If you are a sub-Rs 5000 phone user and constantly taking data back-up, there is help underway. Bharat Berry, no relative of BlackBerry, has tied up with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd to provide back-up of mobile phone data for Re 1 per day and push mail service for Rs 2 per day, if you use a smart phone.Bharat Berry Technologies Ltd on Monday announced the launch of its service to all BSNL customers in the country who wish to opt for it. In addition, the company is providing over the air (OTA) synchronisation of calendar and contacts for multiple mail accounts. "All you need to have on your phone is Java application," says Ajay Data, Founder & CEO, Bharat Berry.On a compatible set, this service will allow customers to connect to their e-mails, calendar and contacts through the servers hosted in India. The company claims that the system it follows does not allow it to store mails and messages on its server.Bharat Berry is an complete Indian solution which follows industry standard non propriety encryption. The company is betting on the fact that out of 900 million mobile users in the country, less than one per cent uses smart phones.Bharat Berry is targeting 3,000 models of handsets across different brands. When a subscriber signs up for the service, one email address is given free with an option to add 10 more email accounts, each of which will be charged Rs 2 per day for the push mail service. The logic is to include many low-end phone users, especially in rural areas, who do not have email address. Data says that the company is in discussions with all private telecom operators. "By March 2012, every telecom operator should be with us," he says. To provide services to the customers, the company has already set up one data centre in Jaipur.The company will use the ‘cloud' to offer services to operators."Operators need not invest anything," says Data and claims that the Jaipur data centre has a capacity to serve one billion users at a time. Going forward, the company plans to set up another data centre for each country. It has already tied up with Mauritius Telecom to offer similar services in that country. For enabling access to all services including e-mails and Personal Information Manager (PIM), sync users will be charged Rs 80 per month for the combo pack, while the individual services will be available for Rs 50 each per month. The service will be available to both pre-paid and post-paid GSM mobile subscribers. As a launch offer, one month free trial for Bharat Berry services will be available for all BSNL mobile customers, saidR.K. Agarwal, Consumer Mobility (CM) & (Enterprise) BSNL.
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Expressing concerns about the slow-down in the economy, India Inc on Thursday appealed to political parties to leave aside partisan politics and think about economic growth of the nation even as of thousands of small shopkeepers went on strike across India to protest the decision to allow foreign retail giants like Wal-Mart to enter the retail market.Taking a tough stand, the government hit out out at "obstructionist" opposition and ruled out roll-back of its decision. The Industry Ministry, however, admitted that states were not formally consulted. With coalition partners DMK and Trinamool Congress opposing FDI in retail, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reached out to the two UPA partners but gave no assurance of a rollback of the controversial decision that has led to logjam in Parliament.During the meeting with leaders of the DMK and Trinamool Congress, Singh made it clear that the government was determined to go ahead with the decision taken last week to allow 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail and 100 per cent FDI in single-brand retail despite the widespread uproar, sources said.Political differences should not be allowed to come in the way of India's progress, twitted Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata while other corporate leaders, including Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, UB Group Chairman Vijay Mallya and Mahindra Group Vice-Chairman Anand Mahindra, expressed concerns over the current state of economy in the country. Only yesterday, the government data on economic growth showed that India's economic engine has slowed to 2-year low. On Thursday, export figures were released showing that from a peak of 82 per cent in July, export growth has slipped to 44.25 per cent in August, 36.36 per cent in September and 10.8 per cent in October.Biocon India Chairperson and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar Shaw tweeted: "Partisan politics is deterring development in our country unfortunately. Its disagreement for the sake of it and not rationale". UB Group chief Vijay Mallya highlighted how political compulsions are affecting decision making.Govt Sticks To GunIn face of vociferous political protest, the government was adamant that there was no question of policy reversal. The Bharatiya Janata Party and government coalition allies Trinamool Congress and DMK have stalled parliament this week to protest at what they say will be widespread job losses among millions of small traders.One BJP politician last week threatened to burn down any store Walmart opens in Lucknow.In a country of 1.2 billion people, the protests were patchy. In some BJP strongholds most small business were closed, while in ruling Congress party-dominated cities such as New Delhi the strike was partial.Demonstrating traders in Delhi chanted "Rollback the FDI" and held placards reading "If you can't provide us with jobs, don't take away our current ones!"The controversy has become a lightning rod for the opposition ahead of state elections next year that will pave the way for a general election in 2014.Uproar from lawmakers over the retail move led to both houses being