Wednesday, November 21, 2012

The games of Love

Technology and dating communities stay in step with the changing times...

Monica (name changed) is a self-confessed “Facebook addict” since the past one year, she spends hours upon hours dredging the profiles of her friends, of her friend’s friends, and indulging in a little bit of harmless (sometimes not) flirting. “It’s so easy to look for interesting guys with the help of Zoosk (an application on Facebook); you go online, make a brief profile of yourself, add a picture and voila! You can now be approached by anyone who has similarly made their own profile, it is still up to you whether you want to respond or not. It’s so safe,” she exclaims.

Gone are the days of Internet chatting (and good riddance!) where you would chat with a ‘hot’ girl for hours upon hours and find out later that this ‘hot’ girl was in fact a dude, playing you for fun. This was still the best in the worst-case scenario. Chatting was so anonymous and random that to gauge the potential ‘dateability’ of a person was pure guesswork. We’ve all heard stories of guys going to meet girls they met in an Internet chat room and finding out someone who they wouldn’t sit with in a normal room, and vice versa. Populated disproportionately with sick perverts and repressed individuals, Internet chat rooms were a mine field.

Thank God technology and the society have moved on. Now, it’s much more acceptable to leave your photo and profile online for potential suitors to contact you, without giving people the wrong idea. “I met a great friend through Zoosk; we started off flirting, and then met each other a couple of times. But we later realised that the chemistry was just not there. However, we’re still great friends,” adds Monica enthusiastically.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Hail Jupiter!

MDLR Airlines follows a standard model – small passenger groups, small jets & small cities. But how long will “Jupiter” continue its flight? STEVEN PHILIP WARNER analyses the hiccups and forces at play…

I’ll cut the conversation short (out with the truth?) – the “Jupiter” mentioned here is not the Greek God of the sky and light; it’s the planet Jupiter (remember M-V-E-M-“J”-S-U-N-P?!). Of course, you’d heard of it during your toddler days that it is the “largest” planet in our solar system (it’s 2.5 times bigger than all other planets combined!). Wonder why we’re going on a space travel? Well, here’s something that most have no pin head-sized clue about – this apparently “solid” astronomical giant has “no” land at all and is composed only of gaseous components (hydrogen, helium, methane et al).

As we walked into the Gurgaon office of MDLR Airlines, we found an earthly counterpart of Jupiter. Just like Jupiter, this is the aviation arm of the mammoth Rs.30 billion MDLR Group, a multiMULTI-decades-old renowned infrastructural giant. However, India saw something strange from this much profitable group – a foray into the bleeding general aviation market on March 14, 2007. It surprised well-wishers and critics alike. Why would a profitable real estate developer like MDLR Group venture into an industry which was forecasted to make $1 billion in losses during 2007 and a further $400 million, the year after? Why would MDLR want to dip itself into the river that has (at least till date) washed away profligate dreams of breaking-even for giants like Kingfisher Airlines, Air Sahara, Air Deccan, GoAir et al? He looked confident, the bearded Gopal Goyal, Chairman, MDLR Airlines, as he sat in his dimly-lit office, dressed in a grey shirt as he chokingly uttered (albeit with a smile), “Launching MDLR airlines was my dream, and people go to any heights to achieve their dreams…” “Sapna…” (as Gopal mentions) if we may add, has also smashed-to-smithereens many an “I-wanna-become-an” entrepreneur reverie. Would this mean a cracked-up end-of-the-road for him too?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Sunday, November 18, 2012

INDIA: GROWTH

Nearly 60% of the country's rural population is into farming

“In South Asia, growth in agriculture dropped from 3.6% in 1980s to 3% in 2002-03,” the survey says and suggests that rural infrastructure needs to be improved so that the farmers are able to reach their products to markets. It further says that productivity and investment in this sector should also be increased. The Director of ESCAP’s Poverty and Development Division is not too optimistic about the future of the region.

“It’s not all sunshine ahead, there are some dark clouds on the horizon, but the region has strong and healthy macroeconomic fundamentals and these will help shield it,” he said. However, policy makers in India have predicted a record foodgrain this time due to timely monsoon. They say this will help calm down global food market which is facing a slump.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Hunger Strike Again…

...the world food price touches a new high all over again...

For decades, people around the world advocated low commodity prices, especially the food prices. But in recent months, the world price of almost all food crops has shot up. World Food Programme (WFP), a UN agency, has appealed to the world, especially the developed countries, to help them with $500 million, to cover higher food costs. At the end of 2007, 37 countries faced food crises, and 20 had considered some kind of food-price controls. Moreover, food costs had risen by 23% since 2006 with the price of grains up by 42%, oil by 50% and dairy products by 80%. As per the WFP, most countries of Central Africa, Afghanistan and few parts of Asia are facing a big food crunch.

