Ever since setting up shop in India, Harvard Business Publishing has worked towards establishing strong ties with India's B-schools, corporate world and book publishing industry. HBP works with faculty at over 90 Indian b-schools and about 50 Indian organisations are associated with HBP to train its managers. "India already contributes to about 5 per cent of the global revenue," says David A. Wan, CEO of HBP in an interview with BW Online's Sanjitha Rao Chaini. Wan stands on a solid 25-years of managerial experience and has worked on a global scale in publishing, consulting and consumer products. Formerly, President of the Penguin Group, Wan has also held three executive positions in Simon & Shuster, K-12 Publishing Group, Arthur Andersen, PepsiCo and Paine Webber. How has Harvard Business Publishing India grown since 2008, after setting up shop in India. Tell us a bit about the revenue generated in India?As a not-for-profit organisation and part of Harvard Business School, we are driven by our mission to “Improve the Practice of Management and its impact in a changing world”. We set up in India to further our mission in a region that has a strong appetite for knowledge and learning. We are very pleased with our progress in India over the last four years. Our team has been able to develop some very deep relationships with our stakeholders and we have had strong impact across all our three markets - individual managers, corporates and management educators. HBR’s South Asia edition now has over 10,000 leaders and aspiring leaders subscribing to it. Our website, hbr.org, has over 3.5 mn unique visitors per month, it has a disproportionately high number of engaged users from India. In fact, for the most recent quarter India was the second highest country in terms of visitor sessions on our website. Our books are extensively available and accessible through local pricing and distribution. We regularly conduct webinars for the HBR community in India with leading global management thought leaders. We work with faculty at over 90 Indian B-schools through our locally priced site license model. In addition to providing content such as case studies, simulations, articles and online courses, we conduct case teaching programmes in India with HBS faculty and provide faculty with teaching and curriculum planning support. Today all good Indian B-schools use PCL (participant centred learning) pedagogies and this trend is accelerating. HBP’s corporate learning division also works with almost 50 Indian organisations -– these include Public Sector, Family owned businesses, MNCs, and other Indian companies, to provide blended learning solutions for developing their managers. India already contributes to about 5 per cent of the global revenue while furthering HBP’s mission in the region. Do you feel the need to alter business models while dealing with India?Yes, most certainly. In fact, for any company to succeed, it is imperative that the value proposition be tailored to meet the needs and demands of the local context and culture. For instance, we recognised that business schools in India have limited budgets due to the significantly lower fee structure as compared to western schools but at the same time their requirement for content is quite widespread. To meet this challenge, we adapted our regular business model to offer a site-wide license where schools can sign up for a significantly lower flat fee and have access to all our materials. Similarly, to meet the needs of our corporate learning clients in India and maximise impact, we offer tailored leadership development solutions that blend various forms of learning such as self-directed learning, classroom facilitation, webinars, simulations, and action learning, On the HBR magazine and books front, India is the only international market where we offer locally printed and priced content in English language. As an ideas-driven organisation, we focus our efforts on making our content widely accessible. What are the case studies emerging out of India? We are constantly working on sourcing management ideas from India and other emerging markets for our global audiences -– this could be in the form of books, HBR articles, blog posts, learning videos, etc. We have been reasonably successful in the recent past, but see us accelerating our efforts in this area. HBS through its India Research Center at Mumbai, is growing its case collection from India. You are from the 1981 HBS batch, how has a manager's role changed across the years in your experience?I have seen and experienced the evolution of the manager’s role from directing a team to being a real leader. As the esteemed leadership expert Professor Warren Bennis wrote: “Managers do things right. Leaders do the right thing”. In a rapidly changing and dynamic business world, the “command and control” approach to leadership is obsolete. Leaders must be able to successfully influence many more stakeholders beyond their direct reports. Organisations are much more matrixed than in the past and many managers find difficulty adapting to these structures. In addition, globalisation requires leaders to be able to work effectively across borders and cultures. Since my MBA student days at HBS, the faculty there has greatly advanced the thinking about success and effectiveness at all levels of management. For example, Professors Garvin and Datar attribute leadership success to three interrelated components — Knowing, Doing and Being — and how managers need to continuously improve themselves in these areas. The Knowing component refers to the frameworks, concepts and theories that make up the fundamental understanding of business. The Doing component is the ability to apply one’s knowledge into actions and execution. The Being component refers to values, attitudes, and beliefs — the commitments and mindset of one’s leadership purpose. HBS Dean Nitin Nohria describes the Knowing, Doing and Being dimensions of leadership success as the combination of “competence and character”. You have been observing the global publishing industry for quite long. How do you think things have changed in the past decade? Good and bad.The publishing industry especially in our area of specialisation — business and management -- is surely observing some very positive trends; with people assuming different roles and organisations expanding their portfolio to include new services/ products, there is increased demand for content on best practices, new ideas, etc. People are seeking information that helps them and their companies grow. The most significant change has been a gradual shift from legacy media formats like print to digital media in most parts of the world; it is important for every publishing house to leverage the digital platform, and tap into the growing e-books market. While many publishing companies have viewed the shift to digital media as disruptive to their business models, HBP views technology as enabling a much richer experience for our audience. With print publications, and even a lot of websites, it is a monologue. Technology now enables publishing to be more of a dialogue between editors and their audience. A lot of what we do on the website (HBR.org) and the kind of blogs we do on the site are aimed at getting our readers to participate. You just can't do that in print. This approach is very aligned with the participant centred pedagogy of Harvard Business School. Are e-books a significant market by now? Or do we have to wait?Suffice it to say that it is rapidly growing, and will only accelerate in the future. Currently, it constitutes about 15 per cent of our business, which is also the trend amongst all English books’ publishers. In India, it is nascent; but as more people begin to have access to E-Readers, Tablets and smartphones, the market will only grow. Other factors which will help the E-Book market grow rapidly are the increasing availability of digital titles through a choice of retailers and increasing comfort levels with technology in the Indian market. While the digital format doesn’t require us to deal with physical inventory of the books or supply chain issues, we have to now maintain a balance between free and paid-for-content. Business books publishers are perhaps facing an identity crisis globally. Several general trade publishers are also coming out with dedicated imprints for business (for instance, Penguin Portfolio). Will you lose relevance and meaning in this process?No. Most other trade publishing imprints are not the distinguishing feature when