Edition: 16th October 2007

Th

Team Pundit

MarksMan - The Changing Face of Passenger Car Market in

India (2) - Battle of Perceptions (6) FinVeda

e PUNdiT

- BASEL II Norms (11- Sensexational 18000 and rising… (14)

)

TechYug The Quest of Science (16) -

- Babblesphere I – Woes - Web Services (20)

of Developme

H Lok:

nt! (17)

R - Rashomon and organizatio- HRM – The Eternal MBA

nal reality (27) Perplexion (41)

PotPourri Indo-US Nuclear Deal (45) -

i- Manag

ng Stress (47)

Quizimodo (48) Team Pundit (49)

sManMark

with precision at the rapidly changing scenMarket In our first e merging Auto sector in the country, and the all

important aspect of Customers’ Perception which the

er .

before taking our car on the in day long traffic jams with

million cars here and there, takes over. It’s not

altogether unprecedented

Like the Marksmen of yore, our MarksMan takes aim ario of the

ing environment.

edition, we have two articles dealing with the

Marketer sometimes fails to perceive…

The Changing face of the Passenger Car Market in India There was a time when having a two wheeler was a mattof prestige. And owning a car was restricted to a select fewHowever, today we think twiceoad. The fear, of getting stuck r

auncommon to find families that have two or three cars. Till a few years ago, an aircon was considered to be a luxury in a car. And today, it’s a norm. Surely, the face of the Indian passenger car market is very different today. Interestingly, over the last 10 years many foreign carmakers have entered India. But what is more appealing and exciting is that the Indian passenger car market is going to experience anchange, and if experts are to be believed, unprecedented growth. Today, the Indian passenger car market is one of the fastest growing markets in the world. Manufacturers in India produce approximately 1.3 mn units of passenger vehicles annually. Moreover, India has become an export hub for

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he manufacturers, with exports rising very rapidly to

est t

ord, Toyota, Hyundai and

oday, the market is poised for another phase of transition,

en we think about new

ll

entrants enter this market, existing players

2 months, the Indian market has seen as many as 20 new launches. Maruti Suzuki launched the SX4 and Zen

t192,745 units in 2006-07. India has 16 manufacturers and in addition to that there are 8 importers as well. The last 10 years have seen as many as 17 carmakers enter this promising market. New Entrants/ New Launches: Till the mid 1990s the only carmakers Indians were aware of, were, Hindustan Motors and Premier Autoof course, there was Maruti which had enter

ith the Japanese giant Suzuki. But po

mobiles. And d the market hat, we saw

TheLeysmaw

global giants like Honda, GM, FFiat bring in their offerings to India. HM and PAL were quickly ousted from the scene. And it was only Maruti Suzuki that held its ground. This was the first real transformation that the market saw. So lucrative was the market opportunity that even the Tatas joined the bandwagon with Indica. The Indian consumer, in a short span of time, had too many offerings to choose from. The new cars offered better performance, mileage, features and looks. Very soon after that, makers like Porsche, BMW, and Bentley began selling their cars here in India.

Tbelieved by many to be even bigger and better, than the last one. BMW has set up a manufacturing facility in Chennai or its 3 series and 5 series. Whf

entrants to this market, the first name that comes to the minds of many is the biggest carmaker in Europe – Renault. It has got into a JV with Mahindra & Mahindra and has already rolled out its offering to India – the Logan.

French carmaker has also collaborated with Ashok and (for commercial vehicles) and Bajaj Auto (for a l car). German maker Volkswagen is also setting up its

facility in south India and has already invested Rs. 2,450 cr. VW unveiled its luxury car offering Passat. It has also announced that it would be selling the Jetta, Up! and the Golf or Polo and its SUV, Torareg in India. Soon we would also see the safest cars in the world – Volvos on Indian roads. Aston Martin is also believed to be eyeing the Indian market. As these new have pulled up their socks and are getting into overdrive mode to hold on to their market and fight competition. In he last 1t

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ard equipment in Mitsubishi’s Ced Toyota Corolla also offer an option of

tive Mission Plan 2006 (AMP 2006-2016), of Heavy Industries and Public

ation an IPR National Road Safety Board to act as the coordinating

be

Estilo, Hyundai launched its Verna and GM came out with its Chevrolet Spark and Aveo U-VA. Other notable additions were Fiat’s Stile, Chevrolet SR-V, Hyundai Getz Prime, Nissan’s Teana and the Honda Civic. New Technology: It is not that we have only witnessed some new models introduced in recent times. We also see new technology (new to India) being introduced in these cars. the most common safety features like ABS hat come as stand

Starting with and Airbags

ia.

the comfor t

Chevrolet Optra andtraction control. Manufacturers understand the Indian consumer better than ever before and realize that the consumer is looking for frugality and low running costs. Perhaps that is the reason why Hyundai’s Santro is now available in a CNG variant. There is also talk of Japanese makers Honda and Toyota intending to offer Hybrid cars for the Indian market. Honda will be showcasing its FCX hydrogen concept car and its Civic flexible fuel model. Government Initiative: Although automobile manufacturers have revealed the above plans, India can attract and hold on to such

investment only if its quality of manpower and infrastructure are among the best in the world. The Automoprepared by the ministry Enterprises, released by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on January 29, 2007, clearly provides the way forward for the Indian automotive industry. The AMP 2006-2016 visualizes India as a destination of choice for

design and manufacture of automobiles and auto ponents with output touching $ 145 billion accounting

more than 10% of the country’s GDP. Some of the recommendations of the AMP 2006-2016 are: • Appropriate tariff policy to attract investment • Time bound implementation of goods and services tax • Closer partnership between industry, research institutions nd academia for encouraging innova

•body for promoting safety

uto clusters • Infrastructure development around identified a• R&D for product, processes and technology to encouraged • Road map for Auto Fuel Policy beyond 2010

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India is one of the most unsafe countries for driving.

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nsumericted only to the autom

l

s, loyalty bonuses, free service and

ent, Toyota will be launching its Yaris while Honda plans to introduce the

r Suzuki would launch its

n

d 2008 which promises to give tremendous boost to

Therefore, it is essential that road safety is given due importance and promoted in a big way. Changing Consumer: The Indian consumer, over the last 15 years or so has been exposed to a lot of influence from the western countries. His level of awareness is very high. The Indian consumer oday is surely a 3rd generation cot . And this

obile sector.

ue for their

EveSX4

phenomenon is not restr Consumers today look for the highest vamoney. Be it in terms of features or performance of running costs of the vehicle. In such a highly competitive and dynamic sector, every player is vying for a chunk of the consumer’s wallet, consumers are being offered easy inance schemef

warranties and loads of other benefits. It is certain that in few years, the Indian consumer will have a plethora of options and schemes to choose from. What the future has in store... Within a couple of years, we shall witness many more new aunches. Talking about the small car segml

Honda Jazz. Italian giant Fiat, with its stronger dealer network (thanks to an alliance with Tata Motors) would ring its Grande Punto here. The most successful cab

manufacturer in India – Maruti“Splash” and Skoda plans to bring the Skoda Fabia here. And while discussing the small car segment, how can we forget Tata’s “One Lakh Car”. Even Bajaj Auto plans to bring to us a low priced car. As mentioned above, VW would launch the Up and Polo or Golf soon.

the B and C segments are heating up. Maruti Suzuki’s and Swift have been very successful. VW shall give

fierce competition to Honda City and Ford Fiesta with its Jetta. Tata Motors would showcase its 1.4 L and 2.0 L cars and a V6 petrol engine at the Auto Expo in January next year. Maruti Suzuki plans to launch its Kizashi mid size sedan in the segment soon. Fiat would launch the Linea in miFiat’s sales in India. This dynamism is not restricted to the small car and mid size sedan segments. Even the premium segment is witnessing change. Both BMW and Audi are working on expanding and improving their respective dealer networks. We shall see the new Mercedes C-class being launched in

early 2008. VW has rolled out the Passat from Skoda’s facility in Aurangabad.

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r India to emerge as the biggest and

erception, according to the text books, is the process by which an individual selects, organizes and interprets

person. In marketing it is perception which is more important than reality and will affect

le can emerge with object because of three

c

It ha

sumers’ notice. The real which stimuli people will notice.

The government has realized that this sector is going to experience tremendous change in the near future and, to protect the interests of the buyers it has laid down stringent crash test norms that cars would have to pass post 2008. This would require manufacturers to upgrade their technology and “think customer”. t might take a while foI

the most attractive destination for carmakers from all around the world. But the global launches of the SX4, Fiesta and the proposed launch of Hyundai’s Pafrom India and the news of Formula One endefinitely make experts bullish about the growof this sector. With all major players entering India, only the very best would compete and survive. India is clearly a major destination now and offers huge potential.

being done tering India th prospects

Sele

Manan Mishra is our home-grown Pundit on the Auto sector… he keeps a tab on it along with the exhaustive MBA curriculum…

Battle of Perceptions… P

information inputs to create a meaningful picture of the world. Perception is a very personal concept and thus can vary from person to

consumers’ actual behaviour. Peopifferent perceptions of the samed

perceptual processes: selective attention, selective retention and selective distortion.

tive Attention:

s been found that the average person is exposed to about 1500 advertisements or brand communications everyday. A person cannot attend to all of these, and thus most of the stimuli will be screened out- a process called selective attention. Selective attention means that marketers ave to work hard to attract conh

challenge is to explain Selective Retention:

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ks in favour of strong brands and this arketers send repeated messages to

similar products, it must be the product beliefs, created by whatever

arketing activity for the

nds when consumers distort neutral or ambiguous brand information to make it more positive. In

soft drink executives believe that marketing is a

i

originrigi with the name Classic

There is a common human tendency to remember or retain only that information that supports, or is in line with their beliefs. Because of selective retention, we are more likely to remember the good points about the product we like and orget the good points about the products we don’t like. f

