Monday, July 30, 2012

How may I kick the bucket?

Execution methods are becoming more humane over time, but can the same be said for the criminals?

Rulers, and the governments after them, have used various methods to punish the condemned – crucifixion, poisoning, burying/burning alive, beheading, throwing them to hungry predators or in front of firing squads and so on. Methods have become more civilized over the years. Yet, there are instances of laws in certain countries that advocate public stoning to death (as practised in Iran), using chemical weapons to annihilate several hundreds (as Saddam Hussein did to Kurds in 1988), or starving the accused to death (principal means of handing out death sentences in North Korea)!

These methods are ghastly indeed, but they are thankfully aberrations! The most common roster of executions reads beheading, hanging, gas chamber, electrocution, lethal injection and shooting in recent history. Saudi Arabia has a dubious distinction of being one of the very few countries that still practise beheading. Between 2007 and 2010, as many as 345 people have been beheaded in that country. Hanging is prevalent in most countries. India, where as per Amnesty International, 33 people were sentenced to death in 2001, 23 in 2002, 77 in 2005, 40 in 2006 and 100 in 2007; belongs to this category. Shooting squads are deployed by a number of countries with 58 cases in 2010 – 18 executions in Libya, 5 in North Korea, 4 in Equatorial Guinea, 1 in US and Bahrain et al. Gas chambers and electric chairs are mostly practiced in US. As per the Death Penalty Information Centre, 157 electrocutions and 11 gas chamber executions were reported since 1976. Lethal injection has been pioneered by US (as the most ‘peaceful’ method of execution) with 1090 deaths since 1976; this method has now been adopted by China, Thailand & Vietnam.


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Saturday, July 28, 2012

2010 was theirs! Is 2011?

FMCG Saw Some Heavy action on the M&A front last year. But, as The Industry matures and valuations rise, It’s The small-ticket Strategic Acquisitions that will drive the sector in 2011

If there was one sector that saw some heavy action on the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) front last year, it was fast moving consumer goods (FMCG). For the uninitiated, the total value of M&A deals ($797.83 million) in the sector in 2010 went up 16 times when compared to the 2009 figure ($47.94 million), and in fact, a whopping 23 times from the 2008 number ($33.97 million). Reason: India’s Rs.460 billion FMCG market remains highly fragmented with over 50% of it dominated by non-branded, unpackaged home made products. This certainly presents a tremendous opportunity for established brands, both domestic and multinational, to expand their reach across the country by pursuing inorganic growth strategies.

Several FMCG companies such as Dabur, Marico, Godrej Consumer Private Ltd. (GPCL) and Emami have already been snapping up companies or brands since 2010 to expand their sphere of activity. While GCPL did five outbound deals and one domestic deal in 2010, rivals Dabur and Marico forged two outbound deals each. In fact, a significant contributor to the growth registered in 2010 were outbound deals (domestic companies making acquisitions abroad). There were 18 outbound deals worth $506.90 million in 2010 as against four deals worth $45.5 million registered in 2009 and two deals totalling just $2 million in 2008. It was high valuations of local assets that drove the homegrown companies abroad. Considering this, there was certainly a rebound in M&A activity levels in FMCG in 2010. Companies which had postponed M&A activity in the past two years were clearly making up for the lost time in 2010. Sounds logical! But then, what about M&A’s in the sector in 2011? Does M&A activity in the sector continues to experience the same momentum as it was witnessing some six months ago?



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Friday, July 27, 2012

Green to Gold and author of Green Recovery

In The Aftermath of The Global Financial Meltdown, Corporations are facing unique Challenges. The Future is in Incorporating and Capitalising on a Green Strategy writes Andrew Winston, Co-Author of Green to Gold and author of Green Recovery.

All of these pressures are making up for a green wave which is altering business dynamics permanently. Like it or not, companies and countries must deal with current and longer-term environmental issues while simultaneously working on current economic challenges. Luckily for businesses, the solutions to both economic and environmental problems overlap heavily. The same strategies and tactics that address long-term environmental challenges will help companies survive today’s economic conditions.