readers are thinking about purchasing a business book. The imprint is subsidiary to the author. The Harvard Business Review Press imprint is arguably the only trade publishing imprint where readers recognise and value the brand equally as the author. In addition, the other trade publishers do not provide multiple platforms that are integrated in presenting the author’s ideas for reach and impact. We purposely work with our book authors to engage readers via blog posts and online forums on HBR.org, webinars, articles in HBR and of course, the book itself. How do you look at the future of business books publishing, say, in the next decade?I believe that business books will evolve from a static artifact of content to being a component of an integrated learning experience for readers. For example, we are already developing apps and tools that complement a number of our books (print or eBook) so that the reader can better grasp the frameworks and concepts that the author is describing, and more importantly, help the reader apply the concepts. I also envision greater use of social media tools to build and sustain a community of practice for the author’s ideas. On the demand side, I am optimistic that there will be a continuing desire among business professionals to advance their skills, strategic thinking and leadership capabilities. There is talk that the quality of non-fiction editing is falling or becoming too text-bookish or sensationalist. Do you think this is right, if yes, how can we fix it?I wouldn’t try to assess the quality of non-fiction editing overall. However, at HBR Group, including HBR Press, we invest in collaborating with our authors in what we describe as 'transformational editing'. Most other trade publishers focus their editors and investment on acquisition rather than developmental editing. For both our magazine articles and books, our editors work intensely with our authors to ensure that the end product successfully serves our readers and can answer two fundamental questions: (1) So What?-- What is the essence of the idea and why is it important? (2) Now What? -- How do I apply the idea to make myself or my organisation more successful? How do you look at India as a publishing market?Culturally, education has always formed an integral part of the Indian society, and now with the rapid pace of change, the need to continue learning well beyond formal education at the school level, is seen to be of the highest potential for publishers. An increasing number of executives are taking charge of their learning and development needs and investing on books and materials which can help them perform much better at the workplace and this is a significant trend for us. Companies in India are also investing in developing their people across all levels of the organisation to enhance their effectiveness, and build a strong leadership pipeline. Our b-school clients have strong appetite for quality content such as cases, simulations and videos. The market is also gradually getting accustomed to paying for quality content which again bodes well publishers. Like most other markets, we are also observing a gradual shift from a legacy media format like print, to digital media. We are very optimistic about the Indian market and look forward to accelerated growth across various media and increasing our reach to ensure that we improve the practice of management. (With inputs from Jinoy Jose P.)
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The timing couldn’t have been better. Thirty years ago Lonely Planet’s founder Tony Wheeler wrote his award-winning guide to India. Last week during the 30th anniversary celebrations of the book, the company (now owned by BBC Worldwide) announced its big plans for India, flagging it off with the Lonely Planet Indian Traveller Series. These are outbound travel guides customised specially for Indian tourists. “Five years ago would have been too soon to launch in India, but it’s now that we are really seeing independent travel taking off in the country,” says Matt Goldberg, CEO, Lonely Planet, pointing to an exciting metric. By 2020, he says, according to a Lonely Planet market research study, there could be 50 million Indian tourists headed outbound. “We are excited by the opportunity,” says Goldberg. In conversation with BW’s Chitra Narayanan, Goldberg along with Sesh Seshadari, GM Lonely Planet India, outlined their “crowded” plans for the country.Where does the Lonely Planet India book rank among your country guides? How has it done in the last 30 years?The India guide is among our top 10 books in terms of number of copies sold (Thailand is the top seller). We had launched it in 1981 with a premium positioning. I would say, cracking India -- which is a very diverse and tough place to understand -- was very important for Lonely Planet. After the publication of the India guide in 1981, we really gained the confidence and our market share grew. We have sold 2 million copies of this volume, and it is in its 14th edition.What are your plans for the India market?India is only the fourth country where we are setting up office. (Lonely Planet has offices in the UK, Australia and the US). One of the core components of our global strategy is to take our model and enter emerging markets that we think will grow very well. The metric we looked at is 50 million oubbound by 2020 and that is just a small slice of the domestic travel activity going on in India. So, we are excited about the opportunity.Any targets?We are launching 10 guides this month. The target is 40 guides in the next two years, written by Indian authors, and three of these would be domestic destinations. These are addressed at the travel reader. We think there is great demand here. We will see how people are using it, before moving to the next level. We are starting with print guides but are excited about the digital opportunity too. We have a website for India. How are your offerings going to be differentiated from others, especially the domestic ones?We have started with comprehensive market research on what Indian traveller experiences are, and what they want from our guides. We invest in sending experts to a destination. As we say, ‘we know because we go’. We don’t accept freebies for our coverage. We won’t even have advertising in our guides and it is truly independent advice.How do you choose your experts?It’s a rigorous process. For India, we held a workshop for authors who had applied to us. We got 70-plus applications. Out of these, we shortlisted 45 people and then gave them some money to go out on a three-day visit to some place and come back and write about it the Lonely Planet way, taught to them at the workshop. Only about 17 qualified. Lonely Planet has recently launched 10 country guides (Bhutan, China, Dubai, France, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Italy, London, Singapore and Thailand) customised for Indian travellers. These are priced between Rs 495 and Rs 595. Forthcoming titles will be country guides to Nepal, Sri Lanka and Spain as well as weekend getaway guides out of Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi.How would you define the Lonely Planet reader?Travellers who are open minded and curious and want to get to the heart of the destination. The positioning for India will be to add in cultural experiences such as food, and focus on aspects such as safety, and ease of getting around. For India, we would also bring in a family perspective to travel. The Indian traveller our research finds are of two kinds: the experience seeker and the social traveller.How has your growth been? And is digital growing faster?We are growing 5 per cent year on year, which is a good figure in this industry. In 2009, when I joined the company, the digital stream contributed less than 10 per cent of the revenue. Today it is around 25 per cent and going forward I believe the ratio will be 50/50. We have invested a lot in our web offerings, and we have 8,000-plus destinations on our website.In digital, where are the revenues coming from?The source of revenues is from product sales, advertising, from transactions and from licenses. At the moment product sales contributes the most, followed by advertising. But going forward we believe transactions will get bigger. We are pioneers in mobile apps and have had nearly 10 million iPhone app downloads.What about television activity in India?Given our BBC Worldwide parentage, yes, it’s a possibility. Though not in the long term. We have just launched four new shows in the US.
