Blogs from IDSTPR

Reduction in Green House Gas Emission

2011-08-31T03:31:00.000-07:00

The largest contributor in percentage term of global greenhouse gas emissions is -19.5% as per available information. It is followed by USA-19.2%, India-5.3%, Russia-5.1%, Japan-3.6% and Germany-2.6%.

Informing this in Rajya Sabha (Upper House of the Parliament in India), Union Minister of State for Environment and Forest, Ms. Jayanthi Nataraj said that India has announced that it will endeavour to reduce emissions intensity of GDP by 20 to 25 percent in comparison to the 2005 level by 2020. The minister said that the Government of India has launched National Action Plan on Climate Change that includes National Solar Mission and National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency which aim at reducing emissions intensity of GDP. Government follows the policy of sustainable development through a range of programmes aimed at energy conservation, improved energy efficiency in various sectors; promoting use of renewable energy; power sector reforms; use of cleaner and lesser carbon intensive fuel for transport; fuel switching to cleaner energy; afforestation and conservation of forests; promotion of clean coal technologies and encouraging Mass Rapid Transport systems.

Meanwhile, A Report on “Climate Change and India: A 4x4 Assessment a Sectoral and Regional Analysis for 2030s” has been published in November, 2010. However, the report has not been submitted to United Nations Climate Panel. The Report has projected the likely impact of climate change on temperature, precipitation, extreme events, sea-level rise, agriculture, eco-system and bio-diversity, water and human health in four regions, namely Western Ghats, Himalayan region, North-Eastern region and Coastal region. The assessment brings out vulnerability of these regions to the adverse impact of climate change. The Report does not have any specific recommendations. However, the information generated in the report and assessments made therein are utilized by appropriate agencies of the government including the nodal ministries for effective implementation of activities under National Action Plan on Climate Change.

Government is aware of various challenges posed due to climate change and has come up with National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) which outlines steps to enable the country to adapt to climate change and enhance the ecological sustainability of our development path. Eight Missions in specific areas of Solar Energy, Enhanced Energy Efficiency, Sustainable Habitat, Water, Sustaining the Himalayan Eco-system, Green India, Sustainable Agriculture and Strategic knowledge for Climate Change are being implemented by the nodal ministries to address vulnerability to climate change and enhance capacity at the Central and State level to respond to climate change.

Ralegame: Play real, win cash in real | Play game as Anna Hazare to fight ‘demon’ corruption with Beowulf’s strength

2011-08-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

When almost all Indian television channels and telecom service providing companies are making money on the response to the anti-corruption movement by Anna Hazare, Gujarat based Info Data Soft Technologies [popularly known as IDS Technologies] (http://www.idstonline.com) has found it an innovative way by developing an interactive game to engage people to fight against corruption.

The soon to be launched game which is on trial run, would require intelligence of the gamer where the person would be unearthing the various scams and corruptions already fed into the library of the game.

Christened as “Ralegame” (Ralegam is a small village in Maharashtra which is the work place of Anna Hazare), the game can be played on major Operating Systems like Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Solaris, Unix including IBM and Google Chrome. The Ralegame is also compatible with Mobile applications like Android, BlackBerry OS, Embedded Linux, iphone, Palm OS, Symbian and Windows Mobile.

The game – Ralegame – came as an inspiration from the huge mass support to Anna Hazare to fight against corruption. The mass movement is very similar to the 8^th century old English heroic poem – Beowulf. In this saga, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, battles three antagonists: Grendel, who has been attacking the resident warriors of the mead hall of Hroogar (the king of the Danes), Grendel’s mother, and an unnamed dragon. After the first two victories, Beowulf goes home to Geatland in Sweden and becomes king of the Geats.

Beowulf is considered an epic poem in that the main character is a hero who travels great distances to prove his strength at impossible odds against supernatural demons and beasts having very much resemblance with Anna Hazare. Anna Hazare is also putting all his energy, strength and stamina to fight against corruption prevailing in the society. The poet who composed Beowulf, while objective in telling the tale, nonetheless uses a certain style to maintain excitement and adventure within the story while Anna’s fight against corruption is also full of excitement and adventurous.

The person, who would like to play Ralegame, would first indentify himself / herself and then would use an avatar of Anna Hazare who has been projected as a crusader against demons called “corruption” and “scam”. Anna Hazare who in real life an Indian Army veteran, has been vested all power from the masses and equipped with huge arms and ammunitions including artilleries to unearth the scam and punish the real culprit behind the scam immediately.

The gamer have to use his / her strategic intelligence to unearth the scam he / she choose. The domestic version of the game is packed with all major scams starting from 1948 to latest Commonwealth Games Scam. The library includes scams like Jeep Purchase (1948), BHU Funds (1956), Mundhra Scandal (1957), Teja Loans (1960), Kuo Oil Deal (1976), HDW Commissions (1987), Bofors Pay-Off (1987), St Kitts Forgery (1989), Airbus Scandal (1990), Securities Scam (1992), Indian Bank Rip-off (1992), Sugar Import (1994), JMM Bribes (1995), Telecom Scam (1996), Fodder Scam (1996), Urea Deal (1996), CRB Scam (1997), Vanishing Companies Scam (1998) to IPO Demat Scam (2005), Scorpene Submarine Scam (2005), Punjab City Centre Project Scam (2006), Taj Corridor Scam (2006), Hassan Ali Tax default (2008), The Satyam Scam (2008), Army ration pilferage scam (2008), The 2-G Spectrum allocation scam (2008), Illegal money in Swiss Bank (2008), Orissa and Karnataka Mining Scams (2009), Madhu Koda Scam (2009) to latest Commonwealth Games Scam.

The beauty of the Ralegame is that each scam is having a money tag. The more the scams are unearthed and culprits are punished, the user will have a chance to win more and more points. Here points are not only mere points or virtual currency, points can be encashed by converting into physical and real currency and not cash in virtual. IDS Technologies, with support from various sponsor and partners, would send the money through a bank cheque as a payment directly to the postal address of the gamer.

The NASSCOM-E&Y study shows that the global gaming market was estimated at USD 36 billion in 2008 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.5 per cent to reach USD 53.6 billion by 2012. The Indian gaming industry was estimated at USD 167 million in 2008 and is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 49 per cent to reach USD 830 million by 2012.

In 2008, the console gaming segment is estimated to account for the largest share of the Indian gaming market, followed by mobile gaming, online gaming and PC gaming. In 2012, console gaming is expected to retain market share and still account for the largest share of the Indian gaming market, followed by mobile gaming, online gaming and finally PC gaming.

Industry insiders opine that in the next two years, this market will grow faster with the arrival of games based on local stories.

After Mumbai attack in 2008, we have seen various gaming companies have developed games keeping in mind the social plot while portraying terrorist Ajmal Kasav as a villain. Apart from Mumbai attack, Mumbai Underworld and Yes Prime Minister are another two games based on corruption and scam.

Mumbai Underworld is a a game that lets players buy a house in the Adarsh Housing Society by paying off politicians and police while Yes Prime Minister, a game released on Ibibo on April 1 this year soared from 50 thousand to 150 thousand players in just days thanks to Hazare's apparently inspiring efforts.

India Government and Team Anna Face Off | How to manage the crisis situation of this magnitude?

2011-08-18T00:13:00.000-07:00

Let’s do a role play today. No..no, I am not taking about the same role play which we often perform in the chat rooms. This could be a role play for communications and public relations specialists who are serious about managing the reputation of their respective brands during a crisis situation.

Think of a scenario. This scenario is having a direct link with the ongoing tussle between the Indian Government led by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Civil Society led by Mr. Anna Hazare. The background of the tussle runs like this:

India is indeed in a serious need of an Anti-Corruption Law. Now, to have a strong and effective anti-corruption law, under pressured Government has constituted a committee comprising of five members from the Government side and five members from Civil Society. After series of meeting and discussion, both the agitating sides came out with two different drafts of the proposed bill. The Indian Cabinet pushed the draft before the Indian Parliament which has been prepared by the representatives from the Government rejecting the draft prepared by the Civil Society. The Cabinet, however, included many effective points from the draft of the Civil Society before forwarding it to the Parliament for enactment of the Act.

Now, not satisfying with the rejections of the six vital sections to be included in the proposed Act, Civil Society led by Mr. Anna Hazare triggered a nationwide agitation. He effectively used media, both print and electronic, ATL and BTL campaigns to mobilize masses in his support and demand.

The Government, on the other hand, which has to work under a Constitutional and legal framework, cannot but accept all suggestions from the Civil Society. Above all, it is the Parliament and Legislations which decide to pass or reject a bill before getting it enacted.

The Government wishes to stress that the issue before India is not whether a Lok Pal Bill (popular name of the Government’s draft) is necessary or desirable. All of elected representatives have agreed that a Lok Pal Bill must be passed as early as possible. The question is, who drafts the law and who makes the law? The Prime Minister of India submits that the time-honoured practice is that the Executive drafts a Bill and places it before the Parliament and that Parliament debates and adopts the Bill with amendments if necessary. In the process of adoption of the Bill, there will be opportunities for the members of the Civil Society including Mr. Anna Hazare and others to present their views to the Standing Committee to which this Bill has been referred by the Speaker of the Lower House of the Indian Parliament. The Standing Committee as well as Parliament can modify the Bill if they so desire.

As wished sections are not included in the proposed bill, Mr. Anna Hazare and his team, threatened Government to go for an indefinite hunger strike against the Government until and unless the bill proposed by the Civil Society is passed by the Parliament.

After that, Government using and flexing its own muscle, imposed prohibitory orders on the venue of the fast. Without taking a chance Government arrested Mr. Anna Hazare and some top leaders of the team before they start their indefinite fast.

Hang on, I am not here to tell you what happened between the Government and Mr. Anna Hazare. All media channels are covering it.

Let’s now start the role play.

Imagine that you are the Chief Executive of your company with a very reputed brand. As a Chief Executive, you have control of money, power etc. At the same time, you have to work under a constitution of the organization. Also think that one of your stake holders has mobilized a campaign against you or the brand that you manage using various communication channels and exploring various means.

This is a very ideal situation for Communications or Public Relations professionals to manage the crisis and to bring it under control without causing much damage to the reputation of the brand.

The situation mentioned above, is very much similar to the context of the tussle between the Government and Team Anna. The face-off between the Government and Team Anna would leave us a huge management lessons on how to mobilize masses with you against the authority, how to use the media effectively and how to generate maximum RoI (Return on Investment) or “brownie points” without spending a single penny. On the other hand, it was a total calamity and disaster for the Government’s communication machinery which collapsed. No representatives from the Government were seen to address or brief the media during the high-voltage drama despite the fact the basic thumb rule during the crisis is to “tell it all and tell it fast.”

Given this situation, we are expecting our readers to contribute and comment how to manage the crisis of this magnitude. We are also expecting our readers to explain, how only strengthening communication machinery could have helped the organization to overcome the crisis.

Sluggish Indian Auto Industry | Maruti to relaunch Swift, GM to expand

2011-08-18T00:09:00.001-07:00

India’s leading passenger car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India Limited is all set to unveil the new version of its bestselling Swift model when the entire Automobile industry in India is crippling due to economic slow-down.

The new Swift which is scheduled to be launched on August 17, is based on an entirely new platform with new dimensions and added features, is expected to be longer (by 2.4 per cent), lighter and more spacious than the present variant. The new Swift’s petrol variant will run around 20 km per litre, while the new diesel Swift will boast of a mileage of 23 km per litre.

The Indian Automobile industry which got a hard hit because of recent economic slow down has sometimes registered a negative growth. The waiting period after booking a car has also got reduced from earlier more than 60 days to mere next business day for many branded car.

Sales of Cars in India
Company	July, 2010	July, 2011	Sales Growth
Maruti Suzuki	90114	66504	-26%
Tata Motors	27865	17192	-39%
Hundai	28111	25642	-11%
Ford	8739	7504	-14%
Madhindra	26303	37323	41%
Scoda	1222	2411	98%
Volkswagen	2597	6529	151%
Nissan	1005	1593	58%
General Motors	7124	9508	34%
Honda	4685	4725	1%

Car manufacturing companies are blaming rising fuel price and costlier auto loans for this sluggish market.

