IIPM B School: January 2013

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Will he? Won’t he? Should he?

A compilation of various statements, political think and perspectives on the situation that Barack Hussein Obama is going to face in his tenure as the American President

Promod haque,

managing partner, norwest venture partners

“It is dangerous and irresponsible to leave even the impression the United States would needlessly and publicly provoke a nuclear power. Now that he is elected, things will cool down for sure.”

Blake hounshell,

strategic expert, foreign policy magazine

“There doesn’t appear to be any genuine counterinsurgency strategy in place to do what General Petraeus did in Iraq – protecting the local population from Taliban and other militant groups and seeking to win the hearts and minds of the Pashtun people. I understand the political appeal of getting bin Laden.

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2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
IIPM – FLP (Flexi Learning Program)

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Science behind 21st Dec, 2012

The prophecies and science behind 21st Dec, 2012

The Yellowstone volcano in USA is supposed to blow up anytime too. Said to erupt every 6,50,000 years, it threatens to fill the atmosphere with ash, cloud the sky and throw Earth into a 15,000-year-long frozen winter.

Then there is the Bible that talks of the approaching Armageddon, where the final conflict between the Christ and Antichrist will occur. The Vedas say that this would be the time of the end of Kali Yuga, which had commenced in 3102 BC. Many other cultures are said to follow this chorus, and let’s not even start on the grim picture painted by Nostradamus…

NASA has been particularly dismissive of the 2012 prophecies. "There apparently is a great deal of interest in celestial bodies, and their locations and trajectories at the end of the calendar year 2012. Now, I for one love a good book or movie as much as the next guy. But the stuff flying around through cyberspace, TV and the movies is not based on science. There is even a fake NASA news release out there..." says Yeomans, NASA Senior Research Scientist.

There are as many theories about the world ending in 2012 as there are about the same theories being products of over-imaginative and psyched minds. On Facebook, an open party – Night of Mayhem – has been announced for everyone on Earth for 1st January, 2013, just in case the floods don’t occur, the earth doesn’t rip apart, and humanity survives 2012. As of now, 42,177 people have RSVP''d as ‘Attending’. Rather than worry about events we can’t really do much about, I suggest we take all these theories with a pinch of salt and plan for a grand New Year Party for 2013!

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Friday, January 18, 2013

Will it be gone with the wind?

Debts, forced recalls and Tanti’s inorganic dreams. Is Suzlon going to make it through? Asks Ratan Lal Bhagat

“The closer we get to this new energy future, the harder the opposition is going to fight,” professed Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, while explaining the future and challenges of alternative energy, a fortnight back in Florida. While on one hand, Obama is playing the ‘Change we need’ tune to the galleries, on the other, he is being audibly discreet about the “challenges” that stare at the face of corporations and masses alike, that intend to walk down the seemingly narrow ‘alternative energy’ lane; and who better than Tulsi Tanti, the owner-Chairman of Suzlon, the largest wind turbine supplier in the country and the third largest in the world (post its acquisition of REpower) can appreciate this hard-to-swallow truth? For the moment, Tanti’s dream path is strewn with troubles galore. Whether it be disquietness in the name of a financial crunch or the manner in which it was forced to recall wind blades sold in First World economies or the stuck-up acquisition of REpower, the cash-strapped wind turbine manufacturer Suzlon, has been cornered from all sides. And while it shows the cracks in Suzlon’s business fundamentals have now started becoming more prominent as that on its blades, the question for the moment remains – will Suzlon survive the dust-storm or will it be forced to bite the dust? Especially considering that many experts still feel that although the coming decade looks bright for those wanting to hedge their luck on alternative energy sources, the huge costs associated with it makes it a weak proposition for the moment.

The ghost which is haunting Suzlon was born out of its book of accounts. The company has been posting monumental losses in the three quarters gone by, having recorded Rs.4.35 billion and Rs.3.35 billion in the quarters ended June and September 2009 respectively (and that is without considering losses due to forex fluctuations). Then there is the overambitious Tanti, whose inorganic dreams have further aggravated the situation for Suzlon, thus overstretching its loan liabilities. Today, the debt-laden Suzlon owes about Rs.134.77 billion to its creditors (domestic loans of about Rs. 100 billion and about $700 million of foreign currency loans).

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
IIPM – FLP (Flexi Learning Program)

Thursday, January 17, 2013

380 deaths daily!

