to non- institutional lending (money-lenders)
than institutional ones (public sector banks and credit institutions). Instead of declaring this loan waiver if the
government would have directly invested this amount in agriculture it may have served the purpose.
Another major issue that is creating problems for this sector is lack of direct marketing. Indian farmers are
very vulnerable since only 60% of the country’s total area is cropped. Moreover the amount paid by the
government to the Indian farmers for their produce is very low. This situation is worsened by the presence of
middlemen. The crisis in Indian agriculture and plight of the farmers is evident from the growing incidence of
farmers committing suicides. Indian government needs to implement direct marketing in Indian agriculture.
Direct marketing enables the farmers to reduce transportation costs and improve price realization. This not
only increases the price received by the farmers but also reduces the price paid by the consumers.

India is the second most populous nation in the world with a substantial proportion of people living below
poverty lines. For them even a small rise in food prices indicates a substantial fall in the real income. India’s
inflation in many ways is attributable to its food crisis, growing dependence on food grain import and rising
food grain prices worldwide. If India achieves food security it may escape such high levels of inflation in
future. Indian government has been opting for several demand cutting strategies to lower the already
escalating level of inflation. However such strategies will not be useful until and unless the farm sector gets
it’s deserved importance from the Indian government.
~Debolina Mukherjee
The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield it.
~ Oscar Wilde

16
Perspectives

Strategy
Indian Premier League and Thomas Friedman

Since the eighties, the whole world is agog with a new buzz
word – globalization. The society or the economy expanded with a
concept of ‘flat world’. This trend was expected to modernize
business, improve consumer experience and bring more wealth.
Whilst the jury is still out on the actual deliverable of globalization;
there is no doubt that this has shifted the paradigms of business.
In the words of Thomas Friedman (http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/) new global companies may
be Chinese owned, headquartered in New York, having American-European- Japanese
Management with customer support in India. What do you call this a Chinese company, American
or global?

Globalization is sweeping each and every one of us with its flow. No

sector or region could have been escaped. As we see, our beloved
Indian cricket team was also a cause and effect of globalization -
Ganguly, Ishant, Ponting, Akhtar all in one team. To take an
Australian wicket, the Pakinstani and South African are strateziging
under the captainship of an Indian. This may inspire Friedman to
add one more chapter in ‘The World is Flat’, but the implications for
India would be much bigger. India is playing the role of a true leader in globalizing the Indian
cricket team. Many ethical questions have been raised regarding the auctioning of cricketers and
the changing cricket culture or better to say the sports culture. But from a business man’s
perspective one can argue that globalization is a mean to reduce operating costs and increase
profits. IPL too is increasing the profitability of the BCCI and was actually a reactive idea to the
extremely dull Indian Cricket League.

Also globalization is about adding more partners to create more

consumers and giving better consumer experience to existing ones.
This is exactly what the IPL is delivering. Thomas Friedman also
argues that globalization eliminates geographical and political
barriers. A Singhalese with a broadband connection is as much an
equal player in the global economic world as an American. Thus
while a team like Zimbabwe or Ireland will rarely win at an
international stage an individual good player can still create a difference partnering with an IPL tea

~Sweta Chhaochharia

All men’s gains are the fruit of venturing.

~Herodotus

17
 Tarapith

“Yah Devi Sarva Bhuteshu Matri Rupena Sanstitha,

Namaha tasmai, Namaha tasmai, Namaha tasmai nama Namoho”,
Sri Sri Chandi

‘ Tarapith’, a holy religious place known for Ma Tara and the renowned saint Bamdev, is located in the
Birbhum district. It is the ultimate for all those, who love the divine mother. It is said to be so called because
the eye ball (tara) of Sati fell here. Others say that Tarapith is not pith, but the place owes its sanctity to the
fact that the great saint Basistha here worshipped the Goddes Sati in the form of Tara. The common local
opinion is that it is really a Pith and Basistha selected this place for worshipping Sati because it was a pith.
The idol in the temple is covered in a silver mask all the time, during night you can see the actual idol (Shila
Murti).

