domination august 2011

8/6/2019 Domination August 2011

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A Monthly Newsletter from the Students of

Department of Management Studies,

IIT Roorkee

In this issue

Cover Story-Tryst withDestiny

20 Years of the Reforms

The Revolutions that madea mark in India

Khakhi Man of Mumbai

Independence Dayan ear-nest behest of an aspiringheart


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-Regards

Team Domination

Dear Readers,

As we enter into month of August, an air of freedom and honour fills our lungs and fills our heartswith pride. With Independence Day round the corner, the month of august is all about reminiscingour glorious past and focusing on our march ahead. This edition of Domination essays the greatIndian story of progress and development tracing our countrys journey right from independenceto the present day. It takes the reader through the series of achievements which have shaped thevery fabric of our nation. This special edition comes to you, right from our hearts and goes out toevery one of our fellow nation lovers.

The cover story Tryst with destiny attempts to understand where we stand after 64 years of inde-

pendence. Though its impossible to cover each and every facet of our nation the writer has penneddown 5 different sectors namely: Education, Health, Infrastructure, Economic Condition and Sci-ence and Technology.

There have been few events which through their impact have accelerated the growth of the countryand played a crucial role in shaping our country as it stands today. These events were brought byutilizing the best of technology and the brightest of Ideas and are known as revolutions. A briefreview of such events in The revolutions that made a mark in India

This year also marks the completion of the second decade of throwing open our markets throughthe liberalization policy of 1991. Twenty years of economic reform throws light on the same.

Along with development and progress, independent India also faces the monster of terrorismwhich reared its ugly head again in Mumbai previous month. The article Khakhi Man of Mum-

bai attempts to realistically probe the responsibilities and limitation of Mumbai policemen in

these chaotic times.

The Alumni Section introduces readers to Mahesh Bansal, the vibrant and talented DoMSonianwho has managed to make his mark upon the world.

To round off the edition we have Independence Dayan earnest behest of an aspiring heart in thechlorophyll section.

And as you grab this edition of Domination, ignite in you the passion and will to move ahead to-wards what we were born forBe Indian, by heart, mind and deed Jai Hind.


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Independence Day

Interaction withMahesh Bansal

DoMS-da-Evince

Qutopia 19

Regardez I'economie

Cover Story-Tryst with Destiny

Chetna YadavRohit Menon

20 years of the ReformsRajneesh Kumar

The Revolutions that made amark in IndiaL.Nikhil Reddy

Khakhi Man of MumbaiAnupam & Paresh


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Cover Story

Tryst With Destiny

Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny,

and now the time comes when we shall re-

deem our pledge, not wholly or in full meas-

ure, but very substantially. At the stroke of

the midnight hour, when the world sleeps,

India will awake to life and freedom..Theappointed day has come -the day appointed

by destiny- and India stands forth again, af-

ter long slumber and struggle, awake, vital,

free and independent said Jawaharlal

Nehru, the first prime minister of Independ-

ent India on the eve of Indias Independence.

Its been 64 since that memorable speechand we are all set to celebrate Independence

day on 15th August, 2011. Few questions

however hover around us as to where are we

heading for after ourtryst with destiny. What

is that we have achieved collectively as a

Nation and where do we see ourselves going

forth from here, is a question that has to be

answered. This article is an honest attempt to

answer these questions.

In my opinion 64 years is a very short span

of time in the history of any Nation, argua-

bly of-course, still we have managed to

make our mark on the globe. So whatever

assessment one makes about the progressbeing made, has to be in sync with the above

stated fact. It would be overstatement to say

that we have achieved a lot, and I would be

undermining our capabilities if I say none at

all, still we all know we have a long way to

go, independently, fiercely and magnani-

mously.To cover each and every facet of our Nation

is beyond the scope of this article so I

penned down 5 different sectors namely-

education, infrastructure, science& technol-

ogy, economic progress and health. The

next few pages will take you through the

journey of these sectors. Savour it.

Education

With its plurality and paradoxes, India never

ceases to fascinate. Its ironic that the country

that has amazed the world with its quality

human resources houses a third of worlds

illiterates. Undoubtedly we have produced

the best of doctors, engineers, scientists but

on the other hand we also have grim statistics

in terms of literacy as we were ranked 105


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Tryst With Destiny

out of 127 countries by the Education for all

Global Monitoring Report, 2008. The world

could never achieve its target of every child

in school till 2015 without India working on

the same front.

So the Year 2009 recorded a historical mile-

stone not only for Indian Children but also

for people working across the globe for child

education as theRight of Children to free and

compulsory education was introduced as the

86th amendment of the

constitution. For the first

time in Indias history,

children (aged 6-14) will

be guaranteed their right to

quality elementary educa-

tion by the state with the

help of families and com-

munities. Though the act has been introduced

but there is a lot more to be done in terms of

training the teachers, providing the infra-

structure, checking the drop outs rate and re-

moving several existing prejudices. Funding

for the same is also an important issue. Also

the role of private players is growing inch by

inch. Apart from introducing the act the gov-

ernment has rolled out many plans to in-

crease the percentage of elementary educa-

tion since independence. The plans such as

'Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), District Pri-

mary Education Program (DPEP), OperationBlackboard, Mid Day Meal have been suc-

cessful to great extent.

If we talk about the higher education in India

the government has succeeded in maintaining

a respectable level. Long back in 1953, the

government had established the University

Grants Commission in order to develop the

higher education system with its primary role

being to regulate the standard and spread of

higher education in India. Past 64 years have

seen a marked progress in the expansion of

higher education .To

quote a recent example -

approval of 8 new

IITs,5 IISc and 7 IIMs.

Today IITs compete

with the best universi-

ties in the world and the

managers from IIMs are

at the leading front of various global multina-

tionals. AIIMS too have been given global

recognition due to the sheer number of pa-

tients treated and the economic pricing policy

followed.

Peeping into the current situation of literacy

rate of India we have the provisional data of

2011 census. For purpose of census, in India,

a person in age limit of seven and above, who

can both write and read with understanding

in any of the language is considered as a lit-

erate. India's effective literacy rate recorded

a 9.2 per cent rise to reach 74.04 per cent.Interestingly, literacy rate improved sharply


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Tryst With Destiny

among females as compared to males. While

the effective literacy rate for males rose from75.26 to 82.14 per cent marking a rise of 6.9

per cent, it increased by 11.8 per cent for fe-

males to go from 53.67 to 65.46 per cent. The

most literate state is Kerela with a literacy

rate of 90.86 per cent and the least literate is

Bihar with a meagre 47 per cent (The stats for

women is even worse, a mere 33 per cent).

The gap between the rural and urban literacy

rate is also very significant. As against almost

80% of urban people being educated the stats

for the rural population stand somewhere near60%.

Its clear that all the efforts only prove to be

toddler steps in the long journey we have to

travel. But nevertheless their importance cant

be ignored. Education will always play a piv-

otal role in shaping the nation and lets hope

that we continue our march onwards on this

journey unceasingly and relentlessly.

Health

Lets start with few eye

popping facts-As per

recent statistics, an esti-

mated 40.9 million In-

dian patients suffer from

diabetes currently which is the highest in the

world!

Total population: 1.15 billion, per capita

health spending: $109 a year (compared toBrazil $765, Russia $5638 and China $342).