suspended on Thursday -- as they have been every day since the winter parliamentary session opened on November 22."This is obstructionist opportunist opposition and what can you expect?...They cannot dictate government on the executive policy decision...Roll back? Who are you?," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma asked apparently attacking the BJP.Briefing reporters, Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) P K Chaudhery also stated clearly there was no question of the policy reversal.Asked if government will seek comments before formulating the rules on the policy, he said there was no such move."Guidelines on FDI in multi-brand retail are not to be put on hold. It is work in progress," Chaudhery said without indicating any timeline.The DIPP Secretary agreed that no formal communication was sent to the states while the department was in the process of formulating the policy.Disconnect Between Cong & Govt: BJPBJP has charged that there were differences between Congress party and the government on allowing FDI in multi-brand retail and dared UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, General Secretary Rahul Gandhi and other senior party leaders to make their views public on the matter."Congress has not made its views clear on FDI in retail issue. That means there is a rift in Congress and between the ruling coalition and the government on the issue. Congress President Sonia Gandhi should make her views public on this issue," Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj told reporters.She pointed out that at a recent Youth Congress function, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had defended the government's decision to allow 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail but Sonia Gandhi and Rahul did not air their views on the issue."No senior leader of Congress- its party President or any of the General Secretaries- has defended the FDI decision," Swaraj said.When informed that Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari had stated at a press conference that the party was fully with the government, Swaraj maintained he was a "light-weight" and since this was a burning issue a senior leader of the ruling party should clarify their stand.
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With most of the bad news getting discounted, the Indian market continues to remain in a deer phase – neither bearish nor bullish, rather flat. Over the past one month, the sensex has moved in a narrow range with spurts of volatility on news from the US and Euro-zone as well as home inflation and IIP numbers.Last week the market drifted lower, losing 2 per cent on lower than expected IIP numbers and on continued concerns on Europe with Italy being the new focus area. On the other hand, late on Friday, the US market climbed on hopes that Greece and Italy are moving in the right direction and leaders in both nations are taking the right measures to curb the regions ongoing debt crisis. This saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index (Dow) gain 2.2 per cent on Friday helping the Dow to end the week higher at 1.4 per cent.Says Amar Ambani, head of research at India Infoline, "In the coming week, monthly inflation figures would play an important role in setting the direction. It would be advisable to stay stock specific." Though next week the focus for the market will be on Euro-zone and the WPI inflation data for October, players will slowly build-up position ahead of the winter session of Parliament that starts on 22 November 2011. Players expect government to announce some reform measures to boost investments in the country.Last week, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index (Sensex) drifted lower on poor IIP numbers. The IIP for September came at 1.9 per cent, much below market estimates of 3.6 per cent. On a year-on-year basis, the mining and capital goods index reported a contraction of nearly 6 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively, whereas manufacturing grew by 2.1 per cent. The weak IIP data reflects the impact of the monetary tightening measures adopted in the past. It is the second consecutive week that the Sensex has ended in red. For the week ending 11 November 2011, the Sensexed end at 17,192.82, down 2.1 per cent or 369.79 points. Since 28 October 2011, the Sensex has lost 612 points.The government spending has come to a standstill which is clearly visible from the economic and industrial data. This has put serious concern over the growth of the country. Already the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has reduced its projected average GDP growth for the current fiscal to 7.9 per cent, down from 8.3 per cent in April 2011. If markets have s to move up sustainably, progress on reforms and investments is a pre-requisite and any positive news on that front will be the next big trigger for the Indian market.Though no bad news from Europe can be good news, it will not act as a trigger for our markets. The European crisis is not going anywhere in a hurry. Many of the nations are facing depression though not recession. Fiscal challenges will be solved eventually, but the underlying fear of banking sector contagion will continue to pose threats. A lot of work needs to be done as it's a structural problem that will require multi-year of restructuring.At home, the government stand is clear that it wants to contain inflation that is hovering close to 10 per cent and food inflation close to 12 per cent. But if India has to move to a new level of growth, it will require renewing the momentum of reforms and will have to find other measures to capture inflation. Slowing growth and rising inflation will be double whammy.In such circumstances investors will be better off accumulating stocks of quality companies which otherwise they weren't able to pick in a bull-run.