Companies that want to stay healthy today, and also get ready for the inevitable upturn to come need a strong green plan. In tight times, figuring out what to prioritise is even more important. I suggest focusing on four areas:
Get lean by revving up your energy and resource efficiency to survive the downturn.
Get smart by using environmental data about products and value chains to save money, innovate, and generate competitive advantage.
Get creative and rejuvenate your innovation efforts by asking heretical questions such as “Can we run our business with no fossil fuels?”
Get (your people) engaged and excited by asking employees to solve their own, the company’s, and even the world’s environmental challenges.
The four major areas of focus will benefit your company today and tomorrow. Betting on efficiency and getting lean will save you money quickly, but also make you more competitive in a future with higher resource prices and more questions from customers about your environmental footprint. Gathering data on the company’s environmental footprint up and down the value chain will help you identify high-priority areas for cost cutting today and make you smarter about where to focus longer-term innovation efforts. Getting creative means optimising today’s processes and operations and developing tomorrow’s new products and services. And of course, engagement and alignment of all your people makes all of these efforts possible. In short, green isn’t an additional, tangential pursuit that clashes with business functions; it is a core part of operations today.

In tight times, more than ever, a solid plan for a green recovery will make your company more competitive, no matter what its size.


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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Food Prices Up; R&D Down

Dwindling Focus on R&D Investment in Agriculture Spells Disaster!

The advent of 20th century saw a sharp positive shift in the trajectory of global poverty alleviation by the means of enhanced agricultural production aided by R&D which lifted millions out of abject poverty. But R&D investment in agriculture has not been witnessing very positive signs.

As per a book titled ‘Developing World: Too little too late?’, from the period 1981 to 2000, worldwide R&D investment in agriculture increased by 51% (from $15.2 billion to $23 billion). Out of this, the contribution of rich countries was $12.8 billion in 2000 – two third of which came from just 4 countries – US, Japan, Germany and France. However, R&D spending in agriculture is negligible when compared to other industries even beyond 2000. In 2005, the European Commission data confirmed that, pharmaceuticals & biotechnology ($97 billion in R&D), technology hardware and equipment ($101 billion), automobiles and parts ($92 billion) and software and computer services ($35 billion) grossed more in R&D investments than agriculture, which rose by 2.3% in the last decade – pharma and biotech grew at 8.3%, technology hardware & equipment at 7.2% and software grew at 9.2% in just one year; 2005.

FAO’s biannual outlook mentions, “In international food trade, the global food import bill is expected to reach a new record of $1.29 trillion in 2011 – 21 percent more than in 2010. Low-Income Food Deficit Countries and Least Developed Countries would be hardest-hit since they would likely have to spend respectively 27 and 30 percent more on food imports than last year.World Bank estimates there was just 1.46% growth in agriculture during 2008-2009 in low income countries. Global food price index was estimated to have been around 36% higher yoy in March 2011, which has ensured that 44 million people moved back below the poverty line.


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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Dead before they Could Live

Stillbirths are Becoming more Prominent than HIV cases in terms of Casualties. They cannot be Ignored Anymore

The annual number of stillbirths (a baby that dies after the 28th week of gestation, or during the third trimester of pregnancy) around the world is more than the number of people who die from HIV-related causes. Today, it is becoming a serious public health issue globally, especially in developing countries.

Some 2.6 million stillbirths occurred worldwide in 2009, according to the first comprehensive set of estimates published in the Lancet medical journal. As high as 66% (1.8 million) stillbirths in the world occur in just 10 countries. India leads, followed by Pakistan, Nigeria, China, Bangladesh, Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Afghanistan and Tanzania. Stillbirths disproportionately affect the poor, with 98% of deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. An African woman has a 24 times greater risk of stillbirth than a woman in a high-income country.

These deaths are directly related to lack of skilled care at the critical time for mothers and babies. Two-thirds occur in rural areas, where skilled birth attendants are not always available for essential care during childbirth and for obstetric emergencies, including Caesarean sections.

In rural Nyanza (Kenya’s western province) for instance, health centres are few and far between, and many women lose their babies on the long journey from home to the hospital, while others lose babies by choosing to deliver at home. Unless better facilities for antenatal care are created and awareness about the causes and prevention of stillbirth is spread around effectively, these macabre statistics are only bound to grow further.


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Friday, July 20, 2012

Yes, They are Humans too!

Recent Tragedies highlight that our Police Forces need Special Attention

Ever considered law enforcers getting on the wrong side of the law? Consider this: 17 Delhi Police personnel have committed a grave crime in the last three years, which puts them beyond conviction. That’s not because they are law enforcers, but because the crime in question is suicide.

