Monday, September 10, 2012

INMATES: VOTING RIGHTS

It’s a burning debate across the World – destroy the sin or the sinner? The issue of voting rights for criminals is a key aspect of that debate. The IIPM Think Tank looks at how various countries approach the issue, and why the prisoner-bashing attitude might not be so wise

And between these extremes, Australia, France, Finland and Greece are some nations with limited restrictions over the felons’ voting rights; typically based on the length of the sentence, nature of the crime committed or the type of election.

But things have been changing recently in some US states. Connecticut and New Mexico liberalised the laws with regard to voting rights in 2001. Nevada abolished the five year post-sentence waiting period and Maryland has passed a resolution to automatically restore voting rights for one-time offenders after release. However, Utah and Massachusetts restricted voting rights of inmates while Colorado and Oregon barred federal inmates from voting. Since 1975, while 13 states have liberalised their laws, 11 have imposed further restrictions.

On March 30, 2004, the European Court of Human Rights became quite vocal on this issue. It criticized UK for having laws that bar inmates from voting; terming it as gross violation of human rights. It further ruled that “any devaluation or weakening of the right [to vote] threatens to undermine [the democratic] system and should not be lightly or casually removed.” Even influential international treaties including Article 5, section (c) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which ensure that citizens have their fundamental rights intact, favoured voting rights of inmates. A recent survey of the American people by APSA reveals that 80%, 68%, and 60% of respondents want to see restoration of voting rights of ex-felons, probationers & parolees, respectively. Over 800,000 American felons have got their voting rights back since 1997.

It’s time for India, being the world’s most populated democracy, to give explicit importance to this issue of felon voting. As we said, it may not affect our parliamentary makeover much; but relaxing restrictions may contribute in some degree, howsoever minimal, to the reformation of such inmates.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Saturday, September 8, 2012

CORRUPTION: INDIAN BUREAUCRACY

Corruption remains our Achilles Heel. Indian vigilance departments should now start employing innovative ground-level Anti-Corruption Tactics to reduce the incidence of this malaise

The whole idea of Zero Tolerance Policy introduced by the government apparently is falling flat. Initiatives like Whistle Blowers Bill, Right to Information Act, Action Plan on Vigilance, transparency in tendering and contracting, e-Governance and similar other policies are being dodged easily.

Even the most tested and tried concept of ombudsmen (sometimes called Chief Vigilance Officers) has not been enacted till now. The Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) set up in January 1966 under Morarji Desai recommended a two-tier machinery – a Lokpal at the Centre and one Lokayukta each at the State level for redressal of people’s grievances. That remains a recommendation even after 44 years. As per late Prof. C. K. Prahalad, the cost of corruption to India till now has been Rs.2.5 trillion.

India now needs radical ground level tactics to curb corruption. Interestingly, in Philippines, where corruption among customs officials is quite high, the government has innovatively made them work on drawer-less tables under closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras to fight the so-called “open drawer” racket. Similarly, in Nepal, airport officials are given trousers with no pockets. In US, Obama – when he was senator – innovated the compulsory usage of cameras in police cars in Illinois.

Should India employ similar tactics? Of course, and more. The vigilance commission should not simply track corruption but should attempt to entrap government officials by clandestinely offering bribes. Those who fall for such traps; arrest them. Over time, even corrupt government officials would stop accepting bribes believing an offer could well be a vigilance investigation in progress.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Thursday, September 6, 2012

The Eva Morales plan!

After almost three years of niggling arguments with Eva Morales, Bolivia’s President, Naveen Jindal finally convinces Bolivia to sign on the dotted line for a possibly mammoth global coup of a deal; B&E analyses the critical road blocks and opportunities going forward

When Bolivian President Eva Morales picked the pen and signed over 3000 acres to Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) – a Rs.110 billion company, a unit of the Rs.700 billion O. P. Jindal Group – it was a considerably large step in the last mile effort for industrialist and Parliamentarian Naveen Jindal to finalise one of the most critical global. For records, JSPL is investing Rs.100 billion in setting up a steel and power plant in Bolivia. Bolivian President Evo Morales signed legal documents granting JSPL the required land for a number of their projects, including that for steel, DRE, iron-ore pelletisation et al, a few days back.

That JSPL has become globally notable of late is actually not know to many in India. The Boston Consulting Group listed JSPL in its list of ‘Global top ten value creators of 2010.’ As per BCG’s global “Threading the needle: value creation in low growth economy” report based on Total Shareholder Return, JSPL is the world’s second largest value creating company. Last year, Forbes also included JSPL in its Fab 50 listings. But the Bolivia deal has been hanging since 2007, when – after announcing that JSPL will invest $2.1 billion over eight years for developing the world’s largest iron and steel mines in El Mutun, which has reserves to the tune of 10 billion tonnes – things went into a limbo as the government, after handing over the initial 1000 acres, refused to hand over the remaining requested land to JSPL. In a quid pro quo, JSPL did not advance the investments into Bolivia... till the Bolivian government gave an ultimatum last year to JSPL to either take it or leave it.

It is to be borne in mind that the investment made by Jindals in Bolivia is the largest of its kind. After last month’s final agreement, the Jindals have started the required operations for developing plants in El Mutun and Santa Cruz district. It is expected that both these projects will ready for operation by the next three to four years. On the other hand, though the Bolivian government has granted the additional 3,000 acres for the project to take off, the company still requires 5,000 acres of land to set up the complete infrastructure of the steel plant, including a power plant in the vicinity. Chattisgarh in-charge of JSPL, Pradeeep Tandon, commented to B&E, “Prior to this, we got the rights from Latin America for iron-ore mining for 40 years as well as setting up facilities to produce 1.7 million tonnes of steel, 6 million tonnes of sponge-iron and 10 million tonnes of high quality plates.” Navin Jindal, Executive Vice Chairman, JSPL, also commented on the earlier rankings, “It reiterates the confidence that our investors have in us and it further inspires us to keep growing like this.”