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So, has cloud computing piqued your interest? I would think so, as it is considered an IT delivery model having significant business and financial benefits. Businesses are weighing the pros and cons of moving to the cloud.In one of our surveys, the Virtualization and Evolution to the Cloud survey, we found that approximately 1/3 rd of Indian organizations surveyed, were in the discussion/planning stage for private and hybrid cloud deployments.While benefits accruing from this model are high, there are inherent concerns that organizations are grappling with , on trying to understand what this emerging delivery model is, what some of the potential barriers are, and how best to realize its benefits. Barriers confronting cloud adoption include, concerns pertaining to security, control, reliability and compliance. Businesses are worried about losing control and risking more downtime, once mission-critical data and applications move to the cloud. Our survey did highlight this, with 43 percent of the CEO, CFO and CIOs are cautious about moving mission-critical applications even to hybrid or private cloud environments, citing security, disaster recovery and lack of control, reliability, performance and a fear that meeting SLAs will be difficult or impossible as the main concerns. Its only when these mainstream applications get onto a cloud, will the benefits be maximized.Overcoming these challenges is possible by adequate preparation. Having few important criteria to evaluate, before adoption will ensure that the move is successful and effective. Also, it will help enterprises to seamlessly make the transition and not be worried about the aforementioned barriers.Whatever be the cloud model, under consideration, be it private, hybrid or public, our following suggestions will help you form a basic criteria that you need to follow while evaluating a provider or a model. • Why Are We Going To The Cloud ?: Organizations should be clear about the rationale behind moving to the cloud. Whether, it is reduced costs, more storage or more flexibility, complete clarity should be there on the key objectives for moving to the cloud. • Gauge Your Needs: Know the real costs of delivering services from your end instead of via a cloud service provider. You need to consider computing costs, storage, network, application and security. Not all services make business sense to move to the cloud all the time.• What To Move To The Cloud ?: Downtime has serious consequences. In any business, certain systems are vital to the success of the business; hence, protecting them and making certain they're always available is a big factor. Organizations should consider RTO (recovery time objective, or how long they can go without that app being available) and RPO (recovery point objective, or the amount of data they could afford to lose). The lower the RTO and RPO are, the more mission-critical that system is. • Understand The Technology: Organizations shouldn't be afraid to ask cloud providers about the technology behind the service. They should be aware of where your data resides, and what recovery and backup options are available. Reliability checks are essential and building trust in the cloud service provider is built by asking the right questions.• Trial Run: Basic principle, try and tested methods work best. For e.g.: If you're looking at a public cloud solution, one of the key advantages of SaaS is that it makes it easy to deploy a free trial, and most vendors offer this to those considering their services. Before putting mission-critical applications onto the cloud, its important that you test it to see the results.• Put A Maintenance Plan In Place: In case there is a failure, be ready. One of the best ways to maximize uptime is by testing the disaster recovery system in advance, to find any configuration problems that leave you vulnerable. Non-disruptive DR testing can enable enterprises to identify issues in the system, without interrupting the availability of services for to clients and employees. Implementing a disaster recovery assessment tool is one of the best ways to ensure minimal loss of data and service.This technology is expected to mature as more organizations adopt it. One will need to follow some pre-defined criteria to ensure that the barriers are overcome smoothly and this is possible by planning in advance ,evaluating all possible scenarios and checks in place.(The author is Director, Technology (India & SAARC), Symantec)
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Contrary to popular perception, the recently held, much acclaimed and highly successful 2011 Formula 1 Airtel Grand Prix is not a testament to India's organisational capability at all. As far as I am concerned, the seamless conclusion of the event damns us as ascorbic short sighted child-adults, incapable of understanding our true potential. It also reveals our inability to see what is wrong with us or take steps to right the wrong. Consider the facts.At the end of the Commonwealth games in October 2010, we decided that we were incapable of organising an international sports event. Since this project had only two aspects to it—a real estate project and the management of an event—I assume this meant that we were neither capable of undertaking a complex construction project to an agreed schedule nor were we capable of orchestrating a complicated event. To my mind, both conclusions were ridiculous on the face of it. India has organised large construction projects