India is still not ready to fight fire at large scale
The pink city of India was engulfed by fire on October 29.
Thanks to the fire that broke out at the Indian Oil fuel depot. This massive fire at IOC’s Sitapura unit killed more than eleven people (the death toll is expected to rise, as search for the bodies are still on!) and led to a direct loss of Rs 500 crore. Not only the factory but the nearby areas also felt the heat. The fire was so intense that even the fire-fighters were unable to reach the ground zero and limit the loss. So much so, that the temperature of the site and its vicinity rose by staggering 7 degree celcius. Horrifyingly, neither the IOC’s fire fighting system nor the state’s fire-fighters were able to minimise the blaze.
This incident is not one of its kinds but actually is in line with numerous similar incidents that occurred in the recent past. Fire outbreak is not any jaw-dropping phenomenon but is actually an annual affair. To put things into perspective: how can one forget fire that enveloped the Haldia Petro’s naphtha plant in July this year resulting to a loss of over Rs 300 crore! Last year, more than 2000 shops were reduced to ashes at a wholesale market (Nandram market) in Burrabazar, Kolkata. The fire lasted for nearly a week despite the efforts by 300 firefighters. Almost every year, Burrabazar witnesses similar fire events. In another incident, in July 2005, number of people died due to fire outbreak in Mumbai High. A devastating fire at the ONGC platform at Mumbai High destroyed the Bombay High North platform, which used to produce 80,000 barrels of oil every day - boils down to 1,27,17,600 litres of oils every day!! As per industry estimates the financial loss was upto the tune of Rs 35,000 crore. Beside these major incidents, numerous other fire hazards happen round the year. Be it a fire explosion at cracker factory or the infamous fire at a Kumbhakonam school (killing 75 children) or oil pipeline blast in Assam or similar other events. Most of the accidents that happen are a result of human error and ignorance. Thus, in spite of state-of-art fire fighting techniques, these bizarre incidents takes place every now and then across the length and breadth of the nation. To minimise losses due to fire hazards, we must ensure that population are kept well outside the vicinity of these units - especially outside the vicinity of oil related units. But then, above all we must ensure and put in place a highly and comprehensive (encircling all possible units/departments of a company) fire fighting system to reduce the probability of such human-error-based-fire-hazard! Furthering this initiative, government must make these laws mandatory and legally abiding as well. Other wise many more similar incidents will lead to many more unwanted fireworks!
The pink city of India was engulfed by fire on October 29.
Thanks to the fire that broke out at the Indian Oil fuel depot. This massive fire at IOC’s Sitapura unit killed more than eleven people (the death toll is expected to rise, as search for the bodies are still on!) and led to a direct loss of Rs 500 crore. Not only the factory but the nearby areas also felt the heat. The fire was so intense that even the fire-fighters were unable to reach the ground zero and limit the loss. So much so, that the temperature of the site and its vicinity rose by staggering 7 degree celcius. Horrifyingly, neither the IOC’s fire fighting system nor the state’s fire-fighters were able to minimise the blaze.This incident is not one of its kinds but actually is in line with numerous similar incidents that occurred in the recent past. Fire outbreak is not any jaw-dropping phenomenon but is actually an annual affair. To put things into perspective: how can one forget fire that enveloped the Haldia Petro’s naphtha plant in July this year resulting to a loss of over Rs 300 crore! Last year, more than 2000 shops were reduced to ashes at a wholesale market (Nandram market) in Burrabazar, Kolkata. The fire lasted for nearly a week despite the efforts by 300 firefighters. Almost every year, Burrabazar witnesses similar fire events. In another incident, in July 2005, number of people died due to fire outbreak in Mumbai High. A devastating fire at the ONGC platform at Mumbai High destroyed the Bombay High North platform, which used to produce 80,000 barrels of oil every day - boils down to 1,27,17,600 litres of oils every day!! As per industry estimates the financial loss was upto the tune of Rs 35,000 crore. Beside these major incidents, numerous other fire hazards happen round the year. Be it a fire explosion at cracker factory or the infamous fire at a Kumbhakonam school (killing 75 children) or oil pipeline blast in Assam or similar other events. Most of the accidents that happen are a result of human error and ignorance. Thus, in spite of state-of-art fire fighting techniques, these bizarre incidents takes place every now and then across the length and breadth of the nation. To minimise losses due to fire hazards, we must ensure that population are kept well outside the vicinity of these units - especially outside the vicinity of oil related units. But then, above all we must ensure and put in place a highly and comprehensive (encircling all possible units/departments of a company) fire fighting system to reduce the probability of such human-error-based-fire-hazard! Furthering this initiative, government must make these laws mandatory and legally abiding as well. Other wise many more similar incidents will lead to many more unwanted fireworks!