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P. Chidambaram has a simple message for investors disillusioned by India's policy drift: it is no longer 'business as usual' in the corridors of North Block, the sandstone colonial building that houses the finance ministry in New Delhi. For months, critics have accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government of being asleep at the wheel. Frustrated investors accuse it of both over-confidence and complacency in the face of an economic slowdown that has shattered the country's reputation as 'Incredible India'. "We have come to a stage where something concrete has to happen," said Rupa Rege Nitsure, chief economist at Bank of Baroda in Mumbai. "The current period is very, very critical for India." But in the 41 days since his appointment as finance minister - for a third time - Chidambaram has shaken up the ministry and impressed analysts. He has sought to signal that Asia's third-largest economy finally has someone willing to take tough decisions. Several officials, who asked to remain anonymous, said there had been considerable change in the finance ministry, where Chidambaram was working to shake off the dithering seeping down from policy-makers. In a series of interviews, they described him as a no-nonsense man who is constantly questioning, hands-on, meticulous and intolerant of people who could not manage their time. India's economic policy-making has been blocked for months by confusion, mis-steps and political gridlock. While the timing of big-bang reforms remains uncertain, the Harvard-educated Chidambaram is trying to work around bickering politicians and is drawing up a package of smaller measures to stop the rot, such as improving tax collection, fast-tracking stalled infrastructure projects and asking state banks to ease lending to small manufacturers. His ministry is ratcheting up pressure on wayward coalition allies of the ruling Congress party to agree on a long-overdue increase in heavily subsidised fuel prices. Ministry officials warned for the first time last week that if the hikes did not take place soon, spending cuts might be necessary to keep the budget deficit under control. The cabinet may consider making a move on fuel prices this week. Chidambaram's appointment may have bought the government a reprieve from international credit rating agencies, which have threatened to downgrade India to junk status over New Delhi's policy paralysis, ministry officials said. But he does not have much time. Investors, weary of empty rhetoric and broken promises, are impatient for action now. Chidambaram has made clear he understands the importance of winning back investors' confidence. That stands in stark contrast with his predecessor, Pranab Mukherjee, now India's president, who scared off foreign investors with confusing tax reform proposals and failed to drive through any major reforms during his near four-year term. Picking Up The PaceNowhere are the winds of change clearer than in North Block, where officials are working longer hours and weekends, and with a new sense of urgency and accountability. "His message is very clear. Either you have to perform or find a way to move out of the ministry," said one official, who attended Chidambaram's first meeting with senior staff. Reinforcing the message of change was the appointment of Raghuram Rajan, the outspoken former chief economist to the International Monetary Fund, as Chidambaram's top adviser. Earlier this year, Rajan offered a stinging critique of the government's economic policies at an event attended by Singh. Since Chidambaram's arrival, senior ministry officials have been logging their arrival and departure each day using fingerprint scanners located at the building's entrances. Earlier, only junior staff were required to do so. "What he has done is put everyone on their toes and made them accountable," the official said. Mukherjee typically arrived at his office around 11 a.m. and would then spend much of his day meeting constituents and Congress party officials. He tended to read ministry documents late in the day and would often leave around 10 in the evening. "Chidambaram comes in by 9 a.m., is very business-like, does his work, does not meet people to make small talk, clears his files fast and goes home by 6 p.m.," said an official. The minister takes a dim view of officials who talk to journalists roaming the ministry's corridors. "He would rather see them work," said one. Chidambaram underwent minor surgery last week and was not available for an interview. A former lawyer, he has a reputation for intellectual prowess, and also arrogance that has won him enemies within the ruling Congress party and on occasion alienated public opinion. His eloquence, however, has made him arguably the most effective spokesman for the troubled Congress party. Better Ties With Central BankThe last time Chidambaram was finance minister, in 2004-2008, growth was motoring at a near-double-digit clip, fuelled by the transformational reforms that Singh introduced in 1991 to open up a state-stifled economy. It will be no easy ride this time. Growth was just 5.5 per cent in the June fiscal quarter, near its slowest rate in three years, in large part due to the global economic crunch. Investment has shrunk and the fiscal deficit has also ballooned, fuelled by hefty subsidies on diesel, kerosene and fertilisers. "Growth is slowing, there are lots of issues in the world economy. Everybody else is slowing," said Dipak Dasgupta, principal economic adviser in the ministry. "We have to pick up the pace with which we do things." A key part of Chidambaram's strategy to work around the political gridlock has been to forge better ties with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which frayed under Mukherjee. The two were at odds over which should come first - fiscal reforms or cutting high interest rates. The ministry and the RBI are now working on a coordinated plan that would see Chidambaram take the first step by unveiling some fiscal reforms, possibly in September. That could give the central bank room to ease interest rates. Chidambaram's strategy to improve investor perceptions may already be paying some dividends. Deutsche Bank analysts returned from a recent trip to Delhi encouraged by the moves to boost infrastructure spending and private investment. "It's not all doom and gloom," Deutsche said in a research note. "Our recent trip ... left us with the impression that there may be an undue concentration of pessimism which may be ripe for some upside surprise."(Reuters)
