Travelling Soldier

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Ms Narain’s research and lobbying group, based in Delhi had reported that its laboratory had tested soft drinks made by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, bought in various parts of India, and found them to contain pesticide residues far above limits recommended by the government’s Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

Its latest soft-drinks report has led the governments of several Indian states to ban the sale of PepsiCo’s and Coca-Cola’s products in schools and government offices. One state, Kerala, has introduced total prohibition, which the companies have challenged in the courts.

In the 25 years since Ms Narain went to work as a volunteer with CSE’s founder, Anil Agarwal, it has had successes that must make it the envy of other activist groups. Most famously, the group’s campaign against air pollution in the 1990s was largely credited with the decision to use compressed natural gas as fuel in Delhi’s buses, taxis and three-wheeled “autorickshaws”. Normally, says Ms Narain, “the scale of the disaster overshadows the scale of the intervention.” In this, however, CSE made a difference. She is just as proud, however, of the way the group has brought rainwater-harvesting to the centre of the debate about how to cope with India’s worsening water shortage—an achievement that won CSE last year’s Stockholm water prize.

Ms Narain joined CSE from high school, because she was drawn to Agarwal’s vision of allying “the rigour of science to the passion of journalism”, and inherited his mantle when he died in 2002. At the time, some doubted whether CSE could maintain its standing. But this week, even Coca-Cola came close to suing for peace, leaking a letter “respectfully” disagreeing with the CSE laboratory’s findings, but asking for talks. CSE agreed—provided the agenda is confined to the implementation of the final-product standard. A non-scientist, Ms Narain is proud of having one useful journalistic habit: never being afraid to ask a stupid question. So far, at least, CSE has not given many stupid answers.

Do you like to know what are the most viewed articles in the Wikipedia? Then there is a solution for it.A German Programmer has taken a stab at creating popularity index of the articles..

CHECK THE TOOL

An article I had read in Inc magazine(07/2006) titled the Coolest Start-up in America profiled a company called TerraCycle. TerraCycle has taken the plant world by storm by creating a fertilizer made by feeding organic waste to worms and turning the worm castings into a spray on fertilizer. They further extend the recycling track by collecting and reusing plastic drink bottles for packaging.

The company has caught the attention of mainstream retailers such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot and given a boost to the entire organic/green industry.Discover some very unique ways that TerraCycle is building a national brand on a local budget.

A recent research article from Standford Graduate School of Business’s knowledgebase discusses the impact of diversity on work-group performance.

"In a recent article disentangling what researchers have learned over the past 50 years, Margaret A. Neale finds that diversity across dimensions, such as functional expertise, education, or personality, can increase performance by enhancing creativity or group problem-solving. In contrast, more visible diversity, such as race, gender, or age, can have negative effects on a group—at least initially."
Overall, studies reveal that teams with group conflict based on diversity tend to perform better than those with more similarities. What have your experiences with diveristy in your workgroups been like? Have you find this research to be true?

“In fact, the worst kind of group for an organization that wants to be innovative and creative is one in which everyone is alike and gets along too well,” she says. And the key to making nearly any kind of diversity work is managing it well.

Manchester Business School has about 86% of international diversity within a class of less than 100,certainly MBS rocks in group activities… aint it??

Recently,B-School Challenge was conducted in India where Top-B Schools grads competed against each other.Here are some questions that were asked in those events.

1. By the year 2000, the company was recognised as the world’s lowest cost producer of steel. In 2005, the company was recognised as the world’s best steel producer. Which Indian company?

2. The first one opened in 1965 in New York City at the corner of First Avenue and 63rd Street on Manhattan’s upper East side. The first menu was a chalkboard and it quickly became the meeting place for young adults grossing over $1 Million in revenues in the first year. It was further popularized by the 1978 movie by the same name, starring Donna Summers. Nowadays, this is used extensively in advertising and promotion materials around the world. What?

3. Tea was rationed during World War II, but it was not until 1953, just after rationing finished, that this company launched the tea bag to the UK. It was an immediate success. Which company?

4. Built in 1826 by James Robertson, an infamous illicit distiller of Aberdeenshire, rival distillers burnt it down in 1841. The unit was rebuilt in 1845. Its famous prefix came after a visit and tasting session by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who were camping in the nearby Balmoral castle in 1848. Name the brand.

5. ABCTCL is a Rs. 300 crore ISO 9002 certified company. What is its 16 page, all colour, monthly tabloid called?

6. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently given the go-ahead to which Indian pharmaceutical firm for a three-ingredient fixed dose anti-AIDS cocktail pill for adults?