Ma Tara (Tarapith Temple)

Tarapith is around 230 km from Calcutta and there are train
services available, which are run by the South–Eastern
Railways(S-E). Tarapith not only have the beauty of the temple
of Ma Tara, but many others alike the Tarapith
Sashan(Burning Ghat), remains of the old Panchamudndi
Ashan of Sadhak Bamdev, the river Dwaraka, Mundamalini
Sashan(Burning Ghat) and last but not the least the birth place
of Bamdev, ‘Atla Gram’(Village)

Ma Tara’s Pada Padya (Pancha Mundi Ashan)

Panchamudndi Ashan
The Panchamundi Ashan in the Tarapith Sashan
reminds the presence of the great saint ‘Bamdev’.
There is a small ‘Shamadhi Mandir’ built beside the
Panchamundi Ashan. Visitors can sit and meditate in
the Tarapith Sashan. But the atmosphere of the
Tarapith Sashan is different from other burning ghats. In
the night if one wants to visit it. He/She will have to
carry a torch light with him. Even today you can find the
Tantrik Sadhus performing their ‘Kriyas’. But, today,
the calm and quietness of the ‘Tarapith Sashan’ is
gradually disappearing and becoming congested.

Shri Shri Bamakhepa or Bamdev

Shri Shri Bamakhepa was born at the Atla Village, on the eve of
‘Maha Shivratri’ in 1837. His father was Sarbananada
Chattopadhyaya and mother Rajkumari devi. Gradually, he
detached himself from materialistic life and started his journey
towards the spiritual world. He became one of the most popular
devotee and saint of Tarama of all times. At a very young age, he

18
came in contact with Saint Kailashpati. Saint Kailsahpati first discoverded that Shri Shri Bamakhepa is a
form of Lord Shiva and was the suitable person to become a proper Saint of Tarama. Shri Shri Bamakhepa
had been considered to be the last saint, who had gained eternity at Tarapith. He had thousands and
thousands of disciples, who had found Shri Shri Bamakhepa their ideal guide from materialistic worries and
tensions. Shri Shri Bamakhepa attained death in the year 1912.

If you visit Sadhak Bamdev’s birth place at Atla Gram, you can find the muddy huts and can feel the fresh
air, the essence of the village, which is missing in Kolkata. Atla Gram is shaded all around with greeneries,
which make it just the right place to relax. Besides, the exotic views of uncommon birds, the wild flowers and
the cold river breeze soothe all city worries.”

“Mat Pranaha Sri Guru Prana, Mat Dehay Guru Mandiram

Purnam Antar Bahir Jano, Tasmay Sri Gurabve Namaho”
Bamdev’s Birth Place (Atla Gram)

How to Get There

The train services are available from both Howrah and Sealdah. S-E runs a number of trains like ‘Gana-
Devata’, Mayurakshi, Viswa Bharathi, Rampurhat Express etc. From Howrah or Sealdah, one will have to
reach Rampurhat station, which is around 220 kilometers from Howrah and takes around 5 hours. From
Rampurhat station, one will have to take an Auto, which will take around 45 minutes to take you to your
destined place.

Tourist Lodges

There a number of hotels, lodges, resorts and guest houses available at Tarapith. The charges vary from
Rs 300 to Rs 1,500 a night.

So, one can visit this place to see the historic temple and the Sashan. At the same, the interested persons
can visit the place to lead their Atma to the path of enlightenment, from the material world of darkness to the
spiritual world.

‘’Jaha Prano Bindur Modiyo, Maha Prana Ambhudhay Twayi,

Sohayam Sanmilito Mato, Ityargham Kalpami Te”

Ayan Chakraborty

19
Book Review

Bound Together: How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers, and Warriors

Shaped Globalization
by Nayan Chanda

T he core ides of this book is that crossing borders - or what is now called
globalization – is an age old concept since the first humans left their African
homeland. The only difference between now and then is the new technologies which
have expanded the volume, speed and content. The author has presented an
overview of the history of globalization from the perspective of traders, preachers,
adventurers, and warriors. However, the approach is descriptive rather than prescriptive.

Globalisation although has benefited millions in the developing world who now at least have low wages as
opposed to no wages at all, is never free of criticism. Many argue that globalization is responsible for many
of the world's problems such as global warming, the rise in commodity prices, child labor, and American
imperialism. Nayan Chanda recognizes the debate argues that it is pointless to fight globalization because it
has always been with us since the beginning of civilization and it is here to stay. Besides that, no single
entity controls it, so it would require the efforts of many to manage it. The story begins with an analysis of
the author’s own DNA which reveals that the author was descended from an African father more than
36,000 years ago. His ancestors were part of a group that represented some of the earliest migrations into
India.

Traders, preachers, adventures, and warriors have always been agents of globalization. From Marco Polo
on the Silk Route to the journey of the iPod from Shanghai to Chandra's home in New Haven, people and
corporations will forever be crossing borders in search of profits. In the section on preachers, Chanda
makes some interesting points about NGOs - such as Human Rights Watch. NGOs have taken up the role
of missionaries from earlier centuries. Adventurers and Warriors played a large role in border crossings in
the past, but less so today, since the world is getting smaller and more user-friendly, due to the advances of
technology.