More than 30% of the people do not get as much food as needed. But in many countries, it’s the political and bureaucratic affairs that have actually build an artificial shortage of food. Studies have shown that there is virtually no shortage of food but due to wrong planning most of the food grains do not reach the needy.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Sunday, November 11, 2012

“The whole deal is to make sure that we have a quality product”

Preity Zinta talks at length about her agenda for the Mohali team in an exclusive with neha sarin of B&E
 With her successful bidding for the Mohali team, popular Bollywood actress Preity Zinta has already enhanced the glamour quotient of IPL by leaps & bounds. She discusses with B&E how she is now engaged hands on towards the success of her franchise:

B&E: What prompted you to bid for IPL?

PZ: What prompted it was absolutely my instinct, a gut feel that it had to go the right way… the fact that sports is getting privatised and the most popular sport – cricket is getting privatised; it’s a whole new sense of opportunity for not just us but for every sportsperson who’s interested in the game. Also, India has a population of one billion and only one cricket team till now. There are so many talented cricketers, and young talent that needs to be discovered.

B&E: How much do you follow cricket after winning the bid?

PZ: I do follow it quite a bit, I followed India’s tour to Australia completely and test matches a little bit but right now I am busy working behind the scenes, so I don’t have that much ideal time to sit in front of the television.

B&E: How will IPL team owners make money?

PZ: You know for me money is very important, but right now my first focus is to win the tournament. We are looking at a long-term plan, we have a professional set up, so it’s not a child’s game. Things have to be organised properly; we have a great team, a great coach and some great people working with us. One has to take care of sales, earn revenues that come in through merchandising and of course sponsorships. But for me, I am purely in for the game... It would be really amazing to win the cup.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Saturday, November 10, 2012

Steady the ship, mate!

L&T must adopt a more conservative approach to hedging

When you look at a company like L&T, talks of a decelerating Indian economy seem to be nothing but pure hogwash. The company continues to show strong operating performance, as order inflow growth is set to beat expectations of 30% in FY’ 08.On this backdrop, news that its 100% subsidiary, UAE-based L&T International FZE (LTFZE, which undertakes commodity derivative transactions with a view to hedge commodity exposure of the L&T group companies) may post losses of as much as Rs.2 billion came as a bit of a rude shock to investors. LTFZE bet heavily against a fall in prices of zinc and some other commodities, a move that backfired, with zinc declining up to 62% over the past one year.

What is the implication of this event at this point of time? Abhishek Gumashta, analyst, Sharekhan reverts, “Consequently, in view of this development we expect LTFZE to report a net loss of Rs.1.013 billion in FY2008 as against our previous estimate of a profit of Rs.980 million.”


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Thursday, November 8, 2012

QUARTERLY RESULTS: INDIA INC.

Although the real impact of the US slowdown is yet to be felt, India Inc. is facing the brunt in advance

Though the sector-wise results – barring a few like banking and oil & gas – are not very encouraging, analysts are still upbeat on a few sectors like pharma and metals. Commenting on Q3 performance of pharma sector, Sarabjit Kour Nagra, VP Research, Angel Broking says, “Barring Dr Reddy’s (34% fall in gross sales), the numbers are in line with industry expectations.” During the quarter under consideration, pharma companies have managed a PAT growth of 22%; and as per many analysts, this is the end of the lean phase for the industry. Affirms Ramesh Adige, Executive Director, Global Corporate Affairs & Communications, Ranbaxy, “The next three years will see a strong global generics market opportunity unfold with an estimated $60-70 billion worth of branded products expected to go off patent. This will provide significant opportunities to global generics companies like Ranbaxy to offer word class generic drugs at comparatively lower price.”

vely lower price.” While the performance of almost all the sectors has come under scrutiny, banking is one, which has performed quite well. It had a good time during the last quarter with both credits and deposits growing steadily. Affirms Chanda Kochhar, Deputy MD, ICICI Bank, “The growth in profits has been robust on account of a rise in advances and improvement in margins.” Despite the fact that the pressure on net interest margin continued throughout the quarter, the sector emerged as the best in terms of net profit growth due to many reasons like strong treasury gains and reduced provisions. The sector’s outlook also remains positive for the coming quarter. “The trend that was observed during the quarter is expected to continue and the future outlook for the sector – especially for the banks in Tier I and Tier II cities – is very optimistic,” prophesies Manisha Porwal, Research Analyst, Arihant Capital.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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