The major banks in India have already hiked the lending rates of auto loans. Very recently, HDFC Bank has increased its base rate from 10 per cent from earlier 9.5 per cent while its PLR has been revised from earlier 18 per cent to 18.5 per cent. The move by HDFC Bank comes soon after two of its competitors-State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank-announced hike in lending rates. SBI, the country's largest bank, has raised base rate to 10 per cent and its PLR to 14.75 per cent while ICICI Bank too has raised its base rate to 10 per cent.

Industry sources said, in India passenger car market is dominated by small cars. Almost 75 per cent of the passenger car market is under control of three majors – Maruti, Hundai and Tata Motors which manufacturer small cars too. With the growing pressure on fuel price and auto loan, the middle class who mainly opt for small cars has restrained themselves which jolted the small car manufacturers.

Apart from these three majors, the overall sales have increased for others. Automobile industry sources opine, these car sales are not much in volume with respect to Maruti-Hundai-Tata putting together. Some of them have entered into India very recently and thus their sales are so minimum to count. Apart from this, some companies are purely into commercial vehicle manufacturing.

Though overall car sales during the last one year has gone down, Maruti claims the sales of two more admired cars Swift and Dzire have gone down because of some other reason. Maruti was gearing up for the revamped model of Swift and so, it has discontinued the production of old Swift while its Manesar plant in Gurgaon where Dzire used to get produced was locked out due to labour problem. Similarly, General Motors has also suffered due to labour problem at its Halol plant in Gujarat.

Maruti’s decision to upgrade its best-selling model can be seen as its attempt to retain and expand its stronghold on the small car segment which has off-late seen a slew of launches by global and home-grown automobile giants.

Meanwhile, General Motors India has announced, it planned to increase production capacities at both its Halol and Talegaon units, investing $500 million over two years. The production capacity at its Halol plant in Gujarat is being expanded from its present 85,000 units to 110,000 units. Production capacity at its Talegaon plan would also be increased. The company has launched its Chevrolet Beat Diesel and eyes a sale of 4,500 units per month despite the sluggish market.

Industry experts believe that the Indian automobile market to remain sluggish. Inflation is rising and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the apex bank in India, is expected to hike its repo and reverse repo rates, which will push up interest rates. Much of auto sales are loans-driven and an interest rate hike will affect the market. “We don't expect the market to take-off before the festival season which starts sometime in late September,” the expert concluded.

FM Radio Policy Phase III to fillip FM Radio channels in India

2011-08-10T04:27:00.000-07:00

Finally the Government of India came out with much waited third phased policy guidelines on expansion of FM Radio broadcasting services through private agencies. The Indian Cabinet has recently given its “go” on the policy permitting radio operators to carry news bulletins of All India Radio, a government of India owned radio broadcasting service.

Cabinet has also cleared the proposal of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, policy making ministry on information and broadcasting, for conducting ascending e-auction, as followed by Department of Telecommunications for the auction of 3G and BWA spectrum, mutatis-mutandis, for award of license of FM Channels, as recommended by the GoM on Licensing Methodology for FM (frequency modulation) Phase-III.

FM Phase-III Policy extends FM radio services to about 227 new cities, in addition to the present 86 cities, with a total of 839 new FM radio Channels in 294 cities. Phase -III policy will also result in coverage of all cities with a population of one hundred thousand and above with private FM radio channels.

Apart from allowing private Radio operators to carry news bulletins of All India Radio, the approved third phased policy has also clearly defined what is news and non-news.

According to the new policy, broadcast pertaining to the certain categories like information pertaining to sporting events, traffic and weather, coverage of cultural events, festivals, coverage of topics pertaining to examinations, results, admissions, career counselling, availability of employment opportunities, public announcements pertaining to civic amenities like electricity, water supply, natural calamities, health alerts etc. as provided by the local administration will be treated as non-news and current affairs broadcast and will therefore be permissible.

The limit on the ownership of Channels, at the national level, allocated to an entity has been retained at 15 per cent. However channels allotted in Jammu & Kashmir, North Eastern States and island territories will be allowed over and above the 15 per cent of the national limit to incentivise the bidding for channels in such areas.

Private operators have been allowed to own more than one channel, but not more than 40 per cent of the total channels in a city subject to a minimum of three different operators in the city. Additionally cap on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Institutional Investment (FII) in a private FM radio channel have also been increased from present 20 per cent to 26 per cent.

Under the new policy, networking of channels will be permissible within a private FM broadcaster’s own network across the country instead of in ‘C’ and ‘D’ category cities only of a region allowed at present.

Providing special incentives for North East (NE), Jammu and Kashmir and Island regions, the government has liberalised the annual license fees to be paid.

Under the new policy, private FM Radio broadcasters in North East (NE) Region and Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and Island territories will be required to pay half the rate of annual license fee for an initial period of three years from the date from which the annual license fee becomes payable and the permission period of 15 years begins.

The revised fee structure has also been made applicable for a period of three years, from the date of issuance of guidelines, to the existing operators in these States to enable them to effectively compete with the new operators. Government has also allowed to use the Prasar Bharati infrastructure at half the lease rentals for similar category cities.

The incentives provided in the Policy with regard to J&K, North Eastern States and Island territories will make the operations viable in these areas and are expected to result in better off take of channels. The steps taken in the new policy will bring down operational costs and improve viability in general. To improve the viability further as against a maximum of four channels in D category cities permitted in FM Phase-II, FM Phase-III proposes only three FM channels in D category cities so that there are lesser operators to share the advertisement pie. The reduction in the lockin period of shareholding of promoters/majority shareholders from the present five years to three years will give them greater freedom to change the Share Holding Pattern.

Content diversification, because of news content provided by All India Radio and because of categories being specifically permitted and because of multiple ownership of channels in a city except in D category cities will allow operators to distinguish themselves from others to be able to cater to niche audiences. This will also increase the overall listener base and the listening time.

Brand recall: Zandu balm = Malaika. Problem with Emami turns out to be an opportunity for Malaika

2011-08-08T01:58:00.000-07:00

Brand recall: Zandu balm = Malaika
Problem with Emami turns out to be an opportunity for Malaika

It is said to find an opportunity in a problem and every problem is an opportunity in disguise. Here is a live example and somebody should learn how to convert possible fierce legal battle into an opportunity from Malaika Arora Khan, a model turned actor, after she was roped in as the brand ambassador for pain reliever – Zandu Balm. Zandu balm is owned by Emami Ltd, a Kolkata based FMCG company.

In September last year, Emami served a legal notice to a Mumbai based movie production company, Arbaaz Khan Productions, which used Malaika to perform an item dance in the tune of Le zandu balm hui, darling tere liye (became Zandu balm, for you darling) for using the brand’s name in the song citing copyright infringement.

After that it was only negotiation for the win-win situation for both. Arbaaz Khan Productions and Emami settled a dispute that arisen over the usage of word ‘Zandu balm’ in the song.

Benefit for the brand – Zandu Balm

Riding on the success of the hugely popular item number ‘Munni Badnaam Hui’ from the film ‘Dabangg’, Emami roped in Malaika Arora Khan as the brand ambassador for its pain reliever brand -- Zandu balm. The company got benefited with huge brownie points and brand recalls in return without investing a single penny.

Benefit for Arbaaz Khan Productions

Arbaaz Khan Productions which has legally violated the copyright by using the brand name (Zandu balm) without taking prior permission from Emami got the maximum benefit when the production company tamed the angry and irritated Emami for a patient listening and offered Malaika to be nominated as the brand ambassador.

And atlast Emami has agreed to sign up a deal with Malaika for two years and that too paying a whipping Rs 1 crore (more than two hundred thousand USD) for getting her on board to endorse the brand for the next two years.

After the meeting and negotiation, both the parties settled the dispute amicably and decided to grabs of the chartbuster song for Zandu balm’s promotional campaigns.

“We have signed up with Malaika as the new brand ambassador for two years and the new ads will go on air soon,” Emami Director Mohan Goenka told media adding the new TV commercial (TVC) will not only effectively promote the brand, but will also help in increasing the number of young buyers for the product.

Emami has also bought the rights for the ‘Munni Badnaam' song of the movie Dabaang from music company T-series. The song which has been directed by famous Sajid-Wajid and Lalit-Pandit duo and sang by Mamta Sharma and Aishwary was well received by the Indian audience.

The movie - Dabangg (Fearless), broke many records at the box office within the first week of its release. It went on to become the highest opening day grosser as well as the highest weekend grossin Bollywood film of all time, breaking the records earlier held by 3 Idiots. The film set another box office record, grossing Rs 80.87 crore (US$18.03 million) in its first week, thus becoming the highest opening week grossing Bollywood film, overtaking the previous record of 3 Idiots. Made on a budget of Rs 42 crore, the film went on to collect Rs 212 crore worldwide. Box office India declared the film an all-time blockbuster in the second week of its release.

Emami has also brought on-board Tamil superstar Suriya (who already endorses Emami Navratna cool oil) and Telugu star Junior NTR for the new ad in Tamil, Telegu and Hindi by noted adman Prahlad Kakkar. Currently, Indian cricketers Virendra Sehwag, Dinesh Karthik and Amit Mishra are also seen promoting the brand on Television apart from Malaika who already endorses brands like Zapak.com and Streak hair color.

Malaika, an advantage over Bipasha

In September last year, Emami had also announced signing up with another Bollywood actress Bipasha Basu. “We have not yet decided which brands Basu will endorse,” Goenka added.

Is it only because Malaika = Zandu Balm? A combination for total brand recall?

India to monitor FB, Twitter to strengthen cyber security

2011-08-05T05:04:00.000-07:00

Your FB, Twitter account to be Monitored.
India to monitor FB, Twitter to strengthen cyber security

Government of India is planning to check your Facebook and Twitter account. Confirming the move, Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology, Mr. Milind Deora, said that his department has already received a recommendation on this regard from the Ministry of Home Affairs which is also in-charge of internal security of the country.

“Department of Telecommunication has received a letter from Ministry of Home Affairs to ensure effective monitoring of social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter in order to strengthen cyber security paraphernalia,” the Minister informed the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Indian Parliament) on August 5, 2011 in a written reply to a question posted by one Indian law maker.

Government of India is toying with the idea to monitor social networking sites for the last couple of years after the country had been ravaged several times by extremist groups which used social media to communicate with each other.

Apart from terrorism activities, many Indians are suffering from identity impersonation, abuse and other criminal activities which Government of India wants to deal sincerely.

But the Government of India is facing a tough challenge while planning to monitor various social networking sites. The department handling this activity doesn’t have the knowhow to decrypt all the intercepted encrypted messages.

In India, the Telecom Service Providers provide facilities for lawful interception and monitoring of communication flowing through their network including communications from social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter, as per the terms and conditions of their licence agreements.

But, there are certain communications, which are encrypted by the Solution Service Providers of these services. The Telecom Service Providers are not supposed to know the content of any communication and, therefore, do not know whether a service is encrypted or not. This is known by the Security Agencies only when the stream of encrypted content is delivered to them through the facility of lawful interception and monitoring provided by Telecom Service Providers. But Security Agencies may not be able to decrypt all the intercepted encrypted messages.

The Government of India is now regularly interacting with various Telecom Service Providers and Solution Service Providers to address the issue and implement the solution to the extent possible keeping in view security, service and developmental needs of the country.

FDI in Pharma Industry in India

2011-08-04T06:19:00.000-07:00

The recent takeovers of Indian companies by MNCs could increase the possibility of other takeovers of Indian companies which would have impact on the Indian health care scenario as well as on pricing and availability of medicines in India.