Although Chanda believes globalization is unavoidable, he is no neoliberal freemarketer who believes in the
perfect goodwill of multinationals. He believes globalization should be managed through collaboration of
nation states - such as the WTO - so that there is balance and social justice. Corporations and NGOs have
their unique roles to play, but ultimately national governments need to occasinally intervene to keep the
global economy from spinning out of control or leaving large numbers of people destitute.

Chanda's short history of globalization tells us that its current critics are understandable, but basically
misguided. Instead of putting up trade barriers and halting immigration they should find ways to make
globalization work in their favor.

~Sweta Chhaochharia

Business is a combination of war and sports.

~Andre Moris

20
 View Point
The Voice Of IRC-K

Are We at IRC-K Doing Research or

Re-serach?

Top Six Responses of the month

I feel we do research
here through the
method of re-search.
Particularly in case
department, we need
to search again and
again by giving
different strings to
find some crucial
information. Also, at
times, we need to
search the same topic
in different websites
because of credibility
of the source. So, here,
re-search is actually
assisting us to do
research.
~ Ishani Chakraborty
It is individuals'
Response of the Month perception, whether
he/she is involved in
The question “Are we at IRC-K doing research work or in re-
Research or Re-search??” is a searching others work.
controversial issue that I feel in the At the beginning of my
context of IRC-K. Now the question service at IRCK, I was
may arise why am I stating so? My mainly involved in doing
justification is, Research means re-search. But, with the
systematic investigation to establish gradual building up of
facts. But over here, the system is bit the maturity as a re-
different. Basically, in the case of searcher, I have tried to
producing derivative books I don’t feel focus my
Research is an appropriate term. It is works towards research
proper to state as Re-search where the activities. To me its
existing articles available worldwide, research that I am
are reproduced through the surfing of presently trying to
internet. But it must also be perform at IRCK.
acknowledged that IRC-K really has a
number of talented scholars who have
a limited scope to exhibit their original
research ability and expertise. They -Saptarshi Roy
have to abide by the set rules of IRC,
which are miles away from the original
sense of the term “Research”.
~Mahua Maity

I feel that IRCK is surely engaged in the research process and is not doing re-search in any means.
Research means knowing the unknown, finding out something new which may be in the form of some
information, some new advancements in the field of technology or scientific innovation. So the
core purpose of research has remained unaltered here-knowing the unknown. This is because we, at
IRCK, gain some new information everyday about the changes in the global business scenario and the

21
turmoil daunting the multinational conglomerates .We come to know about the strategies which make
or destroy the leading companies.
Though we are engaged in secondary research but I feel that the basic motto of conducting a primary
research is met herewith.
~ -Sudeshna Bhattacharya

To develop skills of undertaking academic research one must work with

a good research organization. My dream is to become an academician and
to find out unexplored fields of my research interest. I am happy to
have a berth in Icfai Research Centre, Kolkata as a Senior Faculty
Associate. This research centre is one of the excellent organizations
of the nation and has been contributing quality research works in
diverse fields. It has given me a nice opportunity to be trained as an
academician and researcher and also to contribute my capacity to the
organization as well as outer society. Moreover, within a short span
of time I have realized that the work culture in the centre is good
and all the colleagues are cooperative to each other. I am happy to
work with IRCK.
~Shahiuz Zaman Ahmed.

Opinion Poll

“Are 50-50 cricketers competent for a 20-20 match?”

The Poll Closes on 15th June, 2008.

So let’s start with our verdicts
Happy Voting!!
(Voting with insightful views is welcome. All voting and feed back should reach at
l@ l )

Research means that you don’t know, but we are willing to find out.
~Charles Kettering.

22
MIND Game

1 Which monument in Egypt represents King Khephren?

2 The name of which city means ‘capital’ in Korean?

3 Which sport was developed as a training game for cavalry units?

4 The name of which desert stretching across Mongolia and China means
‘waterless place’?

5 Which spice is obtained from the rhizomes of the Curcuma longa?

6 In which Olympics were female athletes allowed to compete for the first
time?

7 According to Aristotle, which quilled beast could shoot its deadly needle-like
darts?

8 Which is most famous monument in the Piazza dei Miracoli?

9 Scotty Moore and Bill Black were members in which musician’s first band?

Answers

Seoul, Porcupine, Elvis Presley, The Sphinx in Egypt, Polo, Gobi desert, 1900 Paris
Olympics, Turmeric/Haldi, The Leaning Tower of Pisa

23
24