S.No ISBN TITLE Buy From Nbcindia Series CE1 CE2 Rel_Dt Pages PB (US$) PB (Rs) HB (US$) HB (Rs) Snapshot
1 978-81-314-1561-0 Lean Transformation – Perspectives and Experiences www.nbcindia.com Jaya Krishna S 18-Oct-08 344 20 500 0 0 Today, ‘lean’ is an enterprise-wide concept although it has originated and evolved in the manufacturing plants and factory floors. It has become pervasive throughout the organization and an overriding principle that guides every activity in the organization. On the other hand, it has evolved as a vital tool to become competitive. Broad insights into success factors, nitty-gritty’s, prerequisites and capabilities for transforming an organization or function into lean can make the difference between lean winners and losers. Hence, organizations and their people need to know what it requires and how one should approach to successfully transform into lean. This book can act as a potential resource for those forward-looking firms and professionals in such critical situations. This book, while introducing the concept of ‘lean transformation’, highlights the potential of transforming into ‘lean’ at large and offer guidance in transforming certain critical functions or organizations into ‘lean’. It is an attempt to address what, why, where and how of lean transformation to empower the concerned. It tries to enlighten the concerned with the lessons learnt from previous experiences of transforming into lean. Further, the lean transformation initiatives and/or experiences of some organizations (predominantly the manufacturing firms) are being included with an aim to offer practical insights to prospective readers. The book is targeted at various interest groups, including practising professionals/executives in the areas of Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Total Quality Management (TQM), Lean Management, production and operations, which are the primary audience for this book. It can be of use for academicians and students of operations, and process management.
2 978-81-314-1536-8 Ecosystem Management: Issues And Trends www.nbcindia.com Simantee Sen 18-Oct-08 252 17 425 0 0 Today, we are undergoing a fundamental shift in our attitude to natural resources and the environment from the focus on the production of commodities to the focus on the ecological conditions of the land. Scientists, land managers, and others are increasingly proposing the ecosystem management as the best way to manage our planet’s resources. It is a management philosophy that depends as much on understanding political and social factors as it does on understanding biological information. Further, ecosystem management calls for a shift in the way humans approach the natural world; it requires an explicit examination of the relationship between humans and nature, our patterns of politics, and methods of scientific inquiry. Humanity has always depended on the services provided by the biosphere and its ecosystems. Further, the biosphere is itself the product of life on Earth. The composition of the atmosphere and soil, the cycling of elements through air and waterways, and many other ecological assets are all the results of living processes—and all are maintained and replenished by living ecosystems. The human species, while buffered against environmental immediacies by culture and technology, is ultimately fully dependent on the flow of ecosystem services. Patterns of politics suggested by ecosystem management include public deliberation of values toward the environment, cooperative solutions, and dispersion of power and authority. These are all avenues to lessen social hierarchy and domination. The significance lies in the fact that ecosystem management maintains the flow and balance between environment, economic as well as social goods and services. Institutions as well as every global citizen must, therefore, cooperate towards this end.
3 978-81-314-1548-1 Urban Water Supply and Sanitation: A Management Perspective www.nbcindia.com Mallikarjun Janardan Iyyer 18-Oct-08 244 16.5 425 0 0 Access to water is a human right as declared by UNESCO. Civilizations have developed at the proximity of rivers and other fresh water sources. Water is a basic human need and its availability has governed the survival of human existence and, therefore, the civilizations. The provision of water supply and sanitation services in the urban areas continues to be one of the core functions of the urban local bodies. Rapid urbanization in the last few decades has brought the sector providing these services under stress. Improved investment in water sector infrastructure, which is accorded high priority, needs to be supported by efficient management of the day-to-day operation and maintenance. This poses a major challenge with fresher elements contributing to its efficacy. Training personnel in water management and bringing about awareness of the scarcity of water to public attention are the need of the hour. The book has tried to bring to the fore some of the challenges in water management. It provides the reader with various perspectives on the issues posed by water management and discusses the best practices being evolved by the local governments in consultation with their country’s Governments to overcome them.
4 978-81-314-1957-1 Medical Ethics: Issues and Implications www.nbcindia.com Ethics and Corporate Governance Asis Kumar Pain 18-Oct-08 232 16 400 0 0 “Medical ethics is a field of applied ethics that deals with the study of moral values and judgments in the area of healthcare and medicine. It encompasses its practical application in clinical settings apart from that in history, philosophy, theology and sociology. Looked at from a historical perspective, Western medical ethics can be traced from the Hippocratic Oath apart from early rabbinic and Christian teachings. During the Medieval and early modern period, the field was indebted to Islamic physicians such as Ishaq bin Ali Rahawi and al-Razi, Jewish thinkers, Roman Catholic scholastic thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, medical ethics emerged as a more self-conscious discourse, enriched with the writings of such authors as the British doctor Thomas Percival (1740-1804) of Manchester. Based on his thought, the American Medical Association instituted its first code of ethics in 1847. However, in the 1960s and 1970s, medical ethics went through a dramatic shift by confining itself into bioethics through appropriate development of liberal theory and procedural justice. Medical ethics tends to be understood narrowly as an applied professional ethics, whereas bioethics appears to have more expansive concerns, touching upon the philosophy of science and the critique of biotechnology. Still, the two fields often overlap and the distinction is more a matter of style than professional consensus. The aforesaid discussion sets the tone of the proposed book wherein the concept and development of medical ethics along with its implications are perused upon. Also, the practical aspects of medical ethics reflected in its practice in different countries of the world are taken a look.
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5 978-81-314-1460-6 Economic Sovereignty and Global Capital Flows www.nbcindia.com Economy Fikret Causevic 17-Oct-08 276 18 450 20.5 525 This book Economic Sovereignty and Global Capital Flows has three parts. The first part treats financial liberalization, analysing its development, the opportunities and risks involved in financial globalization, fundamental problems within the international financial system, and the consequences of financial liberalization and globalization, drawing on standard studies in the field. The second part addresses the theoretical basis of contemporary monetary policy, how financial asset prices affect economic policy implementation, basic controversies regarding exchange rate policy, and the interdependence of exchange rate, monetary, and fiscal policy under conditions of free capital movement. The third part presents a review of the results of economic development in a sample of 122 countries, between 1980 and 2004. The methodological basis for the analysis is a national Wealth Coefficient, which expresses the ratio of a country’s share in world GDP to its share in world population. As GDP growth does not necessarily have a sound economic basis, the data from the 20 countries with the highest rates of Wealth Coefficient growth was supplemented by data on GDP, foreign debt, foreign reserves, and import-export ratios to allow conclusions to be drawn regarding the sustainability of relative prosperity growth in high-growth economies. Finally, growth rate data was compared to the speed of financial liberalization and openness to international capital flows. Comparison of Wealth Coefficient growth rates with the dynamics and degree of financial liberalization allowed conclusions to be drawn regarding financial liberalization’s impact on economic policy’s real results.
6 978-81-314-1550-4 Cisco s Growth and Business Strategy www.nbcindia.com Business Strategy Kalai Selvan N 17-Oct-08 252 17 425 0 0 Cisco system, Inc was founded by a small group of computer scientists from Stanford University in 1984. It has now become a multinational corporation and a leader in networking for the Internet employing 61,000 people all over the world, with an annual turnover of US$ 35 billion. In 2007, it ranked 74th in the Fortune 500 list of companies. With a unique networking system and solution, Cisco has created a big revolution in the Internet networking industry. Its growth strategy has focused on three market segments such as, Core technologies based market like routing and switching; the Service provider based market segment; and Advanced Technology market segment. Cisco’s product development has evolved based on customer needs and wants. It has successfully implemented their customer friendly strategies which have enabled it to become the market leader. Cisco Systems have used acquisition as a strategic business weapon. It has made more than126 acquisitions since 1993 to broaden its product offerings and secure talent pool in the extremely competitive networking industry. It has transformed its business through strong business strategy, focusing on the technology and dotcom boom in the last decade to become a market leader in the field of computer software, hardware, and networking and communication industry. This book discusses how Cisco gained its competitiveness in the market place through its innovative business model, technology innovation, product innovation, and customer management.
7 978-81-314-1565-8 Audit Committees – An Insight www.nbcindia.com General Books Padmavathi C Aparna Bellur 17-Oct-08 212 15.5 400 0 0 Audit Committees today face the onerous task of overseeing the dynamics, and metamorphosed corporate reporting process resulting in increased responsibilities and accountabilities. An Audit Committee is viewed as the cornerstone of the shareholder’s protection. This new facet can be attributed to changes in regulatory reforms, corporate governance environment, dynamic business environment and heightened expectations of market players. Its functions, role and responsibilities vary from company to company, even though, in essence, its objectives of overseeing the company’s processes related to risk and control environment, financial reporting and evaluation of internal controls and audit process remain same. This book, ‘Audit Committees – An Insight,’ is an effort to bring together Audit Committee practices and responsibilities, as also the worldwide practices in various sectors. To be effective, Audit Committees must have the right structure and process in place. But in the absence of strong leadership and good group dynamics to promote a culture of challenge and engagement, they may not be able to fulfil their role effectively. Audit Committees, in general, are to meet the expectations of the committee members themselves, the board, the shareholders, the regulators and capital markets. The maximization of their contribution to corporate governance and capital market calls for an efficient and appropriate design of Audit Committee practices. Independence is the cornerstone for effectiveness. The success of their functioning depends on the skills, knowledge and ability of their members, committee’s mission, which is tailor-made to company, and the tone set at the top. To be effective, Audit Committee members should be dynamic, proactive and should possess a wide range of knowledge, strong interpersonal skills, and willingness to take up challenges.
8 978-81-314-1556-6 Management Control Systems in Competitive Environment www.nbcindia.com Satyanarayana Y 17-Oct-08 188 14.5 375 17 425 Having winning strategies is very important for a company. Executing these strategies is the key to business. Studies have shown that most companies fail more on account of their inability to implement strategies than, perhaps, their not being able to have the right strategies. Here comes the role of management control. Under the management control system, managers play a key role in implementing the company’s strategies. In fact, they influence other members of the organisation/company in executing this task. Imperfect design or inadequate implementation can even result in failure to achieve the objectives of the organisation. This keeps the managers on tenterhooks. They should have a clear understanding of the management control system. According to studies, though many organizations have been making efforts for improving their performance through conventional methods, like lower-cost, improved quality, etc., they have not identified any strategic processes. Many of them do not link their performance management systems to strategy. Current trend is that most innovative companies implement management control more effectively than their lesser innovative counterparts. This shows the need for management control and innovation. This book makes a study of the issues pertaining to management control, which will be useful for both practicing managers and students of management.
9 81-314-1287-8 Case Studies on Strategies for Foreign Markets – An Anthology www.nbcindia.com Business and Finance Specials Bharathi S.Gopal 17-Oct-08 360 0 0 50 1250 Companies that aim to extend their operations to other countries face unique challenges. Entering into a foreign country market requires a clear mindset as to what the company wants to achieve. This determines the mode of entry that the business wants to adopt. The mode of market entry chosen will also have implications in the marketing strategies that the company wants to implement in the foreign market. If the company intends to enter indirectly, like exporting, its control over marketing is limited. On the contrary, if a company wants to control marketing of its products or services, it needs to have a foresight of how the business will develop in the future. Equally daunting is the task of developing a foreign market. It is important that companies understand the local business environment before formulating strategies for the foreign market. Companies that have shown greater commitment at the early stage of market entry, made long-term plans and focused on localizing their marketing programs have succeeded in foreign countries. This book “Case Studies on Strategies for Foreign Markets – An Anthology” is a compilation of case studies that chronicle the strategies in foreign markets of various companies across industries. The book is divided into two sections. The first section comprises case studies that deal with strategies pertaining to entry or re-entry into foreign markets, while the second section consists of case studies on strategies to develop foreign markets.
10 978-81-314-1491-0 India and Japan: Economic and Strategic Partnership www.nbcindia.com Economy Sukhvinder Kaur Multani 4-Oct-08 268 17 425 0 0 The Indo-Japanese relationship has witnessed a major transformation since the end of cold war. The bipolar system resulted in greater interdependence among nations. The concept of security became more comprehensive and included non-military elements. Above all, globalization created new opportunities and united the whole world by integrating and breaking barriers. All these transformed the Indo-Japanese relations which hitherto seemed stagnated. India’s economic liberalization also played its role by throwing new opportunities. Since liberalization, both the countries have reaffirmed to continue to promote commonalities and identify areas of convergence for mutual cooperation between them in a constructive manner. With common values and broad convergence of our interests, India-Japan partnership has the potential to create a ripple effect, leading to positive developments – not just for them but for Asia as a whole and, in turn, the world as well. Of late, the Indo-Japanese relations have broadened and included security along with economic aspects. One important lesson that both the countries have learnt from their past experiences is that they should improve the quality of their relationship. In future, it would be interesting to see how the bilateral relationship between the two countries would have an impact on Asia. Focusing on the Indo-Japanese relations, the book is designed in two sections. The first section delves into economic relations between India and Japan and focuses on Trade, business, investments, etc. The second section exclusively deals with the strategic aspect of their relationship.
11 978-81-314-1506-1 Shareholder Value – Concepts and Cases www.nbcindia.com Finance Keerti Mallela 4-Oct-08 248 16.5 425 0 0 It is often said in the world of finance and management that the role of the CEO of an enterprise encompasses something more than just delivering profits. It stretches to the intention of creating and maximizing shareholder value. In this context, value-based management has come a long way in helping enterprises and managers create, measure and enhance shareholder value. It has prescribed many an antidote to overcome major hindrances in processes, operations and systems inside an organization and at the same time pay singular attention to processes that enhance shareholder value. Adhering to and establishing organizational goals by understanding the ultimate goals and objectives of the enterprise may come a long way, according to experts. This involves many inter-related and mutually dependent functions like managing risk, strategy initiation and development, earnings improvement and most importantly focusing and capitalizing on growth opportunities. Things that help goals fall in line with maximizing shareholder value may be some reference points like review of historical performance, comprehending competitors’ strategies, taking note of stock market expectations, due diligence towards ensuring that the current risk factors are all met with realistic and executable measures and preparing for future economic and value-based performance. This book covers some very vital aspects of shareholder value creation at enterprises, what enterprises ought to do in order to create shareholder value and maximize it. Firms that have undertaken shareholder value creation and enhancement on a serious measure are illustrated in the form of cases.
12 978-81-314-2073-7 Customer Service in Hotel Industry www.nbcindia.com Marketing Amitabha Ghose Ishita Mukherjee 4-Oct-08 200 15 375 0 0 The rapid pace of globalization has caused increasing consciousness among customers. Due to growing competition and improved job opportunities, especially in the private sector, coupled with improved buying power (which is a direct impact of regular employment generation), consumers have become more demanding. Therefore, to attract and retain customers, cost and quality control continues to be the keywords as hospitality remains primarily a service catering to the business as well as leisure customers. It is, therefore, vital to focus on the planning and delivery aspects related to effective customer service in the hotel industry. Associations of hotel and restaurant owners have been established by those who create and enforce quality standards, and many of those associations are honored as corporations, that embody the philosophies of effective quality management. As per the principles of total quality management, accomplishment of service quality is a continuous process. It extends throughout every stage of the client’s lifecycle. This is applicable for all in business, and the delivery of service that meets or exceeds customers’ expectations becomes an increasingly significant differentiating factor in business development. Therefore, continuous efforts have to be made to reassess the gap between expectations and delivery of service. What constitutes service quality is a matter of concern as it is a relative concept, referring to the demand and expectation fulfilment of customers. Reduced price coupled with a tailor-made service is one strategy to attract and retain customers by service provider.
13 978-81-314-1897-0 Addressing Health Issues: Financial Perspectives www.nbcindia.com General Azmal Hussain 4-Oct-08 216 15 375 0 0 “As applicable to any other development paradigm, finance often forms the lifeline of health intervention and therefore, merits prudent considerations. But, government commitment allegedly falls short in healthcare funding in resource poor countries for several reasons, the most conspicuous of them being modest tax revenues limiting spending on healthcare services. This leads to a gap between ideal and affordable investments. Another factor which often escapes the attention of the authorities concerned is the seemingly sub-standard quality of public services and the low motivation of public servants dealing with those services grossly undermining and compromising the value of public investments. The erstwhile evidences are suggestive of manifold issues hinging around the financial aspects of health interventions. This book provides a practical know-how of the issues and dimensions in healthcare financing through suitable examples.
Structured into two sections, this book covers the conceptual and generic aspects of healthcare financing, besides providing a close look at the issues and dimensions in healthcare financing through suitable country experiences. This book will be useful for development professionals, policy planners, grass-root level organizations including NGOs devoted to health issues (especially the implementing organizations), administrators and social activists.
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14 978-81-314-2034-8 Case Studies on Retail Store Strategies: A Repertoire www.nbcindia.com Supply Chain Management Menaka Rao 4-Oct-08 376 0 0 50 1250 Unlike never before, companies have to constantly watch out to maintain that edge over competition, which sometimes is essentially a break or make situation that a company finds itself in. As Cases occupy a prominent place among pedagogical tools for teaching, this book with a repository of 19 case studies extends over 3 sections showcasing the technical segmentation and in-store strategies used by retailers to drive growth, increase profit margins, beat competition and grab market share. The cases chosen in this book serve as excellent vehicles to project an integrated view of retailers, to blend theory with practice, and sharpen the analytical skills of the readers. Compared to the large number and wide range of marketing topics covered in marketing books, this book focuses on the “Store Strategy” in retailing and in tune with the current needs of the industry. Rich in pedagogic content, the book navigates through case studies to provide a deep understanding of the retail industry and the challenges faced by retailers like 7-Eleven stores, Wal-Mart, Metro cash and carry, Starbucks, McDonald’s, Amazon, to name a few. The book helps in discussing retail strategy, customer centricity, in-store facelifts and makeovers, the shift to virtual shopping, the advantages of on-line shopping and the fortitude borne by companies during challenges. With real time people and happenings, each case study comes alive before the reader. What, perhaps, is a significant take away from the book, apart from its intrinsic pedagogic objectives are the thoughts and opinions of great retailers like Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, Bezos, founder of Amazon, Brad Anderson, CEO of Best Buy Inc., Kishore Biyani, the Indian retail pioneer and others.
15 978-81-314-1435-4 Case Studies on Business Ethics and CSR Initiatives www.nbcindia.com Case Study Collection Krishna Kumar Lekha Ravi 4-Oct-08 224 0 0 50 1250 Business Ethics relates to value-based and ethical business practices. Business ethics defines “how a company integrates core values – such as honesty, trust, respect, and fairness ¬- into its policies, practices, and decision making. Business ethics also involves a company’s compliance with legal standards and adherence to internal rules and regulations”. The last decade has witnessed extensive awareness among companies of their responsibilities toward the communities they impact on, which has evolved into the concept of CSR and allied notions such as ‘corporate sustainability’. Many companies have grown globally and are adopting ethical practices to preserve a sustainable business. If a company’s main purpose is to maximize the returns to its shareholders, is it unethical for a company to consider the interests and rights of anyone else? The book attempts to be an eye-opener to the business firms’ sensitivity to the society and environment. It analyses the issues faced in this dilemma of business vs. ethics. This case book discusses opportunities and constraints in engaging the private sector in demand-driven community development programs. The book aims to provide readers with a critical analysis of CSR to question the underlying assumption that companies, as currently constituted, can be part of a shift to a more sustainable and socially just society. The book hopes to provide a meaningful edge to the debate around CSR. As such, while it does not claim to have all the answers, it hopes to serve as an eye-opener to these issues.
16 978-81-314-1449-1 Global Scenario on HIV and AIDS: Is there a way out? www.nbcindia.com General Naveen Kumar Agarwal Ramani V V 30-Sep-08 340 20 500 0 0 AIDS is the new epidemic of 80s, which destroyed many families and communities and posed a threat to the modern world. Most of the countries hit by this epidemic suffered from mortality search and drop in life expectancy. This epidemic is causing harm to the productive citizens that too between ages of 15 and 35. Kids are becoming orphans because of the untimely death of their parents and families are losing their talented young lot, who are the key earning members of the family. AIDS ranks fourth among the leading causes of death worldwide and first in sub-Saharan Africa. The most affected countries are located in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Asia. The key challenges of the epidemic are how to control the epidemic, arrest the spread among infants and adults, provide low cost treatment facility, obtain support from the society for the infected and check impact on poor countries. Collective effort should focus on the prevention of HIV and also provide access to Antiretroviral Treatment for the affected people. The civil society and the government together have to combat HIV and AIDS in developing and under developed countries. With this background, the book has been divided into two sections. Section-I consists of Global Perspectives of HIV and AIDS and Section-II covers Mitigation Strategies. The book attempts to give an overview of the status of HIV and AIDS in regions like Africa, Asia, America and Europe. Efforts have also been made to include the experiences from these regions to know how far they have been able to treat their HIV infected people and mitigate this chronic and intimidating syndrome.
17 978-81-314-2065-2 Economic Downturns – Lessons from Country Experiences www.nbcindia.com Economy: World Jayshree Bose Keerti Mallela 30-Sep-08 244 16.5 425 0 0 An economy’s prosperity is generally measured by specific indicators like international prices, costs of external financing, capital flows and trade flows. Rise in interest rates, tightening monetary conditions, nevertheless, natural calamities and disasters like the 9/11 and the resultant global imbalances in recent times have led economists worldwide to think of an impending recession. The year 2006 saw the US stating a Current Account Deficit of more than US$800 billion and, on the other hand, the oil-exporting countries reaped surpluses. In 2008, the world at large is expected to watch out for continuing stock market falls, less of foreign direct investment in both developing and developed economies, oil price shocks, further fall in house prices and, therefore, gloomier credit markets. Erosion of investor confidence is on the way given the huge losses reported by Banks, given the shattering aftermath of the subprime crisis. It is widely opined that even if the Fed keeps cutting interest rates, these cuts may not really be able to offset the rate cuts in the previous recessions, since consumers and businesses may not be able to borrow enough to keep up their spending. A long-standing view point is that a flexible economy, with maximum competition as its driving force is the most sought after method to withstand recession. In that continuum, flexible market-driven economies have been cited to be more resilient towards recessions. This book on Economic Downturns focuses more on some vital concepts of economic recessions, policy changes brought about by nations that ran into profound recessions and some country-experiences. In its various segments, it covers some important preventive measures prescribed by leading economists and experts.
18 978-81-314-2014-0 Globalization: Latin American Experience www.nbcindia.com Globalization Asis Kumar Pain 30-Sep-08 236 16 400 0 0 After the “lost decade” of the 1980s, the 1990s were a distinct improvement for Latin America with the continent embracing the structural reform process. GDP growth rose as high as 4 percent in 1997 prior to the outbreak of the crisis in Asia and in the emerging markets. On a country basis, 17 countries were found to have raised their average annual growth rate in the 1990s (average per capita income in the region grew 1.5 percent per annum in the 1990s) compared to the 1980s. Besides, 24 countries showed a reduction in the volatility of their growth performance while 13 countries achieved both higher growth and greater stability of growth. Inflation was also brought down to single-digit-level after decades of double-digit inflation. These enhanced economic performance had its reflection in the various parameters of social progress. Between the period 1975 and 1997, the gap in the UNDP’s Human Development Index was reduced by more than 20 percent, reflecting a substantial improvement in social indicators. Despite these positive directions of economic development, the extent of poverty still affected 36 percent of Latin Americans. Income distribution across quintiles or deciles continued, thus presenting a discouraging picture. The aforementioned portrayal brings up the Latin American development initiated with the globalization process. The present volume is a modest effort at capturing some essence of this process wherein the basic idea of the circumstances for embracing globalization and economic development ushered thereon, supplemented with individualistic experiences, are examined.
19 81-314-1292-4 Case Studies on Business Ethics and Corporate Governance- Promoting Social Responsibility www.nbcindia.com Ethics and Corporate Governance Harish R 30-Sep-08 332 0 0 50 1250 There is a growing awareness and realization about the need for industry to be more ethical and responsible in its actions, whether towards its employees, suppliers or customers; or towards the environment and the society at large. Adhering to appropriate norms and regulations pertaining to corporate governance and maintaining financial and fiscal integrity are also gaining importance. Shareholder groups too have become more active and are raising their voices whenever they observe that companies may not have been adequately ethical and fair in their behavior and dealings. Several movements aimed at ethical and fairtrade practices have gained ground, and products with fairtrade and/or environment friendly/organic labels are beginning to command significant market demand and price premiums. Given this background, Business Ethics and Corporate Governance have become important subjects of study in many business schools across the world. It is, therefore, felt that a book of cases pertaining to the concepts and issues typically dealt with in such a course would be of immense help to both faculty and students. This book attempts to fill this need by presenting a bouquet of cases on a cross-section of topics that may be covered in a course on Business Ethics and Corporate Governance. The cases are selected from different industries and geographic regions of the world, thereby adding to the diversity and richness of content.
20 978-81-314-1459-0 The Icfai Handbook Of Behavioral Sciences www.nbcindia.com General Anamika Sharma 27-Sep-08 356 21 525 0 0 The Icfai Handbook of Behavioral Sciences is addressed to the undergraduate & postgraduate students of behavioral sciences and its allied disciplines. They include psychology, social psychology, psychobiology, social neuroscience, cognitive organization theory, consumer psychology, management science & operations research besides ethology, anthropology, organizational studies & psycho-economics, memetics, organizational behavior, social networks, and organizational ecology. Psychologists, behavioral scientists, management consultants, sociologists, anthropologists, OD consultants and the faculties in the concerned areas and general readers whose daily work demands some familiarity with terminology of Behavioral Sciences like history and meaning of Behavioral Sciences and its allied areas are expected to benefit by this handbook. The handbook also addresses terms from the conceptual level to the advanced level. It aims to provide a comprehensive companion to support other readings in a discipline, which employs remarkably similar terminology. This handbook is an authentic, accessible and alphabetical reference resource for the main ideas and teaching connected to the basics of and advances in Behavioral Sciences. The book is designed to cover the salient facts and features of various terms of Behavioral Sciences and its allied areas. It also explores conceptual development in various sciences from professional perspective. Over 3000 entries define and explain clearly the salient facts within the context of Behavioral Sciences. It incorporates up-to-date information which is sure to appeal to active psychologists, behavioral scientists, management consultants, and the faculty and students of Behavioral Sciences.
21 978-81-314-1527-6 Perspectives on Inclusive Growth in India www.nbcindia.com Economy: Issues in Economic De Dholakia J R 27-Sep-08 356 21 525 0 0 Inclusive growth is a major concern for human development in India with rising inequalities. Despite tremendous growth of economy, failure on distributive front has aggravated the progressive journey towards collective well-being. Inclusive growth has become the buzzword in policy-spheres with recent phenomenon of rapid growth with characteristic patterns of exclusion. The sectoral, social and spatial inequalities have raised questions about welfare approaches of Government planning, and emphasized the role of the private sector in addressing development issues in the country. Employment generation, social and developmental infrastructure, health-care and rural diversification are some of the major suggestions from experts. Due to faulty approaches and often politically motivated policies, growth has generated inequalities. It is imperative for the planners and policy-makers to make growth inclusive through adoption of pragmatic policies. The journey towards balancing the outcome of economic growth involves many challenges. The dominant challenges include the imperative of maintaining the acceleration of economic growth without compromising on human development and sustainability. The book analyses various policy and programming issues about inclusive growth in India. With indepth overview of human development issues surfaced by various researches, the book outlines certain policy issues pertinent to inclusive growth. This book specifically looks at the issue in broader framework of sectoral, social and regional inequalities which form the macro framework for inclusive growth.
22 978-81-314-1529-0 Addressing Health Issues: Role of Participatory Research and Action www.nbcindia.com General Azmal Hussain Nirbachita Karmakar 27-Sep-08 308 19 475 0 0 It is clear for all to see that in the attainment of sustainable growth and development, health plays a crucial role. The question of accessibility of the health benefits by the poor brings to the fore the role of participatory research and action. This book attempts to show how different participatory approaches are useful in improving mass health, and document practices in health intervention through participatory action and research. Approaches like Participatory Action Research (PAR), Community Participation (CP) and Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) are discussed in possible detail wherever deemed necessary. CBPR is particularly viewed as consistent with the goals of “result-oriented philanthropy” of various national as well as international funding agencies who often become discouraged by the modest or even disappointing results of more traditional research and intervention efforts in many low income communities. Supporters of participatory approaches, however, face challenging issues in the areas of partnership capacity and readiness, time requirements, funding flexibility, evaluation and so on. The book intends to identify strategies for addressing such issues through documentation of desirable practices justifying participation as an important tool for effectively addressing health issues. It is expected to be of use for development professionals, policy planners, public administrators, applied anthropologists, social work professionals and other social scientists.
23 978-81-314-1542-9 Community Investing www.nbcindia.com Economy: World Swapna Gopalan 27-Sep-08 316 19 475 0 0 Community investing refers to financing that creates resources and opportunities for economically disadvantaged people and people under-served by traditional financial institutions. Capital generated through community investing initiatives enable local organizations to generate jobs, fund small businesses, create affordable housing and provide financial and other vital community services to financially disadvantaged people. Community investments are known to make a greater impact in helping communities in need than charitable giving. It is perhaps for this reason that community investing has become an attractive investment option for wealthy individuals, interested in making a social impact, even earn monetary gains. Corporates have also found a good avenue in community investing to fulfil their social missions. Today, community investors are playing a crucial role in alleviating poverty in many countries like the US, the UK, South Africa and India. In fact, community investors have been at the forefront of rehabilitation efforts in the aftermath of the disastrous tsunami, hurricane Katrina and after the war in Afghanistan. This book captures the recent developments in the area of community investing across the globe. It is divided into three sections: the first section titled “Introduction” introduces and explains the concept of ‘Community Investing’, the second section “Experiences” showcases a few country experiences and the third section “Corporate Community Investments” is devoted to studying the progress of corporate community investing initiatives.
24 978-81-314-1545-0 Dubai Economy: Insights www.nbcindia.com Economy: World Radha Krishna G 27-Sep-08 276 18 450 0 0 Dubai, with its geographical location and modernized port facilities, created an advantage in the Asian region. Its resources made it a cynosure for various business propositions of different countries to operate and vie with Dubai economy. The success story of Dubai Inc. can be ascribed to various factors such as Monarch rulers and their vision to see Dubai among top economies of the world. Polity, designed as Federal National Council (FNC), plays a catalytic role in making decisions of policies for creating business opportunities and a platform for Dubai’s economy to progress at a fast pace. The shopping habits and consumption patterns of people from different nations and cultures create different business opportunities to serve these consumer markets. The emerging service sectors such as financial services, banking, stock exchange, insurance and hospitality services, consultancy and advertising are in nascent stage. At present, tourism contributes a major portion to the GDP. Dubai is a benchmark for a successful economy in spite of recent formation as an independent federal state. The Sheikh’s vision of making Dubai ‘first in first’ (FIF), emergence of sectors ranging from infrastructure to port modernization, airport with millions of passengers boarding and alighting, constructing large malls make Dubai a happening economy.
25 978-81-314-1458-3 The Icfai Dictionary Of Business Process Re-engineering Terms www.nbcindia.com BPO Pradeep Kumar 27-Sep-08 268 17 425 0 0 The Icfai Dictionary of Business Process Re-engineering Terms is addressed to students, teachers, practitioners and general readers who want to follow Business Process Re-engineering (BPR)/Business Process Improvement (BPI)/Business Process Management (BPM) discussions in the class and elsewhere, or whose daily work demands some familiarity with terminology of BPR/BPI/BPM. The dictionary also addresses terms from the conceptual level to the advanced level in a precise manner. It aims to provide a comprehensive companion to support other reading in a discipline which employs remarkably similar terminology. It also assists students from the examination point of view. It is quite handy for students and professionals engaged in this area. This dictionary is a guide to the main ideas and teaching connected to the basics of and advances in BPR/BPI/BPM. The book is designed in such a way that it covers the salient facts and features of various points of BPR/BPI/BPM and also explores BPR/BPI/BPM development from technology and business perspectives. More than 2000 entries define and explain clearly the salient facts within the context of Business Process Re-engineering (BPR)/Business Process Improvement (BPI)/Business Process Management (BPM). Its store of up-to-date information is expected to appeal to active managers, teachers and students of information technology and operations.
26 978-81-314-1524-5 Combating Water Borne Diseases : A Global Perspective www.nbcindia.com General Azmal Hussain 27-Sep-08 244 16.5 425 0 0 Water is the most indispensable natural resource in the world for every living being. The entire life-support system is dependent upon this vital resource. it has been observed by scientists that 97.5 percent of water contained by the earth’s hydrosphere is basically saline in nature and hence not usable. Hence, only 2.5 percent is usable fresh water and within this 2.5 percent, 68.7 percent can be available in the form of permanent snow cover and ice caps in the polar and high mountainous regions and therefore, unusable. The remaining 31.3 percent of that tiny 2.5 percent of available fresh water can only be usable. Within this 31.3 percent of usable fresh water 29.9 percent is held by the underground aquifers and the rest 1.4 percent is captured in the lakes, river systems and reservoirs. It is most important to all as it is directly consumed by all living entities. From that point of view, water is particularly related with health. Though drinking water and its health significance is much talked about over the decades, this issue happens to have a weak point of the present regulatory approaches meant for defining the quality of drinking water. There comes the question of provision of safe drinking water. Among them, contamination takes place from synthetic materials, pesticide infiltration, through presence of different by-products resulting from disinfection, elevation of sodium levels from natural resources and so on. It has been pointed out that globally, diarrhoeal diseases account for a considerable share of the total disease burden. At the same time, in about ninety percent cases, this burden is reportedly attributable to the supply of unsafe drinking water coupled with improper sanitation, and poor hygiene. This book is a sincere attempt to demarcate the magnitude of health challenge posed by unsafe drinking water and identify the strategies those are currently underway to minimize the health challenges by ensuring drinking water safety in different ecological settings. The book has been divided into two broad sections. Section I discusses the issues and perspectives related to drinking water and health. The second section discusses the country experiences related to drinking water and health.
27 978-81-314-1533-7 Changing Face Of Footwear Industry www.nbcindia.com General Management Anil Varma 27-Sep-08 248 16.5 425 0 0 Footwear is no longer viewed as a commodity that just offers protection for feet. What was hitherto considered a ‘want’ is today a basic ‘need’. Today, the footwear trade is a vast and dynamic operation involving huge economies of scale. The low-cost countries are gaining foothold in international markets leading developed countries to import and outsource so as to meet their requirements. The footwear product has proliferated into many brands and now caters to the needs of disparate customers. Footwear is something that has always been taken for granted. But today footwear, being considered a ‘need’ is also considered by many to be an ornament or a fashion statement. On the other hand, the major players are getting aggressive on their marketing, expansion and turnaround strategies and also producing innovative products in line with their social obligations. The footwear industry is vast, dynamic and yet rarely noticed. The effort here is to cover the changing face of the commerce of footwear. Emphasis is laid on the fact that the major economies now face a threat from the emerging economies as a location of production for international markets. The ‘low-cost’ countries are now gaining a strong foothold in the international market and the major economies are either importing or outsourcing which leads to the view that strong measures should be adopted against these ‘low-cost’ countries. The marketing, expansion and turnaround strategies used by the major players are significant to help us understand the dynamics of this unnoticed industry.
28 978-81-314-1547-4 Shared Services Management: A Global Perspective www.nbcindia.com Management Padma Srinivasan B 27-Sep-08 244 16.5 425 0 0 The present state of globalization is creating a greater level of economic interdependence than the world has ever seen. The global economic power is now more distributed among the global companies which were once centered in a few industrialized nations. Now, companies are looking to achieve and sustain success in different ways, like serving customers, attracting talent, running operations and driving innovation. Shared Services is a notable option to companies in the new era of globalization. Both the private and public sector organizations are scaling up using the shared services that can deliver efficiencies and improve both effectiveness and the employee or customer experience by regulating, simplifying and merging service position. Shared services often begin with corporate services, e.g., IT, HR, Finance, etc; however, possibilities exist across all operational support and front line services. This book attributes significance to the paradigms in evolving shared service systems across the globe. The MNCs and global organizations are realizing seamless benefits of adopting shared services organizations support to strengthen their non-core activities as well as centralize HR activities. The book focuses on the emerging shared services organizations/centers and their relevance to public and private organizations. The latest method being adopted by the companies to cut the business costs, improve quality and maintain flexibility of products and services is to avail the service of shared service providers. It also emphasizes the key factors which shall be taken into account by companies before adopting services of shared service organizations.
29 978-81-314-1543-6 E-Voting: Perspectives and Experiences www.nbcindia.com General Jaya Krishna S Naveen Kumar Agarwal 27-Sep-08 232 16 400 0 0 From time immemorial, ‘by the people’ in a democratic set-up has been facilitated through a mechanism called ‘Election.’ Electoral process involves ‘voting’ by the eligible electorate and the voting system should facilitate people’s true verdict. Till recent times, ‘paper ballot’ method continued as a widely practised voting system across the world. But in today’s changing political situation, ballot box is no more a valid approach. In view of the limitations of paper ballot method, many countries across the world are exploring the potential of Electronic voting. Today, ‘E-voting’ has emerged as the major driving force of democracy, that has come to the attention of many countries in their movement to reform elections. The book unleashes the concept and potential of ‘e-voting’, while highlighting the growing significance of electronic voting route. Broadly, it covers various country experiences and also highlights the status and overview of E-voting across the world. Keeping in view that E-voting has both potential advantages and associated risks, the book also attempts to look into the negative effects of E-voting. While offering an immense learning value to the academicians, researchers and students of public administration and public policy, this book, it is hoped, will help administrators, bureaucrats, Election Commissions (ECs), Government executives, policy-makers and the society to better understand far-reaching applications and implementation insights of E-voting. Various nations across the world can greatly benefit from the thoughtful insights provided in this book.
30 978-81-314-2060-7 Consolidation in the Banking Industry: Global Perspective www.nbcindia.com Banking Santap Sanhari Mishra 26-Sep-08 300 19 475 0 0 Consolidation of banks is the means for growing economies towards improving the efficiency and reforming the structure of the banking industry in accordance to the contemporary requirements of corporate culture, ownership patterns, profitability and diversifications. Deregulation measures as a result of liberalization and globalization have resulted in increasing competition. This forced the banking industry to go for restructuring and reframing. Profit maximization is the major motivating force for private bank mergers. The rationale of acquisition of weaker banks by the public sector banks lies in increasing efficiency and competitiveness and safeguarding the interests of depositors and other stakeholders. Bank mergers have reduced the number of banks and increased the size of the banks enhancing the volume of business. However mergers should be planned and strategic. Technological and cultural aspects along with human resource management are areas that need to be handled carefully. The book is a modest effort at capturing the essence of this process of consolidation of banks. It explains the circumstances for embracing the policy of consolidation and also highlights the impact on the economy. The book brings into focus some country’s specific cases where consolidation of banks has taken place. The positive and negative impact of bank consolidation in various countries is evaluated and hence various ways for a balanced move are captured in this book.
31 978-81-314-1496-5 Rebranding: Concepts, Cases and Applications www.nbcindia.com Branding Kunal Gaurav 26-Sep-08 260 17 425 0 0 Nowadays, we are living in the epoch of globalization where companies are free to move anywhere across the globe. Competition has become an inevitable part of our life. At the same time, customers’ needs and preferences are changing endlessly and companies are expected to deliver enhanced value to their customers that should be striking, faster and at lower price; otherwise customers can usually find someone else who will do the same. Modern marketers understand very well that the unique brand image can offer sustainable competitive advantage to companies over their competitors operating in the same market with similar products and services. With this backdrop, rebranding has emerged as one of the strong marketing tools that believe in changing corporate identity, logo, punchline and advertising in order to give a fresh image to the companies. The first section of the book is committed to elucidating the concept of rebranding, reasons for rebranding, various mistakes marketers commit at the time of rebranding their companies. Finally, it offers a conceptual framework to help companies make their rebranding victorious. The second section of the book is intended to facilitate the understanding of readers on various issues viz. what, when, why and how of effective rebranding through discussing contemporary applications and cases. This section also highlights as to how companies are rebranding themselves to build and maintain strong and unique brands in order to occupy a specific place in the minds of the stakeholders.
32 978-81-314-1993-9 Containerization – Indian and Global Perspectives www.nbcindia.com Infrastructure Padmanabhan Nair Ramani V V 26-Sep-08 220 17 425 0 0 Containerization is a system of intermodal cargo transport using standard ISO containers that can be loaded on container ships, railroad cars and trucks. It has revolutionized cargo shipping. Today, nearly 90% of non-bulk cargo moves by containers put on transport ships. Containerization is an important cargo-moving technique developed in the 20th century. It has formed an integral part of logistics the world over, India is no exception too. The idea of containerization and its reaping benefits in handling freight transport in both developing and developed economies will help open ways for global trade practices. The major objectives, the successful cases of container ports, products and models of containers, infrastructure, capacity challenges, economic aspects, increased customer value through containerization and the private sector involvement in handling containers will form the outline of the book. The Indian Railway Minister, Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav has taken the initiative for Private-Public Partnership between the Indian Railways and 14 private container train operators to look up various issues because containerization is treated as a sunrise industry. This is aimed at not only increasing the rail share of container traffic but also introducing competition in the intermodal rail freight market leading to service improvements. It also contains enabling provisions to meet the future requirements in terms of infrastructure and technological developments. This book will help the emerging economies in reducing time and costs in freight transport either through rail, road, container ships or planes. It will also help increase the volume of international trade possible and more happening through complex supply chains in India.
33 978-81-314-1534-4 Attrition in IT and IT Enabled Services Sectors: Concepts and Cases www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Anil Varma 26-Sep-08 232 16 400 0 0 In the best of worlds, employees would love their jobs, like their coworkers, work hard for their employers, get paid well for their work, have ample chances for advancement, and flexible schedules, so that they could attend to personal or family needs when necessary, and never leave the company, but then, there s the real world. And in the real world, employees do leave either because they want more money, hate the working conditions, hate their co-workers, want a change, or because their spouses get a dream job in another state. So, what does that entire turnover cost? And what type of employees are likely to have the highest turnover? Who is likely to stay the longest? Attrition is a universal phenomenon and no industry is devoid of it, but the degree fluctuates from industry to industry on the basis of their capacity to manage low attrition rate. Attrition not only affects the quality of service; it also leads to increased expenditure on training and development, thereby affecting the overall organizational performance. Several companies are trying out different ways to manage low attrition rate. Be it an IT sector, or BPO, they are trying out their ways to manage lower rate of attrition by creating a healthy work environment, work-life balance, corporate brand building and so on. Attrition seems to be one of the areas in which HR can make a difference – one that can be measured in quantifiable, financial terms against targets.
34 978-81-314-1530-6 Apparel Industry and Retailing in India: Insights and Experiences www.nbcindia.com Marketing Tripat Kaur Smitha Ramachandran 26-Sep-08 220 15.5 400 0 0 India is a country with diversified customs and cultures; so diverse that Indians differ in their dressing too. Right from the salwaar-kameez to the sari and from lungi to dhoti, our own Indian wear has been vivid and varied. The market of branded garments is growing up. With favorable events like end of multifiber agreement, entry of foreign retailers and textile companies into the country and the growth and acknowledgement of the Indian fashion industry throughout the world, apparel marketing has become one of the interesting and tough jobs in the arena of marketing. The study emphasizes as to how over the last several decades the face of retail and the distribution of apparel have changed dramatically. India ranks among the top target countries for any company sourcing textiles and apparel. Indeed, apart from China, no other country can match the size, spread, depth and competitiveness of the Indian textile and apparel industry. Moreover, with the global elimination of quotas at the end of 2004, entry of foreign retailers and textile companies into the country and the growth and acknowledgement of the Indian fashion industry throughout the world, a thorough study of apparel retailing has become necessary. This book will focus on examining the recent trends of apparel retailing in India, including role of shopping malls, private brands marketing, impact of fashion and movies and other related areas. The book will help readers know about the retail scenario of apparel, the importance of the merchandising philosophy, outlines devising merchandise assortment plans, the atmospherics and visual merchandising and investigation of the promotional process
35 978-81-314-1544-3 Marketing of Insurance Services in India www.nbcindia.com Marketing Radha Krishna G 26-Sep-08 220 15.5 400 0 0 Insurance industry is emerging competitive in the Indian context particularly after floodgates of secured monopoly markets are opened up to private players. Marketing insurance services in the Indian context has become a different ball game altogether as various companies are adopting different marketing strategies and there has been a shift from selling orientation to marketing orientation – agents becoming advisors and relative role shift of seller to marketer. This changed scenario has made the industry adopt different marketing strategies. Customizing the products, pricing, channel strategies as direct selling, E channel, company advisors, company agency channels, cross-selling and Bancassurance are becoming contemporary strategic tools for present Indian insurance scenario. The latest competition among different players such as ICICI Prudential, LIC, AVIVA, TATA AIG, MAX NEWYORK etc., has made the insurance industry move towards better service deliverers. The positioning of themselves with a USP, using advertising as a tool to communicate the same and building brands have become an inevitable marketing exercise in Indian insurance industry. This promotion is a fight not only for market share, but also for mind share. The combination of channel and the promotion has become a dominant strategic tool for Indian insurance companies. India’s liberalized economy has solicited all private players to serve the Insurance market. Now the challenge and success for the insurance marketer lie in exploring the market with a balancing marketing strategy among consumers, competitors and the IRDA.
36 978-81-314-1532-0 Counseling for Different Phases of Life www.nbcindia.com General Sangeetha K Devi R J and Vasuki Mathivanan 26-Sep-08 212 15.5 400 0 0 In the present modern and competitive world, the need for counseling people in various fields for different purposes is on the rise. In the current fast-paced competitive world, technology, globalization and the 24x 7 work-life stress has changed people’s life style – the way one works, communicates and maintains relationships during one’s lifecycle from childhood to old age. The surmounting pressure, turmoil and tension at work and in personal life negatively impact upon the personal efficacy and behavior of the person, which can also be a cause for social stigma. This has made counseling an impeccable tool that renders help to an individual to overcome one’s difficulties and problems; it guides one to overcome the turmoil, maintain relations, and to emerge as an optimistic, confident person. Counseling and guidance that is given to a person for the betterment of his life are child counseling, career counseling, sexual abuse counseling, trauma counseling, marriage counseling etc. An effective counseling helps the counselee understand the holistic nature of life that encompasses psychological, physical and social characteristics. Besides, the success of counseling (by a counselor) lies in bringing about an affirmative behavioral change in the counselee and ensuring that he/she becomes autonomous in solving her/his problem. This has a significant impact upon the person’s behavior, performance and productivity. The benefits reaped by people by investing comparatively less amount of time, money and energy are so significant that it is hardly surprising that counseling is being increasingly sought by a large number of people around the world to save their lives and relations. This book is designed to capture the concept and significance of counseling, the techniques and various types of counseling offered to a person during his/her lifecycle in order to help him/her lead a positive and happier life.
37 978-81-314-2079-9 Demographic Dividend: Concepts and Experiences www.nbcindia.com Economy: Issues in Economic De Rajagopalan S 26-Sep-08 224 15.5 400 0 0 Every society undergoes a ‘demographic transition’, which is characterized by a decline initially in the mortality rates followed by a decline in the fertility rate, albeit after a time-interval. The decline in the mortality and the fertility rates bring about changes in the age-distribution of the population, gradually leading to a bulge in the working-age population (15 – 64 years) for a significant period of time, thus creating an opportunity for higher economic growth. This economic opportunity arising from a large working-age population is referred to as the ‘demographic dividend’. The demographic dividend represents the phase in the demographic transition when the growth rate of the labour force is significantly higher than the overall population growth rate. The dependency ratio, that is, the ratio of the non-working age population to the working age population, is low during the demographic dividend phase. The economic benefits during the demographic dividend phase include increased labour supply, savings and human capital, and therefore, increased resources for investment and welfare. The enhanced economic growth is reflected in the higher per capita income. This book examines the concept of the demographic dividend, and presents experiences of different countries in reaping the demographic dividend.
38 81-314-1385-3 Case Studies on Brand Management www.nbcindia.com Case Study Collection Menaka Rao Brinda G 26-Sep-08 276 0 0 35 875 Brand Management connotes different meanings to companies and to different people within the company. It could be a technique to maintain or improve market shares, creating awareness, building on the image of a brand or a combination of all the above. Brand Management in actuality is efficiently managing a brand. It is the art of creating and maintaining a product or service by characterizing it with a specific image or personality called a “Brand”. And with more savvy and generic players in the market, companies recognise the importance of strategies. Recognition comes in a variety of ways- like the name, logo or slogan, to get the product registered in the customer’s mind. In a real market scenario, managing a brand has the task of managing the tentacles of the brand extending both to and from the product or service that the brand represents. A few of the tentacles are quality, price, image, uniqueness and so on. Creating a mind space for a brand facilitates a circle of associations and expectations. This has led organisations to invest more of their mind, manpower, money and time in brand building and maintenance. The case studies cascaded in this book comprehend the different brand building and maintenance strategies, like launching, positioning, cannibalisation and extension. The cases featured in the book conceptualise the risks, challenges, prospects and success factors.
39 978-81-314-2074-4 Microfranchising – Perspectives and Experiences www.nbcindia.com General Management Jaya Krishna S Naveen Kumar Agarwal 25-Sep-08 204 15 375 0 0 ‘Microfranchising’ is relatively a new term, currently used to describe income-generating opportunities for the poor through franchising that can be easily replicated. This practice takes the existing products and services and bundles them as stand-alone microfranchises that serve as easily managed business opportunities for citizens of poverty-stricken countries. It involves the principles and practices of traditional business franchising model (where there is a franchisor and a franchisee and the franchisor provides training, marketing and branding that lead to success). The obvious distinction is that microfranchising model works on a ‘no-profit’ motto with an intention to provide economic self-reliance to the poor. The impetus behind the idea of “Microfranchising” is to provide sound business opportunities and services to the poor by introducing scaled-down business concepts found in successful franchise organizations. With the awarding of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Peace to Professor Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank, Bangladesh, for their efforts to create economic and social development from below, attention has increased on this remarkable concept around the world. This book, while introducing ‘microfranchising’, focuses on its concepts, significance, applications and perspectives. It presents the overview and status of microfranchising across the world and further includes the experiences of social institutions and corporates across different regions/countries. The book is targeted at various interest groups, including international and national non-governmental organizations/ agencies, corporate houses, individual entrepreneurs and social consultants. Researchers, academicians, policymakers, institutions and organizations involved in poverty reduction globally can also be benefited with the insights provided in this book.