time been a favoured driveway. With companies like Hyundai, Toyota and even Ford choosing this country as their manufacturing hub, the sector is enjoying one of its best growth phases ever. However, one cannot deny that this is a labour intensive industry and it has hence been buffeted by recurring incidents of labour unrest in the country. Industry watchers claim that India (which is currently the second largest two-wheeler market in the world after China) is well on course to becoming the seventh largest passenger car market worldwide (currently the eleventh largest) by 2016. However, the current labour problems that are looming large over companies like Rico, Honda Motorcycle and Scooters India Limited (HMSI) and Sunbeam in the Gurgaon-Manesar belt have once again ignited the debate on whether India can indeed grow into a major hub for automotives in such a scenario. The billion-dollar quation to be asked is: will such incidents slow down the growth of the Indian automotive industry in the long run?
television President, then Barack Obama is undoubtedly the first Internet President that the American people have escorted into the White House. Not only did he swear allegiance to social media early in his campaign, but he also created a web-based rumour clearinghouse to ‘Fight the Smears’. Facebook and MySpace were Obama’s playing field during a long-drawn campaign that levelled rival McCain’s bid to the Presidential post. But we talked about all that in the previous piece. What’s important to note here, however, is the fact that both Obama and McCain not just pushed their own brands on social networks, but also went to great efforts to track each others moves on popular social networking sites, including their own social networking sites viz. Mccainspace.com and My.Barackobama.com respectively. To their surprise, their special ‘tracking the rival’ teams discovered that coveted research about voter moods, opinion, leanings, issues, et al (which once required a set of proprietary quantitative tools to be accessed) could now be done via tracking Facebook ‘friend’ requests and network affiliations; or just by reading scrapbooks on Orkut and user comments on YouTube videos. And the rest, as they say, is history!
(Japanese ‘semblance in a woman’s beauty’), as aesthetically, the car seemed perfect to make its competitors feel insecure. The most significant Honda launch in the country yet, the Civic hybrid according to Honda, “is a commitment to the environment” and “will certainly create a stir in the market.” But even then, there has been a Kusukusu (suppressed giggling) doing rounds in the Indian auto circles due to the exorbitant price the car comes at, which dangerously borders more substantial E-segment cars. However, the world’s number six car maker has to open its eyes wide. India is changing and so is it’s perception about certain categories. Since 2005, there has been a paradigm shift in consumer preference, especially with the launch of Swift by Maruti. The Premium-compact segment (Rs.4 Lakh+) was never perceived the same again, both by the manufacturers and the consumers. In such a scenario, the company is truly facing a tough challenge to launch its compact car Jazz in India. The launch delay in one of the fastest growing automobile markets in the world, India, has been linked to the company’s relentless struggle to get the pricing right, as the car would be up against formidable competition like Maruti Swift, Hyundai i20 and Skoda Fabia. Furthermore, to retain its leadership, the company has already relaunched the Accord in India for the third time in less then six years! 
RBI’s nagging suspicion in October 2006 that there ‘could be elements of overheating in the Indian economy’. By December 2006, the RBI raised CRR by 50 basic points to reduce inflationary pressures and by the end of January 2007, it raised the repo rate to 7.5% citing the demand supply mismatch in food as a credible reason.
growing (at a CAGR of 20% since 2000) manufacturing sectors in India. In fact FY 2007-08 saw the industry soar with exports crossing the $4-billion mark and investments touching new highs ($7.2 billion). What more, the industry experts estimate the global sourcing of components from India to double from the current $2.95 billion to $5.9 billion in 2008-09, and touch $20 billion by 2015 (ACMA)! All thanks to the escalating demand from both within India, and overseas. “Indian auto component industry is today emerging as one to be reckoned with. With more & more global auto majors setting up manufacturing facilities in India the industry is poised to grow,” N. K. Minda, MD, N. K. Minda Group, a leading component manufacturer tells B&E. Certainly, it’s because of these factors the domestic auto components industry is heading for a whopping 18% growth in the near future. Even the export market is estimated to reach $2.7 billion by the year 2010 (ACMA). However, what is more striking is the fact that exports to OEMs and tier I suppliers now constitute over 75% of total exports as against a mere 35% in the early 1990s.
obviates the need to reverse. The 360o rotating cabin seats two in comfort. The next-gen car features a cutting edge lithium-ion battery pack.