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The father of 'white revolution' Dr Verghese Kurien, who transformed India from a milk-deficient country to the world's largest milk producer and the founder of Amul, passed away today after a brief illness. Kurien, 90, is survived by wife Molly Kurien and daughter Nirmala. His mortal remains were consigned to flames in the presence of priests from different religions. The last rites were performed by his grandson Siddharth. Respecting his last wish, Kurien was cremated. Kurien died at around 1.15 a.m. at Muljibhai Patel Urological Hospital in Nadiad, about 25 kms from here. His body was brought to his residence here and kept in Sardar Hall of Amul dairy in Anand, where people paid homage. His professional life was dedicated to empower Indian farmers through co-operatives. Kurien joined Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited in 1949, on the request of Tribhuvandas Patel, the then dairy chairman. The dairy was formed at the initiative of Sardar Vallabhabhai Patel. Later, Patel asked Kurien to help set up a dairy processing plant, which saw the birth of Amul, which became a successful cooperative model. Kurien is also credited with being the first one to produce powder from buffalo milk, when elsewhere in the world, cow milk was used to produce milk powder. Impressed by the success of Amul, former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri established National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to replicate the Amul model across the country and Kurien was made its chairman. As Chairman of NDDB, Kurien led 'Operation Flood' to make India the biggest milk producing nation in the world, besides making Amul a household name. NDDB launched 'Operation Flood' in 1970, making India the largest milk producer in the world. He served as chairman of NDDB for 33 years from 1965 to 1998. Paying rich tributes to Kurien, President Pranab Mukherjee said he had made enormous contribution in the fields of agriculture, rural development and dairy. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Vice President Hamid Ansari also expressed their condolences on his death. Ansari said Kurien was credited with being the architect of the largest dairy development programme in the world-- Operation Flood. Terming him as an icon of Indian co-operative movement and dairy industry, Singh said in his long and illustrious career, Kurien set up the Anand model of co-operative dairy development and engineered the white revolution. Described as the undisputed 'Milkman of India', Kurien had received national and international recognition. The Indian government had conferred on him Padmashri in 1965, Padmabhushan in 1966 and Padma Vibhushan in 1999. He was also the recipient of World Food Price, Ramon Magsaysay award for Community Leadership, Carnegie Wateler World Peace Prize and International Person of the Year award from US. Born in Kozhikode, Kerala on 26 November 1921, Kurien had graduated in science from Loyola College in Chennai (1940) and obtained his degree in engineering from Guindy College of Engineering also in Chennai. (PTI)
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As the cost of production goes up, so will the cost of doing business, says Siraj Chaudhry, chairman of food producing and marketing company, Cargill India. Excerpts from an interview with BW’s Chitra Narayanan: How is the monsoon scenario going to affect industry?It obviously has a bearing on commodities, food, inflation… The problem of irrigation and water deficit will have a direct bearing on industry. It won’t necessarily translate into a problem immediately, but it is a risk you live with for the next 12 months, because the government makes choices between supply for drinking water, agriculture and industry. Also, the current monsoon shortfall is creating a lot of uncertainty. Uncertainty is bad for trade and business. What are your fears?I don’t see scarcity of food being a problem. We have free import of edible oils and pulses. But affordability is a factor. Prices will go up. Everything is linked to imports. That can be addressed by making more food available in the system — through imports and by improving food distribution. The locked up grain needs to get channelled into the distribution system. What creates a problem is non-availability. It creates a mindset that there is shortage. The other concern is that a lot of noise gets made. Agriculture is a state subject so states take action. The reality is that what creates the most food inflation are fruits, vegetables, milk, meat, poultry — none of which is traded on the futures exchange, and none of which can be hoarded. Therefore, we still come up with 20th century responses to 21st century problems. The important thing, at least in the public domain, is to not create a crisis. What has made this monsoon deficit worse is that it has come at a bad time. Resources that should be going into bridging (financial) deficit, will go into dealing with this problem. Then the global commodity scare is there. The economy has weakened our currency so the cost of imports is higher. This is a deficit monsoon we could have lived without. For us the worry is that the next step of food inflation is lower demand and lower consumption. Obviously the farmer starts spending a disproportionate amount on food, and curbs his other expenditure. All this creates uncertainty in the mind of a farmer as a consumer, and he starts saving more, which affects demand. How can the food pricing issue be fixed?The whole food price table has gone up globally. There are a few elements to this. One is that fuel is being produced from grain. There is financialisation of commodities, which means everyone is investing in commodities. A 100 million people have gone above the poverty line so consumption and demand have moved up. So the low-price cycle has finished. This is thelevel at which prices will have to remain. What we should do is eliminate inefficiencies that create price discrepancies. This can be done through smooth flow of goods. Changing weather is another factor, and not just in India. From February till now, some 100 million tonne of crop has been wiped out in the US, South America, India and Ukraine. This is, in a way, nature forcing nations to improve the free flow of commodities and reduce barriers.There has to be more free trade and movement of commodities. What do you think will happen to edible oil prices?Oil prices have already gone up. Our challenge is to keep prices in this range; a challenge, as we are moving from a slow-consumption season to a peak season (the festive season). The important thing would be to maintain availability. That is not a challenge as palm oil and various derivates are available in Malaysia and Indonesia, and they are building stock. The challenge is that if water availability is lower, then plants don’t run, and our input costs go up. Currency is anyway high. We would have to look at fine measures then. There are a lot of gaps in policy which, if addressed, could unknot the gap in availability. What about efficiencies at your own end?In the case of edible oil, 85-95 per cent of cost is raw material cost, and that is driven by the market. So the scope for innovation lies only in the remaining 10 per cent — packaging and marketing. We have opted for pouches instead of bottles to cut costs. But, how do you cut the variable cost of production — water, power, coal, etc.? My concern is how much my cost will go up. And that cost obviously gets passed on to the consumer. The cost of doing business goes up. So, as I said earlier, my biggest concern is inflation. (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 13-08-2012)
