Friday, May 31, 2013

Stanley Kubrick to Anthony Burgess

In 1968, shortly after finishing 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick began work on what he would later predict to be "the best movie ever made" — a meticulously researched, large-scale biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte. A few years later, after adapting Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange for the big screen, Kubrick brought Burgess on-board to write a Beethoven-inspired Napoleon novel on which his epic could be based. In June of 1972, Burgess supplied the filmmaker with the first half of his manuscript; Kubrick rejected it by way of the following letter, thus ending the collaboration. Burgess was undeterred, and Napoleon Symphony was published as a novel in 1974. Kubrick's movie, however, failed to materialise.

15 June, 1972

Dear Anthony,

TI shall start off by saying I don't really know how to write this letter, and that it is a task which is as awful for me to perform for me as it may be for you to read.

You are far too brilliant and successful a writer, and I am far too much of an admirer of yours to patronize you with a listing of what is so obviously excellent about 'Napoleon Symphony'. At the same time, I earnestly hope that our all too brief friendship will survive me telling you that the MS is not a work that can help me make a film about the life of Napoleon.

Despite its considerable accomplishments, it does not, in my view, help solve either of the two major problems: that of considerably editing the events (and possibly restructuring the time sequence) so as to make a good story, without trivializing history or character, nor does it provide much realistic dialogue, unburdened with easily noticeable exposition or historical fact.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall

Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
BBA Management Education

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

'Abdullahs are hypocrites, they can't fool people for long'

In a chat with Aditya Raj Kaul after the hanging of Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru, Prof. SAR Gilani, under house arrest, talks about the duplicity of politicians and repercussions of their actions in the Valley

What was your reaction when you heard about Afzal Guru’s hanging?
When I first heard they are going to hang him, I was shocked. It was around 6.30 in the morning. I thought of immediately confirming with the family. When I called his wife, it woke her up from sleep. I asked if she had any news about Afzal. I told her about the rumours doing the rounds. She was shocked that nobody had informed her. As I came to know about the curfew in the Valley, I got a firm indication.

Do you think the government has actually mishandled it?
I have been talking about the legalities of the case, about Afzal not getting a fair trial. The manner in which it has been done doesn’t only violate the law of the land but also democratic principles. Very basic human values were trampled upon.  There is no doubt that it was nothing but a politically motivated decision.

Political commentators have been speaking about similarities between the hanging of Maqbool Bhat in 1984 with the present case. Do you think there will be repercussions in the Valley like we saw in 1989-90 onwards?
I was right now talking to my friends about the very same issue. I pity the leadership in this country. The leadership that is supposed to run a huge country, the largest democracy on earth, their vision is so narrow that they cannot see beyond the 2014 elections. It will definitely have very serious repercussions. I can see the situation developing right now, especially among the youth. I think this is going to be a disaster. I wish it (Afzal’s hanging) never happened. The way they have handled it, they have given a message to the people of Kashmir, that you’ll never get justice. Nothing happened immediately after Maqbool Bhat’s hanging. Similarly, at present, it may not happen immediately, but it will have far-reaching consequences. Secondly, we were kids during Bhat’s hanging and our generation, as I see it, wasn’t very politically aware. The generation now is highly aware. We live in an era of information. In Afzal’s case, everyone knows how systematically justice has been denied to him. Everyone knows how this decision was politically motivated.

You were charged in the case in the beginning, but the Supreme Court acquitted you. Later, there was an attempt on your life by unidentified people. Looking at the developments since Afzal’s hanging, do you fear for your life today?
The attempt on my life and the two years I served on death row were orchestrated by the system. There is no doubt about it. And when you stand against the system, they target you. I know that I am in danger. They even tried to gag me for the last three days. I know this case in and out and know how injustice has been done. As a human being, if you can’t open your mouth when you know a wrong is being done, then I don’t think you have any right to call yourself a human being. By doing this, I may be putting myself in danger but I cannot stop myself. My conscience won’t allow me to do that.