This phenomenon wors the reason why mi

their target market so that their message is not overlooked. Selective Distortion: This refers to a tendency to interpret informatithat will fit our preconceptions. Consumersdistort information to be consistent with prioproduct beliefs. When consumers are of different opinions between branded nd unbranded versions of

on in a way will often r brand and

PepsCocaby th

acase that the brand andmeans (eg. past experiences, mbrand etc.), have somehow changed their product perceptions. Selective distortion can work to the advantage of marketers with strong bra

other words, a beer may seem to taste better, a car may seem to drive more smoothly, the wait in a bank line may seem shorter, the services of a particular airlines may seem better and so on, depending on the particular brands involved.

omeSbattle of taste. Well, New Coke (according to consumer surveys) is number one in taste. Infact, Coca- Cola Company conducted 2,00,000 taste tests in 1980s, that ‘proved’ that New Coke tastes better than Pepsi- Cola and

tastes better than their original formula, now called - Cola Classic. However, this move was not taken well e consumers who had a perception that it is only the al Coke that they could relate to and eventually the

nal Coke was re- launchedOCoke. And who is winning the battle. It is still the original Coke that leads the way. Coke classic had 17.9%, Pepsi- Cola 11.5% and Coke 2 had 9.7% of the market share in the year 2004. And we all know figures don’t lie! Thus the point I am trying to make is that “Marketing is not a battle of Products; It’s a battle of Perceptions”. Thus, for a product to sell it need not necessarily be the best product in the market. But it surely needs to be the best according to the customers’ perception. There are certain products

that have created an image in the minds of the consumers so strongly that consumers do not think of the product as a Good they need but that brand which they associate more closely to.

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er. Minds or prospects of the cop

of perception over product

Here we can take the examples of names like Sony in consumer electronics, Mercedes Benz in cars for prestige, Volvo for safety or Victorinox in precision tools and adventure gear. We tend to trust these brands. Most of us wouldn’t doubt the performance of these products simply due to their brand names. Viewing the issue from the other side is equally interesting. The biggest challenge would be to change the perception of he consumt nsumers are

erience in a e or she is

Infacauto

very difficult to change. With modicum of exproduct category, a consumer assumes that hright. A perception that exists in the mind is often interpreted as the universal truth; consumers are seldom, if ever, wrong. At least in their own minds. t is easier to see the powerI

when the products are separated by some distance. For example, the largest selling Japanese imported cars in the United States are Honda, Toyota, and Nissan. Most marketing people think the battle between the three brands

is based on quality, styling, horsepower, and price. But that is not true. It’s what people think about a Honda, Toyota, or a Nissan that determines which brand will win. Thus that reiterates the fact that marketing is a battle of perceptions, ot products. n

Japanese automobile manufacturers sell the same cars in the United States as they do in Japan. If marketing were a battle of products, the same sales pattern would hold true for both the countries. After all, the same quality, the same styling, the same horsepower, and roughly the same prices exist in Japan as they do in the United States. However, in Japan, Honda is nowhere the leader. There, Honda is placed third in the automobile market, behind Toyota and Nissan.

t, Toyota sells more than four times as many obiles in Japan as Honda does. m

That brings us to the question as to what is the difference between Honda in Japan and Honda in the States. The products are the same, but the perceptions in the minds of the consumers are different. If you told your friend in New York you bought a Honda, they might ask you, “What kind of car did you buy? A Civic? an Accord? a Prelude?” But if you told your friend in Tokyo that you bought a Honda they might ask you

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What kind of motorcycle did you buy?” In Japan, Honda

situation? Would Harley-

uch a situati

re often than not, their own

arket. To a

“got into the minds of the consumers as a manufacturer of motorcycles and apparently most people don’t want to buy a car from a motorcycle company. How about the opposite Davidson be successful if a Harley- Davidson automobile was launched? Your decision might depend on the quality, styling, horsepower and pricing of the car. You might even believe that Harley- Davidson reputation for quality would be a plus. But that will not always be the case. Infact, there is a big possibility that such a product might be a failure. Its perception as a motorcycle company would undermine the Harley- Davidson car- no matter how good the product. One option with the company in s on would be this

Therwhic

to launch the product with a different name. What makes the battle even more difficult is that customers frequently make buying decisions based on second hand perceptions. Instead of using their own perception, they base their buying decisions on someone else’s perception of reality. This is the ‘everybody knows’ principle. Everybody knows that Japanese make higher quality cars than Americans do. So people make buying decisions based on the fact that ‘everybody knows the Japanese make

higher- quality cars’. When you ask shoppers whether they have any personal experience with a product, most often hey say they haven’t. And mot

experience is often twisted to conform to their perceptions. It is also a company’s past record that creates perception in the minds of the consumers and this perception affects the performance of the company and its product in future. For xample, Fiat Palio was a failure in the Indian me

certain extent this failure can also be attributed to the fact that Fiat’s earlier product, Fiat Uno was a failure and that was the first product Fiat had launched in India post liberalization. Thus the perception in the minds of the consumers was set; that Fiat’s products are not good and

perception lingered on to harm sales of Palio also. e were other problems like a poor service network h affected the sales of the car as well.

On the other hand, there have been companies that have been able to successfully change the perception of the consumer and eventually capture a major share of the market. A case here would be of Tata Indica. When Tata was planning to launch Tata Indica, Tata was perceived as a company that made trucks and buses. Thus the consumers would not buy cars from a truck manufacturer. But it was only through the right marketing strategy that Indica

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T

ica could.

t

became a bigger success than Fiat Palio which was launched in the same category. Infact, technologically, Palio was a superior product (was positioned as a product that offers ‘Technology to the Max’). But it could not make mark in the minds of the consumer whereas Inda

From the above discussion we get a fair idea that it is not exactly the product, but the perception of the product in the minds of the consumers that actually determines how well a product will perform in the market. And it is here that the real marketing challenge lies. ‘Marketing is not a battle of products. It is a battle of perception.’ Naman Mishra, is keen on Marketing, and he’s specializing his MBA in the same…

ources:

hat shows -

S(i) 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing- Jack Trout (ii) Marketing Management- Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane (iii) www.carindia.com (iv) www.pepsiworld.com

FinVeda Like the esoteric Vedas interpreted for the thousands, by

, the Financial sector is

ing writers attempt to educate us,

l ser mortals, on Basel II Norms for the Banking

the few, for many millennia’sruled by the special few…

Here, our two enterpristhe sector, and the ever volatile Sensex on a bullish spree…

es

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a bank is the acceptance of eposits for the purpose of lending and advancing. The

n order to carry out the above, a bank has to first convert s liabilities into assets. The liabilities of a bank are the eposits that it accepts from the public. These liabilities are onverted into assets in the form of loans and advances. he deposits accepted by the bank are demand deposits,

which it also converts into long term loans. Thus a bank ation.

w

o perform its

in risk it is exposed to is credit risk- the risk

s and to safeguard the

eet as well as the off balance sheet

BASEL II NORMS The primary function of dbanks perform the essential function of intermediation i.e. taking money from households and making credit available to the industries thus providing liquidity to the real sector. IitdcT

also does maturity transform The deposits accepted by a bank are small in size. These need to be consolidated to provide big loans to the corporate. A bank also undertakes risk trwhere it gives low risk deposits to companies projects. Thus while carrying out the above activities tfunction of intermediation; a bank is exposed to a lot of isks. The ma

ansformation ith high risk Bas

itemitem

rof the borrower not repaying. Other risks faced by a bank are market risk, operational risk etc. Also, with the opening

up of the financial sector, introduction of new products and services by banks, banking has become a high risk industry. The failure of one bank can severely impact the entire financial system.

o reduce the risks faced by bankTdepositor’s money, the Bank for International Settlement (BIS) came forth with the Basel Capital Accord in 1988. According to the norm, the BIS-reporting banks were to protect the depositors' money by raising capital from the market up to at least eight percent of the risk-weighted bank assets. Basel I followed the important principle that regulatory capital requirements should be tied to the risks taken by each banking institution. Basel I suggested that banks should maintain a minimum capital to risk weighted assets so that the bank has the ability to absorb losses arising from credit risks in the long run. These norms were implemented by India in 1992.

l I norms required a bank to assign risk weights to the on the balance shes

s and maintain a minimum capital equivalent of 8%. Basel I norms were following a one-size-fits-all approach. The disadvantage of this was that there was no differentiation made between a bank which was properly

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managed and a bank which was not. Operational risks, which are a big part of the risks faced by the banks, were not taken into consideration for arriving at the capital adequacy ratio. Operational risk is the risk of direct or indirect loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people, and systems or from any external events. Thus Basel II was introduced in June 2006.The New Basel Capital Accord was approved by the Basel committee on

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third pillar prescribes market discipline to liment the minimum capital requirements and the

a

Banking Supervision of Banks for International Settlements in June 2004 and suggests that banks and supervisors implement it by beginning of 2007, providing a transition ime of 30 months. It is estimated that the Accord will bet

implemented in over 100 countries, including India. The revised norms are more risk-sensitive taking into account operational risks along with credit risks and market risks. Basel II rests on three basic pillars: 1) The first pillar prescribes the minimum capital requirements for banks to cover market, credit and operational risks. 2) The second pillar is the supervisory rewhich requires supervisors to undertake areview of a bank’s capital allocation techniques.

The

view pillar, qualitative

manadeq(Cap

3) comp

supervisory review process. It prescribes a framework for the improvement of a bank’s disclosure standards for financial reporting, risk management, asset quality, regulatory sanctions etc. The pillar also indicates the remedial measures that regulators can take to keep a check on erring banks and maintain the integrity of the banking system. Risk-content of bank assets is judged either by an external agency in terms of the standardised approach or by banks themselves through an internal rating based (IRB) model.

mThe arket thus aims to bring in, via the regulators, financial discipline for banks, expecting a greater degree of financial stability. In order to align the Indian banking system with the global scenario, RBI decided to adopt the Basel II norms. Accordingly, all foreign banks operating in India and Indian banks having operational presence outside India shall adopt the standardized approach for credit risk

gement, which includes calculating the capital uacy ratio and maintaining a minimum 9% 0f CRAR ital to Risk-Weighted Assets) from March 31, 2008

and the other banks have to do the same from March 31, 2009.

