Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Hindi-Nepali bhai bhai...

Nepal, a North-eastern neighbour with high hopes and expectations, looks forward to India for greater cooperation and help as it wants to emerge as an independent economy. B&E explores its demands and expectations in an exclusive interaction with the Nepalese diplomat in India.

“5 things Nepal appreciates about India...”

PAN-BORDER INITIATIVE:
Nepal considers India as one of the closest neighbours possible. One of the best things about India is its decision of pan-border initiative. There is nothing more important for bilateral relations between two countries other than free movement of people, which diplomats term as ‘people-to-people’ contact.

FRIENDLY PEOPLE:
Indians are very friendly. Lakhs of Nepalese work in Indian companies without much objection and discrimination. There can’t be a better gift than this as giving employment to the people is one of the best ways to help a neighbour. Not only that, there has been enough government support on the bilateral front. The recent inclusion of Nepalese in Indian Gorkha rifle regiment is a matter of prestige for Nepal and its people.

SOCIETY: There is also a lot to learn from Indian society and how it functions. Indian culture is one of the oldest and purest in the world. Prolonged existence of such a diverse society is not a matter of joke, as Nepal perceives.

DEMOCRACY: There is also a lot to learn from India’s form of democracy. Though there are flaws like corruption, poor governance or lack of transparency, attributes that democratic India has incorporated are praiseworthy. Nepal, with a history of life-long monarchy system, warmly acknowledges and tributes India for its achievement in regard to freedom of people, giving the right to vote to its citizens.

ECONOMIC TIES: Economic and trade relations with Nepal are satisfactory and a major boost for bilateral relations. The total trade of Nepal in 2006-07 was Rs.252 billion ($6 billion), of which 63.2 percent was with India.

“And the 5 things we dislike...”

BILATERAL TIES:
Good relations with India are one of the primary priorities of Nepal’s external policy. India certainly needs to be proactive.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

A new revenue model?

Is the Indian government missing out on billions?

One of the fastest growing nations, India faces a severe problem when it comes to effective and adequate revenue generation. For example, the government succeeded in generating only Rs.6,279.49 billion as gross tax collection while the proposed budget expenditure is Rs.9,532.31 billion in the budget year 2009-10. The country faces a budget deficit of Rs.2412.73 billion, which is 4.4% of GDP, a figure high for an emerging nation (in 2009, China’s budget deficit stood at yuan 111 billion, which is just 0.4% of the GDP). Since taxation is the major revenue source, the Indian government keeps attempting to look at increasing as well as ‘innovative’ ways generate more money. We looked around, and think we have one which will qualify in their standards. And that is to bring net based companies under an organised tax structure – beyond simply service and profits tax payments – on a narrow premise that we’re forwarding.

As a case study, search engine Google follows a unique revenue model with innovative products and services. It has AdWorks, which is a pay per click advertising program. This allows advertisers – on Google search and on other Google sites – to present their advertisements instantly to people who are looking for information similar to what the advertiser has to offer. And the advertiser pays Google for every click that surfers make on their links. Moreover, it has Ad-Sense, which allows Google to place clients’ advertisements on partner sites, wherein the partner sites earn part of the per-click payment. This unique double combo revenue model helped Google earn $21.79 billion in the FY2008, up from $16.59 billion in the last year. Even in the last quarter ending June 30, 2009, Google generated astounding revenues of $5.52 billion despite all talks of an economic slowdown. Yahoo is another internet service provider that generates a hefty chunk of money following a very similar revenue model. Yahoo Inc. generated $7.2 billion in the FY08 compare to $6.9 billion in the last year. In the last quarter ending 2009-06-03, Yahoo generated $1.57 billion.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Monday, October 29, 2012

Licensed to...

Where are the PSC regulations?

In the last few decades, specialised private security companies (PSCs) have come a long way and have increasingly assisted police and military in almost all levels of security. Their legacy is quite deep – private security companies assisted the British even during the US war for independence. More recently, the malaise caused in Iraq has opened up a new chapter, thanks to Blackwater – the largest PSC handling operations then.