The shocking Chinese coal mines

Fushun’s Mengjiagou coal mine had a gas explosion in 2003, with a casualty of 25 miners – that was not as much a bad news as was their relatives being beaten up to death asking for compensation! In 2007, the official figure of the number of deaths in coal mines stood out at around 5000 miners, although independent research agencies estimate the actual figure to be as much as three to four times of that. It is reported that many sub-contractors in China run their mines like monster task masters. And the province of Shanxi is a crying shame of an example for China in this regard.

If last year’s coal mine accident in Shanxi that killed 270 people – and resulted in the resignation of Meng Xuenong, Shanxi’s governor – made you open your eyes, perhaps you missed out the fact that a few years back, the Director of State Administration of Production Safety in China accepted that 380 people died everyday in the coal mines of Shanxi, causing a direct economic loss of $12 billion every year. The figure is a staggering 2.5% of China’s GDP!

China’s fatality rate per million tonnes of coal production was reported half a decade back to be 3,824. Compare this to the 0.1 figure in the US and even Australia, top coal manufacturers.

In 2006, Premier Wen Jiabao made commitments to improve the safety standards. Eventually, in the same year, he passed an order to close down any coal mine with an annual output of less than 90,000 tonnes. Shanxi’s coal mines still continue haphazardly. This year, the new Shanxi governor commissioned that by 2011, the number of coal mines will be reduced by 1500 (to 1000) and by 2015 to 800. The claim is that any shaft with an annual output of less than 300,000 tonnes will be closed and taken over by the government. Are the Chinese true to their word?

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
IIPM – FLP (Flexi Learning Program)

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Passing the baton

why have the birlas stayed relevant and a force to reckon with in india inc. while their peers are fading away? sutanu guru traces the evolution of the family and the inheritor through triumph & tragedy

Singhvi had no idea that the company (MRPL) that he was so aggressively promoting would go out of the fold of the Birla family (It is now controlled by public sector ONGC). B. K. Birla and Kumarmangalam Birla wouldn’t have even in their worst nightmares imagined that they will lose a son and a father very soon. Cancer felled Aditya Birla in 1995, when he was just 52 years old. The succession plans of B. K. Birla went out of the window and a 28 year old Kumarmangalam had to suddenly take charge of a sprawling, diversified and often incoherent Empire that was struggling to come to grip with the storm of liberalisation that Manmohan Singh had unleashed in 1991. “I still marvel at the vision of Aditya, his ability to look far ahead and his willingness to think big and take big risks,” reminisces B. K. Birla who has now finally come to terms with the tragedy.

Even prescient analysts had no inkling of the fundamental changes that were to sweep across India Inc. in those days; sweeping change that jolted many corporate reputations and made mincemeat of many legacies. Back then, some of the Birla companies that were part of the coveted Sensex were Century Textiles, Indian Rayon, Hindustan Motors, Grasim and Hindalco. Century Textiles (managed by B. K. Birla after the sudden death of his son) and Indian Rayon (now part of Aditya Birla Nuvo) and Hindustan Motors (manufacturer of the Ambassador car and controlled by another Birla branch) no longer feature in the Sensex. Is it a coincidence that Grasim and Hindalco (controlled and managed directly by Kumarmangalam Birla) are still very much integral to the 30 scrip Sensex? And guess how many other business families and their companies have been cast off the Sensex over the years? Bombay Dyeing run by the Wadias is gone, the venerable Bajaj Auto is gone, Kirloskar Cummins run by the Kirloskars is gone, Premier Automobiles run once by the Walchandnagars is gone, Mukund Iron run by an arm of the Bajaj family is gone, Ceat Tyres run by the R. P. Goenka group is gone, Ballarpur run by the Thapar family is gone, Arvind Mills run by the Lalbhai family is gone and Great eastern Shipping run by the Seth family is gone. Gone too was Mahindra & Mahindra, only to storm back into the Sensex in 2007. Of the old, traditional business families that once dominated the landscape of India Inc., only three remain in the Sensex. There are the Mahindras (M&M), the Aditya Birla group (Grasim and Hindalco) and the Tatas (TCS, Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Tata Power). During the course of an exclusive interview given to Business & Economy in early September, 2009, B. K. Birla had kept harping on the fact that, “it is only the Tatas and the Birlas who matter in Indian business”.

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Monday, January 14, 2013

How the good became the greatest

ONGC has to still find a way to beat the oil volatility cycle without the help of subsidies, says ratan bhagat

To be number one on the B&E Power 100 list brings with it a crown of thorns embedded with huge responsibilities, high expectations, unexpected challenges, and continuous scrutiny, with a generous gift on the negative, from all stakeholders. And ONGC, this year’s leader on our list – with a profit of Rs.161.26 billion for the financial year 08-09 – is gifted with all the above embellishments that come with the throne.