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nder the standardized approach, the banks have to take

dertake directed lending to the priority sector where

ulsions like payment of

g

Uthe assistance of external agencies that are approved by the RBI for getting their credit exposures rated. A rating agency is an entity which measures the risk undertaken by an institution and assigns it rating based on the provisions the institute has, keeping in mind the safety of the funds of the investors. The proposed guidelines under Basel II will help a bank enjoy a good amount of cushion in maintaining capital adequacy. But under Basel II a bank will have to rely heavily on the external rating agencies for the assignment of weights. Internal rating model will not work for Indian banks right now as it requires a lot of experience to carry out the ratings. Otherwise banks will have to maintain a uniform rate of 150% on all its assets. This will remove the chief benefit that Basel II was providing over Basel I, which is differentiating the best managed banks from the rest. Another problem faced is the unavailability of qualitative and quantitative data on credit quality, in terms of probability of default, loss from default etc. There is no such data available for Indian banks.

Thirdly, the domestic rating agencies of India have traditionally rated instruments and not borrowers and this will pose a problem for the banks as getting ratings from external agencies will prove to be expensive besides leading to additional delays. Along with the above the Indian banks have an additional worry. The RBI has stated that the Indian banks will have to maintain a provision of 9% instead of the minimum 8% as stated by the accord. This will be in addition to the CRR and SLR requirements that need to be met. They also have o unt

the returns on investment are low. Thus Indian banks have very little capital left to earn interest on. Most of the banks in India are public sector banks, which mean they have additional compdividends to the government for correcting its fiscal deficit, and additional restrictions like inability to raise finance from the stock market because of fear of dilution of government’s stake. In this context, Indian banks will face huge challenges in successfully completing the transition from Basel I to Basel II. BhaMBA

yashree Vyas is the diva in her specialization of …

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he best yet to come? The Sensex crossing the atest landmark of 18000 seems to show that the Indian

e minds of investors in India.

r 18 months, while the journey from 15000 to the 16000 mark was covered in 53 days.

nts are determined iquidity, but long-term changes will

epend on fundamental factors, and of course

nts in Indian equities. This dual

h and other global markets.

The US Fed brought out fire extinguisher in the form of

Sensexational!! 18000 and Counting… Are the valuations stretched? When is the right time to cash out? Or is tlequity market is also moving at a fast pace, very much in step with the new Twenty20 age. Taking a cue from Dhoni & Co., the Indian stock market went on to score the fastest ever thousand point rise in just six days flat!! Markets all over the world have undergone a major upheaval during the last couple of days and this has led to a number of questions in th The Sensex crossed the 10,000 to 16,000 milestone in a little ove

At this juncture the short-term movemeby international ld one should India

by tnot underestimate the power of the bull.

In the past few days, both cricket and the market did a matching tango. The most obvious reason is US Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 50 basis points in September, which caused huge amount of foreign inflows into the system. The Indian market is guided by international factors in the short term, but over the long term, it is factors like strong GDP growth, which help the market inch upwards. The rowth in the field of infrastructure appears to be the g

biggest after IT and Telecom in the coming years. This is because it will unite rural India with urban India and would pave the way for the real inclusive growth of Indian conomy. e

The main concern remains on the unbridled rupee appreciation. Lately dollar had weakened compared to other currencies. At the same time rupee had appreciated wing to huge FII investmeo

effect resulted in the value of dollar depreciating below Rs 40.

n equity market has bounced back after being mauled e US sub-prime concern. The sub-prime fiasco has

thrown out of axis, the Indian

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T

stitutions like mutual funds and life insurance

this for sometime. We will continue to see the market

rate cuts to extinguish the fire of sub-prime crisis. But, we cannot say that, the sub-prime issue is certainly not behind us. The US Federal Reserve is trying to control the same. The Indian equity market may get affected by sub-prime related concerns in the near future. Earlier the direction of the market was solely attributed to the FII inflows but the story is not the same anymore. Domestic incompanies, which have ample cash to invest in the market, also play an important role in determining the market trends. The domestic stock market is no longer as dependent on ‘foreign funds’ as it used to be. Volatility is the name of the game and it is going to remain ike l

fluctuation. The investors should be cautious about their buying activity. Nevertheless, the bull party is still on. And no one wishes to be a spoilsport. So, enjoy the happy ride of the Indian Bull run!! Vrinda Aneja, an MBA student, straddles many fields from Biotech to Finance…

TechYug Technology has always been the spear for mankind in t’s quest for control and advancementi … and yet,

ls of protocol), and then actually ad us on to an exploration of a next-generation

strangely men at the forefront of technology are always looked at with mild amusement – Geeks…!! Our Techies first present an interpretation of Science, then follow it up with an actual industry-wide scenario (though hid behind veiletechnology platform…

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The Ques The age of the first hu ent. For

e first-borns, every day on earth brought forth new questions, new possibilities, newer opportunities and newer

er.

ll of the answers that we seek, and ot all of them together. Yet, what we know now is more an we ever knew before. (Inspired from The Celestine rophecy by James Redfield)

cience is subtle. It is about asking questions and getting answers that approximate the given environment at a given

that when you ask a erent answer. Even the

. We aren’t just the third

of

m

.

t of Science

mans was full of wondermth

threats. Why did the sun rise everyday? Why did the wind blow? Why was the fire both the creator and the destroyer? These and other such questions sparked a quest that goes on till this day. So, many questions. No easy answ To understand the world, to be a part of the world and to shape a better world – humanity sent out it’s explorers – scientists et al. – to find the answers. These same men have often been persecuted and in spite of that, some of these soldiers and warriors of knowledge have started to come back with answers. Not anthP S

point of time. Someone has saidifferent question, you get a diffd

same question asked to different people ganswers. The essential challenge than is to

solutions that will appeal to the majority of masses, and still leave enough of the questioners to drive the next break-through. From the days of antiquity, our scholars have sought the mysteries of this wonderful world. The ancients realized hat the Earth was a special placet

rock from the sun! We are a living planet, and everyday modern science is coming up with evidence that there is life even in our roots. Science when applied to life assumes the form technology. So, it is science to say that when fire is put under a pan of water, steam forms because of heat transfer. However, the same principle when enacted in a steaengine assumes the form of technology. Science is mnipresent while technology is it’s visible formo

Historians have a fascination for dates, events and personalities. In their world they are right. However, if we view the course of our evolution to the present form of our society, good or bad, one thing becomes clear: the state of science and technology, the relevance given to them, and the opposition - all come together to influence the growth and/or retardation of the people and nation. ets different

have such

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o draw the fabric of comparison further, the economists

se there is hardly any technology where it own standards of articles written for magazine. It

gue), estimated that ompleted, that over

their original estimate, and that $81

Tlike to believe that most things that happen in the world can be explained on the basis of the economic phenomenon. However, the power equations of the nations of the world are all denoted by the technology that they have. The superpowers of the world are so because their technology, even as of now, outdates us by many years. Africa is what t is becaui

matters. Technology has this almost paranoiac effect on many people. Sometimes to the extent of a mental paralysis. People are fine with technology as long as it does not pose any questions, or threaten to change the existing order. However, the moment it does all hell breaks loose. The need is to realize that technology has ceased to be the living space of the geeks and the nerds. It has assumed a sort of an all-pervading role in the contemporary world, and in reality is in continuous motion all around us. Technology is at the fore-front of the evolution of our lives, culture and the world. It is where the action is… Arun Singh Bisht somehow manages to muddle through the demanding course of MBA…

Babblesphere-I: Woes of Development! This is a new platform, and as an ode to its freshness, I will write an article in a manner which does not exactly confirm o the knt

is more like a mash up of a Blog and an article. Well, who cares as long as I can put the point across. My first article solemnly reflects on the staggering rate of failure in software development and steps being taken to correct the numbers. For all those non-geeks who have little or no idea on what I am rambling or am about to ramble about, here is the detailed thesis. For those who find clicking on online hyperlinks against their ethics or religious sentiments, here is an excerpt (With due respect to copyrights): With respect to failure levels, note that an analysis of project success and failure in 1994 [4], when most development was purely ad hoc or based on waterfall process practices (as today, we would aronly 70% of software projects were c50% cost at least twice

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illion US was spent on cancelled projects in the USA re Sales Analyst: [Finally coming to the point] “What

nalyst: Is that static or dynamic?

m last night and thus, the best s to be search, CTRL+C and CTRL+V. The

ers would be able to search others using the

balone. This is an extraordinary problem rate; business as usual is not working. Here is an account of events that followed from the start to the end of the project: Once upon a time a web development company got a request for building a website which deals in travel industry. The first point of interaction was the CEO of the ompany [a.k.a. evil dictator] c

Client: I need a website CEO: Quite, Quite send me an email and I will connect you to my team Client: OK [sends an email] The next interaction is with an overloaded pre-sales analyst: Client: I need a website Pre Sales Analyst: Thanks for contacting our company… from your requirements we understand that you need a website; we have the following questions…. Client: WTF are you talking about?