A former Blackwater employee made a series of damning allegations against Blackwater’s owner Erik Prince in August, 2009 in a federal court in Virginia. As per this former employee, Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe” and that Prince was personally responsible for certain killings in Iraq. Although the judge has been sceptical about the claim, Prince has been accused of deploying medically unfit personnel for carrying lethal weaponry, just for earning more money. Blackwater has gone through several rebranding process (it’s now known as Xe Services) and has created more than a dozen affiliate companies (some allege, to transfer funds).


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Saturday, October 27, 2012

Game for the premium Prize?

this volume player stunned market watchers with its aggressive attack. pawan chabra finds out how hero honda achieved more than what was expected of it

The year 2008-09 hasn’t been too pleasing for Rajiv Bajaj. And not without reason, as his company Bajaj Auto registered negative y-o-y growth of 22% for the year ending March 31, 2009. On the contrary though, its arch-rival Hero Honda has been making merry, having strengthened its grapple hold over the two-wheeler industry during the year gone by.

A watershed year is how you would describe 2008-09 for Hero Honda, for in that time period, it not only crossed a significant landmark by selling 25 million units, but also consolidated its leadership with a 60% market share in the two-wheeler segment. And to understand that all this came at a time when all competitors were scrambling about, just to protect their bottomlines!

While on one hand, Hero Honda has proved its mettle as the indisputable leader in the Indian two-wheeler segment, it also became the world’s largest manufacturer of two-wheelers in a calendar year. And to talk about the joyride to the bank, the company recorded a healthy Rs.123.6 billion in revenues for FY’09 (registering a growth of 20%), while its bottomlines grew by 33% at Rs.12.8 billion y-o-y. Even during the most recent quarter ended June 30, 2009, the company posted net profits of Rs.5 billion. This figure was way higher than the Rs.2.7 billion profits posted during the same quarter a year back. The question to be asked here is – how did Hero Honda manage to achieve such greatness during times when all that the industry could stand witness to with respect to their bottomlines was ‘erosion’?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Thursday, October 25, 2012

The ‘welch’ of innovation

Bringing technology to the bedside of patients and ensuring that it fits the pocket size of the poor is bearing fruits for GE Healthcare in India

“You have just got to constantly focus on innovation. And more competitors. You’ve got to constantly produce more for less through intellectual capital. Shun the incremental, and look for the quantum leap.” These words of Jack Welch would still be resounding in the hearts and minds of GE employees long after he quit the hot seat. And the spirit is visible in the way GE Healthcare has developed a strong business model in India. “In India, for India” may sound a bit queer in the context of the $35 billion (expected to reach $75 billion by 2012 and $150 billion by 2017) Indian healthcare industry, which is struggling to make its offerings more accessible and affordable to the common man. But then, that’s where General Electric (GE) Healthcare India plans to make big money and as such, has been focusing upon “bringing technology to the bedside of the patient and to fit the pocket size of the poor.”

For the $17 billion global entity (GE Healthcare), the mission to take modern healthcare to semi-urban and rural India certainly seems to be an ambitious one. But, considering the 15-17% annual growth rate with which the $3 billion medical equipment and devices market in India is galloping ahead (expected to reach $4.97 billion by 2012), the imagination, to a certain extent looks like a healthy one. However, here lies the catch! Given the fact that the propensity to pay is much lower in India, the domestic market in all probability will offer lower profit margins. So, how can GE Healthcare India, which contributes to about 3% of the parent’s topline, remain competitive in the long run?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Tuesday, October 23, 2012

United States of India

Politicians must discourage unnecessary demands for separate states

Unity in diversity’ has always been a great strength of this nation. But now this diversity is alarmingly manifesting itself in a manner that threatens the unity of the country. There are about 10 bills pending with the Home Ministry currently with demands of separate statesout of existing ones. The list includes demand for a separate Mithilachal from Bihar, Harit Pradesh out of UP, Coorg in Karnataka, Saurashtra from Gujarat, Telengana from Andhra Pradesh and Gorkha Land from West Bengal. The supporters of a separate Bundelkhand want to whittle away districts of Banda, Chitrakoot, Jhansi, Lalitpur, and Sagar from UP and MP; whereas those rooting for Bhojpur intend to break UP, Bihar and Chattisgarh.