But how did a company, which was pretty good previously, become the greatest in India, a jump that requires more than well implemented strategic intent? R.S. Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director, ONGC doesn’t play to the gallery and points to a straightforward fact, “ONGC’s story actually reflects the success of our well thought out strategy to focus on strengthening our core activity – Exploration and Production (E&P) of oil and gas.” In that order, we should say. The fact is that ONGC, in the past few years, has gone fanatically towards exploring newer positive fields in a manner never before seen in its history. The proof of the pudding comes in the fact that the figure of 28 fields discovered in the financial year ‘09 has never ever been achieved in the past. Moreover, by securing an in-place accretion of 284.81 MTOE (million tonnes of oil equivalent), an ultimate reserve accretion of 68.90 MTOE (both being the highest in almost two decades) and with a reserve replacement ratio of more than one for five consecutive years, ONGC has gone aggressive in a benchmark fashion.

But the truth is, the growth story of this PSU has had its fair share of luck – what with the crude oil price volatility from a never before high of $147 to its lowest at $37 per barrel, the ongoing economic downturn, the inflated subsidy burden of Rs.282.25 billion for the current fiscal and persistent bureaucratic interference playing their part in pulling ONGC down.

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Friday, January 11, 2013

The ‘welch’ of innovation

Bringing technology to the bedside of patients and ensuring that it fits the pocket size of the poor is bearing fruits for GE Healthcare in India

“You have just got to constantly focus on innovation. And more competitors. You’ve got to constantly produce more for less through intellectual capital. Shun the incremental, and look for the quantum leap.” These words of Jack Welch would still be resounding in the hearts and minds of GE employees long after he quit the hot seat. And the spirit is visible in the way GE Healthcare has developed a strong business model in India. “In India, for India” may sound a bit queer in the context of the $35 billion (expected to reach $75 billion by 2012 and $150 billion by 2017) Indian healthcare industry, which is struggling to make its offerings more accessible and affordable to the common man. But then, that’s where General Electric (GE) Healthcare India plans to make big money and as such, has been focusing upon “bringing technology to the bedside of the patient and to fit the pocket size of the poor.”

For the $17 billion global entity (GE Healthcare), the mission to take modern healthcare to semi-urban and rural India certainly seems to be an ambitious one. But, considering the 15-17% annual growth rate with which the $3 billion medical equipment and devices market in India is galloping ahead (expected to reach $4.97 billion by 2012), the imagination, to a certain extent looks like a healthy one. However, here lies the catch! Given the fact that the propensity to pay is much lower in India, the domestic market in all probability will offer lower profit margins. So, how can GE Healthcare India, which contributes to about 3% of the parent’s topline, remain competitive in the long run?

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

SIXTEEN YEARS AFTER TAKING ‘THUMS UP’, THEY WANT INDIA

“According to the latest data compiled by A C Neilsen. Thums Up, an Indian brand that was sold to Coca-Cola (in 1993), retains the top slot of the most selling carbonated drink in India: AC Nilesen study, April, 2009.”

When they re-entered India in 1993, the challenges were very different. They had to build the market from scratch, which was dominated at that time by a number of local brands. Pepsi had entered somewhat earlier in 1989 and Lehar Pepsi had started making some waves. Coca Cola’s ingenuity at that time was to hit the home run in one go, when they acquired Parle’s brands, Thums Up, Gold Spot and Limca for $40 million. It is said that Coca Cola ultimately wanted to kill Thums Up but failed miserably. But strategically, Thums Up proved to be an excellent brand for them. It still remains the soft drink of choice in the Indian market. Besides, it also helped them launch a flank attack against Pepsi. “Thums Up was added to Coca-Cola portfolio in 1993. During this period, it moved towards a more individualistic masculine positioning in ‘I want my Thunder’. In 2002, Akshay Kumar was roped in as the brand ambassador and the brand continued to strengthen its position as a Male Iconic Brand through consistent positioning,” explains Kashmira Chadha, Director, Marketing, Coca-Cola India to B&E.