for as long as we have been an independent nation. Chandigarh was no colonial gift. The foundation stone was laid in 1952 and by 1965, when I lived there while a war raged at the edge of my home town on the Pakistan border, it was already substantially complete. I could add any number of large hydro projects to the list.Indeed, even a purportedly dysfunctional and much reviled government entity like Delhi Development Authority managed to build Janakpuri—that humungous city sized colony—within a decade. If India could not build venues for the Commonwealth games in the scheduled time, it wasn't for lack of skill or ability.You could say the same for event management. In 2001, the Maha Kumbh at Allahabad was attended by 60 million people. In Jan 2007, the Ardh Kumbh at Allahabad had 70 million visitors.These weren't all ticket purchasing, beer swilling fancy car owning snooty types either: they were pilgrims and pundits, sadhus and soothsayers, shopkeepers and scallywags, crooks and creeps. India is globally recognised for its crowd management skills. So when we manage to smoothly host a motor race in India, the last thing I want to hear some party wag tell me is that global confidence in India's ability to host international events is restored. The idea is not just patronising and ludicrous, it is based on delusion. The problem lies elsewhere.You don't need to be a contemporary political philosopher to figure out what the problem is. Check out Gurgaon. Here is a small stretch of city generating 50 per cent of the total revenue of Haryana, 71 per cent of its exports, 60 per cent of the entertainment tax and 80 per cent of the FDI in the state. It is home to 300 of the Fortune 500 companies, some 50 of them with an office within a distance of one square kilometre. Yet, its infrastructure is laughable. You find state-of-the-art buildings sticking out of roads that look like motocross race tracks, potholes that could hone your golfing skills to a fine art, sewerage main lines that discharge into open fields and electricity wires that hang like spaghetti off the ceiling fan after a minor kitchen explosion. It dawns on you: whatever is privately build is slick to the bone, whatever is built by government is dust and bones. This is the story of much of India and it gets worse with each passing year. If you leave it to the Government to build anything these days, you are going to get screwed. This is not because the Government doesn't know how to build anything. It's because when the Government builds something, its primary purpose is not to get something built. The basic purpose is to divert funds and that necessarily means screwing the schedule. Government rules say you must have open tenders, fair bidding, objective evaluation of bids and award to the lowest bidder by whatever established criterion. You can't divert funds this way. You have to find reasons not to follow the rules. One persuasive way to do it is to plead that you haven't the time to follow rules. So don't establish the deliverables, don't take out the notice inviting tenders and don't evaluate the tender. Then say "damn, there is no time; we need to dispense with the rules". Now you can do whatever you want: procure the goods at whatever price you like, award contracts to whomever you like and rent equipment at prices higher than you would pay to buy them. The last is the best way to generate cash. Take a decision to rent, not buy, then avoid renting till the last minute and then claim to pay a fortune because you can't find it at short notice. No one is going to ever find out that you had the arrangement in place all along: you just unveiled the arrangement when time was really short. Let me put it to you plainly. It is in the interests of those who run fund generating projects to find ways to delay projects so that they can then achieve the real purpose of the project. All this is completely obvious. It is also completely rational. There is no reason whatsoever to be outraged about this because, in the main, all this is driven by a perfectly legitimate compulsion. Let me wind back a little. In India you have two basic problems: no actually, its three basic problems. First you have no legitimate way to fund India's democracy. I have discussed this at length in previous Fineprints (see Systemic Scamming). If we want to run a democracy, we have to find a way to fund elections. We simply can't seem to accept the idea that perhaps we should have benefit dinners for politicians where we can sell table space at a couple of lakhs a plate. Given our love for probity in form, though not in substance I hasten to add, this one is a hard sell. We have not been able to put any other acceptable system in its place. Politicians need money to persuade us to put them in power and we won't give it to them. They have no choice but to milk projects.Second, a very great many government servants have purchased their jobs. If you find this surprising, we do not live on the same planet, leave alone country. People who have purchased their jobs are entitled to get back a little return on equity and the salary is certainly not enough. Bureaucrats will dip into project cash and they feel entitled to do so.Third, when any lucrative cash generating job vacancy comes along, like the station house officer of a police station along the border of a drug distribution corridor, the posting is purchased. So it is with toll tax collecting posts, or large construction projects. I hear you need contacts to get these jobs but shorn of the sugar