As such an appropriate assessment requires to be made. The Department of Pharmaceuticals of Government of India have requested the Department of Commerce to conduct a study on the recent takeovers of Indian Companies by the MNCs. Thereafter, the recommendation could be placed before the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister or any other authority. Department of Commerce has informed that they have entrusted the task of this study to M/s Ernst & Young.

The policy of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in existing Indian Pharmaceutical Companies has come in for public comments especially on the issue of takeover of existing Indian Pharmaceutical companies by multi-national companies. With a view to examine the issues involved in a border perspectives, Planning Commission has with the approval of the Prime Minister of India constituted a High Level Committee (HLC) under the Chairpersonship of Mr Arun Maira, Member (Industry), Planning Commission to consider all the relevant aspects.

Learning lessons from Iran, Indian Government planning to remove subsidies on diesel. Elite car owners may have to shell out more for diesel

2011-08-04T03:49:00.000-07:00

Lessons learned from Iran, Indian Government planning to remove subsidies on diesel.
Elite car owners may have to shell out more for diesel

Elite car owners may have to shell out more for diesel as fuel used in their cars if Indian Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee accepts suggestions to tame inflation and control rising price of essential commodities.

Mr. Mukherjee while responding on a two-day debate in the Parliament (Lower House of Indian Parliament) on inflation and price rise, hinted that the Government of India may look at a dual pricing for diesel. Fifteen per cent of the diesel produced is consumed by passenger vehicles in India so the government might remove the subsidy on diesel for passenger cars.
The minister said, "High prices are there… Certain suggestions have come... but one thing to do... heavily tax those sectors which are not essential... out of 100 barrel of diesel… 10 per cent goes to industry... agriculture uses 12 per cent…. 8 per cent for power… 15 per cent for passenger cars where we can accept your suggestion and try work out that these sections are not subsidized…"

Because of huge difference in petrol and diesel prices, currently at Rs. 25 per litre, the share of diesel cars in overall passenger car sales has been increasing rapidly. Diesel cars currently account for 30 per cent of car sales and the analysts expect diesel car sales to hit 50 per cent by 2015.

In late June of this year, the petrol price has been hiked by Rs 5 taking the per litter cost of petrol is more than Rs 63 while diesel price prevailing at around Rs 38.

Business Today in its edition dated June 26, 2011 commented , “The reluctance of the government to increase the price of diesel has led to a strange situation - the demand for petrol cars is declining sharply. The argument that the common man will suffer if diesel prices are raised and hence only petrol should be made dearer is fallacious. There are at least 100 million motorcycle owners in India, a figure calculated on the basis of the last 15 years' sales. And despite four-stroke motorcycles in India offering incredible mileage, this price rise hurts users of bikes which have petrol engines a lot more than the middle class man driving the diesel-variant of the Maruti Swift”.

But, if the Government of India decides to increase the diesel price only at the petrol pumps (gas stations), it would only affect the elite class who can afford a car and can also afford to bear the additional burden of diesel price hike spearing the agricultural and industrial sections to continue to contribute to the nation’s growth.

The diesel price hike at petrol pumps would also not affect the common man if transportation sector is also waived off from this elite class. The increase of diesel price is having cascading impact on price rise of essential commodities. But if transportation sector has been kept out of this loop, there is no chance of price rise for essential commodities including food grains and perishable vegetables and fruits.

How to remove subsidies without hurting common man - Iran offered lessons. In Iran, prior to February 2011, a litre of petrol would cost the equivalent of Rs 4, while diesel would cost around 60 paise. Electricity was pegged at around 6 paise a unit (kWh). This made Iran one of the cheapest countries in the world by the cost of fuel and energy. All thanks to subsidies. But Iran has prepared a roadmap for itself. It has decided to phase out all subsidies over a five-year period. To minimise any shock on account of the increase in oil, gas and electricity prices, the first reduction of subsidies would have to be 20 per cent at the very minimum. However, Iran has managed to reduce subsidies by almost 50 per cent and with practically no protest from its teeming millions.

In November last year, former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said that use of Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) in countries like India is "criminal" adding the need for evolving an effective fuel policy regime to discourage the use of such vehicles that emit more carbons. "The luxurious growth of large-size vehicles like SUVs is really a growth of concern... use of vehicles like SUVs and BMW in countries like India is criminal," the minister commented which attracted a huge controversy.

Taking a cue from this line and forgetting the carbon emission from huge SUVs, it is true that these SUVs are consuming diesel and having fun which are subsidies from the tax payers money.

Operation “Shady RAT” and India’s Preparedness to Fight Cyber Security Threats

2011-08-03T04:18:00.000-07:00

The US computer security firm McAfee outlines a cyber attack that struck the United Nations as well as several European companies. Researchers suggest China may be behind the new cyber-spying operation called Shady RAT.

The United Nations Office at Geneva, a British defense contractor, a German accounting firm and a Danish communications satellite company were among the European targets in a massive cyber-espionage operation detailed in a 14-page report released on August2, 2011 by McAfee, an American computer security firm.

In addition, a significant number of government servers, including ones in the United States, India, Taiwan, Vietnam and Canada were also targeted in "Operation Shady RAT."

RAT, or Remote Administration Tool, is a program that can be used by computer professionals to access other computers remotely.

Now the question: How India is prepared to counter cyber security threats?

Government of India has confirmed that as many as 117 government websites were defaced during the period of January to June of this year with an average of more than 19 websites were being hacked per month.

Mr. Sachin Pilot, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, informed the Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Parliament of India) that as many as 117 government websites were hacked during the period of January to June of this year. He has informed the Parliament of India in a written reply on August 3, 2011.

In his written reply to a question, he mentioned that all the affected organizations and departments were requested to provide web server logs of hacked websites for analysis and identifying nature and type of attack and vulnerabilities exploited by the hacker. Based on the analysis the organizations were advised to take specific steps to strengthen the security of websites. The analysis report alongwith countermeasures to plug the exploited vulnerabilities was provided to the affected organizations by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).

The reply further stated that the information on the website of National Investigation Agency (NIA) is temporarily disabled. Since the website of National Investigation Agency was not hacked, no inquiry in this regard has been conducted.

Meanwhile, Government of India has taken some specific steps to ensure cyber security.

All the new Government websites and applications are to be audited with respect to cyber security prior to their hosting. The auditing of the websites and applications will be conducted on a regular basis after hosting also.

National Informatics Centre (NIC) has been directed not to host web sites which are not audited with respect to cyber security.

National Informatics Centre (NIC) which hosts the government websites is continuously engaged in upgrading and improving the security posture of its hosting infrastructure.

All the Ministries/ Departments of Central Government and State Governments are implementing the Crisis Management Plan to counter cyber attacks and cyber terrorism.

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and other agencies India’s preparedness to fight/ward off various cyber security threats including security and issues alerts and advisories regarding latest cyber threats and countermeasures on regular basis.

Meanwhile, the Government of India has also set up a Committee to look into the aspects of interception of encrypted communications comprehensively for all types of services so as to address the needs of security agencies.

The Minister further stated that several service providers are providing services all over the world like Gmail, Blackberry email, Nokia messaging , Hush mail, Skype, Video chats and other services across the globe for sharing audio, video, image, email, data and accessing other web services any time and everywhere by everyone in a secure manner. The security of these services is achieved through encryption technology. These services are mostly availed by the citizens world over either in their individual capacity or as part of commercial activities. There are multifarious aspects involved in dealing with the issues relating to such communication services such as technical and international relationship, legal and regulatory policy, commercial and security requirements etc.

The Committee has analysed all the above issues to work out a focused and practical proposal which balance the requirements of security agencies and secure communication needs of trade, commerce and industry. The above complexities involved in the issue resulted in the Committee being unable to come out with unanimous conclusive recommendations.

Telecom service providers are of the view that they are able to provide the interception facility for encrypted services but decryption of the intercepted communications / services is not their responsibility. Security agencies, however, desire the intercepted communication in readable format. Government of India regularly interacts with all stakeholders to solve the issues arising from time to time and implement solutions to the extent feasible.

India and Afghanistan to join hands for cooperation in Media and Communication

2011-08-01T05:53:00.000-07:00

A delegation from the Ministry of Information & Culture, Government of Afghanistan, called on Secretary, Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India on which the later assured all possible help from the Ministry to the Government of Afghanistan in areas of capacity development, technical expertise in running infrastructural projects in the boradcasting sector and training for Afghan Journalists. Afghan delegation headed by Dr. Mobarez Rasheidi, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Information & Culture, met the Information and Broadcasting Secretary Mr. Radhu Menon in New Delhi on August 1, 2011. The delegation’s visit comes in the backdrop of the “Memorandum of Understanding on Information and Broadcasting sectors” signed between the two countries in May this year.

During the discussions, Secretary (I&B), Raghu Menon, assured all possible help from the Ministry to the Government of Afghanistan in areas of capacity development, technical expertise in running infrastructural projects in the broadcasting sector and training for journalists at IIMC.

On the issue of providing technical expertise in the broadcasting and information sectors, Shri Menon stated that the Ministry could provide technical expertise by sending professionals to Afghanistan to draw policy initiatives in critical areas. During the discussions, a detailed overview of the policy initiatives undertaken by this Ministry was also put before the visiting delegation.

Dr. Mobarez Rashedi, in his remarks, gave a detailed account of the initiatives of the Government of India which benefited Afghanistan in the recent past. He specifically mentioned the State of Art studio for Radio and Broadcast facilities which had been set up by the Government of India at Jalalabad. He appreciated the help provided by the Government of India in facilitating the up-linking and down-linking facilities via INSAT 3-A to radio and TV national broadcasters in Afghanistan.

During the discussions, the Afghanistan delegation also apprised Secretary (I&B) regarding the work-plan that was under consideration for taking forward the broad agreement reached with the Government of India in May this year.

The Deputy Minister also visited Press Information Bureau (PIB) and met the Principal Director General (M&C) Ms Neelam Kapur. The experiences regarding information dissemination and publicity was discussed at length during the meeting. PIB promised to offer all the necessary assistance for providing training to the Afghan Government Information Department Officials.

The Deputy Minister was accompanied by Dr Zareen Anzoor, DG, Radio TV, Afghanistan, Dr Nejeebullah Bayan, Head of Internal News, Bakhtar News Agency, Government of Afghanistan and other senior officials.

The MoU signed between the two countries in May covers a wide range of issues. Prominent being policy and strategy development, project management, financial management and procurement processes. The focus of the MoU is on capacity development covering critical areas which are as follows:

• Development of media policies and strategies.

• Development of independent and free press in Afghanistan.

• Identification of areas of reforms and restructuring in the field of press and media and implementation thereof.

• Development and standardization of media related programmes, graphic designing, production of documentaries and films and other related areas.

• Production and broadcasting activities of Radio and Television of Afghanistan (RTA) including content management.

• Marketing of TV and Radio programmes for revenue generation.

A range of activities have been conducted by the Ministry in Afghanistan. These include: training by Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) to various Afghan Journalists. Annually IIMC is training several Afghan journalists sent by the Indian Embassy Kabul. India in the recent past has helped build the full fledged Radio And Television Afghanistan (RTA) Stations at Jalalabad Afghanistan.

As part of the capacity building technical process, India is also providing satellite uplinking facilities for the state owned television RTA. BECIL representatives in Afghanistan have earlier helped on various projects to RTA. A process has also been initiated to facilitate the flow of films from India into Afghanistan.

Inflation to pull down economic growth in India

2011-08-01T04:23:00.000-07:00

Inflation in India has once again played crucial role to determine the economic growth of the country. The demon inflation has pulled down the economic growth from projected over 9 per cent to a mere 8.2 per cent. This has become evident in the recently published “Economic Outlook 2011 – 12” released by Dr C. Rangarajan, Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India.

Releasing the Economic Outlook in New Delhi on August 1, 2011, Dr. Rangarajan said that the agriculture sector which witnessed the growth at 6.6 per cent during 2010 – 11 would grow at the rate of 3 per cent during the current fiscal year. Apart from Agriculture, Industrial sector would see a projected growth at the rate of 7.1 per cent during this year while last year the growth was 7.9 per cent while the services sector grew at the rate of 9.4 per cent and has been projected at 10 per cent during this year.