Most of these suicides were due to stress and tension related to personal and family problems. In the capital itself, 2009 saw seven suicide cases. A brief trend analysis shows that suicide cases among police personnel in Delhi police is “increasing day by day”.

Most of the time, a police officer works for more than 24 hours, thus keeping him disconnected from social and family life. Studies suggest that most of these suicides can be attributed to personal and family problems. It’s very important for policy makers to make the work hours more humane in the long run; but as of now, it is imperative to instil a sense of life in these personnel. The police department across India can replicate a model suggested by the Mumbai police, wherein they try to conduct stress management courses and frequent interactions; along with organising “Sampark Sabhas’’, which aim at decreasing communication gaps between subordinates and seniors. Policy makers are also considering developing over 7,000 residential living units and organising a series of recreational activities.

Along with suicides, discrete criminal activities such as killing someone in the line of duty and misbehaving with citizens are also reported. Policing does call for a lot of psychological stress clubbed with danger, and requires prompt decision making skills and ability to deal with unprecedented situations.


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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Google’s Telecom Power Grab Gambit

Google is Huge. Its m-cap of $201 Billion Proves it. And it can Easily Grow Bigger by Conquering The Communications Industry, in toto, by Becoming a Telecom Operator. Question is – should it take The Chance?

It was Google’s listing day at NASDAQ. The date – August 19, 2004. Google co-founder Larry Page & CEO Eric Schmidt were nervously busy in conversation, and most around them were more than pleased to allow the elaborately laid-out breakfast (with poached eggs perched on shiny pedestals, deliciously placed canapés and flatwares full of crème fraiche, besides others) help ease their anxiousness. The time: 9:24 am. The plan – in few minutes, the Macy’s suit-clad Page would Chair the opening of the market, then drive a few blocks north to Morgan Stanley Building on 1585 Broadway and watch investors play with the Google stock. The bell gonged and for those brief moments, nothing looked more glorious than the $100-valued stock, coded “GOOG”. “Congratulations, congratulations. It’s going to be a great success,” shouted NASDAQ President Rob Greifeld. Everything for Google, seemed to go as per plan. However, 10 minutes later, a commotion broke out. Two women wearing black skirts cried out for water & napkins. Reason: Page had landed himself on a plate full of Crème fraiche! Then flew a remark from Schmidt: “These things happen. We’ve seen worse.” It was as if he was expecting such a Page-act. But even he knew that this one, was not planned.

Not everybody agrees, but Page & Sergey Brin did not have their “Google” all planned out from day 1. And this has served them well. One day it was, in early 1999, when the two co-founders’ offer to sell their brainchild for $750,000 was turned down. Today, Google is worth $201.35 billion (as on Jan 18, 2011). And from investing millions on self-driven Robot cars, to risking $5 billion in a project in late-2010, to put in place a 350-mile-long undersea line to harness wind energy along the Atlantic seaboard, of late, the company has started laying wagers on strange cards. Trouble is – most of these plans appear “over-ambitious” and too futuristic. Question is – can it therefore move away from adventure, and invest in something more “planned”?

The answer – an obvious yes. After giving to the world the most successful mobile OS in recent times – the Android (with 25.6% of global share, powering 0.25 million new devices per day; says Goldman Sachs Analyst Fred Krom to B&E, “Google’s Android climbed from powering 5% of global handsets in 2009 to a high-teens percentage in 2010, outstripping Apple’s iPhone”), and having proved that it can manufacture handsets as well (the Nexus), Google could well be on its way to disrupting dynamics in the mobile industry, thereby becoming your next wireless carrier, and even bigger than the likes of Verizon & AT&T.

Google already has a low-cost voice telephony service in place in US – the Google Voice, where users are given their own unique telephone numbers. The very successful service was launched in May 2009. It spread like wildfire. Five months later, it had 1.4 million users, with 0.57 million using it every day. Experts claim that though the base has already moved into the 10 million plus zone (as of end-2010), only a small fraction of users actually pay for it (for ISD calls to telephones). So does this make for a profitable undertaking? The fact that the profitable Skype (bottomline of +$13.1 million in H1, 2010) has only 6% of “paid users” makes Google Voice’s case strong.


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