coating, it's pretty much an open auction: the highest bidder gets the job for a while. In this time, having purchased the posting, the winning bidder has to turn a profit too. I don't find anything extraordinary about this. It's a BOT contract like any other and the successful bidder needs to make his money. The difference between the management of a government construction project and a private BOT contract is in two pieces of fine print. First you can't legitimately turn over a profit to yourself so you need to slick cash off the till and second, you have to find a way to circumvent millions of rules which prevent you from turning a profit in the first place.Obviously, unless we are going to look yourself squarely in the face and say "this country needs to find a way to legitimately fund the huge cost of an election", we will continue to lie to ourselves and mouth meaningless platitudes about rectitude and honour. I suggest we stop this pussy footing hypocrisy immediately. Before I move on, I have two riders to make. First, not everyone executing a government contract is a crook, not by a long shot, and heaven's forbid if that be the insinuation. Every group of people is a mixed bag, a bit of each of acquisitive and self-abnegation type, some good, some not. That said, I would be delighted but not a little surprised if Kalmadi turned out to be show white. Second, not everyone who is a crook has purchased his job. The world is full of honest bureaucrats doing their honest jobs to the best of their ability. Third, not everyone on the take has been told by his political superiors to find ways to fund the democracy machine. The world is also full of people who have a piece of the action through dumb lucky. That is the kind of guy who is on everyone's potential son-in-law list. I'm not kidding. Back home, I attended a village wedding where the bride's family was jubilant because the guy worked in a state toll plaza collecting taxes from passing truckers. The loot it seems ran thick.So what is the moral of this story? Governments ought not to build anything, run anything, manage anything, buy anything or sell anything?No buildings, no dams, no canals, no tourism departments, no factories, no airlines and by heavens, no events, be they industrial fairs or athletic meets? There is logic to this extreme view. In this day and age, everything, even village dangals and kabaddi contests can find corporate sponsors. You can legitimately argue that a government's job is to govern and if it does that effectively, we should all heave a sigh of relief and say 108 gayatri mantras in the morning. But this kind of extreme position is always disconcerting. There are jobs you can't or shouldn't be outsourcing. I'd rather the government ran the defence services, the nuclear power plants, the fire brigade, the police… Besides, Government servants can extract money from award of contracts to private parties just as well as they can extract money from executing those contracts. This is just not anallopathic type of situation where you cut off this limb, create that antibiotic law to counter that crime virus and ban that element of the life style to eliminate vulnerability. You need holistic medicine: attacking the problem at the root. And the root is legitimizing election funding. So now ladies and gentlemen, can we please stop diverting attention about F1 and event management. Let's get to the point and address the issue of election funding, and then, either put up or shut up.Your call.The author is managing partner of the Gurgaon-based corporate law firm N South and author of the pioneering business book Winning Legal Wars. He can be contacted at rcd at nsouthlaw dot com
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In order to promote talent for the group, luxury automobile manufacturer BMW has introduced a Management Associate Programme(MAP) in India. The Management Associate Programme is the group's international programme for young professionals to give them opportunity and scope to develop expertise within India and internationally as well. So far only three associates have been selected for the two-year programme in India out of nearly 10,000 applicants. The professionals are required to work in various strategic and operational projects during the course of the programme in areas such as marketing, sales, HR and aftersales. The programme also includes international assignments. "The objective is to groom talent for the group and also make sure that these people can come back and take charge of specific roles in the company. We clearly know which function we want to put them in and therefore the assignments would add value to the core position," says Vaishali Ahuja, General Manager-Human Resource and Administration, BMW India. Overall 50 associates have been selected for the (global) Management Associate Programme this year across 15 countries including India and China. The company plans to look at similar numbers each year from India. "We trust in the employees' capabilities and want to develop them further. We are growing and permanently looking for talents. India as a market is also very important for the group and therefore we are among the first to implement this programme here," says Andreas Schaaf, President, BMW India.The primary focus of the programme is to allow people to gain insight into business processes, strategy, culture, and the brand from both local and global perspective. The company is in the process of hiring three more people to work at their Chennai plant.