“The projected growth rate of 8.2 per cent, though lower than the previous year, must be treated as high and respectable, given the current world situation,” Dr. Rangarajan commented.

Commenting on the boundless inflation, Dr. Rangarajan said that the headline inflation rate would continue to be at 9 per cent in the month of July-October 2011. There will be some relief starting from November and will decline to 6.5 per cent in March 2012. “Important role for fiscal policy to contain demand pressure and it need to ensure that fiscal deficit does not exceed the budgeted level,” he cautioned.

Here are some highlights of the report:

Economy to grow at 8.2 per cent in 2011-12
Agriculture grew at 6.6 per cent in 2010-11. Projected to grow at 3.0 per cent in 2011-12
Industry grew at 7.9 per cent in 2010-11. Projected to grow at 7.1 per cent in 2011-12
Services grew at 9.4 per cent in 2009-10. Projected to grow at 10.0 per cent in 2011-12
The projected growth rate of 8.2 per cent, though lower than the previous year, must be treated as high and respectable, given the current world situation.
Global economic and financial situation unlikely to improve
To keep the economy growing at 9 per cent, it is important to increase fixed investment rate
Investment rate projected at 36.4 per cent in 2010-11 and 36.7 per cent in 2011-12
Domestic savings rate as ratio of GDP projected at 33.8 per cent in 2010-11 and 34.0 per cent in 2011-12
The 2011 monsoon projected to be in the range of 90 to 96 per cent of Long Period Average. As a result farm sector output expected to grow at 3 per cent
The revised series (2004/05) for Index of Industrial Production shows an output growth pattern that is fairly different from what the old series (1993/94) had indicated.
The output growth was grossly underestimated by the old series in 2007-08 and overestimated in 2008-09 and 2009-10.
The impact of the global crisis on industrial output was much stronger than had been indicated by the old series
In 2010-11 the output growth was higher at 8.2 per cent against 7.8 per cent indicated by the old series.
Current Account deficit is $44.3 billion (2.6 per cent of GDP) in 2010-11 and projected at $54.0 billion (2.7 per cent of GDP) in 2011-12
Merchandise trade deficit is $ 130.5 billion or 7.59 of the GDP in 2010-11 and projected at $154.0 billion or 7.7 per cent of GDP in 2011-12
Invisible trade surplus is $ 86.2 billion or 5.0 per cent of the GDP in 2010-11 and projected at $100.0 billion or 5.0 per cent in 2011-12
Capital flows at $ 61.9 billion in 2010-11 and projected at $72.0 billion in 2011-12
FDI inflows projected at $35 billion in 2011/12 against the level of $23.4 billion in 2010-12
FII inflows projected to be $14 billion which is less than half that of the last year i.e $30.3 billion
Accretion to reserves was $15.2 billion in 2010-11. Projected at $18.0 billion in 2011-12
Inflation rate projected at 6.5 per cent in March 2012.

The headline inflation rate would continue to be at 9 per cent in the month of July-October 2011. There will be some relief starting from November and will decline to 6.5 per cent in March 2012.

Available food stocks to be liberally released
Important role for fiscal policy to contain demand pressure. Need to ensure that fiscal deficit does not exceed the budgeted level
RBI will have to continue to follow a tight monetary policy till inflation shows definite signs of decline
Achieving fiscal targets set in 2011/12 budget estimates to present a significant challenge
For 2011/12, budget estimates of fiscal deficit for Centre - 4.7 per cent; States- 2.1 per cent and consolidated fiscal deficit including off budget liabilities - 6.8 per cent
Government to redouble efforts to collect larger revenue, resolve cases to reduce tax arrears
Minimize avoidable expenditures and initiate measures to increase revenues
Resolve issues with states and introduce Goods and Services Tax
Reforms in power sector distribution system to limit the liabilities of state governments

Some key issues of concern:

Convergence of growth rates of states

An analysis of the recent data indicates that while most of the lower income states have shown stronger growth rates, several of the higher income states have also shown an increase

Current Account Deficit

Given our growth needs, a moderate trade deficit and CAD are inevitable. To finance the CAD, foreign investment flows need to be promoted. However CAD to be contained below 2.5% of the GDP

Power Sector

The India growth story inextricably linked to the power sector

Immediate policy interventions required for ensuring coal availability for the power plants, land acquisition and environmental clearances and revision of power tariff by states to reduce high AT&C losses

Increased focus on non conventional energy

Food Security

Need to grant the poor a legal entitlement to food through an appropriate legislative enactment

Availability of grain to be kept in mind while deciding legal entitlements

Reforms in PDS important to strengthen distribution. Computerization, introduction of smart cards and using unique identification numbers for the beneficiaries are important interventions.

Table 1: GDP Growth - Actual & Projected

At constant 2004/05 prices

		Year-on-year rates of growth in per cent
	ANNUAL RATES	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
			QE	Rev	Proj.
1	Agriculture & allied activities	-0.1	0.4	6.6	3.0
2	Mining & Quarrying	1.3	6.9	5.8	6.0
3	Manufacturing	4.2	8.8	8.3	7.0
4	Electricity, Gas & Water Supply	4.9	6.4	5.7	7.0
5	Construction	5.4	7.0	8.1	7.5
6	Trade, Hotels, Transport, Storage & Communication	7.5	9.7	10.3	10.8
7	Finance, insurance, real estate & business services	12.5	9.2	9.9	9.8
8	Community & personal services	12.7	11.8	7.0	8.5
9	Gross Domestic Product (factor cost)	6.8	8.0	8.5	8.2
10	Industry (2 + 3 + 4 + 5)	4.4	8.0	7.9	7.1
11	Services (6 + 7 + 8)	10.1	10.1	9.4	10.0
12	Non-agriculture (9 - 1)	8.2	9.4	8.9	9.0
14	GDP (factor cost) per capita	5.0	6.2	6.8	6.4
	Some Magnitudes
15	GDP at factor cost - 2004/05 prices in Rs lakh crore (or Trillion)	41.6	44.9	48.8	52.8
16	GDP market & current prices in Rs lakh crore (or Trillion)	55.8	65.5	78.8	89.8
17	GDP market & current prices in US$ Billion	1,223	1,385	1,732	1,994
18	Population in Million	1,164	1,183	1,202	1,222
19	GDP market prices per capita current prices	47,975	55,384	65,517	73,460
20	GDP market prices per capita in current US$	1,051	1,171	1,441	1,632

India releases simulation software for solar thermal power plant

2011-07-25T04:39:00.000-07:00

New computer simulation software for design optimization of solar thermal power plants was launched by Mr. Deepak Gupta, Secretary, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, Government of India in New Delhi on July 25, 2011.

The software is equipped to handle user defined configurations and carrying out optimization through multiple simulation approach under Indian climatic conditions. It will be useful to various stakeholders for design optimisation of solar thermal power plants.

The software was developed as part of the R&D project titled “A megawatt-scale national solar thermal power research facility” sanctioned by the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy to IIT Bombay in 2009 with total project cost of over Rs 40.0 crore ($ 9 mn) for a duration of five years. The project aims at to establish a solar thermal power test facility at Solar Energy Centre of the Ministry.

IIT Bombay is implementing the project in a consortium mode with the participation of several industries including Tata Power, Tata Consulting Engineers, Larsen and Toubro, Heavy water Board and Clique Development Industries.

This facility is one of its kind in whole Asia, and when commissioned, will be used for hands on training of the Indian solar thermal power plant developers. The software will be available through web for use and feedback for its further refinement. It is planned to have advanced versions of the software after incorporating suggestions and feedback received, and to make it more user friendly.

This is a major step forward to develop capacities in the field of solar energy in the country, which would ultimately contribute, to achieving targets of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM).

Inflation in India - food stable, minerals and manufacturing increased. Inflation continues to be matter of concern: India's Fin Min

2011-07-14T03:41:00.000-07:00

Union Finance Minister of India Mr. Pranab Mukherjee said that inflation figures reported for the month of June 2011 continues to be matter of concern. The Finance Minister said that we are monitoring the price situation closely. He said that Government is working together with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI - the apex bank in India) to take appropriate steps to reduce inflation to more comfortable level.

Mr. Mukherjee was reacting to the figures of headline Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation for the month of June, 2011 which were released on July 14, 2011. The WPI inflation for the month of June 2011 stood at 9.44 per cent as against 9.06 per cent in May 2011 and 9.74 per cent in April 2011.

The Finance Minister Mr. Mukherjee said that the reasons for increase in WPI inflation include increase in administered fuel prices, seasonal effects, an upward movement in mineral and manufactured prices and in part reflecting imported inflation. The Finance Minister said that the Food Articles inflation has however stabilised at 8.38 per cent in June 2011 from 8.37 per cent in the last month.

He said that it was coming down in last two weeks. Primary Articles inflation as a whole is upto 12.2 per cent as compared to 11.3 per cent in the last month, reflecting mainly the effect of increase in mineral prices. Manufactured inflation is slightly up to 7.43 per cent in June 2011 as compared to 7.27 per cent in May 2011.

Another Asian country - China is also facing the heat of inflation.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) is the price of a representative basket of wholesale goods. Some countries (like India and The Philippines) use WPI changes as a central measure of inflation. However, United States now report a producer price index instead.

The Wholesale Price Index or WPI is the price of a representative basket of wholesale goods. Some countries use the changes in this index to measure inflation in their economies, in particular India – The Indian WPI figure is released weekly on every thursday and influences stock and fixed price markets. The Wholesale Price Index focuses on the price of goods traded between corporations, rather than goods bought by consumers, which is measured by the Consumer Price Index. The purpose of the WPI is to monitor price movements that reflect supply and demand in industry, manufacturing and construction. This helps in analyzing both macroeconomic and microeconomic conditions.

The wholesale price index is calculated based on the wholesale price of a few relevant commodities of over 2,400 commodities available.The commodities chosen for the calculation are based on their importance in the region and the point of time the WPI is employed. For example in India about 435 items were used for calcualting the WPI in base year 1993-94 while the advanced base year 2004-05 uses 676 items. The indicator tracks the price movement of each commodity individually. Based on this individual movement, the WPI is determined through the averaging principle.

Voluntarily India has reduced 108 million metric tones of CO2 equivalent over a period of one year, earned more than $ 200 Mn through CER

2011-07-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

India is richer by $ 200 Mn by way of earning Certified Emission Reductions (CER) under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) over a period of one year. As many as 342 projects have been approved with host country approval accounting for 10887923.6 CER during the period of July 13, 2010 to July 13, 2011. Calculating average price of 13 euros per CER, India has earned $ 204.5 Mn and reduced 108 million metric tones of CO2 equivalent during this period.

Out of 342 approved projects, 249 projects are from energy industries which include both renewable and non-renewable sources. Energy Demand category accounts for 19 projects while 18 projects have been approved from manufacturing industries. Waste handling and disposal accounts for eight approved projects while metal production and transport sectors account for one and two projects respectively.

Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) are a type of emissions unit (or carbon credits) issued by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board for emission reductions achieved by CDM projects and verified by a DOE under the rules of the Kyoto Protocol. CERs can be used by member countries in order to comply with their emission limitation targets or by operators of installations covered by the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) in order to comply with their obligations to surrender EU Allowances, CERs or Emission Reduction Units (ERUs) for the CO2 emissions of their installations. CERs can be held by governmental and private entities on electronic accounts with the UN.

Out of 342 projects, private projects are sharing the majority. As many as 330 projects have been approved which are basically private projects totaling to 9670957.6 CER. Nine projects have been approved, proposals for which have been floated by various state or local governments of India while only three central government projects have been registered and approved under the manufacturing industries.

As on date, the National CDM Authority has accorded Host Country Approval to 2004 projects amounting to 654407145.99 CER by 2012. Though India does not have emission reduction target under the Kyoto Protocol, however, approved CDM projects have the potential to reduced 650 million metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent by year 2012.