40 978-81-314-1502-3 Social Innovations – Concepts and Experiences www.nbcindia.com Society and Development Sujatha B 24-Sep-08 376 22 550 0 0 Social innovations are new responses or new solutions to social and economic problems. Social innovation as a concept has figured in the writings of several reformers from the 19th century such as Robert Owen, Karl Marx and Max Weber. However, it gained prominence only in the 20th century and was part of the discussions of eminent personalities like Peter Drucker and Michael Young. It has further grown to become a sustainability tool in the 21st century, blending with corporate activity. Companies are increasingly investing in social intent to reach new client groups. It is also supported by growing academic interest in the subject. This book on social innovations is about new ideas that have worked in rendering economic and social justice, with a large-scale impact, bringing about sustainable changes in society. The book endeavors to signify the need for catalyzing social change, trace how new ways of thinking have led to a great social change, identify and analyze the role of social enterprises and the non-profit sector in bringing about social inclusion and cohesion. Mahatma Gandhi said: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” This book underlines the theme of the quotation, and reaffirms that a change in cultural consciousness from one of unmet needs and inability to a proactive culture of contribution and participation has the power to make the world a better place.
41 978-81-314-1511-5 Co-operative Banking – Indian and Global Perspectives www.nbcindia.com Banking Ramakumar T N 24-Sep-08 288 18 450 0 0 “If co-operation fails there will fail the best hope of rural India”- Royal Commission on Agriculture in India 1928 These brave words uttered almost eight decades ago still carry a prophetic ring. So much so that when the Vaidyanathan Committee, which studied this problem of rural credit, said rural credit was skewed in favor of the rural rich and this observation was reinforced by many other such studies, the Reserve Bank of India had to think of reinventing the institution of village money lender by lending him a measure of legitimacy. India has a chequered history of co-operative movement and this book is a journey into this exciting area of banking which accounts in volume for about a tenth of Indian banking. It tries to look at the genesis of the co-operative bank movement and its typical operational problems as perceived by practitioners, academicians and regulators. Co-operative bank failures have been a recurring problem in the 1990s and these problems are discussed and solutions offered in this book. Various studies as well as the economic history of co-operative banking in Canada and a host of European nations also prove that given the will, co-operative banking can be resilient, vibrant and yet fulfilling their historical role. Their unique contributions to green finance, triple bottomline financing, sustainable development, community development and SME financing are all captured in this book. The book leaves the reader wondering if Indian Co-operative banks can be made equally vibrant.
42 978-81-314-2027-0 Marketing to Children : Issues and Concerns www.nbcindia.com Marketing Amitabha Ghose Mookherjee S N 24-Sep-08 252 17 425 0 0 In the present era of consumerism and continuous fight for market shares, an ever growing number of business organizations are indulging in overt and covert child-directed marketing activities, in myriad ways, to get higher and higher levels of children attention. In what is known today as ‘the commercialization of childhood’, children are getting coaxed than ever before in shopping, product placement, media, celebrity, brand and other consumer practices. At the core of all these attempts is children’s growing role as both independent consumers and influencers in family buying decisions. The situation is not vastly different in developing countries such as India. Such rampant and indiscriminate marketing efforts to influence the tender minds at their early ages have raised serious concerns at various quarters. Different voluntary and self-regulatory mechanisms should be adopted to reorient the marketing practices to reach a holistic solution to build a generation of healthy and well-informed future citizens of the world. This book discusses current marketing practices and their impact on various overt and covert marketing programs that have targeted children. The fact that marketing exploits children’s developmental vulnerabilities is highlighted. This book also draws attention to the regulations and solutions adopted by the marketers in the face of mounting criticism and help readers to form well-informed viewpoints on a contemporary issue, which affects various segments of business and also the ethical issues involved, to help the marketers.
43 978-81-314-2089-8 Telemedicine: Concepts and Applications www.nbcindia.com General Management Michael Vimal Pillai 24-Sep-08 252 17 425 0 0 Telemedicine is the use of information technologies and electronic communications to provide clinical services when participants are based at different locations. Telemedicine involves the amalgamation of computer and telecommunication technology with medical knowledge and makes it possible to transfer information for providing diagnostic and consulting services to patients who are based at different locations from their physicians. Telemedicine enables the provisions of healthcare to remote areas throughout the world. It enables health professionals to examine patients by viewing their medical images and records that have been electronically transmitted from one location to another. The application of telemedicine has extended to a variety of medical specialties such as dermatology, surgery, psychiatry, pediatrics and many other areas. Telemedicine enables doctors to diagnose and monitor their patients from remote locations. Apart from establishing communication with their patients, who may be located at far-off places, telemedicine enables doctors to assess patients’ health status for the necessary care and treatment. Remote consultations and home monitoring are two major approaches of telemedicine. The book contains two sections. The first section includes articles on the concept of telemedicine and various aspects relevant to it. The second section comprises articles on some applications and experiences of telemedicine.
44 978-81-314-2077-5 Asset Liability Management-Contemporary Perspectives and Practices www.nbcindia.com Finance Sohani AK Nageswara Rao Katuri 24-Sep-08 232 16 400 0 0 Several financial institutions have realized that to gain competitive advantage they have to resort to better management practices. Financial institutions, facing newer challenges and regulators throughout the world, are adopting and prescribing more stringent rules and procedures than before. There are macro-level shifts such as changes in consumer dynamics, change in and workforce demographics and advances in technology that threaten to make whole business models obsolete. And added to it are the everyday micro-level dynamics of industry and market forces operations which organizations need a look to gain market share. Facing increasing competitive pressures, they need to innovate and adapt to the new changing scenario. New or differentiated products and services are being offered to deliver the expected growth. ALM as a tool of management is one such mechanism to stay in business; financial institutions today are facing challenges not only from competitors but also from their stakeholders. In order to compete with rivals, institutions need market intervention, remaining competitive. Market intervention is not only for their survival but also to know the latest practices and procedures. A new insight into(ALM) brings out new thought process in management and therefore, this book can act as ready reference on the subject. Hence, this book about ALM and the latest insights can be a potential knowledge resource for the practitioners. The book confines not only to the introductory insights, but also, at large, takes through various contemporary issues on the subject to the prospective readers while throwing light on the related and emerging practices.
45 978-81-314-2078-2 ICT in Rural India: e-Governance www.nbcindia.com Information Technology Meetali Saxena 24-Sep-08 224 15.5 400 0 0 E-Governance as a concept defines and assesses the impact of technologies on the practices and administration of governments and the relationships between public servants and society. E-government solutions have the ability to reduce the costs of providing government solutions while also improving their quality and extending their reach. E-governance in rural India is a major focus area as it can steer India towards an inclusive growth. Effective governance is now synonymous with E-Governance. It is the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that enables better communication and interaction between various dimensions of governmental operations vis-à-vis citizens, business and within different government agencies, and provides better services. This book explores how e-governance initiatives of Government of India transformed the rural masses. The changing face of Rural India with the help of application of Information technology is brought out. The open and transparent approach of government is easily understood by its people. The e-governance not only focuses on the governance but also on the improved and efficient public services and the management of right information. The book focuses on the implementation and benefits of e-governance for the rural sector. It looks at the different initiatives taken by various state and central governments across the country. It also focuses on offering insights into the challenges faced in the implementation and measures for sustenance and enhancement of these e-governance projects.
46 978-81-314-2095-9 Ethnomedicine: Global Perspectives www.nbcindia.com General Azmal Hussain 24-Sep-08 216 15.5 400 0 0 Ethnomedicine encompasses the aspects of anthropology, sociology, biology and medicine, and is embraced by a cultural, sectoral or regional frame. Primarily it deals with the study and practice of traditional medicines, not only the written sources. In countries where the leading health care system is based on allopathic medicine, or where traditional medicine (TM) has not been incorporated into the national health care system, TM is often termed “complementary”, “alternative” or “non-conventional” medicine. Against this backdrop, the present book has been conceived with the objective of providing a practical know-how of the global perspectives in Ethnomedicine. The focus of this book is the perception and context of use of traditional medicines, and their main aspects of interest, according to the countries or regions where they originate from and are being practiced. Traditional systems of treatment, based on medicinal plants, are playing an important role in providing health care to a large section of population, especially in the developing countries. Interest in them and utilization of herbal products based on them are increasing in developed countries also. To obtain optimum benefit and to understand the way these systems function, it is necessary to have a minimum basic information on their different aspects. The book is expected to be of use for development professionals, especially those dealing with the development issues pertinent to indigenous communities, over and above healthcare administrators, researchers including economists, applied anthropologists and other social scientists.
47 978-81-314-1507-8 Rural Tourism www.nbcindia.com General Subir Ghosh 24-Sep-08 208 15 375 0 0 Throughout the world the rural economies are facing economic crisis. Since 1990s, with the transformation in the socio-economic culture through globalization, various countries in the world experienced decollectivisation, privatization, and reestablishment of free market economy in their rural territories. As a result, the global economy and other factors have negatively affected the viability of traditionally rural activities such as mining, forestry, agriculture, and manufacturing. In response, many rural towns have turned to the service sector, investing in retirement, recreation, and leisure industries. Almost all rural societies in the world are suffering from economic crisis. Challenges facing in rural areas are numerous and have interconnected nature. Ageing, depopulation, decline in agricultural employment are just few to mention. So, the promise of a reinvigorated economy through tourism is certainly a strong lure to come across the economic slump faced by the rural communities throughout the world. Tourism, in particular, is often proposed as a relatively benign development strategy that can offer rural regions a new foothold in the broader economy. Therefore, rural tourism is considered one of the activities to be supported to ensure rural development. It can develop a win-win situation among rural communities. Rural tourism is experience oriented and location specific and solely dependent upon natural environment. With this background, this book tries to highlight the improvement of living standard of rural masses through the provision of tourism facilities. The experiences of rural tourism in multifarious country perspectives have also been focused in this book.
48 978-81-314-1971-7 Case studies on Corporate Transformation & Turnaround Strategies - Managing in Difficult Times www.nbcindia.com Case Study Collection Harish R 24-Sep-08 328 0 0 40 1000 “Difficult and hostile external environmental circumstances, as well as internal weaknesses and failures some times tend to push companies into adverse situations. Even the largest, the most well-established and world renowned corporate giants are not immune to this. However, those which can garner the necessary resources and managerial capabilities manage to come out of the dumps, through appropriate and effective response to the situation on hand. The process by which such reversal of fortunes is achieved is referred to as – corporate transformation and turnaround, which forms the common thread that links the cases included in this book.
Corporate Transformation can be defined as a strategy by which a company manages under difficult circumstances, often through business or financial restructuring. This action may be prompted by challenging conditions posed by external and internal environments. Turnaround Management is the process of moving from deterioration in performance to enduring success. However, there are also situations when companies do not succeed in emerging out of their difficulties, in spite of diligent efforts.
This book provides a powerful compendium of sixteen cases on corporate transformation and turnaround strategies from diverse industries and business environments, so as to facilitate a clear understanding of the subject through real life examples. The cases narrate the struggles and tribulations faced by globally renowned, successful corporate giants such as Volkswagen, Sony, Gucci, Levi Strauss, Du Pont, Motorola, Ford, Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart among others, and would be of particular help in supporting the study of Business Strategy, as part of the management curriculum.
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49 978-81-314-1485-9 Case Studies on Collaboration www.nbcindia.com Case Study Collection Devi Rajnikanth 24-Sep-08 128 0 0 40 1000 “Collaboration is the new competitive edge. It’s no longer a choice. Rather, it’s now or never. It’s an operational necessity in industry after industry. The reasons are not rocket science. It’s all about resources. Many organisations in today’s global world are unable to compete with their own resources and they look for other alternatives to manage the competition. When you can’t beat them, join them!
The corporate world is replete with illustrious examples of collaboration. Competitors are turning into collaborators. When viewed with business logic, companies benefit immensely from fruitful collaboration. Andrew Carnegie said, “Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision; the ability to direct individual accomplishment toward organisational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” Why should companies collaborate? When to collaborate? What precautions to be taken while venturing into a collaborative arrangement? In what kind of industries and at what stage of the industry life cycle, is collaboration desirable and meaningful?
The articles, interviews and case studies included in this book address these very issues. Covering a wide area of the collaboration canvas, this book would be of great help for you to become an effective collaborator.
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50 978-81-314-2050-8 Case Studies on India Inc. : The Competitiveness www.nbcindia.com Case Study Collection K Ramanathan 24-Sep-08 240 0 0 50 1250 “The opening of Indian economy in the early 1990s not only made many multinational companies enter the Indian soil but also had many Indian companies explore the global opportunities. Today, apart from posing a tough competition to the multinational companies within the domestic boundary, the Indian companies are proving their feat in the international arena too.
Indian companies which were once considered by the multinationals as a boon for low cost production, have advanced in the learning curve. Indian companies are highly innovative. At the global level, many breakthrough innovations – ranging from automobiles to pharmaceuticals – are from the Indian companies. Besides, many Indian companies are making their presence felt in mergers and acquisitions at the global level. Many multinational giants are acquired by the Indian companies leading to cross-pollination of skill and giving access to larger economy of scale.
This book recounts the journey of many Indian companies that are soaring high in the global arena. It reflects the confidence of the Indian companies and their ability to compete with the global giants.
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51 978-81-314-2002-7 Joint Forest Management: Issues and Experiences www.nbcindia.com General Management Meenu Bhatnagar 20-Sep-08 232 16 400 0 0 Joint Forest Management is one of the most important initiatives for protection and regeneration of forests in India. It involves a partnership with the local forest-dependent communities based on mutual sharing of benefits accruing from the forests. It focuses on the decentralized approach of participatory forest management based on the principle of ‘Care and Share’. It supports the socio-economic development of tribals and other forest-dependent communities. The book covers Joint Forest Management and its relevance, challenges, performance, emerging practices and state experiences. It highlights the concept of JFM being used for conservation, sustenance and regeneration of degenerated forest resources. It examines the National Forest Policy and guidelines for Joint Forest Management. It gives details about benefit-sharing and livelihood generation issues of the forest-dependent population. The role of institutions, communities and NGOs in organizing and implementing JFM has been discussed across different states. The book would prove immensely useful for scholars, researchers of forest management, policymakers, planners, Government agencies, NGOs, journalists and general readers interested in the conservation and regeneration of India’s forest wealth. It is hoped that the articles would provide an in-depth understanding of Joint Forest Management, leading to better implementation and success of the programme.
52 978-81-314-1429-3 Total Quality Management – Contemporary Perspectives and Cases www.nbcindia.com Management Rajmanohar T P 19-Sep-08 308 19 475 0 0 Total Quality Management (TQM) the world over is a management philosophy which is increasingly being adopted by companies. TQM ensures that the customer’s requirements are satisfied. A number of western thinkers, including Deming and Juran, were responsible for developing it. During the 1960s, a number of Japanese companies adopted TQM and got a competitive edge over western companies. By the 1980s, some Indian companies had adopted TQM philosophy and a number of Indian companies won the Deming award. Initially, most companies used total quality control to implement TQM. These included hard tools like statistical process control, Pareto analysis, histograms and fishbone diagram. However, this has changed and a lot of companies are using concepts based on soft tools. Some of the newer tools used include total employee involvement, continuous improvement, teamwork and empowerment. In India, among the critical success factors for successfully implementing TQM are customer focus, process management, training, top management leadership, quality planning, supplier management, employee management and information availability and usage. Adoption of TQM by companies will enable them to become more competitive. As world trade becomes globalized, only the most competitive companies will be able to survive. Hence, adoption of TQM will enable a company to increase its market share. Currently, TQM has been adopted by most of the major Japanese and Korean companies.
53 978-81-314-1510-8 Brand Building: New Dimensions www.nbcindia.com Brand Management Bala Krishna A V 19-Sep-08 324 19 475 0 0 Brand building embodies well-defined positioning and repositioning strategies. The current changing competitive landscape is witnessing intense brand-building campaigns undertaken by the corporate world. The proliferating competition coupled with fragmenting markets and media are making it difficult for corporates to brand without innovating. Advertising, sales promotion, publicity, celebrity endorsements, sponsorships, events, corporate social responsibility, cause-related marketing and charities are increasingly used by the corporate world to build and reinforce their brands. While advertising has always occupied a prominent position in brand-building efforts of the corporate world, Corporate Social Responsibility and Cause-Related Marketing and below-the-line advertising methods have gained new prominence. The advent of Internet and Web technologies have revolutionized the brand-building activities of many companies. Many corporates are emphasizing on building and reinforcing identities based on deep-rooted customer relationships. Many brand-building campaigns are also moving beyond functional benefits and are focusing on emotional benefits. Drawing from the experiences of an entire gamut of corporate world, the book focuses on approaches, applications and case studies.
54 978-81-314-1411-8 Microsoft Way: A Growth Strategy www.nbcindia.com Business Strategy Kalai Selvan N 19-Sep-08 292 18 450 0 0 With a unique operating system and software solution, Microsoft has created a big revolution in the software industry. Microsoft has invented Microsoft Window allowing the company to gain market share. Today, Bill Gates has become the role model for many entrepreneurs across the world for his leadership and entrepreneurial skills. Under Gates’ leadership, Microsoft s mission has been to continually advance and improve software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers. Microsoft’s business strategy has mainly focused on development of a broad line of software products for information technology (IT) professionals, knowledge workers, developers and consumers, marketed through multiple channels of distribution. Microsoft also involves various business activities, including licensing consumer software programs, selling hardware devices, providing consulting services and researches, and develops advanced technologies for future software products. Microsoft was attempting integrating everything from software to hardware to services in a particular market with the expansion into various new businesses like video gaming and music industry. After experiencing the video game industry, Microsoft wanted to leverage its competencies and resources in the portable music industry. Microsoft has footholds in other markets besides operating systems and office suites, with assets such as the MSNBC cable television network, the MSN Internet portal, and the Microsoft Encarta multimedia encyclopedia. The company also markets both computer hardware products such as the Microsoft mouse and home entertainment products such as the Xbox, Xbox 360, Zune and MSN TV. The book highlights the Microsoft evolution, various business strategies successfully implemented by Microsoft & issues and challenges on the road to success.
55 978-81-314-2070-6 Flexible Working – Concepts and Practices www.nbcindia.com General Management Sujatha B 19-Sep-08 272 17 425 0 0 “Adopting sound Equal Opportunity and flexible work policies are more than just a wise move, it is critical, especially for large professional organizations who wish to attract and retain the best people.” … John Colvin, CEO, Blake Dawson Waldron One of the modern revolutions that has transformed workplaces and the way we work is ‘Flexible Working’. Flexible Working is a comprehensive term that includes various non-traditional work practices brought about by changes in the nature of employment and development in technology. These practices have added variety and flexibility to working arrangements in the form of flexi-time; part-time work, job sharing, fixed-term contracts, subcontracting, and career/employment break schemes. Flexibility at work is a major tool in enhancing economic performance by improving productivity, increasing job satisfaction and competitiveness. Employees value flexible work option as one of the best perks to come their way. Companies are amending their HR policies to offer various flexi-work options in a bid to attract and retain the best of talents. Interestingly, what began as a concession aimed at wooing the women workforce is now attracting a lot of men. This book will briefly relate what is flexible working and the reasons for introducing new ways of working. It discusses the components of flexible working and various flexible work tools and assesses the various flexible work options. It identifies the challenges and issues in implementing flexible working practices. It also draws examples of flexible working arrangements and policies followed in universities, organizations, supermarkets, etc. Thus it highlights how the work environment is getting transformed and how flexibility is becoming the defining dimension in determining the employer of choice.
56 978-81-314-1910-6 Case Studies on Corporate Transformation www.nbcindia.com Case Study Collection Priti Krishnan 19-Sep-08 208 0 0 25 625 “Corporate transformation echoes in our ears the word – ‘problem’. Whenever a company is transformed, it must have been to resolve a problem. But is it so? Many companies in the past were transformed as it was the need of the hour. However, as troubled businesses are multiplying by the day, reinvention has become the norm. To stay on the top and grow further, companies have to constantly improve ways to run the show, be it strategic, operational, organisational or financial. However, how easy is it to transform a company that has been running in a particular way for years? History records many corporates that have been victims of failed transformations. If resistance from employees is common, costs involved in restructuring are also sometimes humongous. Experience suggests that successful transformation requires long term rather than quick fix solutions and a sensible vision. Above all, successful transformation calls for a leader who can indentify the key problems, strengths, weaknesses and resources of the company. It requires a leader who knows the science and art of corporate transformation.
In this book, fourteen case studies reveal the art of corporate transformation. The book especially focuses on the cultural challenges that corporates face while restructuring. Providing a short theoretical framework, this book provides insights on how companies have successfully repositioned themselves amidst problems and obstacles. Corporate transformation is a must read for all those executives desiring and managing transformations.
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57 978-81-314-2045-4 Case Studies on Retailing Industry – Vol. I www.nbcindia.com Case Study Collection Sushma T 19-Sep-08 280 0 0 50 1250 “Since 1990s, the global retail industry was padded by radical changes – mainly because of the transforming global economy and changing consumer behaviour. New retail formats and offerings were invented, upsetting traditional retailing. As the wealthiest markets saturated, retailers foraged for new growth zones. So, there was consolidation and in turn globalisation – two things that continue to define and shape the global retail industry.
With a huge customer base and vast untapped potential in the developing markets, these retailers started foraying into these markets. Flexibility, detailed analysis of its consumer base, getting the right retail format and product mix are the key success factors for the retailers in these markets. Some retailers imported their traditional business model while others customised it to suit the local environment. And for their saturated home markets, they identified innovation as the key differentiator.
But retailers, in the coming years, would have to tackle an altogether different setting where there would be limited growth opportunities and more demanding consumers. This book compiles case studies that help us understand how retail industry is evolving, the challenges it is facing and how the retailers are addressing these issues.
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58 978-81-314-1986-1 The Agronomy and The Economy of Cardamom:The Queen of Spices www.nbcindia.com Agriculture Prabhakaran Nair K P 16-Sep-08 404 23 575 25.5 650 The Agronomy and Economy of Cardamom – The “Queen of Spices” Cardamom, popularly known as the “Queen of Spices”, has a checkered history, dating back to the Vedic times (ca. 3000 BC) and is among the ingredients poured into the sacrificial fire during the Hindu marriage. Today, cardamom commands a leading position among the spices of immense commercial importance and is finding its way into the dietary habits of millions around the world, even among people in the European and the North American continents. As a spice of global importance, it comes next to Black pepper, which is known as “The King of Spices”. The book is a unique compilation of several aspects relating to cardamom production, cardamom plantation establishment and management, processing, world markets, its industrial uses, its medicinal value etc with the latest researched data. In short, the fifteen chapters, which are catalogued in the book are the A to Z of cardamom and would be an invaluable resource book to students of agriculture, entrepreneurs planning to go into cardamom production and its related value-added products, economists, policy planners in the ministries of agriculture and commerce, and end users across the world.
59 978-81-314-2090-4 Clinical Research Environment In INDIA www.nbcindia.com IT Umakanta Sahoo Faiz Kermani 16-Sep-08 280 20 500 22.5 575 This Book “Clinical Research Environment in India” is an eye opener for those who are new in this business as it gives an understanding of the key business segments and discusses key factors in the environment surrounding the business. In today’s scenario, there are many entrepreneurs who are looking at venturing into this business and they are unaware of the status of clinical trials conducted in India, the regulatory environment, the competitors in the market, and other support service providers in the country. This book will help them understand the logistics of the clinical research business in India. It will also help the practicing entry level professionals such as monitors, Clinical Research Associates, medical research associates and data entry associates to gain an overall insight into the clinical research industry, which will facilitate their career growth. This book can be a student’s guide and a trainers’ reference book in the classroom and teaching set-up. It will be of benefit for those wanting to hone their knowledge and skills in clinical research. This book is likely to be of interest to: 1.Corporate pharmaceutical companies and medical colleges/hospitals conducting clinical research, both in the private and the public sectors 2.Academics 3.Students and Researchers in clinical research 4.Students pursuing pharmaceutical management and hospital management courses 5.Persons working in regulatory bodies in Government both at state and central levels 6.Non Government organisations dealing with experimental studies in India This book should be an asset to those working in pharmaceutical, CRO, biotechnology, device, and study site and SMO organisations.
60 978-81-314-1501-6 Changing Dynamics of Human Relationships in Workplaces www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Laurainne Theogaraj 16-Sep-08 252 17 425 0 0 People need people. Such is the human condition. And yet, there are workplaces where employers are concerned only about the bottom line and not about their employees, where employees are in conflict with their peers, where inequity, politics and disengagement make the workplace a toxic space to be in. If the underlying assumption is that business is only a matter of making profit, then what about the value of work relationships? The book briefly dwells upon the evolution of human relations approach to management and how highly successful companies have discovered the human side of their enterprise. They see the value of making relationships the new bottom line. Positive, caring and respectful relationships translate to performance and productivity. In the 21st century workplace with its emphasis on teams, flexibility, workforce diversity, virtual teams and business competition, stress, conflict and problems in relationships are inevitable. How can corporate leaders and managements create an organizational climate that nurtures human relationships as the foundation for business success? Skill in handling human relationships will greatly influence one’s success in satisfying personal needs and achieving organizational goals. The aim of the book is to create an awareness of the very foundations upon which human relationships are built. This is the starting point to developing relationship skills. In this regard, the book explores the dynamic interplay among psychological and social dimensions such as personality, perception, emotions, groups, communication etc. that underlie relationships, and highlights the key ingredients of the human relationships recipe, viz. emotional, social and spiritual intelligence as well as trust, sensitivity and empathy in communications which form the bedrock of positive human relationships. The topic is not just contemporary in nature but transcends time and cuts across all borders. It would be of immense relevance as it deals with concepts that offer value for individual and organizational success at all times and in all settings.
61 978-81-314-2091-1 Social Networking – Trends and Experiences www.nbcindia.com General Management Sangeetha K 16-Sep-08 228 16 400 0 0 Social networking is a concept that is based on shared learning through mutual support, exchange and advice. It helps an individual find new opportunities and be distinct; this is more so for young business entrepreneurs for whom establishing and amplifying their contact base globally is of prime importance for a winning future. The rapidly changing scenario of social networks for seeking and building relationships and the gamut of technological inventions have changed the scenes of people in collaboration and community formation. It has been overwhelmingly used by people as a medium of communication where networking relationships and membership are sought from likeminded people around the globe for various reasons – to maintain contact with their friends, colleagues or with anyone to be connected globally, for sharing information, to build online communities and to have a discussion of matters of general concern. Now, with new inventions in mobile technology, the future of social networking is moving towards mobile social networking. Such being the benefits sought, its increased usage among teenagers, business entrepreneurs and also academicians does not come as a surprise. An effective ongoing social networking process positively yields huge returns for the time and energy that is invested in the networking process. The net workers’ base can further be increased on properly addressing the networking issues of security, privacy and online identity. In a nutshell, social networking enables one to find and retrieve anything from lost friends to finding your soul mates or your business partners; to get referrals and be connected with people with whom you like or love to have an enduring relationship for personal or business reasons. This book is designed to capture the significance of social networking and its benefit and to analyze various tools and strategies for building and maintaining network for social and business reasons.
62 978-81-314-1423-1 Issues in National and International Agriculture www.nbcindia.com Agriculture Prabhakaran Nair K P 16-Sep-08 216 15.5 400 18 450 The 47 articles of the book cover a range of topics from food crisis, wheat import, global warming, R&D in agriculture and GM technology, with specific reference to Bt Cotton, Bt Rice and Bt Brinjal. Indian agriculture is at a cross-road. The most worrying aspect is the crisis on the food front. Post reform period food grains production has plummeted to 1.6 per cent per annum, while population growth is now at 1.9 per cent per annum, which has clearly set in the “Malthusian Phenomenon” of population growth outstripping food production growth. The author, through his writings, which have been captured in this book, has been warning the nation on the impending food crisis. The wheat import for the second year in succession vindicates his warning. Industrial agriculture, euphemistically called the “green revolution”, though produced food in plenty in the initial phase of its launch, has run into a road block with irremediable problems on the soil front. Degraded soils, drying aquifers and vanishing bio diversity due to continuous monoculture of rice-wheat, have all been too big a price to pay. The GM technology is no panacea for the ills of Indian agriculture. Instead of “targeting” the farmer through a “package of practices” which the agricultural fraternity develops on the experiment stations, which is nothing but an artefact, and which is relied upon since decades, the farmer has to be at the center of developing any innovative system of cropping. As clearly pointed out in the latest report by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, “Economic Outlook for 2007-08”, which puts India in poor light compared to China, the “traditional excuses” for India’s “sub standard performance in the farm sector”, are not only “tired”, but “inadequate”. The book is a critical analysis of where India’s agriculture went wrong and where it ought to go from now on.
63 978-81-314-2028-7 National Happiness-Thinking Beyond Gdp www.nbcindia.com Economy Ravikant S Wawge 16-Sep-08 208 15 375 0 0 GDP and GNP are some of the standard economic measures widely used all over the world. However, the emerging scenario has compelled economists and policymakers to think beyond GDP and other well-established quantitative measures. An obvious question comes to our mind: What is the ultimate goal of human life? Everyone wants to be happy, and happiness is certainly a missing factor in the economic measures like GDP and GNP. These well established economic measures are unable to define the level of happiness we attain through our economic growth and development. Thus, there is a need to have an alternative measure of our economic activities. Many measures have been taken by various organizations in this regard. But a tiny kingdom, Bhutan, has come up with a more holistic approach called “Gross National Happiness” (GNH). Bhutan is following economic policies based on the philosophies enshrined in Buddhist culture. This trend has led its people towards holistic well-being. In 1972, His Majesty the King of Bhutan conceptualized the idea of GNH as an alternative to GDP. Earlier, Bhutan was not open to discuss its initiative, but as the concept has begun delivering the desired results, Bhutan wants to make this a global movement. Bhutan’s experiment with this concept has invited the attention of the world to this small kingdom. This book is an attempt to understand Bhutan’s initiatives, and it critically examines the concept of Gross National Happiness in light of the current global scenario and developments.
64 978-81-314-2058-4 The Icfai Dictionary of Human Resource Management Terms www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Pradeep Kumar Anupama D Raina 6-Sep-08 360 21 525 0 0 “The Icfai Dictionary of Human Resource Management Terms is addressed to students, teachers, practitioners and general readers who want to follow HRM discussions in the class and elsewhere, or whose daily work demands some familiarity with terminology of Human Resource Management, HRM and its related subjects, Development of HRM, HR Implementation, HRM Market Place, Strategic Human Resource Management, International HRM, HRM Present and future and Emerging Trends in HRM etc. The dictionary also addresses terms from the conceptual level to the advanced level in a precise manner. It aims to provide a comprehensive companion to support other reading in a discipline, which employs remarkably similar terminology.
This dictionary is a guide to the main ideas and teaching connected to the basics of and advances in HRM. The book is designed in such a way that it will cover the salient facts and features of various points of HRM and, also explore HRM development from business perspective. Around 3400 entries define and explain clearly the salient facts within the context of Human Resource Management. Its store of up-to-date information will certainly appeal to active managers, teachers and students of General Management.
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65 978-81-314-2009-6 Migration – Health – Linkage: Emerging Issues www.nbcindia.com Anthropology Azmal Hussain 6-Sep-08 284 18 450 0 0 In the present-day world, migrants and other mobile individuals like migrant workers, asylum seekers etc. form an ever-expanding global population with growing socio-demographic as well as political importance. Disparities are found very often between a migrant population s place of origin and its destination, especially with relation to health determinants. The effects of such disparities are observable at individual as well as population levels. Epidemiology of certain diseases is amply influenced by migration, both globally and in nations receiving migrants. Though the outcomes may vary with specific morbidities peculiar to certain migrant groups and their geographical origin and distribution, general epidemiological principles may have a much wider applicability. Another issue that very often faces the present-day world is the mobility of health professionals across different geographical locations thereby exerting influence on human health and allied aspects. The book is expected to provide an overview of the above issues having relevance to the contemporary global demographic dynamics. It is a serious attempt to elucidate the issue of population mobility with the focus on migration-health interaction, which has been accommodating a range of sub-themes such as theoretical issues in migration-induced health outcomes, migration of health professionals and the corresponding health policy implications and development of program strategies linking migration and health, particularly migration and HIV/AIDS.
66 978-81-314-2072-0 HR In Knowledge Era www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Devi R J 6-Sep-08 276 18 450 0 0 Knowledge, Knowledge workers and Knowledge Management have created a lot of interest among the corporate leaders in the recent past. The changes in the present industrial scenario with increased emphasis on knowledge management have resulted in significant shifts in the working environment and HR policies pursued by organizations. The primary focus of Human Resources Management is to match the job profile with the skill set of people in order to achieve the organization’s goals. There is understandably a considerable overlap between human resources and knowledge management, since knowledge creation is a human activity and managing humans is a HR activity. Knowledge Management and Human Resources Management initiatives are focused on harnessing the available knowledge assets and to prevent knowledge from walking out of the door. Hence, there is a need for integration between the Knowledge Management initiatives and the HR policies of the organization. The function of the HR department is to select and recruit individuals who would subscribe to the culture of sharing information and knowledge dissemination. An Organization’s HR policies and practices must be aligned to fortify the Knowledge Management practices to maximize the organization’s intellectual asset. HRM should provide a platform for the employees to realize the “Ultimate Experience” by transforming all their tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge through educating them and building their skills and competencies.
67 978-81-314-2098-0 Central banks – Roles, Functions and Challenges www.nbcindia.com Finance Ravi Kumar Jain B Sohani AK 6-Sep-08 296 18 450 0 0 Central banking system (of any country) has an indelible impact on the micro and macro economy factors of a country. The strategies implemented by central banks form the basis for analyzing the significant contributors of economic welfare. It ensures smooth functioning of the economy by protecting the economic interest of a country. As an apex institution a central bank is responsible for streamlining the flows of capital, trade, investment and currencies across GDPs (Gross Domestic Products) and broad moneys and establishing a balance among these factors, which largely influence economic prosperity of a country. On the whole, a country’s economic system is largely dependent on the functioning of its central banking system. Central bank performs several functions – as a regulator, as a facilitator, as an advisor and so on. It is important to understand the nature and objectives of a nation’s apex financial institution and its contribution to the welfare of nation. This book is significant in its contribution as it proposes to offer insights into the importance of a central banking as a concept, the significance of central bank and various roles that it performs, issues and challenges it addresses in furthering national economic objectives. This book brings out various issues and challenges that a central bank (of any country) faces while delivering its functions, especially in the changing business and economic environment. The objective of the book is to make the reader understand the need and importance of central banking in an economic system.
68 978-81-314-2026-3 Common Property Resources: Concepts and Country Experiences www.nbcindia.com General Books Sridhar Krishna Sumitra Acharya 6-Sep-08 272 17 425 0 0 Property has become the most longed possession one would dream of. The property regime has passed through open access system to that of highly controlled access/ownership system. The possession and ownership of property varies from place to place depending upon its nature. That which is used collectively by a community gets the identity of common property. It could be the river, pond, well, forest, land etc. Such properties cannot be exclusively owned by any individual or even by State. State can only be the trustee of those properties, but not the owner. Community-used property remains part and parcel of theirs and any development may not result in privatizing these resources. In the present era, apart from tribal communities, forest dwellers, village pasture grounds, ponds, river users and the urban communities are considered to be equally enabled to represent their claim against privatization or misuse of these community-used natural resources. The book gives rich information regarding the common property resources as well as the modes of community management of common property resources nationally and internationally, highlighting lack of decentralization of power and financial support to these communities. The book also deals with the issues related to international management of common property resources. The relevance of this property regime in the present urban space and public (community) responsibilities are also discussed. So, the book will be of great benefit to those who deal with property issues, whether in the private sector or the public sector, Academicians, students, industrialists, environmentalists, natural resource-based research centers, organizations working on development issues, state town and country development authorities so on and so forth.
69 978-81-314-2082-9 Inventory Optimization – Introduction www.nbcindia.com Operations Management Rajmanohar T P 6-Sep-08 264 17 425 0 0 Inventory has been a hotly debated subject for the last fifty years. There were a lot of models, including ABC analysis and EOQ models. However, the first real breakthrough was JIT purchasing which was practised in Japan in the 1960s but was known in the western world only in the 1970s. A lot of US and European companies adopted JIT as they felt that it would reduce their inventories drastically. However, very few companies enjoyed the benefit which was achieved by the Japanese companies. The reasons given for this were that the corporate culture in western companies was not amenable for implementing JIT. In the 1980s and 90s some Indian companies also implemented JIT with limited success. In the 1990s a new technique called inventory optimization was developed in western countries. Inventory optimization was a technique which was developed for reducing the inventory across the entire supply chain. This included suppliers, all manufacturing plants, distributor points and retailing points. Along with inventory optimization, the science of network design of the supply chain became popular. In addition to inventory optimization other methods of reducing inventory include vendor-managed inventory (VMI) and consignment inventory model. Over a period of time, a number of software companies have developed packages to implement inventory optimization. Most of these packages use the data from an existing ERP system or other systems, and fix the inventory levels across the supply chain. The main approach of inventory optimization is to minimize investment in inventory for a given service level.
70 978-81-314-2080-5 Urbanization – Insights and Experiences www.nbcindia.com Economics Amit Singh Sisodiya Janardhan Rao N 2-Sep-08 304 19 475 0 0 Formulating an effective urban planning on account of urbanization is a major issue facing India, today. Rising population coupled with growing migration from rural areas is putting an enormous burden on the country’s cities, already faced with poor and deteriorating infrastructure; according to the latest census data, the urban population at 286 million constitutes about 28% of the country’s total population of 1028 millions. The problem is further worsened by rising growing income levels in the country that have also pushed the demand for housing, transportation, water, sanitation and other basic amenities. The unprecedented urbanization is thus posing a challenge to build and augment cities’ infrastructures that include mass of affordable housing, water, transportation, power, and sanitation among other basic amenities. With several reports forecasting growing significance of cities as the engines of growth and emergence of several what UN Habitat Report 2006-07 calls mega-cities in the future, it poses a significant challenge to the cities which are ill-equipped and lack funds to tackle the issue effectively. All this calls for a huge effort on the part of the government, the policymakers and the private sector. Against this backdrop, the book aims to explore the concepts and trends in urbanization, related issues, and possible solutions such as increased thrust on public-private partnerships to effectively deal with the challenges of urbanization. The book also offers important lessons drawn from some success stories within the country as well as abroad.
71 978-81-314-2088-1 Ethics in Organ Transplantation: Perspectives and Challenges www.nbcindia.com General Books Nirmala Rao Khadpekar 2-Sep-08 288 18 450 0 0 This book examines the ethical issues related to organ transplants from the points of view of bioethicists, anthropological researchers and legislative issues. Altruism, as is still a primary player in blood donation, is increasingly losing its hallowed place, where solid organs are concerned. The human body is increasingly being viewed as a repository of organs available for harvesting, governed by principles or commerce or reward by the body owners, agents and beneficiaries. Pro-health and pro-choice issues are discussed, along with the role of preventive medicine. The fact is that immunosuppressant pharmaceutical interventions have made this double edged choice a real possibility. Illicit trade in human organs is considered to be a result of global capitalism that tempts the impoverished and disenfranchised populations of the third world for whom a body organ is one thing that requires no labour to produce in order to fetch a monetary value. Market dynamics is changing the rules of the game and all of us need to cope with the dilemma whether to opt for what was heretofore seen as graceful, dignified death as against offering up the mortal body for organ harvest or medical research.
72 978-81-314-1932-8 Small and Medium Enterprises - Global Experiences and Cases www.nbcindia.com Management Amit Singh Sisodiya Janardhan Rao N 2-Sep-08 280 18 450 0 0 The small-scale industries are viewed as an important vehicle for meeting both growth and equity objectives of developing economies. The last two decades have witnessed the steady re-emergence of small-scale industries in both industrialized and industrializing countries, reducing the importance of economies of scale in mass production. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to continually innovate and seek competitive advantages in order to exist, sustain and grow. They are faced with pressures to slash production costs, increase productivity and have to be necessarily more knowledge-driven. Globalisation has created more pressures on the one hand while on the other, greater incentives and opportunities have opened up giving access to overseas markets and knowledge sources. This enables leveraging of these multifarious options to build lasting competitive advantages and to support continuous innovation. In most developing countries SMEs constitute the bulk of the industrial base and contribute significantly to their exports as well as their GDP and GNP. For instance, India has nearly three million SMEs which account for almost 50% of industrial output and 42% of India’s total exports. SMEs play a crucial role in the development of all developing economies. SMEs are considered to be the base of every national economy, generating about 50 percent of the countries’ gross national product. The main reasons are that they are capable of quickly adapting to exacting customer demands as also they are capable of generating large employment potential.
73 978-81-314-1521-4 Payment for Environmental Services:Some Concepts and Experiences www.nbcindia.com General Meenu Bhatnagar 2-Sep-08 284 18 450 0 0 Payment for Environmental Services (PES) is the latest policy innovation that is attracting a lot of attention in both developed and developing countries. Collectively, the value of global environmental services has been estimated at US$ 33 trillion, higher than the entire world’s gross national product. The services which currently stand out are Carbon Sequestration and storage; Bio-diversity protection; Watershed protection and Landscape beauty. PES is a voluntary conditional transaction where there is at least one seller, one buyer and a well-defined environmental service. PES is an emerging concept and tool for achieving conservation of ecosystem and improving livelihoods of environmental service providers. Expansive assessments have praised the absolute advantages of PES over traditional conservation approaches. The basic principle of PES is that those who ‘provide’ environmental services should be rewarded by the beneficiaries. Markets for environmental services differ in geographic scope, strength and structure of demand, the competitiveness, nature and price of commodities sold and the number of transactions. Having an enormous potential to encourage and fund conservation efforts, the PES may succeed where other conservation approaches have failed. It could increase the appeal of conservation practices to landowners and farmers through provision of monetary incentives. This book introduces the concept of payment for environmental services. It highlights the subject by examining the basic principles of the payment for environmental services while addressing the livelihood issues for the poor, conservation of resources, preservation of flora and fauna etc. The book richly draws on the environmental service schemes being implemented in different countries across the world.
74 978-81-314-1522-1 Glocalisation of Brands www.nbcindia.com Marketing Amitabha Ghose Ishita Mukherjee 2-Sep-08 276 18 450 0 0 Organizations across the world are constantly striving to achieve boundaryless branding in order to attain top recall value. This refers to a situation where companies internationalize their image and global companies localize theirs to match the local market conditions. Thus companies have realized the importance of getting international flavors in their brands as it reflects the values of the enterprise. “Think global, act local” is a critical strategy for most global companies and modifying one’s core business culture and practices to suit a new market is the key to survival. A global company with a local strategy but adapting locally is known as “glocalisation”. Global brand management has assumed greater importance with increased globalization. Therefore, global brand building needs to be carefully managed by taking into account the brand’s salience, performance and imagery. The strategy should be modified to suit local needs and expectations for appropriate judgment and feelings for the brand among local consumers. This book deals with the nitty-gritty of glocal branding which is important in today’s globally competitive market place. It outlines the concept and evolution of the term glocalisation, essence of glocalisation of foreign brands for succeeding in the local market. The new wave of glocalisation and strategies to be adopted for succeeding in glocalisation of brands in the globally competitive market have been comprehensively discussed in the book through relevant case studies. This book will serve as a valuable reference for Brand Managers, Marketing Managers, Advertising Agencies, Marketing Consultants, Media Managers, Marketing Management Teachers and Students.
75 978-81-314-2075-1 Health Economics: Concepts and Experiences www.nbcindia.com Economy Asis Kumar Pain Somnath Hazra 2-Sep-08 260 17 425 0 0 Health economics focuses on the efficiency (maximizing possible outputs from given inputs) and effectiveness (benefit from treatment or care) of resource allocation in the provisioning of health services infrastructure to meet health needs of individuals and society. Embodied in its domain is health care, which is multi-dimensional in character having such elements as public good with externalities, social merit want, private consumption good, human capital good, altruistic mind-set, etc as its components. Understanding health economics entails viewing it as a dependent variable based on such factors as (i) income (ii) education (iii) changes in the age structure (iv) improvement in medical technology (v) degree of illness of a patient and (vi) availability as well as accessibility of health care institutions etc. In such a framework, demand for or quantity of health care depends on the quality of medical care. Greater the quality of care, greater is the willingness to pay for the services received. The aforesaid discussion sets the tone of the present volume wherein different facets of health economics as well as its implications in different countries are delved upon through a bi-sectional approach. While the first section details the domain and scope of health economics apart from prescribing policies to ward off the lacunae, the other section portrays the economic impact as a result of differential health status in different parts of the globe.
76 978-81-314-1995-3 Employee Morale: Concepts and Cases www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Sangeetha K 2-Sep-08 252 17 425 0 0 The rapidly increasing fierce competition and employee attrition levels across various industries globally have made businesses take care of their employees as never before to boost their morale and enthusiasm in order to retain them. Companies that have high workplace morale have accomplished wonders in terms of innovation, superior talent pool, good quality products, increased productivity and soaring revenues. Building and sustaining morale in an organization is concerned with raising a strong business through its positive-minded people who always look forward to going to work every day; producing better products and services and creating an environment that attracts talented workforce to emerge as ‘employer of choice’. The management must be aware that transmitting optimism, security and appreciation down the line can work wonders for the company – it surpasses the competition in the stock market with high market gains and increased employee satisfaction levels in comparison with firms having medium-to-low morale workforce. An organization’s interest in knowing what the employees expect from their leaders, their work, the workplace and implementing those desired needs and expectations create an infinite energy, interest and zeal among the workforce, which is repaid to the organization via loyalty and commitment towards their job and the management. The more the leaders or the managements invest their time and money on good people practices that provide equity, accomplishment and comradeship in their organizations, the more definite are the chances of employees being retained and being productive. In a nutshell, companies that invest more in morale-building exercises will earn enduring and successful leadership positions and are winners in the competitive business market. This book is designed to capture the essence of employee morale, its significance and to analyze various strategies for building and maintaining employee morale in an organization.
77 978-81-314-1519-1 IUP Series on Investing in Mutual Funds: Emerging Avenues www.nbcindia.com Finance Dhandapani Alagiri 2-Sep-08 256 17 425 0 0 Mutual funds, over the years, have evolved into various schemes that reflect the risk-return profile of investors. These have further turned into schemes that concentrate on different sectors of the economy. The schemes also invest in such a mix that reflects the attitude of investors. These schemes provide investors with a wide range of opportunities and avenues to invest their money in. Some of the schemes that have been introduced in recent years include real estate schemes, exchange traded funds, infrastructure funds, money market mutual funds, arbitrage funds, gold schemes; socially responsible investments etc. From the late 1980s and early1990s, as the financial reforms set in, an increasing number of banks and financial institutions set up mutual funds. The rules and regulations for operating a mutual fund are formulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Industry has been growing steadily and has achieved good volume in recent years. The assets under management have crossed the 5 lakh crore mark. The growth of mutual funds and the introduction of new schemes and specialized funds have been on the rise and this has drawn a lot of attention in financial circles In this context, this book, The Icfai University Press on Investing in Mutual Funds: Emerging Avenues will make useful reading as it captures recent developments and practices of mutual funds in the market place. The book presents a series of well-written articles that bring out the essence of the happenings in the field.
78 978-81-314-1525-2 Fragile States: Global Perspectives www.nbcindia.com Governance Sudha V Menon 2-Sep-08 264 17 425 0 0 ‘Fragile States’ is the term used for countries facing serious development challenges such as weak institutional capacity, poor governance, political instability and frequently on-going violence or the legacy effects of past conflict. Fragile states contain 14% of the world’s population but account for nearly 30% of people living on less than $1 a day. One person in three is undernourished. This is twice as high as in other poor countries. Fragile states cannot or will not deliver what citizens need to live decent, secure lives. They cannot or will not tackle poverty. As such, they significantly reduce the likelihood of the world meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Fragile states are the hardest countries in the world to help develop. Working with them is difficult and costly and carries significant risks. Aid programmes in fragile states pose difficult policy dilemmas. Since the mid-1990s, a stronger donor emphasis on rewarding countries with relatively effective governments and stable macroeconomic policies has led to further neglect of fragile states. Even taking account of their poor performance, fragile states have received 43% less aid than what would have been appropriate, given the extent of poverty within them. Against this context, this book attempts to explain the basic concept of fragile states, diverse perspectives and approaches towards them and the main factors which cause fragility. The book is divided into two sections. The first section discusses major theoretical and conceptual issues related to fragile states. Section two presents country experiences of Liberia, Sudan, Cambodia, Haiti Somalia etc.
79 978-81-314-2067-6 Tyre Industry in India – Issues and Outlook www.nbcindia.com Industry Rajmanohar T P Gowri Shankar K 2-Sep-08 248 16.5 425 0 0 The Indian tyre industry is around eighty years old. One of the first companies to set up manufacturing facilities in India was Dunlop. In the pre-Independence period, the tyre manufacturers were mainly foreign companies. Raw material in the form of natural rubber was easily available and labour was cheap. Sometime in 1956, based on the recommendations of the Tariff Commission, the Government encouraged domestic companies to set up their manufacturing facilities. A number of companies set up their plants in India, usually with technical support from foreign companies. Over a period of time the tyre industry was dominated by Indian players. After the onset of liberalization a few foreign companies entered India. However, they were not able to make a dent in the market share of Indian companies. Some foreign companies like Michelin, Continental Tyres and Pirelli are planning to enter India in the near future. Over the last few years, import of tyres into India from countries like China, South Korea and Thailand has been on the rise. The tyre manufacturers feel that due to the inverted duty structure foreign tyre manufacturers have an unfair advantage. The Indian tyre industry has grown over the last ten years. The reasons for growth are the robust growth of the economy and the automobile industry. Besides domestic growth, there has been a smart growth in the export of tyres also. The future is likely to see more growth in exports as the supply of natural rubber goes down. It is expected that the Indian tyre industry will have a very bright future.
80 978-81-314-1499-6 Agribusiness – Transforming Indian Agriculture www.nbcindia.com Agriculture Janardhan Rao N Amit Singh Sisodiya 2-Sep-08 240 16.5 425 0 0 Agribusiness promises to be the next sunrise sector for India. Agribusiness sector consists of businesses that either supply farm inputs or are involved in the marketing of farm products through warehousing, processing, wholesaling and retailing. It can hence be thought of as consisting of economic activities relating to the supply chain of agricultural inputs and the supply chain of agricultural products. The sector can play a major role in linking farmers to global supply chains in agriculture. Though the concept of agribusiness is not new to India, there were hardly any takers for it until recently. However, thanks to the retail revolution and entry of big corporate houses like Reliance, Bharti, ITC, and PepsiCo, it has galvanized the agribusiness landscape in the country, literally. This vindicates the huge untapped potential of the country’s farm sector. But on the other side the sector also faces several challenges. For instance, the cultivable land for foodgrains has remained stagnant at 120 million hectares and there has been no improvement of this land either in terms of profitability or size of land holdings. Also, it is estimated that a third of perishable produce like fruits and vegetables is lost in the absence of food-processing facilities, storage and transportation. Against this backdrop, the book attempts to provide insights into agribusiness in India, its prospects and major challenges. Besides, the book covers some major trends such as contract farming, food retailing, e-agribusiness, agri-clinics, role of technology in agribusiness and glocalization and the measures needed to boost agribusiness in the country.