J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah said that those Kashmiris who didn’t identify with Maqbool Bhat will today identify with Afzal Guru. How do you look at the statement?
Omar Abdullah is trying to wash his hands off. He is equally responsible. It (Afzal’s hanging) wasn’t done without his consent. I will take you a bit back when Ajmal Kasab was hanged amidst secrecy. That day Omar Abdullah had tweeted that similar kind of secrecies can be maintained in other cases related to national security. He was actually linking to this particular case, suggesting that the execution could take place just as the way it was done in Ajmal Kasab’s case. It’s not that Omar was earlier not aware of this whole thing. If you remember, in 2006, when death sentence was given to Afzal, Farooq Abdullah made such a hue and cry stating that Kashmir will burn. After Afzal’s hanging, he changed his stand completely. Abdullahs are hypocrites. They can’t fool people for long.

JKLF chief Yasin Malik shared the stage in Pakistan with Hafiz Saeed. Do you think it was right?
As I know about Yasin’s visit to Pakistan, he has basically gone there to see his family. He has a young daughter, who he had not seen for a very long time. She did not have travel documents and there is a policy back in Pakistan that they don’t allow travel documents unless the father comes. After Afzal’s hanging, he sat on a protest hungerstrike outside Islamabad Press Club. This was not something in hiding. It was an open meeting. If there are people coming and going and during the protest this man (Hafiz Saeed) also comes, that doesn’t mean that Yasin Malik had invited him. I think the way the Indian media is taking it up isn’t the right thing to do.

There has been a virtual curfew across the Valley for days, even the newspapers haven’t been allowed to publish. Doesn’t this make things worse?
As I told you, I actually pity the politicians of this country. You deprive people of their basic right – their right to protest. There was no violence. You are gagging people. Just last month, there was a hue and cry in Kashmir over freedom of expression. I want to ask where are those champions of freedom of expression now when the whole of Kashmir is being gagged. It’s not just in Kashmir, even Kashmiris outside Kashmir are being gagged. The way I was put under house arrest. Syed Ali Shah Geelani is here and was put under house arrest and is not being allowed to move out of his house. For the first two days, they (police) were sitting inside his room and not even allowing him to move. That was the kind of situation. Even Mirwaiz has been put under house arrest.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Bridging the gap

Irregularities in teachers' appointment would decay the system

A couple of weeks back, INLD leader Ajay Chautala along with 51 other people were convicted for illegal recruitment of teachers by CBI special court. The state High Court passed on the case to the centre and asked for CBI intervention as it saw involvement of many elite politicians and dignitaries in the same. Ajay and his group deployed more than 3,000 JBT teachers in various schools of Gurgaon by creating forged papers and through back-door entry. But then, this case comes as no surprise to me, but what is interesting to note is the way schools recruit teachers and above all, the amount of money these teachers are ready to pay to get into a reputed school.

As per Government Primary Teachers Federation, this back-door entry also halted the promotion of old teachers (whose promotion were due) as the entire fleet of staff are now under suspicion and scrutiny. The entire process had cost these individuals not less than Rs. 4 lakhs, in any case, which interestingly would be more than their average annual salary in all probability. But then, this is not only one of its kind scam. Almost two years ago, a number of politicians were charged for irregularities in teachers' recruitment process in Meghalaya. In this case too, teachers were recruited for lower primary schools of the state. In an another case, teachers were found paying hefty amount (ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000) for getting themselves transferred to the location of their choice.

On hindsight, this may seem a simple case of back-door entry but when seen from a wider perspective, the real issue would become quite vivid. These cases of irregular teachers’ appointment echo the very gap between demand and supply of teaching staff. In simple word, shortage of teachers at primary school level is massive. For instance, there are over 26,000 vacancies of school teachers at different levels in Haryana. Moreover, the Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Board has invited online applications for filling up of 72,825 posts for primary teacher in 75 districts of the state and West Bengal Board of Primary Education has issued notification for 34,559 assistant primary teacher vacancies recently but the positions remains to be vacant, still. So much so, the last date of application and examination dates for the same has been postponed many times. Such dearth of staff also has deteriorated the quality of education across the nation. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER 2012) for rural India, released a few days ago by PRATHAM, speaks volumes about the sorry state of primary education of our country. As per the report, in 2008, “only about 50 per cent of Standard 3 students could read a Standard 1 text, but by 2012, it declined to 30 per cent. About 50 percent of the Standard 3 kids cannot even correctly recognize digits up to 100, where as they are supposed to learn two digit subtraction.”