Meanwhile, Analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance shows that June saw the highest ever volume of carbon allowances (EUAs) traded in the European emissions market. Volumes on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which accounts for around 91 per cent of the EU emissions market, reached 654Mt CO2e for June and 78Mt on a single day on June 23 of this year. This beats the previous highs of 584Mt in March 2011 and 53Mt on March 16 this year.

These high volumes came about as the market reacted to a combination of influences, including concerns about an oversupply of emission allowances, falling oil prices, the European Commission's proposed energy efficiency package and the precarious state of Greece's economy. This caused to the price of the Dec-11 EUA contract to plummet 22 per cent in five days from €15.65/t on June 17 to €12.26/t on June 24.
Overall the second quarter of 2011 saw volumes of carbon emission rights traded throughout the world decline slightly, by three per cent. The value of the market however increased to €26.4bn, up six per cent from the first quarter of 2011. This rise in market value was driven by higher carbon prices in the European Union emission trading system (EU ETS) in April, May and early June compared to the first quarter of 2011.

On average, Dec-11 EUA and CER prices increased by eight per cent and seven per cent respectively in the second quarter compared with Q1. The firm prices were driven by Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power and the expectation that European power companies will need to start buying more allowances to compensate for the lack of nuclear power and the removal of free allocations in 2013 when Phase III of the scheme begins.

The main cause of the slight decline in traded volumes in Q2 was the dwindling interest in the market for primary Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits issued under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. With the lack of progress towards a new global climate agreement, transactions of CERs and Assigned Amount Units fell by 5 per cent in Q2 compared with Q1.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance believes that overall the carbon market in 2011 will trade at record levels of around €106bn – an increase of 27 per cent on 2010’s revised figure, driven by a boost in demand for allowances from utilities in the EU ETS.

India releases National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental & Economic Responsibilities of Business

2011-07-09T04:40:00.000-07:00

Corporate Affairs Minister of India Mr. Murli Deora released the “National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental and Economic responsibilities of Business” that will mainstream the subject of business responsibilities”. At a function held in Ashoka Hotal on July 8, 2011 the Minister expressed the hope that these guideline will strengthen and enable the Indian corporate sector to evolve into a global leader in responsible business. He said the beginning of industrialization marked the transition from merchant charity to industrial philanthropy in India which was more secular, more inclusive in terms of caste, creed and community and more oriented to bringing progress to society through western style modern institutions.

Earlier in June, 2011, IDSTPR in its blog has indicated the the Indian Government is not likely to make Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) mandatory. By enacting a stringent law making CSR mandatory for all polluting companies could have made a huge difference, but the Indian government has chosen not to walk on that direction.

Apart from making political donations for the freedom struggle, business fraternity also contributed towards many of the social and cultural causes. Mahatma Gandhi expounded the theory of trusteeship of wealth. Influenced by his teachings, many businessmen contributed for the cause of removal of untouchability, women’s emancipation and rural reconstruction.

Mr. Deora said his ministry has been pursuing the agenda of providing an effective regulatory framework to the Indian corporate sector that enables them to freely exploit their energies to develop while contributing to the overall growth of the society. He said his ministry has taken a number of initiatives the past few months in the legislative, regulatory, service delivery and capacity building areas. These are aimed to modify and upgrade the procedures and provisions under various Laws are as under:-

(i) Introduction of the online application process for obtaining Director’s Identification Number (DIN), the online payment of fees by companies, the Green Initiative allowing paperless compliance under the Companies Act, 1956 and the Easy Exit Scheme, 2011.

(ii) Initiation of introduction Companies Bill, 2011 in the Parliament. Convergence of Indian Accounting Standards with International Financial Reporting Standards. And launching of Investor Awareness Programmes for the benefit of small and medium investors to safeguard their interest.

(iii) Notification of Merger and Acquisition procedures.

(iv) Also undertaken the Initiative to formulate Policy to appoint at least one woman direction on the Board of Directors if it has five directors.

(v) Formulation of the National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental and Economic Responsibilities of Business.

He said Public Sector Undertakings have been undertaking CSR activities in a big way. It has been mandated for them to spend 2 per cent of Profit After Tax (PAT) on CSR activities. Their contribution has been noteworthy in this field. The private corporate sector has come a long way from the days of ad hoc charity. The concepts of CSR, corporate citizenship and increasingly, Responsible Business are salient aspects of many companies in India. They undertake the social environmental and economic responsibilities such as establishing charitable trusts, foundations and mega institutions for public causes, directly running community development programmes, forming partnerships with the Government or NGOs, etc.

In his address Mr R.P.N. Singh, Minister of States for Corporate Affairs said the Ministry has formulated the “National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental and Economic responsibilities of Business” that will mainstream the subject of business responsibilities. He said the guidelines, being released by the Minister for Corporate Affairs, are a refinement over the Corporate Social Responsibility Voluntary Guidelines 2009. These guidelines have been formulated keeping in view the diverse sectors within which businesses operate, as well as the wide variety of business organizations that exist in India today – from the small and medium enterprises to large corporate organizations. The Guidelines are applicable to all such entities, and are intended to be adopted by them comprehensively, as they raise the bar in a manner that makes their value-creating operations sustainable.

In his welcome address, Mr. Manoj K Arora, Director IICA said the release of the guidelines marks an important policy initiative by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. He that the new guidelines have expanded the scope of CSR to cover social, environmental and economic responsibilities of business.'

The Secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Mr. D.K.Mittal said that the guidelines are not prescriptive in nature, but are based on practices that take into account the realities of Indian business and society as well as the global trends and good practices adapted to the Indian context. It urges businesses to embrace the “triple bottom-line” approach whereby its financial performance can be harmonized with the expectations of society, the environment and the people it interfaces with, in a sustainable manner. The adoption of these Voluntary Guidelines would also improve the ability of businesses to enhance their competitive strengths, improve their reputations, their ability to attract and retain talent and manage their relations with investors as well as the society at large.

A large number of corporate representatives and foreign dignitaries including the Sh Anil Agarawal, former President ASSOCHAM, Mr. Bob Hiensch, Ambassador of Netherlands, Senior officials of the Embassies of UK and Germany, Team from World Bank, President of ICAI, Vice President of ICSI, Members of the Board of Governors of IICA were present on the occasion.

Recent Initiatives taken by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs

The Indian economy has expanded at a rapid rate during the current decade and the corporate sector has been the biggest contributor in this growth story. A significant feature of this growth is the increasing integration of the Indian corporate economy into the global business environment. While the Ministry of Corporate Affairs is working towards reforming the enabling environment for effective functioning of the corporate sector, simultaneously, there is a strong argument for fostering sensitivity to community and social concerns as a part of the broader objective of inclusive growth. It has been our constant endeavor at the Ministry to consult all the stakeholders in true spirit of our democratic values while undertaking these reform initiatives. The Ministry is also encouraging the corporate sector to take into account the concerns of stakeholders beyond their investors and to demonstrate that responsible business governance can generate value for all the stakeholders. In the long run, this collaborative effort between the government and the corporate sector will become a key multiplier in helping the ‘Aam Aadmi’ participate in the India’s growth story.

Ministry of Corporate Affairs has been working towards repositioning itself as a significant facilitator in creating a positive and healthy environment for doing business in India by offering an enlightened regulatory regime and efficient services so that the entrepreneurial energies are utilized in creating value for the stakeholders and are not spent in un-knotting the bureaucratic red tapes. A number of initiatives have been taken by the Ministry on legislative, regulatory, service delivery and capacity building sides.

CSR initiatives:

The Ministry has formulated “National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental and Economic responsibilities of Business” that will mainstream the subject of business responsibilities. The guidelines, released by Mr Murli Deora, Hon’ble Minister for Corporate Affairs on July 8, 2011, are a refinement over the Corporate Social Responsibility Voluntary Guidelines 2009. These guidelines have been formulated keeping in view the diverse sectors within which businesses operate, as well as the wide variety of business organizations that exist in India today – from the small and medium enterprises to large corporate organizations. The Guidelines are applicable to all such entities, and are intended to be adopted by them comprehensively, as they raise the bar in a manner that makes their value-creating operations sustainable.

The Guidelines are not prescriptive in nature, but are based on practices and precepts that take into account the realities of Indian business and society as well as the global trends and good practices adapted to the Indian context. It urges businesses to embrace the “triple bottom-line” approach whereby its financial performance can be harmonized with the expectations of society, the environment and the people it interfaces with, in a sustainable manner. The adoption of these Voluntary Guidelines would also improve the ability of businesses to enhance their competitive strengths, improve their reputations, their ability to attract and retain talent and manage their relations with investors as well as the society at large.

##

Recent initiatives on legislative, regulatory, service delivery by the Corporate Affairs Ministry of India

Ministry of Corporate Affairs of India has been pursuing the agenda of providing an effective regulatory framework to the Indian corporate sector that enables them to freely exploit their entrepreneurial energies while contributing to the overall growth of the society. In order to cut time lines in service delivery and give further ease to the stakeholders, we have undertaken various initiatives in the recent past. Some of major initiatives are as under: --

(1) Green Initiatives in the Corporate Governance : The Ministry has allowed paperless compliances by the companies and Registrar of Companies under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 such as : -

(a) Allowing service of Documents including Balance Sheets and Auditors report etc through e-mail addresses :   In order to reduce cost of posting and speedy delivery of documents, service of documents through electronic mode has been permitted under section 53 of the Companies Act, 1956 in place of service of document under certificate of posting. Similarly, to reduce the consumption of papers and speedy secure delivery,   service of copies of Balance Sheets and Auditors Report etc., to the members of the company as required under section 219 of the Companies Act, 1956 has been allowed to be served through electronic mode by capturing their e-mail addresses available with the depositories or by obtaining directly from the shareholders.

(b) Participation by Directors and shareholders in meetings through video conferencing : In order to provide larger participation and for curbing the cost borne by the Company, Directors, and shareholders to attend various meetings under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, participation through video conferencing has been permitted subject to certain compliances.

(c) Voting in General Meeting of Companies through electronic mode : In order to have secured electronic platform for capturing accurate electronic processes, Central Depository Services (India) Ltd (CDSL) and National Securities Depositories Limited (NSDL) are being given approval by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to provide their electronic platform for capturing accurate electronic voting in General meetings of the company.

(d) Issue of Digital Certificates by Registrar of Companies: The Registrar of Companies has to issue a number of certificates to the companies and other stakeholders as required under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956. In order to cut timelines and an another step towards “Green Initiative”, it has been decided that all certificates and standard letters issued by the Registrar of Companies will now be issued electronically under the Digital Signatures of the Registrar of Companies.

(2) Simplification in Procedures and Process under Companies Act, 1956: The Ministry has taken following steps to simplify the procedures for the corporate are as under : --

(a) Incorporation of new Company within 24 hours by end of July, 2011

                i.     Allotment of Director Identification Number (DIN) has been made online by the system once the particulars of the applicant are verified by the practicing professionals.

              ii.      The Ministry is issuing revised guidelines for allotment of name of the company. The name shall be made available online, if the application has been certified by the practicing professional that the proposed name is in conformity with the guidelines. The guidelines shall be implemented by end of July, 2011.

            iii.     A separate e-form is being developed for the Memorandum and Articles of Association and incorporation process will be totally paperless.

(b)    Issue of License under section 25 (non profit companies) of the Companies Act, 1956 : - Work relating to issue of license under section 25 (non profit companies) has been delegated to ROCs and condition for publication of notice for 30 days in the newspapers before issue of license have been dispensed with.

(c)       The Director's Relatives (Office or Place of Profit) Amendment Rules, 2011:-   Limit of Directors relatives salary has been enhanced from Rs. 50,000/- per month to Rs. 2,50,000/- per month. Now onwards, for remuneration for relatives of the Directors within the enhanced limit, company need not to approach Ministry for approval.

