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WilliamWordsworth
Dear All,
Greeting from Team E-mag!ne,
We believe that the right desire coupled with the correct effort towards a
goal can surpass any obscurity and surmount any possible hindrance along
the chosen course. And thus with our unchanged Effort and perpetual
Hope, we present to you the third issue of E-mag!ne for the month of
April 2009.
The April ’09 issue of E-mag!ne assures excellent articles ranging from the
areas like WTO, Private Investment in Infrastructure to severe matters
like Industrial Dispute Act. Along with this we have our regular
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slices of “Ace the Case”, “Q-quotient”, “Campus Bytes” finishing with
“VoiceBox” the response arcade.
We hope that you enjoy this issue of E-mag!ne as much as we had enjoyed
working on it.
Please write to us at emagine.mhrm@gmail.com with your suggestions and
feedback.
Happy Reading
Warm Regards
Team E-mag!ne,
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* From the Faculty Desk 5
* From the Alumni Desk 9
* Friends from Yonder 12
* ID Act: A Critical Analysis 15
* Ace the Case 24
* Q- quotient 30
* Rhyme & Reason 32
* Campus Bytes 34
* VoiceBox 35
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Ms. Sarmita Guha Roy
Professor, IISWBM Kolkata
PRIVATE INVESTMENT IN
INFRASTRUCTURE
Since 1991, government strategy attaches high priority to the development of
official infrastructure and towards creating an enabling environment for
private
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participation in the infrastructure sector. Besides, public-private participation can
also encourage better risk sharing, accountability, cost recovery and management of
infrastructure (in order to sustain an annual GDP growth rate of 7% it is imperative
to accelerate the rate of investment in infrastructure). Some of the important steps
in this direction are-
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companies through long term debt infrastructure- viz bonds and debentures, for a
minimum of 15 years maturity.
In recent years the government has undertaken many sector specific reforms
measures. For instance telecom projects are to be treated as infrastructure and are
to receive all the fiscal concession available for infrastructure projects like tax
holiday and concessional project import duty. The government of India has
promulgated an ordinance to promote private investment in the transmission of
electricity, as distinct from generation and distribution of electricity. The
government has also announced guidelines to for private investment in highway
development through the build operate transfer(BOT) route- these would provide
mere financial concessions and also facilitate the preparation of feasibility reports,
clearance for the right of way of land, relocation of utility services, resettlement
and relocation of the effected establishments, environmental clearance and equity
participation in the highway sector.
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Investment in infrastructure
Gross capital formation in infrastructure at current prices increased from Rs.45, 940
crores in 1993-94 to Rs. 90,890 crores in 2002-03. However, expressed as a
percentage of GDP, total investment in infrastructure declined from 5.88 percent in
1003-94 to 4.03 percent in 2002-03. This is a very unhealthy trend. There has been a
cutback in capital expenditure in central government. Not only that, many state
governments are using plan funds ear-marked for capital projects to finance
escalation in non plan expenditure.
The planning commission has openly accepted the fact that lack of infrastructure is
a major constraint in India’s economic performance. The development of rural
infrastructure is a high priority in the 11th five year plan with critical targets for
irrigation, rural road connectivity, rural drinking water etc.
The power sector is critical for industrial growth and the real problem is the
distribution system, which is in the hands of the state governments. Top priority
should, therefore, be given to improve the performance of distribution companies.
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HR Manager Siphons off
Rs.1.63 crore using Salary
Accounts
Arya Guha Majumder, MHRM 2005-2007
At 28, he had everything going for him - A job in a multinational bank and a
salary of Rs.10 lakhs a year. But he wanted more, and thought he could get it by
cleverly working the system. For a whole year, he was perhaps the envy of his
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friends as he zipped around in his Skoda, bought two flats and even took a
vacation in Switzerland. The bubble has now burst and he is behind bars.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Crime Branch on Friday
arrested Assistant HR Manager of Deutsche Bank, Gautam Deepak Baan, for
allegedly defrauding the bank of Rs.1.63crore.
According to the police, Baan, who was at the Lower Parel Branch, used to
handle the suspense account of the bank. Money is first deposited in the suspense
account of the bank and later transferred to the salary accounts of employees."
Salary accounts of employees who have left the bank should be closed, but
instead of closing their accounts, Baan used to transfer the money from the
suspense account to the salary accounts of the employees, and then transfer the
money from there to his own account," said senior police inspector Vasant
Tajne of NM Joshi Marg Police Station, where the bank registered a complaint
against Baan a few days ago.
He added that since Baan was handling the salary accounts, and was an HR
person, he thought nobody would suspect him.
Tajne said the fraud was uncovered when Baan recently requested the bank
to close the account of an employee. "Since normally, the account holder himself
requests the closure of an account, the bank smelt foul play when an hr
department employee made such a request. The bank then made inquires and
learnt that the account Baan wanted to close belonged to a person who had quit
a year ago. Further inquiries revealed Baan had made several transactions from
that account. From 2007 till October 14, he had kept open at least 17 such
accounts of former bank employees."
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The police have recovered jewellery worth Rs.12.40 lakh from a Kandivli
bank locker, a Rs.9lakh Skoda, Rs.1.5 lakh of share certificates, Rs.2 lakh in
FDs. The police have also seized four debit/credit cards.
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Md. Manauwar Alam, MBA
NMIMS,Mumbai
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been largely impacted. In hurry many nations across globe took rescue measures
to save their individual economies. Some announced bailout packages and some
went protectionism way. Global slowdown has shattered nations so hard that
everyone trying individual way to deal with their crisis. The U.S. is planning
retaliatory tariffs on Italian water and French cheese to punish the EU for
restricting imports of U.S. chicken and beef. India is proposing to increase tariffs
on foreign steel at the request of its steel industry. Egypt has imposed duties on
sugar, and the U.S. has levied new tariffs on Chinese goods it contends are being
dumped on the market. If international trade is kept un-regulated, it may deepen
the ill effects of global crisis and the situation may go worst. There has been
always a need of regulator for international trades.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has been established to supervise and
liberalize international trade. The WTO has 153 members, which represents more
than 95% of total world trade. The WTO is governed by a Ministerial Conference,
which meets every two years; a General Council, which implements the
conference's policy decisions and is responsible for day-to-day administration.
Dispute settlement is the central pillar of the multilateral trading system, and
the WTO’s unique contribution to the stability of the global economy. Without a
means of settling disputes, the rules-based system would be less effective
because the rules could not be enforced. The WTO’s procedure underscores the
rule of law, and it makes the trading system more secure and predictable.
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Though WTO had been set up with the aim to control international trade, it has
not been able to get tantamount of success as it was expected from it.WTO has
yet to play more strong role in keeping global trade smooth. Cooperation from
nations and consensus have been sought the key drivers for WTO. Looking at the
current global slowdown, although the WTO cannot provide anything immediate
to help solve the current crisis, it can provide medium- and long-term solutions.
A WTO deal could help soften the impact of high prices by tackling the systemic
distortions in the international market for food and commodities.WTO has to
revive the international trades across all the industries and once trade has been
stabilized, it would in turn help nations to come out of grave situation in due
course.
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Arkadeb Chakraborty, MHRM 2007-2009
Introduction
Every challenge opens the door for a new opportunity; the impending need for
law reforms in our country has been long overdue. The perennial debate has been
between the industry demanding labour flexibility and the various unions taking a
protective role towards the workers at the cost of propagating labour rigidity.
The current scenario and the economic slowdown has come as an opportunity in
disguise for the lawmakers to implement the much impending law reforms as
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under these circumstances even hardliners have been compelled to accept a more
pragmatic view unlike earlier when they steadfastly opposed all talk of labour
flexibility, trade unions now recognize their best interests will not be served by
trying to protect job security at the cost of industrial sickness. But rather by
ensuring labour is adequately compensated. This new-found pragmatism is best
reflected in the maturity shown by R A Mittal, National Secretary of the Hind
Mazdoor Sabha who while speaking at workshop organized by The Labour
Ministry with ILO about court ruling on contract labour said “ Given the court’s
stance there is no option but to accept contract labour as a reality and work
towards empowering the workers. If a contract worker is made to do a
regular work he must be provided with benefits on par with regular
workers…”. Hasubhai Dave,National President Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh says
“There should be reforms and comprehensive legislation covering all sections.
But, we oppose SecV(B) of the ID Act wherein the restrictions on ‘hire & fire’
are sought to be removed” (source: Frontline 2003) This article endeavours to
create a platform for discussing few of the many disputable provisions of the
prevailing Labour Laws in India pertaining to the Industrial Dispute Act .
Section 9-A: This prevents technological upgradation since, ‘No employer, who
proposes to effect any change in the conditions of service applicable to any
workman in respect of any matter specified in the Fourth Schedule, shall effect
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such change (a) without giving notice to the workman likely to be affected by
such change a notice in the prescribed manner of the nature of the change
proposed to be effected, or (b) within twenty-one days of giving such notice.’
Section 11: Not all disputes need to go through a process of adjudication. But
Section 11 of the Industrial Disputes Act does not make it mandatory for
conciliation officers to try for conciliation. This is despite Section 12(2), which
merely states that the conciliation officer ‘may do all such things as he thinks fit
for the purpose of inducing the parties to come to a fair and amicable settlement
of the dispute.’ Nor do Sections 10 and 11 prescribe a maximum time limit for
raising old disputes.
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directing reinstatement necessary? Is such discretion to labour courts and
tribunals
necessary? A reversion to the pre-1971 statute, before Section 11-A was inserted,
is probably better.
Section 17-B: If the employer appeals to a High Court or Supreme Court against
the award of a labour court or tribunal, under Section 17-B, full wages have to be
paid to the workman pending such proceedings, even if the appeal is admitted.
Sections 22/23: Section 22 prohibits strikes and lockouts without notice. But this
section only applies to public utility services. Section 23 prohibits strikes and
lockouts for all industrial establishments, but only during the pendency of
conciliation or arbitration proceedings. These sections can be amended to require
prior notice in the case of strikes and lock-outs for all industrial establishments.
There can even be a requirement that a certain threshold percentage of workers
must be in favour of the strike or lockout.
These provisions apply to industrial establishments that employ more than 100
workers and require prior permission of the appropriate government before
layoffs, retrenchment and closure. Most problems connected with the Industrial
Disputes Act arise from Chapter V-B, since the government becomes a third party
to the dispute even if the employee is satisfied with the severance package.
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These sections need to be considered in conjunction with Section 2-A, which
makes any dispute between an employer and an individual workman an industrial
dispute ‘notwithstanding that no other workman nor any union of workmen is a
party to
the dispute.’ Note also the judgement of the Supreme Court in the Sundara
Money case.( State Bank of India vs. Sundara Money, AIR 1976 SC 1111.) Even
if there is surplus labour force, that is no ground for retrenchment. A reversion
to the pre-1976 statute, when Chapter V-B did not exist, is again desirable.
Perhaps a quote from a Supreme Court judgement is relevant.. (Excel Wear vs.
Union of India AIR 1979 SC 25.). The honorable Supreme Court held that the
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right to close a business is an integral part of the fundamental right to run a
business. According to the judgement it is wrong to say that the employer has no
right to close down a business once he starts it. However in later judgements as
in Workmen Meenakshi Mills Ltd V/S Meenakshi Mill Ltd, AIR 1994 SC 2696 The
Supreme Court interpreted Sec 25(N) of ID ACT stating that the right of the
Gradually, the net was cast too wide and the freedom of the employer tightened
to such an extent by introduction of the impugned provisions that it has come to
a breaking point from the point of view of the employers... It is not quite correct
to say that because compensation is not a substitute for the remedy of
prevention of unemployment, the latter remedy must be the only one. If it were
so, then in no case closure can be or should be allowed... But, so long as the
private ownership of an industry is recognised and governed on an
overwhelmingly large proportion of our economic structure, is it possible to say
that principles of socialism and social justice can be pushed to such an extreme so
as to ignore completely, or to a very large extent, the interest of another section
of the public, viz. the private owners of the undertakings?’