Percent of population living on less than $1/

day: 34.7%.

30 million people in the country are infected

with Hepatitis B Virus (HBV).

Health sector is the lifeline for a nations well-

being. Health is a primary human right and has

been accorded due importance by the Consti-

tution through Article 21.Despite this, pro-

gress has not matched the countrys economic

growth during the last few decades. With steep

income disparities, India is also struggling to

tackle a "double-burden" of diseases which

include infectious diseases affecting the poor

on the one hand and chronic lifestyle ailments

typical of fast urbanization on the other.

Indias health indicators have continued to improve. Yes we have increased life expectancy

from 32 years to 63.5 years (though the global

average is around 67 years). But there is an

equally convincing set of data stated above

showing that we have a long way to go. A

high proportion of the population continues to

suffer and die from easily preventable dis-

eases, lack of access to affordable and quality


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Tryst With Destiny

care, and malnutrition. Women and children

from low-income households are the most

vulnerable. Problem areas include: Maternal

and child health, child nutrition, communica-

ble diseases, the new diseases on rise, unfin-

ished agenda of communicable diseases and

above all the challenge to deal with the finan-

cial burden.

The government has taken several measures

to improve the situation but still we lie far

behind in this as compared to other countries

who are on the same level of development.

New measures recently launched

include:National Rural Health Mis-

sion (NRHM) and Rashtriya Swast-

hiya Bima Yojana (RBSY).

Launched in 2005 the NRHM sup- ports a number of novel approaches to im-

prove health outcomes, together with more

traditional approaches to strengthen govern-

ment service delivery. RBSY is a social in-

surance scheme aims to provide financial

protection to BPL families against expenses

related to hospitalization. Within 2 yearssince its launch in 2008 over 13 million BPL

households have enrolled in RBSY.

Few of the systematic constraints include low

effectiveness of public health spending, un-

regulated private provision of health care,

lack of adequate health insurance, little em-

phasis on communication to improve health

and create demand for health services.

As per the Ministry of Health and Family

Welfare, the per capita public health spend-

ing is low in India, being among the five low-

est in the world. Taking cognizance of the

important role of public health expenditure,

the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-12) docu-

ment suggests the necessity of building a re-

sponsive public health system

with the need for increasing the

public spending on health from

0.9 per cent of GDP to 2-3 per

cent of GDP and stepping upinvestment on primary care, communicable

diseases and HIV/AIDS prevention.

At the present stage of Indias development,

the health indicators have lagged behind the

impressive economic progress evident over

the past two decades. A new public health

policy needs to be drafted which will recon-figure the health system to make it more effi-

cient and equitable, so that this gap can be

bridged.

Science and Technology

The innovations and advancements in sci-

ences and the technological front form the

backbone of almost every country. Todays

dynamic world of continuous improvement


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Tryst With Destiny

and with new innovations coming in almost

every minute, this is a sector which must be

closely monitored and carefully planned.

Gone are the days when India was totally de-

pendent on the outer world for their techno-

logical support and for all technological

equipment. The past 64 years have seen India

progress tremendously in the areas of Science

and Technology.

We have always laid stress on developing our

technological front. In Pandit Jawahar Lal

Nehrus, own words ; Scientific

institutions are temples of mod-

ern India, and play a key role in

the gigantic task of national de-

velopment and nation building.

Under his leadership, innumer-able national laboratories were

set up, science departments in universities

were expanded, institutions like IIT's, IIM's,

and AIIMS were opened. In research publica-

tions too India ranks first in publication out-

puts in four areas Agriculture, Energy &

Environment, Biology & Biochemistry andPlant & Animal Sciences.

Besides setting up the best schools and col-

leges, and coaching the best minds of the

country to be at par with the best in world

India has not been stagnant in implicating the

knowledge and developing and advancing on

our technical front. The Green revolution in

1962 just proved to be the start of many revo-

lutions to come. India has emerged as the

largest paddy producer in the world finally

surpassing USA . Green revolution was fol-

lowed by similar revolutions in horticulture,

milk and fisheries. The use of new age tech-

nologies and indianizing them (adapting

these technologies to the local needs) we

achieved tremendous growth in the produc-

tion of fruits, vegetables, fish and milk. As a

result we rank 1st in milk and milk products

and 8th in fish catching.(Hard fact remains we

are below the worlds average per capita con-

sumption of milk, the two be-

ing 279.5 grams and 263

grams respectively).

India has not looked back

since its foray into computer

science and technology .In1987 when US refused to sup-

ply a Cray supercomputer, India developed

its own supercomputer PARAM. Today we

have placed an Indian supercomputer in the

top 10 supercomputers of the world

Even in the most advanced field of nuclear

research India has held its ground. BecauseIndia is outside the Nuclear Non-

Proliferation Treaty due to its weapons pro-

gram, it was for 34 years largely excluded

from trade in nuclear plant or materials,

which has hampered its development of civil

nuclear energy until 2009. Due to these trade

bans and lack of indigenous uranium, India

has uniquely been developing a nuclear fuel

cycle to exploit its reserves of thorium. India


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Tryst With Destiny

has a vision of becoming a world leader in

nuclear technology due to its expertise in fast

reactors and thorium fuel cycle. India has a

flourishing and largely indigenous nuclear

power program and expects to have 20,000

MWe nuclear capacity on line by 2020 and

63,000 MWe by 2032. It aims to supply 25%

of electricity from nuclear power by 2050.

The Indian Space research programme is a

success story of its own. Initially, space re-

search was started as a part of India's atomic

energy programme. This programme started

in the year 1962 as the Indian Committee for

Space Research (INCOSPAR) under the

leadership of Vikram Sarabhai. Even at its

inception the program was not developed to

facilitate development of missiles as a by product but to genuinely achieve the dream

of conquering the skies. Over the years now,

the Indian space programme has maturated.

India has its own launch vehicles capable of

sending satellites into polar orbits. The recent

chandrayaan-I and before that by simultane-

ously and precisely launching Ten satellitesIndia has proved its strength in Space re-

search. Today, India is emerging as a major

player in the arena of space technologies and

has got many ambitious plans for the future.

It was a major milestone when Indian scien-

tists decided to plan a mission to the farther-

most reaches of mankind- the Moon.

During last few years, ISRO has emerged as

a useful agency for the developing countries

to launch their satellites. It has so far pro-

vided countries like Argentina and Indonesia

to launch their satellites. This activity is also

helping India in revenue generation and it is

expected that in the years to come, India may

be able to manage 10% share of this fast

growing market.

All this paints but just a glimpse of the scien-

tific development and achievements of our

country over the past 64 years. These scien-tific development although provides a rosy

view of the scientific and technological com-

munity of the country the truth is that we still

have a long way to go. We are miles behind

the quality and quantity of research works

being carried out in developed countries like

America and China. And as Nehru used toquote Robert Frost miles to go before I

sleep, and miles to go before I sleep

Infrastructure

Infrastructure of a country in its most basic

form means the stock of fixed capital equip-

ment in a country, considered as a determi-

nant of economic growth . And as India tran-


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-sitions into an economic powerhouse, the

government has pledged to spend well above

$1 trillion on various infrastructure projects

over the next five to six years. Lets have a

birds eye view of the sector.