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Indian agriculture is not dying, but it’s not flying either — it’s barely limping,” says Ashok Gulati, chairman, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP). The man in the advisory hot seat, recommending the price policy of farm products to the government, says that “the time for waiting is over” and shares his prescriptions to make agriculture fly again with BW’s Chitra Narayanan and Joe C. Mathew. Excerpts: How bad is the monsoon deficit?It is as if one foot is in the snow, and the other is on fire. In the eastern block, there are floods; the western block has a severe rain deficit. Since the country’s average deficit has been pegged at 19 per cent, and the east is all right, I would say the deficit in the suffering states is between 30 and 70 per cent. The suffering states are Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and parts of Madhya Pradesh. Although there is a large deficit in UP and Punjab, I am not worried about these two states, because there is irrigation. They can tackle it. The others are rain-fed and that’s where the real crisis is. I am still worried about El Nino. IMD is not clear on it. But others are saying that after 15 August there could be El Nino. If that happens, and monsoon withdraws early – by 20 August — then the seeds cannot sprout. So, what can be done immediately?We need to look at it from the perspectives of the affected parties: the farmer, the agriculture labourer and the consumer. On the farmer side, wherever the situation can be salvaged — Punjab, Haryana and UP — we can do so, provided we give power to them on a priority basis. They can’t carry out irrigation without power. On diesel, it will be too expensive. So within the limited pool of power, you have to decide right away and allocate accordingly. In Punjab and Haryana, I am confident that power can be provided, as the states have the commitment and resources. But in UP, there is a problem. It is a large state and if the state government gets it right, then at a national level you can manage the crisis quite well. If UP cannot provide power, can it alternatively provide diesel subsidy to the farmer? Something has to be given. If El Nino happens, can farmers be given seeds for short-duration crops, late in the season? Each state has to work this out in each climate zone, decide which seed will work. The Centre cannot do this. It can provide subsidy for this – Rs 800 crore, Rs 1,000 crore, etc.; but then, the states have to get their acts together. Also, other inputs such as fertiliser, seeds and water have to be given. What about agricultural labour?On the labour front, NREGA can come in very handy. Many conditions such as 100 days can be waived in drought-prone states to give employment. NREGA can be used to dovetail activities even on farms through the panchayats in a collective manner so that the cost to farmer can be reduced. They can be put to work on immediate water-related projects such as rain water harvesting. So that is the buffer for agriculture labour. What about the consumer?On the consumer front, luckily there are ample stocks of cereal – rice and wheat. In fact, I want this stock to be liquidated at once. Forty million tonnes of stock that are lying in the open should flood the market. Not only through Public Distribution System (PDS) but also through open market; since there is a global crisis, you can export and make money out of it as well. The pressure is on vegetables, pulses, oilseeds and even on cotton. Last year, we imported Rs 46,000 crore of edible oil, this year we may have to import Rs 56,000 crore. But we have a huge surplus of agriculture exports (in 2011-12 it was $37 billion, while imports were $17.1 billion) — so it does not matter if we import more. But since the rupee is weak, and there has been a soya bean failure in the US where a drought is raging, I foresee an impact on prices. The real problem will be with pulses. The market is very thin. They are not that easily available. Except for chickpea, we are going to have to import most other pulses — yellow pea (matara), moong dal, tur dal, etc. The government has to do contingency planning right away, start buying from global markets and release it all in PDS. And abolish stocking limits. The global market is limited. Right now, very limited quantities of moong and urad are available. And if they are not bought in time, we will find within two to three months, prices will jump from Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 per quintal at wholesale rate. That means at retail it will jump from Rs 60 to Rs 80 or even up to Rs 100 a kg. You need to act right away. In the longer term, are we moving from the rice and wheat focus to pulses?Yes, you have to switch gear in favour of oilseeds and pulses now – both are nitrogen-fixing. In fact, if you notice, we have effected a historic increase in Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for pulses and oilseeds. The reason is we want to reposition these. At present, it is too much in favour of rice and wheat. Now we want to bridge or reduce the gap – but then we have to decide at what price and what productivity. We have to work on both the seed side and the price side. Last year, there was a major investment done, and we hope the farmer will shift to pulses. But in the short run, imports will increase. The government has to quietly go to the international market and start buying. When people know there is a shortage, everybody would like to hoard. But the solution is not to pick up the stick and start beating the traders. This is a 1950s mindset: impose stocking limits and put traders in prison. In a market economy, this is not done. Instead, you import bigger quantities and beat the trader with trade so that he incurs loss for hoarding. That’s how a market economy has to be played. If you don’t wake up and import at the right time, and at the right price, there will be hoarding. It will only give rent-seeking powers to the inspectors. And lead to corruption. You have to beat cartelisation with trade. So is the government doing this?That’s a big if. These are my recommendations.At present, the government is the biggest hoarder — it is hoarding 80 million tonnes and drying up supplies in the market. Is the Competition Commission of India looking at that? Don’t sit