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Friday, May 24, 2013

"Much of the Western journalism in Afghanistan today assumes that any Afghan who takes up arms against the West is a fanatical intolerant Muslim who is doing it for religious reasons"

William Dalrymple's new offering, Return of a King, is a fabulous account of the First Anglo-Afghan War and its disastrous consequences. As another defeat looms large in Afghanistan, he talks about the obvious parallels and divergences in an interview with Saurabh Kumar Shahi

What prompted you to write a book on the First Anglo-Afghan War? Did you find enough curiosity among the readers to lap up this subject?

The reason I write any book is not primarily what the readers want, I have to say. The first rule to write a successful book is you need to be passionate about it yourself. Having said that, I must add that it is a consideration. There are thousands of books I want to write on subjects, like my family history etc., who no one else will be interested in reading about. So, readers are a consideration. But it is not the only consideration. While I knew it would not be as successful in India as, say The Last Mughal; as the subject is not directly related to India, I expected it to sell in countries who are affected in one way or other by Afghanistan, including the 50-odd countries that are part of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). So I thought it was a risk worth taking. Although you are right, it is not a famous story anymore. Very few people know this tale and fewer still know Shah Shuja. So it was a gamble. But the story was fabulous - the simple cinematic image of 18,000 soldiers marching in a country and only one man managing to return past Jalalabad is a driving force. It is such a strong and eternal image that it will work for a thousand years to come.

The impressive bibliography suggests that you brought in a whole new set of research materials for this book, including those from Afghan poets, chroniclers as well as British officers. Often such materials tend to be partial and exaggerated and incorporate folklore...
Sure, it is a different sort of source to the British colonial source. So, if you have a letter from Lord Aukland saying I want to move 5,000 troops from Barrackpore to Lucknow, you can be sure enough that 5,000 sepoys moved. When an Afghan poet says “A hundred thousand brave horsemen charged over the hill and made the Firangis flee for their life”, you obviously don’t take it with the same literal sense. But it is incredibly helpful in many ways, especially the way it portrays Afghan attitudes, and also who the people doing the fighting were – their motives. As with much Western journalism in Afghanistan today which assumes that any Afghan who takes up arms against the West is a fanatical intolerant Muslim who is doing it for religious reasons. The interesting part is that in Afghan sources you get very distinct reasons. The religious factor is there, and it is expressed as it is in rhetoric. But individual reasons are well defined by the Afghan sources. Abdullah Khan Achakzai participated because his girlfriend was seduced by Burnes. Aminullah Khan Logari joins in because his land is taken from him. However, you have to use them carefully. But you use British sources carefully too as they come with their own problems, including incorporating the imperial views.

It is not difficult to see some very obvious parallels between the 1842 war and now. Was there a deliberate attempt on your part to illustrate these parallels or were they so obvious that they would have come to light even without a little help from the writer?

I guess it was so obvious that I did not need to overdo it. The only times I explicitly talk about the parallels are in the introduction and conclusion. In the main body of the book, except the odd footnotes where I pass through a territory and say that it is now a US base or garrison, nothing is deliberate. Again, I have also pointed out differences. I think it is important to say that Hamid Karzai, with all his corruptions and failures, is at least a democrat. And similarly, Mulla Omer, although he has great following in some areas in the south, especially in and around Kandhar, is by no means a dominating central figure of resistance in a way that Akbar Khan and Dost Muhammad were in 1842. But readers would be awed by the astonishing parallels nonetheless.  


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall

Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
BBA Management Education

Saturday, May 11, 2013

The unputdownable!

Subrata Roy Sahara should come out winning on all fronts in the current face-off with SEBI! And why the erroneous Supreme Court judgment against Sahara goes beyond Parliamentary Acts and is being misused by SEBI to its own benefit!