81 978-81-314-1492-7 Watershed Management:case Studies www.nbcindia.com General Management Sudha V Menon 2-Sep-08 248 16.5 425 0 0 Watershed is the area of land from which water drains into a body of water such as river, lake, stream or bay. Watershed Management refers to the conservation, regeneration and the judicious use of all the resources – natural (land, water, plants, and animals) and human – within a particular watershed. It tries to bring about the best possible balance in the environment between natural resources on the one side, and human and other living beings on the other. It is also envisaged as the strategy for protecting the livelihood of the people inhabiting the fragile ecosystems experiencing soil erosion and moisture stress. Experiments with watershed management have so far yielded rich dividends and provided valuable insights into the aspects of management of natural resource base, particularly land and water. Strategies in management range from purely technical approaches to those that emphasize participation of social organizations. Little systematic analysis exists, however, on the success of the different approaches. Against the context of increasing water scarcity, this book brings to the fore emerging issues and innovative methods in watershed management. The book attempts to focus on case studies of watershed management projects, country experiences and innovative models across the world that would provide an insight into the sustainable practices of watershed management. While taking case studies from Asia, Africa and Latin America, the book indeed makes a modest effort to sensitize the readers to the need for sustainable watershed management programmes in an era of water scarcity and desertification.
82 978-81-314-1417-0 Online Networking – Connecting People www.nbcindia.com General Management Sangeetha K 2-Sep-08 244 16.5 425 0 0 In the constantly changing scenario of globalization, Internet inventions have made online networking a hot trend among people. Online networking is no more a teenage phenomenon; it has become a fundamental aspect of life for all segments in the society globally, for communication, getting information and cultivating relationships. It is an art of meeting and knowing people or collaborating, striking a rapport and finally establishing a long-lasting relationship with them for both social and business reasons. It encourages individuals or entities to share a common interest and offers an opportunity to stay connected. Relationship and membership are sought from like-minded people across the globe and enable one to reap escalating reward in terms of new contacts, information, job or advice to solve a problem or crisis. Online networking not only helps a person to socialize but also aids business entrepreneurs in creating a competitive advantage. It serves as a prime strategic resource to explore new avenues for businesses. A networking individual’s growth, at both personal and professional levels depends upon one’s situation, goals for networking, a right proportion of attitude and behavior; and following proper net etiquettes and optimal use of online networking tools. Success at networking also depends upon the strong practice that ‘networking should be carried on a continuous process’. On the flipside, there exist problems in terms of privacy; security and a hub for malevolent activities, such as cyber crime, cybersex, vandalism and loss of intellectual property too. On properly addressing these issues socially, technologically and legally, it is certain that online networking will become a centrality to all for interacting and building relationships. This book is designed to capture the significance of online networking and analyze the various tools and strategies for building networks and the way to handle the issues faced during online networking.
83 978-81-314-1535-1 Changing role of top management in the era of globalization www.nbcindia.com General Management Simantee Sen 2-Sep-08 236 16 400 0 0 Today, effective leadership is commonly viewed as central to organizational success, and more importance is placed on the role expansion of the “Top-chair” leaders than ever before. This top-management role expands horizontally, vertically and also diagonally. Increasingly, leadership is defined not as what the leader does but rather as a process that engenders and is the result of relationships—relationships that focus on the interactions of both leaders and collaborators, instead of focusing on only the competencies of leaders. It is also more about the role expansion and enrichment, especially for the top chairs. The theme of the book is how the role of top level managers in an organization, namely the CXOs (CEO, CMO, CIO, CFO), has been undergoing significant changes in recent times. With the implementation of new legislations like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, to avoid frauds and malpractices, and with the increased demands of stakeholders, the job of top management is becoming more tedious and enormous. As Top Leaders are expected to be omnipresent throughout the company, they tend to implement many control techniques in the workplace, especially in decision-making areas. Today’s top management are ‘business’ leaders, not merely of their own domain (marketing, IT, finance, etc). The objective of this book is to trace the role of top level “Leadership” over the years, increasingly occurring within the context of work; and also to obtain critical expression about the role and competencies in the new age top organizational positions. The significance of this book holds true for business leaders in every function within the organization.
84 978-81-314-1418-7 Agrofuels: A New Frontier www.nbcindia.com General Books Subir Ghosh 2-Sep-08 228 16 400 0 0 Biofuels seems to be a very good option in the face of climate change and declining fossil fuel reserves, but it is raising environmental concerns. Far from being sustainable, the spread of what is more accurately called ‘agrofuels’ – liquid fuel produced from biomass grown in large-scale monocultures – is compromising biodiversity and fuelling the issue of human rights violations. As industry expands, it is encouraging intensified, industrial agriculture, providing a new promotional vehicle for GM crops, and posing a serious threat to food sovereignty. The argument that the ‘biofuels’ will mitigate climate change is unproven – indeed, the destruction of rainforests, peat lands and other ecosystems to make way for agrofuels plantations may well accelerate global warming. It is discovered that the stampede into biofuels is causing enormous environmental and social damage, much more than what is realized earlier. Because of massive use of biofuels, ecological balance is being destroyed and thousands of indigenous and peasant communities are being thrown off their land. Therefore, biofuels is no more considered to be a viable solution in Latin America. Agrofuels is a much better option in this scenario. The Government of India is taking initiatives to plant jatropha in over 14 million hectares of land. With this background, the book tries to examine the positive and negative aspects of agrofuels throughout the globe in terms of opportunities and challenges.
85 978-81-314-1419-4 Understanding Multiculturalism www.nbcindia.com General Nirmala Rao Khadpekar 2-Sep-08 232 16 400 0 0 This book on multiculturalism is a collection of valuable readings presented in perspectives and experiences. It examines multiculturalism and diversity in the modern nation state as economic and political pressures put a lot of stress on noble ideas, inclusive schools of thought and celebration of diversity. Increasing flux and subsequent movements of people across the world in search of pursuing better opportunity is causing all sorts of grouping and regrouping to assert separateness within the chosen lands of opportunities. Moral values of cultures need to be taken into account as these values cause complexities in multicultural societies. The need to establish superiorities of culture and feeling threatened by the number and proliferation of ‘others’ across the world is creating feelings of vulnerability, leading to hardening of stances. Newly settled people need to understand that some assimilation within the residence of choice is required for acceptance and harmony. Indigenous people also need to see this influx as an opportunity while retaining their own intrinsic cultures and even familiar landscapes. Cultural differences, instead of being a source of conflict, can be a path leading to creative change and cross-cultural stimulation. We need to create a common cultural ground without one ‘civilization’ biases and reach what is universal and become aware of the shared ‘humanness’ of human beings. There is a particular ‘Us’ against ‘Them’ syndrome that is leading to deformations in thinking which become complex due to shades that colour it from the point of view of civilizations and races. Multiculturalism is looked for its value and relevance today.
86 978-81-314-2018-8 Micronutrient Interventions: Perspectives and Country Experiences www.nbcindia.com Anthropology Azmal Hussain 2-Sep-08 212 15.5 400 0 0 Micronutrient deficiencies represent a formidable health challenge for people of developing countries. Deficiencies of vitamin A, iodine and iron are known to be especially prevalent and are associated with a range of mild (and often reversible) to severe (and often irreversible) health consequences. Known clinical outcomes of micronutrient deficiencies include impaired growth and cognitive development, poor birth outcomes, anemia, cretinism, and blindness. On the other hand, reducing micronutrient deficiencies can reduce the rate of maternal and child mortality, morbidity, and disability and increase adult physical work capacity and productivity. Particularly in school age children, micronutrient deficiencies have been shown to reduce a child’s ability to attend school and pay attention to studies. Besides, micronutrient supplements are valuable for meeting acute cases of deficiency diseases. Cultural, economic, geographic, climatic and political conditions can influence the suitability of particular interventions or combinations of interventions. The book is focused on micronutrient intervention as an important global health issue that deserves serious attention from a range of stakeholders including Government, aid agencies and communities to name a few, along with highlighting the avenues to address the same as a major component of human health. It is expected to be of interest to policy planners and health administrators, researchers, development professionals, including community-level health workers, and applied anthropologists over and above general readers.
87 978-81-314-1497-2 Globalization and Developing Countries – Economic Implications www.nbcindia.com Globalization Preeti Phuskele 2-Sep-08 224 15.5 400 0 0 Globalization has been dominating the world economies since the latter half of the nineteenth century. It has brought in new opportunities to developing countries. Greater access to developed country markets and technology transfer hold out promise and higher living standard. But globalization has also thrown up new challenges like growing inequality across and within nations, volatility in financial market and environmental deteriorations. The pace of globalization is taking speed with lower barriers to competition. The precise definition of globalization is still unavailable. A few economists define it as the reduction of cost for trans-border movement of goods. A few say that the process has opened up world trade, developed advanced means of communication and increased the movement of people, goods, capital and ideas. The book highlights several positive and negative implications of globalization for developing economies. In true sense globalization has intensified inter-dependence and competition between economies. Developing countries can no longer so easily play the protectionist card and ensure their development in the globalized regime. The captioned book attempts to analyse the issues and challenges faced by developing countries to catch-up with globalization. Globalization of world economies faces two contradictory trends. While a globalized market opens the prospects of unimagined wealth, it also creates new vulnerabilities to political turmoil and the danger of a new gap. The author tries to find the gap between the rich and the poor caused by globalization. Articles by a few renowned economists suggest steps developing countries can follow to lessen the impact of growing globalization.
88 978-81-314-1523-8 Millennium Development Goals And Health: A Global Perspective www.nbcindia.com Anthropology Azmal Hussain 2-Sep-08 216 15.5 400 0 0 In the present decade, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have overwhelmingly captured the attention of the health and development community all over the world, as they provide a vision for development that accommodates health and education squarely at the centre. Health plays the key role in determining the human capital. Better health improves the efficiency as well as the productivity of the labor force, thereby contributing to the economic growth and leads to human welfare. To attain better, more skilful, efficient and productive human capital resources, governments subsidize the health care facilities for its people. Health is prominently represented in the MDGs, with three goals directly concerned with three major health parameters. The success of the MDGs needs ample improvements in health systems as well as health outcomes across the developing world. Achieving the Health MDGs by 2015 is a complex and challenging task, which calls for rapid progress. Experts feel it as a demanding agenda even in stable, well-governed low income countries. Though international agencies are instrumental in helping different governments to achieve the health MDGs, the situation is particularly challenging for many low-income countries fraught with precarious economic and social conditions, and ineffective government-donor relationships. The present book is an attempt to provide an insight into all the above issues of utmost contemporary relevance.
89 978-81-314-1420-0 Gender Digital Divide www.nbcindia.com Gender Issues Mannar Indira Srinivasan Ramani V V 28-Aug-08 284 18 450 0 0 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is playing a pivotal role in the socio-economic development. When the world is galloping towards a welfare society, with people centric policies, a vast section of population, particularly women, are unable to participate in the development process due to lack of access to information, communication and its relevant technologies that are empowering the other half of the world in achieving their goals. A book on ‘Gender Digital Divide’ is quite significant at a time when the disparities in gender due to lack of access to ICT are hotly debated across the globe. It is further significant as it is investigating the current challenges of achieving the millennium development goals of equality of gender and universal female literacy and how this can be achieved using ICT. The authors analyze the issues of gender inequalities in the field of ICT and the way it is creating the gender digital divide. They further discuss the current status of women in the field of ICT. The book is aimed at examining the experiences from across the globe that could successfully implement gender sensitive policies with the help of ICT in enhancing opportunities for women in equal participation in every aspect of her uplift. It examines further the ways to bridge this gap while searching for the solutions that can promote gender parity and social justice using ICT. The book is mainly targeting policymakers, researchers, administrators and both genders.
90 978-81-314-1520-7 Development – Induced Displacement: Issues and Implications www.nbcindia.com Anthropology Azmal Hussain 28-Aug-08 256 17 425 0 0 Evidences suggest that for a vast majority of the indigenous people displaced by big development projects, the experience has been extremely negative in cultural, economic, and health terms. They face a range of consequences including loss of assets, unemployment, debt-bondage, hunger, cultural disintegration and so on. It is often alleged that while people pushed away from their homes by war or natural disasters like earthquake may be favorably viewed by the media or international humanitarian aid agencies, the victims of development-induced displacement normally win no such sympathy. This is so, despite the fact that the consequences of development-induced displacement may be in all likelihood as severe as those faced by people who are displaced by conflict or natural disaster. In all instances, displacement should not threaten life, dignity, liberty, or security. Besides, the conditions of adequate shelter, safety, nutrition, and health should be ensured way before, if at all displacement takes place.Development is seen as a right to which all people should have access, but people also have a right to be protected from development’s negative effects, including arbitrary eviction and the loss of economic, political, civil, and human rights. This book has tried to cover these and other aspects which caution us against manifold challenges of development-induced displacement, in addition to minimizing the risks before displacement takes place.
91 978-81-314-1498-9 Multiple Intelligences for Inspired Workplaces www.nbcindia.com General Books Anitha Arunsimha 28-Aug-08 260 17 425 0 0 When we witness a basket ball player’s inexplicable maneuver in the air or a classical singer extracting another shimmering high C from the gristle of the vocal chords, we don’t classify them as being intelligent. These talents seem to be tangential to intelligence than proof of it. But, Dr. Howard Gardner, Father of Multiple Intelligences theory, disagrees. In both the player and the singer, Gardner sees intelligence – kinesthetic intelligence in the case of the basket ball player and musical intelligence in that of the classical singer. Gardner does not limit intelligence to the traditional realms of logical reasoning and the ability to manipulate words and numbers. Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences identifies eight distinct forms of intelligence, which have their own core component processes and end states. MI theory that has greatly influenced the domain of education has now made a foray into the business world as a valuable lens for business leaders to view the inner world of employees. This book “Multiple Intelligences for Inspired Workplaces” showcases the role of MI in the field of business. MI is depicted as a user-friendly tool for the identification of individual skills and uncovering the mosaic of skills needed for various business applications, such as able leadership, better personnel relations, collaborative teams/creative culture, intelligent decisions, excellence, multi-skilling, multi-tasking, feel inside customer’s emotional experience and for an alignment between employee and job profile for the best fit. The book, with its numerous illustrations, anecdotes, MI models and analogies is an earnest, engaging and educative endeavor to create MI-inspired workplaces.
92 978-81-314-1490-3 IUP Series on Investment Strategies for Individual Investors www.nbcindia.com Finance Sujoy Kumar Dhar Arindam Mukherjee 28-Aug-08 268 17 425 0 0 Investment is the surrender of certain present value for some uncertain future reward. Investment decision is a trade-off between risk and return. Investment analysis describes techniques, vehicles and strategies for planning, implementing and overseeing the optimal allocation of the fund of the investor. Despite increasing investments in different financial markets due to rapid progress in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and media, common people suffer from a misconception that investment is a scary activity. They are puzzled by the profusion and proliferation of investment alternatives, rattled by the fluctuation of financial asset prices, overwhelmed by the presence of mighty institutional investors, confounded by exotic instruments and complicated investment strategies, confused by the intricacies of tax system and frustrated by financial scams that periodically rock the market. Fresh Investors are not confident due to their lack of awareness and inadequacy of subject knowledge. There are different forms of investment such as fixed deposits, shares, derivatives, money market instruments, mutual funds, real estate, insurance, gold and bullion etc. This book analyzes in a nutshell, the different investment opportunities available to a retail investor; a layman household investor will get an in-depth knowledge regarding the investment criteria after going through this book. The readers will come to know how they can diversify their portfolio to hedge their risk and how return can be maximized, subject to a certain risk. In a nutshell, an investment strategy must be stress-free and enjoyable. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a popular meditation teacher once said, “Do less and accomplish more”. Being aware of how, where, why and how much to invest, a conscious investor will have the time to enjoy his/her success.
93 978-81-314-1466-8 Marketing Baby Care Products: Issues and Concerns www.nbcindia.com General Books Simantee Sen 28-Aug-08 256 17 425 0 0 “The baby market is jumping; it’s such a huge growth market.” A mother would rather spend some dollars on her baby than herself. Innovation was the key factor behind the unparalleled growth of this sector. With innovative products and lateral ideas, baby food manufacturers were successful in luring customers to buy their products. More than ever, parents are concerned about every aspect of their kids’ well-being, from safety to nutrition to physical fitness. There are so many pollutants in society today that moms are worried about their kids, they are extra careful about the chemicals in baby products. Parents are increasingly turned on by the idea of organic products – food, clothing and creams – made without chemicals that they feel are too harsh to be used on their children. The appeal of organic products, which typically cost more than their non-organic counterparts, comes from the perceived health and environmental benefits, because the produce and clothes are made with little to no pesticides, chemicals or other irritants. Why only organic products? …baby clothes and furniture and toys are all getting trendy and designer. In fact, the BABY has become a prime ‘customer’ for marketers today. Entrepreneurs are capitalizing on this trend by offering products and services designed to give parents the ultimate guarantee peace of mind. The objective of this book is to throw light on all these aspects for this ever-growing, fast-emerging market, and to educate consumers on the same.
94 978-81-314-1518-4 Customer Service In Airline Industry www.nbcindia.com Customer Relationship Manageme Amitabha Ghose Ishita Mukherjee 28-Aug-08 248 16.5 425 0 0 The rapid pace of globalization has caused increasing consciousness among customers. Growing competition and improved job opportunities, especially in the private sector, coupled with improved buying power (which is a direct impact of regular employment generation) have made consumers more demanding. Therefore, to attract and retain customers, cost & quality control continues to be the keyword, as airline remains primarily a service catering to the business as well as leisure customers. It is, therefore, vital to focus on the planning and delivery aspects related to effective customer service in the airline industry. This book deals with the importance of customer service, pricing and promotion of customer service, training and development of employees, CRM and customer delight in the airline industry and strategies adopted to achieve them. Further, the airline industry experience and cases for customer service and strategy to attain customer delight for long-term retention have been highlighted. The book is target to the business and marketing managers of the airline industry, marketing consultants, marketing management teachers and students.
95 978-81-314-1422-4 Enjoy IIT-JEE www.nbcindia.com Technical Education Girijesh Pathak 28-Aug-08 248 16.5 425 19 475 This book is mainly for those who aspire for undergraduate studies in IIT. An early reading of some of the chapters will be beneficial in generating strong motivation and fine-tuning the thought process to suit enjoyable preparation style. It is recommended that parents and near by people also read some of the chapters to understand the kind of environment they should provide to the aspirant. This book will benefit other students as well because having a correct strategy and temperament control is important for every one. The entire concept discussed in the book has been practiced by candidates and have been found to be useful. It can help in replicating the success story of many who cleared IIT-JEE in enjoying way. This book provides a motivational reading. It helps in setting the strategies right. It describes a model for self-preparation plan and monitoring the progress. It helps in better temperament control and also provides necessary assistance in taking many important decisions. Exercise on important topics takes the student through the process of detailing the roadmap to the success in JEE.
96 978-81-314-1415-6 Melting Glaciers And Rising Sea Levels: Impacts and Implications www.nbcindia.com General Management Prabha Shastri Ranade 28-Aug-08 232 16 400 0 0 The melting of glaciers has become a major focus of concern in global warming. An overview of retreating glaciers presents an alarming scenario with potentially devastating consequences. Over two third of the earth’s area consists of oceans. Sea level rise due to glacier melting is associated with damage to coastal infrastructure and the likelihood of displacement of coastal communities. Understanding the impacts of retreating glaciers and sea level rise is essential to plan at the local, national and international level. The book focuses on the economic and ecological impacts of melting glaciers and problems associated with rising sea levels. A wide range of adaptations and mitigation measures will be required to assist policy makers to cope with the root cause of the problem. Truly, global effort can save glacier melting. The efforts have to be backed by financial and administrative will. The policy issues arising from these impacts and the response of policy to this challenge are analyzed in this book. It brings out an urgent need for Polar research. The book is divided into two sections. Section 1 presents an overview of melting glaciers and rising sea levels in a global perspective and Section 2 gives impacts and mitigations. The articles cover glacier retreat and subsequent impacts in Nepal, India and China, Tarim basin, European Alps, the shrinking of Kilimanjaro and Antarctic ice, tourism in polar regions, understanding sea level rise and variability, Keeping afloat: A strategy for small island nations.
97 978-81-314-1467-5 Preferential Trade Agreements: Global Experiences www.nbcindia.com Economy Santap Sanhari Mishra 28-Aug-08 236 16 400 0 0 Preferential trade agreements (PTAs) are accord among a set of countries involving preferential treatment of trade between any two parties to the agreement relative to their trade with the rest of the world. Preferences, however, need not extend to all trade between the two, and the coverage could depend on the type of PTAs. Customs unions and the so-called free trade areas are common forms of PTAs. PTA is established through trade pact and it is the weakest form of economic integration. Members of most PTAs belong to a well-defined geographical area such as, for example, the European Union (EU), the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). For this reason regional PTAs are called Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs). The most common form of RTAs are the euphemistically named Free Trade Areas (FTAs), with a few Customs Unions (CU) which require the partners to maintain a common external trade policy, in addition to free trade with each other. Despite the advantages of PTAs, many economists view it critically; the most important being by Jacob Viner and the famous “Spaghetti Bowl Effect” by Jagdish Bhagwati. Hence, though it is believed that PTAs are useful for trade, they also pose some obstacles for the same. This book is an attempt to illustrate some of PTAs/RTAs in addition to its concepts, developmental implications and changing landscape.
98 978-81-314-1512-2 Whistleblowing: Perspectives and Experiences www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Reena Raj 28-Aug-08 224 15.5 400 0 0 The divulgement and deterrence of fraud and mismanagement is one of the vital challenges that the business conglomerates have constantly been confronting with, from times immemorial. Today’s businesses are also in no way different. And the lines of attack by which this challenge is dealt with irrefutably show the way to either the enhancement or the impairment of the corporate reputation. Whistleblowing, an essential constituent of corporate governance framework, which directs and regulates organizations, plays a significant role in curtailing organizational wrongdoings and promoting a culture of transparency, openness, accountability and corporate fairness. ‘Whistleblowing’, the expression entered in the lexicon of laws, politics, and corporate governance, with diminutive attention towards it, gained the real momentum in the recent past. Society has witnessed a tremendous shift in its approaches towards whistleblowing, specifically in this decade, when whistleblowers are perceived as an essential constituent of society’s self-repair system. The book “Whistle Blowing – Perspectives and Experiences” attempts to examine various aspects such as the need and significance of encouraging whistleblowing, the detrimental actions towards whistleblowers and the imperativeness of establishing codes of conduct as part of the governance system. It purports that whistleblowing may be perceived as a constructive mechanism that sanitizes the businesses environment by straightening out the prevailing as well as the potential organizational misconducts. Case studies portraying the experiences of whistleblowers how they blow the whistle, the repercussions of the act and the whistleblower protection legislation in various countries have been depicted in the book.
99 978-81-314-1495-8 Reality Television: How Real does it get? www.nbcindia.com Media & Entertainment Salonee Priya 28-Aug-08 220 15.5 400 0 0 The current popularity of the compelling and dominating phenomenon called Reality Television has drawn interest from all corners. Reality TV entered a new phase around the turn of the present century and has rapidly come to the forefront of international television today. It is a staple for most of the networks’ primetime line-ups. The shift to this genre in television has a lot of implications – economical, technological, social and cultural. The book captures this relatively quick change in the television landscape and brings out the essence of the reality flavors. Reality TV shows emerge as rich advertising vehicles with a large amount of moolah riding on them. The basic reason for people to watch these shows is also related to the psychosocial aspects of human behavior. Consumptive ideologies as well as neoliberalism and emotional labor are translated into Reality TV shows. Reality TV opens the Pandora’s Box – issues related to Surveillance, Consumerism, TV ratings, Ethics, Voting patterns, Health etc., which are dealt with at length in this book. Global images from countries like America, UK, China and India are captured in order to give a clear picture of such shows across the world. Though the adaptations of these shows are very much in vogue; there is, at the same time, a lot of creativity involved to frame them according to the needs of the country and its culture.
100 978-81-314-1494-1 Diversity in the Workforce: HR Perspective www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Pramod Rao Pallavi Kate 28-Aug-08 220 15.5 400 0 0 Workforce diversity has become the order of the day, as more and more organizations cross their domestic barriers and enter the international market arena with their products, services and even building manufacturing facilities, apart from entering into business alliances with foreign companies. Diversity needs to be embraced more as a concept rather than to meet any statutory requirement. Culture sensitive issues and conflicting situations have to be handled very carefully to avoid future complications. Open and transparent communication and easy accessibility of the managerial staff are the essential features that no organization with a diverse workforce can afford to ignore. Managing diversity is a challenge for the HR fraternity. Various processes may have to be customized while not losing the balance of equality. Maintaining a supportive work environment is a critical need of the hour, in addition to attending to culture-specific requirements of the workforce. The HR manager needs to advocate a diverse workforce by making diversity evident at all organizational levels. He/She must also show a high level of commitment and be able to resolve issues of workplace diversity in an ethical and responsible manner. The challenges faced by the HR in managing diversity, effects of diversity on business performance, and the best practices for HR in managing diversity issues, constitute the theme of this book.
101 978-81-314-1503-0 Climate change and its effect on human health www.nbcindia.com General Asis Kumar Pain 28-Aug-08 220 15.5 400 0 0 While the world is nearly unanimous about the adverse effect of climate change, there is difference of opinion between the developing and developed countries about their causes and mitigation policies. Most of the increased human activities are concentrated mainly in the high income industrialized countries of the world. Such a finding is evident from the fact of the per-capita carbon dioxide emission from the consumption and flaring of fossil fuel. Such mercuric rise in global warming had a strong negative impact on health, more so, human health on account of creation of congenial atmosphere for fast propagation of various diseases. Warmer, wetter conditions promote the spread of both the mosquitoes that transmit malaria and the pathogens that cause the most serious forms of diarrhea in developing countries. In line with this trend, the present volume deals with the impact of climate change caused by warm climate on human health. The book also addresses the emission of excessive greenhouse gases and its effect on health. In other words, the volume seeks to describe the context and process of global climate change, its actual or likely impact on health, and how human societies and their governments should respond, with particular focus on the health sector. The book has been structured in two sections to explain the sources and impact of climate change on human health, besides looking at some initiatives taken throughout the world to overcome the problem. This book is believed to serve the interests of postgraduate students and researchers on human health and environment, public health specialists, government officials and medical practitioners.
102 978-81-314-1500-9 Meditation and Wellbeing www.nbcindia.com Healthcare Srikant Kapoor Prasad B V S 21-Aug-08 272 17 425 0 0 In today’s competitive world, where everyone seems to be in a rat race to attain their goal, earning a livelihood generally brings in anxiety, tension, mental fatigue and this increases the possibility of lifestyle diseases. People are beginning to experience the emptiness of a materialistic, consumer focused, high pressure lifestyle and beginning to say NO to that way of life. The corporate world has recognized the need for employees to relax, recharge and regain their focus to achieve maximum productivity. According to the, English poet, John Milton, the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of Hell and a hell of Heaven. Meditation has entered the realm of health care as a method of stress and pain reduction. It helps to increase physical relaxation, mental calmness, and psychological balance and, thereby, create a feeling of overall wellness. It provides one of the best solutions without any side effects whatsoever. Even healthy people can find a sense of inner peace and satisfaction with the training and practice of meditation. The book is composed of select articles that provide both the eastern and western perspectives on meditation. The book discusses various meditation exercises like OM yoga meditation, transcendental meditation, vipassana meditation, metta meditation, mindfullness meditation and chakra meditation, besides providing the basic instructions to practice meditation in a very simple manner and highlighting its benefits. The book would be useful to people in all walks of life as everyone is in need of a panacea for the ills of fast paced life and meditation can easily be inculcated as a habit and become a part of daily routine.
103 978-81-314-1517-7 The Indian Cement Industry – Issues, Trends and Cases www.nbcindia.com Industry Bala Krishna A V 21-Aug-08 256 17 425 0 0 The Indian Cement Industry is the world’s second largest after China’s Cement Industry. But, percapita production and consumption are low as compared to the world standards. On the technological front, Indian cement Industry can be regarded as highly competitive and is comparable with the best in the world, in terms of quality standards, fuel consumption etc. Indian cement plants, which depended heavily on wet technologies in the sixties and seventies, have subsequently shifted to modern energy efficient dry technologies. This trend is more perceptible in the last decade. The latest surge in the demand for cement is driven by the boom in the housing sector and infrastructure sector. The post deregulation scenario is marked by major reorganization of many of the capacities in the Indian cement industry. Consolidation has become the latest buzzword of the industry. Acquisitions, mergers and demergers have been the order of the day for the industry. Many major Indian players have acquired small companies and MNCs have also entered the industry through have acquisitions route. This book focuses on the technological, commercial and marketing aspects. It discusses the post deregulation scenario of the Indian Cement industry from the perspective of acquisitions, mergers and demergers. It also deliberates the government policies and their implications for the industry and the buyers.
104 978-81-314-1489-7 Evolutionary Economics www.nbcindia.com Financial Economics Krishna Kishore Puranam Ravi Kumar Jain B 21-Aug-08 268 17 425 0 0 Economics has evolved over a long period of time. It has seen the emergence of various schools of thought enriched with the ideas of great philosophers. In recent times, a new branch of economic theory called Evolutionary Economics has emerged drawing new dimensions into the explanation of economic phenomena. It is based on the principles of evolution and biology. What makes Evolutionary Economics distinct from the mainstream economics is its opposition to the explanation of economic phenomena from rational choices of profit-maximizing firms and utility-maximizing agents. Traditional economic theories are based on the assumptions of human rationality, self-interest and judgment. Evolutionary Economists have challenged these assumptions by arguing that human rationality is bounded and, as such, decisions of firms and consumers are habitual in nature. This evolving field of economics has benefited from the contributions of Joseph Schumpeter, Veblen, Hayek and others. This book is an interesting collection of articles discussing the concepts and various perspectives of Evolutionary Economics.
105 978-81-314-1515-3 Special Economic Zones: To Be Or Not To Be www.nbcindia.com Economy: India Naveen Kumar Agarwal Ramani V V 21-Aug-08 240 16.5 425 0 0 In this global village, most developing countries are shifting to export promotion policy to compete with the developed world. As part of their policy instruments, many of these countries are promoting export-processing zones (EPZs), which are seen as a key instrument for promoting exports, earning foreign exchange, stimulating economic growth through additional investment, technology transfers, and employment generation. Later, these EPZs are transformed into SEZs to deal with infrastructure development, monetary, fiscal, trade and labour policies and account for an increasing share of international trade flows and employment. The Special Economic Zones (SEZs) scheme introduced by the government of India in April 2000 has its genesis in the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) scheme, which was introduced way back in 1965, when the first zone was set up in Kandla (Gujarat). However, the new SEZ policy and the costs and the benefits of SEZs have generated an intense debate, touching on almost every possible aspect of SEZs. In view of the ongoing debate, this book is timely and enables the readers to have a better understanding of the various dimensions of SEZs. This book has three sections; Section I covers the overview of SEZs and salient features of the special economic zones act, 2005, Section II covers the basic issues and Section III covers the positive impacts of SEZs. This book is expected to be useful to policy makers at national and international levels, bureaucrats, government officials dealing with export promotion, corporates, independent consultants, environmentalists, NGOs having concern about labour laws and environment of the country. Apart from those, it will be a valuable reference book for researchers, academicians, students, investors, small and medium farm holders, etc.
106 978-81-314-1504-7 Girl Child: Issues, Perspectives and Initiatives www.nbcindia.com Gender Issues Debashree Mukherjee 21-Aug-08 244 16.5 425 0 0 Illustrations of deprivation and infringement of rights of the girls are mostly recorded from developing countries, but the stark reality is that they continue to be manifested in diverse forms in diverse countries. Their unequal status is reflected in innumerable countries across the globe but the other story of the happy girl child with a smiling face is seldom noticed or projected. This is because the happy stories are not projected evenly with the sad stories. The present book has tried to cover those illuminating situations and mechanisms by which the different dilemmas encountered by the girl child, in the formative years of her life can be either prevented or cured. Intended to be read by the general masses, concerned with social contemporary issues affecting the world, the book intends to be of help to organizations which are committed to social issues affecting children, the government authorities working in the area of empowerment of children and women, human rights organizations operating in various areas for the promotion of human rights, researchers and academicians working in the premises of social sciences including sociology, human rights, law, psychology and economics. It has been conceived in two Sections; while the first Section emphasizes the problems and the solutions to the problems faced by the girl child, the second Section establishes the same with experiences from diverse countries cutting across continents. The book through its various articles also tries to find answers to two very intriguing questions: Is it only education that plays the dominant role in uplifting the girl child from her miseries? And Is the girl child in misery or mirth?
107 978-81-314-1516-0 Challenges of Attrition and Retention Strategies www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Anil Varma 21-Aug-08 208 15 375 0 0 Human resources are the only source of long-term competitive advantage for any business organization. Thus, human resources are rightly known as the real assets of an organization. However, retaining employees is proving to be a Herculean task for most organizations in the modern era of globalization and competitive business. Therefore, employee retention has become a major concern for organizations. It is very frustrating for an organization to go through the entire process of hiring and training, only to find employees leaving after two months or sometimes even quitting after the training period is over. The words ‘attrition’ and ‘retention’ are profoundly significant in the context of corporates and large companies. Thus, managing of human resources, particularly retaining them, is an art that calls for special skills and strategies. The growth of attrition rates has been a major concern for the last couple of decades. Many experts believe that attrition rates can be lowered through effective hiring systems, while others believe that the problem lies with the nature of the organization’s systems. Retention of excellent employees is one of the most important challenges in organizations today. On the one hand, with increasing work opportunities, organizations which provide challenging and competitive work environments are seeking intelligent employees with relatively higher IQs. On the other hand, retaining these key employees is becoming a vital task for the long-term success of any organization.
108 978-81-314-1484-2 IUP on Personality Development – The Cutting Edge for one s Personal and Work Life www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Jegadeesan G Santana Krishnan R 20-Aug-08 308 19 475 0 0 Personality is what makes individuals unique and a study of several personalities reveals different behavioral traits. Personality may be understood as the characteristic patterns of behavior and modes of thinking that determine a person’s adaptation to the environment. Personality is the dynamic organization of those psychological systems within an individual that determine his unique adjustments to his environment. Thus, personality is the sum total of several characteristics which manifest themselves in an individual. A successful individual has an ability to organize, integrate and consolidate all the qualities of positive behavior and adapts himself to individuals and organizations. A pleasing personality is a combination of a person’s attitude, behavior and expressions. It is imperative that each and every human being should realize the importance and intensity of personality development and promote it with great care and continuity in all walks of life. In the era of globalization, organizations focus on the development of human resources by developing personalities through proper training and thereby increasing the human efficiency of their employees to gain competitive advantage over other companies. This book details various concepts of personality, discusses techniques and methods of developing personality and emphasizes how important training is in this regard. Various issues faced by organizations in developing personality of employees are also dealt with. Case studies which give experiences of various organizations in nurturing personality development in terms of gaining competitive advantage are also included.
109 978-81-314-1479-8 Rehabilitation Of Persons With Disabilities www.nbcindia.com General Management Bhanushali Kishorekumar D 20-Aug-08 272 17 425 0 0 The United Nations estimates that 10 percent of world population in underdeveloped countries faces the problem of disability of one or the other type. Considering the size of population with disabilities, it is necessary to have proper rehabilitation strategies. In the absence of proper rehabilitation strategies persons with disabilities become a burden on their families, society and nations as a whole. Carefully designed and implemented rehabilitation strategies help in converting this army of persons with disabilities from unproductive burden to productive manpower and equal partner in social and economic development. Strategies for the rehabilitation of persons with disabilities followed in different countries differ widely depending on the level of social and economic development. In designing country-specific rehabilitation strategy, knowledge of rehabilitation practices followed in different countries and the best practices world over is of significant importance. The main objective of this book is to highlight various approaches for the rehabilitation of persons with disabilities and experiences of different countries in terms of process of rehabilitation followed by them. This cross country experiences help in designing better rehabilitation strategies for specific country. It is hoped that the book will be of great help to Government departments, non- government organizations, policymakers, planners, researchers, social scientists and developmental and social organizations active in the areas of rehabilitation of persons with disabilities.
110 978-81-314-2020-1 Shareholder Activism: An Emerging Paradigm www.nbcindia.com Corporate Finance Madtha Cyril Marcel 20-Aug-08 236 16 400 0 0 Shareholder activism is the way in which shareholders exercise their ownership rights to influence a company’s behavior. Activist investors, dissatisfied with certain aspects of a company’s management, seek to cause a change within the company by resorting to various forms of activism, ranging from selling off shares to acquisition of controlling interest in the company. In between these extreme steps, other actions like issuing private or public communications to the management and the board of directors demanding change in the company decisions, submitting shareholder resolutions, filing legal cases etc., are also taken by activist shareholders. Shareholder activism is growing very fast after the spectacular business scandals like Enron and WorldCom revealed at the turn of this millennium. Shareholder activism is exhibited by individual investors as well as institutional investors like pension funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, and labor unions by exercising their shareholder rights to influence the decisions of companies either individually or in collaboration with other shareholder groups. Shareholder activism is also supported by many labor unions and environment groups as an approach to achieve social and environmental change. Shareholder activism may have both positive and negative effects on companies. This book is divided into two sections. The first section focuses on the issues and concepts of shareholder activism and the role of institutional investors. The second section deals with cases and experiences with regard to shareholder activism.
111 978-81-314-2053-9 Case Studies on Globalization Strategy www.nbcindia.com Case Study Collection Kumar Satyaki Ray Arindam Mukherjee 20-Aug-08 308 0 0 25 625 “”"Globalization can be reshaped, and when it is, when it is properly, fairly run, with all countries having a voice in policies affecting them, there is a possibility that it will help create a new global economy in which growth is not more sustainable and less volatile but the fruits of this growth are more equitably shared.”"
¬– Joseph Stiglitz, Author, Globalization and its Discontents.
This book enshrines a few case studies and attempts to capture a glimpse of the globalization strategies followed by different multinational companies in modern times. In this era of cutthroat competition, companies are bound to look at the global market, so that they can enhance their market share as well as growth rate. The most daunting task faced by the managers of the twenty first century is to know how to enhance the scope of their business and, in doing so, they are bound to concentrate on the global market. Companies choose different competitive strategies according to their business situation and market. So, the companies are open to global market in order to sustain and grow. Globalization is the process of relating not just the economies but also the culture and technology. Globalization has fundamentally changed the game of business. Companies choose different globalization strategies according to their business situation and market. Keeping this in mind, the book is an attempt to explore the different globalization strategies adopted by the MNCs in order to grow and it tries to capture many dimensions of globalization through case studies across industries.
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112 978-81-314-2044-7 Case Studies on Fashion Retailing www.nbcindia.com Case Study Collection Priyanka Ramgopal 20-Aug-08 216 0 0 50 1250 “Fashion has seen many seasons from Gucci and Armani to Gap and H&M. It’s no longer elite who can be fashionable. With the emergence of fashion retailing, fashion is mass-marketed through various designers. Retailers are all into low-cost fashion now. And the industry has visibly grown over the years. Value chain dynamics have morphed over the years to suit changing customer needs. Hence, retailers focus on the supply chain management to eat into each other’s market share.
Case studies in this book explore a seminal change in the industry. Aspects of value chain, including manufacturing and retailing, business models and other strategies of fashion houses are extensively discussed. It covers themes and issues like globalisation, fast fashion, competitive forces, luxury fashion, offshoring, sourcing, supply chain management, logistics and strategy. Ideal for fashion retailing and fashion management programmes, this book will also be invaluable for courses on fashion, textiles, apparel and retailing management.
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113 978-81-314-1471-2 Innovations in Banking: Some new concepts and cases www.nbcindia.com Banking Sohani AK Nageswara Rao Katuri 12-Aug-08 300 19 475 0 0 Greater focus on increasing the customer base, its retention, use of various technological tools and integrating different delivery channels are high on the agenda of banks. These delivery channels are working on a common platform to provide information to the management. In this context, the strategies adopted by different banks for remaining competitive are different. Product innovations help keep the organization from remaining competitive. The impact of product innovations on balance sheets of the organizations can be seen as it impacts the Net Interest Income, i.e., nothing but the profitability of the organization. With Basel II implementation, banks face a stiff challenge in raising capital for which each organization comes out with new product line. The strategies adapted by different banks for bringing new customers into its fold and retention of the existing customers are thus different. This book is significant as it focuses on the importance of product innovations and the challenges banks face while implementing new products, and highlights some new products developed by banks. At large, the book deals with the concepts, role of the financial institution in product innovation and different areas of innovation. Through this book the authors attempts to explore various issues and challenges that a financial institution faces not only in developing the new product line but also delivering the same. The book is targeted to students, researchers, professors and scholars in the fields of banking, finance and economics. The target group also includes professionals and executives from banking, finance and financial services industries.
114 978-81-314-1514-6 Building Emotional Competence – Concepts and Cases www.nbcindia.com Management Sujatha B Vasuki Mathivanan 12-Aug-08 312 19 475 0 0 “”"Emotional competence is the single most important personal quality that each of us must develop and access to experience a breakthrough. Only through managing our emotions can we access our intellect and our technical competence. An emotionally competent person performs better under pressure.”"
– Dave Lennick, Executive VP, American Express Financial Advisers
Emotional competence refers to a person’s ability to express or give release to his/her emotions in a natural or normal way, depending on the situation. EQ (Emotional Quotient) is fast tipping IQ (Intelligence Quotient) as a critical factor contributing to high performance in all spheres of life – be it school, workplace or home. The degree or level at which individuals and teams are able to understand and manage their own and others’ emotional states, will have a direct impact on their effectiveness and productivity in the organization. This has led to organizational focus on EQ practices to get the best out of their human capital. Similarly, EQ tools are being increasingly used by teachers, trainers, psychologists and hospitals in meeting the educational, family, health and social needs and to create positive results.
This book gives an introduction to the concept of emotional competence, highlights its significance, identifies the emotional competency gaps that limit performance effectiveness and suggest ways to build emotional competency in individuals/teams. It tries to bring out the impact of formative early experiences on the emotional competency levels among individuals. It elicits the special features unique to Indian culture, like the joint family system, social framework of value and ethics, spiritual learning, and their role in building emotional competency. The highlight of the book is the illustration of the significance of emotional competency through real life case studies.
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115 978-81-314-1508-5 Customer Management in Retail Banking www.nbcindia.com Banking Smitha Ramachandran 12-Aug-08 256 17 425 0 0 “Banking industry includes a number of businesses such as corporate banking, investment banking, wealth management, capital market etc. Retail banking is one of the segments in the banking industry. Retail banking is a typical mass-market banking. The individual customers make use of the local branches of larger commercial banks for their financial service needs.. Services offered include: savings and checking accounts, mortgages, personal loans, debit cards, credit cards, stock-broking, investment and so forth.
Retail banking is identified or characterized by large customer base, high transactions and high levels of cooperation between banks, retailers, customers and consumer. The retail banking industry is facing a very high competition and the current scenario is that of the survival of the fittest. All the banks are trying to increase their customer base and are developing their own strategies to be in the market. Consolidation in banking industry continues in various countries as many smaller banks could not withstand the keen competition in this field.
To withstand the stiff competition, retail banks have to go for product differentiation and develop strategies for customer retention and to have a large customer base. The buzz word in the retail banking segment is the cross-selling and up-selling. This calls for a good customer relationship and the role of relationship marketing. To achieve a high degree of customer satisfaction and management the retail banks should pay heed to the role of information technology.
The book tries to give a glimpse of why retail banks should adopt information technology and the strategies employed by retail banks in different countries to execute their banking operations. The book also throws light on the consideration of those factors that contribute to the customer management.
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116 978-81-314-1487-3 Central Banking Governance-Issues and Perspectives www.nbcindia.com Finance Ravi Kumar Jain B Sohani AK 12-Aug-08 252 17 425 0 0 “Central bank autonomy and accountability facilitate price and financial sector stability, which are conducive to sustainable economic growth. In the literature, autonomy is sometimes preferred to the frequently used term independence, as autonomy entails operational freedom while independence indicates a lack of institutional constraints. A central bank must have clearly defined and prioritized objectives, sufficient authority to achieve these objectives and be autonomous to remain credible. At the same time, it must be accountable for the authority delegated to it to ensure checks and balances. Reforming the legislative framework for a central bank—often after a crisis—can help boost the credibility of central bank policies (e.g. monetary policy). The concepts of authority, independence, autonomy, transparency and accountability collectively define central bank governance. These together should form the basis of the legal framework governing a central bank and on which central bank governance should rest. It is very important to understand the need, importance and impact of good governance of a central bank in ensuring smooth functioning of a country’s financial and economic systems. This book shall be a significant contribution as it intends to explore and present various aspects of governance in central banking.
This book will essentially focus on the need, importance and impact of good governance of a central bank in ensuring smooth functioning of financial and economic system and achieving overall economic welfare. It also highlights various structural, policy and political issues and challenges that a central bank faces in achieving good governance. It also puts forward the initiatives and experiences of central banking governance in various countries (US, UK, Japan, and India etc). The book is targeted to students, researchers, professors and scholars in the fields of banking, finance and economics besides professionals and executives from banking, finance and financial services industries.
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117 978-81-314-1478-1 Air Pollution and Health www.nbcindia.com Healthcare Debashree Mukherjee Somnath Hazra 12-Aug-08 252 17 425 0 0 “The industrialization of society, the introduction of motorized vehicles and the explosion of population are factors contributing to the growing air pollution problem. Their effects include premature death as well as increase in chronic heart and lung diseases. Estimates of the health damage associated with air pollution are important because they can provide both a momentum for environmental controls and a means of evaluating the benefits of specific pollution control policies. Combustion of fossil fuel is the primary source of air pollution.
The book basically addresses the specific air pollutants and their effect on health. It deals with the impact of air pollution caused by vehicles, industry and waste sites on human health. The book focuses on possible methodologies adopted by different countries for exploring the impact of particulate matters and their toxicity on human health, and specially looks into the cardiovascular diseases caused by air pollution.
In order to develop our knowledge regarding the impact of air pollution on human health, this volume has strong panel of authors who have treated the issues meticulously and at the same time suggested remedies which can minimize the effects of air pollution. The book has been structured into two sections with the following objectives: Section I comprises 6 articles to explain the sources and impact of air pollution on human health and Section II comprises 7 articles, based on the initiatives taken throughout the world to overcome the problem of air pollution. This book is valuable to postgraduate students and researchers on human health and pollution, public health specialists, Government officials and those of Central Pollution Control Boards across the country and in the Ministry of Environment and Forests and medical practitioners.
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118 978-81-314-1473-6 Managing Multicultural Teams www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Sumati Reddy 12-Aug-08 240 16.5 425 0 0 Global managers face numerous challenges due to cultural differences that manifest in their work life. With increased mobility, managers face more challenges in managing global business since the values and beliefs held by individuals vary from one country to another and even the way the organization is managed differs drastically from one nation to other. Globalization of businesses requires employees to equip themselves with cross-cultural skills. Managing a cross-cultural team in itself is a skill very much required for today’s global managers. This book will enable managers to equip themselves with the knowledge needed to address issues of multiculturalism in today’s work context. A multicultural team can be described as a team whose members are from different cultures, backgrounds, and nations. In today’s world of globalization, multicultural teams are very common in any multinational organization. This is more so due to the increased mobility of labour across geographical boundaries, increase in the use of teamwork and increase in the number of virtual teams used by organizations. It is found that various aspects of cultural differences pose challenges to the global executive in global organizations. Cultural differences can influence work values, motivation, and job attitudes. That is the reason why the multicultural teams require special management tactics and this is one of the major challenges faced by multinational organizations today. The book focuses on managing multicultural teams in an organization. The core content includes perspectives on the effective management of multicultural teams and ways of handling challenges of cross-cultural communication, conflict management etc. It aims to serve as a guide for managers to build effective working relationships within multicultural teams.
119 978-81-314-1951-9 Economic Integration – New Global Dynamics www.nbcindia.com Economy Preeti Phuskele 12-Aug-08 236 16 400 0 0 “Economic integration explains how different economies are integrated together and in what way it decreases the barriers of trade among countries. The most independent and integrated economy today is the EU or European Union. The pace of global economic change in recent decades has been breathtaking, indeed. Economic and technological changes are likely to shrink effective distances still further in coming years, creating the potential for continued improvements in productivity and living standards and for a reduction in global poverty. The challenge for policymakers is to ensure that the benefits of global economic integration are sufficiently widely shared
This book tries to cover the implications of economic integration globally in various countries. A thorough study has been conducted to present the global experiences of economic integration. Also, the major economies have been covered and the book highlights on SAARC, NAFTA, OPEC in detail. Economic integration by itself is sufficient to achieve broad-based gains in income growth both within and across countries. The relative prosperity of nations reflects different choices made by Governments about a range of policies and institutions beyond the realm of trade and financial restrictions
Economic integration is essential for achieving sustained growth. Global integration cannot be the primary solution to all global economic problems, but it can contribute significantly to sustained growth, rising incomes and declining poverty rates.
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120 978-81-314-1450-7 Displaced People : Some Issues and Experiences www.nbcindia.com Demography Azmal Hussain 12-Aug-08 224 15.5 400 0 0 Development programs frequently cause population displacement and raise the issues of resettlement – voluntary or involuntary – mostly accompanying many an intricacy. Likewise, conflicts and other socio-political phenomena often cause massive population displacement calling for prudent mitigation strategies. The present book intends to delineate the above issues and some more, especially those pertaining to rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced people. It tries to identify and document the issues that deserve the utmost attention, while planning and executing any resettlement or rehabilitation program for displaced people. The implications and impact of the policy of rehabilitation, repatriation and resettlement of displaced people make the main focus in this book. The importance of resettlement policies and their implementation is duly emphasized in this book, as this is a major factor that determines whether local people will risk resistance or risk resettlement. The curtain raiser attempts at identifying the different contexts of displacement and subsequent needs of mitigation strategies like rehabilitation, resettlement and voluntary repatriation. In the other articles, the respective authors have put forward their deeply researched understanding and some splendid solutions demonstrated through various country level experiences. The book is expected to be of use to policy planners and administrators, researchers, and those who are involved in the mitigation of refugee problems over and above the laity.
121 978-81-314-1474-3 Global Challenges for HR Professionals www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Kumar K B S 12-Aug-08 200 15 375 0 0 “Despite the regional, cultural, managerial differences and practices at the workplaces, reports by the global consultants like PWC and Watson Wyatt suggest unanimity among their respondents, when it comes to the issues being faced by the HR professionals. With Human Resources Management being accepted as a strategic tool, the HR professionals now have an immense responsibility of keeping track of the employee status and identifying those issues/challenges/concerns that threaten to bring the employee morale down, thereby disturbing employee productivity.
This book is preceded by a brief study of the existing reports of the aforementioned global consultants, thereby identifying the global HR issues. The theme of the book revolves around some of the major challenges that organizations face in terms of their human resources and human resource management. The book captures the assorted collection of as many as 20 challenges that HR professionals, across the globe, face.
The book thus brings to light those workplace issues that every HR professional must be inevitably aware of and emphasizes how the HR manager can address these issues with appropriate solutions. The book aims to help the HR professionals to sharpen their focus on challenges that are being experienced globally and thereby, provide a rationale for changes that can be adopted within their own companies, regions and countries.
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122 978-81-314-1486-6 Outward Foreign Direct Investment: Issues and Perspectives www.nbcindia.com Business Strategy Gopalakrishnan P S 6-Aug-08 268 17 425 0 0 “The flow of capital from developing countries to developed or other developing countries is termed as ‘Outward Foreign Direct Investment’ (OFDI). Earlier, developing economies followed protectionist policies. But the winds of globalization and liberalization have swept away many of the barriers that are coming in the way of economic growth and overall development. Of late, many of the economies around the world, including India, have adopted more liberalized and investment-friendly measures to facilitate Inward and Outward FDIs.
By internationalizing operations, companies can upgrade their competencies and performance levels apart from getting access to new technologies, new markets and/or scarce natural resources. The flow of FDI has helped several companies in developing nations increase their revenues and profits. Some of the prospering companies in these countries have begun venturing across the borders as their future growth depends on the share that they can garner in the world market. Some of the large Indian corporations acquired overseas assets in the recent past. In 2004-2005, the outbound FDI surpassed the inward FDI marking a perceptible growth in the number of overseas acquisitions made by Indian corporates.
This book is a compendium of thirteen articles that provide a deeper understanding on the topic of OFDI – six articles highlighting the concepts, drivers, issues, challenges, benefits and barriers of OFDI and seven articles explaining country-experiences focusing on India, China, Thailand and ten new member-states of the European Union.
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123 978-81-314-1476-7 Financial System In Hong Kong: The New Dynamics www.nbcindia.com Finance Nageswara Rao Katuri 6-Aug-08 252 17 425 0 0 “Hong Kong became the ‘Special Administrative Region’ (SAR) of China on July 1, 1997. Almost immediately, the South East Asian crisis ensued. Hong Kong suffered but more than survived.
Hong Kong provides the gateway for Mainland China for business, commerce, banking and financial services, thanks to the “Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA)” between these two entities.
While the recent sub-prime crisis has spared Hong Kong, the global significance of a slowdown, or a recession in the US economy, should not be underestimated. Hong Kong’s Dollar debt market is fast rising with multicurrency instruments.
Its financial services industry accounts for about 6.5 percent of the workforce and contributes over 12 percent of the output of the economy. Hong Kong has to use its natural market strengths to further develop the financial services sector and achieve sustainable long-term growth.
Hong Kong has one of the largest representations of international banks in the world. 76 of the world’s 100 largest banks have their presence here. Hong Kong is Asia’s 3rd largest international banking centre in terms of external transactions. Its foreign exchange market contributes to Hong Kong’s status as the world’s 6th largest foreign exchange centre. The stature of Hong Kong as a key financial centre is built on its high standard of market transparency, disclosure and prudently supervised financial institutions.
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124 978-81-314-1477-4 Corporate Disclosure: Concepts and practices www.nbcindia.com Finance Pankaj M Madhani 6-Aug-08 256 17 425 0 0 “As financial reporting and disclosure are potentially important means for management to communicate firm’s performance and value to outside investors, increased disclosure practices will help in reducing information gap between firm and its stakeholders. The main reason behind emphasis on this new emerging issue is that enhanced disclosure and transparency are the twin cornerstones for protecting shareholder’s right. Full disclosure practice along with transparency in financial reporting can build a climate of trust and boost confidence of investors’ community. The book emphasizes crucial role of increased corporate disclosure in the current age of information economy. Enhanced disclosure improves efficiency of capital allocation and reduces the cost of capital. Full disclosure and transparency are driving forces for the success of businesses and sustainable performance and helps in maximization of wealth of shareholders.
The book is presented in three sections. The first section includes articles on role of voluntary disclosure, motives for disclosure and non – disclosure, new models for financial reporting, segmental disclosures and accounting standards AS 1 and AS 9. The second section contains articles on empirical study on accounting standards and disclosure practices, corporate disclosure and firm characteristics, factors influencing voluntary disclosure practices, voluntary reporting practices and environmental accounting disclosure. The third section discusses sectoral practices for corporate disclosures by studying ten sectors of economy viz. FMCG, IT, banking, capital goods, power, metal products, and pharmaceuticals, oil, automobile and telecommunications, disclosure practices in Indian software industry and non-mandatory disclosure practices of banking companies in India.
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125 978-81-314-1488-0 Experimental Economics www.nbcindia.com Financial Economics Krishna Kishore Puranam Ravi Kumar Jain B 6-Aug-08 256 17 425 0 0 “Over the last few decades, a new domain called Experimental Economics has emerged introducing the concept of experimentation and empirical evidence in economics. Experimental Economics involves testing economic theories in controlled laboratory settings. It provides an opportunity to compare the behavior of economic agents with the economic theories. Experimental trials are replicated on different groups to confirm the results of initials tests. Financial incentives are offered to participants to reduce performance variability. Experimental evidence facilitates verifying consistency of behavior of agents under experimental settings with the economic theory. Experimental economics also provides a platform for test-bedding potential economic policies. As such, it facilitates introducing those government interventions which may be useful, eliminating or modifying those that have not shown promising results under test conditions.
Experimental economics has received wide recognition in recent years with Vernon Smith being awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in the year 2002. It is now used in a wide range of areas, which include market theory, game theory, environmental markets, designing auctions, allocating resources to airports and space missions. Experimental Economics is useful in testing economic theories, understanding policy problems and questions.
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126 978-81-314-1475-0 Dynamics of Cross Cultural and Intercultural Communication www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Srikant Kapoor Prasad B V S 6-Aug-08 236 16 400 0 0 “Cross-cultural, refers to the comparison of different cultures and intercultural communication is a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds endeavor to communicate. A fundamental understanding of culture differentiators i.e. relationships, social framework, time and power dimensions help avoid pitfalls and cultural faux pas.
Ignorance or misinterpretation of cultural differences leads to serious misunderstandings which result in unpleasant consequences from frustration, anger, to hostility and lost profits. Greater comprehension of intercultural differences and communication as well as informed planning and effective training will certainly lead to a much higher probability of achieving a competitive advantage in the global economy.
The book seeks to provide a unique perspective in the understanding of cross cultural and intercultural communication. Well-written articles focus on the need to develop the knowledge and skills to communicate more effectively in different cultural environments and to work more effectively with people from cultures other than their own. It covers the importance of language, written, non verbal communication and negotiation to bridge the gap between people from different cultures.
Key Features
Cross cultural and Inter cultural communications produce basic guidelines with which people from different cultures can communicate better with one another.
It introduces the key elements of western and eastern cultural concepts which illustrate the cross cultural differences or similarities that exist between them.
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127 978-81-314-1480-4 Pension Reforms: Some Concepts and Country Experiences www.nbcindia.com General Santap Sanhari Mishra 6-Aug-08 216 15.5 400 0 0 Pension reform is a subject of hot debate all around the world. Over the last few years, the world has witnessed a marked increase in public awareness of the need for retirement income planning. Struck by the looming financial crisis of most public retirement income programme, individuals and governments alike have started to give the retirement income issue a second look. The pension reform proposal varies from country to country depending upon the nature of the workforce, socio-cultural environment etc. But economists throughout the world have zeroed in upon the fact that Chilean model of pension system is the ideal one. Not only Chile but also many Latin American countries have been experiencing solvency issues with their own pension system. In the US, pension reform is linked with annuity market. Chile, the pioneering country, which introduced its individual accounts system in 1981, has recently introduced reforms in the distribution phase to discourage too-early retirement. By continuing to work and contributing to the system, the participants will be able to buy an annuity (or arrange a programmed withdrawal, which is somewhat like a certain annuity) that will provide a more adequate retirement benefit. Similarly, the Indian government introduced a new pension policy in January 2004, based on the recommendations made by the OASIS (Old Age Social and Income Security) report. Under such circumstances, the theme of this book is to focus on various pension reform schemes and also the pension undertaken in different countries.
128 978-81-314-2076-8 Forensic Accounting and Fraud Investigation www.nbcindia.com Finance Padmavathi C 5-Aug-08 492 26 650 0 0 Fraud investigation is not just the accumulation of facts and evidence but is more of an art. Investigation of financial frauds is complex. Larger the financial transactions, the more complex the investigation. Forensic investigators are rightly referred to as the “bloodhounds” of the accounting profession. This book, ‘Forensic Accounting and Fraud Investigation’, attempts to present a comprehensive literature on a few investigative techniques forensic investigators use to determine the truth – the ultimate goal of an investigator. A forensic accountant’s investigative services extend to cover a wide spectrum – revealing accounting violations, exposing tax evasions, financial misappropriations, employee fraud investigations, undertaking criminal investigations, resolving partnership disputes, marital dissolutions, bankruptcy, investigation into breach of fiduciary duty, capital market frauds, undertaking business valuations, investigation into family disputes, wrongful termination, and countering terrorism. A forensic investigator not only requires the knowledge of accounting, auditing and law but also requires the investigative competence, interpersonal skills, communication skills and other attributes like patience and intuitiveness in order to unravel and solve any complex corporate fraud. The book provides insights into the various forensic investigative techniques such as public document reviews, techniques of interviewing, physical and electronic surveillance, data analysis, and other reporting techniques that enhance the performance of a forensic investigator of his engagement.
129 978-81-314-2015-7 Climate Change And Biodiversity:Perspectives and Mitigation Strategies www.nbcindia.com General Management Prabha Shastri Ranade 5-Aug-08 280 18 450 0 0 Every year 22nd May is celebrated as International Day for Biological Diversity. The theme of this day in 2007 was “Biodiversity and climate change.” Global climate change is the most severe environmental threat in the 21st century. The effects of climate change on biodiversity are far-reaching. Biodiversity is the foundation for the goods and services provided by ecosystems that are crucial to human survival and well-being. Forest diversity is threatened by climate change. Animals are migrating to new areas; coral reefs are threatened by global warming. The livelihoods of communities are affected by climate change impacts on biodiversity. This book focuses on these issues. It assesses the existing and rapidly worsening impact of climate change on biodiversity and examines the challenges posed by climate change for the conservation of biodiversity. It outlines the management strategies to preserve habitats and protect forests to facilitate adaptation of biodiversity to climate change. The book contains 15 articles presented in two sections: Perspectives and Impact and Mitigation Policies. The articles deal with the climate change impacts on East Africa, climate change and biodiversity in Europe, wilderness conservation in Canada, climate change and upland biodiversity, effects of global warming on invasion of alien plants and mammals, endangered species recovery plan, good practice examples for the integration of climate change activities in various ecosystems and biodiversity areas. How we can avert dangerous climate change and the efforts made by the Smithsonian’s Global Earth Observing Network for protecting forest biodiversity are also included.
130 978-81-314-2005-8 Category Management: Concepts and Cases www.nbcindia.com Supply Chain Management Simantee Sen 5-Aug-08 276 18 450 0 0 Every year, the retail landscape looks a little different. Next year, what format will appeal to what market? Should retailers care about international expansion? Or should they make the most of their home market? As store saturation becomes a reality and early movers produce tangible results, retailers need to address this sizable opportunity—quickly. Retailers have difficulty assessing the product sales performance, considering a competitive mix and hitting revenue and profitability targets. Category Management presents an opportunity to gain competitive advantage by implementing technology with the ability to increase the understanding and optimization of assortments, including product assortment performance at different store segments as well as monitoring assortment performance. A key benefit to the adoption of any formal category management process is that retailers must explicitly define the role that each category plays in the overall store portfolio. Being clear about category roles: be it traffic builder, transaction builder, cash generator, profit contributor, image or excitement creator, it leads to a disciplined approach to space management, everyday pricing policy, and promotion tactics. Category management also requires the retailer to define roles for their store brands, both at the chain level and within any specific category. In essence this process involves management of a category like an independent profit centre in all respects of sourcing, pricing and buying to selling to deliver customer satisfaction and strategic advantage to the store. A category manager may have separate team members to handle product management, buying and merchandising. Such a retailer is able to successfully differentiate its merchandise based on its consumer’s needs and wants. And such a retailer is one who is bound to succeed in today’s competitive retail environment.
131 978-81-314-1999-1 IUP Series on Risk Management in Banks: Current Developments www.nbcindia.com Banking Dhandapani Alagiri 5-Aug-08 264 17 425 0 0 Financial markets have always been risk-driven to a certain extent and there has been an underlying risk taking perception in financial markets, and banking also has this norm. The aim has been to maintain commensurate returns with respect to the risk taken. However, the risk scenario has changed considerably over the last two decades as a result of increasing complexity in the deals made and the varied nature of the financial instruments used. In the Indian context, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued guidelines based on the Basel II recommendations for the Indian banks on the risk management approaches to be followed in due course. In the current scenario, where banking is becoming more and more competitive, adoption of the best practices is critical for the Indian banks to survive in the market. There has to be a proactive approach in countering major credit, operational and market risks. The banks that develop a proper risk management system will gain competitive advantage over others and with a proper understanding of the risk mitigation techniques and instruments can aim at better prospects in the years to come. In this context, this book, The Icfai University Press on Risk Management in Banks: Current Developments will make useful reading capturing the important perspectives of risk management and its practices in the banking sector. The book presents a series of well-written articles that bring out the essence of the happenings in the field.
132 978-81-314-1973-1 Indian Capital Markets: Recent Trends and Reforms www.nbcindia.com Finance Arindam Banerjee 5-Aug-08 264 17 425 0 0 The book “Indian Capital markets in Early 2007 Trends & Reforms” is the third in a series that seeks to capture the contemporary happenings and the regulatory measures adopted in the Indian capital markets in the first half of 2007. Primarily, the book is divided into two sections namely, recent trends in the Indian capital market followed by various regulatory reforms initiated by Sebi. Having reached the phenomenal 15,000 mark, many expect the Indian stock markets to continue its upsurge over a period of time. Well, amidst all enthusiasm, it is important to note that anything that rises necessarily needs to come down, and this basic physical law is applicable in all its forms in the capital market. Apart from the much discussed volatility, various other factors such as role of (FIIs), IPO grading, pension funds, private equity investors, hedge funds and participatory notes, shortsale by institutional investors and the importance for PAN as unique identification number, Gold ETFs, impact of budget on the capital markets are of major interests to the investor class and analysts that are discussed in detail in the book. In a rapidly rising and volatile market like our; the regulator’s role becomes all the more important. Thus, Sebi has made continuous effort in order to protect and sustain investor confidence. Thus, the second part of the book seeks to bring out various regulatory measures taken by Sebi in this regard.
133 978-81-314-2017-1 Corporate Financial Reporting – Changing Scenario www.nbcindia.com Financial Reporting Dhandapani Alagiri Keerti Mallela 5-Aug-08 272 17 425 0 0 In a globalized economy, the need of the hour for investors is total transparency in disclosure practices. It is expected that corporate financial reporting, a disclosure process through which a business enterprise communicates with third parties, should serve that purpose. It is gaining importance because only through corporate financial reporting would the investors gain genuine knowledge about a company’s performance. In the era of transparency and strict disclosure practices, even the reporting of non-financial items like human capital and intellectual capital are taken as factors of total transparency. Sustainable reporting is also considered a part of Corporate Financial Reporting. Today’s organizations are concerned not only with the issues related to transparency but also with the need of using a single set of reporting standards. It will eventually help the investors make a comparison between the companies and organizations to curtail costs and avoid the complications in reporting. Therefore, it is also opined that data in the financial statements and financial reports must provide as good a picture of the enterprise as possible. An enterprise s performance, responsibility of its owners and its usefulness to its managers must all be evidently presented in its financial reports. It could be said that there has been good progress in the field of convergence of accounting standards. Developments like the treatment of business combinations, the treatment of inventories and various other amendments and adjustments have come up to give the accounting world a brighter future. This book on corporate financial reporting addresses issues like quality in financial reporting, ethics in financial reporting, sustainable financial reporting and the harmonization of accounting standards and its effect on financial reporting. Some financial reporting applications are also discussed here.
134 978-81-314-1998-4 Employment Relations: Changing Scenario www.nbcindia.com HR Bharti Thakar Meenu Bhatnagar 5-Aug-08 268 17 425 0 0 Employment relations have its roots in employment contracts; when an individual steps into an organization with an intention of being employed or to work in the premise for money, he enters into the arena of employment relations. Throughout the world employment relations are born out of industrial environment. Governments play a dominant role in its evolution and growth. Each country, however, has its unique pattern of employment relations. The governance followed by the local government has an impact on the types of employment relations of that particular country. The changing profile of the labor force is the second important factor which has its impact on employment relations. The need for fair labor practices is also raised. The changed times emphasise a need for social justice in the working environment. China has undergone significant changes in employment relations since the implementation of the “Four modernization” reform program in 1978. Influence of Japan on the Korean employment relations has led to its emergence as the world’s 12th largest economy. There is uncertainty in the outlook of employment relations in the US, more so due to it being completely capitalist in nature. In Germany and France, the main characteristic lies in the undermined length of the employment contract. In Italy, employment relations have been shaped by the conflicting combination of state interventionism and weakness in Government, with a series disparate and unstable coalitions making policy consensus very difficult. These policies and practices have been researched in the book. Experiences of more than 35 countries have been researched and their issues have been brought forth. The evolution in each country is visible and so is the changed profile of the worker. Three sections cover the introduction to the subject and employment relations experiences in the US, Europe and Asia.
135 978-81-314-1907-6 Women Entrepreneurs: Substance, Strength and Success www.nbcindia.com Management Pramod Rao Medha J Gore 5-Aug-08 256 17 425 0 0 Woman Entrepreneurship is one of the key elements of growth in any economy. New enterprises contribute to the creation of a dynamic business environment through economic growth, the opening of new job opportunities and innovations in production processes and products. Naina Lal Kidwai, Anita Roddick and Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo are well-known and successful woman entrepreneurs. Their successes and the success of other woman entrepreneurs have changed perceptions and brought about paradigm shifts, calling upon the women of the nation to cherish the spirit of entrepreneurship. Woman entrepreneurship augments the wealth of the country in general and that of the family in particular. Therefore, provision of the necessary support systems in production, finance and marketing and improvement in the socio-cultural environment is of prime importance. In spite of constitutional provisions regarding gender equality and equal opportunities for development provided by the Government, women are still marginalized, particularly among the poorer sections of the community. NGOs have setup self-help groups and are facilitating the generation of income through various projects. They also take the issues to the Government. Their efforts in many cases herald a brighter future for women in business. This book aims at helping women improve the quality of their lives by helping them realize their latent talents and potential. It highlights the measures taken by the Government, and enumerates certain promotional schemes that have been instated with a view to promoting woman entrepreneurship. This book cites exemplary examples of woman entrepreneurs in order to motivate and inspire woman readers. This book is divided into three sections. The first section discusses the concepts of woman entrepreneurship. The second section illustrates the experiences of woman entrepreneurs. The last section, cases, states success stories of Martha Stewart, Naina Lal Kidwai, Indra Nooyi, Anita Roddick and the groundbreaking women’s organization– Lijjat Papad.
136 81-314-1400-0 Environmental Accounting – An Introduction www.nbcindia.com Corporate Social Responsibility Vijayalakshmi S Aparna Bellur 5-Aug-08 240 16.5 425 0 0 In recent years there has been a trend in many public corporations to provide more information on environmental matters both within the management accounting system and in annual reports. This is in response to increased concern by the stakeholders and public awareness of environmental issues. These factors have put pressure on listed corporations to measure environmental costs and expenses and to develop and enhance environmental disclosure to different stakeholder groups. The process of environmental accounting seeks to embed the responsibilities of the senior management towards shareholders as well as other stakeholders in the company’s accounting and reporting procedures. Environmental accounting reveals the environmental conservation activities undertaken by a company or organization in a given period. The main focus of the book is on the role of environmental accounting as a management tool. It also analyses: ·How it will be applied in the corporate annual reports as a tool to measure the corporate performance; ·How the accounting profession is playing a vital role in tracing and accounting the role of environment in the corporate books and also how accounting standards are giving importance to the disclosure practices; ·How the users of financial statements are taking this information in analyzing as well as decision-making; and ·How the environmental accounting is practised in different industries and different countries.
137 978-81-314-2083-6 Open Innovation: The New Business Strategy www.nbcindia.com Management Gopalakrishnan P S 5-Aug-08 248 16.5 425 0 0 In 2003, Professor Chesbrough of Harvard University popularized the ‘Open Innovation’ business model through his famous book on the subject. He propounded the theory that companies need not discover all things nor generate all ideas through an in-house R&D. The advent of the Internet and other faster communication media/tools has been instrumental in shrinking the world into a global village. There is an increased diffusion of knowledge. Companies have realized that they cannot employ all the experts and talented people for themselves. The Open Innovation model aims at getting ideas from anywhere and from whomsoever, an expert or a lay person. The value of an idea lies in its implementation. Technology will be of no value if not utilized and converted into useful processes and products. Open innovation enables companies to network with other companies, even with their competitors, to develop and market new products and services at much lesser costs. At the same time, companies need not write off expenses against unsuccessful R&D efforts. They can sell or license out ‘unused’ ideas and ‘unfinished’ products/processes to others who can use at their own will and ability. Hence, OI is a two-way street providing a win-win situation for companies. This does not mean that there is no role for the internal R&D. It can scout for productive ideas to solve critical problems and in innovating and creating new products/services. Open innovation enables companies to achieve high performances by utilizing the creative capability/ideas of all their stakeholders apart from the people at large, around the world, in a profitable way. Renowned multinational corporations like P&G, HP, IBM, Nokia, Apple, Philips etc., which follow open innovation principles, have reaped immeasurable and unimaginable benefits.
138 978-81-314-2051-5 The Icfai University Press on Corporate Turnarounds: Indian and Global Experiences www.nbcindia.com Strategic Management Dhandapani Alagiri 5-Aug-08 228 16 400 0 0 “Companies falling sick can be analogous to persons falling sick. Companies too are living organisms that depend on a lot of factors, such as good management, financial health, employee satisfaction etc. If internal factors such as these go wrong or if adverse external factors such as competition affect them, companies may fall sick. The process, that tries to prevent the company from going further down towards bankruptcy and eventual liquidation and nurse the company back to its productive health, is the essence of corporate turnaround.
A proper leadership goes a long way at the time of crisis. The process of turnaround, usually, involves a combination of one or more of the following phases of activity: Stabilization, Financial restructuring and refinancing and Operational turnaround. Corporate reorganization forms another important strategy. It entails restructuring, re-staffing, re-skilling and turnaround leadership revitalization to yield improved leadership, management, organizational structure, organizational alignment and culture. Corporate turnarounds have been catching up with the companies across various industries and successful turnarounds are being effected. The trend is increasing and specialist turnaround managers are being increasingly sought after.
This book, IUP on Corporate Turnarounds: Indian and Global Experiences, will make useful reading, capturing the important perspectives of corporate turnarounds and highlighting practical cases in corporate turnarounds. It presents a series of well-written articles that bring out the essence of the happenings in corporate turnarounds.
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139 978-81-314-1922-9 Brands In Retailing – Trends, Opportunities and Challenges www.nbcindia.com Branding Naveen Das Arindam Mukherjee 5-Aug-08 212 15.5 400 0 0 With liberalization of the economy, the retail scenario has changed to a great extent; many sectors have opened up to private players. In hitherto government controlled industries, too, we have seen a spate of private activity. The increased marketing efforts of private players coupled with the changed stance of the incumbent public or government players, have given rise to an unprecedented scramble for customers. There was a time when only the national players were allowed to operate in the market and, at that time, the brands had a great edge over the retailers but, now the retailers are coming up with their own brands which are known as store brands. Now, with the coming of store brands, the national players are facing a strong competition from them. In the case of store brands, the profit margin is also very high; so, from the retailers’ point of view, store brands are generating higher revenues. But, at the same time, we cannot ignore the presence of the national brands as it is the national players, who are known to the consumers in a broader concept. Thus, books also have brought the reference of hybrid brands which is a combination of national brands as well as store brands. This book gives insights into the various roles played by the brands in retail industry. Its contemporary approaches towards branding in retailing sector also help in enhancing brand awareness, creating a favorable and consistent brand image, leading to a long-lasting relationship with the customer.
140 81-314-1162-6 Case Studies on Brand Management: How to Break the Clutter www.nbcindia.com Marketing Naveen Das Kumar Satyaki Ray 5-Aug-08 188 0 0 35 875 The late nineties witnessed a plethora of brand proliferation across categories either in the form of introduction of new brands or brand extensions. On the contrary, the market for product and services, though grew revenue –wise, became more competitive, particularly in the developed world, like US, Japan, Europe, etc. The pressure to differentiate and concomitant absence of differentiating factors that would allure customers, gave a significant jolt to the revenue growth path of the companies. Companies that had gone rampant on brand extension found their portfolio unmanageable. Very often, different value price segments give birth to different brands, without being clearly differentiated. Moreover, with an exploding number of communication vehicles, it has become increasingly cumbersome to break the clutter. With rising advertising cost and fragmented viewership, traditional brand management has started embracing the otherwise different communication vehicles like event marketing, viral marketing, product placement etc. But, however different the methods may be, the crux of branding exercise remains the same. Branding from its inception remains an interface between buyers and sellers. Brands effectively perform the function of reduction for buyers like reduction of search, evaluation time, reduction of perceived social, psychological and financial risks, whereas for sellers, brands perform the role of facilitator like identifying and re-identifying products, introduction of new products, premium pricing by enhancing the level of differentiation. The essential of brand management boils down to creating the brand identity and communicating it effectively. When the brand over a long period delights customers, it transcends into a Meta brand.
141 978-81-314-1509-2 Marketing for Social Change – Perspectives and Experiences www.nbcindia.com Marketing Jaya Krishna S 3-Aug-08 336 20 500 0 0 “Scientific approach leveraging principles of management and marketing, promises social marketers the desired social changes. Social marketing is essentially a marketing program designed to bring social change or change in social behavior by using the practices and concepts of commercial marketing.
Why social change is crucial, how social marketing is an effective mechanism for achieving the desired social change and how marketing principles can be applied in social campaigns are comprehensively dealt within this book. Insights that practically help social marketers in the design, implementation and evaluation of social marketing programs form the central part of this book. While throwing light on some of the myriad challenges faced by social marketers, the book presents how social marketing principles can be applied in different domains such as public health, environmental protection and conservation, traffic behavior and transportation demand management and other areas of social relevance. The book also provides insights into the experiences of various programs initiated by different NGOs and/or Govt., institutions across different countries with an aim to bring into limelight the practices and lessons learnt so far.
While offering an immense learning value to academicians, researchers and students of marketing and social development, this book, it is hoped, will help professionals, Government executives, policymakers and society to better understand the far-reaching applications of social marketing practice. Social reformers, social entrepreneurs, researchers, social marketers, development practitioners, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), non-business enterprises (NBEs), the Government etc. can immensely benefit from the thoughtful insights provided in this book.
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142 978-81-314-1505-4 Urbanisation-Issues and Perspectives www.nbcindia.com General Books Dholakia J R 3-Aug-08 240 16.5 425 0 0 “Urbanisation is a global phenomenon with varied patterns based on the context specific realities. Urbanization is synonymous with growth, development and modernization of a country. The dominant process of urbanization is migration of people from rural to urban cities for employment, education and better quality of lifestyle. There exists both positive and negative correlations between urbanization and socio-economic consequences. On the positive side, urbanization promotes growth of service sector, trade, commerce, transport, communication, real estate, hotels, tourism, thereby creating job opportunities. On the negative side, it leads to regional imbalance, unemployment, disparity in income, increase in slum population and environmental deterioration. Indian urbanization in number, shape and size is formidable. In India, the major issue is unplanned, unchecked expansion and growth of urban area beyond the capacity it can bear with, in terms of its infrastructure facilities and geographical limitations.
The book focuses on various positive and negative fallouts of urbanization with its correlation with economic development.The integrated analysis in the book draws attention to various social and economic issues pertinent to human development and wellbeing in the rapidly urbanizing Indian context. With pragmatic perspective of the processes of urbanization and economic development in India and across the globe, the book outlines policy prescriptions rooted in twofold objectives of human development and economic growth.
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143 978-81-314-1464-4 Mutual Funds Industry: Issues and Experiences www.nbcindia.com Finance Tamal Datta Chaudhuri Jayanta Kumar Seal 31-Jul-08 304 19 475 0 0 The Indian Mutual Fund Industry has come of age. It has grown over the years in terms of total assets under management (AUM), number of AMCs, number of schemes and types of schemes aimed at different segments of households with varying risk appetite. Mutual funds hold a significant share in total funds deployed in the capital market. It has grown to such an extent that a separate regulatory body is being contemplated for this industry. However, this industry is still urban-oriented with a few major cities contributing to its growth. The extent of penetration in the rural and semi-urban areas is low and thus investor education has been chosen to be a major thrust area by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI). The purpose of the book is investor education. It blends in well with the current thought process between AMFI and Mutual Fund Managers that in order to increase fund penetration, investor education is a prerequisite. It deals with contemporary issues in this field and makes cross-country comparisons. The need for new generation products and how the developments in the macroeconomy help in the process are analysed. Performance of schemes introduced recently like Real Estate Funds, Country Funds, Thematic Funds, Value Funds, Fund of Funds, Capital Protection Funds, Gold ETFs etc., are explained with a detailed account of the schemes and their characteristics. It is hoped that this book will make the reader thoroughly conversant with this industry.
144 978-81-314-2006-5 Culture of Creativity and Innovation – Concepts, Applications and Cases www.nbcindia.com Innovation Santanu Ray 31-Jul-08 320 19 475 0 0 Creativity and innovation are often used as keys to the success of a business. Creativity is a process of producing new ideas or combining old ideas in such a way that it produces something unique. In today’s ever changing and dynamic business environment, creativity and creative problem solving have become the thrust areas. For the betterment of the company, managers are now trying to build the culture of creativity within the organization. In order to bring innovation, stay at the top and gain competitive advantage, companies are now searching for new talents and new skills relentlessly. But the biggest challenge for a company lies in integrating the need for short-term results with the vision for long-term futuristic growth. The creativity of individuals coupled with structured and well-managed innovation projects create a sound base from which organizations may operate effectively within their inter-organizational and societal environment. The changing business scenario and the infallibility of some basic truths about marketing in general and brand in particular have prompted the creation of this book. The book emphasizes the significance of creativity and innovation in management. It throws light on the need for creativity in modern-day organization. The objective of the book is to explain the importance of creativity in the contemporary dynamic business environment. Further, this book demonstrates how to harness this creative energy and institutionalize innovation thus attain competitive advantage.
145 978-81-314-2013-3 Alternative forms of farming in India www.nbcindia.com Agriculture Subir Ghosh Divya Nigam 31-Jul-08 284 18 450 0 0 Generally, farmers practise conventional system of farming with the help of fertilizers, pesticides and other inputs to meet increasing demand for foodgrains. But the excessive use of these agrochemicals hampers the ecological balance and causes health hazards. Therefore, conventional farming system is harmful in maintaining sustainable living and thereby creates a need of alternative farming system. Alternative farming refers to the alternative forms of farming system. It goes beyond the conventional farming system at the same time; it incorporates the farms’ natural cycles, biological interactions while maintaining environmental balance. This form of farming system includes contract farming, organic farming, corporate farming, sea farming, dryland farming, shifting / jhum farming, permaculture, peri-urban agriculture and aquaculture, livestock farming, integrated farming, precision farming, alder based farming system etc. With this background, this book tries to focus the alternative forms of farming for sustainable agricultural practices in the Indian context. The book also studies these alternative forms of farming adopted by farmers and the Indian experiences derived in such farming.
146 81-314-1410-8 Management Some Contemporary Perspectives www.nbcindia.com Management Kumar K B S 31-Jul-08 284 18 450 0 0 Management is an all-pervasive domain. Management is everybody’s business. Drucker says that it is the ability to do the right things rather than doing things right that makes an executive, effective. Drucker opines that executives who do not manage themselves properly cannot be expected to properly manage others either. However, one needs to understand as to what is the span of this term called management. Management, as a word, may sound abstract unless it is prefixed or suffixed with a practice or a function at workplace viz., change management, people management, time management etc; And taking a cue from Drucker’s works, an effective executive today has no choice but to master the art of management in all the possible functions, personal as well as professional. One must understand as to what it means to be a normal and mature human being and what actually constitutes success. This book offers an anthology of works by experts in various functions/domains of management. It offers reviews of those celebrated books on management by various thought leaders. The book comprises the expert opinions and research findings of experts on various management functions like change, performance, leadership, ethics, governance, culture and managing oneself.
147 978-81-314-1996-0 RBI and financial reforms www.nbcindia.com Banking Parchure K M 31-Jul-08 256 17 425 0 0 The role and functions of RBI have radically changed during the last 15 years. There is a paradigm shift due to a major overhauling of the macroeconomic policies of the country – from a mixed economy with bias towards socialist welfare to the acceptance of open and competitive market economic forces. Prior to 1991, the role of RBI was ‘nation-centric’, but it has now become ‘world-centric’, to be in tune with the norms and conditions laid down by IMF (International Monetary Fund), IBRD (International Bank of Reconstruction & Development), & WTO (World Trade Organization) for opening up the economy to global competition. The RBI, in its new ‘avatar’, very successfully sorted out all the above problems. It helped the country’s economy march on the growth trajectory of an annual 7-8% income growth. It brought about price stability by achieving an annual inflation rate within the range of 3%-5% and by administrating the ‘low-interest regime’, attuned to global banking interest rates. The RBI brought about monetary stability by encouraging flow of foreign capital and foreign exchange reserves. It helped in maintaining a stable exchange range. The RBI successfully integrated the Indian banking system with the global banking and financial systems. The RBI has, therefore, emerged as the main facilitator for the accurate implementation of macroeconomic policies rather than being a mere facilitator of monetary and banking policies. There has been a sea-change in its ‘nation-bound’ functions because the RBI has a new commitment; that of international sensitivity. Therefore, it is essential to study the radical change in the role and functions of the RBI, particularly during the period of economic reforms.
148 81-314-1293-2 Digital Institutional Repositories: Case Studies www.nbcindia.com Information Technolo Smitha Ramachandran Gayatri Doctor 31-Jul-08 268 17 425 0 0 There is a growing interest among academic institutions in collecting, preserving and creating value-added services from digital content produced in teaching and research. Institutional repositories are a new concept for collecting, managing, disseminating and preserving scholarly works created by faculty and students in individual universities and colleges. In a developing country like India where there are many academic and research organizations and with the shortage of resource materials to these organizations, it is imperative that the available materials be preserved and made visible to all professionals in various streams of academic or research areas. The book is a collection of articles pertaining to the experiences of various institutions and is divided into three sections, namely Introduction, Academic Institutions and Research Organizations. Introductory part gives a glimpse of various digital institutional repositories in India, talks about the growing need of digitization of scholarly materials and setting up of these repositories. The second and third sections cover various digital repositories set up by different academic and research organizations.
149 978-81-314-1959-5 Global Warming: Significance and Impact www.nbcindia.com Economy: World Chandra Sekhara Raju A.B Ramani V V 31-Jul-08 212 15.5 400 0 0 “Global warming is largely due to emissions of greenhouse gases. The human race is facing the threat of global warming and its adverse effects. In the past few decades, there has been a growing concern about global warming that the climate change would affect the basic elements of life for people and the wildlife around the world, that is, access to water, food production, health and environment. Hundreds of millions of people would suffer from hunger, water shortage and coastal flooding because of global warming. The articles explain how greenhouse gases effect would lead to global warming and how the greenhouse gases would act as an insulating medium by preventing the escape of reflected radiations into outer space and ensuring earth’s average temperature around 150o C.
It has, therefore, become imperative to reduce emissions and maintain environmental sustainability for the future generations. There is need for striking a balance between economic development and environmental sustainability, to save future generations from the adverse effects of emissions. There is also need for public policies to accelerate technical change to promote balanced environment.
The book predominantly focuses on the concept of global warming at large and its consequences on socio-economic, political and environmental aspects. It provides the basic aspects of global warming to make the readers understand and be aware of its consequences. It also examines the impact of global warming on global economy.
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150 978-81-314-1463-7 Understanding Body Language www.nbcindia.com General Management Pramod Rao Pallavi Kate 31-Jul-08 220 15.5 400 0 0 We can easily be misled by words but not by body language. Words are relatively easy to control, while body language, facial expressions and voice characteristics are not. By paying attention to these nonverbal cues, we can detect deception or affirm a speaker’s honesty. If we can read other people’s nonverbal messages correctly, we can interpret their underlying attitudes and intentions and respond appropriately. Body language has been gaining importance rapidly in various walks of life. It is pursued as an art of living in today’s societal conscious world. The body language of an individual is influenced not only by his inner personality and behavior, but also by his culture, religion, and nationality. The book sets out to explain what is known from research findings about the skills and techniques of body language. It examines how this knowledge is applied at workplaces and how it can be applied in a variety of contexts and that too for better effect. The book is designed to be a handbook for people who want to recuperate their overall personality with an emphasis on nonverbal communication. The degree of desire we have for self improvement is what determines our success or failure in life. The determination to be achievers in our life definitely calls for effective speaking on the one hand and powerful use of body language on the other.
151 978-81-314-1994-6 Fun and Laughter at Workplace: A New Perspective www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Sangeetha K 31-Jul-08 192 14.5 375 0 0 In the current radically transforming business world and increased war for talent, attracting and retaining talented employees has become very crucial. Fun and Laughter at Workplace is one of the vital tools that can be used in an organization to motivate the employees to enjoy work. A shared joke or introducing games that evoke fun and laughter in the workplace results in multiple benefits to both the employer and the employee – physically, emotionally and psychologically. A sense of humor allows the employees and the leaders to recognize and understand the incongruities of the workplace and life in general; and bring in a feeling of freshness and delight that promotes team spirit, creativity and esprit-de-corps. It inculcates the right attitude in them and helps them take pride in their job. Adding this element of fun and laughter at workplace creates a competitive advantage to the company in the marketplace as it boosts employee morale and kindles their enthusiastic spirit to work sincerely and to give of their best potential that has a significant impact upon the company s profits. Laughter not only makes the external environment happy but also makes the workers work to their best potential with high quality that helps in the realization of the organizational goals. In a nutshell, a fun and laughter filled work environment will make the company a successful one and help them emerge as an employer of choice or to be a great place to work for. This book is designed to provide a logical exposition of the role and significance of fun and laughter at workplace and how it influences employee wellness, workforce productivity and company s profits. It also presents the various strategies for promoting fun and laughter at workplace.
152 978-81-314-1444-6 Netlingo: The Metamorphosis of Language www.nbcindia.com IT Salonee Priya 30-Jul-08 276 18 450 0 0 Language is a system of communication. The living and changing nature of our languages is nowhere more apparent than in newer forms of electronic discourse. The dawn of Internet has brought in a new system of communication. It undoubtedly has a direct impact on language. The increasing number of cyber-words in the dictionary and the fledgling number of websites and books on Internet terms are indicators of this change in language. Internet recaptures the spirit of oral culture and the same is reflected in its language. This book entangles the web to give a clear picture of the language used in e-mail, instant messaging, blogs, search engines, websites etc. It deals with various issues and concepts related to net mediated communication and focuses on the changing style of the language used on the Internet. Apart from bringing in a lot of change, Internet has facilitated the functioning of certain professional areas viz., business mail, foreign language learning, online search engines, etc. The book gives a finer picture of different professional areas where the language of the Internet has had an impact. Internet has ushered in a cross-language environment and multilingualism. Global images from different countries as they attempt to promote the use of their own languages are depicted. Though there is a lot of linguistic diversity on the Internet, the early lead of English is likely to continue.
153 978-81-314-1456-9 Cruise Tourism: Indian and Global Perspectives www.nbcindia.com Marketing Srikant Kapoor Prasad B V S 30-Jul-08 288 18 450 0 0 An estimated 70,000-80,000 Indians set sail on different International cruises plus 55 cruise ships visit Indian ports (2007). Indian cruise tourism has seen a transition from travelling to a more complex fuzzy product i.e., which is dynamic, involves customization and personalization. Everyone who wants to venture out for a sea vacation on a cruise will enjoy the in-depth views of the business tourism and travel articles in this unique book. It is really amazing to read as to how much effort, imagination and work go in to create a perfect carefree cruise vacation. Marketing a cruise product includes creating the right blend of 5 A’s, e.g., attraction, amenities, accommodation, activities and access. The book is composed of selected articles on cruise tourism which are fascinating and delightful to all those interested in the travel and tourism business. Care has been taken to ensure that the facts and figures are sourced from internationally acclaimed and approved sources to present different perspectives to the readers. Key Features:• Provides a researched compilation on Cruise tourism in India.• Articles selected from highly reputed sources- Deloitte, CRISIL, WTO, WTTC etc.• The book is logically divided into three sections: Introduction, Indian Scenario and the Lessons from International Experience and covers important contemporary issues in a unique perspective.• New conceptual models like the Nine pointed star T’s – Temptation, Treasure, Team, Transit, Tenure, Technology, Theme and benefits and promotion strategies have been suggested to provide a deeper insight on cruise tourism.Happy Cruising!
154 978-81-314-1445-3 Genetically Modified Crops: Issues and Perspectives www.nbcindia.com General Debashree Mukherjee 22-Jul-08 348 20 500 0 0 The deficiencies in conventional agriculture have opened up new vistas in the domain of farm biotechnology, one of which is genetically modified crops. Devised to meet the challenges of conventional agriculture, which ranges from poverty reduction to food diversity, from social uplift to economic gains, genetically modified crops have created a niche for themselves but with the passage of time, there has been a divergence of opinion as regards the necessity and utility of the said crops. Proponents of transgenic crops (the name by which they are also known) are of the view that the said crops promote sustainable livelihoods, empower the indigenous communities and thereby address the economic stability of the nation as also help in the alleviation of poverty, malnutrition and hunger. Opponents contradict the above stand by exerting that all such observations are not the outcomes of any study conducted in the area but merely a hype generated by the multinational seed and agro-based industries. To resolve the issue it, therefore, becomes obligatory that extensive research is conducted to ascertain the relevance of the crops in the present day. This book attempts to cover the entire scenario governing genetically modified crops beginning its introduction to the risks and rewards associated with their growth. It also reflects on the divergence of opinion relating to the crops and provides an overview of the distribution of the crops across the globe. Finally, it endeavours to discern solutions for addressing the shortcomings linked with the crops to establish their relevance in the present day.
155 978-81-314-1967-0 Groundwater Management: Sustainable Approaches www.nbcindia.com Infrastructure Meenu Bhatnagar 22-Jul-08 332 20 500 0 0 “Ground water, a limited natural resource, is primarily used in the areas of domestic consumption, agriculture and industries. Being part of the hydrological cycle, it is closely linked with surface water resources. It offers relative ease and flexibility of exploitation as compared to other sources of water. The cost of developing ground water is very less in comparison to surface water resources, a fact which has led to its frequent overutilization. This has been a cause of reduction in the ground water reserves as reflected in the lowered water table.
The purpose of the book is to present an understanding of the management of ground water resource so as to support its sustainable use. The book provides an in-depth analysis of the core issues. It highlights planned development, conservation and scientific exploitation of ground water. Conservation of ground water through adoption of drip irrigation technology has been examined. Specific planning and management strategies have been discussed for different hydro-geological conditions. Planned development is relevant to agriculture, irrigation, industry, health, land use etc while unplanned exploitation results in environmental degradation. The issues of conjunctive use of surface and ground water, control and preservation of ground water quality, salinity prevention and effect of urbanization have been explored.
Some of the other key issues focused are viz., ground water ethics crucial for its protection and water laws and rights and policy suggestions for managing ground water in a sustainable manner.
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156 978-81-314-1428-6 Entrepreneurship and Rural Development in India www.nbcindia.com Economy: India Jegadeesan G Santana Krishnan R 22-Jul-08 288 18 450 0 0 Entrepreneurs are people who create and grow enterprises; entrepreneurship is the process through which enterprises are created and grown. Entrepreneur development refers to the infrastructure of public and private policies and practices that foster and support entrepreneurship. India is the 5th largest economy in the world and it ranks above the UK, France, Italy and Russia and has the 3rd largest GDP in the entire continent of Asia. But in India, 390 million people still live on $1 a day or less. The distribution of wealth may or may not be equitable. But in creating the possibility of making it in rural India itself through entrepreneurship, the new rural prosperity is transforming rural India’s image from economic nonentity to emerging market within the emerging markets. The book attempts to give a clear picture on various perspectives and issues affecting development of rural entrepreneurship. It discusses entrepreneurship in rural India in the context of integrated rural development, role of entrepreneurship, woman entrepreneurship and meeting of capital needs of entrepreneurs by financial institutions like NABARD, nationalized banks and Khadi and Village Industries Corporation. Factors relating to marketing, micro finance, innovation and awareness of science and technology and ways to develop entrepreneurial skills for rural masses are also discussed. It highlights factors that lead to or promote entrepreneurship under different perspectives as sustaining development, empowering women, enabling means of livelihood, role of NGOs, establishing gender equity by eliminating risks and hurdles faced by rural woman entrepreneurs in particular and male entrepreneurs in general.
157 978-81-314-1434-7 IUP on Indian Financial Markets: The Regulatory Perspectives www.nbcindia.com Finance Dhandapani Alagiri 22-Jul-08 296 18 450 0 0 The Indian financial sector has become vibrant over the last decade and a half since liberalization. The markets have become more diversified with more players coming in and newer instruments being introduced. The markets have been liberalized and the regulations have been rationalized to a large extent in tune with the global scenario. In this context, there have been many developments in the regulatory realm that have been done in order to make the markets more vibrant and at the same time investor-friendly and in alignment with the developments in the global financial markets. The regulatory developments have been continuous, reflecting the prevailing situations. The major regulatory bodies – RBI, SEBI, FMC and IRDA – have been making their best efforts in regulating and developing the markets. The banking regime is evolving with the best practices across the world as a benchmark. Several new rules and amendments have been introduced by SEBI for regulating the capital market. Similarly, there have been many regulatory developments from FMC and IRDA as well. There have also been discussions on the benefits of having a unified regulator for all the financial markets in the country and its practicality. In this context, this book, “The Icfai University Press on Indian Financial Markets: The Regulatory Perspectives”, will make useful reading, capturing important regulatory developments of Indian financial markets. The book presents a series of well-written articles that bring out the essence of the happenings in the field.
158 978-81-314-1462-0 Commercial Microfinance: Trends and Cases www.nbcindia.com Finance Rajagopalan S Radha Purswani 22-Jul-08 276 18 450 0 0 For the past three decades, the microfinance sector has remained an important source for providing finance to the poor and the marginalized sections of society. This sector has been driven primarily by social objectives, led by non-governmental organisations and charities, with funding largely in the form of donor money or subsidized credit. But, today, a new paradigm of ‘commercial’ microfinance’ is taking shape: on the one hand, commercial banks are entering the field, and on the other, MFIs (microfinance institutions) are going public and raising money from equity and debt capital markets, or transforming themselves into for-profit entities from non-profit bodies. This influx of private capital into a hitherto donor-money-driven sector is largely due to the recognition of microfinance as a profit-making proposition, as evidenced by the high repayment rates (over 95% on an average, with some even recording rates as high as 98%) in microfinance. This new trend is also helping the microfinance sector in accessing the much-needed funds; donor money ultimately is limited and can only fulfill so much of the demand, which far outstrips supply. If the microfinance sector has to grow and meet the potential demand, private investment is but necessary. In this context, commercial microfinance serves both objectives: one, it serves the poor, and two, it fetches a return for the investor. This book introduces the new paradigm of ‘commercial microfinance’, examines the emerging trends and challenges in commercial microfinance, and presents case studies on implementation of commercial microfinance.
159 978-81-314-1958-8 Indian Cooperatives Issues and Experiences www.nbcindia.com General Rajmanohar T P 22-Jul-08 272 17 425 0 0 “The Indian cooperative sector is more than hundred-years-old. It was launched primarily to enable farmers to get out of the clutches of moneylenders. In the pre-independence period the cooperatives saw good growth. After Independence also the Government gave good support to cooperatives. Some of the cooperatives like AMUL, IFFCO and KRIBHCO took advantage of the Government’s support and saw good growth. Post-1991, after the Government liberalized the economy, the cooperatives were not given special treatment because of which some of the cooperatives were not able to face competition from the private sector. The cooperative banks also had problems because of politicization and a great deal of Government control. Some of the cooperative banks wound up and the depositors lost confidence in them, especially those, that were being run by Government nominees. Thus, over a period of time members of the cooperatives were not actively involved in the management of their institution. This led to sickness among cooperatives which attracted the Government’s attention.
The Government appointed a task force to look into the problems of the cooperatives, especially the credit cooperatives. Among the recommendations of the task force was a financial package to revive the cooperatives. The other major recommendation was the need for the cooperatives to manage their affairs themselves without Government intervention. The sickness of the cooperatives has affected the agriculture sector very much as the best way to reach the agriculture community is through cooperatives. The prosperity of India’s farmers depends a lot on the revival of cooperatives, especially credit cooperatives.
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160 978-81-314-1441-5 National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: Issues, Challenges and Experiences www.nbcindia.com General Management Sudha V Menon 22-Jul-08 268 17 425 0 0 The current economic growth is seemingly bypassing the 2/3rd of India’s rural population. The high level of poverty in the rural areas is also exacerbating the urban-rural divide. With the agriculture sector experiencing a continuous squeeze and the decline in livelihood opportunities for rural unskilled laborers, policymakers in India face significant challenges. Many policies that have been formulated and implemented to address these issues have not had any significant impact so far. One of the most recent policies aimed directly at improving rural livelihood is National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). If implemented properly, this has the potential of transforming the livelihoods of the rural poor. Introduced in February, 2006, the NREGA guarantees at least 100 days of employment to every household at a minimum daily wage of Rs.60. Each State Government is required, under the Act, to launch a rural employment guarantee scheme within six months of the law coming into force. In areas where the NREGA is being implemented, several critical issues that have limited its impact have been highlighted. Important among these are lack of or low awareness among rural people about the entitlements and basic features of the Act, absence of skilled staff members, limited number of people actually getting jobs (despite having job cards) due to lack of awareness of the work application process and inefficient and ineffective delivery mechanism and monitoring systems. Implementation issues have proven to be a major hindrance to realizing the potential of the NREGA. Against this context, the present book focuses on explaining the basic concept of NREGA, its uniqueness, diverse perspectives, operational dimensions, availability of finance and attitude of bureaucracy. On the basis of micro-level experiences in different states, the book analyzes and critically evaluates the effectiveness of NREGA in securing guarantee of rural employment, eradicating rural poverty, providing rural asset base and checking migration to the urban areas.
161 978-81-314-1443-9 Mercury Contamination: Causes and Concerns www.nbcindia.com General Management Preeti Phuskele Sameer A Zodgekar 22-Jul-08 252 17 425 0 0 One does not think much about using mercury thermometers. If a member of the family falls sick, we quickly take out mercury thermometer and measure the temperature. Similarly, dental filling is a routine process for most of us. It never occurs to us that dental filling or thermometers can cause toxicity. But it is a fact. Breaking of mercury thermometer spills mercury beads that are difficult to collect. Dental amalgam contains mercury which may accumulate and cause chronic toxicity. Preservatives such as thiomerosal, used in children’s vaccines, may lead to mercury toxicity. Even fish such as albacore tuna, swordfish and king mackerel may cause mercury toxicity. Mercury is a heavy metal that is liquid at room temperature. Spilled mercury beads may vapourize and can possibly be inhaled. Inhaled mercury is highly toxic. It may cause typical metal fume fever. Similarly, eating particular kinds of fish may cause ingestion of methylmercury- an organic form- which may significantly damage the nervous system. Children are especially prone to mercury toxicity. Children born to mothers with high level of mercury show slower development. This book explains how mercury contamination occurs; what are the symptoms of mercury contamination and how contamination can be avoided. It also has a look at some of the ways to reduce the toxic effects of mercury contamination.
162 978-81-314-2029-4 Motivation as a Retention Strategy www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Ramana P S V Ramani V V 22-Jul-08 272 17 425 0 0 Increasing competition among the corporates for the right talent seems to have made the process of attracting and retaining talent, a Herculean task more than ever before. As the highly talented workforce in organizations enhance their skills and job-hop from one company to another, managers seem to be feeling the heat in battling abnormally high attrition rates. Motivating employees and retaining them in the current scenario is altogether a different ball game as compared to about five years ago so much so that employee retention has almost become synonymous with employee motivation. A motivated employee is satisfied with his job, more productive and more likely to stay with the organization. Therefore, a key issue to address while handling employee retention is the ways and means of motivating them. As is often said, employees do not leave an organization because it is bad; they leave with a hope to get a better set of people in another organization. If there is somebody who can make the difference, it is undoubtedly the leaders with adequate backup from the HR team and the management. The main objective of the book is to provide useful insights into various aspects of employee motivation and how motivation can be successfully used as a means to retain employees in an organization. The book also provides experiences in various industries/sectors as to how motivation can be helpful in enhancing the employee productivity and in retaining talent which, in turn, would improve the overall performance of an organization. This book attempts to capture those aspects of motivation which play a pivotal role in keeping the employee morale high, which will help mangers keep him bonded with the organization. An attempt has been made to explore various tools for motivating employees, which may be handy for the practising managers in dealing with attrition. The theme of the proposed book focuses on the well-established fact that motivated employees are not only productive but also committed to staying on with an organization.
163 978-81-314-1991-5 Privatization of Water Sector: Perspectives and Experiences www.nbcindia.com Infrastructure Menaka Rao 22-Jul-08 268 17 425 0 0 Water, being crucial to life, have people ready to spend a major part of their income on it. It is this irreplaceable and unique quality of the resource that makes its availability so very important. Water as a resource and the debates and controversies that surround it have many in disagreement on how and who should manage this all important and scarce resource. Should it be recognized as a public good and a human right or as a commodity to be traded for financial gain in the open market? This is the big question with no concrete answers. Despite these debates, many countries have gone in for privatization hoping for greater efficiencies to their water supply as well as to cope better with this meagre and depleting resource. This book takes a look at privatization, the rationale behind privatization. Various dimensions of privatization and its implication are cover in the first section. The second section focuses on country experiences which include both success stories and experiences that have not been so good. Water privatization experiments in different parts of the world are covered in this book. The power to bring out emotions while reading the failures of privatisation and knowing that millions of people are deprived of this right induce the reader to ponder as to how this precious resource can be conserved, rather than expend wasteful energy on debating and fighting over who owns water and who needs to control the resource.
164 978-81-314-1468-2 US Subprime Market – Evolution, Growth and Crisis www.nbcindia.com Business and Finance Specials Amit Singh Sisodiya Janardhan Rao N 22-Jul-08 240 16.5 425 0 0 The word ‘Subprime’ was voted the word of the year in 2007 by the American Dialect Society. And fittingly so. Subprime crisis remained the most talked about and debated issue among policymakers, central bankers, media and the public, not just in the US but in other continents like Europe and far-off countries such as China and India. The fears of a contagion effect became evident after the British lender, Northern Rock, disclosed in September, 2007, that it sought emergency funding from the British central bank, Bank of England. But it was BNP Paribas, France’s top bank, which set the alarm bells ringing across Europe as it froze 1.6bn euros ($2.2bn) in August, 2007, citing the problems in the subprime market which prompted the European Central Bank (ECB) to add emergency liquidity. The crisis has impacted the who’s who of financial institutions – from Citigroup to Merrill Lynch in the US to UBS, BNP Paribas, Swiss Re in Europe, from Mitsui Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui in Japan to Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to Bank of China. Even some of the Indian banks have been hit by the crisis although the extent of losses is small as compared to the US and other international banks hit by the crisis. The effect of subprime crisis is felt across a wide spectrum of industries. Hence for now, the challenge before the central banks across the globe is to prevent any further damage to the financial services sector and hence the global economy. The book offers insights into the world of subprime, tracking its development since its evolution to the recent crisis and its after-effects, and the remedial measures needed to prevent such crisis in future.
165 978-81-314-1431-6 World Bank, IMF and WTO : Role in Global Economy www.nbcindia.com Finance Preeti Phuskele 22-Jul-08 240 16.5 425 0 0 The entire International economic architecture was founded after the World War II. The World Bank, IMF and the WTO were loaded with issues like globalization, trade disagreement and rising economic powers. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization have incredible power and influence. Funds regulations at the World Bank and the IMF and agreement at the WTO are the result of bargaining and pressures from the rich and prosperous countries. The new rules for trade relation between major industrial states of International Monetary System were made by the Bretton Woods System. In July, 1944, 730 delegates from 44 associated nations gathered in Bretton Woods with an objective of restructuring the international economic system. They agreed upon and signed the Bretton Woods Agreements at this conference. And the result was establishment of the two institutions –IBRD and the IMF. Bretton Woods’s conference agreed on the combined package of regulations for trade and tariff, which is known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947. The GATT was restructured into World Trade Organization (WTO), which came into existence in 1995. This book discusses the contributions of the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank, and pinpoints the areas needing improvements in these three institutions.
166 978-81-314-1426-2 Mediation: An Effective Dispute Settlement Machinery www.nbcindia.com Law Jegadeesan G 22-Jul-08 240 16.5 425 0 0 Conflicts affect the smooth flow of business and, therefore, settlement of disputes is imperative. Heaps of disputes are referred to courts for resolution. Settlement through courts may be time-consuming and highly expensive. Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is an important alternative to litigation. Commercial disputes have become an international concern with the increase in trade relations allover the world. ADR plays a vital role in the settlement of commercial disputes arising from relationships of commercial nature, whether contractual or not. ADR processes and techniques help settle disputes between parties by applying any one of the methods such as arbitration, mediation (conciliation) or negotiation. Mediation is a method of peaceful settlement of disputes through the participation of a third party in negotiation between the disputing parties. In the process of mediation, as the agreement arrived between the parties is with the consent of both, it is a win-win situation. Here, the mediator must be acceptable to both parties and should have no interest in the dispute other than that of achievement of a peaceful settlement. The significance of ADR system is perceived the world over. This Book explores the concept, evolution, legality, adoption, procedures and future outlook of mediation (conciliation) under ADR. Various case studies which deal with practices relating to mediation (conciliation) in various countries are also included. Perspectives of different countries like India, China, the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Sweden are analyzed.
167 978-81-314-1451-4 Organic Farming: A Global Perspective www.nbcindia.com Agriculture Subir Ghosh 22-Jul-08 232 16 400 0 0 Organic farming has now become a prime topic of discussion and concern in the agricultural sector. It is a method of farming that requires farmers to operate a system based on ecological principles and which imposes strict limitations on the inputs that can be used in order to minimize damage to the environment and wildlife. So, emphasis is given on natural methods of production and pest control. Organic agriculture has developed rapidly worldwide during the last few years and is now practised in approximately 120 countries. The total area of land that was organically managed, either fully organic or in-conversion, fell by 8.1 percent between January 2005 and January 2006 to 619,000 hectares, having peaked in March 2003 at 741,000 hectares following several years of notable increases. The late 1990s and early 2000s saw increase in the area of organically managed land for various reasons. Significant factors operating during this period were: farmers seeking alternatives to conventional farming in response to the decrease in farm incomes, the scope of organic farming being extended by the European Union to include livestock production, in July 1999 and payment rates under organic farming support schemes being substantially increased. The market for organic products is also growing rapidly not only in Europe and North America (which are the major markets), but also in many other countries, including several developing countries. With this background, the present book tries to introduce socially, ecologically and economically viable production system through organic farming and its impact on the economy.
168 978-81-314-2069-0 Global Banking- Emerging Trends www.nbcindia.com Banking Nageswara Rao Katuri 22-Jul-08 232 16 400 0 0 Global banking faces many challenges. While internationally active banks are the order of the day, small and medium banks have a role to play. Operational risk in banks acquires greater significance in the context of major frauds committed in the recent past. The US sub-prime crisis teaches banks not to dilute loan pricing and risk management standards, not to relax credit standards because of excess liquidity and not to resort to securitization and credit transfer mechanism, without proper appreciation of the attendant risks. Banking in the US will continue to experience a favorable environment but may face inadequate safeguards in the use of technology. In Europe, bank consolidation may provide a mixed bag. The EU accession countries have to continue with extensive structural and institutional reforms. Chinese banking has opted for public ownership through IPO route as a measure to strengthen banks through foreign ownership. It is a turnaround story for the major banks in Japan, which have embarked on radical reforms. Indian banking is strong, stable and vibrant but it faces the challenges of convergence, consolidation and competition. In future, customers will redefine the rules of the game and banks face intensified regulatory burden. While technology will be a critical element of success, banks need to focus on their core strengths and partner for everything else. Effective performance management and optimizing the potential of each customer relation are also the strategic imperatives. Global banking witnesses a paradigm shift and to manage transition, market participants need to understand the changing nature of risk in the context of increasing use of innovative and complex instruments. Bank disclosures need to keep pace with market developments and banks need to enhance governance standards.
169 978-81-314-2007-2 Human Trafficking- Challenges And Initiatives www.nbcindia.com General Debashree Mukherjee 22-Jul-08 228 16 400 0 0 This book provides a glimpse of a grave social issue that has plagued nations all over the globe. Trafficking in persons at present is a social debacle. It is an organized industry that is operating in the underground economy worldwide. Both the developed and the underdeveloped world are plagued by the shackles of trafficking of women and children. The international borders have become highly permeable so that human beings are routed from one nation to another as commodities and then used in illegal activities like prostitution, bonded labor, forced slavery and illegal servitude. Thus, human trafficking poses serious challenges in myriad forms. The sex industry is one of the prime destinations of the trafficked victims. Mostly women from a fragile economic background are taken into an alluring trap with promises of legitimate employment, safe and secured future. Children are attracted with hopes of luxurious life, education facilities etc. They are ignorant of their fate and actually land in illegal servitude, sex trade, crime groups etc. The governments of the destination countries and international bodies are aware of the severe threats of such practice of trafficking human beings and have taken several initiatives on this front. The book tries to throw light on such anti-trafficking initiatives adopted in various regions with special reference to USA, Africa, South Asia, United Kingdom and India. It aims at stirring social and public awareness of a social debacle, because it is only the combined efforts of the masses, policy makers and international agencies that can put an end to such a social malpractice.
170 978-81-314-1452-1 Bioinformatics – The Future Science www.nbcindia.com Science Sameer A Zodgekar 22-Jul-08 236 16 400 0 0 Prima facie, there seems to be no similarity between biology and information science. Yet, bioinformatics is one of the most happening disciplines now. It combines biological knowledge with computational tools. Biological molecules are immensely large and incredibly complex! Describing them in terms of worksheet requires a large number of fields.Human genome project has amassed tremendous amount of data. The challenge now lies in deriving knowledge out of this data. For this, sophisticated tools are required to query on the database. The databases or datasets themselves are currently present in widely varying formats, and use different methods of classification. Integrating these datasets is an important yet challenging task. Bioinformatics hopes to do this and much more. The final output will be in the form of a new drug discovery, especially in the field of genetically transmitted diseases such as Huntington’s Chorea. Or, it may be manifested by producing a strong, pest-resistant variety of a crop. Bioinformatics may also throw light on genotype-phenotype equation and answer such intriguing question as “how speciation occurs”? This book is conveniently divided into two sections. The first section introduces the readers to the science of bioinformatics, and discusses its applications. The second section elaborates upon the anticipated future challenges in bioinformatics.
171 978-81-314-2030-0 Trade Blocs: Reflections www.nbcindia.com FINANCE Ravi Kumar Jain B Satish D 22-Jul-08 196 14.5 375 0 0 In the complex world of international trade, to sustain the competition from developed countries and to achieve competitive and strategic benefits, developing countries are resorting to trade alliances among themselves, which make them combat the hegemonic powers with a collective strength. During the dawn of the twentieth century and after the world wars, many regional economic blocs have been formed to promote trade among nations. Trade blocs come in different forms – free trade areas, common markets, customs unions and economic union. Some of the common trade blocs are NAFTA, ASEAN, SAARC, AU, Agadir, EU, CARICOM, EFTA, GCC, PARTA and Unasur. Trade blocs have become very important for the economic development of not only the member-countries but also for the overall development of the region. Trade blocs have become major nerve centers for economic progress. While the benefits are enormous, there are also many articles which talk about the negative side of trade blocs. In a larger perspective they also seem as hindrances to WTO where nations are abandoning WTO and are pursuing regional blocs. The present book focuses on types of trade blocs, history, evolution, advantages and disadvantages, success factors, failure reasons, trade blocs and WTO and some popular trade blocs.
172 978-81-314-1453-8 Environmental Accounting:Concepts and Practices www.nbcindia.com Accounting Arup Choudhuri 16-Jul-08 316 19 475 0 0 In the past century, the world had witnessed large-scale damage to the natural environment championed by the corporate world. This destruction of nature was never reported to the stakeholders. The companies used to send annual reports to its shareholders. These reports comprised accounting information only. Financial reporting usually provides information on assets, liabilities, incomes and expenses. Financial accounting stands on a fundamental concept called “money measurement”. Money measurement concept prescribes to value anything, which can be translated in terms of money. The large-scale manufacturing companies occupy land by destroying natural environment. They cause pollution in every possible way. But nothing of it is reported in annual report as the natural assets and pollution cannot be valued in monetary terms. It was not only the limitation of accounting; most of the companies deliberately do not report these issues because it may lower the reported profit of the business. In the last decade, pressure from environmentalists, social groups and scientists made the management of some of the companies to realize that that they havd a role to play to save the mother earth. Corporate social responsibility and corporate environmental responsibility became two major decision areas of corporate management. Various frameworks of environmental management and reporting emerged in different corners of the world. The format put forward by GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) was considered to be easily acceptable. The format is known as “Triple Bottom Line” (TBL) accounting. This new method has challenged some age-old principles of financial reporting principles. This book provides the origin and development of this concept and endeavours to show the future of this corporate environmental concern with some well-conceived contributions from authors of different background.
173 978-81-314-1447-7 E-Justice: Perspectives and Experiences www.nbcindia.com General Jaya Krishna S Naveen Kumar Agarwal 16-Jul-08 260 17 425 0 0 E-justice is use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the judicial system. Use of ICT in justice system primarily helps increase administrative efficiency and access. Integration and automation of court procedures create accountability and transparency in the judicial processes. Besides immensely improving the timeliness, the Internet offers potential opportunities to deliver information – advisory, legal and financial services online and thereby, help increase legitimacy. More than that, the confidence of the public in the judicial system can be improved a lot, while achieving economic and social objectives of the country. This book introduces the concept and focuses on the need, potential value, applications, challenges and other meaningful insights related to the use of ICT in justice. How streamlining and improving the delivery of court services can be achieved with the use of ICT and how the delivery of court services can be far more efficient, at local, regional, national and global levels are discussed, at length. The book also introduces the concepts viz., Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) and ‘access to justice by the disabled.’ Practical lessons learnt and other useful insights from the experiences of EU nations and select countries like USA, Netherlands, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Mexico, Venezuela, Italy, Bhutan, India, etc.,are also captured. While offering an immense learning value to the academicians, researchers and students of law, this book, it is hoped, will help law-related professionals, Government executives, policy-makers and the society to better understand far-reaching applications and implementation insights of e-justice. Judges of various courts, legal representatives, public prosecutors, advocates, legal consultants, various ministries dealing with law and justice of the country can benefit considerably from the thoughtful insights provided in this book.
174 978-81-314-1448-4 Migration and Remittances in Developing Countries www.nbcindia.com Economy: World Naveen Kumar Agarwal Ramani V V 15-Jul-08 292 18 450 0 0 Migration is a global phenomenon. According to a study, it is estimated that about 3% of the world’s population is migrants. It is a massive movement of people across the globe i.e., almost 175 million people living outside their country of origin. If all the migrants lived in the same place, it would be the world’s fifth largest country. Remittances, an inextricable facet of migration, are the sum of money that migrants regularly send to their families who have remained in their countries of origin. Remittances are generally targeted towards poor families and individuals. There is a wide consensus that remittances play an important role in alleviating poverty, increasing consumption, bettering education for children and in healthcare as well as some investment purposes. Emigrant households are more likely to send their children to schools. Remittances are productively invested in micro-enterprises, used to build housing and local infrastructure, such as schools and clinics, to buy land or materials to work the land or seeds to plant. By providing an additional source of income, remittances are crucial for enabling poor families to improve the standard of living. Therefore, remittances function as a social safety net for poor families. The book exclusively concentrates on the overview and status of migration and remittances and the impact of remittances on socio economic development of the countries like India, Philippines, China, Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Somalia Mexico, Nigeria and Macedonia.
175 978-81-314-1469-9 Carbon Trading – Some Insights and Perspectives www.nbcindia.com Finance Radha Purswani 15-Jul-08 296 18 450 0 0 Carbon trading, which is a market-based approach designed to address the climate change concern, has led to the development of international carbon markets. ‘Carbon’ or “CO2” has received an identity makeover, from a mere greenhouse gas – polluting environment to a new asset class for investors and speculators. International carbon markets are the world’s fastest growing markets, and have strongly emerged as a reliable tool for curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The international market in carbon credits has evolved to cover various trading schemes, and has facilitated achievement of annual emission reduction targets of annex-I countries. The annex-II countries have been benefited by increased foreign investments, technology and knowledge transfers. Beyond the regulated carbon markets, developed under the aegis of the Kyoto Protocol, voluntary carbon markets have gained a strong foothold in the international set-up. Voluntary carbon markets have emerged as critical support for regulated markets and have contributed significantly in securing the successful existence of the market-based approach for mitigating climate change. Carbon trading has come far, but it has a long way to go. The carbon markets, voluntary or regulated, have facilitated trading of allowances and other carbon instruments, and thus, have infused liquidity and depth in trading carbon instruments. But these markets have emerged in a very fragmented manner. Moreover, these markets currently lack inter-linkages and face other issues like volatility and disparity in prices of carbon instruments.
176 978-81-314-1457-6 Service Learning: Perspectives and Applications www.nbcindia.com General Shalini S 15-Jul-08 252 17 425 0 0 The world of education has thrown open a plethora of opportunities for youngsters to get skilled, gain employment and move ahead in life. At the same time, to a certain extent, it has failed to address issues concerning society and mankind in general. There is very little human touch in the way in which professionals go about doing their work. This kind of mechanical interaction would do very little to solve the problems of mankind, to say the least. Imparting skills without sensitizing the student community to issues, people and the community at large will do very little to make the planet a better place to live in. This book talks about incorporating elements of human interaction at the grass root level in the education process itself. The term service learning talks of imparting education with meaningful understanding of various societal issues added to it. It discusses community interface with a purpose. Skills learnt in an institution do not necessarily inculcate human values in a student. This is aptly addressed in the book. It needs to be adopted, if institutional education has to be made meaningful and beneficial to thousands in society. This book points out the difference between a particular pedagogy and the most conventional method adopted in the higher echelons of learning-internship. For the layman, the path may look similar but there is a difference, which the book rightly points out. The beauty of this concept lies in its utility to disciplines as varied as engineering to medicine to humanities. It is expected to benefit academicians and visionaries who would like to bring in a human element while imparting education. It shows the power of sensitivity in interacting with people in day-to-day life.
177 978-81-314-1437-8 Human Rights And Intellectual Property www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Manoj Kumar Pattanaik 13-Jul-08 268 17 425 0 0 The first ever industrial revolution started in world, made labor and raw materials the key issues of its development. In the same way, the technology-led information and knowledge-based economic world is now centering its whole intellectuality on Intellectual property, which is a generic term that refers to intangible objects like copyrights, patent etc. In the new world economy of knowledge, ideas, access to creative works, ownership, scientific knowledge and control have tremendous economic impact and increased competition on the so-called knowledge wars. But the recent attempt made by the scholars and policy-makers at the international level to relate this knowledge-based rights to the human rights framework is noteworthy. In an international initiative, the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, adopted a resolution addressing this topic at its August, 2000, session. It declares that: “Since the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement does not adequately reflect the Fundamental nature and indivisibility of all human rights… There are apparent conflicts between the intellectual property rights regime embodied in the TRIPS Agreement, on the one hand, and international human-rights law, on the other.” Hence, this book discusses the aspect that the policy-makers must meet the challenges making human rights framework of intellectual property positive and constructive dialogues should be there to bring the intersection. The success of this framework will not only help individuals achieve their protection of moral and material interests in intellectual creations, but also provide a mechanism to harness the intellectual property system to the states to protect human dignity and to promote full realization of human rights.
178 978-81-314-1427-9 Pricing and Branding of Financial Products – The Road Ahead www.nbcindia.com Banking Ajay Pathak Ghosal S N 13-Jul-08 228 16 400 0 0 In today’s economic scene the strategy and technique of pricing and branding of products and services have become significant marketing strategies for banks in India. In fact, under deregulation and globalization it has not only become a necessity but also provided an opportunity to banks to develop appropriate pricing and branding policy to optimize their business and revenue. It has, therefore, become necessary for banks to develop the necessary expertise and technology to help build pricing and branding models for their products and services. An effort has been made in this book to provide methodological processes, current scenario and the road ahead for banks to develop pricing and branding of their name, products and services. The book is, therefore, not only of topical interest but also highly significant as it provides a new base to build and adopt a strategy that has not been in practice at least in developing countries, if not in developed countries. In fact it is expected that this book would help develop a sophisticated pricing-branding strategy by banks to provide competitive edge to counter successfully growing intensity of competition. It would help executives build the necessary expertise and also upgrade their technology in line with advanced countries. No doubt, these ways only banks can attain the much sought-after competitive edge to survive and counter the growing competition arising from globalization and liberalization of economy.
179 978-81-314-1430-9 Culture Shock www.nbcindia.com General Ravikant S Wawge 13-Jul-08 204 15 375 0 0 When a person moves to a new culture, he faces many challenges due to differences between his own culture and the new culture. If a person fails to understand, manage and overcome those challenges, he may get a culture shock which can badly affect his life. We all are prone to culture shock. When we get used to certain situations and suddenly need to adapt and adjust to different situations, we may find it difficult. The reason may be a culture shock. When a person, after his return from another culture, finds it difficult to adjust in his own home culture it is another a kind of culture shock called reverse culture shock. The degree of cultural differences, person’s psychological development and maturity play a major role in determining the intensity of culture shock. Cultures vary across the world. Lack of cultural understanding may make one mistake others. The best preventative measure against and the best remedy for culture shock can be proper inter-cultural education and awareness. This book aims at bringing about awareness on culture shock and educating people on preventing culture shock from ruining their life.
180 978-81-314-1454-5 IUP on Dell Business Strategy:Growth and Success www.nbcindia.com Business Strategy Kalai Selvan N 11-Jul-08 308 19 475 0 0 Dell Inc., is one of world’s largest computer hardware companies with nearly 80,000 employees across the world. Dell Inc., was founded by Michael Dell on November, 1984 at Texas, United States. Under the leadership of Michael Dell, Dell has grown from a small PC maker to a giant hardware company. His strategy made Dell align its business well with the computer technology market boom and eventually, Dell has become the market leader. It gained its competitiveness in the market place through its innovative business model, technology innovation, product innovation, supply chain management, and customer management. Dell has adopted an innovative business model which contributes to its exceptional growth and success. Its success in the global market is primarily because of its state-of-the-art and well-planned operational strategies and business model. Dell’s business strategy was focusing on low cost, quick delivery, and customer service. Dell realized the importance of supply chain management trend in the initial stage itself and became one of the most successful PC companies in the world by putting emphasis on its supply chain, orchestrating its build-to-order and direct sales strategies. It has developed its supply chain strategy which integrates the entire operation including supplier management, manufacturing, customer delivery, inventory management, logistics, etc. Michael Dell’s innovative direct-sales strategy together with efficient supply chain management has been successful in allowing his company to sell computers at competitive prices.
181 978-81-314-1455-2 Soft Skills: An Essential Ingredient For Success www.nbcindia.com Human Resource Management Dharmesh K Mishra 11-Jul-08 288 18 450 0 0 For years, the widespread belief has been that technical knowledge and technical certification contribute most to career development success for corporate professionals. According to recent surveys, however, soft skills are far more important than technical skills to reach the top of the career ladder. In fact, IT Training magazine reports that 96% of survey respondents judged soft skills as the most important contributor for achieving career success. There is a lot of argument in the industry whether it is possible to enhance soft skills in a few hours of training, especially, when one considers the fact that a person has lived with those traits all his life. To this, the answer is harsh but real – a professional who wants to do well in his/her career does not really have a choice. More and more corporations around the world are recognizing the fact that, in order to gain competitive advantage, in addition to the obvious skills, they also need to make sure their people know how to handle themselves at work and relate with their customers and peers. Empathy, optimism, self-awareness and knowledge of what’s going on around them are the vital competencies employees of a progressive organization need to possess. All these constitute what we call ‘soft skills’. The book is divided into 2 sections. The first section is titled “Soft Skills – Self Perspective” and the second section is titled “Soft Skills – Organizational Perspective”.
182 978-81-314-1432-3 Dynamics of rural labor market www.nbcindia.com Economy Sridhar Krishna 11-Jul-08 260 17 425 0 0 Employment generation is possible in the rural areas only through access to land but rural labor markets all over the world are having a transformation where there has been a diversification of employment opportunities with non-farm employment having gained importance. Investment in services such as education and health are of prime importance in strengthening the capacity of rural people to leave the remote areas and compete in higher skill markets. Actually in 40 percent of Latin America and three quarters in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa rural income is generated in the rural non-farm economy. Agriculture and rural non-farm activity are interlinked. In Sub-Saharan Africa most rural families are engaged in small farms in varying degrees as one component of diversified livelihoods. Rural labor markets can be improved only through recognizing the importance of human resources and building it up through education, health and skills enhancement. Many rural labor markets are highly segmented on caste, tribe, age and gender lines. In rural labor markets in South Asia there is prevalence of work contracts and predominance of casual workers. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme implemented in India is an intervention in rural labor markets. NREGA raises the reservation wage of all workers in the rural sectors thereby providing bargaining power to rural workers. The book will prove useful to Government functionaries, economists, research scholars, and students of rural management and NGOs involved in rural development and political functionaries with a rural background.
183 978-81-314-1438-5 The Global Manager www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Sudhakar G P Sumati Reddy 11-Jul-08 264 17 425 0 0 Current day organizations are becoming more global in nature. Many organizations require their managers to spend considerable amount of time managing overseas business. These assignments can range from short business trips to lengthy business assignments. Working in a foreign culture poses its own challenges, which these global managers have to face in addition to their business responsibilities. Some of these challenges include managing in a multicultural environment, which involves managing people from diverse backgrounds. Other challenges include linguistic challenges, culture shock, corruption, enabling the family to adjust in the new environment, etc. Managers being sent on assignments overseas need special training and orientation to prepare for these challenges. Companies can offer language courses, courses on cultural differences, and relocation training for the manager and his/her family. Further, global managers need to be assisted to bring about attitudinal adjustments to absorb cultural differences and to interact with colleagues in the new location, as all these factors will have a bearing on his/ her performance. Global managers can therefore be defined as those who operate across cultures. Some of these managers would have worked in as many as 20-30 countries or can have responsibilities spanning a 100 countries. More the number of countries included in one’s span of responsibility, more complex is the global manager’s work. This book makes a humble attempt to present some of the myriad challenges encountered by global managers in the course of their work. It also includes perspectives of the skills and competencies required of a global manager to be successful. This book will serve as a useful reading reference for business managers, human resource managers, management consultants, business teachers and business students.
184 978-81-314-1440-8 Heritage Brands www.nbcindia.com Marketing Madhavi Garikaparthi Bala Krishna A V 11-Jul-08 268 17 425 0 0 Heritage Brands are the brands that have withstood the times and become icons in the eyes of the consumers. They have become immortal brands by associating themselves with the customers for many decades. They carry brand heritage mark with them by surviving for many decades against all odds and competitive forces. However, many of world’s well-known brands today have become brand icons, not merely because they are very old and survived for many decades but because they have been quite responsive to the consumer needs all the way. Heritage brands built up their brand values and brand equities by associating emotionally with the customers. This emotional bonding with the customers coupled with their technological upgradation placed these brands where they are. There are many global heritage brands that have become beacons of the societies in which they operate by emphasizing quality, value, relationship management etc. Many Indian brands have attained the heritage status by being deeply interwoven with rich Indian culture, heritage etc. All these brands have something in common: they appealed to all age cohorts and enjoyed the unblemished customer loyalty. This book on Heritage Brands focuses on heritage brands from the perspective of brand management. It looks into various aspects of heritage brands by drawing from the experiences of well-known heritage brands.
185 978-81-314-1433-0 Business Networking – Strategies and Cases www.nbcindia.com Business Management Sangeetha K 11-Jul-08 236 16 400 0 0 In the current scenario of globalization, liberalization and privatization, networking has become a vital tool for an individual to be connected with the industry and with people across the globe; and this is crucial for new entrepreneurs who aspire to boost their contact base globally. Networking enables the net worker to: spot opportunities for business; provide for joint ventures and growth process; hire best talents; get referrals and the best of financial networks. Business Networking can be done through attending parties, trade fairs and professional seminars and conferences. But, the hot trend is the online business networking, the future resting on mobile networking. Successful networking depends upon having the right people in the right network, according to the environment and goals pursued, that will result in maximization of the company’s performance and business profits. A right mix of personality, attitude and networking tools and skills will make an individual distinct and be one step ahead of others in the competitive market place. Thus, a successful formula for an effective networking is ‘networking should be on an ongoing basis’ — a process that yields huge returns for the time and energy that are invested in the networking process. Besides, if online networking issues, such as protocol standardization, communication policy, data security, safety of intellectual property and user privacy are properly addressed, it is for sure that it can expand collaboration and relationship building in a safer and unlimited environment that unites the countries into a global village for making business operations easy. This book is designed to capture the significance of Business Networking and its benefit and analyzes the various tools and strategies for an effective building and maintaining of network for business and social reasons.
186 978-81-314-1442-2 Green Marketing Strategies www.nbcindia.com Marketing Amitabha Ghose 11-Jul-08 232 16 400 0 0 One business area where environmental issues have received a great deal of discussion is marketing. When the society becomes more concerned with the natural environment, businesses have begun to modify their behaviour to address the society’s “new” concerns. Terms like “Green Marketing” and “Environmental Marketing” have become more popular. Many Governments around the world have become so concerned about green marketing activities that they have attempted regulation. Unfortunately, majority of the people believe that green marketing refers solely to the promotion or advertising of products with environmental characteristics. Pesticide free, Phosphate free, Recyclable, Refillable, Ozone-friendly and environment-friendly are some of the terms consumers most often associate with green marketing. Thus, green marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes in the production process, packaging changes, as well as modification of advertising. This book captures the history of green marketing since the early 1990s and provides a strategy of both theory and practice in order to understand how the marketing discipline may yet contribute to progress towards greater sustainability. The market of ecological or green products is growing exponentially at global level with a focus on international marketing strategies of eco-companies. The book highlights the issues surrounding the marketing of ecological products in the international marketplace, the challenges and opportunities for the eco-companies for international marketing, including some case studies. Issues related to product modification, changes in the production process, labeling and packaging changes, modifying advertisement, certification for international market that conform to the green marketing norms are also dealt with.
187 978-81-314-1436-1 IUP Series on Marketing of Financial Services : Trends and Cases www.nbcindia.com Finance Dhandapani Alagiri Keerti Mallela 11-Jul-08 220 15.5 400 0 0 The financial services marketer of today must have the intent to understand the customers’ needs, their financial priorities and the resultant increase in the financial institution’s profit. For this purpose, strategies like cross-selling, third party selling and many other techniques have been developed by financial institutions. Marketing financial services has become a retail trend in India and has been attracting many investors into its domain, due to each service’s unique profit-making capabilities. The financial services marketer is challenged with marketing these services using different strategies and techniques. Right from lead generation for sales to post-sales services, the financial services marketer has the responsibility to carefully review the customer and understand his needs. A customer’s financial priorities play a vital role in his purchase of the financial service – right from products and services like savings accounts to advanced services like mutual funds. Good communication skills are considered essential to build, nurture and expand customer relationships and selling services. By asking the right questions, opportunities quickly become apparent. By learning how to listen, needs can be fulfilled and relationships can be cemented. Nowadays, the major initiative taken by today’s financial institutions and banks is towards data and information security. Many software packages and techniques have been developed to facilitate financial institutions to secure their customer data as well as internal data and statistics. This book of marketing financial services gives an overall perspective of different marketing strategies followed in marketing different services like banking services, mutual funds and insurance.
188 978-81-314-1439-2 IUP on Essentials of Leadership www.nbcindia.com Leadership Sumati Reddy 5-Jul-08 212 15.5 400 0 0 Every leader wants to be equipped with the magic formula to be successful. What makes a leader successful? Many books have been written with an aim to offer the magic potion that will help them become successful. Many broach the theme of whether leaders are born or made. Going with the belief that leaders can be made, this book presents perspectives on the essential characteristics required of any leader to be successful. A leader with a strong character is a prerequisite to make a difference. Without a strong sense of integrity and ethics, a leader cannot bring about any change. Moreover, since he/she serves as a role model for employees as well as external stakeholders, he has to have a strong sense of ethics. In addition to character, there are other elements of behavior which he must pay equal attention to. These behaviors pertain to interpersonal conduct, being perceived as an approachable and likeable leader, being sensitive to others’ values etc. While leaders have to be equipped with technical skills and business skills to be able to achieve success in their chosen fields, they need to be equally good in the art of interpersonal skills. This book focuses on the essential skills required of a leader to be successful. Business teachers, business students and anyone who holds a leadership position in any capacity would find this book to be worthwhile reading.
189 978-81-314-1446-0 Ecological Impact of Road Transport www.nbcindia.com Infrastructure Asis Kumar Pain 5-Jul-08 200 15 375 0 0 Ecology and economy have long been linked with each other. At the same time, economic development and ecology are somehow inversely related. It is because technological developments create pressure for environment and, in turn, destroy ecology. Economic growth and development comes through the development in agricultural sector, industrial sector and through development in the tertiary sector. But to effectuate such development process, the role of transportation sector is primal. The fruits of development are translated among the common masses through the help of transportation sector. Within the transport sector, the role of surface transport is an essential ingredient for development to take place. Turning to the present situation, it can be unambiguously said that the current trends in the transport sector are environmentally and therefore, economically and socially unsustainable as transport operations, especially, the surface transport pollutes the environment in many ways. It has direct as well as indirect impact on health in terms of accident occurrence, respiratory problem and raising the propensity of lung diseases. This book is a modest attempt to capture the impact of surface transport on ecology and environment. The book has been divided into two sections. The first section gives a brief idea about the concepts of surface transport’s impact on ecology whereas the following section deals with country experiences, ecological impact of surface transport and the remedial measures.
190 978-81-314-1465-1 Indian Rural Markets and Marketing Practices – Recent Developments www.nbcindia.com Marketing Swapna Gopalan 5-Jul-08 204 15 375 0 0 India is a land of great contrasts. On the physical front, the country’s northern border is marked by the barren, snow-capped Himalayas, south of it lies the low, fertile Ganges Plain, the west is made of the Great Indian Desert, while the eastern region, in sharp contrast, is the recipient of some of the highest rainfall in the world during the monsoon. Cultures, traditions and habits of people of each of these regions have developed around the resources they enjoy and hence, the differences between them are as vast and different as the physical terrain they occupy. Linguistic, religious and economic differences have only added to the diversity of this second most populous nation in the world. The urban-rural divide is another manifestation of the existing contrasts in the country. Rural India, home of more than 70 percent of the country’s population, is considered to be the largest rural market in the world. Yet, corporate houses in India, for long, neglected this vast potential market, because of the inherent difficulties associated with catering to such a large, scattered and diversified consumer base. Factors like low standards of living, people’s traditional outlook, and socio-economic backwardness only aggravated the marketers’ lack of inclination to reach out to the rural poor. They preferred, instead, to make profits from the large margins they receive by selling to the elite categories living in urban areas. However, increasing competition and saturating Indian urban markets have now forced companies to seek out rural markets that promise to be an extremely viable alternative. Very few companies have really managed to understand and exploit these territories with success. Undeterred though, many companies like HLL and ITC have used innovative strategies to win over rural customers with great success.
191 978-81-314-2031-7 Banking and The Law – A User s Manual www.nbcindia.com Banking Murty G R K 4-Jul-08 460 25 625 27.5 700 “The present work… covers the whole network of issues, small and big, that a banker is confronted with, and provides authentic, easy-to-access, pragmatic and reliable solutions. The applicable provisions (from various Acts) have been discussed with exceptional clarity and pithy analysis, and presented to the banker with even non-legal background, avoiding the unnecessary legal jargon, in a manner that he will be able to apply them to a situation and find a ready-made solution. The author has taken care to enlighten the professional readers with various stages of civil litigation like pre-filing, filing, interface with advocates and so on. A lesser author would have been lost in the labyrinth of a bewildering range of legal problems involved, but GRK Murty has ensured that the discussion has always been pruned and focused to suit the particular requirements of the reader.”
192 978-81-314-1470-5 Medical Tourism: Perspectives and Specific Country Experiences www.nbcindia.com General Jayshree Bose Sumathi B 4-Jul-08 380 22 550 0 0 This comprehensive book on medical tourism focuses on many crucial issues that have not been detailed earlier. Medical tourists travel as cross-border patients to other countries to avail of internationally benchmarked healthcare services at considerably low costs. This is mainly on account of some restrictive factors in their own country of origin: cost disadvantage, under insurance or lack of insurance, long wait periods, or, inadequate healthcare facilities for rare or even common diseases and therapies. This book is a compilation of informative and insightful articles that capture various aspects of medical tourism in India and in other countries. It also demolishes some common myths about medical tourism, for the first time, ever. The highlight is an exclusive interview with Dr. Prathap Reddy, Chairman of Apollo Hospitals (India), and articles from very senior professionals from Apollo and Wockhardt, two of the three hospital groups in India to have acquired the prestigious Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation. The book provides comparative cost analyses, and highlights aspects – many for the first time – such as cross-border legal issues, insurance, and the crucial role played by therapeutic hospital design and architecture in fulfilling cross-border patient expectations. It also presents deep insights into healthcare accreditation, affords a global perspective of the importance of alternative medicine in medical tourism and presents detailed experiences of countries that have emerged as forerunners in medical tourism. The book would be of great interest to doctors, patients, hospital administrators, health department officials, healthcare architects, legal professionals, venture capitalists, private equity funds and other lenders, accreditation agencies, Ministries of Tourism, medical tourism intermediaries and others.
193 978-81-314-1962-5 Cluster Initiatives: Engine of Economic Growth www.nbcindia.com Industry Bala Bhaskaran P 4-Jul-08 268 17 425 0 0 “‘A chopstick can easily be snapped, but a dozen is hard to break’
This Chinese adage is true for the development of industrial clusters. ‘Clusters’ are geographic concentrations of inter-connected firms, specialised suppliers, service providers, associations or institutions in a specific field that are inherent in a region or a nation. Clusters can emerge out of specific resources of the region like raw materials, or out of specific group of products like auto components or out of specific skills like jewellery and so on.
Since time immemorial, clusters have been emerging at various places and at various times based on the inherent natural factors. They arise because they enhance productivity through networking and through sharing of information and skills; this leads to better scale economies, market access, competitiveness and sustainability. Development and upgrading of clusters is very often an important agenda of policymakers, governments and development institutions.
Initiatives of cluster development have emerged as an important direction of economic policy, building on prior initiatives of macro-economic stabilisation, privatisation, market access and decreasing the cost of doing business.
The book will explore the concept of clusters, its emergence in various parts of the world, the nature of the initiatives taken by various governments and the experiences in developed and underdeveloped countries. The book is designed to be a primer for anyone who desires to understand the concept of clusters and the prospects of development through cluster initiatives.
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194 978-81-314-1968-7 The Icfai Dictionary of Industrial Psychology and Ergonomics www.nbcindia.com General Anamika Sharma 4-Jul-08 248 16.5 425 0 0 “The Icfai Dictionary of Industrial Psychology and Ergonomics is addressed to the undergraduate & postgraduate students of industrial psychology, organizational behavior and ergonomics (human factors engineering), industrial & organizational psychologists, behavioral scientists, management consultants, OD consultants and the faculties in the concerned areas and general readers, whose daily work demands some familiarity with terminology of Industrial Psychology, like meaning of I/O (Industrial/Organizational) Psychology and its allied areas, research methods, recruitment, selection, training & development, work climate, applied motivation in industries, role of cognition, psychometrics, psychophysics, methods, measures, tools and techniques in human factors, quality management, organizational re-engineering, and labor and industrial relations, etc. The dictionary also addresses terms from the conceptual level to the advanced level in a precise manner. It aims to provide a comprehensive companion to support other reading in a discipline which employs remarkably similar terminology.
This dictionary is an alphabetical, authentic and accessible reference guide to the main ideas and teaching connected with the basics of and advances in Industrial Psychology & Ergonomics. The book is designed to cover the salient facts and features of various terms of I/O Psychology and Human Factors Engineering and, also explore psychological development in industries and organizations from technology and business perspectives. Over 2400 entries define and explain clearly the salient facts within the context of I/O Psychology. It incorporates up-to-date information which will certainly appeal to active psychologists, trainers, human resource managers, teachers and students of industrial psychology, organizational behavior and ergonomics.
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195 81-314-1285-1 Case Studies on Mergers and Acquisitions in Manufacturing Sector www.nbcindia.com Mergers & Acquisitions Kumar Satyaki Ray Arindam Mukherjee 28-Jun-08 300 0 0 50 1250 Manufacturing remains the most attractive sector. Many multi-national companies are increasingly considering corporate restructuring and mergers and acquisitions as a necessary condition for continued growth and success. Firms decide to merge with or acquire other companies for various reasons. Some transactions may be motivated by firms trying to take advantage of free cash flows. Others may be explained by the strategies pursued by multinationals to enter new markets and extend their competitive advantage abroad, to seek strategic assets such as technology and management capabilities, to realize economies of scale and scope by restructuring their businesses on a global basis and, last but not the least, to eliminate actual or potential competitors. Merger activity can have substantial and complex effects on the economy. The strategic and financial opportunities arising from combining the businesses may create synergies, which maximize benefits to both parties. The pooling of assets through mergers and acquisitions can lead to efficiency gains, with benefits to all stakeholders involved. At the same time, mergers and acquisitions are not without risks. Corporations need to secure the right deal at the right time and price, and integrate the acquisition to realize their strategic objectives. The success or failure of the whole process depends on the right balance of tangible attributes like corporate governance strategies, value creation strategies and financial strategies with intangible attributes like human resource strategies and management policies. The global M&A deals amounted to $3.7 trillion with 31825 closed deals in 2006. During the first half of 2007 the value of global M&A deals had leaped to $2.5 trillion in the first quarter. This clearly shows the accelerated pace in M&A activity across the globe. This book is an attempt to decipher the important elements of success and reasons for failure of mergers and acquisitions in manufacturing industry in general, with specific cases from cement, medical equipment, beverage, consumer goods, computers and white goods industries.
196 81-314-1194-4 Selected Essays in Macroeconomics: A Study www.nbcindia.com Economy Bhaskara Rao B Venkata Seshaiah Sakalya 25-Jun-08 280 19.5 500 22 550 This book consists of 19 selected papers of Professor Rao. In the first part, on the methodological issue, he argues that the aggregate demand and supply model (ADAS), which is the current dominant macroeconomic textbook model, is logically unsatisfactory. Easy to understand, these methodological essays clarify many confusions of lecturers in macroeconomics. The second part consists of several econometric papers on the estimation of the disequilibrium macro models for the USA and UK. It is shown that the Keynesian and neoclassical models can be nested within the disequilibrium framework, and the econometric results favour the Keynesian model. The final part consists of several recent papers in which time series, econometric techniques based on unit roots and cointegration have been applied to a number of topics. These are easily comprehensible to any applied economist with only a modest background in the econometric theory.
197 81-314-1245-2 Global Exports: An Overview www.nbcindia.com Economy Ishita Mukherjee Debjani Mitra Sarkar 25-Jun-08 276 18 450 0 0 Trade facilitation has become a vital issue for developed and developing nations across the world. The issue is so important that it was discussed in various rounds of WTO proceedings. Globally, export promotion is seen as an important strategy for economic growth. Export promotion consists of activities that assist in greater acceptability and marketability of the export items. Nowadays, every country is emphasizing export promotion, to increase its volume of export. This eventually helps the country to overcome the real or perceived obstacles to exporting. This book highlights various drivers of export performance (both positive factors and constraints) and also issues related to the latest WTO meeting at Hong Kong. In the light of the factors influencing exports, the book throws light on the success stories of various countries that are boosting their exports through appropriate measures and strategies in a systematic format. For example, China has witnessed a rapid growth in manufacturing and India in software exports. The export promotional strategies and initiatives of Governments and different institutions of countries to enhance their export competitiveness, have been discussed comprehensively in this book. This book will serve as a valuable reference for scholars, entrepreneurs, export firms, policymakers, and those who are interested in the vital determinants of exports.
198 978-81-314-1989-2 Issues and Experiences in Service Sector Growth www.nbcindia.com Economy Rashmi Joshi 10-Jun-08 240 16.5 425 0 0 “According to various theories of economic development, the growth of an economy is intrinsically linked to the changes in the structure of production. Most economies follow three stages of economic development: primary, secondary, and tertiary. The primary stage is propelled by labor- and natural resource-intensive agriculture, the secondary by capital-intensive industry, and the tertiary by knowledge-intensive services. Countries around the world have undergone structural changes in their economies which explain the changes in the relative shares of the three sectors in the GDP.
Service sector has emerged as the largest and the fastest-growing sector in the global economy since the last decade and its contribution to employment generation is also substantial. The present book brings out the role of the services sector in the process of economic growth of an economy. The issues and challenges facing the sector are also highlighted, so that a comprehensive policy framework can be adopted so as to bring about a balanced growth of the services sector. The characteristics of the Indian and country experiences of the services sector growth is the major highlight of the book.
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199 978-81-314-1977-9 Virtual Leadership – An Introduction www.nbcindia.com HR Aparna Bellur Harsh Bhargava 10-Jun-08 236 16 400 0 0 ‘Virtual’ organisations are a reality. How do real life leaders adapt to become ‘Virtual Leaders’ in such organisations? How do we nurture such virtual leaders? How have industries like IT coped with the demands of managing virtual teams dispersed across the globe? How do global corporations use technology to help manage operations across continents? These are some of the questions this book on ‘Virtual Leadership’ attempts to address. Be it the knowledge or technology sector, banking, financial institutions, manufacturing or even the United Nations organisations of today not only need to deploy outstanding leaders but also need to nurture leaders for replenishment and attrition. Although attrition has always been there, it has become acute in sectors such as IT, BPOs, retail etc. Many of the characteristics of leadership are true for ‘Virtual Leadership’ also. The book brings out the peculiarities of operating in a virtual environment and the demands it places on Virtual Leaders. This multi-disciplinary book aims at providing a bridge between the traditional perspective of leadership (as viewed from theoretical Organisational Behaviour angle) and the best practices in building leaders in the industry (as viewed from technology and process perspectives). The book further documents another dimension of ‘Virtual Leadership’ as practised by a leading NGO in India for connecting global experts to their roots for a chosen social cause. The book would be of interest to CXOs in industry, academia, NGOs and researchers in the area of leadership in today’s virtual organisations.
200 81-314-1254-1 Trust Management in Virtual Environment www.nbcindia.com Information Technology Ravi Kumar Jain B 10-Jun-08 228 16 400 0 0 To date, “Web Security” has been associated with debates over cryptographic technology, protocols and public policy, obscuring the wider challenges of building trusted Web applications. Since the Web aims at being an information space that reflects not just human knowledge but also human relationships, it will soon realize the full complexity of trust relationships among people, computers and organizations. This has led to a new breed of systems – electronic trust management systems – which are quickly becoming an indispensable component of every successful digital community. Trust Management (TM) is an emerging framework for decentralizing security decisions that help developers and others in asking “why” trust is granted rather than immediately focusing on “how” cryptography can enforce it. Trust management is an attempt to design and evaluate reliable systems whose objective is to help create trust among online communities. The efficacy and sustainability of new age Internet applications that facilitate community building on the Internet – wiki, blogs, collaborative publishing, virtual communities – are essentially based on mutual trust among the participants. Given the anonymity one can enjoy on the Internet and the virtual nature of the WWW space, the significance of trust management need not be overemphasized. Trust is a precondition for the continued existence of any market or organization or a community in general. Furthermore, several properties of online interaction are challenging the accumulated wisdom of our communities on how to create trust and calls for the development of new mechanisms and systems. This book attempts to do just about that by providing insights into this new emerging framework on the Internet.