Pkind of website?” Client: Travel related

re Sales APClient: What’s that? Pre Sales Analyst: ummm….. Could you provide me a reference website? Client: Yes, sort of cross over between lonely planet and Orkut. The pre sales analyst then creates a proposal document to his own whims and fancies. Obviously he is short on time and is carrying a hangover frotrategy seems

proposal document has some very interesting points: The us“

following fields: � First Name � Last Name � Email address � Password *** � Location

T

he company that he can do it for half

is: 100 hours Analysis: 50 hours

The client then tells tthe cost in US!! Evil dictator (a.k.a. CEO) wants to get the project! And thus, the scores are as follows: Initial Estimates Final Estimates AnalysDesign: 200 hours Design: 150 hours Development:1000 hours Development: 800 Hours QA: 200 hours QA: 100 hours ETA: 6 months ETA: 4 months

he project starts with a big fan fare, how-do-you-dos are Teverywhere and the air is full of motivation. All due motivation tactics and best of lucks are thrown in and green ignal given. s

After dozen revisions of wire frames, designs and code

unruly additions by the client e, how can it possibly affect the unrelated web pages is herded

party components, plastered nicely

No. of bugs > No. of lines coded

e betach], the llowing ed a

bs

t has the wor in.”

must keep in mind that nt, developers, designers,

ntry men, government

e

structure, restructure and (“But its just a minor chang

m ofestimates???”) a swargether, full of thirdto

with design. Page load time: 137 seconds No. of Joins: Infinite

And just a day beformust have a beta lau

launch [All web 2.0 websites client reports the fn

error: “I am a bit worrio

bout the Blog section because it doesn't seem like any of the really blogs. All of the blog

logs make sense or are even point to the same link to a

search engine tha ds "free sex" typed By a miracle or two... by the sheer valor of one or two developers the website is finally up and running. Here are the final scores. The actual hours spent in making the website. Predicted Estimates Actual Estimates Analysis: 50 hours Analysis: 500 hours Design: 150 hours Design: 1500 hours Development: 800 hours Development: 3000 Hours QA: 100 hours QA: 400 hours ETA: 4 months ETA: 18 months While the above is true, we everyone... The boss, the clieproject managers, network people, paand even god were trying their best to finish the project on time i.e., it was not a fault with the spirit more than it was a fault with the methodology. We need to change this system

t more. to g

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20 The PUNdiT

Sharma is working as a Business Analyst with a Web service represents a piece of software offering a pecific functionality that can be accessed over the internet sing standard internet protocols and is intended to be onsumed by software rather than by humans. Web ervices allow objects on one computer to call and make se of objects in other computer (RPC). Web services are dentified by a URI 1 and accessed by a URL. Like omponents, a web service represents functionality which an be easily reused without knowing how they are mplemented.

eb services rely on universally adopted standards such as ML, SOAP, WSDL, HTTP and UDDI. A client

pplication running on a platform capable of making HTTP equests and processing XML documents can discover and nvoke Web services. Most of the computing platforms in se today satisfy these simple requirements. This despite

In case the editor does not fire me, I will post more articles on how this can be improved upon. Anirudhcompany of repute. (Really!)

WEB SERVICES Asucsuicci WXariu

A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), is a compact string of haracters used to identify or name a resource. A Uniform Resource

Locator (URL) is a URI that, in addition to identifying a resource, r obtaining a representation of the

ary access mechanism or network

1

c

provides means of acting upon oresource by describing its primlocation.

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en in different languages and running on

that they cannot be used to call CORBA, COM or Java objects. The majority of Web services standards are message-based and not API-based. In order to invoke a Web service, one has to send it an XML message and the Web service will respond with an XML message. This fact has two immediate benefits: it eliminates platform or language dependencies in applications based on Web services, and promotes loose coupling among Web services. Web ervices writts

different platforms can easily exchange XML messages. Web Services Architecture (WSA) consists of three core functional architecture components:

Web Services Architecture • Transport: The transport component represents the formats and protocols used to communicate with a service. The data format specifies the data types and byte stream formats used to encode data within messages Description: •

The description component represents the languages used to describe a service. A description language provides the means to specify the service contract, including the operations that it performs and the parameters or message formats that it exchanges. A description language is a

be processed by a

ubs, and ties. These generated the connection between the

code and the communications process, insulating the application from the complexities of the underlying middleware.

ponent represents the mechanisms used advertise a service and to find a service and its

machine-readable format that cancompiler to produce communication code, such as client proxies, server skeletons, stcode fragments automate application

• Discovery: The discovery comto register or

21

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nts (transport, description, and scovery) in the Web Services Architecture (WSA) are

using SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI,

technologies such as XML-signature.

s, and where it is accessible. WSDL provides ured mechanism to describe the operations a Web can perform, the formats of the messages that it can

would like to consume. UDDI is itself a Web

description. Discovery mechanisms may be used at compile time or at runtime. In most Internet middleware configurations, the three core unctional componef

diimplemented respectively. SOAP SOAP is an extensible XML messaging protocol that forms the foundation for Web Services and allows systems to exchange information related to a Remote Procedural Call or other operation. SOAP provides a simple and consistent mechanism that allows one application to send an XML message to another application. SOAP messages may be combined to support many communication behaviours, including request/response, solicit response, and

otification. n SOAP messages consist of a header, which contains information about the request, and a body, which contains the request itself. Both the header and the body are contained within an envelop. SOAP also has the capability o take advantage oft

WSDL Web Services Definition Library is an XML vocabulary for describing a Web Service. A WSDL document describes what functionality a Web Service offers, how it ommunicatec

a structerviceS

process, the protocols that it supports, and the access point of an instance of the Web Service. A programmer would use WSDL to figure out what procedures are available from the SOAP server and what format of XML is expected by that procedure, and then write the code to call it. SOAP development tools can use a WSDL description to automatically generate a SOAP interface for use in an application. UDDI The Universal Discovery, Description, and Integration protocol allows Web services to be registered so that they can be discovered by programmers and other web services. UDDI provides a mechanism to register and categorize

rvices that you offer and to locate Web Services Web Sehat yout

Service. Users communicate with UDDI using SOAP messages. Benefits of Web services • Loosely Coupled: Unlike traditional application designs, which depend upon tight interconnection of all pra ogram elements, Web

fine services and how they erate.

services are loosely coupled. Loose coupling means that each service exists independently of the other services that make up the application. This allows individual pieces of the application to be modified without impacting unrelated areas. A critical requirement for SOA design, loose-coupling is ably provided by Web services through stablished standards that dee

interop • Enables Service-Oriented Architectures: Web services represent the convergence between the service-based development of applications and the Web. In the SOA2 model, the business processes that make up an application are separated into independent, easily 2 Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) is an architectural design pattern hat concernst

pr itself with defining loosely-coupled relationships between

oducers and consumers.

istributed components known as services. These processes sses and machines to create a

a business problem. This loose easy changes to the application by

veloper to view exactly what is happening in een business

dinteroperate across proceomplete solution forc

coupling allows for inserting new and revised services into the application without having to modify the unrelated services. • Ease of Integration Unlike other methods of integration, Web services are becoming widely adopted across the entire software industry. This broad industry adoption helps alleviate companies’ fears of proprietary technologies that may “lock” them in for the future. The standards surrounding Web services are human-readable and publicly available, llowing a dea

the system. Most often, integration betwpartners is as easy as agreeing to a standard format for exchange of information defined in XML and WSDL. Development tools such as the Microsoft .NET framework or Rogue Wave Software’s LEIF use these WSDL service definitions to control the communication between services, allowing developers to focus on the business logic within those services rather than the infrastructure of Web services.

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ucture and o be requested and received in real

d for

the flexibility of defining your own tags and and represent data. This facility also

ed for processing XML:

g, and parsing XML documents. Basically the idea is d as a hierarchy of

ee. Starting with the root

PI in PHP.

• Easily Accessible Finally, Web services are distributed over the Internet. Web services make use of existing, ubiquitous transport

rotocols like HTTP, leveraging existing infrastrpallowing information ttime. Current IT infrastructure for addressing, security and performance can be applied to Web services applications as well. XML : The language of Web services XML stands for eXtensible Mark-up Language. XML is a part of SGML, Standard Generalized Mark-up Language nd was developed because SGML was not well suitea

data exchange over the web. XML defines syntax that both humans and machines can read. It is important to understand XML in order to understand Web services since the data exchange is in the form of XML. SOAP makes use of extensive XML in designing SOAP message. XML hasusing them to store allows data exchange between machines as it makes

interpretation of data simpler and easier. For this reason, it has become a standard for data exchange over the web.

he common APIs usT DOM: The document object model is a complete API for creating, ditine

that every XML document can be vieweodes resembling leaves on a trn

element of which all other elements can be expressed as children, any program should be able to build a representation of a structure of a document. Attributes and character data can also be attached to elements. This tree can be read into memory from an XML file, manipulated by PHP, and written out to another XML file or stored in a container. DOM XML is the only entirely object oriented AHowever, there are a limited number of object and methods. SAX: The Simple API for XML is widely used to parse XML ocuments. It is an event based API. SAX works from a d

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umber of event hooks supplied by the programmer via

w in PHP5. SimpleXML dispenses with web

memory. However, instead of holding the ent as a DOM object, its elements are stored as

m repetitive tasks on well-defined nodes, mpromise

abilities and has syntax l.

ype serialization, network ions, XML parsing, and XML generation.

nPHP. As a parser goes through the XML document, it recognizes pieces of XML such as elements, character data etc. Each of this is an event. If you have supplied with a function to call for a particular kind of event, it pauses to call your function after it reaches that event. After the event handling function finished, the SAX parser continues through the document, calling functions on events, until it reaches the end. SimpleXML API:

his is neTstandards and absolute flexibility in favour of simplicity and modest memory usage. As in the DOM approach, SimpleXML parses an XML document and holds the whole hing in t

documnative PHP variables. Because many tasks do not actually require you to traverse all the children and the parents of a document, but rather erforp

SimpleXML constitutes a PHP specific cobetween the SAX and the DOM approaches.

PHP PHP Hypertext Processor (PHP) is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is specially suited for web development as it was designed to work on the Web and can be embedded into HTML. It is a procedural language, with some object-oriented capsimilar to C and Per Several of PHP's features are advantageous for Web Service development: 1. Its object-oriented programming capabilities provide the support needed to create extendable and reusable tools for PHP. 2. It also allows SOAP and XMLRPC toolkits to be split into a group of classes each supporting parts of the entire Web Service transaction, but which on its own can be reused to accomplish the plethora of different kinds of transactions that are possible and tasks that may be

sary, such as native tnecesperato

3. Another advantage of PHP is its XML support. The

parser is bundled with PHP, providing SAX Expat

capability out of the box. There are several PHP extensions available for expanded XML functionality.

T

HP-driven web sites may have

rapping your data in HTML to serving it a

he promise of becom

PHP is already broadly deployed for data-centric web applications. If you are planning to develop Web Services

sing PHP, your Pucomponents that may be reused by exposing their methods using XML-RPC or SOAP.

he conversion from wTs SOAP messages is trivial using the tools

available. NuSOAP is the most common library for implementing web services with PHP. CONCLUSION Web services is a new technology which holds t

ing a standard for exchange of dynamic data. Different protocols such as REST, XML-RPC, SOAP can be implemented depending upon the requirements. XML plays a very vital role in data exchange and can be used with the appropriate API for processing.

Web Giants such as Google and Amazon provide web APIs to use their Web services. New advancements like sending files as MIME3 attachments are underway. This makes Web services all the more suitable for global assimilation. Akshat Chaudhary is a Business Analyst with an international consulting firm…

3 Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet Standard that extends the format of e-mail to support text in character setext attachminformation in non-ASCII character sets.

ts other than US-ASCII; non-ents; multi-part message bodies; and header

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HR Lok: ny person who’s been at a B-school, or has worked even

or a little while in the corporate world has many stories o share about the HR department…

e have many, too…

o begin, we are joined by a very distinguished professor ho brings to light the learning’s from a much ppreciated movie in context of the modern day

organization. And, then we have a bright HR student with a wit to match…

ashomon and the Nature of Organisational Reality Introdu The stud ed under the conceptual systems of organisation theory and

proaches to organisation studies and or theory, have gained ground in the last

of these other perspectives is the nterpretive approach to Organisation studies and

e are no incontrovertible and ndisputable facts, which are the same for all humans nd social groups. This is in direct contrast to the

Positivist understanding of organizations which emphasizes the understanding of universal rules of cause and effect, thus making the prediction and

Aft W Twa

R

ction:

y of organizations, as broadly subsum

organization studies, has by and large in mainstream management literature been confined to the Positivist approach. However, other ap

twenty years. One Itheory. The Interpretive approach to organisational theory holds that human beings actively make meaning of the world and that theria

27

28 The P dUN iT

and human

he movie ‘Rashomon’ was directed and co scripted y Akira Kurosawa in 1950. When screened at the

estival in 1951, Rashomon went on to in the first prize and introduced a fledgling master of

control of phenomena in organizations affairs possible. TbVenice Film Fwworld cinema to a European audience. The Positivist Approach The roots of the Positivist approach lie in “Science” as formulated in the Renaissance4 period whose main principles are:

tologically external and independent

n the natural sciences, on

and its members, which is empirically validated through the scientific method. It tries to explain how the organisation works rather than how it should work. 4 The Renaissance was an influential cultural movement which

brought about a period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation, at the dawn of modern European history. It marks the transitional period between the end of the Middle Ages and the start of the Modern Age. The Renaissance is usually considered to have begun in the 14th century in Italy and the 16th century in northern Europe. It is also known as "Rinascimento" (in Italian). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance

� Humans possess powers of reasoning5 that can be applied systematically to discover characteristics of a reality” that is on“

� Reasoning leads to the discovery of universal laws which characterize “reality” � Universality means that a certain order or regularity is inherent in the “real world” which can be understood � Therefore events or phenomena in the world can be

redicted and controlled p

he Positivist approach iTwhich social science and organisational studies are modeled, aims at producing a body of knowledge that consists of general causal theories about organizations

5 In philosophy, reason (from Latin ratio, by way of French raison) is the faculty by means of which or the process through which human beings perform thought, especially abstract thought. Many thinkers have pondered reason, and the various views on the nature of reason may not be compatible with one another. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reason

This explanation generates knowledge, which is objective; in that it is observed by detached observers, and identifies social facts in terms of causal relationships that are independent of and from people, and in many ways constrain them in their actions. Thus people in organizations, behave in certain ways due to these constraints, regardless of ideas in their minds. Theories, which are general or rather, can be generalized across organizations and its members and eveal causal regularir ties that underlie surface

conditions, rather than as embedded in the consciousness of social actors. The causes primarily

e he al

situation under study, is the

appearances, are produced. These theories are then tested by the scientific method that rely on empirical validity, and further refined. Thus Positivist thought tries to understand “what is” or “facts” rather than “what ought to be” or “values”. All organisational phenomena is sought to be xplained by social facts i.e. objective causal e

lie in the situation, i.e. the environment, which producconstraints and shape the organisational reality. Tbest-known example of this is the structur

contingency theory with its emphasis on the organisational environment. e.g. Lawrence and Lorsch6 defined organizations in continuous interaction with their environment based on open systems theory and talked about integration and differentiation depending on the environment that they are in. Another example is that of mechanistic vs. organic organisational structures that depend on the environmental conditions. The Interpretive Approach The Interpretive approach to organisational theory holds that human beings actively make meaning of the world and thus figuring out what is meaningful to eople in a specific social p

aim of organisational theory. Understanding how individuals and groups develop, express, and communicate meaning and or meanings of the world, that cannot be directly observed but have to be interpreted, forms the crux of this approach. This process of meaning making is actively created by

P

6P See http://www.soi.org/reading/change/applied.shtml

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ute the context of lived and this lived experience

vidual understands his

social relationships and interactions and emerges out of social activity. Unlike the Positivist approach where facts or sense experience is directly perceived and grasped by the observer, the Interpretive approach holds the view that the knower comes to a study or a situation with a priori knowledge7 ; that is, knowledge developed from past experience, education, training, social background and ersonality. This constitp

experience for an individual n turn shapes the way the indii

“Self” and the world. Thus something intercedes between sense perception and sense data, that is, the things that are perceived. Therefore the facts of nature cannot be simply grasped but must be interpreted and understood in terms of their meaning, and knowledge of the social world comes from interpretation of perceptions or sense making, rather than simple grasping. The entity that intercedes between experience and event

7 A priori is a Latin phrase meaning "from the former" or less literally

priori

The three men are a priest, a

f "before experience".See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_

understanding has been referred to variously as mind and or consciousness. Thus technically the social world is of multiple realities and multiple interpretations and a singular external reality as postulated by the Positivist approach is not possible. Rashomon – The Story of the Film Rashomon starts with three characters taking shelter from a rainstorm beneath a ruined gate at the entrance to a city. The ruined gate is the Rashomon gate that

ives the film its title. gwoodcutter, and a commoner. As the rain continues, the woodcutter is restless as he tries to understand an incident that has happened and that he in some way was a witness too. The incident is that of the murder of a samurai, the alleged rape of his wife - a noblewoman; all allegedly carried out by the bandit, Tajomaru, in a forest. The film then moves into flashback, where the viewer gets to see the incident as narrated from the perspective of each of the actors – the bandit, the samurai, and the woman. The story o

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he gaze of the audience. The

nd brilliant move of Kurosawa is to other words the

of the same story, but

have let the couple be, but it was a eeze, which revealed the beauty of the

each of the actors in the incident is narrated in front of the court, - as represented by the gaze of the camera, which equates it with tdead samurai’s tale is told through a spirit medium. We also get to see the woodcutter’s story at the end, as he too was a witness to the events in the forest.

he surprising aTshow each flashback as different; inlashbacks does not fill in piecesf

instead shows us four different versions of what happened in the forest. The viewer is then left with the question – what really happened in the forest? Let us examine each of the stories in some detail. The Bandit’s story The bandit’s story talks about the beauty and the fierceness of the woman, which make him decide to have her. He tricks the samurai into accompanying him to a lonely spot, where he ties him up and renders him helpless. He then brings the wife to the same spot, by telling her that her husband has fallen sick. On spotting her helpless husband, the woman attacks the

bandit with a dagger. The bandit easily evades her attack, gloating all the while at the husband, and finally subdues her and starts kissing her. With his kiss, the woman yields to him and embraces him. Later the woman tells the bandit, that she cannot live with the shame of having been had by two men, and ells him that she would live with only one of them. t

On hearing this, the bandit frees the husband, and they fight a heroic battle at the end of which the bandit slays the husband. He turns to search for the woman, but she has already left. � The bandit’s story in visual flashback, starts at the point when he is seen resting under the shade of a tree, nd sees the couple on the road from afar a

� The bandit would ust of brg

woman to him and thus made him attack the husband � The bandit feels envious of the man, because of the concern that was visible on the woman’s face when she heard that her husband had fallen sick � He fought the samurai only because of the woman, and the fight was brave and honourable

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pproaching the husband and

and asks him whether he should kill her or

� The bandit also states that he is telling the truth before the court, because now that he has been captured he would be hanged The Wife’s story The wife is found hiding in a temple and tells the court that the bandit forced her to yield to him. After that, she frees her husband and begs him to kill her, but the husband looks at her with such loathing and hatred, that she feels scared. She then picks up her jeweled

agger and we see her adthen tells the court that she must have fainted and does not know what happened, because when she regained her senses, she sees her husband’s dead body on the ground. � The visual flashback starts with her running to free her husband � The concern for her husband turns to fear, as she sees the look of loathing on his face � She then picks up the dagger and holds it up as she approaches the husband, but after that nothing is shown

� She testifies before the court that she is only a meek and helpless woman and that she has no idea of what would happen to her now The Dead man’s story The Dead man’s story is told through a spirit medium in front of the court. The dead man says that once the bandit had had his wife, he started consoling her by saying that he loved her and that he was ready to marry her. On hearing these words, his wife agreed to live with the bandit. As the bandit and his wife turn to go, she tells the bandit to kill her husband. On hearing her say this, the dead man’s heart turns to ice. The bandit is also startled, but then drags the wife in front of the

ead mandlet her go. On hearing this, the dead man is almost ready to pardon the bandit for his crime. The woman then flees, and the bandit chases her. The dead man is still tied up and after what seems to be an interminable wait; the bandit reappears and frees him. The bandit tells him that his wife has fled and then leaves. The

33 The PUNdiT

ts with the dead man tied p and helpless and listening to the conversation

is wife by the bandit, but instead

s not want to fight for the

n he would first kill the bandit, and rself. To the bandit she says

red of this daily farce with her

dead man then starts weeping and then picks up the dagger and plunges it into his heart. � The visual flashback starubetween the bandit and h� He was not slain committed suicide The Woodcutter’s story At the start of the film, the woodcutter tells the priest and the commoner that he is the one who discovered the body and informed the police. This happened as he went into the forest to cut wood one day. After listening to the other versions, the woodcutter tells the others that he had lied, as he did not want to get involved, and that he too was witness to the incident. His story is that he overheard the woman weeping, and the bandit saying that he wanted to marry her, as he felt that he could not live without her. The bandit was even ready to reform and do honest work, provided the woman married him. The woman then frees her

husband and collapses weeping onto the ground. The bandit approaches the husband threateningly, at which, he husband says that he doet

sake of this woman. The husband shouts at the wife to kill herself as two men have had her. The bandit tells the husband not to bully the woman, as women are weak by nature. On hearing this, the woman gets up and starts taunting the men; to the husband she says hat if he was a mat

after that she would kill hehat she was sick and tit

husband and when she heard that he was the famous bandit, Tajomaru, she thought that he would be a ‘real man’ who would take her away. She spits at him as she says this. The men then start reluctantly to fight, and the bandit finally manages to kill the husband. On seeing this the woman flees, the bandit tries to catch her but he trips and falls. � The visual flashback starts with the bandit professing his love for the woman � The fight between the samurai and the bandit is no way brave; from their body language and their actions

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d and their communication then

that the samurai was tied up, but the s move towards describing what of the actions taken by each of the

we see that they are cowards who are very reluctant to fight. � The fight is more of a mad scrabble rather than a warrior’s fight; at the end when the samurai is about to die; he screams that he does not want to die. � It is the woman who incites the men to fight by taunting them An Interpretation From the Positivist viewpoint, as epitomized by the court of justice where the actors narrate their version of events, the search is for ‘truth’; where “truth” is an external reality, which can be observed and known through mental representations in the mind of the knower. This is then communicated through language signs, which are the equivalents of these mental representations. The inner states of mind of the ndividuals concernei

must accurately mirror reality; thus if the versions of each of the actors differ, it is because his or her mental state is not “reasonable” or is “biased”. This presupposes that someone, somewhere would be able to understand or would have knowledge of “What

really happened.” But as shown, what are we to make of each of the versions? Who is lying and who is biased? Who is telling the truth? Is the version of the woodcutter, the right one? Each of the stories agree on some minor physical details, one, that there were three people who were nvolved, two,i

moment the storieappened in terms h

actors, each version is different. There is also no agreement on what killed the samurai, whether it was the bandit’s sword, or his wife’s jeweled dagger. The resolution of the problem requires that each of these representations which are in some way biased, be sifted and analysed to arrive at the “truth”’, as these multiple versions cannot exist in reality; as reality is objective, neutral and universal – ‘all together, whole and entire, of or belonging to all’. Through the lens of the Interpretive approach, the film presents us not with a problem requiring a solution, but an acceptance of multiple paradoxes. Each actor has actively constructed his or her meaning of the events,

35 The PUNdiT

or her own reality, and is not merely a

s and passive victim

s when they narrate their own stories.

depending on his or her lived experience; an experience, which includes his gender, his social background and class, and his or her sexuality. The actor thus is an active participant in construing or making hismirror and a sign, which reflect and represent reality respectively. If we look at each of the stories in turn, we see that all the stories told by the male actors including the woodcutter, hold the woman responsible in some way for what happened. The bandit says that if it were not for the woman, he would not have fought the samurai and killed him. The husband’s story suggests that the woman betrayed him by asking the bandit to kill him, and it is this act of betrayal that led him to commit suicide. In the woodcutter’s version, the woman incites the two men to fight by taunting their notions of masculinity. If we contrast this with the woman’s tory, she sees herself as a helpless

who had no choice and say in the entire incident and is thus unable to understand her husband’s loathing towards her. This clearly indicates that the men hold the woman responsible because of their upbringing and

background; the very fact of what it means to be a ‘man’ as they understand it, influences their attitudes to the woman. This attitude is also derived from the patriarchical society that they constitute and are constituted of. The other important implication is the way the actors ee themselves

This is in direct contrast to the way others see them as evidenced from the other narratives. In the bandit’s story, the bandit has an understanding of himself as a noble bandit, a 13-century equivalent of Robin Hood perhaps, who was not really interested in the couple. It was the wind, which he held responsible for displaying the woman’s beauty to him. And after that, he did not force himself on the woman, but she submitted to him willingly, possibly because of his own masculinity, charisma, and physical attractiveness. Thus there was no rape but rather it was an act of mutual consent. He also did not want to kill the husband, but it was because of the woman that he fought. The fight was a fair fight, and both men fought bravely as ‘true men’. There is a touch of envy, as the bandit envies the man for having such a beautiful and loving wife. This is

36 The PUNdiT

ll his wife after her betrayal. And the

not the bandit that we see in the other stories; in the woman’s story the bandit does not have much of a role other than forcing the woman, and the woman is only concerned with her husband. In the husband’s story, the bandit is seen as a criminal who redeems himself y offering to kib

most important fact, the husband’s ghost says clearly that he committed suicide and that the bandit did not kill him! In the woodcutter’s story, the bandit is a coward who after forcing himself on the wife kills the husband in a cowardly, spineless duel. The wife is seen by the bandit as a fierce woman – a quality which increases her attractiveness - as shown in the way the woman fought him when she saw her helpless husband, while the woman in her story says that she is nothing but a weak and helpless person. In the husband’s story the woman has in someway colluded with the bandit and betrayed him, while in her story, the wife says that she had no choice in the matter. The woodcutter sees the wife as the chief inciter of the duel, which is again at odds with her own story. The woman’s version also shows her as a loving wife, who cares only for her husband.

The samurai sees himself as someone whose shame at his betrayal and helplessness lead him to commit suicide. In the bandit’s eyes, the samurai is a noble man who fought bravely to the death, while the wife sees him as filled with loathing and revulsion after her rape. The woodcutter sees the samurai as a weakling husband, who was unable to protect his wife against the bandit, and then fights the bandit only because he is forced to. The samurai also cries out at the end of the fight that he does not want to die, which goes against all notions of the samurai code. The woodcutter himself initially is seen as an impartial witness; but we quickly realise that he was telling a lie when he said that he found the body. Actually he had seen the incident too. Further suspicion is cast on his motives when the commoner insinuates that he might have possibly sold the dagger for money. Thus each of the actors’ tells a story based on his or her active construction of the world, relying on his or her meanings of the world. These meanings of the world stem from their lived experience and influence how they see themselves and others. The film

37 The PUNdiT

and their

ds no value; it is meaning,

suggests that right at the beginning, when we see the bandit in front of the court along with the person who has captured him. The captor says that he found the bandit groveling on the ground after having fallen off his horse. The bandit immediately contradicts this story and says that he had dismounted from his horse because of his unbearable stomach pain, and that only a foolish person like his captor would imagine that he had fallen off. Here we see that how the bandit sees and thinks of himself is very different from that of the viewpoint of the other. The sequence of the woodcutter entering the forest is brilliantly directed and filmed, and suggests the entry of the woodcutter in to the realm of memory. Kurosawa uses the forest as a metaphor for memory; memory that is not a mere mechanical recording of experience but is instead a realm where experience is ctively interpreted based on past experiencesa

abstractions, as well as the current external environment that the actor finds himself or herself in. This realm is shadowy and blurred, right and wrong, truth and falsehood, do not exist as clear-cut distinctions. Memory is actively constructed; it is

interpretation, it is flux and transformation, and the creation of meaning takes place in such a realm. In this realm, we humans actively fashion and shape meanings from our observations and experience. It also suggests that the forest teems with shapes and forms that we cannot really be consciously aware of; in other words the unconscious plays a major role in fashioning our meanings. Desire and shame, guilt and honour are all protean transmutations of the unconscious, which uses our experiences as raw material. Human beings actively search for meaning, xperience by itself hole

which gives experience value. We do not just record experience, but instead seek to forge meanings in the realm of memory where the known conscious, the unconscious, and the unknown conscious merge. Interestingly in each of the participant’s stories, the participant holds himself or herself responsible for the death. The wife’s story does not clearly show us the death, but it implies that she is responsible as we see her advancing towards her husband. There are also the themes of shame, guilt, and regret, which run through each of the participant’s stories. Kurosawa does not

38 The PUNdiT

actors.

re that ‘objective’ truth is elusive, and always present. One might argue that an

s

offer explanations, but leaves us with the questions – “What is the truth? What are we to believe? Whom do we believe? How do we know that someone is telling the truth?’ – in short, ontological and epistemological questions about the nature of reality and the world. In Conclusion The Interpretive approach differs from the Positivist approach, as it does not accept the existence of objective, independent, universally generalisable knowledge but instead focuses on how human actors interpret the world and actively make meaning in a situation. Positivism tends to view human agency as or the most part irrelevant, as the “real” causative f

factors reside in the situation or the environment and can be grasped by an independent and objective observers. That is what the court of justice in the film tries to do as it listens to the testimony of the actors. The Interpretive approach puts the actors in a situation, at the centre of meaning making and knowledge

creation, unlike the Positivist approach where explanations are sought “outside” the actors through the observations of detached observers. Actors make meanings that are socially grounded and negotiated, context specific, and historically rooted, and thus to grasp meanings in some way, one must focus on the ife world of the l