Rather than discouraging this alarming trend, the so-called ‘national’ political parties are in fact eager to make political points out of it. The Kutch Rajya Sankalp Samiti; an agitating group that is lobbying endlessly with the government of Gujarat government for the separate state of Kutch, has vowed to support any political party that is willing to precipitate their goal. The political equation has forced Congress to support them in an otherwise BJP ruled state.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Monday, October 22, 2012

GORDON BROWN: BRITAIN

Labour Party is in trouble and so is Brown, but his resignation will not make matters any better

Gordon Brown is fighting on all fronts to save his job after his colleagues deserted him, the Opposition pounded him and some of his own trusted men mounted pressure on him to step down and hand over reins to more ‘capable’ leaders, like Alan Johnson, so that the party could be resuscitated. He was quick to reshuffle his cabinet after three senior cabinet ministers, including Home secretary Jacqui Smith and Communities Secretary Hazel Blears, put in their papers in three days. He came under intense pressure after Works and Pensions Secretary James Purnell resigned. In his resignation letter sent to national dailies, he wrote, “I now believe your continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more, not less likely.” This led to Conservative leader David Cameron – the PM-in-waiting if Labour fails to stop the slide – renewing his call for snap polls. So will Labour’s fortunes change if Brown steps down? Sceptics feel that it won’t make much of a difference. London-based political commentator K. Ganapathi Reddy told B&E, “Even if Labour dumps Gordon Brown, it’s unlikely that the party can beat the Conservative who are rapidly gathering strength among the voters. Whoever replaces Brown; he or she cannot match David Cameron’s charisma.” It’s difficult to write off Brown and his party as of now. One year is a long time in politics. So Brown may not really need to step down, unless he feels it necessary to redeem himself in front of his own partymen and call the bluff of his critics.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Saturday, October 20, 2012

The World as hostage

The rise of OPEC has been an abiding curse for the world

One abiding fantasy in the Arab world since 1948 has been the destruction of the state of Israel, many legitimately angry at the treatment meted out to Palestinians and some nursing deep religious and ehtnic hatreds. In 1973, an America supported Israel fought yet another war with neighbouring Arab countries and won a convincing victory. After the 1967 disaster, this repeat pulverised the Arab world and even the autocratic rulers of these oil rich kingdoms and sheikhdoms realised that their thrones were in danger if something was not done to mollify the Arab street. One direct result was the Organisation of Oil and Pteroluem Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposing an embargo on shipments of crude as well as refined oil.

The next step was a multi hundred percent hike in the price of oil. The global economy was literally shaken to its very foundations as a result and complacent American consumers realised that they had to wait for hours to get their cars refilled with ‘gas.’ But the global economy did adjust to higher oil prices while all -almost all-oil exporting countries have started failing as modern functional societies as a result of massive dollar revenues coming from oil exports. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Sudan and Nigeria are just some examples of what happens to societies when easy dollars are used by autocratic regimes to buy peace and promote fundamentalism of one kind or other. Can you imagine a born rich Mohhamed Atta of Saudi Arabia flying aircraft onto the World Trade centre without oil money lurking in the background?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Friday, October 19, 2012

Yahoo! to Boohoo!

Yahoo! had a chance to grow & survive. It ‘had’!

So what’s the biggest mistake that Yahoo! ever made? Well, allow us to rephrase that... what are the biggest mistakes made by Terry Semel and his successor Jerry Yang? Allow us to reflect back on what happened in 2001. That year, Yahoo’s chief, Terry Semel met the co-founders & co-Presidents of Google – Larry Page and Sergey Brin – to discuss the acquisition of Google. Semel offered them much lower than the $5 billion, that the co-founders asked for. As a justification, Semel stated that “no one could truly value Google,” and that there was “no way he would shell out such a hefty amount” for the search-engine start-up. Eight years later, Google commands a market value of $121.1 billion, while Yahoo!, a lamentable $19 billion! Then there was Semel’s successor, Jerry Yang, who in 2007 brushed aside Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo! for a mind-blowing $46 billion.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Thursday, October 18, 2012

Is First Movers’ Advantage really a blinder or a blunder for the Einsteins of business?

This criticism was resoundingly supported by well-acclaimed global researchers David Montgomery (Stanford University) and Marvin Lieberman (University of California), who, in their outstanding paper titled First Mover Advantages... stated that “The ability to ‘free ride’ on first-mover investments and resolution of technological and market uncertainty” comes as an advantage to Second-Movers! Putting a nail on the first movers’ coffin is the research by Richard B. McKenzie of University of California, who showed how failure rates across traditional industries for first moving pioneers was an elephantine 71%; first movers also had a pathetic average market share of 6%.

Talking more about numerical conclusions, a well referred research by professors Markus Christen (INSEAD) and William Boulding (Duke University) reads thus, “We found that pioneers in consumer goods had an ROI of 3.78% lower than later entrants. And the ROI of first movers was 4.24% lower than followers in the industrial goods sector. The bottom-line result: Pioneers were substantially less profitable than followers over the long run, controlling for all other factors that could account for performance differences.”

Dorde Kalicanin, faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade, while outlining the myth of first movers’ advantage, notes in his paper titled A Question Of Strategy: To be a Pioneer or a Follower, “Historically, the advantages of being a pioneer have been promoted to a much greater extent than the risks... It is logical that risks associated in a completely new product are greater than those associated with incremental product changes.” Professors Vladmir Smirnov and Andrew Wait, faculties of economics, University of Sydney, also devastated the supposed advantages associated with first movers. Their report titled, Second-movers advantage in a market entry game, conclusively puts forward the fact that each player “prefers to be a follower rather than a leader in the market, perhaps because they can free ride on the other party’s investment... The second entrant into a new market often does better than the first firm that entered. If a firm could commit to being the second entrant it would be better-off.”


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Wednesday, October 17, 2012

RICK WAGONER: EXIT

32 long years did this Harvard MBA take to understand GM; one fine day it took the US Senate to fire him! No more gambles, Rick...

Oh yes, read your bio too – was interesting! Born: February 9, 1953, in Delaware, to George Sr. & Martha. Post-MBA, you chose GM over other lucrative jobs. Commendable! Your big break came in 1992, when the-then CEO Smith appointed you as the CFO. Your low-key lifestyle and the fact that you command a high popularity quotient amongst your employees, makes you most respected as a friend; but as a leader, there are complaints that you lacked that “ruthless streak needed to make the tough decisions required to bring GM back from the brink of bankruptcy.”

But Rick, we still stand by your ox-like faith in hybrids; an engine type which despite having existed commercially for 15 long years, accounts for a pathetic 2.15% of world automotive sales! Now 2.15% does not define majority, does it? But it’s ok Rick; poor mathematics is not a turn-off for us. But it sure did get your pants on fire, and we couldn''t do anything about it. [Sorry about that; for oil supply may be increasing, but water is really scarce in our parts of the world.]

Next, come to geography. Rick seriously, what were your grades in school? CEOs of manufacturing entities realised years back that shifting operations to emerging economies can help cut costs tremendously. You did too, but like the kid who skips homework, you jumped out of the window of sanity, and trashed your vision into the nearest garbage tank… and enjoyed playing football on American grounds. Oh yes, GM is an American legacy brand; how can GM cars be produced in emerging third-world, Hydrogen sulphide emitting lands? Well, thanks to your ‘Be American, buy American’ ideology, every GM vehicle produced in the past two years has cost GM $4,500 in just welfare cost. Rick, you rock! Your drained out industrial relation skills & super-confused branding philosophy have also put GM in a fix. Today, the cost of pension & healthcare per GM man-hour is a high $24 – a blood-freezing 100% more than at Toyota, Honda & Nissan! Now beat that!

Though the Obama administration finds you abortive, we still stand by you; for you taught us the harm that ‘addiction to legacy’ can do, and how to walk away with $26 billion of exit benefits after blowing your company to smithereens! But Rick, before we leave, here''s an information that you could use to justify the ''cold turkey'' stance that Democrats used to oust you – as per Federal records, GM contributed $1.7 million to the Republican pocket since you took over as CEO – 108.6% higher than what it gave the Democrats. Some revenge there, eh Rick? You are a veteran at GM – 32 long years and today, you''re married to Kathy & have three sons – Matthew, Scott & George. God bless you, Rick, for standing by your first wife & employer to this day. They never understood your sacrifices, did they (the US Senate, we mean)?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Tuesday, October 16, 2012

In pursuit of happiness…

Indian policymakers have miserably failed to arrest the growing financial mess, feels Manish K. Pandey

It isn’t an optimistic avowal for an economy sweating hard to pass up a financial mess. But then, it’s the bitter truth! What else would you say when you hear the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor D. Subbarao proclaiming “FY 2009-10 to be more challenging than the current one” with a sigh? In fact, the wheeze seemed to have much more in it than what he actually confirmed – the burden of the muddled past!

No doubt, over the past few years India has been on a high growth trajectory. But then, it had more to do with the buoyant show put up by both manufacturing and services sectors (of course others too!) and less by our very own policymakers. The little help they could provide (don’t forget the government influence) was by being spoil sports. Hey, how can you forget ‘some’ of the aggressive moves like interest rate cuts, stimulus packages, et al and ‘more’ of populist measures that include a whopping Rs.716.80 billion debt relief for farmers and a Rs.300.62 billion pay hike for government employees? So what, if they have a devastating effect on the nation’s financial health! To what extent should India believe her policymakers then, at a time when she is in a fix in terms of the forthcoming economic scenario, is a query that seems to be doing the rounds in many minds. “For the growth momentum to be sustained, it’s necessary to return to the path of fiscal prudence by both the central and state governments,” agrees the RBI in its latest report on fianancial assesment.

The stimulus packages will inject the much-needed support into the economy; but then, what about the country’s already-massive public debt that is officially projected to hit its highest levels this fiscal since the 1991 economic crisis? RBI has already accepted that the combined federal and state budget deficit for FY 2008-09 will come close to 10% of GDP. Even S&P anticipates the government deficit, including off-budget measures such as oil and fertiliser bonds, to increase to 11.4% in FY 2008-09 (to be the highest in the world), from 5.7% in the last fiscal. Goldman Sachs, too, seems to be in agreement with this assessment and pegs India’s fiscal deficit at 10.3% of GDP in the current fiscal. Isn’t this a wake up call for the Indian policymakers, who have been pushing spending beyond the limits?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Monday, October 15, 2012

NEDFULNESS: SYMBOL CHANGE

Example of a responsible ministry
 
In January 2009, Turkey officially started using the Turkish Lira (TL) instead of Yeni Turkish Lira (YTL). And the cost of replacing YTL by TL stood at YTL 1.14 million. In addition, the country is also incurring a cost of YKr 11 to 12 for changing from YTL to TL for each bank note. Iran has also planned to change its currency, Rial. The value of Rial has gone down so much that it has become negligible. 500 Rials is worth mere 5 cents while 50,000 Rials is worth $5.30. Iran wants to change its currency to revalue its Rial.

Considering all these, it seems extremely important to estimate the cost involved with India’s symbolic plan of changing the symbol. Moreover, there seems no regulation that will make sure that the new symbol will not hurt someone’s cultural or religious sentiments which are for some odd reasons too volatile in the subcontinent. There are no any specific guidelines from the government on whether the old notes and coins will remain in circulation with the new ones.In this time of downturn, the decision on a new coin symbol is highly debatable. This may not only dilute the brand equity of rupee but will encompass needless expenditures at a time when government coffers are already drying up.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Saturday, October 13, 2012

NORTH KOREA: NEGOTIATIONS

N. Korea's rhetoric is a plea for a better deal, US needn't take it seriously

North Korea agreed in principle to end its nuclear weapons programme on September 15, 2005 and rejoin the international non-proliferation treaty in return for energy, economic aid and a US promise not to attack. But US went against its promises and N. Korea retaliated by conducting nuclear tests next year.

Recently, Pyongyang stepped up verbal attacks, saying that it's scrapping all military and political agreements with Seoul and considers itself on the brink of war with the South. “N. Korea makes such rhetoric whenever it perceives threat from the US or S. Korea or its domestic conditions become worse, particularly the economy. North hopes that it might get a better deal...,” says R. Subramaniyan, a doctoral fellow at the Academy of Korean Studies. The US needs to actually call their bluff, rather than paying heed. Even N. Korea knows that one misstep can lead to catastrophe in its own land.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Friday, October 12, 2012

Why Buffett loves Harley’s b@#es!