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Currently Ipsos (a French company) is the world's third largest market research firm with a strong presence in advertising, marketing, media research, public opinion. In July this year it announced the acquisition of Synovate from Aegis Media, which would further help strengthen its presence in the Asian markets, especially India. David Richardson, MD, Ipsos APAC talks about business in emerging markets and how larger companies globally are depending on research in newer geographies more than ever in an interview with Businessworld's Suneera Tandon.With the global acquisition of Synovate from Aegis Media a few months back, how are you leveraging the existing capabilities of Synovate to Ipsos?In terms of the two companies, they are quite complimentary to each other. Ipsos remains very strong in advertising research, innovation and product development. Synovate brings to Ipsos strong product testing capabilities and strong tools in customer loyalty research which very well match the innovation tools that IPSOS has had. Synovate also brings a strong approach in the custom health care research space, especially in Asia, where it remains a leading player in this area. It has a strong network around the world, that combined with the connections Ipsos already had, gives us a strong position in health-care custom research. Geographically, Synovate has been very strong in Asia, while Ipsos was strong in North East Asia, but weak in South East Asia and India. So the combination of the two companies will allow us to double our business in Asia.So then Asia becomes will become a very strong market for you, is that strategy arising from the volatility the western world is facing?Ipsos was already doing business in developing markets, but this helps get there a bit faster. Ipsos is the largest custom research company in Lat Am (Latin America) and has a strong base there. But emerging markets have always been important. Ipos has been strong in Lat Am but weak in South East Asia and with Synovate, it has been the opposite. So the combination of the two companies is complimentary with both having a degree of presence in Asia, Middle East and Africa. This will increase our share of business from the emerging markets of the world and take it to about 20 per cent.With the volatility in the western world right now, how are brands tackling the situation?The world is a little bit nervous vis-vis the global economy. I think everyone knows that the focus is on emerging markets. Now it's a matter of what the difference is between what companies are going to do in the emerging markets and what they are doing already. There used to be a broad based desire to treat all countries in Asia as somewhat similar and attractive but that practice went away. Then everybody shifted their focus on BRIC. Now people realise that just because you understand China doesn't mean you understand India as well. So it's gone back to the fundamentals that you have to understand each country differently. The world is really focused on China, India and Brazil right now. The amount of business done across Asia has not increased. As companies get stronger in Asia, they don't need to source research from outside the continent, they are spending more money in Asia. So spending is increasing in China and other Asian countries which means it's decreasing everywhere else. Are these global or domestic brands that are focusing on these markets?The global brands are always very focused and they will continue on developing this opportunity. Everyone is talking about focusing on the next billion consumers. At the same time you see the emergence of multinationals that are operating in different parts of Asia, which are beginning to develop scale. Ten years ago you would have called Samsung one of those mini MNC and now you won't. So you can't predict which is going to be the next big MNC, but there will be a lot of countries - based in India or China- that will develop and increase their multi-national presence. There is also a shift increasingly from our global partners towards global businesses working locally. We've got big India based businesses who are taking their business outside India and that's a great opportunity for us. Our clients in India vary from FMCG, automotive, (several key Indian brands such as Tata, Hero) healthcare, telecom etc.How important is research in today's time and date?There are two perspectives on the need of research. Firstly if you are an international company, based let's say in Europe and you've identified that for your company's future you have to understand and perform better in the far-off lands that are culturally very far from you, you need research to fulfil the promises to share-holders because why should they promise to do a great job if they don't understand these markets\people. This is equally true for companies here in India who want to spread their wings and do more to grow in another part of the region of this country; so they need research to expand beyond their comfort zone.The other dimension is that India is a very young country where a lot of changes are taking place. Even well experienced businesses are trying to track what's going to happen next, what are the change the growing youth population is going to bring in terms of behaviour, consumerism and social outlook. But there must be challenges in functioning in a market like India?The Indian research industry faces a major handicap right now. Prices (to clients) have been exceptionally low. There is no reason for places like Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines to be five times more expensive in terms of price charged to clients. It's not like India is 1\5th the value of consumers in other countries, but prices in marketing research have been fixed and haven't risen in a decade even though salaries have gone up a lot. The industry is at that turning point where companies realise that they need to invest more in research. Now companies are starting to invest in technology to innovate and move towards digital data-collection. Even clients, for the first time, in a decade are signalling to pay more. There are companies willing to pay to up to 50 per cent more for our services, in the past six months. Now that is a radical change.