on this heap of cereal. Your cost of operations is so high. You have to get out of this non-real cost. How do you stabilise prices in a market economy? When external shocks like scanty rainfall happen, you need to access trade and do it well in advance. Don’t wake up three months late. The government should have already acted and sent people scouting. These are short-term measures. What are the long- term solutions for Indian agriculture?At present, the problem with our agriculture is that three-fourths of the resources going in are going as subsidies — fertiliser, irrigation, power, credit subsidies. Now research shows that if you spend $1 million in fertiliser subsidy versus the same amount on rural roads or water, the return is in the ratio of 1:7. You get seven times more returns on investments than on subsidy. So giving subsidies is patently a wrong approach. And open-ended subsidy is even worse. Subsidies should only be 20-25 per cent of the resources going in. Seventy-five per cent to 80 per cent should be investments. Unless we reform that, things will not change. Currently, Rs 300,000 crore to Rs 400,000 crore is needed to complete irrigation projects. But how much do we allocate? Less than Rs 20,000 crore. Why don’t you spend more on irrigation and go from 45 per cent of irrigated area to 65 per cent. But it has to be done in a transparent manner. Water will need huge investments – in augmenting water supply, containing the rainfall and recharging groundwater, setting up water institutions (borewells and so on), as well as on pricing of water. Today we are a water-scarce country – but what are we exporting? Rice! Do you know one kg of rice costs us over 3,000 litres of water. We give away this rice for one rupee in some states. Is this the cost of water – one rupee for 3,000 litres of water? Set up policies – no digging for water until you have a licence. Create a law. We also need to invest in R&D, better seeds, and fix better remuneration prices. In 10 commodities, our MSP was lower than the cost of production. That’s why we recommended a big increase. How can the farmer feel incentivised if MSP is below the cost, and you put an export ban. You block exports, strangulate the market by not allowing movement from one state to another, set stocking limits – these are the various instruments to tax the farmer. You end up distributing poverty – but not prosperity. I would say raise MSP by 10 per cent whenever you impose an export ban. It has not been done. MSP also has no meaning unless you have an effective machinery to support it. In the East, in Assam, and Bengal, paddy prices are fixed, but there is no procurement machinery to pick it up at the cost. So what’s the use? In China, only rice and wheat are on MSP; occasionally corn and cotton gets support. We, on the other hand, have 24 items on MSP. You cannot do justice — at the most 5-7 items should have a support price. (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 13-08-2012)
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Over the past few years, the way large organisations and governments communicate has changed drastically. One of biggest catalysts for this transformation has been the growth of video collaboration. It has changed the way they operate and communicate. It has also resulted in better access to public services, education, health and security. One of the biggest players in the video conferencing market is the $1.5- billion Polycom. Marc-Alexis Remond, director, enterprise solutions and market development for Polycom Asia Pacific was in India recently. Remond told BW's Anup Jayaram how the Indian video conferencing market is changing from pure video conferencing to that over tablets and other mobile devices.Excerpts:Do you see the spread of videoconferencing in companies across India? How is videoconferencing changing the way business is done?Since I joined Polycom two years ago, I have been coming to India at least three times a year. India is a key market for Polycom, which explains the presence of many Polycom executives in the country. We are doing very well in India. In fact the Frost & Sullivan report of 2011 shows that Polycom is the leader in the market in terms of video conferencing as well as video conferencing infrastructure. From an end point perspective we have a 50.2 per cent and for the infrastructure 48 per cent market share. And we have seen year-on-year growth of 47 per cent and 57 per cent on infrastructure. So the market is growing about 20 per cent. So we are definitely growing faster than the market.But the key is for organisations to realise that they can do much more with video conferencing. If I tell you that the benefits of videoconferencing are all around—reduction of travel costs, time, and reduction of risks associated with travel, reduction of carbon emissions, would you agree?Well, ideally the video conferencing technology today can do much more for the enterprise, whether you are from the public or the private sector. In fact, studies and research have shown that yes you can save up to 30 per cent in travel costs, but also that in other industries you can shrink the recruitment time by 19 per cent. So for a fast growing organisation, they need to hire, interview a lot more employees, they can shorten the time by using the technology. The hiring manager and the interviewee do not need to travel. All this leads to a reduction in the time to onboard a person into an organisation.In some industries like the apparel industry, the time to market is critical. You have collections coming out for spring, summer, fall and winter. There are very short cycles between the design and the manufacturing stage. Here videoconferencing helps reduce time to market by 24 per cent. So you can imagine in the automotive and the consumer durables industry if you are the first one to launch that gives you a great competitive edge. In the manufacturing industry, we have seen that videoconferencing on the shop floor can be used for technical support. An engineer can be connected over video from the shop floor to a subject matter expert at another location to fix the equipment and reduce the downtime by 27 per cent.So basically, enterprises and public sector organisations need to look at the value of videoconferencing beyond travel. They need to look at how it can add value to their existing processes. Videoconferencing helps streamline processes and benefit different corporate functions.Different employees have different needs. A business executive would spend 30 per cent of his time outside office, 30 per cent at his desk and 30 per cent on travel. A sales person would spend 90 per cent of his time outside office; a marketing person or an accounts person would spend more time at their desk. The function of a person in an organisation will define their behaviour in terms of communication.So we are saying that you need an organisation to become a high performing workplace, you need to integrate three components—the processes, people and technology. When it comes to technology, it is not just video conferencing as a siloed solution for meetings only. It is part of the entire ICT solution of the company, because now video has gone mobile. It is available on mobiles, laptops and tablets. So sales people can now collaborate over video from customer locations and home to connect with the people in the organisation. Video has gone social.Today there are video applications for enterprise. These include Yammer, Jive for enterprise social connect. These solutions now integrate video.What is the current trend in videoconferencing and how is it changing?The 2011 Frost & Sullivan report shows that everything is moving towards high-definition. That is what customers are looking for in India. The first concern that public and private companies have over HD in India is bandwidth. It is still quite expensive. So what Polycom has done to enable more video conference is to integrate a new protocol, H264, high profile. It reduces the bandwidth consumption by 50 per cent compared to other solutions in the market.The second trend that we see in India is that most customers have a couple of end points, with 4-5 locations. Now enterprises are looking at investing in infrastructure, which will enable multi-party connectivity over video and audio. So we are not talking of connecting from a conference room—but from a tablet, a personal computer or even from a mobile phone for audio.The other thing that we see is more and more people recording and streaming video. Many of them use it for training. So you are not able to see just the trainer, but the content that is being shown. That is recorded and put on the corporate intranet, and people can watch it when they want. And for those who are outside the office like your channel partners, who you need to train, there is a video streaming happening.Has demand for your products risen post the slowdown?Whenever there is a slowdown, companies step back and take a look at their standings — be it travel related, investment or capex. So normally what we see is that during a slowdown, some of the projects may be delayed. Executives take a hard look at all expenses. Very quickly it goes back to normal for video conferencing as it is a great alternative to travel. Some companies that would have planned to invest in PCs would look to invest in videoconferencing because they did not have it in the past. So, Polycom is growing but it is not because of the slowdown in particular. It is because of the adoption of video conferencing overall.There are some sectors like education and healthcare where videoconferencing is big globally. Do you see that happening in India?We do a couple of things here. We have solutions for the administration of hospitals and hospital networks. So just like they would use for conferences, training, project management, we have customers like Fortis HealthCare in India who have rolled out Polycom across their hospitals and integrated with their Microsoft link solution. So they have a complete unified and communication and collaboration solution for their employees all over India. We also do solutions for what we call continuing medical education. Medical information is increasing every day. So people need to upgrade their skills and knowledge. We bring video conferencing solutions all the way to the operating theatre, where a live surgery will happen and other doctors will watch it from remote locations. This is happening in the UK and in India at Lucknow. It is also used in telemedicine for both primary and specialty care. There is a lack of specialists in rural areas. It does not matter. People can go to a clinic or local hospital and be connected over video for all kinds of specialties.We do a lot of solutions for tertiary education as well as primary and secondary. It is all around e-learning. There are two components — download content when you are free. The other is live lectures. What we are seeing worldwide is that students are going less and less to the classroom. They have to review material before going to class online. Then they discuss it with the teacher. We provide a solution to capture the lectures, archive them and of course provide the live learning. It doesn’t matter where the teacher is located. They can connect smart boards to do annotation.What solutions do you have for small enterprises?It is not about how many employees you have or what is your revenue. You could be a law firm with 12 lawyers, but they are highly mobile and are located all over the country. You have a high need for collaboration. These people invest in video conferencing. You may be a manufacturer with a 1,000 employees at a single location. Your need for collaboration may not be that large. So you need to look at the number of sites you operate in and the kind of business you do — whether you provide services to people all over or you are a single site large business. Even a large manufacturer will need to be in touch with suppliers and channel partners. So the need for collaboration may not be internal, but be part of the overall supply chain.What is the most interesting application that you have seen?I have seen very interesting applications in oil & gas which is called remote project management. Oil & gas and energy companies may have their headquarters in major cities, but their plants are located remotely. They use video conferencing to monitor the progress of the project.Who is your competition?In the market, Cisco would be the second player. Because of that we made a commitment to support all vendors. So even if some organisations use the Cisco product, we will be able to connect to the Cisco systems even though some of them are based on proprietary standards by Cisco systems. The Cisco Telepresence (TPS) has a proprietary protocol called TIP. The TPS can talk to only other TPS. We have taken that protocol and embedded it in our RealPresence platform. So those who invest in the RealPresence solution can also connect to the TPS. So our customers are not restricted in the way they do videoconferencing.What about mobile videoconferencing?Yes the boom of tablet PCs is happening in India too. It is like any other country. More and more people are bringing those devices to the office. Today we have an application—the Polycom RealPresence Mobile — which is available free of charge for download from the Android market and from the App Store. So people who download this application will be able to do point to point video conferencing free of charge. If you want to integrate this application as part of your enterprise video conferencing, you will be able to this. This application will be registered to a centralized server. The server will take care of authentication and encryption.