We see therefombiguity isa

incident as shown in the film has really happened but none of us can have access to it as we were not present. But the character of the woodcutter is the eyewitness, and in a court of law, the eyewitness’s testimony is the most important. Has the woodcutter spoken the truth? Can we believe his version of the story over the others? Organisational phenomena cannot be viewed as possessing universal meanings; they are not the same for everyone. A Performance appraisal review for xample, is always seen differently by the actore

involved, in most cases the boss and his subordinate. We might say that to avoid this problem, we need to

39 The PUNdiT

ony and evidence are presented, unlike the

d represented through a system

ts ranging from Theory of

have a third party who is impartial and objective to keep an eye literally and metaphorically on the proceedings. But is the third party’s story the true story? And how can the third person not have his own lived experience of the world, which he brings to the situation? Can this issue be tackled by having more observers, in short the 360-degree feedback? And when testimnatural sciences, there is no physical evidence as such; everything is in the form of language. The Positivist approach would see language as a representation of the world, a representation that is drawn from the mental images and models of the world in the mind of knower. This is drawn from Wittgenstein’s work on the picture theory of language, where language is a mirror of reality, a model that he himself abandoned later. His conclusion was that language is a set of oncepts about the worlc

of interlinked signs, and that these concepts are created by the social group from their experience of the world. These concepts are not meanings, rather meanings shape and are shaped by these concepts as well as the experience of the knower.

It is no surprise that organisational phenomena as with phenomena of any nature, are experienced and perceived differently by people. When asked to talk and communicate about them, the actor always delves into a shadowy realm where he or she shapes his or her meanings. The meanings are derived from the social group that he or she is a part of (as enabled through language, which provide signs linked to concepts), and his or her experiences of the world. The actor then presents himself as neutral and objective – meanings, that are themselves drawn from the social group that he or she is a part of, which holds that being seen as biased and subjective is undesirable. Anand Sukumaran has an MBBS degree and has worked in Emergency medicine for five years. He then shifted to management and has a postgraduate degree in Human Resource Management from the T A Pai Institute, Manipal. Teaching for him was another avenue to be explored, and he then joined the Institute of Management Development and Research, Pune where he has taught subjec

40 The PUNdiT

urosawa, Istvan zabo, and Ridley Scott amongst others. He recently o-produced and directed a short feature film on DV

Lost: Images of Man in the Mirror of John Casti

Communication and Human Resource Management and Organisation Development to The Philosophy of Science and Technology. He has worked as a consultant too, primarily in the areas of Competency Mapping, Behavioural Event Interviewing, and Organisational Development interventions. His appetite for books compares only to his love for films, music, food, and intelligent women. He likes to think of himself as a Miscellaneous Culture Vulture and a Falstaffian figure who enjoys with the keenest relish all that life has to serve. He has been part of the selection committee for the Third Pune International

ilm Festival and likes the films of KFScformat called 'Darmiyan'. He writes on music and movies much to the chagrin of many and the delight of a few. References: 1. Oxford Handbook of Organisational Theory – Meta Theoretical Perspectives

By Tsoukas, Haridimos / Knudsen, Christian - OUP 2005 2. The Internet Movie Database – www.imdb.com 3. Constructivist Epistemology -

ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivist_epistemolohgy 4. The Internet Encyclopedia of Personal Construct Psychology – http://www.pcp-net.org/encyclopaedia/constructivism.html 5. An Investigation of the effects of Semiotic versus Traditional Hyperlinks on Learner satisfaction and Performance by Chester S Lyskawa - http://www.coedu.usf.edu/itphdsem/eme7939/dissclys.pdf 6. Paradigms

cience – By SLondon/ABACUS BOOKS/1989

41 The PUNdiT

nal MBA Perplexion

e in Marketing?”. “HR?? No ya.. too theoretical… I can’t take

ore practical. Like..

o if the organization is losing money, rrriightt?” And n the final inevitable question at which I can, at best,

eir

ake people die to be in HR, apologetic ones that let them think

to tual

those reading this

them). I am not going to attempt to justify my choices ere, the simplest reason being I don’t have to. No, I am

and

ement students.

t HR has not done ere are some things

ten complain that dealing with HR

Human Resource Management – TheEter “Oh.. You’re in HR? Really? I thought you wer

so much theory, I need something mmore solid you know?”. “You know you guys are the firstto ghet

give an apologetic look to let the other person revel in thillusory grandeur, “Why did you take HR yaa? Marketing’sbetter, no?” I have responses, I do. Sarcastic ones that could m

they are indeed the best, the true reasons which I explain those I deem still within the realms of intellecredemption, and many, many more (so article know where they stand, according to the responses Igavehgoing to try and look at why HR is perceived this way, the trickle-down effect of this perception of professionals onto the herd-mentality driven manag

Where HR Went Wrong I am not going to try and deny thaverything right – they haven’t. The

drastically wrong with the professionals in this function. For example, it is not uncommon to hear that HR professionals are technically sound, but they make poor business decisions. This has deeper implications than we might imagine if this complaint is so common. It directly tells us that HR cannot be the key business driver if it is the maker of poor or isolated business decisions, which cannot possibly cut costs.

mployees also ofEpeople is nothing less than a bureaucratic hassle. They dodge reports, deny access to data (denial that seems unnecessary), hype confidentiality, and hide behind silly company policies they do not have any sound reasoning behind. If you are in HR, and have not bothered to find out why a policy exists and the exact reasoning behind it, you are in the wrong place. They are known for applying rules in either an extremely inconsistent fashion, or an irritatingly uniform one, not giving credit to exceptions. Where Everyone Else Went Wrong

42 The PUNdiT

But it seems to me that most of onses to the kind of perception HR

ilarly, you cannot tell your employee that the

ion, you are going to

on with great practices,

e cycle will

really a tool to measure the performance of an

So yes, there are problems.hese are defensive respt

professionals are subject to. This is my personal belief, of course, and there will be those who differ. But being in the field as a student, this is what I have gathered so far. For starters, the main problem that HR faces is the inability to translate some aspects of their profession into tangible and measurable returns. HR cannot easily fit in to the “Let us Calculate!” syndrome that most management students (and executives, God bless us all) seem to have fallen prey to. Can you tell your better half that you love them 15 Ounces? Simweight of their contribution to the organization is 34.67 Kilograms (the decimal adds authenticity, you see). You can try it. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the questions that action will raise about your mental stability. Since we cannot translate every action we take into tangible returns, HR is considered the “soft” part of the organization. This is where they go wrong. Time and again, it has been proved that if you sincerely and truly manage to

rovide an equal voice and state to the HR representation inpyour boardroom since the very inceptnd up with an organizatie

productive employees and attrition rates which will let you sleep nights. Pause to consider this – why is attrition rate a problem? Because it directly costs your organization. It costs you time-lags, it costs you money to attract and retain new talent to replace, money to train the new talent you

ire, who will eventually leave you and thhrepeat itself. Those are the tangible costs, ones your Finance guys can run numbers on. But it also causes discontent, unrest, and an uneasy organizational atmosphere. They didn’t come up any theorems or models to measure these intangible problems (which are conveniently dropped in HR’s lap). These things are not measured because they are not measurable. But people try to measure things because they are measurable, whether they matter or not is irrelevant. So you see what happens when you try to use the Balanced Scorecard for every individual in your organization, when t’si

organization, not an individual. That sort of a mindset simply indicates a desperate need to calculate everything since it gives you the illusion of control. It gives you the illusion that you will be able to improve and retain what you have been able to measure, when in effect all you have done is create unnecessary data, which is irrelevant and time-consuming (another cost).

43 The PUNdiT

p. ess bit, and prove that they

business partners (and maybe strategic ones, if we are lucky someday). Learn to practice all those ideals they

Theoretically speaking, HR is supposed to be a key driver of business. The problem is that HRM seems to be a relatively new concept, and has still not broken away from the traditional Personnel Management and Administration role. Those roles are indeed auxiliary, and there is no shame in admitting this. That was the purpose of those departments. But suddenly one day someone thought about equating people with “assets” and thinking of people as “talent” and not the traditional “hands” (do note that people can never simply be people, which might be a huge improvement, I daresay). And viola! HRM was born. Since then there has been so much literature about HRM being strategic and HR being strategic business partners, repeating the same jargon in various different ways (sometimes the ways are not even different), that any HR tudent can recite it in their slees

There’s only one problem – no one actually did something about this. So, HR became just another name for a modified type of personnel management, defeating the whole purpose of it. What Everyone Can Do About Where They Went Wrong

I love quoting a professor of mine, “If we are so smart, what are we going to do about this?” It’s all very well to talk, point fingers, indicate mistakes and apportion blame. That is a game we master right from childhood when we want to save ourselves from hidings by parents/teachers/similar. But if we are smart management graduates, what are we actually going to do? Most HR professionals seem to have internalized the public perception of being isolated from core business, and being an auxiliary function in the value chain. If this belief has been internalized, we have a tough and daunting task ahead of us. You cannot make people believe they are important if they do not wish to believe so. So for starters, I suggest that people in HR take some initiative and learn how that balance sheet is created after ll. Learn the tough bit, the busina

are worthy of better than criticism by virtue of being in HR. I suggest some proactive stance be shown and HR decisions reflect directly how business can be affected, positively or negatively. For everyone else, I suggest they actually do something about all the management jargon they quote on HR being otentialp

learn in the classroom in a b-school. Understand that they are going to suck at doing HRM for one day, since HRM requires technical expertise as well. Learn that those appraisal forms they filled up are being designed by someone, and that new guy they so desperately needed to lighten the workload is being recruited by someone.