There are a few things about Subrata Roy Sahara that even his harshest critics accept. That the man is a visionary – his mammoth investments in media, housing, hotel, sports and other industries being compelling evidence. That his open assertions of being a patriot have their weight in the various behemoth social initiatives undertaken by his group – with no apologies to the slanted English media in India which, I feel, hypocritically slanders anyone who represents the ‘other’ India (lest you should forget, it was this very media that shamelessly reported gossip a few years ago about him being ‘critically ill’ and on his deathbed; no surprises then that the same English media chose to ignore reporting how sprightly he was while meeting UK Prime Minister David Cameron a few weeks back in a closed door meeting discussing educational and research initiatives). And yes, that the man religiously knows his numbers and has a financial acumen that is better than the combined intellect of all Indian regulators in the various industries where he operates.

There are a few things about India that even its damnedest supporters don’t deny. That the License Raj era spewed out a few handfuls of family businesses that shamelessly chewed away the very idea of India, criminally sucking it hollow by monopolising industries, encouraged by corruption soaked politicians – and encouraging them in return. That this venomous combination over the decades led to a jaundiced India that today has hundreds of millions of illiterate people below the poverty line; that has no global brands to speak of, but many billionaires borne out of the excesses of the License Raj era (I call most of them ‘blood billionaires’, given that they’ve made the money on the blood of Indians). That the same group of blood billionaires, in cahoots with a similar group of corrupt bureaucrats (regulators included) and politicians, have fought and will fight tooth and nail, criminally and illegally, to ensure that there is no new honest and ethical claimant to their industry space, especially if such an entrepreneur were from the proletariat.

That Subrata Roy Sahara titles himself as the Managing Worker of his group only adds to the ire of India’s caustic bourgeoisie, which, hand in hand with the English media, would be loath to have such an unabashed community representative of workers amongst their well ‘oiled’ and ‘greased’ group. So every time Subrata Roy Sahara and his likes attempt to tread the path of diligent and astute effort – assuming the same equated to returns – they’re pulled down acerbically and vindictively by the group representing the old, feudal India. You see, this group believes that only they know how India should be run and by whom. Look around and you’ll see many examples strewn across India of how honest upstarts have been trampled upon by the powers that be before they could gain ground – wherever there has been anyone attempting to improve the condition of India, they’ve had a horde of regulatory, tax, police and judicial bodies running up their door to initiate the so-called enquiries and ‘search’. The current face-off that Subrata Roy Sahara has with SEBI actually exemplifies all this too well. A group that has issued OFCDs (Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures) since the year 2001 with all relevant government permissions, and which has regularly submitted all details as required by the concerned government authorities, suddenly gets a prohibitory order from SEBI in November 2010 against the OFCDs issued by two unlisted group companies (Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd. and Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd.) – and this despite the fact that just seven months before that, SEBI had, through its own communication to Ministry of Corporate Affairs, commented that as these were unlisted companies and had not filed a draft red herring prospectus with SEBI, any complaint with respect to these two companies should be handled by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

Why He Will Be even More Dangerous for India in 2013

This man has already achieved what no other non-member of the Gandhi family has ever done. The closest to his record is Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was Prime Minister for six consecutive years between 1998 and 2004. P. V. Narasimha Rao is another non-Gandhi who completed 5 uninterrupted years as the Prime Minister. The next best is a Gandhi family member Rajiv Gandhi, who led the government between 1984 and 1989. No other Prime Minister – except Jawaharhal Nehru and Indira Gandhi – has survived five uninterrupted years as Prime Minister. Nehru was PM continuously from 1947 till his death in 1964. Indira Gandhi was PM between 1966 and 1984, except for a two and half year exile between 1977 and end-1979. The way things are changing in Indian society and economy in terms of aspirations and expectations, even die-hard supporters of Congress will snigger at the suggestion that Rahul Gandhi could be Prime Minister for 10 consecutive years beginning 2014. So there is absolutely no doubt that, in a factual context, Manmohan Singh has already secured his place in history. It is a different matter that an ‘unelectable’ bureaucrat completing 10 successive years as Prime Minister reflects on the quality and the depth of Indian democracy. But credit must be given. Manmohan Singh will almost certainly complete 10 years as PM. But will history talk about him and his lengthy tenure the way it will keep dissecting the track record of Nehru and Indira? For that matter, forget Nehru and Indira, will he ever acquire the stature that even Vajpayee has assured for himself? Let’s look at it in another, more blunt manner: will history ever talk about the legacy left behind by Manmohan Singh? Quite frankly, history books will confine him to a supporting role at best as they analyze the legacy of Sonia Gandhi. Sad, but Dr. Singh will leave behind no legacy: faceless bureaucrats who selflessly do the bidding of political masters never do so.