It has been a virtual duopoly in the Indian market, as both struggled to go one up on sponsorships, promotions, celebrity endorsements, distribution reach, product adaptations, et al. People would remember many instances – like the Nothing Official About It campaign by Pepsi (1996 Cricket World Cup), or more recently, Coca Cola sponsoring the Delhi Dare Devils and Kolkata Knight Riders teams, which got Pepsi in a tizzy (as team players Virender Sehwag & Ishant Sharma are Pepsi brand ambassadors). One of the interesting ploys on the product front was the Rs.5 Coca Cola bottle for rural areas. The strategy was clicking well, but Coca Cola ultimately withdrew it due to the hit it was taking on margins. But Coca Cola has turned corners after years of struggle (it is now profitable in India). The company recorded a growth of 29% in India for the quarter ended June 2009. Muhtar Kent, Chairman & CEO, Coca Cola, admits “Our investments in key growth markets contributed to the good performance in China, Mexico, India and Brazil (despite tough global economic conditions).

Read more....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

An Olympic brand : What marketers can do to become one

While brands which become official partners of the Olympic games benefit hugely for the event, there are other ways too to leverage this grand event

London 2012 presents a golden opportunity for brands. Everyone naturally has a heightened level of interest in the Olympics due to their sheer exposure through multiple marketing channels (advertising, television, online, competitions, merchandise). This provides a great opportunity for businesses to strengthen or rejuvenate their brand image by associating it with an event that has universal appeal.

Brands associating themselves with the Games might focus on the atmosphere surrounding them or specific athletes or events. Choosing to link your brand to the Olympics implies brand values of high performance, competitiveness, being world-class, innovative and dynamic. In the eyes of the UK public, British brands associated with the Olympics could build an image of promoting national values, supporting British talent and encouraging a healthy lifestyle. More generally, companies can use London 2012 as a platform for building emotional attachment and relationships with customers and other relevant audiences such as employees.

For a considerable financial commitment, several brands earned the enviable status of being an Olympic partner. Lloyds was the first company to sign up as an official sponsor. Being the only sponsor of the Olympic torch relay gives Lloyds the opportunity to connect with communities all over Britain by organising local events to celebrate the arrival of the Olympic flame.

In order to mark its position as a ‘national institution’, British Airways made sure to earn the position of ‘official airline’ for the Games. A previously less well-known brand in the UK, EDF has actively used the sponsorship to increase brand awareness by being the official electricity supplier of the Games. EDF has already used its Olympic credentials to create emotional attachment and consumer engagement by launching a campaign ‘Team Green Britain’ to encourage communities to do everyday things in a more sustainable way.

Deloitte, the official professional services provider for the Games has put its staff at the heart of delivering London 2012 through secondments and advisory work. A year before the Opening Ceremony, they had already provided more than 350,000 hours of expertise and this is expected to treble by the end of the Games.

What about brands that are not officially affiliated with the Games? The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and paralympic Games (LOCOG) has gone to great lengths to ensure that non-sponsoring brands are not publicised in any way with the event by not allowing them to use the Olympic logo in communications or advertising in Olympic venues. With these restrictions, does this leave any room for other brands to capitalise on London 2012? The answer is a definite yes: brands can associate with the spirit of the Games without breaking the rules. One way is to sign up well-known athletes. Gillette has recruited Roger Federer and Sir Chris Hoy to take part in activities including coaching, workshops and training sessions at local clubs and community centres, all aiming to inspire the younger generation to take up sports earlier in life.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Chief Marketing Obstacles: The treacherous trail to CMO Success

A savvy CMO must be clear about expectations, selling the changes that need to be made, and clarifying how he or she needs to be involved in business decisions

Donald Richards (name changed) knew he was in trouble when the topic of brand reinvigoration was raised by a consultant hired by his CEO. “I was all in favour of a renewed focus on marketing and brand,” the former Chief Marketing Officer recalls, “But it was clear as we discussed the proposal that everyone was thinking of this as purely a communications and advertising initiative. At that point I realised my efforts to position myself as an organisational change agent had fallen short.”

It’s a failure that seems to infect the CMO suite, with chief marketing officers suffering an average tenure of less than two years, according to a much-discussed study by Spencer Stuart in 2004. Marketing executives have an image problem, and it begins with the very definition of the title.

What is meant by marketing?

“There are three basic types of marketing people in an organisation, and where the CMO fits in depends a lot on the viewpoint of the CEO,” says McCombs School of Business Professor Vijay Mahajan, who has studied the CMO phenomenon extensively. “You’ve got marketing, sales and communications; they are not all the same, obviously. How the CMO is positioned within the organisation has a tremendous impact on his or her power to influence major decisions in the firm.”

Pete Hayes, Principal and CMO at Chief Outsiders, agrees. “We see CMOs get stuck in a pure communications role versus one that is at the heart of the business. If you are just talking about products that are developed, it is only a shiny veneer, and the rest of the organisation won’t value that.”

