ReleaseWire Connect

Fulfilling the basic housing need of hundreds of thousands of Indian citizens still seems to be a distant dream. In the backdrop of ultra-luxury homes and high lifestyle living, India, unfortunately, still has 85-90 million people who have nothing that qualify as housing. A report by the 11th five year plan working group states that India suffers with housing shortage of 140 lakh units. We, as a nation, still have not been able to provide decent housing to more than half of the population thus robbing an opportunity of proper growth and decent living environment.

India’s booming economy which is considered one of the fastest growing in the world demands better performance in transportation, especially when it comes to the case of gigantic sloth of Indian Railways (IR)! The behemoth public sector enterprise runs more than 18,000 trains daily and is comfortably one of the biggest rail networks in the world. However, it is yet to economise on the concept of modernisation and automation. In order to make the system more efficient, most of the nations across the world have privatised their mass transportation system. Undoubtedly, a better experience of travelling and transport can only be achieved by private participation and eventually it will also enhance the bottomline that has been looming at $48 billion as of 2009.

ECONOMIST, professor, writer Arindam Chaudhuri, 40, has concluded his selfhelp series on management. Sitting cosily in a brilliant blue office smacking of success, Chaudhuri talks to Janani Ganesan about his latest book Cult that he has co-authored with A Sandeep, strategic management professor at IIPM

Arindam Chaudhuri is back with another book, this time with a long-time friend A Sandeep.

As I sit down on the eve of my 40th birthday to write this editorial, I couldn’t have thought of writing on a more important aspect – as great political leadership is what India requires more than anything else today. And though I have written considerably on leadership, it has mainly been about corporate leadership. Leadership in corporations is massively different from political leadership, and therefore it requires a special model and a special line of thinking. While in corporations the final aim is profit maximization in most cases, in politics the final objective is necessarily social welfare maximization. While in corporations the best leaders are often the best marketing guys, in politics the best leaders necessarily have to be the people who are the sincerest and most hard working. While in business you can make do without the knowledge of economics, in politics that can be suicidal. While in business being unethical can harm you and at most your stake holders, in politics the lack of ethics ruins an entire nation’s future. And most importantly, while in corporations leadership is about commitment to the strongest and survival of the fittest, in political leadership, the focus always is about commitment to the weakest and survival of the weakest – concepts about which I wrote a few issues back in Business & Economy (a Planman Media group publication), when I wrote about responsible leadership (please do log on to our website and check out the link for the same: http://www.businessandeconomy.org/27102011/storyd.asp?sid=6462&pageno=1). Thus, for me, political leadership is not just about having certain qualities but also simultaneously about not having various qualities. Rather, what is important is to ensure that one does not possess certain specific qualities first; if that is taken care of, the rest would then automatically fall in place.

Arindam Chaudhuri’s latest book Cult takes the ideas in his previous ones a step further. Primarily meant for CEOs, the management guru tells Rahul Devrani that it isn’t theoretical but practical, research-based and questions a-priori notions

Now that Maya, Mamta, Jaya and assorted other leaders and ideologues from both the Left and the Right have successfully derailed the attempt to allow FDI in retail, one can only marvel at why the UPA Cabinet so suddenly cleared the proposal in the first place. Delhi is a city teeming with cynics, and this time you have to bow down to their warped wisdom. According to them, the UPA gambit to let the dogs out over FDI in retail is a spectacular success. For almost two weeks, rather than cornering the government over corruption scams and the Lokpal Bill, the BJP and the Left have been exposed as parties who can do nothing else but oppose (That does give an entirely new twist to the term Opposition!). Just imagine, even our television anchors were not frothing at the mouth over yet another pearl from Anna Hazare about making hunger strikes a serial! To that extent, I salute the UPA for having the smarts to outsmart the opposition this time; it was long overdue anyway with the UPA scoring self goal after self goal over the last year or so. This move clearly indicates that the Chanakyas in the Congress may have been down and out, but they are bouncing back! More power to them.

Management guru Arindam Chaudhuri`s Delhi franchise will be called `Delhi Gypsies and Billionaires` in the upcoming i1 Super Series league, it was announced.

Apple is a unique company for it’s loved by many and envied too by an equal number of people, especially its competitors. First, every mobile phone company tried to copy the iPhone; and now, taking subtle shots at the iPhone is a gimmick being used by all. However, in November 2011, Apple’s most aggressive competitor Samsung went a step further as it blatantly compared its Galaxy S II model with the iPhone. The advertisements poked fun at the iPhone buyers who were shown as people ready to stand in a queue for days to get their hands on the latest iPhone, while a better phone (meaning the Galaxy) was already there with the smarter ones. The ad mocked the iPhone users for buying the iPhone4S when in fact there was no visible difference between iPhone4 and 4S. Moreover it did not have a great battery life and its screen was not as wide as that of the Galaxy. Whether the Galaxy is better than the iPhone is secondary, the debate is, “Is this kind of advertising going to work for Samsung?” It has managed to get everybody’s attention with its provocative ads; but would this help it sustain in the market place?

Companies are worried about the coveted FDI regulations for this market. Economists are worried about its massive poverty indicators and growing inequality. Politicians are worried about their next elections as usual, but perhaps much more today about simply getting caught! Business in general is worried about favourable government policies and reforms and also about the appalling Indian version of the term “infrastructure”. And on top of all these, the common man is worried about (including infrastructure, of course) rising prices on all fronts, corrupt and inefficient systems, uncertain markets, lack of a social security net… the list is quite endless.