(d)      Marking a company as having management dispute by Registrar of Companies under MCA-21 system : In order to have uniform practice in all Office of ROCs, clarification has been issued that unless there is a order of the court or the Company Law Board, no company is to be marked as having management dispute by the ROCs.

(e)       Various E-forms are approved online : A number of e-forms which are informative in nature have been processed and approved/ recorded by the Registrar of Companies online and are made available for inspection to the public immediately.

(f)       Registration of place of business by a foreign company: Registration of place of business by a foreign company has been made priority item and it is registered by ROC on same day.

(g)       Appointment of LLPs of chartered accountants as auditor: After making amendment in definitions of body corporates, Limited Liability Partnerships of chartered accountants will not be treated as body corporate for the limited purpose of section 226(3A) of the Companies Act, 1956, hence they can be appointed as auditor of a company.

(h) Allotment of Designated Partner Identification Number (DPIN) :Designated Partner Identification Number issued under Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) Act, 2008 has been integrated with DIN. Now (w.e.f. 09.07.2011) only DIN will be allotted under Companies Act, 1956 and the same will be used as DPIN for LLP Act, 2008.

(i)       New Guidelines for Fast Track Exit of defunct Companies : The Ministry has issued guidelines for Fast Track Exit mode to give opportunity to the defunct companies to get their names struck off from the Register under section 560 of the Companies Act, 1956 in time bound manner.

(j) Special drive to clear pendency: A large number of e-forms filed prior to implementation of revised Regulation 17 are pending for want of action by the companies/stakeholders. Without any response from the companies, ROCs cannot process the said forms. As per Regulation 17, these forms have become time barred. To reduce the pendency of such e-forms, Ministry has decided to re-open all such pending forms for reviewing by ROCs and disposing them by 7th July, 2011.

(k)      To improve compliances by the company : In order to ensure corporate governance and proper compliances by the companies, it has been decided that w.e.f. 3rd July, 2011, no e-forms shall be accepted by ROC from such companies which have not filed their updated Balance Sheets and Annual Returns since 2006-07. The Directors of such defaulting company shall also be debarred for filing any document unless they make the default good.

(3) e-Payments in the Ministry: The payment of filing fee by the companies has been made completely online.

(4) International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) : In the field of financial reforms, convergence of Indian Accounting Standards called Indian AS’s with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has been approved by the Ministry in February, 2011. The date of coming in force of Indian Accounting Standards will be notified shortly.

(5) Investor awareness programmes : In order to channelize the significant household savings available with the Indian households into the corporate economy, the Ministry has decided to launch investor awareness programmes in 300 districts in association with ICAI, ICWAI ICSI, Stock Exchanges, RBI, SEBI, Trade Chambers, etc.

(6) The Companies Bill, 2011 : The Companies Bill, 2009 was introduced in the Parliament on 3rd August, 2009 after an extensive stakeholders’ consultation. It was subsequently referred to the Department related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance for examination. The report and the recommendations of the aforesaid Standing Committee have been examined in the Ministry and a revised draft Companies Bill, 2011 prepared in consultation with Ministry of Law (Legislative Department), has been circulated to the various Ministries and Departments for views and comments. Once the consultation with Ministries and Departments are completed, a revised Bill as Companies Bill, 2011 is proposed to be introduced in the next session of the Parliament after obtaining due approvals. Consequent upon introduction of the Companies Bill, 2011, the Companies Bill, 2009, pending in the Lok Sabha, will be withdrawn.

(7) Reorganisation of field offices : For better administration and faster service delivery, the Ministry created a new office in the form of Regional Director (SER), Hyderabad in May 2011. The field offices of the Ministry are now organized in six regions. Similarly, it is planned to restructure the cadres in the Ministry for better service delivery to public and better promotional prospects to existing personnel.

(8) Easy Exit Scheme, 2011 : With a view to reduce the number of defunct /inoperative companies, the ministry of Corporate Affairs has launched Easy Exit Scheme, 2011 providing them an easy route for closure. Under the scheme, till now, more than 29,000 defunct /inoperative companies have been struck of.

(9) Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) : The Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) has started functioning from its new office and building at Manesar. A large number of new initiatives, capacity building etc. are planned at IICA.

Following improvements are planned in the functioning, service delivery and regulatory work of the Ministry:

(1) Limited Liability Partnership Act : The e-Governance project for Limited Liability Partnership Act, (LLP Act) is running. However, to improve the working of LLP Act, it is planned to take up the registration of LLPs as a full e-Governance project on the same platform as MCA21.

(2) Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) : Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is being introduced in e-filing of Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss Accounts, etc. to have compatibility with international accounting and for data mining and analysis. The taxonomy of XBRL has been finalised after extensive consultation with all stakeholders – ICAI, Trade Chambers, etc. This taxonomy has been placed on the website of Ministry for information of all.

(3) National Foundation for Corporate Social Responsibility (NFCSR) : It has been decided to establish National Foundation for Corporate Social Responsibility (NFCSR) at IICA.

(4) National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) : To cut short the time delays in liquidation of companies. The Ministry is in process of establishing National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) which will replace High Courts and BIFR for liquidation and rehabilitation of companies.

(5) Guidelines for unpaid and unclaimed dividends: The Ministry is formulating guidelines for unpaid and unclaimed dividends. It is also in the process of implementing a functionality whereby the names of such investors who have not claimed amounts due to them shall be displayed on the website of the Ministry for the benefit of all.

(6) New Bills on Multi State Societies and Multi State Partnerships

        The Ministry is considering to bring legislations on Multi State Societies and Multi State Partnerships to regulate their business activities.

India is in the mission to study Black Carbon for Global Warming

2011-07-05T03:54:00.000-07:00

There is an emergence of interest in the role of Black carbon in global warming since aerosols may modify the planetary albedo. The issue has engaged the attention of scientists and experts in addressing the scientific questions associated with sources, transport and impact of Black Carbon worldwide. The latest scientific studies indicate positive contributions to global warming. However the magnitude of the impact of aerosol on climate remains uncertain.

Aerosols are suspended particulates in the atmosphere. The composition of aerosols varies depending on the sources and temporal and spatial variations. Sulphate aerosols cool the atmosphere. Black carbon (BC) is the soot released in the atmosphere due to indoor combustion of bio-fuels such as wood, dung and crop residue in cook stoves and in outdoors, it is released from combustion of diesel, coal and open biomass burning (forest fires, cut and slash burning in forests, and crop residue burning on fields). The lifetime of black carbon in the atmosphere is small compared to the Greenhouse gases. Black carbon sources vary by regions. On a global basis, approximately 20 per cent of black carbon is emitted from burning bio-fuels, 40 per cent from fossil fuels and 40 per cent from burning biomass in the open.

The knowledge and understanding on aspects such as vertical distribution and mixing of Black Carbon with other aerosols, effects of cloud cover and monsoon still remains uncertain and incomplete. There is thus a need to have better understanding on the following science questions :

• The contribution of black carbon aerosols to regional warming.
• Role of black carbon on atmospheric stability and the consequent effect on cloud formation and monsoon.
• Role of black carbon in altering the ability of hygroscopic aerosols to act as cloud condensation nuclei.
• Role of BC-Induced low-level temperature inversions and their role in formation of fog especially over northern India.
• Role of black carbon on Himalayan glacier retreat.

With the launch of INCCA in October 2009, the Minister of Environment & Forests of the Government of India had announced a comprehensive study on Black carbon not only to enhance the knowledge and understanding of the role of Black carbon in the context of global warming but also to address the sources and impacts of the black carbon on melting of glaciers.

The Black Carbon Research Initiative builds on the existing work and sets out the science programme to respond to the scientific questions. The science plan has been developed through an intensive consultative process and with the involvement of experts in the subject and builds upon the work of ISRO, MoES and other experts countrywide. The initiative is visualised as an ambitious programme with the involvement of over 101 institutions with 65 observatories nationwide.

The study would lead to long-term monitoring of aerosols; monitoring of impact of BC on snow and; estimating magnitude of BC sources using inventory (bottom-up) and inverse modeling (top-down) approaches and modeling BC atmospheric transport and climate impact. The major expected outcomes are understanding the effect of change in albedo due to black carbon on seasonal snow and glacier melt; estimation of albedo and; reflectance of seasonal snow and glacier, glacier depth and mass balance, using airborne sensors like laser altimeter, ground penetrating radar and pyranometer; modeling effect of enhanced melting on glacier mass balance and retreat and; development of snow/glacier melt runoff models to understand the influence of changes in snow and glacier melt pattern.

IDS Technologies integrating Google +1 in its application to monitor Sentiment to manage Brand's Reputation

2011-07-04T23:26:00.000-07:00

Facebook hits its 700 millionth member, Myspace dies and a new social Google is born. Info Data Soft Technologies (IDS Technologies) is quickly integrating Google +1 to monitor sentiment of a brand, product or services sothat the reputation could be monitored effectively and managed efficiently.

For more details, please contact IDS Technologies.

Indian Government has earmarked $135 m for Forest Management

2011-07-04T06:50:00.000-07:00

Government of India has earmarked Rs. 600 crores for the Intensification of Forest Management Scheme during the 11^th Five Year Plan with a 10 per cent participation from the State governments. The rest 90 per cent grant-in-aid would be provided by the central government from the scheme.

A Ministry of Environment and Forests sources said that the Intensification of Forest Management Scheme has resulted in bridging the gap in developing forest infrastructure in States/UTs. Earlier known as Integrated Forest Protection Scheme, it is a centrally sponsored scheme of Ministry of Environment and Forest which gives financial assistance to States/Union Territories to take up various activities essential for protection of existing forests.

Sources said that the financial assistance given to the State Forest Departments is used to strengthen their forest protection machinery by way of infrastructure development , use of modern technology, improved mobility by way of deployment of new field vehicles, improved communication and providing arms ammunition to the frontline forestry force.

It added that the scheme also provides financial assistance for developing infrastructure for forest fire control and management; survey, demarcation and preparation of Working Plans. The Scheme was formulated by merger of the two Schemes (Forest Fire Control Management and Infrastructure Development for North Eastern Sector) in all States and Union Territories during the 10th Five Year Plan. It was last revised during 2009 to broaden its objectives by adding four new components.

All State /UT Government provide State share of funds to match the Central share in proportion as stipulated in the Scheme for the approved Annual Plan of Operations of a financial year. The State Government also required to provide necessary funds for maintenance of the assets created under the Scheme and to provide financial and manpower resources for utilization of the assets so created.

Sources said that the funding pattern is on cost sharing. The scheme is a grants-in-aid based on 90:10 (Central: State) funding pattern in respect of all the North Eastern States including Sikkim and special category states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and 75:25 (Central: State) funding pattern for all other States/UTs.

The State Government also required to provide necessary funds for maintenance of the assets created under the Scheme and to provide financial and manpower resources for utilization of the assets so created.

Main Components of the Scheme are forest fire control and management, strengthening of infrastructure, survey and demarcation/working plan preparation, protection and conservation of sacred groves, conservation and restoration of unique vegetation and ecosystems, control and eradication of forest invasive species and preparedness for meeting challenges of Bamboo Flowering and Improving Management of Bamboo Forests.

Many interventions are carried out under this scheme which include creation and maintenance of fire-lines, engagement of fire watchers, construction of water harvesting structures; watch towers; office and residential buildings for frontline staff and improvement of forest road, providing the fire fighting equipments and vehicles, training and capacity building, awareness campaigns, assistance to Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs) to ensure involvement of local communities, Wireless and communication network, fire arms to the frontline forest protection staff, modernization of office equipments and survey and demarcation and preparation of working plans.

India's ranking slips on innovation, gains on scientific research

2011-07-04T06:21:00.000-07:00

India's ranking in the Global Innovation Index (GII) has slipped from the 56th position in 2010 to the 62nd place this year, while Switzerland topped the chart, according to a study. But at the same time, India has improved its position on Scientific Research and Development from 13th position in 1996 to 9th position in 2010.