7. Which Indian company has a license to distribute the premium fashion watch brand Tommy Hilfiger in India?

8. She was named after a department store. Although she is generally considered African American, she is biracial, with a white English-born mother and a black American father. Who?

9. "I do not sell products. I sell an entire civilization in a jar." Quote from whom?

10. The music industry is to sue it for allegedly providing links to pirated tracks. "We’ve started the process and as far as we’re concerned we’re on a track to litigation," John Kennedy, chairman of the IFPI, told Bloomberg.com. Who?

11. For the first time, the U.S. authority manufacturing it has said that it is costing more than its value to make this year, thanks to higher metal prices. "It is going to disappear soon unless something changes in the economics of commodities" is the popular perception. Gallup polling has shown that two-thirds of Americans want to keep it from disappearing. What?

12. He’s the only head of state to use the internet daily as a means of communicating with his subjects as well as people outside the country. The royal site also details royal activities – state visits, aid to the poor - and some of this East Asian country’s modern history. Name him.

13. The Indian Railways are running two passenger locomotives (Thanjavur to Nagore section) and six diesel trains with a special fuel. What is it?

14. The radio station WHRB (95.3FM Cambridge), is run exclusively by students, and is given space on the university campus in the basement of a freshman dormitory. It is also home of the notorious radio "Orgy" format, where the entire catalogue of a certain band, record, or artist is played in sequence. Which university?

15. Suvir Sujan and Avnish Bajaj, both Harvard Business School classmates, joined together to form which popular Web site?

16. What would you be going for "when you care enough to send the very best"?

17. Fund-raising under the guise of market research (using an opinion poll or contact poll) is an abuse of the MRA and ESOMAR guidelines, and is called what?

18. In June 2004 the UK’s Private Eye reported that this fast food chain was handing out meal vouchers, balloons, and toys to children in pediatric wards. Which chain?

19. The beloved founder of this company signed his companywide memos "Dad". However, his company was taken over after a long and harsh 18-month battle. The new owner is worlds apart in culture, bragging about a policy of firing the least-effective ten percent of employees every year. Which company?

20. The original assets of which company were a hundred acres of garden along the Allegheny River - 30 acres of horseradish – along with 24 horses, a dozen wagons and a vinegar factory in St. Louis?

21. "Take Leo Burnett, David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach and Mark Twain. Combine their brains and shave their heads. What’s left? ___ ___.” Fill in the blanks.

22. This brand of jewellery sponsored The Jodhpur Polo Season of the year 2004. The brand has now planned to host a grand party in Delhi in Feb in presence of the Yuvraj of Jodhpur to honour the champion teams with diamond studded trophies. The brand is named after a Greek mythological princess who was known for her passion for exquisite jewellery. Name the brand.

23. With which celebrity couple would one connect Vivid Mercantile Pvt. Ltd, Lira Tradecom Pvt. Ltd, Imperial Mercantile Pvt. Ltd and Stallion Commercials Pvt. Ltd which were in the news a while ago?

24. In 1992, Kaplan and Norton introduced this as a method intended to give managers a fast, comprehensive view of the performance of a business. What method??

25. This office building has its own zip code, 60606. It towers at a height of 442 meters and more than 25,000 people walk through the doors of this fully automated building every day. Name it.

Source:INDIANBLOGGER.thanks

Lenovo, the world’s third-largest computer maker, has hired its fourth Dell executive in little more than a week, continuing to poach top officers from its bigger rival.

Lenovo, the Chinese computer maker that paid $1.25 billion last year to acquire the personal computer business of I.B.M., has been moving aggressively to strengthen its executive ranks as it tries to transform itself into a global computer giant in a competitive market.

Recently, Lenovo has been doing that at the expense of Dell, the world’s largest maker of personal computers. Dell has struggled with a series of setbacks, including souring profit growth, a stumbling share price and the largest safety recall in the history of the consumer electronics industry. Lenovo is seeking to gain ground on Dell and its other bigger rival, Hewlett-Packard.

Lenovo is also trying to become one of China’s first home-grown global brand names, signing up as a sponsor for the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, enlisting celebrities to promote its products, hiring foreign executives and refashioning a company that grew out of a small computer shop in Beijing.

Today, its president and chief executive is William J. Amelio, a former senior executive at Dell, and it has executive offices in Beijing, Singapore and Purchase, N.Y.

Lenovo’s hiring spree is helping reshape the battle among the world’s biggest computer makers in an industry contending with falling prices and shrinking margins.