And yet the man, the economist, the bureaucrat, the courtier and the reluctant politician knows that he has achieved something phenomenal by becoming Prime Minister for two consecutive terms. And even faceless bureaucrats have egos and dreams. There is no doubt whatsoever that Dr. Singh knows his days as Prime Minister are numbered. He knows that even if the UPA manages to win another term in 2014 and Rahul Gandhi decides he is better off enacting the role of Sonia Gandhi by pulling the strings from behind the scenes, it is another courtier who would be anointed Prime Minister. He also knows that fawning Congressmen will instantly delete him from even contemporary footnotes the moment another courtier takes his post. I mean, if they don’t care a fig about him even now when he is the Prime Minister, what chance would he have as an elderly statesman without even the fig leaf of perceived power and authority? Surely, it must be rankling. It would rankle any normal human being with normal feelings and human emotions. And Dr. Singh is undoubtedly the embodiment of middle class normalcy.

This is where India begins to enter very dangerous times. Dr. Singh would be determined to leave at least some legacy behind. He is not a fool. He knows there is no chance of a political legacy of the kind left behind by Nehru, Indira and Vajpayee. He also knows that history books will credit not him, but Narasimha Rao as the architect of economic reforms. In fact, in terms of economic performance, his long tenure as PM would be torn to shreds by objective historians. Do remember, he was aware of all this even back in 2008 when it was not certain that the UPA would be voted back to power.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
 
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall

Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
BBA Management Education

Monday, May 06, 2013

M&As: A Phenomenon of the Market

M&As have always been an area of debate for business experts. However, new research explains who acquires whom, whether payment is made in cash or stock, what valuation consequences arise from mergers, and why there are merger waves

In the late 1990s, the United States and world economies experienced a large wave of mergers and acquisitions, culminating in the bursting of the Internet bubble and the subsequent stock market fallout.

Until now, there have generally been two ways to understand mergers and acquisitions. One explanation relies upon the notion of synergy, i.e. the greater profit potential that results from combining two companies. The second explanation suggests that mergers and acquisitions are the product of bad management being kicked out by better management.

Previous research has addressed the separate merger waves of the past 40 years, offering a different explanation for the waves of the 1960s, ‘80s, and ‘90s. A new study, Stock Market Driven Acquisitions, undertaken by me and Andrei Shleifer of Harvard University, offers a more unified framework for understanding the different characteristics of acquisitions and how they vary over time.

We suggest that mergers and acquisitions are a financial phenomenon created by stock market misvaluations of the combining firms, and are related to the level of the market as a whole. Markets are inefficient, while managers of firms are rational, taking advantage of stock market inefficiencies through well-timed merger decisions. The objective was to come up with a simpler theory recognising that valuations differ from true fundamental values temporarily because of market sentiment. In part, companies make acquisitions or become targets of acquisitions to benefit from stock prices that are temporarily out of whack.

The Spiraling Effect of Misvaluation

A company’s valuation may be heavily influenced by investor psychology, since expectations for growth are built into the price investors are willing to pay. For example, to justify paying a price-earnings multiple of 150 ($150 per current dollar of earnings), you would have to believe that the company’s earnings will grow dramatically over the next five to seven years.

We find that in the 1990s, the valuations for the market were pushed up for some companies much more so than others, creating the “haves” and the “have nots.” Misvaluation in this context refers to the “haves,” such as America Online (AOL), Cisco, and Intel, being deemed worthy of excessively high valuations based on unrealistic growth expectations. These companies knew their share price would fall when the market learned of its overconfidence. The star companies therefore had a short-run opportunity to cash in by using their stock as currency to buy other companies-hard assets that were more sanely valued.