Sweden, Singapore, Hong Kong and Finland notched second, third, fourth and fifth place in the GII rankings.

China (29th) is the only emerging economy to have reached the Top 30 on the GII.

The GII for the year 2011, which was released in Geneva, examines how countries leverage their enabling environments to stimulate innovation results.

The study was conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and INSEAD.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Naushad Forbes, Chairman of the CII Innovation Council 2011-12 and Director of Forbes Marshall, said on July 4, 2011 that the whole world is talking about innovation in all forms starting from industry to government to society.

After the recent economic slowdown, the focus has shifted clearly towards the developing regions not only in terms of a booming potential market but also a hot spot for frugal innovations.

"Measuring this shift is important to know how we are doing, GII is a starting point to do that and unquestionably in the right direction," Dr Forbes said.

In the Innovation Efficiency Index, India however improved its ranking to 9th this year.

"The decline in input factors--political stability, regulatory environment, human capital, research and development, infrastructure, market sophistication and business sophistication--coupled with an improvement in scientific and creative output, has led to this stupendously high efficiency index for the country," the study said.

Cote d'lvoire tops this list and China and Pakistan follow at the third and the fourth positions respectively.

Three BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries are among the Top 10 on Innovation Efficiency.

Meanwhile, India’s position globally in the field of scientific research and development, as measured by the number of research papers published, has improved from 13^th position in 1996 to 12^th position in 2001 and 10th position in 2006 and further to 9^th position in 2010 as per the Scopus International database.

The number of applications submitted to patent new inventions made by scientists from India and other developed and developing countries received at Indian Patent Office during the last five years is as follows:-

Applications	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Indian	4521	5314	6040	6161	7262
Foreign	19984	23626	29178	30651	27025
Total	24505	28940	35218	36812	34287

Source: Office of the Controller General Patents, Designs and Trademarks.

Note: Foreigners Resident Abroad include broadly the residents of Common Wealth countries, American, European, African and Asian countries.

The Government of India has taken various measures for the promotion and growth of scientific research in the country. These measures include, successive increase in plan allocations for Scientific Departments, setting up of new institutions for science education and research, creation of centres of excellence and facilities in emerging and frontline areas in academic and national institutes, induction of new and attractive fellowships such as Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE), strengthening infrastructure for Research and Development (R&D) in universities, encouraging public-private R&D partnerships, national awards for outstanding R&D for firms etc.

Recently, I got a joke on my mail forwarded by one of my good friends. After some editing, I am posting this joke here for my readers:

A Mathematician: How do you write 4 in between 5?
1st Person: Is this a Joke?
2nd Person: Impossible!
3rd Person: The question's wrong.
4th Person: Not found on the Internet.

Indian: F(IV)E

This is the reason Indians are everywhere in the world in finance, business, medicine, engineering.... anything to do with using both sides of the brain. (With input from UNI)

How effective is the communication strategy of Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh

2011-06-30T05:35:00.000-07:00

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is suffering from bad reputation which is very common in the PR and brand management industry. If a brand is not visible or the brand communication is not clear during the crisis period, it would allow people to assume and speculate. This is the same thing happening with the Indian Prime Minister also.

When Mr. Singh assumed the office of the Prime Minister even for the second time, people had great respect for him and he was amongst some finest brands which enjoyed huge reputation in the mind of common people. But as the days go ahead, he is slightly but definitely loosing the reputation without notice which has taken a huge time to build. It could be the bad attitude or bad strategy adopted by his advisor(s).

But, as he is becoming friendly with media and coming before the media to advocate what he has to say facing the brutal questions from the seasoned journalists, he may regain his reputation once again.

This is a very ideal situation of crisis for the UPA - II government in general and the Indian Congress party in particular. The basic thumb rule during the crisis has not been followed. The basic rule of Corporate Communications or Public Relations says that during the crisis "tell it all and tell it fast including first".

The Prime Minister is like a CEO of the country and when his subordinates have failed to minimize the bad noise and negative publicity by the opposition, the Prime Minister himself should understand and gauge the gravity of the situation and could have appeared before the media much earlier. He has earlier initiated the process when he first met the editors from television but that too more than six months back. He should appear before the media frequently and announce or comment on the situation quickly, responsibly and with positive note.

Never late than ever, he has started the process. The goal is all set, the ball is rolling. Let's measure his reputation once again after two or three months. As a professionals, teacher and a learner of Reputation Management and Image Makeover, we would then learn the effectiveness of his communication strategies.

PM's opening remarks at the interaction with newspaper editors

Following is the text of the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's opening remarks at the interaction with newspaper editors:

“I think that there is a growing perception that this government is in siege, that we have not been able to deliver on our agenda. An atmosphere has been created in the country - and this I say with all humility – the role of the media today in many cases has become that of the accuser, the prosecutor and the judge.

Now that way no Parliamentary democracy can function and I would like to tell you that if you are taking governmental decisions, particularly big macro decisions, we don't know all the facts and yet we have to take decisions. When I was a student at Cambridge, Sir Paul Chambers, who was then the Chairman of Imperial Chemical Industries, came and addressed us on who is a good manager, who will be considered by industry as a good manager.
He told our student group that, in an uncertain world in which we live in, if 5 out of 10 decisions that I take ex-ante turn out to be correct ex-post that would be considered as a job well done. If out of 10 decisions that I take, 7 turn out to be right ex-post that would be considered an excellent performance. But if you have a system which is required to perform 10 out of 10 cases I think no system can be effective and satisfy that onerous condition.
We live in a world of uncertainty and ex-post whether it is the Comptroller and Auditor General, whether it is a Parliamentary committee then they analyse post facto. They have a lot more facts which were not available to those who took the decision.
I am not saying that it is not possible that some people may deliberately do wrong things, but in many cases it would turn out in that sort of a scenario it is very difficult to operate. So we must create in this country an environment in which Governments, Ministers and civil servants will not be discouraged from taking decisions in the national interest when all facts are not known, they will never be known. We take decisions in a world of uncertainty and that’s the perspective I think Parliament, our CAG and our media must adopt if this nation is to move forward.
Our basic task is to deal with poverty, ignorance and disease which still afflict millions and millions of our citizens and whatever the ideological moorings of different parties, there is nobody who would say that you can satisfy all these aspirations of the people except in the framework of a rapidly expanding economy which is able to create 10 to 12 million jobs. For this, we need skilled citizens and we need to put in place a system of skill formation in education which is going to create employable skills which alone can provide our people the security of jobs that they need.
We have put in place an entitlement system. Entitlements have a role, but quite frankly there is a limited role. In the institutions of social security that we are trying to build, there are a large number of leakages in health, in education, and the allocation of subsidies. Our challenge is to plug these leaks and we will do that.
Corruption is a big issue. It has caught the imagination of the people, and we will deal with it. Let me say that while the Lokpal is an essential and desirable legislation, we will honestly work to evolve a broad based national consensus so that we have a viable statute in place which will give us a strong Lokpal. We have differences, there will be differences, but there are mechanisms to resolves these differences.
I certainly respect members of the civil society. It is out of my respect for members of the civil society that whether it is Anna Hazare or Swami Ramdev, I myself took the trouble to interact with them. In February-March itself I had an hour long meeting with Anna Hazare, the Bhushans, both father and son, Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi. They were all there and I assured them that we are committed to come with the bill in the Monsoon Session and it was not a commitment made under duress. I had mentioned it to them at that time itself. I said we will introduce a Bill in Parliament but then it is for Parliament to pass it or amend it and that right cannot be taken away.
In the same way people talk about black money. Black money exists, but if you look at all European countries also the average amount of black money which is talked about is at least 25 % of the economies of a large number of European countries. These are transactions that are not taxed and intended to avoid social security payments. But this is a reality. We can deal with corruption, we can deal with black money but quite frankly it is wrong for anyone to assume there is a magic wand which will lead to an instant solution of these difficult societal problems.
We need system reforms. If the project Nandan Nilankani has promised to design, if the UIDAI can give unique ID numbers to all our residents we would have discovered a new pathway to eliminate the scope for corruption and leakages in the management and distribution of various subsidies to which our people are entitled. But it will take time. It cannot be done instantly.
Four lakh crores or whatever the figures or black money being mentioned…… I do not know what is the basis of those calculations. Whatever is possible is being done. We are in the process of negotiating double taxation avoidance agreements, tax information agreements and we have fought hard in the Group of 20 to see that the secrecy of tax saving banking systems should be modified. This is not a one shot operation. We are doing all that is possible and we could accelerate it. We are committed to pursue all that is fiscally possible to deal with these problems of black money, problems of tax evading money and corruption.
But there are other instruments. Tax evasion is one important source of generation of black money. But there are other issues - narcotics, trafficking in human beings - all these illegal activities…. we need a strong mechanism to track down these criminal elements. But in all these my worry is to avoid a situation when we convert this vast country of over 1.2 billion people into a state where everybody is policing everybody else. We must not bring back the license permit raj which we sought to abolish in 1991.
I think our nation has prospered as a result of that. If you look at the list of top 100 firms today you will find a sea change in that list today. New entrepreneurs have come into the list. These are some of the gains of liberalization which we must cherish, we must nurse and we must develop.
We are committed to a growth rate of 9 to 10 % per annum. Our savings rate is about 34 to 35 % of our GDP with an investment rate of 36 to 37 %. And with a capital output ratio of 4:1 we can manage to have a growth rate of 9%. It requires strong commitment to development and modernization of our infrastructure; a strong commitment to modernizing and making our education system more relevant to the needs of our time; it requires strong commitment to work for a universal health care system. We are now engaged in looking at how insurance can be expanded to cover all elements of our population.
These are some of the priorities of our government. But frankly speaking in our country this constant sniping between government and opposition or if an atmosphere of cynicism is created all round I think the growth impulses, the entrepreneurial impulses of our people will not flourish and that is what worries me. We must do all that we can to revive the animal spirits of our businesses. And the fact that businessmen cut corners is partly a reflection of the loopholes in our regulatory system. We must therefore reform and strengthen the regulatory system where there is a need to do so. And when it comes to the management of natural resources we need a regulatory system but it must be transparent and it must be functional and that is the next step of our government.
Despite corruption in public procurement we are committed to work towards a public procurement law which will make procurement a transparent operation, and will eliminate to the extent possible the scope for corruption.
But in the situation that we are faced today, day in day out I think we are described as the most corrupt government. There have been aberrations. But quite frankly I have been a civil servant all my life, except the last 20 years. What surprises me is not that there are corrupt civil servants but that despite all the temptations, so many of our civil servants remain honest and lead frugal lives and this is the mainspring that we have to tap.
We must punish the wrong doers but we must not paint all civil servants as babus and contemptuously describe them as a despicable class.
These are the concerns that I have and I would like to hear from you what you think of them and what we should be doing.
And let me say on the international front I think the situation is not that positive. The international global recovery is fragile. Even the United States growth rate is faltering. In Europe it is the sovereign debt crisis, the problem of the Greek crisis and whether the Euro-zone will survive or not. If it will not survive it will be a major institutional collapse.
What is happening in the Middle East is of direct concern to us. Apart from the fact that we have 6 million Indians working in the Middle East nearly 70 % of our oil supplies come from the countries of the Gulf and North Africa. What turn these events will take nobody knows.
So we have to swim against this adverse tide and therefore India requires all the energy and all the cohesiveness of our polity to swim against these tides and come out victorious. We can do it. We showed that in 2008 when most people believed that our financial system would also be a victim of the global financial crisis. We put in place correctives and we managed to retain a growth rate of 7% and next year it was back to 8 to 8.5 %. We must have the vision, the ability and the determination to prosper even when the world environment is hostile.
And because nature has blessed us with a large common market, if we can put in place the goods and services tax legislation and if we can remove barriers to interstate commerce that itself will create new opportunities internally for accelerating the tempo of growth.
These are our top priorities, these are national priorities and I invite you as very influential members of our polity to help the government to deal with these problems with courage, with clarity and with determination.”