Dell posted poorer-than-expected second-quarter earnings this month and said the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating its accounting practices. The company also recalled 4.1 million laptop batteries made by Sony because of the risk of fires.

With Dell slumping, Lenovo said on Thursday that it had hired Christopher Askew, 44, a vice president of Dell Services in Asia-Pacific and Japan, as a senior executive in charge of the new Lenovo Services business unit based in Singapore.

That hiring came days after three other Dell executives based in Asia joined Lenovo, which hired Mr. Amelio in December. Mr. Amelio had served as Dell’s president, Asia-Pacific and Japan.

On Monday, Lenovo said that it had hired David Schmoock, 37, a vice president for marketing for Dell Asia-Pacific and Japan, as the head of its new center of excellence, which will be responsible for forecasting, sales, pricing and inventory management.

Four days before that, on Aug. 17, Lenovo said it had hired David Miller, 42, the head of Dell China, and Sotaro Amano, 38, Dell’s corporate director for home and business sales in Japan.

Mr. Miller will serve as Lenovo’s president Asia-Pacific, and Mr. Sotaro was named president of Lenovo Japan.

Shares of Lenovo, which has moved its corporate headquarters from Beijing to Purchase, and Dell, which is based in Round Rock, Tex., have both been slumping.

Even though Lenovo has gained some market share in China, its largest market,

Dell and Hewlett-Packard remain much bigger and have much better brand-name recognition.

The loss of crucial executives could be a blow to Dell, which in recent months has performed well in Asia, its fastest-growing area for sales and a bright spot in a slumping market.

SOURCE:NYTIMES

A walkthrough of some of the major technological events(can say movements) in India and how India Captured IT.
After reading this everyone would agree IT breakthrughs happened by choice not by chance(low cost)

1946-1950: The Indian Institute of Technology founded. With seven campuses, which admit 3,500 out of 150,000 applicants each year, it has become the intellectual core of the country’s industry. Its professors sit on advisory boards, while alumni are behind successes such as Infosys. The five-year program is “grueling,” said Ravi Pradhan, Via Technologies’ manager for India.

1968: The Tata industrial conglomerate forms software services unit Tata Consultancy Services. “We had six employees,” said Nagaraj Ijari, the delivery center head at TCS’ Bangalore offices. “Now we have 40,000.”

Mid-1970s: IBM exits India. Import duties of 150 percent or more mean that VCRs cost $3,000 and TVs cost $6,000. Wipro starts to create India’s first homegrown PC.

1985: Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi makes speech imploring the country to move into tech. A transcript of the speech is passed out on paper to the audience, thanks to speech-to-text computing.

“It was 60 percent correct, but you could see the power of it,” said A.K. Bhuwania, chairman of the Priya Group, a distributor. That day, Bhuwania decides to expand from chemicals into tech components.

1986: General Electric expands engineering presence and its Six Sigma methodologies here. Ex-GE employees become key leaders in several companies. “They became like Fairchild” asserts Vinod Dham, co-founder of NewPath Ventures.

1991: National financial crisis causes government to introduce major reforms. Finance Minister Manmohan Singh (now prime minister) emerges as hero.

1993: A group of IT leaders determines plan for IT industry. Professor Deepak Phatak predicts India’s IT output will hit $100 billion by 2010. “Everyone thought that sounded crazy, so we changed it to $50 billion by 2008,” he said. The latter figure is on track.

1994: Telecom liberalized. “That helped a lot. Before that, it was all FedEx,” said Supratim Sakar, manager of strategic marketing at Wipro.

1995: TCS determines that its CasePac tool developed for IBM can be used to scan software for Y2K problems. An industry is born.

1999: Y2K contracts pile into India. “The biggest boost of all was Y2K. In some ways, the U.S. created this monster,” said Ash Lilani, head of sales and marketing at Silicon Valley Bank.

2002: Indian companies expand hiring to handle incoming work resulting from massive layoffs after the dot-com bubble burst and the U.S. tech industry fell into a recession. “We had a little bit of breathing space,” said Sanjay Nayak, CEO of Tejas Networks

2003: Led by service conglomerates such as Wipro and Infosys, India becomes a primary destination for offshore outsourcing as foreign companies seek to lower labor costs. The trend leads to political controversies around the world.

2004: Singh becomes Prime Minister. High tech is fairly ingrained in daily life for many in cities. ATMs become more widely used, for example.

“Ten years ago, you had to stand in line for money at the bank,” said Srinath Batni, a board member at Infosys. “It was what people did on the weekend.”

2005: Entrepreneur Rajesh Jain begins to promote thin clients costing $100 to $150 as computers for the mass population. “It’s not that we need just cheaper solutions. We need the newest technology, but at fundamentally lower price points,” Jain has said.