Our model says there was some sanity prevailing among the CEOs of high-flying companies. They knew that the valuations were unreasonable, so by acquiring all these earnings producing assets in exchange for their shares, they cushioned themselves from the full impact of the bust.

Why would a company agree to be sold in exchange for overpriced stock? The answer can be found in the different “horizons” of corporate managers. Horizons refer to how long a manager wants to hold onto a company. Managers with short horizons might wish to retire or exit, or simply have options or equity they are anxious to sell. Managers with long horizons might want to keep on working, be locked into their equity, be overconfident about the future, or just love their business.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

Saturday, May 04, 2013

An Alzheimer's cure?

Millions of dollars are being poured into fighting Alzheimer's, but the cure could be a step nearer

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is fast emerging as one of the most menacing threats to the human race in the coming years.

By 2050, people of 60 years or more will account for around 22% of the world’s population. As per Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI), an international association to fight AD, around 35.6 million people are affected by the disease. Furthermore, some 7.7 million cases are added each year. At the current pace, the number will double every 20 years. Around 58% of AD patients are in the developing countries, and the ratio is expected to reach 71% by 2050. AD is the sixth leading cause of death in the US today and around 5.4 million Americans have AD. The total cost to fight AD in America is $200 billion to date, and the total cost to the world is $604 billion. The US FDA has approved six drugs to cure AD. But surprisingly, a drug called LMTX, by a Singapore based biotech firm, could be the best bet. The claim by the firm is that the drug can even reverse the effects of AD – by attacking tau and amyloid deposits, two proteins that cause brain plaques.

But all these medicines may well be reducing the smoke than putting out the fire. Professor Ruth Itzhaki from the University of Manchester in an exemplary medical research proved that the Herpes Simplex Virus – which causes normal skin rash in almost 90% of the population – was found located right within the protein plaques of 90% of AD patients.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
 
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Thursday, May 02, 2013

How Dr. Manmohan Singh Beats V.P. Singh Hands Down...

It was really a no contest till recently. The late V.P. Singh was the undisputed winner of this trophy. He also remains the classic example of a middle class hero who became a middle class villain. Till he became the Prime Minister, V.P. Singh was the anti-corruption crusader and messiah who rode on the infamy of the Bofors scam. Of course, Indians soon realised that pious crusaders do not always become good leaders. Mercifully, his tenure did not last long enough for V.P. Singh to inflict irreparable damage to India.

I used the words “till recently” because there was some lingering, forlorn hope that the current Prime Minister would at least do something that would enable V.P. Singh to retain the crown. But then, forlorn hopes always remain hopeless. I realised this when I read newspaper stories about how a Supreme Court Bench has yet again criticised the PMO. This time, the rap on the knuckles is because the Prime Minister has failed to convene a meeting of the Cauvery River Authority despite reminders. Allow me to use the words of the Bench: “What do you mean by this? It is shocking that you require the consent of all the states even for a date of a meeting? Is the PM to see his convenience or the convenience of the members? It is surprising that the PMO is asking the convenience of everybody before fixing the meeting.” Just imagine. The Prime Minister is the head of the Cauvery River Authority set up to tackle the often ugly dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over the sharing of Cauvery waters. What conclusion can you draw from the fact that he is not able to set up a meeting with some chief ministers? Either he is truly helpless and powerless, or he is indifferent and callous. Either ways, it bodes ill for India.

This incident and the rap on the knuckles by the Supreme Court is not front page news. Nor will it lead our television anchors to froth at the mouth. Yet, in a small but very significant way, it reflects the disappointment and disaster that Dr. Manmohan Singh has been. In 2009, he was a true blue middle class hero because the Congress won virtually all urban seats in the Lok Sabha elections, including seven out of seven in Delhi. Today, that halo has been torn to shreds. Of course, the middle class Indian is very fickle and unreliable. And later historians might have more charitable things to say about the tenure of Manmohan Singh. The more charitable may say that Indians expected too much from him and hence the disappointment and anger.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles