Why is Mr.A.P.Kurien

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Cheesed off?

He’s AMFI’s head; and we guess he’s right...

The Chairman of Association of Mutual Funds in India, A.P. Kurien is an irritated man today. Just about a fortnight ago, the Finance Ministry came up with another one of their ‘gems’ – this time, a diktat allowing (rather, ordering) Navaratnas & Mini-ratnas to invest 30% of their surplus in Mutual Funds (MFs)! So why is Kurien getting cheesed off ? The Finance Ministry, showing off its world-class intellect, has ‘allowed’ such investment only in public sector MFs and not in corresponding private sector ones.

Could this possibly be because of the high returns guaranteed by public sector MFs? Frankly, that would be as pathetic an excuse as one could imagine. Public sector MFs have set benchmarks in teaching how not to earn great returns. You tell me a public sector MF name and I’ll show how it has been beaten black and blue by private sector MFs. Consider this – one of the most hyped NFOs whose success was trumpeted all across, was the SBI Blue Chip offer, which mobilized a solid Rs.28.55 billion & claimed it would beat the BSE100 (an easy target)! Forget beating, over the last year, the fund failed to even attain half the growth of BSE100 (while the fund grew 28%, BSE100 grew by a classy 58%).

The situation is the same across public sector MFs for the last year. For example, while LIC MF Equity grew by 34% and UTI MNC Growth Fund by 31%, their own set minimum target – the Sensex – grew by 37%. Who needs portfolio managers?! One could have blindly invested in the Sensex or BSE100 and earned more. True, the best performing public sector fund (SBI Midcap Growth) got 60% growth, but does it stand anywhere even close to the 85% growth of the private JM Basic Growth Fund?

Sadly, when markets crash, public sector MFs almost always end up losing more! With $18 billion free cash (30% of 60 central PSUs’ surplus in FY06), forcing public sector MFs on PSUs seems quite ludicrous. But seriously, weren’t MFs in reality meant for retail investors instead of corporate ones? Or am I also simply sounding too cheesed off now? Never mind Mr. Finance Minister, let’s just focus on making the FIIs richer, shall we?

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Bidding bye bye to Baiji

The Sunday Indian - India's Greatest News weekly

We might have lost the Yangtze River dolphin for ever!

Just what price are we ready to pay for growth and prosperity? Well, from the way events have unfolded in the not-sodistant Chinese backyard, the answer seems a resounding ‘anything’. To cut a long story short, Baiji or the Yangtze River dolphin, thought to be, until recently, a highly endangered species, has gone ‘functionally’ extinct. What’s appalling, and perhaps ironical, is that the fascinating creature for long regarded as a symbol of peace and prosperity in Chinese tradition and nicknamed – the ‘Goddess of the Yangtze’ has merely been reduced to a mere name.

Hunted for food and skin, and thanks to the rapid growth during the ‘Great Leap Forward’, the Baiji’s days had appeared numbered with experts having sounded alarm bells for the Yangtze dolphins. Unfortunately they’ve been proved right. Even on repeated surveys of the Yangtze not a single Baiji was spotted. So what exactly went wrong? Says Dr. Sandeep Behra, WWF India Dolphin Conservation Project Head, “Over exploitation of the river and construction of dams and barrages has resulted in the Yangtze dolphin’s depletion.” So does that mean the Indian river dolphins could face the same threat too? “In 2005, 1,100 dolphins in the Indus and less than 2,000 in the Ganga were reported. Conservation needs to be taken up seriously, else the fate of our dolphins would not be too different from the Yangtze’s,” asserts Dr. Behra. “In a nutshell, both quantity and quality (river flow & level) are critical for dolphin survival which is affected by the construction of dams and barrages. Being mammals, they are at the top of the aquatic food chain process and their extinction will affect the entire food chain system”. Let’s hope, unlike everything else, we don’t compete with our neighbour on the fate of our dolphins!

Edit bureau: Rahul Chaudhary with inputs from Swati Hora

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Nurturing talent in-house to build a system based on freedom & driven by passion is clearly the HCL way…

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Life begins from a seedling. One might have seen a gardener planting a seedling in the moist soil and gently sprinkling some water on it. Under the watchful eyes and care of the gardener the seedling finds it roots and eventually starts to take shape. Vivek Punekar, Vice-President, HRD, HCL Infosystems, believes in playing a role similar to that of a gardener. “We handpick people from various campuses across the country and then groom them in-house so that they can brace up leadership positions later on,” elaborates Punekar. Little wonder that 90% of the top management cadres at HCL today are the ones that had joined the organisation as management trainees & have carved their paths to reach top positions at HCL.

A gardener also effectively plays the role of a facilitator, ensuring that the seedling is exposed to enough sunlight that helps in the strengthening of its roots and has adequate access to water at all times to foster its continuous growth. Punekar too follows a similar approach by exposing the young blood in the organization to different challenges so that they easily get accustomed to the work-life and also provides them with a support system in case things get a little out of hand. In today’s IT boom, a whole lot of emphasis is being laid on the human capital. Undoubtedly, HCL too falls in the same bracket, but as it is more a technology driven company rather than soft ware driven, so the role of HR is different. Emphatically states Punekar, “We are not a typical soft ware company as most IT companies are perceived as, hence the HR challenges faced by us are very different from them. To take one example, our employees are spread over 360+ locations.” Yet, there are many innovative techniques that HCL practices to get talent on board and nurtures that talent to bring to the surface the leaders of tomorrow. The company’s mantra is, ‘Catch them young & set their minds on fire’. And clearly the final objective of all HR practices at HCL is to ensure that every employee develops a keen sense of ownership for the company, and thus the company has a culture of ‘freedom’ at the workplace. Explains Punekar, “Freedom in HCL means, letting people make their own mistakes and learn from them. After all it is your own company, you are the owner so you are allowed to make your set of mistakes and it is only through mistakes that the employees can learn.” An open culture also helps to create a learning environment, which is an important factor for any IT company. Adds Punekar, “Although it’s a difficult task to achieve yet once this objective is achieved, then you would never face challenges in the form of retaining talent.”

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

For More IIPM Info, Visit Below....
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