201 81-314-1386-1 Forensic Accounting and Financial Frauds – Volume I www.nbcindia.com Accounting Padmavathi C Sunitha T 20-May-08 356 21 525 0 0 Forensic Accounting is not a new discipline. Its history can be traced back to the 1890s. The word “forensic” has an exotic connotation. Just as forensic medicine, which supports court cases, forensic accounting is an accounting discipline used in a court of law. A forensic accountant is essentially an investigator who unravels the truth using financial intelligence. Forensic Accounting is an investigative accounting and auditing procedure that provides an analysis suitable to the courts, and which will form the basis for discussion, debate and ultimately dispute resolution. In other words, it is the application of accounting knowledge and investigative skills necessary to identify and resolve legal issues. Financial records of different entities (non-profit organizations and charities) have been used to reconstruct the financial transactions and operations and to reduce the flow of money for terrorist activities. This book attempts to present a comprehensive literature on Occupational Frauds. An occupational fraud is ‘the use of one’s occupation for personal enrichment through the deliberate misuse or misapplication of the employing organization’s resources and assets. This reveals victimization of an organization by insiders. They take the form of misappropriation of assets and falsification of statements etc.
202 81-314-1382-9 Prosperity Index: An Introduction www.nbcindia.com Economics Asha Joshi 20-May-08 328 20 500 0 0 Prosperity Index is an open-ended concept which includes and focuses on the overall development of the nation by approaching and governing the well-being, development and growth of an individual. Human prosperity basically includes the satisfaction level attained by the individual in material, monetary, physical and mental forms. Prosperity is relatively a new subject discussed by the economists considering the connection between individual happiness and economic outcomes. The wealth of the individual needs to be considered in its relative terms as the increase in income does increase well-being up to a specific point, but has insignificant effect after that point. Research surveys carried out on happiness and economics generated many noteworthy policy implications for improving, raising the well-being of an individual. Indicators like economic, religious and political freedom and civil liberties, economic growth and economic development play a fundamental and distinguished role in measuring the economic prosperity of any nation. Several Indexes like Human Development Index, Happy Planet Index, Genuine Progress Index, Gross International Happiness and Gross National Happiness are discussed in the book, which are developed by various international organizations and institutions for measuring human well-being. The book has three sections which explain the evolution of the concept ‘Prosperity Index’ the factors supporting it, and the rising awareness about the same world over they are titled I) Road to Prosperity II) The Pillars of Prosperity and III) Country Perspectives. The book looks into a very contemporary issue which will take the reader to a total thoughtful journey towards happiness, well-being, and economic freedom through the road of prosperity index.
203 978-81-314-2048-5 The Icfai University Press on Gender Discrimination: Perspectives and Experiences www.nbcindia.com Gender Issues Jayshree Bose Sushuma G 20-May-08 328 20 500 0 0 “After the World Bank came out with alarming statistics in 1993 that revealed the true intensity of violence and discrimination against women (VAW), and its impact on global health, economic growth and progress, it triggered off a spate of debates about why VAW should not be regarded as a domestic evil, but as a national and an international problem. This was followed by the Beijing Summit, also in 1993, which recognized VAW as a major violation of basic human rights, for the first time ever. VAW has come to occupy centre stage since then. The book discusses a wide gamut of burning issues such as female foeticide and infanticide, the social impediments to women’s inheritance to property in spite of a reformed legal system, women and unpaid labour and its negative impact on GDP and the various faces of discrimination against women in the workplace such as The Glass Ceiling and The Maternal Wall syndrome. It also includes cases of professional discrimination against women in high profile corporate America, as well as other countries’ experiences.
Presenting the other side of the picture, one of the articles discusses in detail how men are playing an exceedingly important role in eradicating VAW. It also profiles women who have shattered the Glass Ceiling. Finally, the book ends with a comment on the importance of gender budgeting and its role in empowering women, and extols the effective style of communicative management being practised by women managers.
This book gives a holistic view of the most crucial aspects of the gender divide and discrimination so that the real magnitude of the problem comes through. It will be of interest to policymakers, academicians, corporate managements, legal practitioners, economists, social activist groups and NGOs, and all ordinary citizens-be they women or men.
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204 978-81-314-2046-1 Marketing of Organic Products: Global Experiences www.nbcindia.com Agriculture Bhaskaran S Suchitra Mohanty 20-May-08 316 19 475 0 0 “In the past few decades, demand for organic food and non-food products has expanded rapidly on a global basis, motivated by consumer perceptions that organic products are safer, cleaner and healthier when compared to conventional products. The demand for organic products is growing at a fast rate in the key organic markets of the World, like United States, Europe, Japan, Turkey, China and France which are major consumers of organic food products. Consumer demand for organic products is outstripping supply, with most categories experiencing product shortages. The US market has reported accelerated growth since the USDA implemented the National Organic Program (NOP) in the year 2002. Some of the largest organic food companies in the world are based in North America. Companies like, Hain Celestial and Whole Foods Market are expanding internationally.
The market for organics continues to grow in all food categories. The demand for all organic food products, that includes the market for processed foods and prepared organic meals remains strong. The potential for profits in the organic food sector exists for all industries along the supply chain. This is especially true of products in the social choice market segment. Though the demand for organic products is increasing, the farmers are still sometimes, looking for support of the government to popularize and increase the consumption pattern. Due to the environmental benefits & positive health factors, organic farming is poised for a quantum leap in the coming years.
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205 978-81-314-2056-0 Cultural Industries: Perspectives and Experiences www.nbcindia.com General Management Bala Krishna A V Ramani V V 20-May-08 238 16.5 425 0 0 “Cultural industries are the industries that develop and commercialize content based on culture and heritage. These industries embrace all the cultural contents that include publishing, printing, arts, crafts, advertising, multimedia, films, audio-video, painting, and performing arts. More industries – architecture, design, fashion industries etc., are embodied under the purview of cultural industries. Globalization opened up new opportunities for producers of cultural goods and services. Twenty first century’s economic conundrum coupled with the advent of new technologies in the areas of media and communication, led to new enigmas for cultural industries.
Immense growth in international tourism and service sector along with increased spending from the visiting tourists on procuring cultural goods/services and the increasing potential for commercialization of original contents opened up new opportunities for cultural industries in the international context. Potential to generate huge employment opportunities and environment-friendly sustainable development prompted many governments to accord top priority for cultural industries on the domestic front. Integration and sharing of traditional knowledge sought more cooperation among partners in the international summits.
Jodhpur initiatives signals increased regional cooperation and world bodies UNESCO, WIPO, UNIDO etc., work in the direction of promotion of international cooperation in the field. Emerging economies of Asia, Africa, Latin America, UK and Western Europe with rich cultural heritage signify the development of cultural industries and their flourishment in the ensuing century. This book focuses on perspectives and experiences against the backdrop of changing economic priorities.
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206 978-81-314-2057-7 The Icfai Dictionary of E-business Terms www.nbcindia.com E-Business/E-Gov/E-Learning Pradeep Kumar 13-May-08 468 25 625 0 0 “The Icfai Dictionary of Electronic Business (E-Business) Terms is addressed to students, teachers, practitioners and general readers, who want to follow E-Business discussions in the class and elsewhere, or whose daily work demands some familiarity with terminology of E-Business, E-Business and its related Technologies, Development of E-Business, E-Business Patterns, E-Business Design, E-Business Architecture, Enterprise Applications, Integrating Processes to Build Relationship, E-Business and ERP, Supply Chain Management and E-fulfillment, E-Procurement, E-Business Design, Strategy Formulation, E-Business Present and future, and Advances in E-Business etc. The dictionary also addresses terms from the conceptual level to the advanced level in a precise manner. It aims to provide a comprehensive companion to support other reading in a discipline, which employs remarkably similar terminology.
This dictionary is a guide to the main ideas and teaching connected to the basics of and advances in E-Business. The book is designed in such a way that it will cover the salient facts and features of various points of E-Business and, also explore E-Business development from technology and business perspective. Around 3300 entries define and explain clearly the salient facts within the context of E-Business. Its store of up-to-date information will certainly appeal to active managers, teachers and students of information technology and operations.
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207 81-314-1176-6 Corporate Governance and Sarbanes Oxley Act: An Introduction www.nbcindia.com Corporate Finance Asis Kumar Pain Nirbachita Karmakar 13-May-08 280 18 450 0 0 In July 2002, the U.S. Congress passed the Sarbanes Oxley Act, particularly designed to make the US Corporations more transparent and accountable to their stakeholders. The main objective of the Act is to re-establish the confidence of the investors by providing good corporate governance practice to prevent corporate scams and frauds in business corporations. The SOX aims to improve the accuracy and transparency in the financial reporting, accounting service of the listed companies, enhance corporate responsibility and independent auditing. The applicability of the Act is not confined only to the publicly owned US companies, but also extends to other units that have registration with the Securities Exchange Commission. Corporate America has been blotted by many business failures like Enron, WorldCom, and there had also been earlier instances of failure. However, there is a common thread running between them, i.e. the governance ultimately matters. Unless corporate governance is integrated with strategic planning and share holders are really willing to bear the additional expenses that may be required, effective governance cannot be achieved. The above events encouraged the development of the present volume where the different aspects of the Sarbanes Oxley Act, its effects, limitations, internal control after the Act was passed and what lies beyond the compliance are delved into. Also discussed are the varied applications of the Act in areas like IT, fee structure of the Big Four Accounting Firms, the Mid-Size Accounting Firms, the Supply Chain management, and finally, the Insurance industry.
208 978-81-314-1963-2 Global Environmental Agreements: Insights and Implications www.nbcindia.com Governance Asha Joshi 13-May-08 284 18 450 0 0 “In this era of dramatic change in international affairs, which revolve around trade, environment, economics, politics, etc, specific mechanism is needed for their resolution. International agreements, as it says: inter-national is about agreements between countries. International environment problems are of common concern and know no boundaries, cooperative solutions are inevitable at international level which are to be implemented and enforced through international environmental agreements.
International Environmental Agreements are enforced and accepted by countries to address the environmental problems. The process of negotiation and mediation has become a customary form of international activity mutually acceptable by the countries to resolve or manage environmental disputes by non-violent means. International environmental agreements are part of global environmental governance under which risky environmental policy decisions are taken for the uncertain and risky environmental issues, disasters through the multilateral treaties, conventions, declarations and protocols. More than 150 international environmental treaties have been adopted since the 1972 Stockholm Conference on Human Environment, which illustrated global attention to the dangers of transboundary pollution and rapid resource depletion.
The book has two sections which introduces and discusses the evolution of various international environmental issues, agreements and perspectives between various countries focusing on the principles of sustainable development they are I) Introduction II) Issues and Perspectives
The book discusses the formulation, implementation and enforcement of transboundary environmental agreements. The issues sand perspectives addresses under various existing treaties in form of resolving, preventing the global environmental issues. The book highlights some of the successful treaties implemented and its functioning which may provide direction for new policy decisions.
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209 978-81-314-2047-8 Medical Tourism – A Growth Industry www.nbcindia.com General Rishi Anand Smita Gupta 13-May-08 228 16 400 0 0 “India has emerged as one of the most preferred destinations for medical tourists – A truth or a myth? This book tries to answer the question with the help of several case studies and cost comparative data. India is fast becoming the medical hub for foreign patients, offering instant treatment, quality services and round-the-clock service with tender loving care. India is trying to carve out a distinct niche for itself by leveraging on its existing strengths. Apart from surgical procedures, India offers traditional wellness and ayurvedic therapies and Kerala is the preferred destination. India has developed its brand for heart, orthopaedic, dental, eye and neurosurgeries. Due to globalization corporate interests in the healthcare sector are looking for opportunities beyond the national boundaries.
This book highlights the fact that if various players in this sector walk hand in hand they can create a better brand image of hospitals. With most modern equipment, specialists manning them and speciality hospitals, Indian hospitals have become the preferred destination – “the Mecca for healthcare”. A few new concepts like “Doctor Shopping” or “Doctor on call” are emerging.
India is becoming a favorite destination for medical tourists around the world because of the plethora of advantages it offers. It is expected that the number of tourists visiting India for the purpose of medical treatment will reach one million by 2012. India’s share in global tourism is expected to reach 1.5% by 2010.
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210 81-314-1392-6 Product Design – Concepts and Cases www.nbcindia.com Marketing Suresh K 13-May-08 228 16 400 0 0 Design is a specialized discipline that needs a distinctive study. Usually it is considered a component of new product development. Product design has now emerged as a distinct discipline, due to its growing importance. As an integral part of new product development, design plays an important role in the commercial fate of products. What makes design stand out is the need for it to integrate several aspects. These include the basic product functionality, aesthetic looks, ergonomic features, manufacturing capabilities, customer sensibilities, cultural nuances, composition of materials, etc. Crucial for converting ideas into products, design influences brand positioning and corporate image also. This book covers the basics of product design, along with some of the challenges. These include the essentials of good design, stages involved, different levels of design, integrating design with research and innovation, etc. Apart from these, applications of product design in the following sectors are provided: ·Automobiles ·Aviation ·Semiconductors Approaches of BMW and IDEO to product design are also captured, besides case studies on Samsung, Motorola, Electrolux and Lenovo.
211 978-81-314-2040-9 Build-Operate-Transfer: Concepts and Experiences www.nbcindia.com Finance Azmal Hussain Santap Sanhari Mishra 13-May-08 216 15.5 400 0 0 All over the world, booming economies with high growth trajectory is necessitating tremendous spurt in basic construction, infrastructure and public utility system. This, coupled with massive outlay of resources leading to severe constraints, led to the genesis for alternative models for project funding, completion and delivery. The latest of such models is the emerging Build-Operate and Transfer (BOT) model. This, along with a few allied models, has been very successful in the infrastructure and construction industry. The model works on outsourcing the early stages of the projects execution to specialists, and once the projects start running smoothly it is taken over and run by someone else like the sponsor in this case. This book focuses on various aspects of the BOT mechanism and in the process traces the evolution of the BOT concept and its acceptability across various countries in many forms and applications. Attempts have also been made to elucidate various intricacies involved in the process because of the enormity of the factors and constraints involved. The contents of the book are expected to provide infrastructure professionals as well as anybody else concerned a practical know-how about the emerging model of project financing. The examples construed in the second section are expected to serve as lessons for those who are venturing into such kind of financing innovations.
212 978-81-314-2059-1 Knowledge Integration: Concepts, frameworks and applications www.nbcindia.com Information Technology Vishakha Munshi Ravi Kumar Jain B 13-May-08 204 15 375 0 0 “In organizational context, data represents facts or values of results and the structured relation among them is known as knowledge\information. To avail oneself of benefits from such knowledge, that must be understood, and when understood it must be applied. Knowledge is increasingly recognized as a crucial organisational asset. However, how to integrate knowledge is a challenge among knowledge workers. Integration is highly essential for ‘Leveraging Knowledge for Sustainable Advantage’. Many pioneering companies have realized the value of knowledge integration to enhance their products and customer service. Therefore, the level of interest for integration of knowledge has dramatically grown. Knowledge integration is a step ahead in the process of knowledge management. In essence, ‘knowledge integration’ is a set of revitalization initiatives that will help in achieving remarkable improvements in business capabilities, competitive advantage and long-term sustainability, ultimately resulting in sustainable market leadership, substantial financial benefits and radical business growth.
Knowledge integration is the explicit and systematic integration of vital knowledge and its associated processes, which translate personal knowledge into corporate knowledge. This integrated knowledge can be widely shared throughout an organization and aptly applied for sharing of best practices, successful Innovation, etc. This practice of integration broadens the path of organisational learning and helps in building superior knowledge capital. Thus, the key for achieving exceptional market position, sustained growth and enhanced profitability that will ensure dramatic, rapid and sustainable growth with better business performance to evolve as a market leader, firms should strive to integrate specialized organizational knowledge.
This book presents the concept of ‘Knowledge Integration.’ Fundamentally, It focuses on the concepts, frameworks and applications of Knowledge Integration. The book is targeted at various interest groups, including knowledge management professionals and Information technology and management professionals performing at all levels of organizations. Students, researchers and academicians in the domain of IT and management would also benefit from this book.
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213 978-81-314-1965-6 Corporate Social Responsibility in India: Past, Present and Future www.nbcindia.com Corporate Social Responsibilit Sanjay Kumar Panda 26-Apr-08 404 23 575 25.5 650 Business houses and corporate have been taking up social welfare activities from time to time. Recently, priority of business is getting widened from 1 P to 3 Ps by inclusion of People and Planet with Profit. Short-term, charity-based welfare interventions are being replaced by long-term, empowerment-based Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Based on the realization, “Business cannot succeed in a society that fails”, CSR is being considered as an imperative for carrying on business in the society rather than as a charity. While CSR is relevant for business in all societies, it is particularly significant for developing countries like India, where limited resources for meeting the ever growing aspirations and diversity of a pluralistic society, make the process of sustainable development more challenging. CSR interventions – based on commitment, mobilization of employees-voluntarism, innovative approaches, appropriate technology and continuing partnership – have been making lasting differences in the life of the disadvantaged. Further, synergy of corporate action with the government and the civil society are making the CSR interventions more effective and facilitating the corporate carrying on business in the society. Covering a wide range of subjects from theory to practice, this book has outlined steps to be taken by the major stakeholders – the Corporate, the Government and the Civil society- for making CSR effective in the Indian context. Based on case studies and best practices, this handbook on CSR seeks to provide valuable insights and pragmatic solutions to the corporate managers. It will be of interest to government officials, NGOs and media and helps in making development sustainable in general and growth inclusive in particular.
214 978-81-314-1961-8 Changing role of trade unions – A paradigm shift www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Sanjeev Kumar Singh 26-Apr-08 268 17 425 0 0 The male “breadwinner” model, on which much of trade union organization was based, has become increasingly inappropriate. Due to globalization, structural changes, the trend to individualism, new information and communication technologies, demographic changes, the more widespread adoption of neoliberal policies, changes in the character of work and the reform of production regimes, trade union membership and density have declined. The book serves to review the explanations of declining trade unionism focusing on both external threats and inadequacies of union organization, thereby identifying the challenges faced by unions if they are to increase membership. The book also reviews some features of the trade union response to decline and the wide range of reforms that have to be implemented, if trade unions are to reverse the decline. One of the major criticisms of contemporary union movements concerns their inability to come to terms with the social composition of an evolving labor market. Thus, trade unions require “renewal”, “revitalization”, “remaking” or “rekindling”. The reconfiguration of global production systems is certainly one of the most visible faces of the restructuring of work and employment with which trade unions now have to contend. Ultimately, the trade unions would have to embrace and reflect the aspirations of new labor market identities if they are to meet the challenge of renewal. This book will cater to the needs of labor economists, policy planners, employers, trade union leaders, HR consultants and practising managers.
215 978-81-314-1988-5 Indian Pharma: Going Global www.nbcindia.com Globalization Prasad B V S 26-Apr-08 244 16.5 425 0 0 Indian pharma companies are going global and emerging as MNCs. Even though Indian pharma started to internationalize in the 1960s, it gained momentum only in the 90s and the trend continues to increase in the current decade. Initially, Indian companies targeted emerging nations to globalize and now they are focusing both on developed and developing countries. There are huge opportunities available for Indian companies to tap worldwide due to the increase in population and disease. As the developing countries embrace globalization and urbanization, the lifestyle of people in there is undergoing major changes and it causes many diseases that are similar to those of the developed world. Hence, tremendous opportunities exist for Indian companies in developed markets like the US, Europe and Japan as well as developing markets like Brazil Russia, India, China, South Africa, and Mexico. Most of the pharma majors’ blockbuster drugs will go off patent in the coming years. This also spells out great opportunities especially for generic drug manufacturers. In order to tap these opportunities, Indian companies are going global through exports, Joint Ventures, Mergers & Acquisitions and Greenfield Investments. Indian companies are also engaging in Contract Research and Manufacturing Services. On the other hand, Indian companies are also out-licensing their products to global pharma firms. This book “Indian Pharma – Going Global” gives insights into the various strategies followed by Indian companies to go global, various markets tapped by them and their experiences in globalization.
216 81-314-1403-5 Managing Emotional Appeal in Advertising – Concepts and Cases www.nbcindia.com Advertising and Media Pramod Rao Ravikant S Wawge 26-Apr-08 232 16 400 0 0 Emotions play different roles in making advertising effective. Different emotions and emotional-stimulators like happiness, curiosity, sorrow, humor, fear, beauty, etc., have been portrayed in advertisements. A punchline in an advertisement accompanied with strong emotional appeal, touches customers’ psychological needs and influences the perception about the brand image. In many advertisements, without actually conveying the product qualities, beautiful people (models) are used to connect with the audience at an emotional level. The audience then associate the brand with a specific emotion. Thus, human feelings are transferred towards a product or brand. This is an important and widely used process. In the advertiser’s world, this is termed emotional transfer. It is important to note that not all emotional appeals and emotional brands are successful. For advertisers, it is a matter of research to find the correlation between lifestyle-trends and emotional attachments and to answer questions, like why the audiences notice some advertisements and tend to forget others. There are many perceptions in the advertisers as well as the audience about emotional appeals in advertising. Particularly varied perceptions are observed in people regarding the use of fear or the use of sex appeals in advertising. With the changing lifestyles, emotional appeals used in the advertisements have also been changed. In today’s highly competitive world, emotional appeal to the customer is very critical and needs a thorough study of the lifestyle of the target audience, as the emotional preferences of customers make a difference in decision making. This book focuses on the above issues and throws light on the use of various emotional appeals as a strategy in advertising and its impact. The book is divided into two sections. The first section is about Concepts and the second section is about Cases.
217 978-81-314-1960-1 E-Government in Developed Nations: An Insight www.nbcindia.com E-Governance Vishakha Munshi 26-Apr-08 236 16 400 0 0 In today’s dynamically automated and constantly progressing world, there is cutthroat competition among companies and business houses in the world. This book explores how advanced IT tools can enhance the level of Government services. Electronic Government has the powerful ability to change the Government’s interaction with its citizens and businesses in a new style. The book deals with E-government as an upcoming trend in Government automation processes. The book content concentrates on building an efficient E-government, thus making it more competitive, efficient and productive. The book focuses on implementation of E-government in developed nations. The book, which is spread across three sections, captures the essence of modern Information Technologies such as World Wide Webs, Internet and Mobile Computing to reach out to citizens with its relevance in the internal functioning of the Government. The articles in these sections also throw light on the difference between E-Governance and E-government. The last section concludes by offering future visions for E-government applications around the globe. The book consists of several excellent articles touching upon different aspects in E-government adaptation processes. The articles highlight the need for an effective framework for building efficient E-government applications. It provides a list of developed nations who have successfully implemented E-government. The book observes the conditions that give rise to the efficient implementation of E-government in different developed nations across the globe. This book is an effort to discuss the main aspects of the implementation of E-government in various developed nations in a comprehensive manner for the readers. The book will form an interesting read for academicians, bureaucrats, software professionals, research laboratories, politicians & decision makers and Government organizations and institutions.
218 978-81-314-2093-5 The Complete Kritis of Sri Thyagaraja www.nbcindia.com General Books Maddali Venkata Subbaya 25-Apr-08 652 25 625 0 0 The inspiration to add one more book of Sri Thyagaraja’s compositions arose in the mind of the compiler, when he attended Thyagaraja Aradhana festival some time back. The inspired singing of the great vidwans and the enthusiastic response of the truly international audience sparked the idea in the compiler’s mind, that the saint-composer’s goal and the heart-felt enjoyment and enlightenment of the audience would be even better served if the text was available in English script and the original Telugu, with the full meaning in English. When he mooted the idea with late Dr. G. Venkatadri and his uncle Dr. R. Venkataraman, they welcomed and backed it. In brief, the idea is: to present in the composer’s original medium all the songs of Thyagaraja available to date, from the labors of previous compilers like Dr. Manchala Jagannatha Rao (published by TTD) and Sri T.S. Parthasarathy, with an occasional reference to the monumental work of Sri Govinda Rao, when necessary. This book serves the multiple objectives, such as: To provide for the lovers of Karnatic music, — and particularly Thyagarajs’s—who do not know Telugu, a version in English script notation. The saint-composer conceived of ‘Svara, raga sudharasayuta BHAKTI’ as heavenly. Indeed, in the next line of the song he proclaimed that those who stop with enjoying the great music alone are like herons and frogs sitting on a red lotus, missing the honey within. The heart melted by the music, is meant to receive the Bhava, the Bhakti. The vast circle of ardent lovers of Thyagayya’s music in India and abroad needed to be furnished with accurate and complete meaning of every line of his compositions. Not a single line has been left unclear in this book. It is appropriately being inaugurated at the 2008 annual celebration of the Thyagaraja Aradhana Samiti at Cleveland USA.
219 81-314-1387-X Forensic Accounting and Financial Frauds – Volume II www.nbcindia.com Accounting Padmavathi C Sunitha T 25-Apr-08 372 21 525 0 0 Forensic accounting is the application of specialized knowledge and specific skills to stumble upon the evidence of economic transactions. The ever-increasing corrupt business practices, corporate frauds, the much talked about financial statement frauds at Enron and WorldCom and other crimes have brought ‘forensic accounting’ to limelight. Rapid advances in technology sector transformed the nature of frauds. Countering sector-specific frauds require an overarching strategy distinctive to certain sectors. It has been recognized across all sectors that internal control reviews help prevent frauds. Specific internal control procedures designed with focus on frauds and managements’ stance in combating frauds partly solve the problem. However, the inherent limitations of audits and reviews bring to limelight the importance of the role of a forensic accountant. A forensic accountant is a professional who goes beyond the numbers and combines his financial expertise with investigative prowess to uncover frauds of all magnitude. A forensic accountant’s investigative services extend to cover a wide spectrum – from accounting violations, exposing tax evasions, financial misappropriations, employee fraud investigations, undertaking criminal investigations, resolving partnership disputes, marital dissolutions, bankruptcy, investigation into breach of fiduciary duty, capital market frauds, undertaking business valuations, investigation of family disputes, wrongful termination and countering terrorism. This book, the second in a series of volumes on Forensic Accounting and Financial Frauds, attempts to present a comprehensive literature on some specific white-collar thefts pertaining to specific sectors.
220 978-81-314-1945-8 Financial Market Innovations – Emerging Trends www.nbcindia.com Finance Radha Purswani 25-Apr-08 284 18 450 0 0 Innovations in financial markets have played a crucial role in shaping the economic landscape of the leading and also emerging economies of the world. In the past few decades, capital markets, risk management tools and techniques and financial services have witnessed many successful innovations leading to better integration and greater maturity of world financial markets. These financial innovations have promoted efficiency and growth of financial markets and provided low-cost and effective financial tools and instruments, have created new opportunities and thrown up new challenges for all market participants. The main objective of this book is to cover major innovations in the capital markets, risk management, banking and financial services. The book is divided into four sections. The first section gives an overview of significant innovations and trends in capital markets, risk management and financial services, explores the changing nature of financial markets and discusses a few recommendations for growth through innovations. The second section focuses on the changing scenario in the banking industry and various innovations like ULIPs, prepaid cards, mortgage innovation, microfinance, etc. The third section explores innovations and new developments in capital markets worldwide and covers some significant innovations like a new trading system at NASDAQ, hedge funds, exchange traded funds and real estate investment trusts, etc. Different derivative products which are in the spotlight in risk management are discussed in the last section.
221 978-81-314-1947-2 Ecotourism: Perspectives and Experiences www.nbcindia.com General Books Prabha Shastri Ranade 25-Apr-08 296 18 450 0 0 Ecotourism or nature travel has become the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry. Taking into consideration the growing importance of ecotourism at the global level, the United Nations had declared 2002 the International Year of Ecotourism, and organized the first Global Ecotourism Conference in 2002. The next major global conference on ecotourism was organized at Oslo by UNEP in May, 2007. It reviewed the achievements in the ecotourism field and assessed challenges facing the industry to strengthen the unique contribution of ecotourism to conservation and sustainable development. Various countries have brought out practical strategies in addressing challenges facing the ecotourism community. This book focuses on ecotourism experiences and strategies of these countries, ecotourism and local economic development, how ecotourism can generate employment options and economic benefits and its implications for nature and culture conservation. The book is divided into two sections and includes sixteen articles and one annexure. The first section discusses the concepts of ecotourism, (green travel or nature travel) ecotourism challenges within a sustainable development agenda, evaluating ecotourism from the perspective of host community and local tour operators, ecotourism and employment generation, luxury ecotourism which includes ecolodges in remote unspoilt locations. The second section includes country experiences and studies on India, Sri Lanka, China, Costa Rica, Malaysia, New Zealand, Finland and Uganda. The Oslo Statement on ecotourism by International Ecotourism Society and Global Ecotourism Conference 2007 is included as an annexure.
222 978-81-314-1948-9 Industrial Relations: Global and Indian Perspectives www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Jegadeesan G 25-Apr-08 280 18 450 0 0 Healthy and orderly industrial relations in an enterprise generate democratic attitudes which lead to progress and stability. Eventhough workers demand equal say in decision-making, employers can and do resist these demands. This resistance has resulted in great dissatisfaction, distress and distrust among workers which they express through violent activities. This creates differences between employers and employees in the industrial world. Industrial disputes disturb the economic, social and political life of the whole country. So, in the interest of workers, employers and society at large, minimization of conflicts in various sectors is very important. Maintenance of industrial harmony is the need of the hour for enhancing labour productivity and developing Indian economy. Collaboration and cooperation is necessary to achieve organizational objectives. Therefore, it is essential that those who manage man-power resources understand human behavior. Modern industrialization has created a vast gap between the management and labour because of the workers’ lack of control over means of production. As employers are economically and socially powerful, workers are incapable of getting their grievances redressed. The evolution and approaches of industrial relations, its advantages, factors influencing it and the strategies employed are discussed in this book. Legislation relating to industrial relations, dispute resolution policy and role played by trade unions in maintaining good industrial relations are detailed. The purpose of industrial relations is to secure the highest possible level of mutual understanding and goodwill among the several groups which participate in production and other associated activities.
223 978-81-314-1906-9 The Global Paper Industry: Challenges and Social Dimensions www.nbcindia.com Industry Simantee Sen 25-Apr-08 296 18 450 0 0 Paper is used for writing, wrapping and packaging and for a variety of other applications ranging from kitchen napkins to the manufacture of building materials. In modern times, paper has become a basic material, one of the essential daily use products in the world. The development of the paper business has been a significant factor in the increase in literacy and the raising of educational levels of people throughout the world. The basic process of making paper has not changed in more than 2,000 years. It involves three stages: the breaking up of raw material in water to form a pulp, the formation of sheet paper by spreading this suspension on a porous surface and drying. However, the stages may have remained the same, but the process and concerns have transformed over the years. The life of a magazine or newspaper begins with trees being cut down in a forest and ends with the burning or recycling of old magazines or papers. The most harmful part of the process is paper production. Breaking down wood fiber to make paper consumes a lot of energy, which has to be managed well in order to comply with the environmental norms. Social implications and electronic facilitators are the key challenges faced by the paper industry. This book is divided into three sections, namely: the industry perspective, the global scenario and the social dimensions of the industry. Various aspects of the paper industry covered are: evolution of this industry, challenges faced due to changing customer wants, major global players and their competitors in this industry and its future.
224 978-81-314-1917-5 Gender Equality – Economic Implications www.nbcindia.com Economics Pheba Anandan Pillai 25-Apr-08 252 17 425 0 0 Gender inequality was prevalent in the society for ages. Gender inequality led to inequalities on social, economic and developmental fronts. The socio-economic inequalities affect lives of females, children and males as well, benefiting none. The seeds of gender equality were sowed during World War I. Thus emerged the concept of gender equality which means, “freedom for both men and women to develop their abilities and make their choices without restrictions and gender roles and prejudice”. United Nations officially declared ‘Gender Equality’ as its global goal, which was a landmark initiative. UN’s initiative and support from international organizations, federal governments and non-governmental organizations have enabled gender equality to progress. However, no country in the world has still been able to attain absolute gender equality. Gender equality in economic aspects includes economic opportunities and participation in economic activities. According to World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report (2006), only a little more than 50% of the countries have been able to reduce gender gap in accessibility to economic opportunities and participation. Women’s participation in economic activities has increased, but, a close look gives an insight into the stark realities; females’ work is undervalued, and they are forced to work more than men and pushed into low status jobs. Pay gaps continue to exist between males and females for the same job. Globalization has aggravated the challenges and issues of gender equality. In this context, this book presents an economic perspective of gender equality. The economic aspects covered are economic empowerment and progress of women, trade and financial capability and progress of nations, impact on savings, concept of gender budgeting, new aid modalities with gender equality in focus, impact of globalization and challenges towards gender equitable economic policies in the global economy. The book comprises experiences of economic gender equality in Canada, Norway, South Asia and India.
225 978-81-314-1904-5 Employee Discipline – Concepts And Issues www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Jegadeesan G 25-Apr-08 268 17 425 0 0 Discipline is the very basis of a well-organized and stable society. It forms the backbone of industrial management. No institution, howsoever progressive, can work effectively with indisciplined employees. The employee-employer relationship depends upon the overall control that an employer exercises over his employees, not only with regard to their performance of work in the establishment but also with regard to their conduct and behavior. Managements have to ensure proper maintenance of discipline for the smooth functioning of the organizations as well as for productivity enhancement. It is a reality that there are always many infirmities in an organization, and sometimes conflicts between the interests of two groups become inevitable. If such incidents do happen, they can be amicably settled with the help of appropriate machinery available in an organization. It is important to remember that whatever the points of difference, indiscipline on the part of the employee or employees will not be justified on any ground. The book delves into the concept and importance of employee discipline, causes of misconduct, disciplinary procedures, punitive model, progressive discipline model and positive discipline model, role of disciplinary committee, code of conduct, whistle-blower policy, investigation, documentation of the disciplinary procedure and punishment action which should be consistent and considerate. Issues like bullying, theft, below-standard performance and online data theft are discussed. Constructive disciplinary procedures like counseling and employee assistance programs can enhance the probability of a more beneficial outcome in terms of organizational effectiveness, enhanced learning and building a just culture.
226 978-81-314-1987-8 Soft Power: An Introduction to Core and Corporate Soft Skills www.nbcindia.com Management Anitha Arunsimha 25-Apr-08 256 17 425 0 0 We live in dynamic times when this morning’s innovation becomes afternoon’s commodity. Organizations put their best people in charge of opportunities for tomorrow rather than problems of today. Strategic capabilities and competencies rank high on the list and hence the Human Capital management endeavors to maximize the human capital. Unequivocally, human capital is the greatest resource of the world’s economy. Competency mapping and competency development have become essential Human Resources initiatives and interventions. Competencies include soft skills that influence human behavior such as emotional intelligence, decisionmaking, communication skills, conflict resolution, team work, perceptual skills, leadership and cross-cultural adaptability. Soft skills are the making of the human capital. They provide energy and cohesion. In a soft skills-enabled company, decisionmaking is smooth, HR systems are optimized, negotiations go well, communication has the passion and leadership is sustained. Right now it is the soft skills way and the highway. Soft skills comprise core soft skills and corporate soft skills. The core soft skills define the human side of doing business and form the premise to develop the corporate soft skills. This book “Soft Power: An Introduction to Core and Corporate Soft Skills” captures the synergy of the core and the corporate soft skills that nourish and nurture each other to tide over various challenges of the industry. It seeks to explore soft skills as an alternative paradigm that can optimize and sustain human resource for both professional and organizational success. Various core soft skills and corporate soft skills are featured in the book, depicting soft skills as a greater intelligence that is seen operating in and through everything.
227 978-81-314-1918-2 Abrupt Climate Change: Causes, Consequences and Policies www.nbcindia.com Environment Amrita Chakraborty 25-Apr-08 244 16.5 425 0 0 The book portrays the phenomenon of abrupt climate change in its present precarious state. Although mankind has been experiencing adverse weather conditions which have taken a severe turn in the last decade, there is still a blur in the minds of people regarding the grave cost and consequences of this climate “flip-flop”. In the recent past abrupt and unforeseen climate events had caused immense loss to life and property. For instance, Texas experienced the worst drought conditions ever recorded from autumn 2005 through spring 2006. There was unprecedented wild land fire, several, very large and complex, burning millions of acres in Texas (a combination of climatic conditions and a variety of human activity). Texas is not alone. Similar forest fires raged Greece. The city of California blazed in engulfing fires recently. Severe regional heat waves are becoming more frequent in a changing climate. European heat waves have become a cause of great anxiety. There has been severe decline in rainfall in South West Australia. India too has not been exempted by freak/unexpected weather conditions. Mumbai experienced unprecedented rainfall two years ago. Rajasthan, where even grannies hadn’t heard of floods, experienced unprecedented floods last year. In neighboring Surat, an 80-year-old was seen repeatedly in news channels, flummoxed by the intensity of floods in 2006. This book is an attempt to bring to light the severity of abrupt climate events and the policy measures being adopted to mitigate them.
228 978-81-314-1941-0 IUP Series on FDI Inflows in India and China – Sectoral Experiences www.nbcindia.com Economy Jayshree Bose 23-Apr-08 304 19 475 0 0 Countries have exploited the advantages of a globalized world and thrown open their economies to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which is a major driver of economic growth, today. FDI is crucial for the overall development of a country because it augments capital, employment and productivity within a country. This book is a comparative study of two countries, India and China. Although the two countries are a study in contrast, as far as their approach to attracting FDI inflows are concerned, there are some crucial common factors. One is that neither of these markets is saturated and, therefore, both offer enormous growth potential. The other is their advantage in terms of lower costs and skilled manpower. Both China and India have, therefore, been attractive destinations for FDI. But, whereas China’s model has been one of super fast track growth in terms of FDI inflows, surpassing all global standards, India has followed a model of gradualism. This has curbed FDI inflows into India as compared to China. This book deals with the experiences of India and China with FDI in various sectors, compares their respective experiences and points out the lessons each could learn from the other. One of the articles also focuses on FDI outflows from both the countries and provides a comparative study. China’s capacity to attract phenomenal volumes of FDI has its downsides too, as pointed out here. It has attracted the attention of researchers who conclude that between 25 per cent and 50 per cent of it could be attributed to roundtripping, or, circulation of capital. But are all forms of roundtripping backed by malafide intentions? The book provides a totally contrarian approach and, for the first time, emphasizes that certain forms of roundtripping are actually conducive to economic growth, although it also states the need for transparency and standardisation. The book would be of interest to foreign investment boards, policymakers in the government, economists, the corporate sector, central banks, faculty and students of finance and economics and others.
229 978-81-314-1969-4 e-Governance Today www.nbcindia.com E-Governance Sadagopan S 23-Apr-08 324 19 475 21.5 550 “E-Governance Today” is a comprehensive, optimistic and immensely useful survey of the accomplishments and promises of e-governance in India and abroad, written by one of India’s most knowledgeable scholars. It is essential reading for all those interested in how modern information and communication technologies can improve the relations of citizens to government and the operations of government itself.As expected from the foremost thought leader in the field of e-Governance in the country, the book brilliantly captures the state-of-the-art of e-Governance in India and provides a crisp view of the key issues of e-Governance. The case studies provided in the book are highly educative and make the book a must read for practitioners. Policy makers for IT adoption in the government will find the book to be an indispensable tool.
230 978-81-314-1925-0 Advergaming and Ingame Advertising – An Introduction www.nbcindia.com Advertising and Media Mary Ipe 23-Apr-08 252 17 425 0 0 The greatest challenge to advertisers is gaining and maintaining eyeball time of the target audience. They use every gimmick to capture the attention of potential customers. The latest weapon in the advertiser’s arsenal is games. The process of blending advertisements into games is creating tremendous hype in the industry. Games – video, Internet, console, PC – which were considered geek boys’ toys are now successful tools to breakthrough the media clutter. The two variants of in-game product placements include advertising around the game (Advergaming) and advertising in the game (In-Game Advertising). This new marketing concept is gaining popularity, as the young tech savvy generation is increasingly connected to the Internet through computers and wireless devices such as mobile phones. The world of advergaming has opened up new business models and exciting advertising opportunities. According to Yankee Group, a Boston-based research firm, the advergaming industry is expected to reach a figure of $312.2 million by 2009. This book explores games as an advertising medium. It looks at the current and potential market for advergaming, the trends, and examines its effectiveness as an advertising tool. It also tries to give some insight into the players’ receptiveness to in-game ads and advergames. The book further expands on the emerging trends and applications in this promising area.
231 978-81-314-1975-5 Business Ethics: A Holistic Approach www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Kumar K B S 23-Apr-08 268 17 425 0 0 Today’s business environment has powerfully reinforced the importance of ethical behavior in business. Over the past several years, we have been bombarded with stories of corporate scandals from the accounting scandals at corporations such as Enron and WorldCom to the misleading analysis of powerfully conflicted stock analysts at firms such as Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs to the most recent charges of big-rigging by the United State’s largest insurance brokerage, Marsh & McLennan. These scandals have focused sustained attention on the issue of ethics in business and there is much to be learnt from them. However, understanding of ethics is still in inchoate stage. This book facilitates a comprehensive interpretation of ethics in a broader perspective, with a view to explaining and sensitizing the target audience about the significance of ethics from various domains’ point of view. Considering the importance and the inevitability of ethics at workplace, we realize that there is still a significant gap between the expected and realized application of ethics at workplaces. Much of the gap can be attributed to the lack of understanding and complacency towards ethics. The proposed book would appraise the role of ethics in various domains like finance, accounts, HR, leadership, marketing etc. The book provides a comprehensive picture of ethics, and discusses the responsibilities of managers towards the workplace ethics in each of the disciplines.
232 978-81-314-1982-3 Identity Theft, A High-Tech Menace www.nbcindia.com General Sameer A Zodgekar 23-Apr-08 244 16.5 425 0 0 You regularly use credit card to shop and dine. You pay your bills regularly. One day, you experience a shock of life to see an astronomical bill. After enquiry, you learn that your identity is stolen. Someone else has purchased goods! Sounds unbelievable? It is not! Incidences like this occur fairly regularly in markets such as the US and the UK. Now, they are assuming alarming proportions in India too! The crooks exploit the vulnerabilities in the system and carelessness of individuals and steal! There are ingenious ways such as phishing, skimming, shoulder surfing, keystroke logging and dumpster diving. Mail is sent to unsuspecting customers which look as if they are sent from authentic financial service provider. In reality, they are sent by thieves who ask passwords for important transactions. The websites are duplicated; and users are directed to those websites, which asks sensitive information. Individuals look over shoulders and note down your credit card numbers, date of birth and CVV numbers, while you are busy talking over phone. Enterprising thieves rummage through the garbage can to know the account numbers. Whole excel sheet of sensitive information is hacked. The thievery is becoming increasingly sophisticated. These phenomena have worried the Governments who are busy cautioning people and preparing laws to prevent identity theft. The book throws light on this sophisticated thievery and ways to prevent it. The first section takes readers through the ways by which the crime is perpetrated, while the second section provides useful information about ways to prevent identity theft.
233 978-81-314-1953-3 Participatory Natural Resource Management: A New Paradigm www.nbcindia.com Participatory Develo Azmal Hussain Arindam Mukherjee 23-Apr-08 244 16.5 425 0 0 “Participatory management of natural resources can offer a promising way of improving resource user-efficiency. Many countries have ventured into this with varied degrees of specificity and have often proved successful, whereupon participatory natural resource management (PNRM) has become a central strategy of different countries’ policy, laws and programs. The Governments of different countries have decided to mainstream service delivery through national and local government institutions, supported by direct block grants to local governments. It has become a generally accepted principle in international law that indigenous people should be consulted as to any decision affecting them, a norm which is reflected in articles 6 and 7 of I.L.O. Convention No. 169 and has been articulated by United Nations treaty supervision bodies of cases concerning resource extraction.
Moreover, participatory approach, which involves the wisdom and involvement of all stakeholders, including local knowledge, has been proved effective in many issues relating to land as well as other natural resources. This book focuses on the effectiveness of involving all stakeholders, particularly the indigenous people, in management of various natural resources. In this book, some of the experiences of institutionalizing and promoting participatory management of natural resources are compiled. The book also outlines the challenges for the process against the backdrop of the Government’s decentralization and local government reforms alongwith other impeding factors.
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234 978-81-314-1954-0 Social Justice: Concepts and Country Experiences www.nbcindia.com Social Development Azmal Hussain Santap Sanhari Mishra 23-Apr-08 244 16.5 425 0 0 “With an idea of just society, social justice gives individuals and groups fair treatment and a just share of the benefits of society. Everyone wishes to live in a just society, but different ideologies have different conceptions of what a ‘just society’ actually is. All the advocates of social justice tend to agree on the importance of rule of law, human rights, and some form of a welfare safety net. The assumption of some advocates of social justice that the pursuit of social justice requires the creation of an egalitarian society has been challenged by the new political-economic realities of globalization. The assumption that the maintenance of individual rights complements the pursuit of social equality has been challenged by racially-based attacks on social welfare benefits and civil rights. Most significantly, the assumption that a socially just society is one in which different groups share a compatible vision of social justice is also fraught with diverse challenges.
The purpose of this book is to propose some possible framework for conceptualizing the efficacy of the system of social justice. The first section attempts to conceptualize social justice and identify its different dimensions. The second section presents the current dynamics of social justice peculiar to various countries.
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235 978-81-314-1979-3 Forex Reserves in Asia: New Realities and Options www.nbcindia.com International Finance Jayanta Kumar Seal Sankhanath Bandyopodhyay 23-Apr-08 236 16 400 0 0 Central banks of emerging markets in Asia started making large stocks of forex reserves especially after the financial crisis of Asia (1997-98). Now the question is, whether they need to keep so much of reserves or not. Experts who are against keeping so much of reserves are of the opinion that, since most of them are invested in US Treasury bills, the return is very low. Therefore, opportunity cost of maintaining a large reserve is very high. They also argue that, instead of investing the forex reserves in the US Treasury bills, reserves can be utilized in high-yielding and high-risk assets. The risk factor can be ignored given the huge amount of reserves. The potential return from these projects would have been higher. On the other hand, supporters of the high forex reserves argue that low forex reserves may lead to devaluation of the currency which, in turn, might lead to financial crisis in the emerging markets. The foreign currency loan repayment and import become costly when the currency depreciates against foreign currency. This book is a unique attempt to capture the reasons and implications of the substantial increase of foreign exchange reserves of these economies. Particular emphasis is laid on analyzing the opportunity costs of holding such reserves and possible utilization of such reserves so as to obtain higher returns from them. Therefore, foreign exchange reserves are now not only for ‘self-insurance’ but also as an instrument for profitable investment for Asian economies.
236 81-314-1209-6 Case Studies on Financial Markets www.nbcindia.com Case Study Collection Chiradeep Chatterjee 23-Apr-08 248 0 40 1000 The days, when sovereign governments used to administer almost insulated economic systems, are gone. And gone with them is the age of savings by individual investors, secured and guaranteed by their respective governments. Post-globalisation, financial markets have become highly relevant to human society. Individual investors today look up to financial markets and have become savvy enough to tuck in the trends. From the macroeconomic viewpoint, interesting trends are the influence of the dollar on other nations, consolidation in financial markets, and the resurgence of Asian markets. The dollar’s influence persists mainly due to the continued acceptance of the dollar as the anchor for international trade. This makes US domestic economic policy effects to spill over into the distant economies. On the one hand, globalisation – abetted by proliferation of Internet – has influenced this. To counter US supremacy, capital markets – especially in Europe – have resorted to integration. They have embraced modern technology in a big way, worrying the US capital markets. On the other hand, globalisation has helped Asian countries benefit from the proliferation of manufacturing technology; also making them economic powerhouses. Resurgent Southeast Asian economies were dubbed as ‘Asian Tigers’. These nations – saddled by the vestiges of old practices – smacked of red tape and nepotism. But economic imperatives have made them embrace professional management practices. Of late, India and China emerged as potential economic superpowers. Experts predict they will exert greater influence on financial markets. The book has been divided into three sections: US financial markets, European financial markets, and Asian financial markets. There are cases related to market innovations and how advantages from them have been ified by human greed. Cases highlight issues relating to accounting principles and market regulations. Cases on European markets focus on how private equity has helped transform conservative businesses, integration of European bourses to counter US supremacy and other regulatory aspects. Finally, the Asian section focuses on the problems faced by Southeast Asian economies. Innovative instruments in Indian financial markets and inherent problems have also been discussed. This book will interest those people who want to get a deeper insight into the functioning of world financial markets.
237 978-81-314-2094-2 IT Today- Technologies,Products, Careers, Trends and People www.nbcindia.com IT Sadagopan S 23-Apr-08 408 0 25.5 650 IT (Information Technology) has been at the center stage of the society since 1995 – with the arrival of the Internet – E-mail, Web, Java, Google and the mobile phones are changing the very life-style of people across the globe, in every continent. This period also saw India emerging — Indians like Narayana Murthy, Infosys’ Chairman and Azim Premji, Wipro’s Chairman are hitting global headlines of The Economist and BusinessWeek. Indian IT companies TCS, Infosys and Wipro are Billion Dollar Corporations employing nearly 100,000 professionals each and operating in dozens of countries. Most global IT companies have direct presence, that too with significant number of employees in India. Global products (Apple iPod, Nokia phones and i-flex Flexcube) have “India Inside”. This book “IT Today – Technologies, Products, Careers, Trends and People” captures the fascinating story of Information Technology from an India perspective through a carefully chosen set of 83 articles (selected out of dozens of articles that appeared in The Times of India, The Economic Times, The Financial Express, Deccan Herald and other publications) penned by the author in the years 2006 and 2007. Technologies covered include multi-core processors, virtualization technology, search technology, place shifting, recommendation technology, flash memory and wearable computing. Products reviewed include Apple iPhone, Intel Classmate PC, Amazon Kindle, Microsoft HealthVault, Curriki and Visual Radio. Careers outlined include research, signal processing, electronics, engineering software, tech support, technical writing, software testing, and IT infrastructure management. Applications include MCA21, citizen service centers, electronic land records, countrywide CET and online admissions. Trends include the monthly snapshots of IT over the years 2006 & 2007 and yearly summaries. Perspectives include articles on Tata Eka, IT and Nobel connections, Computer Science as basic science, industry-academia interaction and the exciting products of the year. Milestones include the launch of Apple iPhone, mobile phones in India crossing 100 million, HP acquiring Mercury Interactive, and fifty years of Indian IT. People include a special article on IT icon NR Narayana Murthy.