What are the differences between Online Reputation Management (ORM) and Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM)?

2011-06-30T04:45:00.000-07:00

Whenever I go for a talk or for pitching a new client, I have often been asked the question – what are the basic differences between Online Reputation Management (ORM) and Search Engine Reputation Management.

Online Reputation Management (ORM) is the act of monitoring, addressing or mitigating SERPs (search engine result pages) or mentions in online media and Web sphere content. ORM primarily involves tracking what is written about a client on the Internet, then utilizing sophisticated online and offline techniques in promoting positive and neutral content, while at the same time pushing down those links the sponsor (in most cases business or individuals) may not want to show when their name is searched.

Rather than working to raise link results with a particular search term in order to (ostensibly) generate more commerce or page views, the goal of ORM is to push already highly-ranked negative posts off the results pages so that they are seen by fewer people, thus creating a more positive results environment for the sponsor of the effort. ORM is the specialization in prevention and repair of online reputation threats, and has less to do with directly promoting businesses.

The term arose from a recognition of the importance that influencing how someone or something is perceived based on an internet search has to a business. As the amount of user-generated content on the internet grew, it began to affect internet search results more meaningfully, and the desire to change those results naturally followed.

ORM is related to search engine optimization (SEO) and uses many of the same techniques. However, their goals differ greatly. Common ORM techniques include online promotional activity through new content creation, involvement in the social web sphere (through forums, blogs, social networking), promotion of existing positive content and building social profiles. Traditional websites and consumer reviews are also monitored. The material monitored can include both professional journalism and user-created content such as blogs and blog comments. More difficult, but nonetheless relevant techniques can include formal "take-down" requests to try to convince site managers to remove negative content, and finally, litigation.

Proactive reputation-building techniques can include responding immediately to public criticism stemming from unannounced changes to a product's capabilities and features; offering free products to prominent reviewers; and writing positive comments and reviews in the guise of customers posting to online forums or review sites. However, most sites attempt to screen out such covert plugs, and rate their contributors based on how highly others value their contributions.

Search Engine Reputation Management (or SERM), on the other hand, is a strategic initiative often adopted by companies and corporate and even more by individuals who seek to proactively shield their brands or reputations from damaging content brought to light through search engine queries. Some use these same tactics reactively, in attempts to minimize damage inflicted by inflammatory (or "flame") websites (and weblogs) launched by consumers and, as some believe, competitors.

Given the increasing popularity and development of search engines, these tactics have become more important than ever. Consumer generated media (like blogs) has amplified the public's voice, making points of view - good or bad - easily expressed.

This is further explained in this front page article in published in the Washington Post, published on July 02, 2007 [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/01/AR2007070101355.html?hpid=artslot]

Search Engine Reputation Management strategies include Search engine optimization (SEO) and Online Content Management. Because search engines are dynamic and in constant states of change and revision, it is essential that results are constantly monitored. This is one of the big differences between SEO and online reputation management. SEO involves making technological and content changes to a website in order to make it more friendly for search engines. Online reputation management is about controlling what information users will see when they search for information about a company or person.

Social networking giant Facebook has been known to practice this form of reputation management. When they released their Polls service in Spring 2007, the popular blog TechCrunch found that it could not use competitors' names in Polls. Due largely to TechCrunch's authority in Google's algorithms, its post ranked for Facebook polls. A Facebook rep joined the comments, explained the situation and that the bugs in the old code had been updated so that it was now possible.

Also until social sites like Facebook allow Google to fully spider their site then they won't really have a massive effect on reputation management results in the search engine. The only way to take advantage of such site is to make sure you make your pages public.

It is suggested [who?] that if a company website has a negative result directly below it then up to 70% of surfers will click on the negative result first rather than the company website. It is important for a company to ensure that its website gets close to the top of search results for terms relevant to its business. In one study, a number one search result attracted 50,000 monthly visitors. The number 5 result only attracted 6,000 visitors in the same time period.

IDS Technologies (http://www.idstonline.com) provides Search Engine Reputation Management Services using various sophisticated tools and techniques. To provide the effective solutions for brands or Corporate, we first deploy our own Reputation Monitoring Tool (RMT) to gauge how much damage has already been made and the quantum of required management. After measuring, we then propose various methods to be applied to minimize the negative impact of the brand to the client. Once the proposal is accepted, we use various engagement methodologies either for journalists or for individuals sothat the negative influencers and stakeholders can atleast be brought into the state of “neutral”. Those who are already in the “neutral” zone are fed with various information to update their knowledge as well to educate them. The last but not the least is to manage those group which are already in the “Positive” zone for a particular brand. Generally, this group is loyal for the brand or product or service. But the huge risk associated with this group is that any member can slip either to neutral or negative zone quickly, if not managed properly or engaged meaningfully.

For more details on how IDSTechnologies can help you to manage your brand, please feel free to contact us [info at idstonline dot com] [Input Source: Wikipedia]

Hoodwinking reporters: Don't talk with Journalists but listen to your customers

2011-06-28T05:49:00.000-07:00

“As months pass by, public relations executives from across the world are coming up with innovative ways to feed their version of 'finger-licking-news' to reporters. We have seen those who directly pitch stories, others who demand stories, but the latest way, this new breed of PR 'professionals' have employed is certainly shocking,” wrote Sheetal Sukhija on her column “My View” published in the Mid – Day on June 21, 2011.

The columnist went on saying, first they praise your story for the day, 'like' all of your status messages (even when your status message reads 'blah') on social networking sites, drop comments like 'oh so cute' on all your facebook photos and just when you start scratching your head wondering where you know this person from they go for the kill. A badly written press release hits your mailbox and your office direct line and mobile phone does not stop ringing each time the same question. When you are about to pull your hair off and tell the PR off, you stop and think they have achieved what they set out to do, grab your attention for a longer time than you would have given them otherwise.

The writer has also mentioned the interesting way on how PR professionals have taken the route to call the editor-in-chief before the press releases reaches a reporter. She wrote: Yet another interesting way many PR professionals have taken to is calling your boss, before the press releases reaches you. Not only does this make you look like a reporter who is unavailable to the outside world (because otherwise why would you call the editor-in-chief for a frivolous event?), but also makes your superiors think there could be a possible story in it (again, why otherwise would the PR try to reach the editor of the newspaper for such a small event).

But, the process of calling and following up in between Reporter – PR are well known and widely acceptable for mutual benefits. When there is a big event or some celebrity makes his / her presence in any event, it is the reporter who run after the life of a PR professional.

Is it really a new PR tactics or a personal revenge against a specific PR professional or a mere gossip, let’s not enter into that controversy. But, it is the fact that there are journalists who pull up PR guys for not following up for a Press Release. Furthermore, there are journalists who are hungry for free bees (like cash, gift, food and favour etc) but thanks God there are very few and very nominal in count.

Ironically, there are good, intelligent and sophisticated journalists who have also entered into the profession of PR and Lobbying. Does that mean that they are behaving the same way as the columnist presume? For a journalist, news is the main concern, so there are enough smart PR guys who would only feed what is relevant and newsworthy to journalists and that is not a crime. It is also true that Journalists are in the best position to take a call on what is relevant for its own publication.

Reporter and PR need each other. They are like two sides of a same coin. If a Reporter does not receive any call from a PR guy for a day, the reporter would be like a fish out of water. These two communities need to work together for the benefit of the reader of viewer as a whole.

Keeping the debate aside for a moment, we don’t and can’t understand why PR guys are after Journalists only. Social media has gained and is gaining its popularity. Collectively, social media is having much more reach and acceptance that all print and broadcast media put together. But it is the old and traditional method followed by our fellow PR guys to chase journalists and reporters for getting the Press Release published.

Since its inception, IDSTPR, a division of IDS Technologies (www.idstonline.com) is advocating to change the mindset of PR professionals. Going before the time, IDSTPR has evaluated what is existing today and what should be the ideal scenario.

As per the analysis of IDSTPR, the existing scenario in the PR profession:

•Talk to Journalists, Media Professionals
•One-to-Many
•Control the Brand
•Push the Message
•Speak as a Spokesman

But, we propagate to change the scenario from the existing one to:

•Talk to Customers, People
•One-to-One & One-to-Many
•Manage the Brand
•Engage the Community
•Speak as a Peer

If the changed scenario is accepted, there would be no journalist who would dare to write a column on “Hoodwinking reporters”. Let’s get together to accept the change.

Relief for India Inc - Government of India unlikely to make CSR mandatory

2011-06-22T04:20:00.000-07:00

In what could be termed as a relief for India Inc, a top Government of India official on June 20 said the government did not wish to make corporate social responsibility (CSR) spend mandatory, but would instead come out with ‘flexible', ‘directional' guidelines, reports PTI.

“There is no way the government wants to mandate it. If we make it mandatory there can be thousand and one ways to bypass it,” Corporate Affairs Secretary D. K. Mittal said at a meeting organised by the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry on CSR, here in Mumbai.

The government would come out with ‘forward looking' CSR spend guidelines, he said, adding, “It will be only directional and not mandatory. We want it to be flexible. But once the new norms are in, firms will have to disclose their CSR spends or non-spending.”

“Like elsewhere, we want the new Companies Bill to include the CSR code and we want corporates to mandatorily disclose in their annual reports the codes which they adhere to or do not adhere to,” Mr. Mittal said.

To the question what difference guidelines would make if CSR was not going to be made mandatory, he said the new Bill would make the whole process more transparent. The new Companies Bill would be tabled in the monsoon session of the Parliament scheduled to commence from August 1, 2011. The 2 per cent compulsory CSR spend proposal, mooted by Mr. Deora's predecessor Salman Khurshid, had sparked off an intense debate, with majority of corporates favouring voluntary CSR spend.

At the same event, Chief Election Commissioner of India S Y Qureshi talked about CSR and highlighted the “double standards” of the corporates who were “generous only when it comes to political donations, because there is a lot to be gained from that.” He also said corporate India has no right to complain about governance deficit or political corruption “when you don’t even bother to get out of your homes on a polling day."

With the conformation from the top government officials, the year long discussions whether to make CSR mandatory or not has been put on rest for ever. Earlier in several occasions Government of India has advocated strongly to make CSR mandatory and published Voluntary Guidelines for CSR during late 2009.

Though the former minister Salman Khurshid advocated strongly for minimum two per cent spending for the cause of Environment or Sustainable Development for the society, the present minister may not be falling on the same line. The reason could be pressure from the big corporates on the present minister who may have succumbed under the repeated requests or threats and allowed companies to pollute environment. Whether Team Anna listening?

Honeymoon with Mauritius is over, India Inc looking for Singapore

2011-06-22T00:37:00.000-07:00

After Mauritius, is Singapore gaining popularity for India Inc?

Singapore is now becoming a preferred destination for India based companies after the Government of India has decided to review Indo-Mauritius tax pact.

As many as 120 India-based companies are incorporating offices in Singapore every month, taking advantage of the city state as a gateway to Asia-Pacific markets.

Mr Rangarajan Narayanamohan, the chairman of the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) said that the chamber is now seeing as many as 120 Indian origin companies incorporating Singapore offices every month. He was talking with reporters while launching of the annual corporate awards campaign for Indian businesses in Singapore recently.

Mr. Narayanamohan said that the community of Indian businesses has grown to 5,000 in Singapore as of this month, up from 4,000 a year ago.

Meanwhile, India has resumed talks with Mauritius to revise the existing tax treaty and have a double taxation avoidance agreement that will help track black money, Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on June 21, a day after the Indian stock market crashed 364 points over fears of a review hitting foreign inflows.

The minister tried to downplay the issue saying Indian and Mauritius had been negotiating the agreement for the last few years but the talks were suspended for some time.

Indian equities markets slumped on June 20, on speculations that the two countries would soon have a new tax treaty that might affect investments by foreign institutions in India. The benchmark Sensex had slumped around 2%.

Market analysts fear that foreign institutional investors would offload even more from Indian markets once the treaty becomes operational.