300 bhp from its 2L engine. The car is designed for the ultimate adrenaline rush, alfresco...
at the Olympics! No doubt, the apostolic zeal with which Yaga Venugopal Reddy, Governor, RBI, has been power lifting India’s monetary burden, he could have easily won India a Gold at the ongoing Beijing Olympic Games. Consider, for instance, his latest monetary stance (first quarter of FY 2009) and the uphill push, yet again, to the overnight lending rate (Repo) and cash reserve ratio (CRR). It has certainly been sterner than expected. “While we were expecting only a 25 bps hike in the Repo or the CRR by the RBI, this move of a 50 bps Repo rate & a 25 bps CRR hike has come as a surprise. Our expectation was keeping in view the past monetary tightening by RBI, which have started to reflect in the tempering GDP growth rate and IIP data,” Hitesh Agrawal, Head of Research, Angel Broking tells B&E.
of three science-fiction action-thrillers starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. “I will be back” was what Arnold exclaims in the end. Well, somewhat similar was the roar made by Zee TV & its holding company Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL) when critics wrote obituaries about it as it lost its leadership on the Indian idiot box to Murdoch’s Star Plus (the flagship brand of Star Network India) in early 2000. However, eight years later, there seems to be hardly any credence left to those claims Zee is back with a bang, both in terms of profits and TRPs. And the numbers speak for themselves!
and this World War II legend have a lot in common [we hasten to clarify, this ‘commonality’ is explained ahead :-)]. Not given to linguistically invigorating views, General Patton’s most famous war tactic till date has been his mastery of diversionary attacks, nomenclatured ‘The Dumb Theory’: ‘To escape the enemy’s perspective in one geography, purposefully create diversionary hits in other geographies.’ And for our dear ruling politicians, touting ‘reforms’ has been one such blatant diversionary tactic used shamelessly without remorse and fail.
Rome statute in 1998 with a purpose to examine severe crimes and genocides. The report card is that they failed to do so [deadly civil war in Congo, gender-based crimes in Uganda... nothing was considered]. It strived to punish Al-Bashir (left, current Uganda President) for genocides in Darfur but failed again. ICC has failed thoroughly in the last decade; but it is not alone to blame. US has never favoured the ICC. It withdrew support quite early from the Rome treaty. Whenever ICC tried to punish some of the wanted criminals, including top US Army officers [either alone or in collaboration with the UN Security Council], US destroyed the proposals using its veto power. Most of ICC’s permanent members did the same for their interest. Since inception, while China used its veto power 6 times, UK, France, US and Russia have used it 32, 18, 81 and 122 times respectively. Why does ICC exist then? To play cricket we guess [What? It’s not the same?!].
intentions to put a ‘new’ footing in the music industry, Napster Inc, flagged off its online MP3 download store on May 20, 2008. Clearly Napster believes in what Chris Gorog, CEO, Napster Inc. puts as, “Unlimited Music Model is what consumers would move towards eventually”! The online giant proudly claims a collection of 6 million tracks – 800,000 more than the second-largest Amazon MP3 shop. Napster also claims to have the largest catalogue of independent labels.
a was the first Indian full-length film directed by Dadasaheb Phalke which was based on the legend of Harishchandra as described in the Ramayana and Mahabharata. It had hit the screens way back in 1913 and since then, Bollywood has definitely come a long way from the era of black and white mythological films with the latest craze being animation. Of late, animation films have been winning a roaring applause in Hollywood and the Hindi versions of the same received great response from the Indian audience from across the world. Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Happy Feet and Ice Age are some such films which not only fared well commercially, but also opened up a completely new business opportunity for retailers in India, with soft toys of such characters, kids stationery, lunch boxes, school bags and other kids’ merchandise making way to the shops.