238 978-81-314-1919-9 Public-Private Partnership and Health Sector – Challenges and Opportunities www.nbcindia.com Economy Amrita Chakraborty 1-Apr-08 240 16.5 425 0 0 The belief that every human being – no matter where they live – deserves a healthy life is the chief impetus to the movement of Public-Private Partnerships in health. It is unconscionable that the better-off members of the planet usurp the existing facilities in health for their betterment and leave the poorest at the mercy of life-threatening diseases. Public-Private Partnerships in health are gaining in importance in many parts of the world. The importance has evolved out of the need to address demanding issues of health equity and the failure on part of the public and private bodies (separately) to resolve such issues due to respective constraints. To provide good health to their teeming millions, many of whom cannot even afford two square meals a day or a roof over their head, governments in the developing world need enormous resources, financial, human etc, which are often woefully wanting. The diversity of objectives, arrangement of funding and the level of interaction between the partners give the Public-Private Partnerships in health a very multi-dimensional nature. Undoubtedly, Public-Private Partnerships have many strengths and address the individual weaknesses of public and private bodies (separately), but this fledging mode of organization has also begun showing its own weaknesses. Some of these weaknesses are threatening to be grave potential challenges. Yet, as the book delineates, they are the silverlining in an environment fraught with new and deadly diseases like AIDS, malaria, encephalitis, SARS, Avian Flu and many more that are threatening to evolve.
239 81-314-1389-6 Efficiency in Commercial Banks – A Global Perspective www.nbcindia.com Banking Gopala Krishna Murthy G 28-Mar-08 308 19 475 0 0 In globalised markets, competency has become a universal parameter for organizational application, while assessing the current performance and future outlook as well. The banking system of any country is the central nerve of its economy. Towards the end of the 20th century, the majority of nations across the globe initiated reforms in their financial sectors. The process is still on, with a view to strengthening the banking system and enhancing its operational efficiency, to meet the envisaged challenges in a competitive global economy. Capital adequacy and management of liquidity through compliance of sound Basel principles, best practices of risk management, effective spread management, efficiency in productivity and profitability and technological advancements are some of the competencies registered by banks in recent times. The prime objective for a bank is to create and maximize wealth for its stakeholders. Assessment of efficiency can, therefore, provide valuable insights into the investors vis-à-vis prospects of the banks, in terms of providing attractive returns to the shareholders. Such an endeavour would also enable all concerned, to estimate how far banks would go in meeting the expected challenges and fulfil the aspirations of the stakeholders at large. By presenting the systemic and performance features, this book attempts to bring to light the multi-faceted efficiency and competency perspectives of banks globally.
240 978-81-314-1972-4 Indian Industry and Environment: Policies and Practices www.nbcindia.com Economy: India Naveen Kumar Agarwal Ramani V V 28-Mar-08 316 19 475 0 0 Several factors are driving the need for businesses to integrate environmental issues with their business strategy. Improvement in the conditions of competitiveness is one of the main objectives of the business environment policy. Besides, a high standard of living, especially the safety of the citizens and a clean living environment, are integral parts of the welfare and business environment policy. On the other hand, external pressures such as regulations, policies and legislations in the interest of public as well as market opportunities arising from environmental concerns, have compelled firms to integrate environmental issues with their strategic planning process. Shareholders, customers and policymakers are also increasingly demanding improved environmental performance from business firms all over the world. Corporate is, therefore, paying greater attention to the environmental impact of its business activity. In Indian industry, the importance of accounting environmental issues, while planning business strategies, has become crucial. Hence, broad insights and knowledge into environmental regulation, legislation, policies and experience of the Indian industry would enrich the capabilities of Indian business houses and corporate professionals to effectively manage and integrate environmental issues with their business strategies, afterall environment and economy are twin partners in the pursuit of quality existence.
241 978-81-314-1976-2 Good Governance in Non profit Organizations www.nbcindia.com Management Smitha Ramachandran 28-Mar-08 304 19 475 0 0 Governance is the overall process and structure used to direct and manage an organization’s operation and activities. As organizations grow from a group of people with shared ideas to a team with a staff and formalization, the need for good governance becomes prominent. There are several benefits to structured governance. It ensures greater opportunity to increase efficiency. It enhances the ability of an organization to be more responsive to beneficiaries’ needs as well as to environmental change. However, NPOs need to face many a challenge before they can successfully adopt the concept of structured governance. First, the impact and interplay of the environmental factors are so high that many nonprofits end up toeing the line defined by the Government, partners or funders. At other times the scale of operation is so small that structured governance seems a distant possibility. Yet other times the individual behind the idea emerges to become larger than the idea itself, thus, value-based organization gets stunted to become a person-centric organization. This book will look at various governance models that have been conceptualized and practised by NPOs the world over. It would explore strategies and practices which will make the performance of these elements of governance more efficient and, effective and in turn, contribute to the effectiveness of the organization as a whole.
242 81-314-1394-2 Security of Maritime Trade: New Dimensions www.nbcindia.com Economy Sukhvinder Kaur Multani 28-Mar-08 288 18 450 0 0 The issues in maritime domain are quite vast and complex and countries pursuing maritime interests cannot ignore their importance. Maritime security has thus become crucial for these countries as the transportation of world trade is dependent on the shipping lanes and seaports. The world’s seaports have nearly 72 percent million containers moving through them every year. These containers have to be safeguarded against nuclear weapons which could be delivered to the seaport and detonated before uploading. This would cause immense loss to the trade and commerce thriving on the oceans. In view of these threats and developments posed by non-conventional sources the challenges of maritime security are ever growing. Countries have realized the fact that technology plays a key role in securing maritime domain and its assets. Technology could be applied most effectively to prevent the transport of illicit materials for use in terrorist activities affecting maritime trade. The role of private security companies in securing vessels, ports and offshore energy installations is also crucial. Monitoring of maritime traffic through the use of micro satellites is being implemented by several countries. In view of the significance given to maritime security and the role played by technologies towards safeguarding maritime commerce, this book is designed in two sections. The first section focuses on wider set of maritime security issues, which involve technologies applied and used to securing sea lanes, ports, containers and vessels. The second section presents the experiences of some of the countries on maritime security issues.
243 978-81-314-1901-4 Transformation of Indian Economy – An Overview www.nbcindia.com Economy: India Preeti Phuskele 28-Mar-08 284 18 450 0 0 The Indian economy is on the fast-track expansion path. This is reflected in simultaneous rise in every area of the economy, for instance; bank credit diversification, buoyancy in the farm sector, remarkable performance in the manufacturing and services sectors, accompanied by rise in exports and massive inflows through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Institutional Investment (FII) routes. The growth of India represents a rosy picture with overall increase in the returns, employment opportunities, GDP etc. Indian economy has recorded growth of 9.4 percent during 2006-07 as compared to 9 percent in 2005-06. Industrial and service sector has also recorded growth of 10.9 and 11 percent rise in 2006-07 as compared to 9.6 and 9.8 percent in 2005-06. Moreover, India has the highest number of billionaires in Asia and fourth highest in the world. The fast growing stock market has established India as the fastest growing wealth creator. The overall growth of Indian economy is motivating young Indians to take the benefit of the demographic dividend and increasing employment opportunities. This book is a significant contribution as it tries to describe the true picture of the current position of the Indian Economy. It not only focuses on the improvement, but also focuses on the areas which still need improvement to be on par with global standards. It is a “must read” for all students, researchers and academicians.
244 978-81-314-1929-8 India s Exports: Perspectives and Sectoral Trends www.nbcindia.com Economy: India Dhandapani Alagiri 28-Mar-08 288 18 450 0 0 India s foreign trade has been improving over the last decade and a half, even though it is still to achieve a significant share in the overall world trade. The exports are no longer seen as needed only for getting dollars for payment of imports, as was the case when the nation followed import substitution as the policy in the early years. In recent years, India s exports have become more and more competitive in the global markets and are penetrating into new markets. The range of exports has also expanded over the years. The export basket has value added items in the form of machinery, engineering goods and automobiles. India has been the forerunner in becoming an international hub for automobiles and components. But, it is a fact that, along with the growth in merchandise exports, imports are also growing at a fast pace and this has led to a trade deficit. But this gap in the current account is narrowed down by the export of services. Overall, India s foreign trade has strengthened over the years and the large capital flows have also led to accumulation of foreign reserves that present a very comfortable picture. In this context, this book will make useful reading, capturing the important perspectives of India s exports and highlighting the sectoral developments. It presents a series of well-written articles that bring out the essence of the happenings in India s foreign trade, especially exports.
245 978-81-314-1970-0 IUP on Treasury Management – Trends and Developments www.nbcindia.com Finance Dhandapani Alagiri 28-Mar-08 280 18 450 0 0 The global financial markets, emerging free from controls, present the corporate houses with numerous opportunities for raising and deploying funds. The opening up of the markets has ensured a better flow of funds across and also within borders and this has accentuated the role of treasury in managing funds and risk management. A good treasury will be essential for smooth functioning of a business. Ensuring that the business does not run short of funds in either the short run or the long run is the major responsibility of a treasurer along with the productive deployment of funds. This role of the treasury will ensure that the corporate can concentrate on the core business activities. Global cash management has seen rapid advances relieving the corporate houses of unnecessary repeated transactions. The recent developments on the treasury front are the financial supply chain management (FSCM) and outsourcing of the treasury operations. There have been efforts to benchmark treasury management operations so as to have a good understanding of the concepts and the operational techniques. An effective treasury is very important in managing the assets and making a significant contribution by supporting the organization’s core business activities.In this context, this book, The Icfai University Press on Treasury Management – Trends and Developments, makes useful reading, capturing the important perspectives of treasury management and the recent developments and practices. It presents a series of well-written articles that bring out the essence of the happenings in the subject.
246 978-81-314-1909-0 Financial System in China – Changing Dynamics www.nbcindia.com Finance Nageswara Rao Katuri 28-Mar-08 292 18 450 0 0 China, a nation of over 1.3 billion people, has strong economic fundamentals in the form of fast GDP growth, substantial foreign direct investment, cheap labor, a stable domestic currency and low government debt. The growth rate is sustainable in future and the private sector is driving growth. China needs a more flexible exchange rate system to support a stable macroeconomic environment. The finance sector needs further reforms and solid public finances could permit tax and expenditure reforms. China has just about crossed the one trillion dollar mark of its forex reserves. It needs to realize that its domestic demand should be substantially improved to thwart the ill effects of the rising reserves, on the back of a falling dollar. It needs to undertake radical labor reforms to ensure better pay for its hard working labor force so that, they could add to the domestic demand. China is gradually shifting from export of labour intensive and less advanced manufactured goods to more technology intensive goods. Banking sector fragility poses perhaps the single biggest threat to its macroeconomic stability and long-term growth and the Chinese government has rightly made banking reform a top priority. Foreign strategic investment has the potential to be a very effective way to improve the banking system. China’s insurance market is still at a stage of relative immaturity, despite rapid economic growth in recent years. Chinese entry into the fray of mergers and acquisitions is of recent origin. Its outbound FDI efforts are principally in infrastructure and manufacturing sectors. China has emerged as a hot favorite for foreign direct investment. The factors that positively contributed for this transformation are: the huge market in china, its workforce, resources and liberalization of trade by the government.
247 978-81-314-1916-8 Private Equity: An Introduction www.nbcindia.com Finance Satish D 28-Mar-08 268 17 425 0 0 Private Equity is a term, used to describe any equity investment in companies that have not gone public. Private Equity is generally illiquid and such investment is relatively long term. The exit strategy for a private equity fund is either through the Initial Public Offering to the public on a stock exchange or through the secondary and tertiary buyout deals. Private Equity encompasses venture investing, buyout investing, mezzanine financing, growth capital and other forms of private investing. The origins of Private equity date back to the post World War II period, when the American Research and Development Corporation was set up in 1946 to provide finance for the private enterprises in US. The seeds of growth of private equity were sown in 1970s, when some of the companies funded by private investment in the 1960s started hitting the stock markets. Post 1990’s saw the explosion of private equity with the private equity companies investing in emerging industries like technology, software and telecom. Now, private equity is very popular with many investors investing in them. It is now worth trillions of dollars. The immense popularity of private equity has thrown up some issues and challenges. There are debates raging as to what has been the impact of private equity on the shareholders and society and how one can bring in transparency, accountability and good governance into the management of private equity. The book broadly focuses on the concept of private equity: its structure, its economics, its performance, its evolution, its growth and its risks and returns. It also focuses on the present and future challenges facing private equity. With the Private Equity flowing into India and India becoming a big hub for private equity investments with big deals done, the book looks at the Indian experience with private equity. It also covers the experiences of private equity in US, Europe, Australia and other emerging countries.
248 978-81-314-1964-9 Campus to Corporate: A Road Map www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Devi R J 28-Mar-08 268 17 425 0 0 With the advent of the IT, ITES and BPO industries, employment opportunities have widened, especially so, for freshers. In order to meet their requirements, companies began moving into various institutions to select committed, intelligent and aspiring students full of enthusiasm and zeal to prove their talents. It provides them the platform to choose the right candidate for the right job. Campus recruitment is beneficial to both – organizations and students – acting as a perfect finale to their professional course throwing open great avenues in the corporate sector to students. When companies arrive at the campus for recruitment, students undergo palpable tension, anticipation and eagerness. It is obvious that everyone wants to be in the list of topmost companies like TCS, Infosys, Cognizant, Wipro, and HCL. Organizations select only those students who satisfy their requirements in all aspects. So, it becomes obligatory for the students to equip themselves with the, necessary skill set to get into the selection process. The secret of success is in fact very simple – “The way you Dress and the way you Address”. Many candidates feel that the transition from the campus to the corporate world is a stormy one. It has become necessary for them to bridge the gap smoothly. There is a need to blend into the new environment, yet demonstrate the unique talents that make one stand out among peers. Successfully managing these challenges is sure to be difficult, daunting and frustrating. But conquering them is vital to become a bona fide professional.
249 978-81-314-1934-2 Internet Banking: Multi-Dimensional Perspectives www.nbcindia.com Banking Krishna Kishore Puranam Ravi Kumar Jain B 28-Mar-08 240 16.5 425 0 0 Ever since the advent of Internet technologies, banking institutions started exploiting them for providing value-added services to their customers. Internet banking not only made the banks build a single and unified platform for their wide range of services but also gave the customer various benefits in terms of cost and convenience. Technology development and penetration across the globe facilitated the spread of Internet banking among the sophisticated and unsophisticated customer segments. The emergence of new technologies paved the way for streamlining their Internet banking strategies by bankers across the globe, thereby redefining the objectives and methods pertaining to the implementation of Internet banking and identification of its importance and providing sophisticated services to their customers. As Internet is a publicly accessible network, concerns about the privacy and security issues of Internet banking rose in the minds of many customers who hesitated to adopt this service. Recognizing these concerns, both banks and regulatory agencies across the globe had taken up incremental measures to establish the robustness of Internet banking as a standard banking platform. Communications revolution had made the Internet penetrate into the remotest regions of the globe and this made the Internet banking accessible to rural and unsophisticated population. In this context, the role of technology in making Internet banking operations user-friendly and cost-effective is worth noting. Years to come will see more and more advances in Internet banking not only in terms of usage but also with respect to user awareness and transaction security in this regime. This book “Internet Banking: Multi-Dimensional Perspectives” provides an overview of the concepts and contemporary issues related to Internet banking from a Global perspective. It also focuses on the emergence of Internet banking in India, its present status and future prospects in the Indian banking sector.
250 978-81-314-1930-4 Basel II – Implications for Asia Pacific Region www.nbcindia.com Finance Preeti Phuskele 28-Mar-08 240 16.5 425 0 0 “Financial institutions pave their way towards success through effective risk management techniques. Investments in state-of-the-art operational practices, reliability, confidentiality, safety measures and a consistency in the execution of services reap rich rewards. Integrating elements such as bank-level management, operational supervision and market discipline are some ways through which effective risk management strategies can be implemented. In 1999, a new Capital Adequacy Framework was issued to replace Basel I. This revised framework, named Basel II, was introduced on 26th June 2004. Basel II aims at modernizing the existing capital requirements framework in order to make it even more comprehensive and risk-sensitive for modern-day financial institutions that employ meticulous risk management practices. The Basel II framework is even more sensitive to the real risks that organizations face.
Implementation of Basel II has been a major concern of banks all over the world. But it is important that the banks do not lose sight of the long-term benefits of Basel II of better capital allocation and consequently, better pricing because they are tangled in the details necessary to meet the deadline. The ultimate objective is financial stability. Global banks operating in Asia Pacific countries are developing Basel II strategies that will allow them to meet local regulatory requirements and compete effectively in the local markets in the region. Basel II will be an important catalyst and key platform for further financial market reform both regionally and at the domestic level in Asia Pacific.
The proposed book is a significant contribution as it tries to highlight the issues of Basel II implementation. It also finds real impact of Basel II implementation on the Asia-Pacific banks. It also discusses the challenges faced by Indian banks along the path to compliance of Basel II. This book is a must read for students, faculty members and researchers as it provides insights in to the Basel II adoption in Asia-Pacific banks.
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251 978-81-314-1949-6 Ideas, Creativity and Innovation: Keys to Survival www.nbcindia.com Strategic Management Gopalakrishnan P S 28-Mar-08 240 16.5 425 0 0 Recent studies have revealed that all human beings are equally endowed with the power of idea generation (power to generate ideas) that can be harnessed for useful purposes. Hence, companies have started capitalizing on this hitherto unknown/unused area. Companies bank on human capital, the potential of their employees/customers/ suppliers and other stakeholders who can provide solutions to unresolved problems and provide very useful ideas, some of which can be converted into marketable, profitable products/processes/services. Though decades ago, idea generation was the prerogative of the top management, later on suggestions/ideas/opinions from all the stakeholders are solicited by firms. And by the turn of the century, the process of idea creation has been democratized, in a way. This book focuses from the evolution stage to the present stage of idea generation process, the selection of the right idea from the lot, its evaluation and finally converting the idea into a marketable product/service or a solution to a critical problem. The contemporary articles highlight the need, various approaches that can be followed and how the useful ideas can be developed into saleable products and services. Cases and experiences show that ideas add to both top line and bottom line of the companies.
252 978-81-314-1913-7 The Art of Workplace Counseling www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Sangeetha K 28-Mar-08 232 16 400 0 0 In the current knowledge economy the shift is towards managing the resource generators, the employees. The employer s emphasis on strengthening workforce performance and productivity has made workplace counseling an imperative in any organization, as never before, as it is one of the major tools used to maximize human resources, improving work performance, and attracting and retaining quality workforce. Counseling is a one-to-one relationship between a counselor and a counselee, where the counselors help the counselees to examine and realize their problems and explore the various options available to them to take their own decisions. Counseling services in an organization create a competitive advantage for the company by making its people learn how to resolve their interpersonal, emotional and decision making problems and to work in teams towards the achievement of the organizational goals. The success of any counseling lies in bringing about a positive change in the behavior of the counselee and ensuring that he/she becomes independent in solving his/her problems. The investment in workplace counseling earns huge profits for the firm, adds value by attracting human resources and improves the organizational health. In a nutshell, those companies that have workplace counseling service are benefited with improved workplace attitude, behavior and performance of the employees that contribute to the organizational profits and save time and money. This book provides a clear picture of the significance of workplace counseling in the current business scenario and presents a systematic view of different counseling approaches and techniques, the skills of a counselor required for effective counseling and how the counseling service can be used in solving employee problems, thereby, improving the employee work performance and organizational productivity.
253 978-81-314-1978-6 Impact of Government Policies on Marketing Strategies www.nbcindia.com Marketing Amitabha Ghose 28-Mar-08 232 16 400 0 0 Government policies are very important issues while considering the rate of economic, industry and business growth that influence marketing activities. Favourable Government policies may result in increase in FDI, FII, new competition, merger and acquisitions, private investment and flexible credit terms by bankers to the business enterprises. It is essential for Government policymakers to assess and analyse the effect of Government policy and growth of the economy through enhanced business, hence, marketing activities. This can be effectively done by constant evaluation of the policies in terms of how these policies are influencing the marketing function by analysing various market forces that systematically affect it. Government policies that impact on the R&D and product development or innovation, pricing, positioning, promotions, distribution, customer relationship, labeling, packaging and competition have to be taken into consideration while designing marketing strategies for the company. Government of any country can introduce new policies which can substantially change marketing activities of the company. This book highlights various Government policies that affect the marketing functions and allied activities. It points out the specific areas of marketing functions that are most affected. It suggests for developing a system within the organization to anticipate these policy implications. Finally, the book deals with the formulation of appropriate marketing strategy to sustain and maintain the companies’ position in the marketplace.
254 978-81-314-1900-7 Women s Participation in Rural Development: Emerging Trends in Developing Countries www.nbcindia.com Economy: World Subir Ghosh 28-Mar-08 208 15 375 0 0 All over the world, the significance of women’s participation in the workforce has resulted in significant transformation in the family set up and the economy. Since 1950s, women’s participation in economic activities has been increasing rapidly. Rural developmental activities are no exception to this. The main occupations of women in rural areas are agriculture and allied activities like development of fisheries, animal husbandry, dairy, rural handicrafts, food processing etc. Women also participate in the decision making process, generally in rural developmental activities. Women contribute about three fourths of the total labour force required for such activities. Therefore, many of these women contribute to rural welfare activities through their association with agriculture. Mostly in all civil societies of the world, women are assigned only a secondary position, as it is believed that men are the breadwinners of the family. Therefore, men enjoy a better status than women. It is also believed that, if women become bread earners, that will enhance their standard/position in society. So, measures for ameliorating the status of women are limited in society. The present book tries to capture the profound importance of women’s participation in rural development. The focus of this book is on illustrating the participation and thereby the contribution of women to various rural developmental activities, globally.
255 978-81-314-1985-4 Human Resource Management: A Changing Paradigm www.nbcindia.com General Management Debamitra Mitra 28-Mar-08 208 15 375 0 0 This book focuses on the changing HR perspectives in the globalized world and their impact on the corporates. It has captured the changes in the entire gamut of HR like industrial relations, training, recruitment and retention, performance appraisal, outsourcing, strategic HR, leadership, talent management, competence modeling, succession planning, branding HR etc. The pivotal stimuli for these changes are globalization, improved and innovative technology in practice and also the societal changes at large. Unlike the conventional HR, human resource department today is linked with the overall organization’s business plans and objectives. As the HR functions have begun to broaden their wings across the organization, there has emerged a need for treating the employees, similar to that of selling services to the clients. Building a brand for the HR department is significant because of attracting, encouraging and holding the excellent and the shining talents in the organization in order to survive in the corporate competition. Succession planning is one of the core areas in recent days’ human resource management system, which has considered training, development and performance appraisal to be its integral part. The changing HR has a great impact on the success or failure of an organization that depends largely on how aggressively the HR function can prepare the knowledge capital of the organization.
256 978-81-314-1421-7 My Notes to Myself : Simple Tips on Human Resource Management taken from the Diary of a Bureaucrat www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Hasmukh Adhia 28-Mar-08 72 6 150 0 0 Good Governance is possible only if people working for Government are motivated to improve themselves. Through this book, the author, a very successful bureaucrat himself, wishes to share some simple techniques of people management. This book is written in the form of compilation of notes prepared by the author for his self-improvement throughout his 25-year old career. The main objective of this book is to make Government Officers and HR Managers aware of the crucial need for people management and also share with them simple techniques for motivating their subordinates. The approach in this book is a narration in the first person, which makes it interesting. The government officers will identify themselves easily with what is said in this book.
257 81-314-0489-7 Case Studies on New Age Marketing – Vol. I www.nbcindia.com Case Study Collection Maldar Nusrath Jahan Yesav 21-Mar-08 394 0 35 875 Marketing strategies serve as the fundamental underpinning of marketing plans designed to attain marketing objectives that have measurable results. A sound marketing strategy integrates an organisation s marketing goals, policies, and tactics into a cohesive whole. The objective of a marketing strategy is to provide a foundation from which a tactical plan is developed that enables the organisation to implement its mission effectively and efficiently. Every marketing strategy is unique, but discerning from individual strategies, each can be reduced to a generic marketing strategy. While few companies pioneer in developing new business models, others try to seek a sustainable competitive advantage either by diversifying their core businesses or by adopting aggressive marketing strategies. The case studies featured in this book provides insights into understanding the marketing strategies adopted by various companies and the efforts made by them to overcome these challenges. Besides, it also helps in bridging the gap between theory and practice by facilitating an understanding of when and how to apply concepts and techniques of the management curriculum.
258 81-314-1184-7 AIDS and Children – Issues and Concerns www.nbcindia.com Management Michael Vimal Pillai 20-Mar-08 296 18 450 0 0 AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) has created a global health crisis and serious imbalance in the public health care system across the world. It is posing a colossal developmental challenge in many countries. HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and AIDS are creating a difficult situation for children. The alarming impact of AIDS on children is causing serious concern. Children are the emerging face of global population. They represent the developing human resources of nations. HIV and AIDS have created multiple problems for them such as sickness and mortality, loss of parents, stigma and discrimination. Large number of children are infected with HIV every year. Countries, organizations and individuals across the world are involved in initiatives to mitigate the impact of AIDS on children through endeavors in the areas of prevention, care, support and treatment. The book focuses on various aspects of HIV/AIDS and children. It is divided into three sections: Issues and Concerns; Problems and Impacts; and Management and Initiatives. Information is provided in areas like: – * Prevention * Care and Treatment * Impact and problems of HIV/AIDS on children * Management of HIV-infected children * Initiatives and strategies to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on children
259 978-81-314-1920-5 Banking Reforms in China: Changing Horizon www.nbcindia.com Banking Nirbachita Karmakar Asis Kumar Pain 12-Mar-08 308 19 475 0 0 Banking reforms have played an important role in China’s overall effort to transform a centrally planned economy into a market-based economy since 1978. Although the banking sector has undergone remarkable changes over the period, deep-seated structural problems of asset quality, capital adequacy and profitability continue to pose a challenge to the sector. China quickened the pace of reform in 1998 and seems to be aware of two lessons that can be drawn from the Asian financial crisis. The first lesson is that a sound banking system is crucial for an economy to withstand external shocks. The second lesson from the Japanese banking saga is that delay only allows NPL s to grow and erode bank capital. Chinese leaders have shown their commitment to reform; nonetheless, a long and painful period of banking and SOE reform is inevitable. During the last year, China has ostensibly accelerated reform of the banking sector with the main thrust addressed towards disposition of the cumulated non-performing loans (NPL s) – both bad loans inherited from the past and new loans. The present volume is conceived against this backdrop to provide an in-depth analysis of the banking reforms in China. The book is divided into three sections, to help readers with an appropriate analysis of the pros and cons of the reform process, the mode of implementation of the reform process, apart from looking at the path of progress that such reform shall entail in the future.
260 978-81-314-1923-6 Natural Disaster Management: New Technologies and Opportunities www.nbcindia.com Risk Management Subir Ghosh 12-Mar-08 260 17 425 0 0 Disaster is an unpredictable and sudden event in devastating nature, which causes human sufferings and loss of property, plants and animals etc. This damage is immeasurable and varies according to the geographical location and the degree of vulnerability. Therefore, disaster completely disturbs normal life. The experience of 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, 2001 Gujarat earthquake, 1999 earthquake in Turkey, 2001 coastal earthquake in Central America, Lopevi volcanic eruption of 2006, Assam flood of 2003, Great flood of 1993 in the United States, Bangladesh flood of July 2007 and 2001 earthquake in Indonesia etc show that disaster causes human sufferings, environmental smash-up and disruption of economic development. These previous deadly disasters have increased the importance of disaster management. Though most of the major disasters are unavoidable and it is almost impossible to fully recover the loss caused by disasters, the loss minimization is possible through the use of technologies. Information is one of the most important requirements for disaster management. The concept of World Wide Web (WWW) is an emerging trend in the arena of disaster management. With this background, the book tries to focus as to how the existing technologies like Geographical Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Global Positioning System (GPS), Data Information Exchange, Data Mining, Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), Early Warning System and Knowledge Management help in disaster management.
261 978-81-314-1940-3 Lifestyle Products and Brands: Concepts and Cases www.nbcindia.com Branding Simantee Sen 12-Mar-08 216 15.5 400 0 0 Today’s new consumer wants to be recognized, valued and, above all, be seen to be unique. The new consumer can be fickle – so rather like the fortunes of the celebrities many lifestyle products attract, popularity can be lost as easily as it is acquired. However, it is found that ‘Lifestyle Brands’ are ever vibrant with plenty of new ideas, investment, and innovation and a range of lifestyle products all over the world set the standards of its consumers. Niche lifestyle products continue to deliver a wake-up call to the mainstream industry sectors. Lifestyle products and services are often more concepts that help create a lifestyle niche rather than being a tangible product alone. As the notion of luxury changes, marketers of high-end products are wrestling with the challenges of maintaining brand name and exclusivity while reaping higher sales. In conceptualizing this book, our aim is to clarify the concept and foundation of lifestyles and their associated brands with the support of various cases. Lifestyle brands are tools for educating the other consumer segments, making them aware of the good things in life so that they too aim at achieving that elevated status. This is where the significance of our book lies. In short, it can be stated that lifestyle brands are both incredibly authentic and great disrupters. They have a great vision into the future… and a passion for leading us there. In that sense, they’re very charismatic and always innovative.
262 978-81-314-2038-6 Case Studies on India Inc. : Going Global www.nbcindia.com Case Study Collection K Ramanathan 12-Mar-08 196 0 50 1250 “Historically dubbed the “world’s first Multinational Company (MNC)”, the British East India Company wished to trade with India and ruined it in less than 350 years. In less than one-tenth of those colonised period, India remarkably created what are called the “Indian National Companies (INCs).” These are gracing the global canvas, with their inherent strengths, experience with low-income customer base, cost-efficient business models and efficient risk-bearing mechanisms. However, it is not all that smooth for these INCs. Most importantly, they got to rinse themselves off the stigma that companies from developing world carry. Even their newfound confidence needs to be properly blended with visionary leadership, workable strategies and veritable adaptability. But the global adventure of INCs is too short to be conclusively judged.
This book, while spotlighting on a few such Indian companies, helps readers grasp their potential, urge to succeed and survive globally. Many more insights will incite reader’s imagination into deep analysis.
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263 81-314-1215-0 Case Studies on Growth : Exploring and Exploiting New Avenues www.nbcindia.com Economy Kumar Satyaki Ray Arindam Mukherjee 12-Mar-08 196 0 40 1000 The book entwines a few case studies and attempts to capture a glimpse of the saga of growth strategies followed by different multinational companies in modern times. As reflected in the book growth strategies may be of two types, namely organic growth and inorganic growth. The most daunting task faced by the managers of the twentyfirst century is to know how to grow their companies. The odds against growth have become extremely high. Competition has increased exponentially and investors’ patience has decreased significantly. For instance, investors in the twentyfirst century are shifting in and out of stocks five times faster compared to nineties. They not only demand profitable growth but also growth in every quarter. In the mad race of growth, companies go into a spree of acquisitions and overseas takeovers but many companies fall into the growth trap. Therefore, it is increasingly necessary to understand the magic formula of sustaining growth in the long run rather than making it a one time high. This book has optimally dealt with the strategic issues related to growth. In this era of globalization growth has become the need of the hour for companies. In order to grow, companies take different strategies. But the route to sustaining growth is yet to be discovered. Keeping this in mind, the book is a modest attempt to delve into strategic approaches towards growth of an organization and portray these strategies in a systematic manner. In the first section of this book organic growth strategies have been discussed while in the second section inorganic growth strategies discussed with an objective of exploring the path of sustainable growth strategy.
264 81-314-1253-3 Downshifting: A Theoretical and Practical Approach to Living a Simple Life www.nbcindia.com General Books Franco Gandolfi Helene Cherrier 11-Mar-08 300 35 875 35 875 Something puzzling yet profound is occurring in consumer-driven societies: an increasing number of individuals from all walks of life are pursuing lower consumption practices and embracing simpler lifestyles. They are ‘getting a life’ and ‘escaping the rat race’. This growing inclination toward simpler lifestyles or downshifting is part of a larger shift in societal values, attitudes, and the notion of what constitutes success and happiness. This distinctive book constitutes a collection of readings that examines and exposes the various approaches and practices of downshifting. Eleven theoretical and empirical chapters written by prolific writers and distinguished scholars from around the world offer theoretical and practical lenses on the downshifting phenomenon. This book on downshifting is an invaluable resource and instrument for researchers, consultants, executives, and social science students.
265 81-314-1267-3 Culturally-Sensitive Models of Family Business in Middle East – A Compendium using the Globe Paradigm www.nbcindia.com General Management Vipin Gupta 11-Mar-08 300 20.5 525 23 575 “Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) studies in 62 societies of the world suggest that leading businesses master the fine balance between culturally-specific and universally applicable principles and practices.This 11 book compendium set of 110 carefully selected articles that are written by about 300 scholars focuses on culturally-sensitive models of family businesses in 60 nations and 10 regions of the world. The eleventh volume is a compilation of articles on gender in family firms, providing insights in this important yet generally less understood arena.The compendium is a timely and major contribution. It is a great resource for scholars and students interested in understanding the diversity and uniqueness of family firms around the world. Family business practitioners and policy makers seeking to enhance global collaborations and creating sustainable families, communities, and businesses will find this an invaluable resource.”(Pramodita Sharma, Ph.D.,Associate Dean of Business and Professor of Family Business,Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.)“This compendium set is thought-provoking and path-breaking for practitioners and academics. The entire set comprises eleven books:1) Latin America 2) Germanic Europe 3) Nordic Europe 4) Latin Europe 5) Eastern Europe 6) Sub-Saharan Africa 7) Middle East 
Southern Asia 9) Confucian Asia 10) Anglo Region and 11) Gender As an integral first phase for a broader research program, C.A.S.E. (Culturally-Sensitive Assessment System and Education), it offers comparative cultural analysis of family businesses and culturally-sensitive tools to create more successful families, businesses, and communities worldwide.”(Joseph Horak, Ph.D., Horak Family and Psychological Services, President, C.A.S.E. Worldwide Group, L.L.C., USA.)
266 978-81-314-1937-3 Ecotourism: Focus on Wild Life and Local Communities www.nbcindia.com General Management Prabha Shastri Ranade 11-Mar-08 340 20 500 0 0 Ecotourism has become the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry, with an annual growth rate of 10-30%. The potential number of ecotourists is capable of generating expenditure up to US$1.2 trillion. Ecotourism is related to conservation of nature and plays an important role in protecting biodiversity. Through ecotourism a lot can be done to protect the endangered species of flora and fauna. Ecotourism is a way by which local communities can strengthen their traditional role in natural areas. It helps empower local communities to generate employment and enhance their earning skills. Protected areas such as national parks, game reserves or sanctuaries are the popular destinations for nature tourism. This book focuses on the practices of wildlife viewing in protected areas, community-based ecotourism and ecotourism projects in rural/tribal regions. It examines ecotourism and its effects on the native population, community-based ecotourism and outline ecotourism promotion and marketing. The book is presented in three sections. The first section includes articles on wildlife ecotourism and biodiversity conservation, ecotourism in national parks and marine protected areas, ecotourism associated with angling, whale watching, rhino and tiger conservation projects. The second section contains articles on ecotourism with social dimension, community-based tourism and protected area management, ecotourism studies of local communities, involvement of local communities in the planning process, ecotourism and its effects on the native population. The third section discusses the marketing and promotion of tourism assets, analysis of tourists’ behavior and key marketing factors for ecotourism, consumer demand and operator support for socially and environmentally responsible tourism. The Annexure discusses ecotourism and local communities-synthesis of rights and ecotourism guidelines for responsible travelers.
267 978-81-314-1946-5 Hospital Management – New Initiatives/Dimensions www.nbcindia.com Management Michael Vimal Pillai 11-Mar-08 348 20 500 0 0 Hospitals worldwide have undergone a tremendous transition and development from the time of their existence. They are developed as organizations for providing care and treatment of various aliments and as institutions for imparting education and training in medicine. The development of hospitals, such as Multi-specialty; Super-specialty and Corporate hospitals are an outcome of advancement in various disciplines, such as medicine, management sciences and technology. Continuous growth in the global healthcare sector, coupled with the demands of patients for better and safer treatment, has led to the evolution of hospital management as a specialized discipline for proper and efficient functioning of hospitals. Hospital management embraces various areas and functions responsible for the smooth running of hospitals, taking into consideration, the needs and expectations of its clients and stakeholders. This book enlightens the readers on several areas of hospital management, such as governance; marketing; financial and human resources management; supply chain management; hospital design; waste management and infection control.
268 81-314-1221-5 Culturally-Sensitive Models of Family Business in Nordic Europe – A Compendium using the Globe Paradigm www.nbcindia.com General Management Vipin Gupta 11-Mar-08 292 19.5 500 22 550 “Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) studies in 62 societies of the world suggest that leading businesses master the fine balance between culturally-specific and universally applicable principles and practices.This 11 book compendium set of 110 carefully selected articles that are written by about 300 scholars focuses on culturally-sensitive models of family businesses in 60 nations and 10 regions of the world. The eleventh volume is a compilation of articles on gender in family firms, providing insights in this important yet generally less understood arena.The compendium is a timely and major contribution. It is a great resource for scholars and students interested in understanding the diversity and uniqueness of family firms around the world. Family business practitioners and policy makers seeking to enhance global collaborations and creating sustainable families, communities, and businesses will find this an invaluable resource.”(Pramodita Sharma, Ph.D.,Associate Dean of Business and Professor of Family Business,Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.)“This compendium set is thought-provoking and path-breaking for practitioners and academics. The entire set comprises eleven books:1) Latin America 2) Germanic Europe 3) Nordic Europe 4) Latin Europe 5) Eastern Europe 6) Sub-Saharan Africa 7) Middle East Southern Asia 9) Confucian Asia 10) Anglo Region and 11) Gender As an integral first phase for a broader research program, C.A.S.E. (Culturally-Sensitive Assessment System and Education), it offers comparative cultural analysis of family businesses and culturally-sensitive tools to create more successful families, businesses, and communities worldwide.”(Joseph Horak, Ph.D., Horak Family and Psychological Services, President, C.A.S.E. Worldwide Group, L.L.C., USA.)
269 81-314-1222-3 Culturally-Sensitive Models of Family Business in Eastern Europe – A Compendium using the Globe Paradigm www.nbcindia.com General Management Vipin Gupta 11-Mar-08 288 19.5 500 22 550 “Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) studies in 62 societies of the world suggest that leading businesses master the fine balance between culturally-specific and universally applicable principles and practices.This 11 book compendium set of 110 carefully selected articles that are written by about 300 scholars focuses on culturally-sensitive models of family businesses in 60 nations and 10 regions of the world. The eleventh volume is a compilation of articles on gender in family firms, providing insights in this important yet generally less understood arena.The compendium is a timely and major contribution. It is a great resource for scholars and students interested in understanding the diversity and uniqueness of family firms around the world. Family business practitioners and policy makers seeking to enhance global collaborations and creating sustainable families, communities, and businesses will find this an invaluable resource.”(Pramodita Sharma, Ph.D.,Associate Dean of Business and Professor of Family Business,Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.)“This compendium set is thought-provoking and path-breaking for practitioners and academics. The entire set comprises eleven books:1) Latin America 2) Germanic Europe 3) Nordic Europe 4) Latin Europe 5) Eastern Europe 6) Sub-Saharan Africa 7) Middle East Southern Asia 9) Confucian Asia 10) Anglo Region and 11) Gender As an integral first phase for a broader research program, C.A.S.E. (Culturally-Sensitive Assessment System and Education), it offers comparative cultural analysis of family businesses and culturally-sensitive tools to create more successful families, businesses, and communities worldwide.”(Joseph Horak, Ph.D., Horak Family and Psychological Services, President, C.A.S.E. Worldwide Group, L.L.C., USA.)
270 81-314-1225-8 Culturally-Sensitive Models of Family Business in Germanic Europe – A Compendium using the Globe Paradigm www.nbcindia.com General Management Vipin Gupta 11-Mar-08 292 19.5 500 22 550 “Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) studies in 62 societies of the world suggest that leading businesses master the fine balance between culturally-specific and universally applicable principles and practices.This 11 book compendium set of 110 carefully selected articles that are written by about 300 scholars focuses on culturally-sensitive models of family businesses in 60 nations and 10 regions of the world. The eleventh volume is a compilation of articles on gender in family firms, providing insights in this important yet generally less understood arena.The compendium is a timely and major contribution. It is a great resource for scholars and students interested in understanding the diversity and uniqueness of family firms around the world. Family business practitioners and policy makers seeking to enhance global collaborations and creating sustainable families, communities, and businesses will find this an invaluable resource.”(Pramodita Sharma, Ph.D.,Associate Dean of Business and Professor of Family Business,Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.)“This compendium set is thought-provoking and path-breaking for practitioners and academics. The entire set comprises eleven books:1) Latin America 2) Germanic Europe 3) Nordic Europe 4) Latin Europe 5) Eastern Europe 6) Sub-Saharan Africa 7) Middle East Southern Asia 9) Confucian Asia 10) Anglo Region and 11) Gender As an integral first phase for a broader research program, C.A.S.E. (Culturally-Sensitive Assessment System and Education), it offers comparative cultural analysis of family businesses and culturally-sensitive tools to create more successful families, businesses, and communities worldwide.”(Joseph Horak, Ph.D., Horak Family and Psychological Services, President, C.A.S.E. Worldwide Group, L.L.C., USA.)
271 81-314-1223-1 Culturally-Sensitive Models of Family Business in Southern Asia – A Compendium using the Globe Paradigm www.nbcindia.com General Management Vipin Gupta 11-Mar-08 288 19.5 500 22 550 “Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) studies in 62 societies of the world suggest that leading businesses master the fine balance between culturally-specific and universally applicable principles and practices.This 11 book compendium set of 110 carefully selected articles that are written by about 300 scholars focuses on culturally-sensitive models of family businesses in 60 nations and 10 regions of the world. The eleventh volume is a compilation of articles on gender in family firms, providing insights in this important yet generally less understood arena.The compendium is a timely and major contribution. It is a great resource for scholars and students interested in understanding the diversity and uniqueness of family firms around the world. Family business practitioners and policy makers seeking to enhance global collaborations and creating sustainable families, communities, and businesses will find this an invaluable resource.”(Pramodita Sharma, Ph.D.,Associate Dean of Business and Professor of Family Business,Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.)“This compendium set is thought-provoking and path-breaking for practitioners and academics. The entire set comprises eleven books:1) Latin America 2) Germanic Europe 3) Nordic Europe 4) Latin Europe 5) Eastern Europe 6) Sub-Saharan Africa 7) Middle East Southern Asia 9) Confucian Asia 10) Anglo Region and 11) Gender As an integral first phase for a broader research program, C.A.S.E. (Culturally-Sensitive Assessment System and Education), it offers comparative cultural analysis of family businesses and culturally-sensitive tools to create more successful families, businesses, and communities worldwide.”(Joseph Horak, Ph.D., Horak Family and Psychological Services, President, C.A.S.E. Worldwide Group, L.L.C., USA.)
272 81-314-1265-7 Culturally-Sensitive Models of Family Business in Latin America – A Compendium using the Globe Paradigm www.nbcindia.com General Management Vipin Gupta 11-Mar-08 292 19.5 500 22 550 “Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) studies in 62 societies of the world suggest that leading businesses master the fine balance between culturally-specific and universally applicable principles and practices.This 11 book compendium set of 110 carefully selected articles that are written by about 300 scholars focuses on culturally-sensitive models of family businesses in 60 nations and 10 regions of the world. The eleventh volume is a compilation of articles on gender in family firms, providing insights in this important yet generally less understood arena.The compendium is a timely and major contribution. It is a great resource for scholars and students interested in understanding the diversity and uniqueness of family firms around the world. Family business practitioners and policy makers seeking to enhance global collaborations and creating sustainable families, communities, and businesses will find this an invaluable resource.”(Pramodita Sharma, Ph.D.,Associate Dean of Business and Professor of Family Business,Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.)“This compendium set is thought-provoking and path-breaking for practitioners and academics. The entire set comprises eleven books:1) Latin America 2) Germanic Europe 3) Nordic Europe 4) Latin Europe 5) Eastern Europe 6) Sub-Saharan Africa 7) Middle East Southern Asia 9) Confucian Asia 10) Anglo Region and 11) Gender As an integral first phase for a broader research program, C.A.S.E. (Culturally-Sensitive Assessment System and Education), it offers comparative cultural analysis of family businesses and culturally-sensitive tools to create more successful families, businesses, and communities worldwide.”(Joseph Horak, Ph.D., Horak Family and Psychological Services, President, C.A.S.E. Worldwide Group, L.L.C., USA.)
273 81-314-0899-X Culturally Sensitive Models of Family Business in Anglo Region – A Compendium using the Globe Paradigm www.nbcindia.com General Management Vipin Gupta 11-Mar-08 284 19.5 500 22 550 Family businesses are the dominant form of business organization throughout the world. Given the many cultures and regions that exist, growing empirical evidence suggests “one size does not fit all.” The purpose of this project is to assemble and publish a single Compendium of family businesses models in different cultures, which explores the cultural parameters of family business models around the world. This Compendium is intended to be a useful resource for scholars, students, practitioners, and policy makers, containing original contributions from about 300 scholars about 62 nations around the world, selected after an extensive worldwide call for papers and a rigorous review process in which only 50% of the submitted contributions were accepted. The Compendium is comprised of ten volumes, encompassing ten different cultural clusters of the world. The GLOBE framework is used for classifying the cultural clusters into ten groups:1) Latin America, 2) Germanic Europe, 3) Nordic Europe, 4) Latin Europe 5) Eastern Europe, 6) Sub-Saharan Africa, 7) Middle East, Southern Asia, 9) Confucian Asia and 10) Anglo. In addition, an eleventh volume focused on gender in family business in different regions of the world is included. Each volume includes ten selected articles on the family businesses in the cluster. Socio-economic-technological work culture and GLOBE-based cultural profile of the societies covered in the cluster are provided. Distinctive culturally-sensitive features of family business models in the specific cluster are identified. A nine-parameter framework is used for assessing the culturally sensitive family business characteristics in each cluster. The framework is part of a broader research program, C.A.S.E. (Culturally-sensitive Assessment System and Education).This program seeks to facilitate the comparative the family businesses, and to help them better appreciate their own culturally sensitive capabilities as well as of their peer group from other cultures with whom they may collaborate for the betterment of the families and communities around the world.
274 81-314-1261-4 Public-Private Partnerships: A New Paradigm www.nbcindia.com Economy Santap Sanhari Mishra Prithiraj Panigrahi 11-Mar-08 316 19 475 0 0 Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have emerged the world over as an important policy tool for the provision of a host of infrastructure, starting from economic to social infrastructure. Governments in both developing and developed countries are adopting PPPs. While in developed countries they are in an advanced level, but in case of developing countries they are being adopted albeit a bit cautiously. Basically, PPPs are arrangements whereby public goods are provided through collaboration of private sector taking into consideration the profit-making motive of the private sector. In developed countries there is considerable risk transfer to the private partner but in case of developing countries the public partner in many cases bears most of the risk. PPPs allow the Government to tap better innovative capacity, managerial efficiencies and optimization capabilities of the private sector. Similarly, the private sector gets newer opportunities to grow and flourish. Basically, PPPs can be formed in a number of sectors right from economic infrastructure to social infrastructure. World over PPPs are predominantly formed in the transport sector that includes railways, roadways, ports and airports, electricity, telecommunications, health, schooling and last, but not the least, sewerage, water treatment and potable water provisioning. This volume gives a comprehensive treatment of the most relevant issues in PPPs and the experiences with focus on the developing country perspective.
275 978-81-314-1943-4 Watershed Management: Concepts and Experiences www.nbcindia.com Infrastructure Sudha V Menon Pheba Anandan Pillai 11-Mar-08 304 19 475 0 0 Watershed management plays a pivotal role in food security and environmental security in the present era, characterized by increasing conflicts over water resources. Watershed is a basic hydrologic unit, and hydrologic and ecologic processes govern the quality of soil and water resources within the watershed. Recently, watershed management has emerged as an appropriate strategy to manage natural resources and provide sustainable livelihood to the rural poor. Watershed management is a holistic concept, which tries to integrate several components like soil and water conservation, forestry development, agriculture and livestock. Global experiences show that watershed management practices across the world have led to environmental sustainability, forest regeneration, water conservation, crop productivity and social sustainability. Naturally, after the Earth Summit in 1992, international development agencies declared watershed management as the best strategy to address the issue of sustainable natural resource management. The appeal of this agenda lies in its promise to satisfy Agenda – 21st complex demands with a single coherent strategy of involving local stakeholders and communities at multiple scales and zones, while addressing cross-ecosystem issues and interactions related to natural resource conservation. Against the context of increasing importance of watershed management at the global level, this book brings to the fore the basic concept, procedures, tools, techniques, functions, planning, assessment and monitoring of watershed management. It attempts to analyze the strategy and impact assessment of the best watershed management practices across the world and evaluate the various models and practices of watershed management programmes in India.
276 978-81-314-1928-1 SCM in Automotive Industry – Concepts and cases www.nbcindia.com Supply Chain Management Kalai Selvan N 11-Mar-08 316 19 475 0 0 Automotive industry has been facing major challenges due to fierce competition, increasing operational complexity, technology changes, shortened product lifecycle and frequently changing customer needs. Due to globalization, the automotive industry has changed its model of traditional local business to that of global business. Auto parts are being sourced from all over the world to achieve cost reduction, quality and competitive advantage. Moreover, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) has more number of suppliers and they are facing a tough task coordinating and collaborating with all the suppliers. The new age customers want customized products according to their tastes like automobile colour, interior, audio system, etc. This customer behavior implies that dealers and manufacturers have to maintain adequate inventory to satisfy the customer. To improve profitability and efficiency, automotive players are seeking ways to achieve operational excellence, reduce operating cost and enhance customer service through efficient supply chain management. Efficient and effective supply chain management plays a very important role in the auto industry. The automotive industry is changing its business model with innovative supply chain to reduce cost, create customer buying experience and quality. SCM helps in expansion of sourcing partners, streamlining customer requirements, optimizing sourcing practices, inventory management, accurate forecasting, better suppliers’ relation, co-ordination and co-operation across supply chain, better visibility and control over the process, reduction of lead time, attaining flexibility and better customer management.
277 81-314-1224-X Culturally-Sensitive Models of Family Business in Confucian Asia – A Compendium using the Globe Paradigm www.nbcindia.com General Management Vipin Gupta 11-Mar-08 272 18.5 475 21 525 “Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) studies in 62 societies of the world suggest that leading businesses master the fine balance between culturally-specific and universally applicable principles and practices.This 11 book compendium set of 110 carefully selected articles that are written by about 300 scholars focuses on culturally-sensitive models of family businesses in 60 nations and 10 regions of the world. The eleventh volume is a compilation of articles on gender in family firms, providing insights in this important yet generally less understood arena.The compendium is a timely and major contribution. It is a great resource for scholars and students interested in understanding the diversity and uniqueness of family firms around the world. Family business practitioners and policy makers seeking to enhance global collaborations and creating sustainable families, communities, and businesses will find this an invaluable resource.”(Pramodita Sharma, Ph.D.,Associate Dean of Business and Professor of Family Business,Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.)“This compendium set is thought-provoking and path-breaking for practitioners and academics. The entire set comprises eleven books:1) Latin America 2) Germanic Europe 3) Nordic Europe 4) Latin Europe 5) Eastern Europe 6) Sub-Saharan Africa 7) Middle East Southern Asia 9) Confucian Asia 10) Anglo Region and 11) Gender As an integral first phase for a broader research program, C.A.S.E. (Culturally-Sensitive Assessment System and Education), it offers comparative cultural analysis of family businesses and culturally-sensitive tools to create more successful families, businesses, and communities worldwide.”(Joseph Horak, Ph.D., Horak Family and Psychological Services, President, C.A.S.E. Worldwide Group, L.L.C., USA.)