Mahajan defines CMO power as the ability to influence allocation of resources and other major strategic decisions within the top management team. “It isn’t just about leadership style or personal strength,” he says. “I’ve seen smart, dynamic executives falter in the CMO position when the job itself isn’t structured for power.”

Four sources of CMO power
In his most recent study, Mahajan and co-author Pravin Nath identify four critical factors impacting CMO power, regardless of the personal strengths of the executive:

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Monday, January 7, 2013

United States of India

Politicians must discourage unnecessary demands for separate states

Unity in diversity’ has always been a great strength of this nation. But now this diversity is alarmingly manifesting itself in a manner that threatens the unity of the country. There are about 10 bills pending with the Home Ministry currently with demands of separate statesout of existing ones. The list includes demand for a separate Mithilachal from Bihar, Harit Pradesh out of UP, Coorg in Karnataka, Saurashtra from Gujarat, Telengana from Andhra Pradesh and Gorkha Land from West Bengal. The supporters of a separate Bundelkhand want to whittle away districts of Banda, Chitrakoot, Jhansi, Lalitpur, and Sagar from UP and MP; whereas those rooting for Bhojpur intend to break UP, Bihar and Chattisgarh.

Rather than discouraging this alarming trend, the so-called ‘national’ political parties are in fact eager to make political points out of it. The Kutch Rajya Sankalp Samiti; an agitating group that is lobbying endlessly with the government of Gujarat government for the separate state of Kutch, has vowed to support any political party that is willing to precipitate their goal.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Friday, January 4, 2013

More than just incentives

Export driven industries need some basic changes to make the incentives work for them

Socialist economy has stifled the creation of wealth in India for more than four decades. Foreign trade never became the cynosure in the upper echelons of government till the advent of the era of economic liberalization in 1991. Since then, the removal of a plethora of barriers to trade not only led to wealth generation but creation of millions of skilled and semis-skilled jobs. But, then came the global recession and the tide turned. A continuous decline in the year-on-year (yoy) merchandise exports for last eight months with declining percentages hovering around 30% and above have cast a gloomy picture for the highest employment generating sector of the economy. The worst hit has been the labour intensive textile and handicrafts with demand plummeting by 30-40% over last year. The next worst hit has been the gems and jewellery exports resulting in a cumulative loss of around three hundred thousand jobs. A recent PHD Chamber survey covering 104 entities revealed that 80% of the export-oriented industries have registered a drop in order size and volume. Estimates show that around 5 million jobs have been lost.

The only saving grace in this tumultuous hour has been the reduction in the import bill though close scrutiny will reveal that this has been due to the reduction in oil prices more than anything else (oil import bill has dropped by more than 50% while the non-oil imports have risen). The recent spurt of excitement in the markets has sparked a new hope for all the sectors of the economy but for the millions of blue collar and semi-skilled workers in the export linked industries.

A new ray of hope can be shown only if certain policy initiatives are taken on war footing and a long term framework is made for the sustained growth of merchandise exports.

Read more......

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Breed them, feed them and then eat them

Breed them, feed them and then eat them – contracting animal diseases frequently might just be their way of getting back at us…

If one observes keenly, there are certain peculiarities about these outbreaks, about the kind of victims as well as about the recurrence of such virus attacks. While the Spanish flu presented an unusual preference in its choice of victims – young, healthy adults instead of those with weak immune systems – the origin of the ailment is considered to be in the Eastern world. Again, an entirely new variety of human influenza, ‘Chicken Ebola,’ surfaced in the human population of Hong Kong in 1997. It was then that Hong Kong’s entire poultry population (ducks, geese and chickens) was slaughtered. SARS or bird flu also started among the Orientals and culling of several poultry animals was done to avoid it from gaining pandemic proportions. As far as the recurrence of these influenzas is concerned, influenza experts remind that aquatic birds maintain all the genes of all influenza viruses in the world and they transmit it to other species periodically. Even if these viruses are very ancient, they still have the capacity to evolve, to acquire new genes and new hosts. So, chances of such troubles hitting mankind again can’t be ignored.

While the 1918 Spanish flu took its toll in the pre-penicillin era, new types of viruses always pose a threat. It is quite clear that breeding farms for poultry and pig are the breeding grounds for such viruses. Well, the increased frequency of recurrence of such influenzas in the past one decade could be nature’s way of telling us that culling humans isn’t as difficult too!

Read more......

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.