44 The PUNdiT

re than what most others

ighting for the rights of her class

Well, we don’t exactly do that – but yes, we come do come

rcle), and our second writer tells us

Corporate houses would do better to set an example, and start considering HR as a function equally important and actually treating it that way. I know it’s easy for me to say it, which is why I did. This is what I can do, in my position, right now in this time and pace. But I know that I did mos

would. And it will be a long, long time before something constructive might happen on either front. Change is not easy. Meanwhile, I guess I better find more innovative answers on why I took HR. Ruby Tewani, when not f(being the CR), is pursuing MBA in HR…

Pot-Pourri When was the last time you sat down with your friends over a cup of tea, and debated…? The good ole past time… from cricket to world affairs, personal trouble to girlfriends!!

close… our first writer is a definite authority on world affairs (in our ciabout living stress-free…

45 The PUNdiT

NDO- US NUCLEAR DEAL

he growing energy demands of the two Asian giants, India and China have raised serious questions on the impact of global energy availability. India’s stupendous growth in the last de a is looking all

s, oal or Nuclear Energy. Nuclear Energy’s contribution is r less in the total energy production capability of the

country and thus has a tremendous potential to meet its

India herself does not possess enough Uranium to feed its eactors to meets its energy target. She has to get the uclear fuel as well as the technology from the nternational market.

s-India Peaceful hich is the legal

amework for a bilateral pact between the United States and India under which the U.S. will provide access to

the journey has not been smooth. The 123 deal has been going down a roller costar ride since its inception.

nto difficulties in the face of stiff political opposition in India. The main

e crucially, the communist parties,

I T

cade has made it hungrier for energy. Indi forward to meet its energy demand from

available means, be it Oil, Hydro Electricity, Natural gaCfa

burgeoning energy needs in the coming decades. Being a Non NPT signatory and after conducting nuclear test in 1974 and 1998, India has been denied nuclear technology for long. It is India's stated objective to increase the production of nuclear power generation from its present capacity of 4,000 MWe to 20,000 MWe in the next decade.

rni

This led India to go for the United StateAtomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006 wfr

civilian nuclear technology and access to nuclear fuel in exchange for IAEA-safeguards on civilian Indian reactors. This act provides the legal basis for a 123 Agreement with India. The 123 agreement requires separate U.S. congressional approval and Indian cabinet approval and will define the exact terms and conditions for bilateral civilian nuclear cooperation. The deal is a win-win situation for both the nations. The U.S. expects that such a deal could spur India's economic growth and bring in $150 billion in the next decade for nuclear power plants, of which the US wants a share. However

There has been severe criticism in US as well as in India. The implementation of the deal has run i

opposition party BJP has criticized the deal saying that it compromises India's nuclear weapons program, despite that fact that they had started negotiations on the agreement when in power. Mor

46 The PUNdiT

another cause of concern,

ina on getting the clearance

developing other renewable

which are not a part of the government but support it externally in the Indian Parliament, have threatened to withdraw their support over the issue. They cite what they describe as the imperialist policies of the U.S.A. as their primary reason of opposition. However, the government has remained steadfast on its commitment to the deal and has refused to back down on the agreement, leading to the possibility of mid-term elections in India. The shrill voices in Washington have assailed the bush administration for having given the nuclear store to New Delhi. The Hyde Act has beenwhich requires the administration of the day to certify annually that India’s foreign policy is congruent with the US. The Government of India’s stalwarts point out that the Act is not binding on India; its critic retort it’s binding on the US. But neither side , for reasons one can readily understand, has publicly admitted that certification is a hollow requirement, routinely accepted by American Administrations in the full knowledge that they can certify whatever they wish to certify. The Indian government, whether the current dispensation or a new one, were to renege on its commitment to the deal, it would seriously undermine India's credibility in the international arena, besides rendering useless the

considerable effort and time spent in finalizing the agreement. The world is also watching the deal closely specially China and Pakistan which see the strategic partnership between India and USA as a serious threat in the subcontinent region. China fears it is another gamut by US to increase its influence in the region to contain her. Therefore, India may et a stiff resistance from Chg

from Nuclear Suppliers Group for the deal to be a success. On the other hand Economic analysis by some international organization say that for the next 20 years such investments are likely to be far less valuable economically or environmentally than a variety of other measures to increase and economize electricity production in India and also to stop or reduce the pollution by traditional usage of natural resources. How true these analyses are, only time will tell but for now it is in India’s favor to go for the deal and reap its benefits. ndia should also consider I

sources of energy in parallel but surely, should not forget the importance of nuclear energy.

47 The PUNdiT

ple have given their nod to the nuclear deal. hat reads, “I’m the best, you can work 20 hours a day but I’ll

lients in Bangalore the very next ay… Well, life can be a never ending stress ride.

deal with stress. This ever worked for me and after 20 minutes of concentrated reathing I would be determined to break my boss’s nose. ut there are other things that did work for me.

tress can make you uneasy which immediately transforms nto physical discomfort. So step one is to wear clothes and hoes that don’t poke and pinch all over your body.

fter an argument or a heated discussion at the workplace ake sure you take a 15 minute break for coffee or juice or ater. Gather your thoughts, cool down your temper and

hen get back to your desk.

The Indian public also seems to be with the government .In various polls and surveys conducted throughout the ountry, peoc

In all, 123 deal is a diplomatic triumph for India. The opportunity is huge which would not only help India meet its energy needs but help play an important strategic role in the international arena. Akhilesh Yadav is an inquisitive soul concentrating his thoughts into pursuit of his MBA…

Managing Stress A boss who has a permanent sign on his forehead t

still not be pleased.” A boyfriend or girlfriend whose full time job is nagging you. Too much work, too little money. Making a presentation in Delhi on Friday evening and meeting high profile cd My mother would often tell me to concentrate on my breathing and meditate for a while tonbB Sis Amwt

The PUNdiT

ned up at work with a string of then try to make the most of the

Sunday that you finally get. Go for a head massage, catch a

this it is very important to be physically exhausted. Try to take out

women) is ‘retail therapy’. After what you think has been the worst

rejuvenated and ready to take on the world afresh.

which she has worked with a eading National Daily…

This classic sci-fi film first appeared in 1956 and was

ame the book, the author and original film.

If you have a busy week limeetings and presentations

movie, meet a friend, spend time with folks at home… take your pick. Do whatever, but don’t waste time whining and thinking about next day’s work. Live in the present and enjoy every moment of your holiday. Deal with work situations at 9 am on Monday morning, not before that. Getting a good night’s sleep is vital. To achieve

45 minutes in the day to exercise. Be it swimming, going to the gym or for a jog, following an exercise regimen makes a huge difference in your physical and mental well being. Finally, what can work wonders (especially for

working day of your life, call your best friend and go to the nearest mall. Indulge in an expensive dress, a sexy pair of shoes or a red handbag… and you’ll instantly feel

ShagunPopli is a budding entrepreneur… she is currently pursuing her MBA prior tol

Quizimodo (google all you are worth!) Question 1: This 1982 sci-fi film directed by Ridley Scott was based on a classic 60’s sci-fi novel in which rogue androids are hunted and destroyed by a special police

nit. u Name the book, author, and the movie adaptation. Question 2:

based on a novel which tells the story of aliens who invade Earth by emerging from pods and taking over the bodies of humans. Since then the film has been remade 3 times - in 1978, 1993 and 2007, the latest starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. N

48

49 The PUNdiT

s in strange places… for us, it happened on

of any relationship – exciting, directionless, fun

is has been quite an experience - different different backgrounds come together, and

r experience. ave made oint them

ut for us….

Arun, the Dream st dreaming… it’s a wonder! ourage and valour…

you’d like to write for us, then please get back to us with your ideas and suggestions at:

iT

s in strange places… for us, it happened on

of any relationship – exciting, directionless, fun

is has been quite an experience - different different backgrounds come together, and

r experience. ave made oint them

ut for us….

Arun, the Dream st dreaming… it’s a wonder! ourage and valour…

you’d like to write for us, then please get back to us with your ideas and suggestions at:

Team Pundit Team Pundit An idea begin An idea beginthe back-bench of a rather interesting class (☺) on a rainy afternoon… The beginning of the thinking was like the courtship eriod

the back-bench of a rather interesting class (☺) on a rainy afternoon… The beginning of the thinking was like the courtship eriodpp

and what not… and what not… Since then thpeople, from Since then thpeople, from yes, no experience – with only an idea bringing and keeping them together… Every new step is full of new learning’s, and potential risk of rolling back many miles… With this edition, you’ve become a part of ou

yes, no experience – with only an idea bringing and keeping them together… Every new step is full of new learning’s, and potential risk of rolling back many miles… With this edition, you’ve become a part of ouWe accept that inadvertently we may hmistakes, and it would be really cool if you’d pWe accept that inadvertently we may hmistakes, and it would be really cool if you’d poo

er, has done more than juHe has captained this initiative wither, has done more than juHe has captained this initiative with

cc Naman is the perfect Anchor Man – he has kept the Team together, and juggling it with a weird financial exam at the same time…

Naman is the perfect Anchor Man – he has kept the Team together, and juggling it with a weird financial exam at the same time… Sakshi is the artistic soul of the team, and it is a surprise that she manages so much theory with so much creativity…

Sakshi is the artistic soul of the team, and it is a surprise that she manages so much theory with so much creativity… We’d also like to thank Nitin and Sandeep for their unstinted support… If

We’d also like to thank Nitin and Sandeep for their unstinted support… If

editor@punditsonline.comeditor@punditsonline.com And… feel free to pass this along to your friends… Disclaimer: as far as we know all content is original else, the sources have been mentioned…