The latest cash infusion has guaranteed Harley Davidson short term working capital; but it surely would need even more for a joyous ride!

Imagine Warren Buffett riding away on a Harley-Davidson bike... Imagine... Yes, curse our imaginations, for all we care, but actually, the likes of Warren Buffett are taking quite a liking to the mean machine, once associated only with flashy leather jackets and beautiful ‘agents’! And it’s not like Buffett is getting any younger or is delving deep into ‘how to win hearts through brawny stunts’ (he’s 78 years already for Chrissake, and has lost most strands decorating his temple); all that he cares about is... business!

Buffett’s infusion of $300 million in the ailing Harley-Davidson on February 3, 2009, has given a boost to the liquidity of the company. The consideration was in lieu of ‘senior unsecured notes’ to Berkshire Hathaway. Even Davis Selected Advisers (Harley-Davidson’s biggest shareholder) bought a similar-class asset for a consideration of $300 million. However, the question to be asked is: will this aggregate of $600 million raised, guarantee that the bleeding bike manufacturer gets back on its wheels?

Of late, Harley-Davidson has been losing tremendous value on the bourses (see chart). Also, poor performance of its financing arm (HDFS) played havoc on it’s net earnings in Q4, 2008 (which deteriorated by a further 58%). The company then decided to cut 1,100 jobs and trim production considerably by 13%.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012. An Initiative of IIPMMalay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Thursday, October 11, 2012

Vivek Paul is actually being considered for the role

It would not be surprising if Vivek Paul is actually being considered for the role, but his experience may not fit the bill. Right Mr. Tata?

He has been credited for Wipro’s growth from $150 million (when he joined in 1999) to a $1.4 billion company with 50,000 employees in 2005. A month after resigning, he become a partner at Texas Pacific Group (TPG) capital and put in his papers in December, 2008.

It is in the news that he will replace Ramadorai. In fact, his name was also being taken for the post of Satyam CEO before it went to A. S. Murthy. Compared to Ramadorai and Chandrasekharan, “Paul is more competent, but less likely to take the job actually,” avers Rob Enderle, Principal Analyst, Enderle Group. But perhaps the Tatas may go for a strong and experienced veteran who has been into the same business for a long time. That one clause may go against Paul.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Bestselling blockbusters

Reading the future of books and movies...

Salman Rushdie presented the world his magnum opus – Midnight’s Children – in 1981 and more than 25 years later, people are still bewitched by this tale. Not only did it bag the ‘Booker’ of Bookers last year, but now Deepa Mehta is planning to bring it to life on the silver screen. Filmmakers have often looked to books for inspiration, but Midnight’s Children is understandably no ordinary book. Deepa, along with Imran Khan as her lead star, and Salman Rushdie himself by her side, paying extraordinary attention to the making of the film, might just be able to succeed in recreating this intricate, magical story; though it’s no menial task. Yet complex scripts haven’t deterred filmmakers as yet! Innumerous books have been made into films, and as the trend keeps growing, one wonders if writing books, while keeping films in mind is their ticket to money and fame?

With over 1,000 films churned out of our country alone, it’s no surprise that books are often made into movies, and when it’s one like Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Devdas – just one film is so not enough to do the book justice! After Shahrukh Khan’s much-lauded performance as Devdas just 6-7 years ago, the new talented kid on the block, Abhay Deol, is now out to paint the character in a more modern but equally inebriated hues in Dev D. While Vidhu Vinod Chopra had masterfully recreated another of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s book – Parineeta – he is now betting his money on the story Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat. Titled 3 Idiots, the film has Aamir Khan in the lead role. Another of Bhagat’s book – One Night @ the Call Center – was made into the very forgettable film Hello. Vishal Bharadwaj brought Shakespeare’s stories to the common people in India through his films Maqbool and Omkara. And the film which has finally got our countrymen seriously into the race for the Oscars – Slumdog Millionaire – is also based on a book – Q & A by Vikas Swarup.

The story is quite the same in the west too. From romances like Gone with the Wind, Pride and Prejudice, My Fair Lady, to mafia dramas like Godfather to science fiction films like War of the Worlds, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, to fantasy films like The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter – countless classic films have been made out of equally rivetting books.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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