A LARK OF FAITH

THE AMISH STAND THE ULTIMATE TEST OF TOLERANCE…
Imagine a world where homes have no telephones, televisions or refrigerators, where the people dress as plainly as possible, ensuring none of their clothes have any prints or pleats, tailored to attract absolutely no attention to the human contours. No man sports a moustache here as it’s a symbol of male pride; no woman wears any jewellery or cosmetics, even on the wedding day, to keep vanity at bay. Farmers don’t employ any mechanical equipment, not even tractors, so that they don’t consider increasing their lands and thus create an imbalance in society. No Porsche or Lamborghini speeds down the lanes of their towns, instead horse-drawn buggies set the pace of the neighbourhood… Sounds like a fruitless flight of fancy of a retro-dreamer?

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Initiative:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006

SERENADING THE SWISS ‘THUN’!

Switzerland is perfect! The trains are perfectly on time, and their banks, you guessed it – perfect. It’s impossible to imagine anyone sad, poor or dead in these spectacular settings. No wonder Yash Chopra has been ‘banking’ on Switzerland’s gorgeous locales to make his sugary romances look as rich and delectable as Swiss chocolate. Set amidst sprawling lush green mountains and snowy summits on one hand and Lake Thun on the other, the town of Thun in central Switzerland is one of the highly ranked destinations amongst film makers. Opportunities unlimited for water sports, the largest lake in the Swiss country has venues enough for the wet-and-the-wild narratives!

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Initiative:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006

WITNESS! ...AND WE STOOD

When the media world went bonkers sniffing in vain for leads on the Tata- Corus front, there was only one publication invited right into the heart of Tata Steel’s Jamshedpur epicenter, for an exclusive investigation into why the Tatas are killing Tata Steel, and why they’re loving it; B&E presents...

There is a hint of a dimple on her cheeks when she smiles and talks reverentially in a hushed voice. The last thing that comes to your mind in the tastefully decorated and neat office while looking at her is steel; steel magnolia may be more like it. A striking painting by Anjolie Ela Menon adds to the ambiencegrace, heritage and bewildering change. Jenny Shah is not just elegant and Charmin in her 39 years; she even oozes awe while talking about how Tata Steel is planning to celebrate 100 glorious years of existence in 2007. After all, she is Head, for Tata Steel’s Centre for Excellence, in charge of heritage communications – in reality, a well oiled PR exercise to ‘educate’ ‘em commoners about how great the founder of Tata Steel, Jamshed Tata was. And how his legacy lives on in the steel township of Jamshedpur, which boasts of a railway station aptly called Tatanagar.

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Initiative:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006

MIRAGE OF HOPE

As the saying goes, ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seems to have found a new mantra to tackle suicides by indebted farmers of India. On October 18, while addressing the second Agricultural Summit in New Delhi, the PM initiated a debate over the possibility of bringing the money lenders under the fold of governmental regulations when he said, “What do farmers need – a lower rate of interest or a reliable access to credit at a reasonable rate? Do we need to bring in money lenders under some form of regulation?” However, Dr. Singh seems to have ignored the fact that the recent spate of suicides by farmers in parts of southern India has got very little to do with either reliability or the rate of interest on credit lent by the private lenders.

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Initiative:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006

STRUCK BY THE ‘HURD’ MENTALITY!

AS HP TAKES THE NUMBER 1 SLOT, DELL MUST RE-ORGANISE AND FIGHT BACK
One is busy saving face after an embarrassing corporate spying scandal and the other is, most probably, having nightmares of burning laptop batteries nowadays. But neither the HP CEO, Mark Hurd, nor the Dell Chairman, Michael Dell, can let these impediments come in the way of their larger vision, that is, to be the undisputed leaders in the global computing industry. As per the latest figures from IDC with regard to global PC shipments for the quarter ending September 2006, HP emerged as the market leader (albeit by a slender margin) after gap of three years. PC shipments for HP increased by 15.1% while Dell recorded its worst ever performance, exhibiting a minuscule growth rate of 3.6%. “We gained share without sacrificing margins and continue to execute well against our long-term plan.

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Initiative:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006

American Companies Losing Billions

Historically it has been observed that whenever it comes to American companies losing billions of dollars of business, they had been successful to force their Presidents to make sure that sanctions become just a lip service, whereas everything else goes on as usual. Otherwise has anyone ever wondered whether it has ever happened before (or later) in the American history that even when sanctions remained, the American president (Read: Bill Clinton) was in India and busy dancing with the pretty women of Rajasthan, to keep his Indian counterparts happy? Well that’s the magic and lure of an $800 billion economy. Just keep going to keep them at bay.

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Initiative:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006

LUCY’S GOT A SISTER!!

ANOTHER BLAST FROM THE PAST!!
Questions that remain unanswered or perhaps answered but not quite... the oft -repeated ‘who we really are and where do we come from?’ emerges to the forefront yet again with a 3.3 million old find. With this discovery, scientists may have stumbled upon what would take them closer to unravelling the age old mystery – origins of the Modern Man. Africa for all its wild beauty and splendour is also believed to be the cradle of all civilisations and the latest link in the theory of evolution chain is the discovery of a near-intact skeleton of a three-year old female human ancestor that lived one hundred and fifty years before the famed ‘Lucy’ of the same species. The discovery hasn’t come without its share of grind for the scientists involved in the project.

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Initiative:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006

TITULAR TRAILS...

“This is the first time that a country has been the ‘Guest of Honour’ at the Frankfurt Book Fair twice (India was Guest of Honour twenty years ago). In those twenty years, the Indian book market has changed beyond recognition with 80,000 new books on the market each year.” “…the title translates to lots of space devoted not just to Indian publishing, but India culture… One of the highlights will be the Saturday evening screening of Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (Never Say Goodbye), starring Bollywood household name, Shah Rukh Khan. The fim has been directed by Karan Johar who will attend its screening in Frankfurt on Saturday, October 7. Leading fi lm director, Mira Nair, will speak and take questions about her new film Th e Namesake on Sunday, October 8. Audiences will have the chance to enjoy a viewing of the USA-based director’s work on Friday, October 6. On Sunday, October 8, the small Book Fair Cinema is entirely dedicated to Bollywood with screenings of popular films including Disco Dancer, Rang de Basanti and Parineeta..”
– Liz Sich, Director, Colman Getty
Consultancy

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Initiative:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006