The most distinct part of Indias physical in-

frastructure development in recent years is

the improvement in the road network across

the country; every per sq. km. of surface

area in India is now endowed with one km of

roadways. India has one of the largest road

networks in the world. Indian Government is

planning to build 20 kilometers on an aver-

age every day as a major plan to overhaul the

infrastructure and subsequently boosting eco-

nomic growth. Currently India has the third

largest road network withmore than 3.314 million km

(2.059 million miles) of road-

ways.

Similar is the story of rail-

ways. Indian railways form

the lifeline for the nation. In-

dian Railways is known to bethe largest railway network in Asia and

world's largest railway system under a single

management. Indian Railways employs about

1.6 million people, making itself the second

largest commercial employer in the world.

Indian Railways proudly manage more than

7,500 railway stations in its periphery. It has

a fleet of not less than 7800 locomotives,

40,000 coaches & 3,26,000 wagons

Talking about the air transport, there are a

total of 449 airports and airstrips located

throughout India. The government owned

Airports Authority of India (AAI) operates

125 airports and civil enclaves out of them.

The cities of Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad,

Kochi and Mumbai are served by privately

(or joint-venture) operated airports. All op-

erational airports handled a total of 143.3

million passengers (105.5 m domestic and

37.9 m international) in the year ended

March 2011. The total number of aircraft

movements amounted to 1.31 million and

freight handled exceeded 2 million tons in

2010-11.

The Power & Energy Infrastructure sector in

India is poised for a majortake-off. The APDRP

(Accelerated Power Devel-

opment & Reforms Pro-

gramme 2002 - 2012) has

seen an addition of around

22,000 MW during last

five years. And during thenext five years, a capacity addition of over

78,000 MW has to be setup by 2012. (A

commitment of 15,600 MW capacity addition

per annum ). At present we have an installed

capacity of almost 1 68000 MW in the coun-

try.65 % of the power is generated by ther-

mal processes and about 25 % is hydro-

electric power. Nuclear power forms a 7 % of

the same.


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However all this would almost be belittled by

the progress we have made in the fields of

telecommunications and information technol-

ogy. India has the third largest (based on the

total number of fixed/mobile subscriber lines)

telecom network in the world and the second

largest mobile network with over 840 million

subscribers while the total number of tele-

phone lines amounted to 875 million at the

end of April 2011. India is the world's largest

market for the number of mobile subscribers.

Nowhere up to 20 million new mobile sub-

scriber lines are being added every month.

India is the third biggest Internet market in

terms of users, with over 100 million internet

user base.

The numbers might seem impressive but not

if we view them in the light of the fact that we

are the second most populous country of the

world. If India plans to be at par with the

other developed nations of the world a fast

track infrastructure plan needs to be imple-

mented as efficient infrastructure is a neces-

sary support for all kinds of development ac-

tivities.

Economic Progress

Indias success story will be incomplete with-out the mention of its economic progress

made. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, at the time of

independence, held a pro socialist outlook.

Nehru was impressed with what he (and many

others at the time) saw as the successful mo-

bilization of resources for development by the

Soviet Union. In the shadow of the Great De-

pression only a decade past, it seemed nave

to believe that the private sector could suc-

cessfully and reliably generate the investment

that a growing economy needed. It is due to

this that they favoured a socialist model for

the development of the country in the earlier

years. It is now debated as one of the biggest

mistakes made by Nehru and his successors.

The pro socialism approach churned out a

form of government which is noted for manyfailures which included among its various dis-

advantage extensive regulation and red tape;

and isolation from the world economy. India's

per capita income increased at only around

1% annualized rate in the three decades after

Independence. It was not until the mid 80s

when India started opening its markets to-

wards foreign investors that a new age of de-

velopment was ushered in.

After more fundamental reforms since 1991

and their renewal in the 2000s, India has pro-

gressed towards a free market economy. With

the combined effect of Liberalization, Privati-

zation and Globalization, India over the past

20 odd years has been on turbo boosters in

term of economic development.


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Today India ranks 5th largest economy in

terms of Purchasing Power Parity. The overall

growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at

factor cost at constant prices was 8.6 per cent

in 2010-11 representing an increase from the

revised growth of 8.0 per cent during 2009-

10, according to the Advance Estimate (AE)

of Central Statistics Office (CSO). India's

large service industry alone contributes a phe-

nomenal 57.2% of the country's GDP while

the industrial and agricultural sectors contrib-

ute 28.6% and 14.6% respectively. India is

today rated as one of the

most attractive investment

destinations across the globe.

Major industries include tele-

communications, textiles,chemicals, food processing,

steel, transportation equip-

ment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery,

information technology-enabled services and

pharmaceuticals. The economic growth has

been primarily driven by the expansion of ser-

vices that have been growing consistentlyfaster than other sectors. Many economist,

after seeing the growth pattern of India may

be able to skip the intermediate industrializa-

tion-led phase in the transformation of its eco-

nomic structure. This has been quoted as a

source of concern as well as appreciated as a

modern growth and development model.

Even in terms of investment India has been

ranked at places which seemed near impossi-

ble to achieve only a decade or two ago. The

UNCTAD World Investment Report has re-

ported India to be the second most attractive

location for FDI for 2010-2012. India at-

tracted FDI equity inflows of US$ 1,274 mil-

lion in February 2011. The services sector

comprising financial and non-financial ser-

vices attracted 21 per cent of the total FDI

equity. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs)

have purchased stocks and debt securities

worth US$ 222 billion in the financial year

ending March 31, 2011, as

per the data available with

the Securities and Exchange

Board of India (SEBI). This

high betting behavior sup- ports the view that they

strongly believe in the

growth potential of Indian market.

The Indian success story has its dark chapters

too. Besides being ranked top in various list

as seen above, we also top the charts of cor-

ruption, pollution and worse healthcare. The

growth has been sporadic and uneven. The

rate of poverty decline has not been higher in

the post-reform period . The improvements in

some other non-economic dimensions of so-

cial development have been even less favour-

able. India today employs one of the largest

labour forces in the world. But the employ-

ment opportunities have not been able to


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catch up with the growing labour force. Un-

employment rate stands at 10.8%.The total

deficits of the public sector-state and local

governments, national government, and state-

owned enterprises together--now amount to

more than 10 percent of GDP. Inflation

threatens to run amok and RBI has been pull-

ing all stops to bring it under control.

However, all said and done, India still com-

-mands a respectable position among the de-

veloping nations. The growth achieved by In-

dia over the decades, in spite of various

handicaps, is nothing short of phenomenal.

Whatever be the scenario, the world's econo-

mists now have an example of an economy

that did not have remarkably favorable initial

conditions but that has sustained rapid eco-

nomic growth over two decades.