Next, a few comments about the adjudication process are in order, although this
gets into general problems of dispute resolution. Under the Industrial Disputes
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Act, termination disputes are expected to be decided within three months. This
rarely happens such that termination disputes have often remained pending for
more than eight years. Beyond these eight years, there can be writ petitions
before High Courts and special leave petitions as well. So a termination dispute
can take more than 30 years.
There are several not mutually exclusive ways to solve this problem.
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enforced. That is, there is need to revise Section 38(2)(f) of the
Industrial Disputes Act, this governs conditions under which parties can
be represented by legal practitioners.
The requirement that awards must be published can be scrapped. This
only contributes to additional delays.
An autonomous Industrial Relations Commission can be set up in each
state. This is needed because the awards of labour courts and tribunals
are meant to be final, but writ petitions are routinely admitted before
High Courts under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution. Once there
is an Industrial Relations Commission, appeals before High Courts can
be scrapped, retaining appeals to the Supreme Court under Article 136
of the Constitution.
If some of these changes are implemented, labour markets will become more
flexible, the segmentation between organized and unorganized labour markets
will break down and India will be able to tap the comparative advantage of an
abundant supply of skilled and unskilled labour. Reportedly, the government is
planning an Industrial Relations Act to replace the Industrial Disputes Act and the
Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act and is also reviewing drafting a
National Employment Policy.
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References
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this article are purely the personal views of the author
and has no bearing to any organization,instituition or establishment
whatsoever.
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Abstract:
The case explains the training and development initiatives of the Godrej group
since the late 1990s. In the late 1990s, the Godrej group initiated various
training and development programs such as the TQM workshops, 'Parivartan',
EVA training, GALLOP, Spark, e-Gyan, English language training, and BPO
training.
The case explains each of these programs in detail and the benefits that the
group reaped from all these initiatives. The case ends with the shortcomings in
Godrej's training and development initiatives.
Introduction
It all started in 1996 with the break-up of the joint venture between Godrej
Soaps Ltd (GSL) and Proctor and Gamble (P&G). Post break-up, GSL was bereft
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of a distribution system and had to start from scratch. As part of the rebuilding
exercise, GSL recruited about 250 new employees who had to be aligned with its
In early 2002, a need was felt among the top brass of Godrej to instill a
performance- driven culture in the company. In addition to upgrading the
talents of existing employees, Godrej had to train new recruits.
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Background Note
The Godrej story started in 1897, when Ardeshir Burjorji Godrej (Ardeshir) gave
up his legal practice and started manufacturing locks in a small shed at Lalbaug
near Mumbai. Thus was GBML born. His brother, Phirozshah Godrej
(Phirozshah), carried on the pioneering work and in 1905 GBML built its first
safe, thus entering the security equipment business.
In 1985, GBML ventured into Computer Aided Designing services as part of its
EBE division. In 1990, Godrej Properties & Investments Limited (GPIL) was
incorporated to provide meticulously planned townships. In 1991, the Godrej
group entered the processed food and edible oil segment by incorporating
Godrej Foods Ltd (GFL).
The animal feed division was spun off into a distinctly focused animal- feed and
agricultural input company in 1991-92 and was named Godrej Agrovet Limited
(GAVL). In 1993, GBML entered into a joint venture with General Electric (GE),
US and Godrej-GE Appliances was formed.
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with Proctor & Gamble (P&G). A new company P&G-Godrej Ltd, with each
company holding 50%, was incorporated.
The entire distribution network of Godrej was transferred to this company and
the joint venture was entrusted with the task of marketing both Godrej and
P&G's toilet soap and detergents brands.
The EBE division was spun off into Geometric Software Solutions Ltd in 1994 to
offer complete solutions to customers. In 1994, Godrej ventured into the
insecticide market through GSL, which bought 75% stake in Transelektra
Domestic Products Pvt Ltd (TDPL), the manufacturer of the "Good Knight" brand.