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Minister of State (independent charge) for consumer affairs, food and public distribution K.V. Thomas feels that the drought situation in India is manageable and there will not be any shortage in food supplies. Talking to BW’s Joe C. Mathew and Chitra Narayanan, Thomas says the Centre will release 9 million tonnes of foodgrain and subsidised pulses into the domestic market to counter price rise. Excerpts: How serious is the drought threat and how will it impact the food buffer situation?We are continuously monitoring the situation. We have just had two review meetings: one called by me, and the other by the agriculture minister (Sharad Pawar) — with scientists from the meteorological department and officials from the ministries of agriculture, consumer affairs and food. Our assessment is that the monsoon is 22 per cent lower than normal. And that it will affect almost all of Karnataka, parts of Maharashtra nearer to Karnataka, parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat. However, it will not have any major impact on foodgrain (rice and wheat) production. The production of sugar will also be normal. Last year, when the production of sugar was predicted to touch 24.5 million tonne, we got 26.2 million tonne. This time, they are predicting 25 million tonne and I am very confident that whatever may be the bad condition, it will be above 25 million. We have got enough buffer stock as well. Experts are not predicting any shortfall in foodgrain production. The concern is the decline in pulses and oilseeds production and increasing prices. How does the government plan to ensure the availability of pulses at reasonable prices?I agree. In the case of pulses and oilseeds, the production will come down. But what we need to understand is that we are already importing pulses and edible oil. So we may have to import a little more. We are already making some calculations on the quantum of requirement. In order to cushion the prices, pulses will be distributed through the public distribution system (PDS) at a subsidised price. We had been doing this earlier; for example, we gave a subsidy of Rs 10 per kilo on pulses that were distributed through PDS to above the poverty line (APL) and below poverty line (BPL) families. Only four or five states took interest in it, so we dropped it. Now we intend to provide a subsidy of Rs 20 per kg of pulses to BPL families. In the case of edible oil, we will step up our imports from Malaysia and Indonesia. We will have to import more, but things will remain under control. Food inflation is already a matter of concern. Are we expecting drought to further add to the worries?Food inflation is mainly because of price rise in vegetables, fruits, edible oil and pulses. In the case of foodgrain and sugar, the prices are under control. In the past week, the price of sugar has gone up slightly; we are now releasing more sugar into the market. We are very confident that we will be able to manage the price situation. Vegetables and fruit prices are not under our control as these are all seasonal products. Effective management of the prices of such perishables can happen only by setting up effective cold storage chains and the agriculture ministry has a number of projects on which the states have to act. Similarly, Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act has to be amended so that farmers can bring their products into the markets in the cities. This is an issue that is before the state governments. So, the situation can be managed very comfortably provided the state and central governments work together. That’s what we are trying to do. There can be a scarcity of water, there can be scarcity of electricity and all these factors are being looked into. The Prime Minister is very alert. The group of ministers headed by agriculture minister Sharad Pawar is looking into all these aspects and we are sure to find a comfortable solution. Has any state government approached the central government for aid?So far no, but they may. We already have a disaster management mechanism. In the budget itself, some amount is earmarked for every state for natural calamities and if additional funds are required, we send a team of central experts; based on their recommendations, we give the assistance. When onion prices shot up some time ago, there was a widespread allegation of hoarding and cartelisation. What is the government’s preparedness to face a similar situation?Our granaries are full and the PM has given instructions to release more foodgrain into the market. In case of PDS, what I need is 55 million tonne of foodgrain. I have got 82 million tonne with me. So I am releasing another 9 million tonne in the internal market. Five million tonne under BPL, 1 million under APL and 3 million under the open market supply scheme to the millers and others. So I am pumping in an additional 9 million tonne. Around 64 million tonnes is what I am selling in the open market to ease the prices. Cartelisation has always been there. I don’t blame the people who do it. It is for the government to take action. We have lot of control mechanisms like bringing down the stock-holding limits, invoking Essential Commodities Act, etc. But I prefer self-regulation. Legal recourse should come last. I have told the millers that we (the government) are supplying foodgrain at a very reasonable rate, so they have to bring down the price of atta. Are any export curbs in the offing?We don’t want to take any abrupt decisions. One of our problems is that we start exporting, and then we ban it. So let us have a scientific mechanism for both export and import. In the case of foodgrain, the export of both wheat and rice is under open general licence (OGL). We export about 5.5 million tonne of rice and about 2 million tonne of wheat. Out of 4 million tonne of sugar under OGL, 1.5 million tonne has been going out. So we are in a comfortable position and only surplus stocks are being exported. Our farmers should also get a better price. All said, if the situation so warrants, we will consider export-control measures. Can you give an update on the food security bill? Do you expect the government’s PDS food procurement cost to go up substantially in case of drought-related crop failure?To implement the food security bill, I need 62 million tonne. For the existing PDS supplies, I need 55 million tonne of foodgrain (on the basis of 2000 census). Now, according to 2011 census, the requirement is 60 million tonne. So the additional requirement of foodgrain post-implementation of food security bill will only be 2 million tonnes. If somebody says that we don’t have enough foodgrain, the answer is that if we have to run the PDS system, we need 60 million tonnes; then why can’t you find another 2 million tonnes? The other apprehension is about the subsidy burden. At the moment, we need Rs 88,000 crore towards food subsidy (on the basis of 2000 census). On the basis of 2011 census, my subsidy burden is going to be Rs 1 lakh crore. And when the food security bill comes, it will be Rs 1.2 lakh crore. This is something which the country can afford. You are increasing the minimum support price (MSP) for foodgrain. Will it have an impact on the subsidy bill?Our MSP price is going up. In addition to this, states are announcing a bonus; so naturally the impact on subsidy will increase every year. Central MSP has doubled in the last five years. But I am supplying one kilo of rice to a state like Kerala for Rs 4.73; my subsidy component is to the tune of Rs 18. We have to find out some solution for this problem. I believe that if we ensure that the subsidised foodgrain is strictly limited to the designated people, the problem can be solved. Today, there is a complaint that at least 10-15 per cent of subsidised foodgrain is being siphoned off. Strengthening the PDS and targeting the real beneficiaries through Aadhar and a computerised biometric system should help. How do you respond to the demand for distribution of excess stock to minimise storage losses?It is true that there used to wastage of grain stored in Food Corporation of India godowns due to problems related to the management, procurement, storage and transportation. Fortunately, we have been able to control it. Five years ago, if my damage was 2.5 per cent (of the total stock), today it has come down to 0.00061 per cent. That is, when I am handling about 82 million tonnes, my damage is less than 100,000 tonnes. (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 13-08-2012)
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