At this juncture, when the millennium has

changed, our peo-

ple and nation

evolved, we look

towards the future

with eyes of prom-

ise and expec-

tancy. Our nation has achieved much in past

65 years; we have transformed ourselves

from a nation of oppressed to a nation re-

vered. We have leapt forward, developing

and shaping the country into one treated with

awe and admiration. Our dreams are still big,

aspirations still higher, we foresee a future

that will elevate our great nation to even

greater heights. But as Panditji once said A

theory must be tempered with reality. If we

are to make the nation of our dreams a real-

ity, much is to be done much to be thought

about, much to be planned for, but ultimately

much to be done. We have walked miles,

we have leaped through many with poetic

ease, but we have miles to go before the

dream is a reality - The dream that we

pledge on this day to work on with our heart

and souls so that we can shape our own des-

- Chetna & Rohit

DoMS, IIT [email protected]@gmail.com


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Change was in the air. The Berlin wall hadbeen torn down just a couple of years back

signaling the beginning of the end of the

Cold War. The Gulf war had spiked up the

oil prices. As the Congress government

came to power in 1991, the economy was

in shambles. Things got worse with Re-

serve Bank of India having to airlift 47

tons of Gold to the Bank of England & 20

tons of Gold to the Union Bank of Switzer-

land as collateral for a loan of $600 million

to wave off Balance of payment crisis . It

was in such turmoil that Prime Minister

P.V. Narasimha Rao brought in Dr. Man-

mohan Singh as Finance Minister in June

1991. Within a few weeks of action which

started with devaluing the currency, re-

vamping the Export-Import Policy (EXIM

Policy), culminated in an epic budget

speech on 24th July 1991 marking the wa-

tershed moment in independent India's his-

tory. As the years role on and we mark the

completion of two decades of the reforms,the importance of those few weeks grows

upon us. Gurcharan Das in his book

India Unbound aptly pointed out that

we may have got political Independence &

democracy in 1947, but our economic free-

dom came only in 1991.

Manmohan Singh as Finance Min-

ister had his work cut out. The Balance of

payment situation had worsened, the fiscal

deficit had taken its toll and the double

digit inflation was making life difficult for

the common man. As he informed the par-

liament in his budget speech that the cur-

rent foreign Exchange was sufficient only

for financing two weeks of imports, it sent

shivers through the establishment. He said

"There is no time to lose. Neither the Gov-

ernment nor the economy can live beyond

its means year after year. The room for

maneuver, to live on borrowed money or

time, does not exist anymore.

Dr Manmohan Singh giving an interview after he presented the Union Budget in Parliament

on 24thJuly, 1991.


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The situation in 1990-91

Balance of payments : Sharpe decline in capital inflow during the late 1980s & early 1990s

Fiscal Deficit : Gross Fiscal deficit rose to 12.7% in 1991

Debt Servicing: Internal Debt rose to 53% of the GDP by the end of the financial year 1990-91

which increased the debt servicing burden

Foreign Exchange Reserves : About $600 million in June 1991, barely enough for two weeks of

imports

Political instability at the centre during 1990-91 add to the uncertainty

The Gulf War spiked the oil import bill for India

Double Digit Inflation was causing trouble for the common man

Actions proposed during July 1991 outlined in Dr Manmohan Singhs

budget Speech of 1991

Devaluing the currency

Revamping the EXIM Policy: export subsidies abolished. Import duty capped at 150%

Liberalize the policy regime for Foreign Direct Investment

Divesting stakes in PSUs, Referring Sick PSEs to BIFR and greater Autonomy to PSEs

Banking & financial System reforms, Interest rates on Loans & Advances to be decided by Banks

with RBI setting the floor price

Full statutory power to SEBI & Capital market reforms

Private Player to be allowed in Mutual Funds

Reduce tax on dividend received from off-shore fund and long term capital gain

Extend the tax concession under section 80HHC of the Income-tax Act to export of software


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The steps proposed may seem obvious in

todays times but in the old days of sum-

mer of 1991 they were nothing but revolu-

tionary. Dr. Manmohan Singh went on to

present the union budget for the next five

years till 1996 where he broadly followed

reform agenda such as opening up Banking

& telecom to private players. The subse-

quent governments mostly followed the

contour set by him. Today, the Indian

Economy has wholly integrated itself with

the world economy having

the 10th largest economy in

the world with a nominal

GDP of $1.53 trillion and a

foreign reserve of over

$310 billion.

As, 20 years have passed

since those frenetic few

weeks of 1991, the reform

process is still moving in fits and stops.

Come this 15th August, the architect of the

reforms, Dr Manmohan Singh will be giv-

ing his 8th

Independence day speech from

Red Fort as Prime Minister of India with

his government embroiled in charges of

corruption and graft. The new challenges

of corruption, terrorism, naxalism & infla-

tion have to be tackled. The reforms wont

be termed successful if it cannot bring

about real change captured by improving

social indicators such as poverty reduction,

reducing infant mortality & maternal mor-

tality rate, universal education & health

care and improving basic infrastructure for

all citizen of the country.

As an end note, Dr Manmohan

Singh ended his epic

budget speech of 1991 by

quoting Victor Hugo, the

French poet & activist of

the 19th Century no power

on earth can stop an idea

whose time has come. The

idea of emergence of India

as a major economic power

envisioned in 1991 is on the verge of real-

ity today.

And an idea that the economic

power hence gained will act as a catalyst

for social empowerment is taking shape in

2011.

- Rajneesh Kumar

DoMS, IIT Roorkee

[email protected]


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The Revolutions that made a mark in India

After the Independence, India in the span of

60 odd years has seen rather significant

changes and improvements across several

spheresAgriculture and Milk production,

Information Technology (IT), Manufac-

tur ing , Atomic Energy , Te le -

communications, Advanced Satellites, De-

fense, Automobiles, Consumer Electronics,

Pharmaceuticals, Transportation (Airways,

Railways and Sea links) and a lot many

though one might argue we are considerably

behind other developed and developing

countries. However, taking into account the

positive phenomenon that has been happen-

ing in the country, the future definitely

looks promising and at this juncture, I

would like to muse over and rivet my focus

upon the three most important revolutions,

as I see, that took place in the country that

really made people around the world look

up to us the Green Revolution, the White

Revolution and the IT Revolution.

Green Revolution

Why Green Revolution was needed?

The world's one of the worst recorded food

disasters happened in 1943 in British-ruled

India, named as the Bengal Famine, where an

estimated four million people died of hunger

that year alone in eastern India (that included

today's Bangladesh). The 'explanation' to that

catastrophe was that there was an acute short-

fall in food production in the area. However,

Indian economist Amartya Sen, has related

that though food shortage was a contributor

to the problem, a more significant element

was the result of delirium related to World

War II which made food supplies a low prior-

ity for the British rulers. The situation was

further exploited by Indian traders who

amassed food in order to sell at higher prices.

India was still haunted by the adversaries of

the Bengal Famine, even after the Independ-

ence. It was therefore natural that food secu-

ritydefined as availability of food and one's

access to it was a paramount item on free

India's agenda. This awareness led, on one

hand, to the Green Revolution in India and,

on the other, legislative measures to ensure

that businessmen would never again be able

to hoard food for reasons of profit. However,

the term "Green Revolution" is applied to the

period from 1967 to 1978. Between 1947 and

1967, efforts at achieving food self-

sufficiency were not entirely successful. Ef-

forts until 1967 largely concentrated on ex-


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expanding the farming areas. But starvation

deaths were still being reported in the news-

papers. In a perfect case of Malthusian eco-

nomics, population was growing at a muchfaster rate than food production. This called

for drastic action to increase yield. The ac-

tion came in the form of the Green Revolu-

tiona general term that is applied to suc-

cessful agricultural experiments in many

countries and is not specific to India. How-

ever, it was most successful in India.

What was the Green Revolution in India?

With the initiative of M.S. Swaminathan

the father of Green Revolution in India, and

the scientific advancements of genetics pro-

pelled by the research of Norman Borlaug

(Mexico), three basic elements in the

method of the Green Revolution were im-

plemented in our country:

Expand areas of farming: As noted

already (above), the area of land undercultivation was being increased right

from 1947. But this was not sufficient

in meeting with the ever increasing

demand which called for other meth-

ods. Yet, the expansion of cultivable

land also had to continue. So, the

Green Revolution continued with this

quantitative expansion of farmlands.

However, this is not the most striking

feature of the Revolution.

Cropping twice on the existing

farmland: Double-cropping was a pri-

mary feature of the Green Revolution.

Instead of one crop season per year, the

decision was made to have two crop sea-

sons per year. The one-season-per-year

practice was based on the fact that there

is only natural monsoon per year. Thiswas correct. So, there had to be two

"monsoons" per year. One would be the

natural monsoon and the other an artifi-

cial 'monsoon'. The artificial monsoon

came in the form of huge irrigation fa-cilities. Dams were built to arrest large

volumes of natural monsoon water

which were earlier being wasted. Simple

irrigation techniques were also adopted.

Usage of seeds with advanced genet-

ics: This was the scientific aspect of the

Green Revolution. The Indian Council

for Agricultural Research (which was

established by the British in 1929 but

was not known to have done any signifi-

cant research) was re-organized in 1965

and then again in 1973. It developed

new strains of high yield value (HYV)

seeds, mainly wheat and rice but also

millet and corn. The most noteworthy

HYV seed was the K68 variety for

wheat. The credit for developing this

strain goes to Dr. M.P. Singh who isalso regarded as the hero of India's

Green revolution.

Economic reaps of the Green Revo-

lution

Crop areas under high-yield varieties

needed more water, more fertilizer,

more pesticides, fungicides and certain

other chemicals. This spurred the

growth of the local manufacturing sec-

tor. Such industrial growth created new

jobs and contributed to the country's

GDP.

The increase in irrigation created need

for new dams to harness monsoon water.

The water stored was used to create hy-

dro-electric power. This in turn boosted

industrial growth, created jobs and im-

proved the quality of life of the peoplein villages.


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India paid back all loans it had taken from

the World Bank and its affiliates for the

purpose of the Green Revolution. This

improved India's creditworthiness in the

eyes of the lending agencies.

Some of the developed countries, espe-

cially Canada, which were facing a short-

age in agricultural labor, were so im-

pressed by the results of India's Green

Revolution that they asked the Indian

government to supply them with farmers

experienced in the methods of the Green

Revolution. Many farmers from Punjab

and Haryana states were thus sent to Can-

ada where they settled, who remitted part

of their incomes to their relatives in India

adding, albeit modestly, to India's foreign

exchange earnings.

White Revolution

In one generation not so long ago, there was

an acute shortage of milk in our country and

high rise of malnutrition cases. Today, we

are the largest producer of milk in the world

and fought the malnutrition almost com-

pletely with the abundance of milkthanks

to the extraordinary vision of Dr. Verghese

Kurien. Operation Flood was a rural devel-

opment program started by India's National

Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in

1970. The program objective was to create a

nationwide milk grid links milk produc-

ers throughout India with consumers in over

700 towns and cities, reducing seasonal and

regional price variations while ensuring

that the producer gets a major share of the

price consumers paywhich enabled India

to evolve into the largest producer of milk

and milk products, and hence is called the

White Revolution of India. It was also

aimed at curbing malpractices by milk trad-ers and merchants. This revolution followed

the Indian Green Revolution complemented

it in alleviating poverty and famine levels

from their dangerous proportions in India

during the hardships of food production.

Operation Flood has helped dairy farmers,

direct their own development, placing con-

trol of the resources they create in their own

hands. The basis of Operation Flood has

been village milk producers' cooperatives,

which procure milk and provide inputs and

services, making modern management and

technology available to members. Operation

Flood's objectives included:

Increase milk production Augment rural incomes

Fair prices for consumers

"Anand Milk Union Limited" (Amul), a Gu-

jarat-based co-operation, was the prime rea-

son behind the success of the program, and

in turn became a substantial company based

on the cooperative approach. Tribhuvandas

Patel was the founder Chairman of Amul,

while Verghese Kurien was the chairman of


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NDDB at the time when the program was

implemented. Verghese Kurien a Padma

Bhushan, devoted professional management

skills and necessary thrust to the coopera-

tive, and is considered the architect of In-

dia's 'White Revolution'.

Software Revolution

There was a time in history when Indians

migrated to other countries; they were per-

ceived no better than drivers or rickshaw

pullers given the general standard of living

in the country then, even if they were in

highly paid jobs. It may not be an exaggera-

tion to say people of other countries now

believe that even the drivers and rickshaw

pullers from India know how to write a soft-

ware code. This paradigm shift on the Indi-

ans over the world is no joke and was possi-

ble only because of the Information Tech-

nology and Software Revolution that hap-

pened in the country. Production to China is

what Software is to India and so can be seen

as a branding mechanism for India among

the top nations.

The vision of Mr. N. Vittal propelled the

Software Technology Program strongly, fa-

vored by the economic reforms of 1991, laid

the strong cornerstone for the industrys re-

markable progress over 30% annual

growth has been registered in the last two

decades. Indias Information Technology

(IT) exports grew from $150 million in

1991-92 to approximately $60 billion in

2011, and are projected to reach $70 billion

by 2012.The IT industry is unparalleled for

several reasons - focused on exports, bench-

marked with the best global companies, fol-

lowed the finest principles of corporate gov-

ernance and created the largest number of

jobs in the organized sector; showcasing

that Indians could succeed in the most com-

petitive global markets.

With more advancements in terms of tech-

nology and competition in other sectors and

departments like telecommunications, finan-

cial services, manufacturing, automobile,

hospitality, logistics, supply chain led to

higher demand for more robust and sophisti-

cated software development and the world is

looking up to the IT industry. With more

and more engineers getting absorbed into

the IT industry, more and more IT multina-

tional corporations opening their offices in

the country, increased research and develop-

ment in this field; I can only see India be-

coming the center for any software services

and technological advancements in the near

future.


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Despite the fact that the education in India ison the rise, it has to completely shift gears

to keep itself on par with that of the world,

for this sector is the single most important

key to any kind of economic development in

the country. The major shortcoming of this

sector, according to me, has been the way

the primary education is being delivered.

Most of the children either just drop out of

school or most of them remain with educa-

tion below quality levels. The Indian gov-

ernment has been a big failure in conducting

itself while trying to offer education to its

people. Despite the number of schools in

every nook and corner

of the country, number

of quality teachers, gov-

ernment acts (for e.g.

RTE) and numerous

school dropout preven-

tion schemes, it is not

able to educate as many

children as it intended to, and probably

would never be.

The fact is that not many sensible people, let

alone the politicians and government offi-

cials, are willing to join their kids in the

government schools. The questions that

arise in my mind would be: What is making

the government to do all the tasks which it

is not good at? Why doesnt the government

allow the private sector in primary educa-

tion and eliminate itself and act as a regula-tor? Why not facilitate things for private

schools or private management in govern-

ment schools to enable quality? Any given

day, the private sector will bring in quality

in any sector. One might object that not

many in this country are rich enough to send

their kids to private schools. I concur. This

is the reason why I am looking forward to

the process innovations in the existing sys-

tem. For example, invite tenders from pri-

vate education firms for managing the edu-

cation on a region wide basis, with the same

old government schemes holding good and

with the already existing

faculty? Because, ac-

cording to me this is less

an issue of infrastructure

or lack of resources, and

more of a management

problem (as is the case

with Air India). I say so

because, there are many students who shine

from government schools too and there aresome exceptional teachers serving there. Im

envisioning that this high quality had to be

spanned for larger audience, by bringing in

some quality processes and standardiza-

tions. The more interest that we take and

faster we react in reviving the education

sector superior will be the outcome of the

human resource pool, better will be the

Where can we improvise?


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skills and productivity, higher will be thenumber of labor force and faster will be the

growth of industries and eventually results

in steadier and steeper emergence of Indian

economy.

We are advancing at a

faster pace, in soft-

ware industry, but theinfrastructure sector

has not been doing

very well. The explo-

sive growth of population has been throw-

ing extreme challenges for the smooth func-

tioning of any system or organizations (for

e.g. Road and Railway transport in the

country has not been completely able to sat-

isfy the increasing number of commuters,

the testimony to which is the heavy traffic

conditions everywhere). With only infra-

structure development, will the businesses

in the country bloom to the maximum extent

possible. The government should take nec-

essary measures to take the sector to the

next level so as to ensure we dont fall out

of place in the global competition. This

should be one of the top priorities the gov-

ernment should have in its agenda, because

any companys progress and thereby the

nations progress depends on the avail-

ability and ease of access and usage of re-

sources across geographies.

It was mentionedabove in Green

Revolution that

we have been do-

ing great in food

production. Nevertheless, there are limita-

tions.

Even today, India's agricultural outputsometimes falls short of demand. And

also as we depend on monsoons which at

times are unpredictable.

We have not succeeded in extending

the concept of high-yield value seeds to

all crops (largely confined to food grains

only, which makes the more widely used

varieties prone to pests and less immu-

nity) or all regions (only Punjab and

Haryana states showed the best results of

the Green Revolution and the results were

less impressive in other parts of India).

This growth in irrigation has led to an

alarming drop in the water table in a num-

ber of key agricultural Indian states, such

as Punjab.

It relies on extensive use of pesticides,

which are necessary to limit the high lev-

els of pest damage that inevitably occur in

mono-cropping the practice of produc-

ing or growing one single crop over a

wide area. This is leading to enormous



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levels of soil pollution.

Though the Green Revolution pre-

vented people being affected by hunger

and die from starvation, it slipped out in

the other aspect of malnutrition where

many are affected by iron or vitamin-A

deficiencies, because Green Revolution

agriculture produces monocultures of ce-real grains, while traditional agriculture

usually incorporates poly-cultures.

This definitely requires us to re-look the ex-isting practices and do our best possible to

address the above problems in an eco

friendly mannerotherwise, the success of

the Green Revolution will certainly be short

lived. The next version of this Green

Revolution 2.0, has to be implemented with

advanced technological and management

practices, and at the same time carrying it

out with an ecological and environmental

sense.


- L.Nikhil Reddy

DoMS, IIT [email protected]


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Recent Mumbai bomb

blasts again brought

back the memories of

previous blasts that

shook the entire coun-

try. Three near-simultaneous explosions

petrified Mumbai at rush-hour on 13th

July, 2011, killing at least 21 people and

injuring 141. However, the blast didnt

seem to be any aberration from what thefinancial capital of India had been going

through over a decade. Invariably all the

blasts have been religious in nature, tar-

geted to create heightened communal ten-

sion in the region. And this time, it was no

different. So, if communal violence has

such a pattern of occurrence and regularity

in frequency, how is it that the administra-

tion turns conveniently indifferent towards

their recurrence, one of the few questions

raised again and again with no definite an-

swer. After every attack, we bolster the

resilience attitude of Mumbaikars, citing

examples of other countries not able to

control similar situation. But, are we justi-

fied in giving such explanations to our in-

ability to prevent such attacks.

In a similar fashion, politicians are ready

with their own expert comments as it

seems they prepare it for the next blast as

soon as the previous blast take place.

What is shocking beyond words is the ar-

rogance with which the terrorists challenge

the government time and again. Breadwin-

ners are killed, women widowed and chil-

dren orphaned. Our leaders talk of strin-

gent punishment to the perpetrators. But

our judicial process is too slow. Too long a

rope is given to the Afzal Gurus and the

Ajmal Kasabs wasting, in the process, tens

of crores of taxpayers' money. It is clear

that political leaders have no fear of terror

strikes. It is the common man who has to

fear for his life, as his safety is no longer

guaranteed. Post 2008 Mumbai attacks,

Indian officials say they have made ex-

traordinary security reforms since 10 Paki-

stani terrorists rampaged across the city

nearly three years ago, but following the

latest attack they warned they may never

be able to guarantee a terror-free nation in

a region plagued by extremism. So, is it

that our lives now rest in the hands of ter-

rorist and waiting for the time till we are

going to be one of the victims? Is there no

one on whom we can rely to safeguard the

city? A question keeps ringing- Is the po-

lice of our country so highly inefficient

that it does nothing to safeguard us?

Mumbai is the city that never sleeps be-

cause of work, travel and for security. In

March 2009, a man was allegedly killed by

five persons for Rs 9,500. Guarding such a

city that never sleeps is not easy, thats

why the role of Men in Khaki is neither

easy nor defined. Also they are the first


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one to be blamed with in-efficiencies. They

face wrath from political class and from the

common public as if they are the real cul-

prits. But people dont know the Khaki-

mans position.

An RTI has revealed that from 2006 to

2010, 292 Mumbai policemen died. Of

these 163 policemen - more than half - died

from cardiac arrests and heart-related com-

plications. This is mainly because of fa-

tigue, excessive stress and circumstances

where communities are often hostile. To

add to their apathy, shabby quarters, mar-

ginal salary, extremely long working hours

stretching up to 14 to 16 hours a day, their

work places are most

unhygienic and even

their arms & ammuni-

tions are not in proper

working condition. This

must change before we

can hold them com-

pletely responsible.

Though lately, ZIPNET, Zonal Integrated

Police Network, which is a very useful tool

for sharing of information on real time ba-

sis has been functional but its real potential

is yet to be utilised. Following the 26/11

terrorist attacks, the Mumbai police had

gone on to purchase several hi-tech equip-

ments. The central and state governments

had sanctioned funds of Rs.106.17 crore

and Rs58.45 crore on the police modernisa-

tion projects, for the year 2010-11. 20 am-

phibious vehicles of Mumbai were pur-

chased but now are hibernating on Gir-

gaum Chowpatty since November 26,

2009. Similar is the condition of the 20 sea

legs because of mechanical problems and

lack of trained manpower, claims Mumbai

police sources. In December, last year, the

central government sanctioned Rs1 crore

for the purchase of 24 Unmanned Aerial

Vehicles (UAVs) for the Mumbai police.

But fearing, these will also meet the same

fate as that of amphibian vehicles, Mumbai

police has requested not to purchase them

unless the bureaucratic

hurdles and poor plan-

ning are taken care of.

An example of bureau-

cratic hurdles free well

equipped and rela-

tively independent po-

lice force is Delhi Police Force.

Currently, we are living in a city that guar-

antees no full proof security to us. One

cannot be sure while leaving for his work

whether he will be able to enjoy his tea

with his loved ones in the evening. In such

a situation, public is disgusted with politi-

cians who promise security, but do nothing

after the media cameras are gone. After the

2008 attack and the bolstering done by the


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government regarding the expansion of

police force, buying high-tech equipment

and updating its ancient police arsenal,

public thought that they are safe. But the

recent attack has again startled them of

their vulnerability. There is yet not enough

equipment provided to police force to

counter such catastrophe. Its really high

time to look forward to countries like

U.S.A and learn how effectively they have

been able to implement the security meas-

ures instead of giving hollow reasons

every time. I end this note, hoping that the

coming future of the Indians is going to be

much secure and stringent measures are

going to be taken by the Government of

India.

-Anupam & Paresh


[email protected]


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Independence Day: An earnest behest of an aspiring heart !

At 65, she is more stunning than her Youth,So majestic, who is very proud of her family's history,

So elegant, for she has her own unique varied mix,So gorgeous now, that she never ceases to get attention.

Her curious eyes voraciously pried like a dying fish to water,

Is anyone listening she said before I said am all ears,Relief evident for she had found a soul (me) to chat with

In the revelry crowd for it's festival time today in her home.

Her grief laden heart begins to enunciate without auspicating,I love you all equally though I dont know who is more abominable,

A few among you destroying yourselves for your own principles,Or the nature's other face (disaster) destroying all of you.

Her eyes got damp now as grieves continue to rain on me,Seeing the War memorials (in my house) my conscience still torments me ,

I hope they all knew that I never wanted war but for my neighbors.My gratitude swells whenever precious ones make me feel proud!

My heart is light now (after sharing) but I have more to convey,The traditional demure girl that I am, I abhor ignominy.It has been good and bad,the generations there has been,

But I have an earnest behest for your generation.

Help the poor! You may not but do not live on others' money,Please do not let your political & religious discords ruin my growth,

For I aspire to sit someday with my head high in developed nations' company.It's your choice to play Hero but please dont play Villain in my growth Story!!

Our growth Story. . ,The nation's growth story. . . "The rise of India" !!!

-Alex



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Qutopia-19

Its Exquizite, Kills your Quriosity and adds to your Quizdom. Need we say more?

Qutopia A Utopia of the best Biz Quiz Tidbits to wreck your brains! Rush in your

answers [email protected], [email protected] 31st

August, 2011. The winner will have their names published in the next issue. Also, per-

son getting the highest score in the current quarter (July-September 2011) will get a

gift voucher. Answers in the next issue ofDoMination.

Section A(1 Point for each correct answer)

1. How is this postage stamp special?

2. What does a chicken market mean in relation to a Stock Market?

3. How is The Santa Clara county in California, USA famously known as?

4. This was the brand started by the Tata Group in 1952, later in 1996 it was sold to Hindustan Lever

Limited (now HUL)?

5. The "News of the world", the tabloid Newspaper started in 1843 and closed publication on 10th

July 2011. In which year did Robert Murdochs News Corporation acquire it?

6. McLaren Formula 1 cars have the engine of which car manufacturing company?
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Qutopia-19

Section B(2 Points for each correct answer)

2. What connects Wipro, Britannia, Marico, Lakme ?

3. Unit Trust of India (UTI) is the first mutual Fund in India launched in 1963 by the government.

Which was the first private sector mutual fund?

4. This is the index published by The Economist for measuring the Purchasing Power parity (PPP)

between two currencies. Name this Index in which Indian Rupee is making its debut in July

2011.

1. Identify this logo?

Answers to Qutopia 17

Answer: Section A

1.The Silk Route or the Silk Road

2. Sub-Prime Borrowers

3. Red-herring prospectus

4. Coal India and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries

5. Amitabh Ghosh

6. Aditya Birla Group

Answer: Section B:

1. Dr. Yaga Venugopal Reddy

2. Mauritius does not charge Capital Gains Tax, allowing FIIs to escape tax altogether

3. These are last 3P's of the Extended Marketing Mix or Service Marketing Mix

4. Monopolistic competition

Winner:

Udit Gupta (Batch 2010-2012)

G.Manoj (Batch 2010-2012) - Rajneesh Kumar



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DoMS-da-Evince

1.) What were the roles and responsibili-

ties while working with NIIT Technolo-

gies Limited?

I am working as BA and QA lead ensuring

quality systems and processes for on board-

ing new clients with the help of a six mem-ber team.

My responsibilities also include mentoring

less experienced colleagues, conducting

trainings for enhancing domain knowledge

and supporting business development.

2.) How has been your experience as IT

Consultant in Banking and Financial Ser-

vices?

It has been mixed in terms of challenges. It

requires a good base in both Finance and IT.

With experience I have came to know how

to manage when we are chasing a moving

target which has become a common thing in

IT world!

3.) How difficult was switching across

various firms? What were the changes in

the roles and responsibility?

It was difficult but worth it. Changes have

its pros and cons. Besides professional, per-

sonal considerations need to be taken into

account before you take a dive. Changes

give you chance to start afresh. I also got

senior roles as I switched couple of firms

during my career spanning a decade.

4.) How was the experience working with

Lehman Brothers?

Environment at Lehman Brothers was highly

This time in DoMS da Vince, we bring excerpts from an interview with

Mr. Mahesh Bansal who is a dynamic and vibrant professional with

over 10 years of experience. He is a management graduate in the field

of finance and systems from DoMS, IIT Roorkee ( Batch 2001). He has

worked with Lehman Brothers and is presently associated with NIIT

Technologies.


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DoMS-da-Evince

charged with tight deadlines. I had worked

for it during 2003-04 which was an excel-

lent exposure early in my career. It was my

first assignment in USA. My stint there

honed my skills greatly and significantly

boosted my confidence.

5.) What challenges did you face working

as Business Analyst at SEI Investments?

SEI has been building and enhancing a

global wealth management product at a

scale no-one has done earlier ever. Its prod-

uct includes over ten third party systems

which are best in their respective area. Of-

fering such a system under one umbrella

involves a lot of complexities. Main chal-

lenge in my role at SEI was integration be-

tween systems. With third party systems

built and enhanced independently, it was

challenging to bring about integration in all

aspects. Many a times we needed to settle

with a compromise though acceptable to all

stakeholders!

6.) What has been the most challenging

role in your career so far?

I think role at Lehman Brother where I was

involved in integration of Neuberger sys-

tems with Lehmans system was the most

challenging one. It gave me all sorts of experience, as a business analyst to a project

manager. It included working with people

who were uncertain about there future after

the acquisition. I had to deal with human

aspect too besides the technical angle.

7.) How has DoMS, IIT Roorkee contrib-

uted in your success?

I had specialized in Finance and System

while at DoMS and got the first break ( read

placed) from there in the current field. So

DoMS, IIT Roorkee gave me the necessary

base where I stand today. I believe it contin-

ues to provide a good platform for building

oneself. However it is more of a facilitator

and it is up to us, what maximum we extract

out of it !

8.) Any message for the readers, espe-

cially the current batches of DoMS?

Try to stay out of your comfort zone and

keep evolving! .

Develop your soft skills (communication

skills, dealing with people at all level etc.)as they are crucial for your sustainable

growth.

I know current batches would be anxious

about future. However, I have witnessed

that sooner or later things work out for

good. So dont let stress overwhelm you af-

fecting your health and performance. All theluck!!


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In this edition, we delve into the major economic activities of July2011 that had an impact on Indian

economy

Last month saw the an-

nouncements of the 1st Quar-

terly results of India Inc. for

the financial year 2011-12

and as always, investors

waited in anticipation for the

announcement of the resultsof most lovable stock on the

Sensex which is none other

than Infosys Technologies,

also popularly called as the

bellwether of Indian IT In-

dustry despite being number

two in terms of volume be-

hind the largest software ser-

vice provider, TCS and as

usual, was the first to an-

nounce its quarterly results

ahead of TCS and Wipro.

Infosys plunged more than

four per cent on bourses as

the company's first quarter

results for this quarter lagged

market estimates and the fu-

ture guidance by the com-

pany regarding its financial

performance was also not

very optimistic owing to con-

cerns in the Euro zone. It also

saw its first quarter profit fall

by 5.3% compared to the

fourth quarter of last year

whereas TCS posted a 28 per

cent rise in quarterly net

profit to Rs 23.8 billion ($535

million) and revenue rose 31

per cent to Rs 107.97 billion.While Infosys raised con-

cerns on demand ahead for

outsourcing because of eco-

nomic uncertainties in the top

markets of US and Europe,

TCS denied any such trend.

Analysts are of the view that

TCS might well replace Infy

as the countrys IT bellwether

going by the performances of

the two companies in the last

few quarters.

The RBI, in its monetary pol-

icy, once again hiked the key

interest rates. This time by 50

basis points or by 0.5% (100

basis points = 1 percentage

point) and this was the 11th

time in the last one year or so

that the rates have seen the

upward spiral. RBI, it seems,

is ready to compromise on

the economic growth in order

to contain the head-line infla-

tion, which this Government

is just not being able to con-

trol. With this hike, the cur-

rent repo rate (rate at which

RBI lends to the banks)

stands at 8% while the re-verse repo rate was also

hiked by the same amount

and now stands at 7%. It

seems that the rate hike is

bearing some fruit, though

minimal, as cheaper pulses

pulled down food inflation to

its lowest in 20 months at

7.33% for the week ended

July 16 even as prices of po-

tatoes, onions, fruits and milk

hit household pockets. Infla-

tion stood at 7.58% in the

previous week. It seems that

the Indian stock market is

beginning to take the blasts in

its stride as the BSE rose

0.1% to 18618.20, after fal-

ling early to 18449.23. Of the

30 Sensex constituents, 18

ended higher in the next trad-

ing session after the blasts.

The Sensex is seeing serious


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resistance at around 18800

level as it has mostly re-

mained in the 1830018800

range all throughout July,

wherein bears are mostly

holding the guard.

It seems that the ever declin-

ing margins in the Indian

telecom sector has com-

p e l l e d

companies

to hike the

call tariffs

after a

long, long time as Bharti

Airtel, the largest telecom

operator by subscriber base,

raised rates for pre-paid us-

ers by 20 per cent for certain

packages across several cir-

cles and the move was

quickly followed by its clos-

est rivals Vodafone and Idea.

India is the worlds second-

largest mobile market after

China. In the past few years,

it witnessed a cut-throat tar-

iff war which led to the

boom in the sector and

one of the lowest call rates in

the world. Telecom is proba-

bly the only industry where,

despite increasing inflation,

tariffs have been falling un-

abated. Continuously declin-

ing margins, high 3G and

BWA auction prices, con-

strained spectrum and rural

roll-out aspirations left them

with little choice but to make

some price corrections. The

tariff cuts dented the profit-

ability of most mobile phone

companies in the 14-player

market, but also saw the sec-

tor add over 400 million new

customers in the past 2-3

years.

On the international front, a

lot has taken place over the

last 15 days or so. To an ex-

tent that it has left everybody

thinking from leaders to

economists to financial insti-

tutions to bankers to brokers

to students and the best

part is nobody is sure of

what to expect in the near

future and how the markets

worldwide are going to

behave after the Worlds

leading Rating agency S&P

downgraded the US rating

by a notch from the coveted

AAA to AA+, which is for

the first time in the history of

the United States that it has

seen its rating downgraded

which implies that even the

US isnt a totally risk-free

borrower anymore, thereby

sending the stock market

into a tailspin and causing a

sharp rally in the Treasury

market. Stocks were hit hard

on Monday the 8th of Au-

gust as the Dow and

NASDAQ both fell by triple

digits after the Standard &

Poors downgrade of the

U.S. credit rating Friday.

The Dow slipped 634 points

to 10.809, the S&P fell 80

points to 1,119 and the

N A S D A Q c o m p o s i t e

dropped 175 points to 2,358.

Taking a look at how the In-

dian markets reacted to the

downgrade, the investors in

India were left poorer by

over Rs 1.33 lakh crore after

Friday's stock market crash,

even as the market managed

to recover nearly half of the

losses suffered earlier during

the day. The benchmark


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Sensex had plunged over

700 points to below the

17,000-point level. How-

ever, the markets managed

to recover nearly half of the

losses and some buying at

lower levels in afternoon

trade helped the Sensex

close 387.31 points down at17,305.87.

In Europe, on July 21,

an emergency summit of

European leaders of the 17-

nation euro-currency area

agreed to a second Greek

bailout (Mark II), compris-ing two key elements: (i)

the debt exchange (holders

of 135 billion euros in

Greek debt maturing up to

2020 will voluntarily accept

new bonds of up to 15 to 30

years); and (ii) new loans of

109 billion euros (through

its bailout fund and the

IMF). Overall, Greek debt

would fall by 26 billion eu-

ros from its total out-

standing of 350 billion eu-

ros. By mid-July, the Greek

debt drama had become a

full-blown euro-zone crisis.

Policy makers' efforts to

insulate other countriesfrom a Greek default, nota-

bly Italy and Spain, have

failed. The crisis has

lurched from one scare to

another. First, it was

Greece, then Ireland, then

Portugal; and then back toGreece. Financial markets

in desperation turned to It-

aly, the euro-zone's third

largest economy, with the

biggest sovereign debt mar-

ket in Europe. It has 1.9

trillion euros of sovereign

debt outstanding (120% of

its GDP), three times as

much as Greece, Ireland

and Portugal combined.

Well, since the global econ-

omy is entirely intertwined,

so the news from the US

and the Euro-zone is defi-

nitely a cause of concern

for the Indian economy,

even though India has leastrepresentation in their debt

markets but the situation

could have a slowing effect

on the economy, which is

why the Government of In-

dia should keep an open

eye on these fronts andshould act in a proactive

manner instead of waiting

till the last resort.

- Mukesh Rathi

DoMS, IIT Roorkee

[email protected]


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The Team

Shruti Goel

Anuj Mody

Chetna Yadav

Anirudh De

Deep Pathak

Harsh Singh

Mukesh Rathi

Pallavi

Rajneesh Kumar

Rohini Sharma

Rishi Arora

Udit Gupta

Sudeep Dakua

domination august 2011

Documents