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Wednesday, September 5, 2012

The sting of consumerism

From medicine to poison, here’s how honey’s sweet image transformed

A plethora of medicinal uses and properties have been attributed to honey as the centuries have rolled. Many have hailed it as a natural substitute to medicine and the ‘tasty’ way of strengthening one’s immunity. Centuries ago, the Egyptians quite literally adopted its medicinal value by using it to dress wounds and embodying the dead. The Maya people of Central America consider the bee sacred and use its wax for culinary purposes. Even the world wars saw the hives being squeezed to their last drop. But today, a bottle of honey is carrying much more than just honey.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) recently carried out a shocking research, which revealed that many prominent honey brands sold in India, including the likes of Himalaya Forest Honey and Dabur Honey, contain beyond acceptable levels of antibiotics. Samples of 10 Indian brands and two imported brands, namely Nectaflor of Switzerland and Capilano Pure & Natural Honey of Australia, were tested at random with Nectaflor emerging as the most adulterated. The CSE report states that traces of Oxytetracycline, ampicillin, erythromycin, ciprofloxacin and even erythromycin were present in the samples. These antibiotics inevitably have hazardous repercussions on consumers’ health.

Many physicians like Dr. Bhola bemoan that “these antibiotics, if consumed regularly, could induce resistance to antibiotics.” This would create a superbug, which acclimatizes the body to the medicine, leaving the patient with no other choice but to consume more quantity of the drug. The superbug would further damage immunity, which ironically is honey’s prime medical feature. Children below five years of age, who are used to daily consumption of honey, could even face dire consequences like organ damage.

The adults also leave their kidney, liver and bones exposed.The antibiotics are finding their way into honey as a consequence of a despicable chain of retail bullishness. The beekeepers are forced to supply larger quantities of raw honey, hence forcing them to feed the bees with drugs to expedite the process. The regulatory bodies are fielding unacceptable double-standards to allow the murky and vicious practice to go on. Mr. Arvind Kumar Singh, President and CEO of Little Bee Impex (an export oriented company) states, “The export and domestic market standards are different”.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Tuesday, September 4, 2012

The mane issue!

While men have begun to take pride in being metrosexuals, ladies are letting go and hoping to redefine sexy and be proud of their body hair!

The mere mention of hairy women irked Yudi. In his mind, the thought of women drew a pretty picture of ladies with smooth and soft skin. Yudi would be turned off at even the thought of women with facial or body hair! Never mind that he hailed from Jhajjar, a village where probably conventional methods of hair removal are a far-fetched idea and even if there was an option, the masses would abstain from availing of the offer! It astonished him as to how among his circle the topic of discussion would inevitably veer to ladies with body hair; he always quickly withdrew from such conversations before they got any grosser!

With all due respect to the preferences of men like Yudi, one can’t help but wonder: Didn’t nature intend us to have body hair? In a recent research, it has been observed that a lot of women, regardless of how people feel about them, prefer to be as natural as possible (no, we aren’t talking about birthday suits... yet!). Not only have women joined hands for the cause, there are now forums supporting women who feel awkward due to excessive facial or body hair. Campaigns such as ‘We Can Face It’ was designed specifically to support women with unwanted facial hair. Renowned comedian Shazia Mirza went ahead and featured a show called @#$% Off, I’m a Hairy Woman! on BBC. She also put her out-of-the-box thinking on display, when she had hairy women walking the ramp for her, wearing ‘sexy’ underwear made of body hair! I think we need to cut some slack here for the ladies. It is a tough job after all. Temporary hair removal techniques such as shaving, waxing, depilating, epilating, sugaring and threading are not only cumbersome and painful but are also riddled with ugly possibilities of cuts, scars, and skin pigmentation.


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Monday, September 3, 2012

Sequels for Sallu

Fresh from his break-up after a six-year relationship with Katrina Kaif, Salman Khan seems to have his hands full with sequels – movie sequels, that is. He’s bagged four big upcoming sequels, namely, those of Wanted, Partner, No Entry, and also of Mr. India with Boney Kapoor. Safe to assume that Salman is handling the break-up much better than Kaif, who was recently driven to tears by being quizzed about it...


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Saturday, September 1, 2012

Mayank Pareek, Managing Executive Officer - Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India

B&E: Amongst all auto majors, Maruti was best able to withstand the slowdown period. The secret(s)?
MP: One of the major factors that has worked in our favour in this case is our network expansion in the rural areas. We decided to go to the rural markets much before competition realised the potential. So, when other players were busy tapping the rural consumers, we were targeting the rural markets to generate future growth for the company. If a Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 in a developed market like US, it will hardly affect the consumer who is living in a Tier-III city in the Indian market. Once, close to 3% of our total sales used to come from rural markets but today, the percentage has risen to 18% and that too in a span of just two years. We have even broken many myths. In fact, 2% of our total sales come from villages which have less than 200 people! All in all, the rural strategy has worked well for us.

B&E: What is the progress on your planned R&D Centre at Rohtak?
MP: We have earmarked close to Rs.25 billion for the R&D project at Rohtak. We have already purchased land for the same and aim to build a world-class test-track on it. The central idea is to conceptualise, test, develop, design and manufacture a car for India in India.


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