SOURCE: LINK

Author of "The Undercover Economist",Tim Harford has written beautifully about "Product Sabotage" helping customers here.There are very interesting things mentioned viz.,

Why would a company deliberately damage its best product?
Starbucks Does…
Take the secret cappuccino, which you can buy in two of the leading coffee chains, Starbucks and Coffee Republic.

The sales assistants know what the drink is and they have a little button on their cash tills to ring it up. It’s cheaper than the other drinks on offer, but it doesn’t appear on the menu.

Starbucks claims that’s because they don’t have room on the menu board. Coffee Republic doesn’t even have that excuse: there’s a blank space with no price where this drink should be listed.

It’s called the "short cappuccino", and it’s smaller, cheaper and better than the smallest size on the menu, the "tall".

Full Article

After recent Dell Laptop battery recalls,now its the turn of Apple to recall their batteries.It looks like after Dell’s disaster Apple did try to check the risk of their batteries and have determined that the batteries produced by the Sony Corp.of Japan pose Safety Risk that may result in overheating under some circumstances.

Sony’s stock sank this week; recent recalls of its product may cost up to $258 million.

The affected batteries were sold worldwide from October 2003 through August 2006 for use with the following notebook computers: 12-inch iBook G4, 12-inch PowerBook G4 and 15-inch PowerBook G4.

Apple is voluntarily recalling the affected batteries and has initiated a worldwide exchange program to provide eligible customers with a new replacement battery, free of charge. This program is being conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and other international safety authorities.

To identify if the battery needs to be replaced Apple has updated list of Battery Model numbers-Clickhere

CNN has tried to collect some awesome ideas which VCs investors are ready to fund.Right people with Right Ideas to streamline the technologies and to build some great products..this is what is required aint it…

To know which ideas VCs are after(Click here)

Among the more frequent suggestions heard from American tech workers opposed to outsourcing is this: "Why don’t they just outsource the CEO?" Well, one major U.S. multinational just did…sort of.

Last week, PepsiCo’s board tapped Indian-born and -educated Indra Nooyi for its top job. Nooyi was born in Madras and attended business school in Calcutta before completing her studies at Yale. She’s been with Pepsi since 1994 following stints at Motorola and Johnson & Johnson.

Characterizing this move as ‘outsourcing’ is a bit tongue in cheek, but I think the decision is remarkable for a number of reasons. For one, it shows that Pepsi "gets" the flat world. It understands that the only market that matters is the global marketplace, and that to play well in it businesses need to hire the best and brightest–at every level–regardless of nationality, race, or gender.

That’s true all the way from the corner office down to lower-level tech and line of business positions.

Nooyi’s appointment as Pepsi CEO also puts the lie to the notion that businesses in the West view India merely as a source of low-wage, commodity workers. There are many high-level executives of Indian origin working in leading American corporations, but Nooyi immediately becomes the most high-profile of these talented individuals.

Finally, Pepsi’s choice of Nooyi as CEO shows that multinational corporations don’t exist simply to suck profits and resources from developing countries (condolences if you spent $40,000 at Berkeley learning otherwise).

Rather, Pepsi’s decision is proof that multinationals offer economic opportunity on a global basis. Indeed, Pepsi is now behaving along the lines of what IBM CEO Sam Palmisano recently called "the globally integrated enterprise," a new form of industrial organization that creates lasting wealth and meaningful jobs around the world. CEO probably fits in there somewhere under the "meaningful job" definition.

Outsource the CEO? Pepsi has answered that challenge.

Impressed with Railway Minister Lalu Prasad’s managerial acumen, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) plans to rope him in for lectures in November.

"The man who can change the fortune of the Railways deserves to be a part of the IIM-A course curriculum. He is a great manager and we are going to use his managerial skill through a series of classes," institute director Bakul H Dholakia said.

"We are preparing his case study and it will be ready in two months. We hope that a series of lectures by the minister will help the students understand the subject better," Dholakia added.

He added, "Whatever people may say about Lalu Prasad’s political standing, he is certainly a management guru. We are sure his case study and lectures will help both our students and teachers in understanding a new field. The minister has some unique experiences and we are quite eager to learn new things."

Lalu Prasad, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief, is credited with turning around the fortune of the Railways, which ended 2005-06 fiscal with a healthy cash reserve of Rs 110 billion.

Dholakia also said that a team of professors in charge of developing the case study are in touch with the Railway Ministry and are getting "enough support".

"It’s really inspiring that a government department is collaborating in formulating our course material," he added.