In 1995, Godrej entered into a joint venture with the US multinational, Sara Le e
and the new concern was called Godrej-Sara Lee. The venture was the world's
largest manufacturer of mosquito repellents. In August 1996, P&G-Godrej Ltd,
terminated the arrangement and Godrej re-took charge of marketing its soap &
detergent brands but without a distribution network of its own.
In 1999, GSL sold 22.5 per cent of its shareholding in Godrej-Sara Lee to the
group holding company GBML for Rs 994.7 million. Godrej Infotech Ltd was
incorporated in 1999 to offer software solutions. In March 2001, GSL got de-
merged and its consumer products division came to be known as Godrej
Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL)...
'Parivartan'
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team of 18 senior executives from all divisions spanning sales, logistics and HR
were called on to provide necessary inputs...
In 2001, Godrej introduced Economic Value Added (EVA) in all its group
companies. An extensive training program was undertaken for various
managerial and officer levels. Over 500 employees were trained to manage EVA
by making appropriate decisions involving investments and/or trade-offs
between the income statement and the balance sheet. This training programme
was conducted by Stern Stewart, New York based management consultancy that
had pioneered the concept of EVA...
GALLOP
The trainees were rotated in four departments other than their primary
department including a compulsory sales stint. This mandatory rotation in sales
enabled the trainees to get a hands-on experience in understanding the
market...
Spark
The objective of the Spark programme, initiated by GIL in September 2002, was
to "train the trainers". The training programme was aimed at equipping the
managers to become successful coaches. GIL, in association with a Delhi-based
HR consultant, conducted a host of workshops to enable the managers assume
the role of a coach...
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E-Gyan
E-Gyan was the e-learning initiative of GIL launched in the second half of 2002.
It was an attempt to move away from traditional training methods of workshops
and help sharpen the intellect of the employees by self- learning initiatives.
Initially, Satyam Education Services Ltd was the content provider and rendered
the entire gamut of learning resources through its e-learning portal -
learnatsatyam.com. Internal communication measures like 'enrolment on a first-
come-first-serve basis' and 'be the first e-gyanee' were circulated...
Criticisms
One criticism against the training and development programs at Godrej was that
there were no measurement techniques to judge the effectiveness of the
programs. For example, no specific measures were developed to determine the
extent to which the interpersonal and negotiation skills training aided the
employees to develop a more robust business concept...
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1. “Bringing Enjoyment and Quality to life” – best associated with which company?
5. The name of this company means "I roll" in latin. It’s quite logical since the
company started out making ball bearings. Which company are we talking about?
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7. It literally means “sunrise”. Which Japanese company are we talking about?
8. Idea Cellular is a three way joint venture between the Aditya Birla Group, the
Tata and who else?
9. In which of these brand’s advertising are you likely to see the golfers Arnold
Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player?
10. It was designed by Erno ____ in 1974. And while it was showcased at the
Nuremberg Toy Show in 1979, it was a mega success only by 1982 having sold over
100 million units. What was it?
Answers:
1. BenQ
2. BBC
3. Coca Cola Formula
4. Windows XP
5. Volvo
6. De Beers
7. Hitachi
8. AT & T Wireless
9. Rolex
10.Rubik’s cube
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Kirti Agarwal
MHRM 2008-10
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Moreover pursuing a course on
“HUMAN RESOURCE”
An organization’s SOUL.
Against what is
Known as
“MHRM EXAMINATIONS”
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Time flies...and flies really fast when examinations are near. This
month has been full of hectic academic activity for all MHRM
students. Only thought reigning in the minds of the students right
now is to ace the exams and emerge victorious with flying colours.
People are seen visiting the library with monotonous regularity,
everywhere you look in the campus all you see is groups of MHRM
students huddled together engaged in group study of some subject
or the other, people don’t even get the time to have food properly
and many of my batch mates have lost weight or sprouted beards
and moustaches! (Who has the time to shave anyway?)
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suggestions and feedback
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