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For the newly-elected West Bengal government headed by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and its chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the recent tripartite agreement providing tea industry workers a wage rise of over 25 per cent has come as a feather in their caps. It is however not clear whether the weaker tea gardens will be able to give the benefits agreed upon; and whether the West Bengal government has the stomach to see through some of the more fiercely debated pending issues like Dearness Allowance.The recent agreement signed between 37 trade unions, 5 planters' organisations and the West Bengal government, covers the tea gardens in the Dooars and Terai regions, and provides for a rise in daily wages of Rs 18 to Rs 85 per day from the earlier Rs 67. The 3-year agreement effective from 1 April, this year, also provides step-ups in daily wages to Rs 90 and Rs 95 in the second and third year, respectively. With a massive 2.5 lakh workers spread over 278 tea gardens standing to gain from the agreement, the settlement is being keenly monitored. Subal Biswas, Additional Labour Commissioner, a key negotiator for the West Bengal government, told BW that the wage demands for the monthly-rated employees is yet to be settled. The prickly issue of variable Dearness Allowance, which could not be resolved even after months of bargaining, has also been left to the government to work out over a 6 month period, he said. The state-wide tea industry agreement was spurred by an earlier agreement in April for the more prosperous Darjeeling tea gardens that gave workers a daily wage of Rs 90 per day. Interestingly, though a slew of central trade unions were signatories to the agreement, a crucial role was played by the militant, Adivasi-backed Progressive Tea Workers Union (PTWU). With over 60 per cent of the workers in the tea gardens of Adivasi origin, the Akhil Bhartiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad had called on its members to quit the central TUs and promote the more aggressive PTWU."The Adivasi union played a crucial role. Bonus negotiations that normally drag on for weeks, was settled this year in a day. The central trade unions had discredited themselves. In the last agreement in 2008, they managed a bare Rs 2 rise in daily wages and that too after a 15-day strike, says Anuradha Talwar, the Supreme Court-appointed advisor for implementation of Right-to-Food Programme in West Bengal. On a wider level, the wage agreement has once again brought to the fore the woes of the Indian tea industry. Though it accounts for more than a quarter of the world output of tea, and directly employs as many as 1.26 million workers, the Indian tea industry has been recording an abysmal 2 per cent growth rate over the last three years. Many of the Dooars and Assam tea gardens are sick industries today or functioning with losses. Among the south Indian plantations, Tea Board executive director R. Ambalavanam estimates about 15-16 gardens have turned sick. "Some gardens like the Darjeeling plantations that produce high quality tea for export will not feel the pinch. However, for most gardens the stagnant price of tea in the domestic market coupled with declining exports, has created a desperate situation," Ambalavanam told BW. A recent study of the tea industry by Prashant Relwani showed average tea prices after peaking at Rs 76 per kg in 1998 actually declined to Rs 58 per Kg in 2005, before rising marginally to Rs 86 per Kg in 2008. Meanwhile, input costs including fertilizer have risen sharply. Ambalavanam sees a huge labour shortage looming in this industry and points out that in the South Indian gardens, even after wages being pegged at Rs 150 a day, workers are deserting the industry. "At the same time, higher wages will have to be linked to productivity if the industry is to survive," he says. As it is, some of the gardens in the south including Ooty and Kodaikanal have been transiting to real estate development, a dangerous trend, he acknowledges, for the long-term future of the industry.
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