In a move that reflects MTV Networks International (MTVNI) expanded portfolio of businesses in Europe, Bhavneet Singh has been promoted to deputy general manager of the fast expanding emerging markets group.

In this role, Singh will manage almost 21 channels by the end of 2006, informs an official release.

Singh will be responsible for all aspects of the business across the music channel MTV and the kids’ channel Nickelodeon and Comedy brands in central eastern Europe and Middle East with a specific focus on development and establishing brands across the emerging markets as well as new platforms, such as broadband (overdrive), mobile and the youth community website Neopets.

Prior to his appointment, Singh previously served as international sales strategy director, for the corporate strategy group with in MTVNI working across all international markets.

The new role will be based in London and he will report to MTV Networks International GM and VP emerging markets group Dean Possenniskie.

Possenniskie commented; “Having, grown the EM business at a rapid rate, my energy, drive and focus continues with exciting plans for the emerging markets Group, with Bhavneet on board the further channel expansion in Eastern Europe, Middle East and Central Asia will be supported by him and his team. I’m confident that with his diverse business, commercial and strategy experience Bhavneet will be a huge success within emerging Markets”.

MTV Networks Europe COO Simon Guild adds; “Bhavneet is a very talented individual and I am delighted to see him appointed to this important position where he will be able to drive growth in one of our fastest expanding businesses”

Singh (32), whose promotion is effective immediately, has been with MTV Networks since 2004, has earlier worked for Manchester United PLC and has commercial experience working as director sales at IMG TWI in India, apart from being head of ad-sales at Discovery Channel in Asia. Bhavneet also holds an MBA(2004) from Manchester Business School.

Last Week,an interesting article was publishes in the Business Week about the niche group of (irritant) applicants who pester the admission office/alumn/students/faculty etc., during the application process and thus they create a negative impression which will influence their admission to the B-School.

"One McCombs applicant visiting a class talked through the entire lecture; another used inappropriate language in an e-mail exchange with an alum. Reports of their misbehavior got back to the admissions office on both occasions." - Asst. Dean Daniel Garza,Texas Mccombs

It is very true that the way applicant approaches any individual related to the School will have impact on his/her admission to that school or sometimes group of schools.The number of applicants have increased steeply and also B-Schools are competing among themselves to admit the most genuine and talented students.In this process even a small mistake by the applicant at any stage of application or in the vicinity of the time-period might get noticed.A negative or hurting remarks in popular MBA forums or an foul email to the alumns will surely sends bad feedback to the Admn office.

In the contemporary highly connected world,even an iota of small information is passed within minutes to the other part of the world.So MBA Applications,Be Careful and Good Luck

The University of Manchester has appointed Professor Michael Luger from Kenan-Flagler Business School, part of the University of North Carolina, to be the new Director of Manchester Business School from January 2007.

Professor Luger is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Director of the Center for Competitive Economies at Kenan-Flagler Business School, recognised as one of the United States’ leading business schools in rankings such as The Financial Times, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. 

He has published and presented extensively on economic development issues including infrastructure, research and technology parks, university impact, clusters, tax incentives, workforce dynamics and competitiveness in the new economy.

Professor Luger said, "This is a unique and exciting opportunity to help Manchester Business School achieve its ambition of becoming the best Business School in the UK, and among the top 10 in the world.  I was attracted to the position by the size and scope of the School, and by the vision and energy of the University’s leadership.  I look forward to working with administrators, staff, alumni, students and friends of Manchester Business School in this next stage of development."

Professor Alan Gilbert, President of The University of Manchester, said: "I welcome the appointment of Professor Luger to Manchester Business School.  He brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the role and is well-placed to help the School achieve its strategic vision of being a world-class centre for business and management education and research."

Before joining the Kenan-Flagler Business School, Professor Luger spent 12 years as chairman of the Department of Public Policy and was the Carl H. Pegg Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina.  He has taught at Duke University and the University of Maryland.  He has also worked at the Greater London Council and is a former Director of Planning for the Model Cities Bureau in Scranton, Philadelphia. 

Professor Luger has an AB (architecture and planning) and MPA (public affairs) from Princeton University, and an MRP (planning) and Ph.D. (economics) from the University of California at Berkeley.

Professor Michael Luger will replace Professor John Arnold, who will step down at the end of this year after 12 years leading Manchester Business School. 

A key survey of the world’s top 100 brands is bad news for Ford and Gap but confirms Coca-Cola’s hold on the top slot.Ford is reduced in brand value by 16% to $11bn, while Gap plunges 22% to $6.4bn in the report.