278 81-314-1266-5 Culturally-Sensitive Models of Family Business in Latin Europe – A Compendium using the Globe Paradigm www.nbcindia.com General Management Vipin Gupta 11-Mar-08 260 18.5 475 21 525 “Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) studies in 62 societies of the world suggest that leading businesses master the fine balance between culturally-specific and universally applicable principles and practices.This 11 book compendium set of 110 carefully selected articles that are written by about 300 scholars focuses on culturally-sensitive models of family businesses in 60 nations and 10 regions of the world. The eleventh volume is a compilation of articles on gender in family firms, providing insights in this important yet generally less understood arena.The compendium is a timely and major contribution. It is a great resource for scholars and students interested in understanding the diversity and uniqueness of family firms around the world. Family business practitioners and policy makers seeking to enhance global collaborations and creating sustainable families, communities, and businesses will find this an invaluable resource.”(Pramodita Sharma, Ph.D.,Associate Dean of Business and Professor of Family Business,Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.)“This compendium set is thought-provoking and path-breaking for practitioners and academics. The entire set comprises eleven books:1) Latin America 2) Germanic Europe 3) Nordic Europe 4) Latin Europe 5) Eastern Europe 6) Sub-Saharan Africa 7) Middle East Southern Asia 9) Confucian Asia 10) Anglo Region and 11) Gender As an integral first phase for a broader research program, C.A.S.E. (Culturally-Sensitive Assessment System and Education), it offers comparative cultural analysis of family businesses and culturally-sensitive tools to create more successful families, businesses, and communities worldwide.”(Joseph Horak, Ph.D., Horak Family and Psychological Services, President, C.A.S.E. Worldwide Group, L.L.C., USA.)
279 81-314-1268-1 Culturally-Sensitive Models of Family Business in Sub-Saharan Africa – A Compendium using the Globe Paradigm www.nbcindia.com General Management Vipin Gupta 11-Mar-08 264 18.5 475 21 525 “Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) studies in 62 societies of the world suggest that leading businesses master the fine balance between culturally-specific and universally applicable principles and practices.This 11 book compendium set of 110 carefully selected articles that are written by about 300 scholars focuses on culturally-sensitive models of family businesses in 60 nations and 10 regions of the world. The eleventh volume is a compilation of articles on gender in family firms, providing insights in this important yet generally less understood arena.The compendium is a timely and major contribution. It is a great resource for scholars and students interested in understanding the diversity and uniqueness of family firms around the world. Family business practitioners and policy makers seeking to enhance global collaborations and creating sustainable families, communities, and businesses will find this an invaluable resource.”(Pramodita Sharma, Ph.D.,Associate Dean of Business and Professor of Family Business,Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.)“This compendium set is thought-provoking and path-breaking for practitioners and academics. The entire set comprises eleven books:1) Latin America 2) Germanic Europe 3) Nordic Europe 4) Latin Europe 5) Eastern Europe 6) Sub-Saharan Africa 7) Middle East Southern Asia 9) Confucian Asia 10) Anglo Region and 11) Gender As an integral first phase for a broader research program, C.A.S.E. (Culturally-Sensitive Assessment System and Education), it offers comparative cultural analysis of family businesses and culturally-sensitive tools to create more successful families, businesses, and communities worldwide.”(Joseph Horak, Ph.D., Horak Family and Psychological Services, President, C.A.S.E. Worldwide Group, L.L.C., USA.)
280 81-314-1269-X Culturally-Sensitive Models of Gender in Family Business – A Compendium using the Globe Paradigm www.nbcindia.com General Management Vipin Gupta 11-Mar-08 272 18.5 475 21 525 “Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) studies in 62 societies of the world suggest that leading businesses master the fine balance between culturally-specific and universally applicable principles and practices.This 11 book compendium set of 110 carefully selected articles that are written by about 300 scholars focuses on culturally-sensitive models of family businesses in 60 nations and 10 regions of the world. The eleventh volume is a compilation of articles on gender in family firms, providing insights in this important yet generally less understood arena.The compendium is a timely and major contribution. It is a great resource for scholars and students interested in understanding the diversity and uniqueness of family firms around the world. Family business practitioners and policy makers seeking to enhance global collaborations and creating sustainable families, communities, and businesses will find this an invaluable resource.”(Pramodita Sharma, Ph.D.,Associate Dean of Business and Professor of Family Business,Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.)“This compendium set is thought-provoking and path-breaking for practitioners and academics. The entire set comprises eleven books:1) Latin America 2) Germanic Europe 3) Nordic Europe 4) Latin Europe 5) Eastern Europe 6) Sub-Saharan Africa 7) Middle East Southern Asia 9) Confucian Asia 10) Anglo Region and 11) Gender As an integral first phase for a broader research program, C.A.S.E. (Culturally-Sensitive Assessment System and Education), it offers comparative cultural analysis of family businesses and culturally-sensitive tools to create more successful families, businesses, and communities worldwide.”(Joseph Horak, Ph.D., Horak Family and Psychological Services, President, C.A.S.E. Worldwide Group, L.L.C., USA.)
281 978-81-314-1933-5 Behavioral Economics – A New Horizon www.nbcindia.com Financial Economics Krishna Kishore Puranam Ravi Kumar Jain B 11-Mar-08 284 18 450 0 0 Of late, Behavioral Economics has evolved as a sub discipline of economics, which questioned the fundamental assumptions of traditional economic theory regarding human rationality and economic behavior. Behavioral Economics is based on the psychological underpinnings explaining human economic behavior and decision-making. It attempts to bridge the gaps in neoclassical economic theory by blending psychological, biological and ecological aspects into fundamental economic theory towards reducing inconsistencies encountered in analyzing decision-making models. Behavioral Economics deals with those aspects of economic analysis, which were either ignored or ruled out by traditional economic researchers. This inter-disciplinary concept drew the attention of the world-class researchers, including Nobel laureates, rendering immense value to the fields of economic analysis and behavioral sciences, as it lays foundations for a new field of research. This book presents the reader with a thorough understanding about the concept and scope of Behavioral Economics, its challenges to the mainstream economics and its contributions to the modern economic analysis. The book contains the views and ideas of various researchers whose contributions made Behavioral Economics an eligible sub-discipline of Economics. This book aims at making the readers understand the relevance of Behavioral Economics in contemporary economic analysis. While the first section of the book introduces Behavioral Economics as a revolutionary thought in economic theory, the second section speaks about the contemporary relevance of Behavioral Economics as a novel economic thought. This book attempts to elevate the significance of Behavioral Economics in streamlining modern economic analysis.
282 978-81-314-1921-2 Primary Education: Contemporary Issues and Experiences www.nbcindia.com General Books Debashree Mukherjee Ishita Mukherjee 11-Mar-08 276 18 450 0 0 Developing countries have made a steady improvement towards the universalisation of elementary education. The progress in Asia is commendable with increased enrolments and retention in the primary schools disregarding gender differences. Such considerable enhancement is the outcome of several initiatives undertaken by the governments of various nations as also the non-governmental initiatives taken by the socially spirited people. India is one of such developing countries, wherein the government has allocated increased funds for the improvement of elementary education in the country, when compared to its earlier Five Year Plans. Not only has the government avoided economic aid, but also introduced several schemes and programmes for the attainment of the First Millennium Development Goal, the most noteworthy ones being Operation Blackboard Scheme, District Primary Education Programme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, etc. However, inspite of such initiatives, there are several root challenges to be addressed, namely, poverty, gender disparities, social and religious practices, meager supply of resources, infrastructural inadequacies, etc., before India can boast of total basic education in the country. Keeping the said objective in mind, the book has attempted to capture the present scenario of primary education in the country and its challenges, together with the new trends and the initiatives adopted both in India and abroad for the promotion and accomplishment of the First Millennium Development Goal. The book endeavors to generate awareness of the necessity of basic education, not only to support literacy and economic development but also to encourage value-based education from childhood.
283 81-314-1405-1 Mystery Shopping – An Introduction www.nbcindia.com Globalization Anil Varma 11-Mar-08 284 18 450 0 0 You might have heard of mystery shoppers. It all sounds very secretive and, well, mysterious. Mystery shopping is a tool that has been used for decades by for-profit businesses, wanting to look at their business from the customer’s perspective. Researchers are sent into a restaurant, a hotel, a supermarket, or a hardware store to evaluate their customer service experience. How long did it take for them to be acknowledged by staff? Were their queries answered? Were they encouraged to make a sale? Was it the right sale? Did the staff member (or indeed owner) offer them complementary products? Did they remember to mention the current offer? Mystery shopping is a well established technique that provides a true measure of the actuality of service delivery. Mystery shopping is a long-established research technique and is used extensively in many industry sectors to measure the quality of service provided. “It’s an observational tool that closely focuses on how your staff are dealing one-on-one with customers.” Even in the field of healthcare that has never been noted for its customer service, mystery shopping is now being used extensively. With patient surveys there’s no way to find out how someone actually behaved, how employees interacted with the customer. Mystery shopping fills that gap by being very specific. Mystery shopping is a valuable tool for businesses and is especially helpful for small, start-up businesses that need accurate and fast information to assess their employees and compare their products and services with the competition.
284 81-314-1294-0 Employee Satisfaction in Knowledge Industry www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Jegadeesan G Santana Krishnan R 11-Mar-08 296 18 450 0 0 Employee satisfaction has been defined as a pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job. There are a variety of factors that can influence a person s level of satisfaction. The advent of the knowledge industry has given rise to a new category of employees-knowledge workers. Due to various factors, the average attrition rate in the knowledge industry is increasing alarmingly. Moreover, HR professionals all over the world, working in BPOs and IT, are trying to formulate retention strategies with little success. This book provides the reader with the conceptual framework of employee satisfaction, its significance, factors, perspectives and retention strategies. Satisfied knowledge workers hold the key to organizational success in the present knowledge economy. Job satisfaction helps management reduce absenteeism, labor turnover and stress. Satisfied employees are happy, work better and, therefore, increase productivity of the firm. The book observes the multiple effects of various factors contributing to employee satisfaction. A high attrition rate poses a significant challenge to managers as frequent loss of well-trained or skilled employees is a cause for concern. The book suggests strategies to curb the attrition problem in the knowledge industry. The retention strategies employed by various reputed companies like GE, Global Vantedge, Google, HCL, iGate Global Solutions, Keane India, L&T Infotech, MindTree Consulting, Moser Baer, Patni Computer Systems, Polaris Software Lab, Siemens Information Systems, Tata, Tech Mahindra and Wipro Technologies are discussed to add value to this book.
285 81-314-0786-1 International Organization for Standardization (ISO) : An Introduction www.nbcindia.com Management Pramod Rao Simantee Sen 11-Mar-08 288 18 450 0 0 Every organization needs to maintain certain quality standards provided by organizations like ISO. More so, since today’s customers have become highly aware and quality conscious. The International Standards Organization has provided a level playing field manufacturer to officially state the quality of their products and business practices. ISO is made up of more than 150 national standards institutes from countries large and small, industrialized and developing, from all regions of the world. ISO develops voluntary technical standards, which contribute to making industrial production and supply more efficient, safer and cleaner, and to making trade between countries easier and fairer. ISO standards also serve to safeguard consumers in general of products and services, as well as make their lives simpler. There are more than 30,000 ISO standards listed till date. Owing to several recent changes and reforms within the organization, the ISO has created a lot more value for itself in the following aspects: recognized experience in international consensus building, a brand name and recognition on the global platform, a diversified scope, a strong national membership base and wide spectrum representation, its extensive networking, its ability to provide a broad base for regulation and standard implementation, leadership in the use of IT tools, etc. This book focuses on the future requirements and parameters of standards for quality check in every organization. It is hoped that the book will benefit people of various interests like consumer forum, organizational heads, business heads, consumers of products and services, management students, entrepreneurs, traders, quality control bodies, strategy formers, beginners and implementers.
286 978-81-314-1932-8 Small and Medium Enterprises - Global Experiences and Cases www.nbcindia.com Management Amit Singh Sisodiya Janardhan Rao N 11-Mar-08 280 18 450 0 0 The small-scale industries are viewed as an important vehicle for meeting both growth and equity objectives of developing economies. The last two decades have witnessed the steady re-emergence of small-scale industries in both industrialized and industrializing countries, reducing the importance of economies of scale in mass production. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to continually innovate and seek competitive advantages in order to exist, sustain and grow. They are faced with pressures to slash production costs, increase productivity and have to be necessarily more knowledge-driven. Globalisation has created more pressures on the one hand while on the other, greater incentives and opportunities have opened up giving access to overseas markets and knowledge sources. This enables leveraging of these multifarious options to build lasting competitive advantages and to support continuous innovation. In most developing countries SMEs constitute the bulk of the industrial base and contribute significantly to their exports as well as their GDP and GNP. For instance, India has nearly three million SMEs which account for almost 50% of industrial output and 42% of India’s total exports. SMEs play a crucial role in the development of all developing economies. SMEs are considered to be the base of every national economy, generating about 50 percent of the countries’ gross national product. The main reasons are that they are capable of quickly adapting to exacting customer demands as also they are capable of generating large employment potential.
287 978-81-314-1911-3 Effective Performance Management: Approaches and Experiences www.nbcindia.com Training and Development Devi R J Prasad B V S 11-Mar-08 276 18 450 0 0 Every employee, no matter what his or her role is, knows that exceptional employee performance is critical in today s world. Any organization that plans for long-term success needs to focus on the performance of employees to prevent any undue effect. This brings out a change in the manager s role—from performance supervisors to performance coaches. Every organization needs to have competent and experienced persons to accomplish the activities successfully. Employee performance does not occur in a vacuum and it is necessary to raise the skill level and increase the versatility and adaptability of employees through coaching, mentoring and training. The success of an organization depends on its ability to measure accurately the performance of its members and use it objectively to optimize them as a vital resource. Performance appraisal provides the management a feedback on employee performance to improve and help them acquire new skills. It helps identify training and development needs of employees and equip them to meet challenges in their current and future employment. The appraisals can be used for identifying areas where development efforts are needed. Thus, performance appraisal is a major tool for identifying these deficiencies and it is used as a criterion against which selection devices and development programmes are validated. Coaching, mentoring and training are key components of performance enhancement programmes. Special care is taken to ensure that talented persons are hired and then offered a commitment by the organisation to maintain their ongoing development. Coaching, mentoring and training can become the vehicle that motivates behavioural change in increasing the organisation s performance.
288 81-314-1240-1 Radio as an Advertising Medium – Riding the Wave www.nbcindia.com Advertising and Media Pramod Rao Ravikant S Wawge 11-Mar-08 256 17 425 0 0 Gone are the days when advertising was considered “salesmanship in print”! Not any more! Today advertisers are equipped with very advanced technologies to reach out to desired target audiences. The rapidly changing technology has had a great effect on mass media. We have seen the media evolve from print to television, to Internet, to mobile phones and so on. In an age where advertisers are using every possible medium to spread out their message, radio is one such medium that has made a comeback on every potential advertiser’s checklists. It is interesting to see that in an age of hi-tech gizmos and changing lifestyles, radio has made a remarkable comeback sustaining great competition. Research also shows that the radio as an advertising medium has regained its credibility over recent years. Experts opine that the improved quality of service, redefined business value and refined market segmentation have ensured that radio has its own merits. Today, the status of the Radio broadcasting business in advertising industry has improved manifold. The book is a compilation of articles that evaluate the changing trends in the use of radio as an advertising tool—its rise, fall and the comeback—and talks about how to make the most out of it. The book is divided into two sections. The first section is ‘Introduction’ and the second section is ‘Impact and Implications.
289 81-314-0878-7 Socially Responsible Investing: Perspectives and Country Experiences www.nbcindia.com Finance Rajagopalan S 11-Mar-08 252 17 425 0 0 ‘Socially Responsible Investing’ (SRI) is an investment process that considers the social and environmental consequences of investments, both positive and negative, within the context of rigorous financial analysis. Conventional investing is chiefly concerned with maximization of financial returns; SRI, on the other hand, operates on a wider canvas-it sees investing as a holistic process, one that holds the societal and environmental good in its ambit as much as it does the financial returns.SRI is variously referred to as ethical investing, socially conscious investing, values-based investing and green investing. SRI investors include individuals, businesses, universities, hospitals, foundations, pension funds, corporations, religious institutions and other non-profit organizations. The significance that SRI holds for the investing community can be gauged from the figures: in the US alone, SRI assets were $2.29 trillion in 2005 – one out of every ten dollars under professional management in the country.The emphasis on delivering on the ‘triple bottom line’-social, economic and environmental returns-has never been more for business. In the era of globalization and global warming, SRI promises to guide individuals and institutions – profit and non-profit – in directing their money and energies towards sustainable development. This book introduces the concept of SRI providing various perspectives on it, and describes SRI experiences and scenarios in different countries.
290 978-81-314-1935-9 Delisting of Companies www.nbcindia.com Finance Venkatesh T R Swapna Gopalan 11-Mar-08 244 17 425 0 0 Delisting refers to the removal of a company’s shares from listing on the stock exchanges, either voluntarily or involuntarily. While being a listed company was considered a status symbol till the late-nineties, the new millennium saw a reversal of the trend. According to renowned sources, in 2002 alone, the total market capitalization of stocks in India that opted to delist from stock exchanges amounted to 9% of the market capitalization of the Nifty MNC index. Similarly, in the US, the number of companies that applied for delisting has increased ten fold from 50 in 1999 to more than 500 in 2003. Failure to adhere to listing norms led to many involuntary delistings, while others had opted for voluntary delisting as a prelude to going private. A number of reasons, both external and internal, have been attributed to companies’ decision to delist from the bourses. While, in India, a major reason for the delisting phenomenon has been attributed to regulatory relaxations, the reverse is true in the case of the US. In other words, tightening of regulations in the form of enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2001) had triggered a spate of delistings in the US. Other reasons cited for delistings included companies’ desire to avoid scrutiny of shareholders, regulators and potential investors, and also avoid payment of exorbitant compliance costs associated therewith. Irrespective of the reasons behind it, delisting of companies has several stark implications for the company as well as its shareholders. This book, explores the phenomenon called delisting and its implications. Though the topic is looked at from an international perspective, special emphasis has been placed on the situation in India.
291 81-314-1383-7 Strategic Sourcing for Competitive Advantage www.nbcindia.com Strategy Mookherjee S N 11-Mar-08 268 17 425 0 0 We live today in a hyper-competitive world. Globalization is inextricably linking the world’s major economies. At the same time, stakeholders’ expectations for profitability and growth are mounting. Increased shareholder value is the common demand. Disappointments on any of these fronts are severely punished in the capital markets, making it difficult for the enterprises to raise funds for their future operations. Today’s goal of business excellence is not just best-in-class but best-in-world. In this changed global business scenario, the concept of ‘sourcing’ is evolving from a mere operational activity into a strategic process for organizing and fine-tuning the value chain of a business enterprise. The question now asked is more strategic in nature, not merely whether to outsource a function or activity, but rather how to ‘right source’ every critical activity in the value chain, thereby helping the business firm to improve its competitive position in the market place. This is the new discipline of ‘Strategic Sourcing’. Organizations have realized the need to place outsourcing “onshore or offshore” – in a strategic context so that even core functions like product design, R&D, engineering, HR, manufacturing and even, marketing are “right-shored”, and often moved outside the physical boundaries of the organization. This, in turn, is changing the way the firms think about their business processes, their value chains, and their competitive positions. The book outlines the basic concepts of Strategic Sourcing, its applications with a few selected cases in different organizational contexts.
292 81-314-1397-7 Tobacco Consumption: Socio-Economic Implications www.nbcindia.com Economy Azmal Hussain Nirbachita Karmakar 11-Mar-08 244 16.5 425 0 0 Despite the uneven consequence of tobacco consumption, it is on the rising spree for the middle and the low income countries, as evident from over 80 percent of the smokers hailing from developing and transitional economies. Here comes the role of the tobacco industry, having a huge market potential in these countries due to weaker tobacco control measures and increasing prevalence of tobacco consumption among the youth and women. In such a scenario regulation of tobacco consumption becomes indispensable. While the conventional demand management programs take the form of “taxing the bads” through price rise, ban on advertisement, and regulation of smoking in public places, there can also be supply management mechanisms in the form of curtailing tobacco production through raising alternative crops. This brings us to the issue of alternative livelihood opportunities for the tobacco growers. Set in this frame, the present volume is an attempt to shed light on the various dimensions and dynamics of tobacco consumption and control with a global perspective. The book is divided into two sections. The first section elucidates an overview of the tobacco economy with its implications and finally throws light on the tobacco industry focusing on corporate social responsibility. The second section extends the issues to country perspectives, citing examples of both demand and supply management measures incorporating some out-of-the box cases like agricultural diversification and crop alternative to tobacco.
293 978-81-314-1908-3 Flexicurity – Concepts and Global Perspectives www.nbcindia.com General Books Sridhar Krishna 11-Mar-08 240 16.5 425 0 0 Flexicurity is characterized by OECD as follows: moderate employment protection legislation; adequate unemployment benefits; active involvement in life long learning; considerable spending on labour market policies; wide coverage of social security systems and wide trade union coverage. And the outcomes are high employment rates and low poverty rates. The OECD, ILO and the European Commission all uniformly hold the flexicurity policies as being responsible for these favorable outcomes. In fact, the OECD and the European Union have ‘officially adopted flexicurity’. While some countries in the European Union may have certain elements of flexicurity only Denmark and the Netherlands have its features in totality. It took more than 100 years for flexicurity to take root in Denmark, as an outcome of negotiations involving the trade unions, employers’ representatives and the government. In the Indian context while there is complete flexibility in the informal sector which accounts for 93 percent of the employment, there is rigidity in the formal organized sector. In particular, chapter VB of the Industrial Disputes Act states that enterprises involving more than 100 workers must seek prior permission of the government before retrenchment, layoffs or closure of the unit. Since permission is generally not given, retrenchment, layoffs or closure of the unit is not possible. While employers in India would like to see an end to these provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, such a step should not be taken without first introducing social security. The book will prove useful to corporates, policy makers, legislators, trade unions, employers’ organizations and students of law and management.
294 978-81-314-1905-2 Effective Decision-Making: New Models and Approaches www.nbcindia.com General Management Anil Varma 11-Mar-08 240 16.5 425 0 0 Decision-making is the process of sufficiently reducing uncertainty about alternatives to allow a reasonable choice to be made from among them. It should be noted here that uncertainty is reduced rather than eliminated. Very few decisions are made with absolute certainty, because complete knowledge about all the alternatives is seldom possible. Thus, every decision involves a certain amount of risk. Many decision-makers have a tendency to seek more information than required to make a good decision. When too much information is sought and obtained, one or more of several problems can arise. As you know, there are often many solutions to a given problem, and the decision- maker s task is to choose one of them. The task of choosing can be as simple or as complex as the importance of the decision warrants, and the number and quality of alternatives can also be adjusted according to importance, time, and resources and so on. A variety of structured techniques has been discussed for helping planners and decision-makers. The focus of decision analysis techniques is to help decision-makers clarify problem understanding and separate facts from priorities and preferences. This is achieved by structuring problems into an aggregated hierarchy of objectives and by studying the performance of decision alternatives on criteria. The various models and techniques keep the problem presentation simple and help to extract essentials out of them and at last to find a better solution for the problems.
295 81-314-1283-5 Workplace Belligerence and Preventive Strategies www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Devi R J Prasad B V S 11-Mar-08 248 16.5 425 0 0 In an unending labor crunch, developing an effective employee induction program and experience is very crucial in the current business scenario. Effective employee induction is one of the best tools used by the employers to retain and have enduring relationship with the employees. The program determines how promptly the new employees can integrate into the business to attain their full potential. It provides them the clarity of expectations, encouragement, the right tools to reduce their learning curve, boost their morale and confidence and help them stay engaged for a long term in an organization. Induction training is the base for identifying and extracting the employee’s talent and competency and it is a precondition for an employer to give the best attention to the design, quality, timeframe and implementation of the program. The benefits that the program offers to the company are manifold and outweigh the program cost. It rewards the company with a high degree of employee engagement, commitment and loyalty that results in big dividends to the company. Hence companies should ensure that, it is conscientiously designed, cautiously delivered, and constantly upgraded, so that it stays new and relevant to all staff needs. In a nutshell, a company that has realized and is willing to capitalize on the linkage between employee induction and profits will earn increased ROI and emerge as a successful leader in the marketplace. This book is designed to provide an introduction to the concept of an effective employee induction program and its significance in the current business scenario. It analyses the various methods and strategies for building and maintaining an Effective Employee Induction Program in an organization.
296 978-81-314-1944-1 Reverse Brain Drain: A Reality in the New Millennium www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Krishna Kumar 11-Mar-08 240 16.5 425 0 0 Reverse brain drain refers to the process wherein human capital moves in reverse gear from an advanced country in the Western hemisphere to a Third-World developing nation that is on the threshold of rapid economic growth. This process transpires when scientists, engineers, technologists and others from the Third-World migrate to comparatively well-developed nations to learn in their universities, undertake research and gain valuable work experience unavailable in their mother countries, then return home after several years of stay abroad to set up a related business or teach in a university or work for a multinational in their respective homelands. In the present global competitive environment, the reverse brain drain from the West will be of vital importance to developing countries. Communities of such foreign trained and educated scientists or engineers can not only set up production units and development centres on their native soil but also provide the skill and know-how required to help local firms shift to higher grades of performance and achievement. The book attempts to give a clear picture on the current scenario of the reverse brain drain in the first decade of the new millennium. It provides an insight into the causes of the brain drain reversal and the roles played by governments, expatriates and immigrants. In the current backdrop of the developing economies in the world today, this book also analyses the strategies required to make the homecoming convenient and lucrative for the returnees whose numbers seem to be increasing day by day.
297 81-314-1185-5 Management of Succession in Family-Owned Businesses www.nbcindia.com Management Pramod Verma 11-Mar-08 248 16.5 425 0 0 Family-owned businesses, being the most important segment, exert a major influence on a country’s economy. Succession management in family-owned businesses has been extensively researched. Successful succession implies a combination of relationship within the family and the human resource development strategy of the organization. The recent developments in Indian family business suggest that the rules of succession are being rewritten. The trend towards professionalization is catching up with the younger generation to have a competitive advantage over the changing business scenario. Professional managers are also being inducted at the top management level. Keeping in mind the near-inevitability of divisions in family businesses, proactive succession planning will have to be adopted, to minimize the ill effects of feuding factions. Meticulous planning is required to make the family businesses healthy and dependable entities. Plan for management of succession can be formulated and implemented with communication being a binding force. The book introduces the basic concept of succession management and its relevance to family-owned businesses: how they must prepare for future to survive like non-family firms. Succession planning should be viewed for continuity and vision. The greatest challenge for family-owned business is establishment of effective communication, which is understood and practised at all levels for building stronger families and family businesses. There are issues and perspectives focusing on the consequences of lack of succession planning and management. Finally, the cases from Ranbaxy, Reliance etc. shed light on succession management and its importance through generations.
298 978-81-314-1931-1 Marketing Intelligence: Concepts and Cases www.nbcindia.com Marketing Devi R J 11-Mar-08 244 16.5 425 0 0 Selling a product to a customer is merely the beginning of a marketing process. But winning over the customer, and thereby, establishing a marketing stronghold is its logical end. In an intensively competitive environment, companies do not get many chances to prove their products’ worth. They always get this opportunity only once and if they fail to use the opportunity properly, they would lose not only that customer but many more whom the customer would come into contact with. Many multinational corporations are aware of this fact and try to win over their customers not only the first time the customer tries the product but each and every time the customer uses the product. In this process, companies use many marketing techniques to not only win over customers, but also effectively retain them and discourage them from switching over to another brand. It is the best marketing effort to create as many prospective customers, encourage them to try the product and buy the product repeatedly. Winning companies focus on the emerging trend in the market. A firm can win in the battlefield of business provided it has the ability to go hand in hand with the changing marketing trends to capture the maximum market share. In this competitive business battle, a firm should apply its intelligence system to flourish in the market. In order to win the customers and the market they should have strong Business Intelligence, Competitive Intelligence, Market and Marketing Intelligence, Emotional Intelligence, Location Intelligence, Supply Chain Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence. Usage of right technology at the right time will always give the winning edge.
299 81-314-1404-3 Soft Skills Development: Training and Evaluation www.nbcindia.com Training and Development Jegadeesan G Santana Krishnan R 11-Mar-08 248 16.5 425 0 0 Training is a process of learning a sequence of programmed behavior. Development is a related process. It covers not only those activities which improve job performance but also those which bring about the development of the personality, help individuals progress towards maturity and actualization of their potential capacities. Besides knowledge, a manager requires a range of skills to effectively manage his work and achieve the desired goals. Academic and business circles have now identified the need for appropriate management education that imparts the requisite skills to job aspirants. Apart from the quantitative (technical) skills, most other qualitative (managerial) skills are essentially “soft-skills”. When technical competence is not balanced with soft skills, communication often breaks down, negotiations are poor and project deadlines are missed and great ideas and talent wither away and get lost. Thus, developing these competencies by using the relevant soft skills training methods is the need of the hour. The book attempts to present the concept, importance and future outlook of soft skill and its training in organizations to the reader. It talks about self-awareness, empathy, social etiquettes, communication, creativity, leadership, negotiation skills and presentation skills. It covers various on-the-job training and off-the-job training methods implemented for soft skills training like simulation training, outbound training, brainstorming and assertiveness and confidence training. The book also discusses methods for measuring the returns of soft skills training using techniques like 360-degree feedback, behavioral objectives or assessment centers.
300 978-81-314-1914-4 E-democracy: Concepts And Practices www.nbcindia.com General Santap Sanhari Mishra 11-Mar-08 236 16 400 0 0 E-democracy is about the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for the enhancement of democratic processes. It is actually very difficult to define e-democracy. It is a new concept subject to a number of discussions and debates. The term ‘e-democracy’ was coined in 1994 by a Minnesota based project in US, and since then, a number of countries have experimented with the e-democratic processes. E-democracy is a form of politics, based on technology. Some scholars opine e-democracy as merely e-voting. But in the true sense, e-democracy goes beyond that to include a number of other concepts like e-participation, e-discussion, e-forum, e-campaigning etc. The main aim of e-democracy is strengthening of democracy already existing in a society. E-democracy ensures peoples’ participation in a democratic society. The biggest advantage of e-democracy lies in the fact that it establishes an interconnection between the people and the legislators through ICT, resulting into more citizens’ participation. But to the progress of e-democracy, a number of challenges exist, like the need of a proper architectural design, ethics in e-voting, ethics in posting of views in e-forum, politicians’ mindset, proper policies etc. Though in no country has e-democracy been practiced in a full-fledged manner, evidences are there regarding the experiments in countries like US, Switzerland, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Iran, Philippines etc. This book is an attempt to illustrate the concept of e-democracy, while it also glimpses at the practices going on in some countries.
301 81-314-1407-8 Radio Frequency Identification in Libraries: Concepts and Cases www.nbcindia.com Information Technolo Smitha Ramachandran 11-Mar-08 232 16 400 0 0 RFID is a wireless technology that uses radio frequency and a combination of computer chip and a small radio antenna that allows almost any object to self-identify. RFID Technology is one of the latest and most wanted among the emerging technologies for libraries. It is an automated data-capture technology that can be used to electronically identify, track, and store information contained on a tag. As with any new technology, many myths and misconceptions exist. Debates are going on in developed and developing countries with respect to the adoption of this technology by libraries. The book focuses on the concept and working of RFID technology, its application in libraries-to manage, organize and improve the quality of service rendered by libraries. The book highlights why libraries are in transition towards the adoption of RFID technology into their system, and the obstacles in the way of its implementation even as the application of RFID in manufacturing and service sectors is widely becoming popular today. The book is divided into two sections. The first section, “Concepts” discusses the technology of RFID, the working of RFID in library and different library functions, the advantages, the disadvantages, myths and misconception about this technology. The second section, “Cases” pertains to the implementation done at various libraries across the globe, the experiences and the future plans of these libraries.
302 978-81-314-1942-7 Employee Counseling: Concepts and Applications www.nbcindia.com Human Resources Management Harish R 11-Mar-08 220 15.5 400 0 0 Counseling represents a set of skills and techniques to help people understand, manage and solve their problems, which manifest as worry, anxiety, stress, etc. In counseling, there is a person with a problem (the counselee) and a person who helps (the counselor). Employee counseling applies the concept of counseling to the work environment, to help employees with their work-related and personal problems, which affect performance on the job. While earlier, employee counseling was meant to be a step that preceded disciplinary action, nowadays, it has become a welfare measure for helping troubled employees. This book begins by providing a glimpse into the history, evolution and present status of employee counseling. Thereafter, it covers various facets of counseling such as the concept of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), integration of employee counseling as part of the HRM function, different models and methods of employee counseling and the role of counseling in performance management. It also looks into several situation-specific applications of counseling, such as counseling during times of crisis, organizational change and downsizing, counseling older employees, financial counseling, counseling to handle stress and counseling for BPO employees. The cases at the end help to bring out the practical dimensions of the subject in greater detail. Over the past decade, increased competition and rapid pace of economic development have led to higher stress on the job, thereby enhancing the need for counseling. Effective employee counseling is a win-win route for employers as well as employees. From an employee s point of view, counseling symbolizes fair treatment, and for the employer, it helps in improving employees’ productivity on the job.
303 978-81-314-2037-9 Case Studies on MNCs in India: The Competitive Strategies www.nbcindia.com Case Study Collection Rajendar Singh Rathore 11-Mar-08 172 0 50 1250 “India is one of the world’s most promising and fastest-growing economies. Many MNCs entered to cash in on the exciting opportunities there. But overall, they have had a mixed performance. Many, who were remarkably successful elsewhere, have failed or are yet to succeed. Indian market poses special challenges due to its heterogeneity, in terms of economic development, income, religion, cultural mix and tastes. On top is the heating competition among local players as well as the leading MNCs. Not all companies have been struggling to understand Indian consumer behaviour. Doing business in India is at a turning point; market entry strategies, for example, that clicked once don’t promise success every time.
Success in India will not happen overnight; companies need to have an open mind. This requires commitment, management drive and focus on long-term objectives, and proper business models too. They have to invest substantial financial and managerial resources to understand customer’s needs and come up with suitable products. This book, MNCs in India: The Competitive Strategies, examines their much-needed critical success factors. Through the experiences of some well-known MNCs in India, the book explores how they could key in rightly to benefit maximally while others couldn’t.
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304 81-314-1210-X Case Studies on Aviation Industry – Vol.I www.nbcindia.com Case Study Collection Mercy Mathew 11-Mar-08 260 0 50 1250 Whenever an industry, under regulation is liberalised, there is an increasing tendency to overestimate returns. And that too without considering how well the support system can sustain those returns. When the aviation industry was liberalized, new entrants flooded the aviation market, especially the low-cost carriers (LCC). Low entry barriers, rising income and demographic profile of fliers, growing potential of domestic and international travel, signaled unlimited opportunity for the airline companies. Plagued by the high cost structures of the hub-and-spoke business model and tempted by the success of Southwest Airlines, Ryanair and other LCCs, many traditional airlines too slid into the tarmac. But not many could hold ground for long – owing to the highly cyclical, cost-intensive nature of the business, but more so because of the added capacity. Case Studies on Aviation Industry is a compilation of the experiences of various airlines across geographical regions. It spotlights what caused few airlines to prosper while others perished.
305 81-314-0603-2 Case Studies on Managing Innovation – Vol. I www.nbcindia.com Case Study Collection Maldar Nusrath Jahan Yesav Rajendar Singh Rathore 11-Mar-08 392 0 50 1250 Over the years, with globalisation eliminating country boundaries, competition has intensified in every industry and market. While global brands are facing stiff competition from local brands in some markets, many local companies are planning to launch their products on a global platform. Simultaneously, consumers are becoming increasingly price sensitive and brand conscious. Faced with turbulent business conditions, management thinking has shifted focus towards ‘innovation’ as the primary source of building a sustainable competitive advantage. But changing times have also changed the definition of innovation. Innovation is neither just technological creativity nor it is restricted only to the R&D department of an organisation. In addition to inventing new products, the term ‘Innovation’ encompasses, developing new processes or business models and coming up with new means of distribution, marketing or design. Innovation has become an omnipresent driver of growth, no longer confined to the high-tech industries of the economy. The belief that ‘a company which runs out of innovation will run out of growth’ has set in far and wide. Be it manufacturers of fast moving consumer goods like P&G or companies like Intel dealing with cutting edge technology, investment in innovation across all industries is at an all-time high. The case studies in this book provide insights into the conditions that gave birth to some of the most revolutionary innovations of modern times and the important role played by the top management in nurturing an ‘innovative organisation’. Besides, they also help in bridging the gap between theory and practice – by developing an understanding of when and how to apply techniques learned in management studies.
306 978-81-314-2039-3 Case Studies on Oil Industry www.nbcindia.com Industry Muthu Kumar R 11-Mar-08 340 0 50 1250 “Scientists predict an upcoming and lasting shortage of world’s conventional oil. Called ‘Peak Oil’, it can disrupt economies worldwide. Oil price swings can stagger stock markets. Thereby, making future growth barely certain. Actually what worsens the situation is the diminishing crude oil reserves. Already there are very limited oil stocks – annoying analysts about how this will turn out to be, if demand from rapidly emerging countries like China and India keeps swelling. This situation can balloon to such an extent that the world may not recover from its burst.
Needless to say, global oil firms got to change their strategies – to tackle the emerging industry trends and stay put in the market. Intense search is on for viable – maybe, even unconventional – alternatives to crude oil. Crude oil supplies are cutting short and spare capacity is becoming scarce. CEOs of oil giants got to key in their ideas and cut loose into new areas – say through mergers – to survive the competition in the market.
This book presents a panorama of case studies, dealing with an array of issues challenging the very foundations of the global oil industry. Some of them are expressly evoked – including dwindling supplies, common growth strategies of oil giants, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate culture.
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307 978-81-314-2052-2 Financial System in Japan – Emerging Trends www.nbcindia.com Finance Nageswara Rao Katuri 7-Feb-08 352 21 525 0 0 Japan, the second largest economy in the world, with a population of over twelve crore, faced stagnation during the decade 1992-2002, which has been described as the ‘lost decade’. Bank of Japan persued zero interest rate policy followed by quantitative easing policy to fight out the deflationary spiral. Japanese banks suffered from huge non-performing loans accumulation for about one and half decades due to excessive exposure to sensitive sectors before a turnaround during the last three years, under what is termed ‘Big Bang strategy for financial sector reforms.’ Japanese post, the world’s largest financial institution engaged in postal savings, life insurance and Mail delivery has been privatized recently, with a view to benefiting the economy as a whole. But many critics are blaming the government for not forming a clear-cut strategy to move its $3 trillion funds into general economy. Japan has been opening up its economy to attract inbound FDI substantially by formulating a robust competition policy and enforcement of a regime that would improve market access and Japan’s economic recovery. Although FDI in Japan has been increasing rapidly in recent years, its share of GDP is still extremely small, when compared to that of other major advanced nations. Japanese companies were rarely the target of mergers and acquisitions. However, in a liberalized financial environment, key economic indicators point to rise in M&A activity both within Japan and with foreign buyers. Financial system stability has been gradually improving, through enhanced value added services and establishment of attractive business models and further improvement in risk management and through corporate governance and internal control and information disclosure.
308 81-314-1395-0 Green Consumerism – Approaches and Country Experiences www.nbcindia.com Marketing Sumati Reddy 7-Feb-08 348 20 500 0 0 Green consumerism pertains to consumption, where corporates and individual consumers both, identify and value products and services generated in a sustainable manner. The choices that we, as consumers, make to consume certain products and services or to adopt a certain lifestyle, have a direct or indirect impact on the environment and our personal or collective well-being. This is why the topic of green consumerism has become a central focus for national and international policy. The green consumerism movement was primarily aimed at persuading or influencing the mass of consumers in developed countries to adopt green consumerism. However, the movement is not restricted to consumers in developed countries, nor solely to consumers. Producers, government bodies, policy makers, NGOs and environmental activists have equally important roles to play in making this movement successful. The basic idea is to awaken the human consciousness and to influence the market to change its ways of production, marketing and consumption. This book focuses on the concept of green consumerism, examines consumer attitudes and behaviour towards green products and services, and also presents the state of affairs in a few different countries with respect to green consumerism. These countries include The Netherlands, France, Australia, the US, Canada and a few Asian countries including India. The book will be of interest, primarily, to business executives, marketing professionals, business students, and business teachers. By reading this book, business executives and marketers can be armed with requisite knowledge about green consumerism, adopt sustainable business practices, and marketing strategies to meet the needs of green consumers. Business students and business teachers can update themselves about this new trend in business and consumer behaviour.
309 978-81-314-1903-8 Environmental Governance – Concepts, Relevance and Lessons www.nbcindia.com General Management Debashree Mukherjee 7-Feb-08 304 19 475 0 0 Environmental Governance deals with the correlation and interface among the Government and non-Government authorities, their procedures and methods, in making environmental decisions. It lays emphasis on the fact that environmental decisions should be arrived at taking a fair approach with particular emphasis on the need for citizens and interest groups, and communities must be allowed to participate and have their voices heard in environment decision-making. The study of environmental governance does not only stop at public participation in environment decision-making. It also makes us realize that as vigilant citizens, individuals also play a major role in promoting and preserving the environment through the mechanisms of environmental governance. Good environmental governance is measured by the effectiveness of strategies and initiatives implemented to achieve goals of increased access to environmental information, participation and justice based on the principles laid down in various international environmental instruments. The book has been formatted in three sections. While section I comprises articles which introduce environmental governance and emphasizes that governance of the environment should be conducted with strong public involvement and backed by authoritative commitment, its various facets namely, environment accounting, environment impact assessment, public participation, the role played by the environment courts in promoting environmental governance and the effectiveness of law-making in the area are dealt with in section II. Finally, section III deals with the experiences of environmental governance at the local level, and upholds the necessity of governance of various components of the environment.
310 81-314-1298-3 Industry-Academia Interface – Perspectives and Practices www.nbcindia.com Management Anitha Arunsimha 7-Feb-08 304 19 475 0 0 Universities and industry, which for long have been operating in separate domains, are rapidly inching closer to each other to create synergies. The constantly changing management paradigms, in response to growing complexity of the business environment, today, have necessitated these two to come closer. A productive interface between academia and industry in the present times of knowledge economy is a critical requirement. Failure to recognize each other’s role will reduce the interface between institute and industry; and it can potentially give rise to mismatch between demand and supply of manpower, which, in turn, can cause disruption in the job market. This book “Industry-Academia Interface – Perspectives and Practices” attempts to examine the modalities of interface, the extent of collaboration and the benefits of the mutually interdependent relationship of academia industry partnership. It projects that industry and academia engagement has to be based on models of best practices, correct partners and processes, needed within university, funding agencies and companies to help make smart, efficient and effective partnerships. The various dimensions of interface and the interdependence for sustenance are explored in the book that is replete with case studies, articulating model academic industry alliance, internships, management development programs, Corporate Universities, Academic entrepreneurship and campus recruitment. With sharp insights and interesting illustrations, the book reflects a cognizance of the intersecting needs and mutually interdependent relationship of the industry-academia interface, in its earnest attempt to identify means to strengthen the industry-academia interface. The book sets out to establish that the industry-academia engagement should not be tentative and ritualistic, but real.
311 81-314-1264-9 Globalization: Impact and Implications www.nbcindia.com General Books Preeti Phuskele 7-Feb-08 296 18 450 0 0 Globalization denotes that an increasing number of countries are taking part in world economy. It implies free trade and presents opportunities to developing countries to enjoy the benefits of comparative cost advantage. Developing countries all over the world have begun taking part in world trade. This process is changing the pattern of world trade and increasingly affecting the economies of developing and developed countries and our everyday life as well. However, globalization goes beyond trade. It means the opening up of countries to wider contacts with one another, in order to facilitate the free flow of goods, services, people and technologies. This book is an attempt to analyze the overall impact of globalization on inflation, monetary policies, employment, poverty trends, and world trade. This book intends to help management students, academicians and every global citizen understand the opportunities and threats of globalization. As the book discusses examples, ranging from developed countries to developing countries, it will help readers understand the economic implications of globalization for both developing and developed countries. The book portrays the true picture of globalization and, therefore, helps readers in forming an unbiased opinion about globalization. This book is an informative contribution as it is a collection of diverse articles compiled with the objective of giving a comprehensive picture of the opportunities and threats of globalization.
312 81-314-1398-5 Service Delivery Management – A Road Map to Success www.nbcindia.com General Management Kalai Selvan N 7-Feb-08 276 18 450 0 0 In this competitive environment, the new age customers have become more demanding in terms of quality service and cost effective on-time service delivery. Today s acceptable level of service may not satisfy tomorrow s customer. The customers expectations are changing dramatically. During the past few decades, the services industry has been facing huge challenges due to technology revolution, increasing customer expectations, frequently changing customer needs and the dynamic market scenario. The service organizations need better customer management, resources, systems and flexible workforce to satisfy the customer. Due to technology revolution and customer demand, the service organizations are trying to reach customers through different channels to satisfy them. They are facing challenges in improving operational efficiency and reducing costs without negatively impacting customer service. In the cut-throat competition of today s business world, organizations are increasing the targets in their service level agreements in order to increase bottom line and expand the market share. To meet these challenges, service organizations are implementing service delivery management (SDM). Service delivery management can facilitate better customer satisfaction, decrease operational cost and increase service system reliability and flexibility. Service delivery management is an innovative business model for optimizing important factors of services, including customers, assets and workforce. SDM business model provides the service organization with a method of delivering superior service to customers continuously and also reducing the operating cost of the organization. Service delivery management requires a great degree of organizational commitment because it involves changing the organizational culture and implementing new technology.
313 978-81-314-1902-1 IUP Series on Indian Financial Intermediaries: Trends and Challenges www.nbcindia.com Finance Preeti Phuskele 7-Feb-08 272 17 425 0 0 The financial sector of a country aids the effective operation of its economy. It directs, controls and allocates resources, in a proportionate manner so as to maintain economic equilibrium and stability. A financial intermediary provides financial assistance or markets financial products to individuals / business houses. These intermediaries are significant for any economy, as they bridge the gap between the units with excess funds (primarily households), and the units who are short of funds (businessmen, entrepreneurs, business houses). These intermediaries play an important role in mobilizing funds in the economy. Unlike earlier, nowadays, Indian financial system is undergoing rapid changes. This results in increased competition among financial intermediaries and introduction of new instruments for investment/borrowing. Also, due to globalization they are now trying to adopt global standards. With the increase in the competition (in the scenario arising from the advent of global financial intermediaries in large numbers), the Financial Intermediaries are now adopting new methods and procedures for their basic function of mobilizing funds. This book is a significant contribution, as it tries to describe the true picture of the current position of Indian Financial Intermediaries. It not only focuses on the Improvement but also on the areas which still need improvement to be on par with global standards. In short, this book focuses on the current trend of Indian Financial Intermediaries in the era of increasing competition. It is a ‘must’ read for all management students, researchers and investors.
314 978-81-314-1924-3 Small and Medium Enterprises – Perspectives and Country Experiences www.nbcindia.com Management Anil Varma 7-Feb-08 260 17 425 0 0 The small-scale industries are viewed as an important vehicle for meeting both growth and equity objectives of developing economies. The last two decades have witnessed the steady re-emergence of small-scale industries in both industrialized and industrializing countries, reducing the importance of economies of scale in mass production. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to continually innovate and seek competitive advantages in order to exist, sustain and grow. They are faced with pressures to slash production costs, increase productivity and have to be necessarily more knowledge-driven. Globalisation has created more pressures on the one hand while on the other, greater incentives and opportunities have opened up giving access to overseas markets and knowledge sources. This enables leveraging of these multifarious options to build lasting competitive advantages and to support continuous innovation. In most developing countries SMEs constitute the bulk of the industrial base and contribute significantly to their exports as well as their GDP and GNP. For instance, India has nearly three million SMEs which account for almost 50% of industrial output and 42% of India’s total exports. SMEs play a crucial role in the development of all developing economies. SMEs are considered to be the base of every national economy, generating about 50 percent of the countries’ gross national product. The main reasons are that they are capable of quickly adapting to exacting customer demands as also they are capable of generating large employment potential.
315 978-81-314-2033-1 Organization Structure, Design and Functions – Concepts and Applications www.nbcindia.com Management Simantee Sen 7-Feb-08 268 17 425 0 0 “Since every organization is unique in its own way, a standard format for organization structural design cannot exist. However, as this design forms the skeleton of the organization, its importance cannot be overlooked.
This book aims at providing a guideline for organizations and entrepreneurs, which makes them realize that an efficient and effective organizational structure may, in fact, give them that ‘edge’ over competitors.
There is a definite relationship between organizational design/structure and international business. Each has a crucial implication for the other. Some structures, which work effectively in the domestic environment, might be impracticable in the international environment. Others may need adjustments to facilitate a foreign operation. The demand of the day is adaptability, in every aspect of management. With the ever-changing business environment and globalization, employees must be ready and willing to adapt themselves to all demands, even if it means becoming cross functional and multi-skilled in nature. After all, it is the employees who form the organizational structure.
Organizational structure can inhibit or foster creativity and innovation. The problem with organizational structure though, is that, it is resultant of many factors, including history, organic growth, strategy, operational design, product diversity, logistics, marketing, client base, supplier base, and so on. Therefore, what managers need, are not recipes for complete structural change, but insights into the properties of fostering structures that can be adapted to the existing organizational structure.
Effective organizational design and structure are dividends, however large or small the organization may be. Without this aspect, it is almost impossible to manage their processes and systems. This concept of organizational design is not quantifiable in nature. Although, there can be various models and concepts in this regard, this book works as an effective guideline and counselor.
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316 81-314-1270-3 Global Poverty: Trends, Issues and Challenges www.nbcindia.com Economy: World Ramani V V Chandra Sekhara Raju A.B 7-Feb-08 244 16.5 425 0 0 UN Millennium Summit 2000 declared in unequivocal terms that we should “… Spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty.” Poverty can be looked at, as income poverty and human poverty. Income poverty is nothing but lack of income to buy a basket of basic needs for human survival. Human poverty transcends economic aspect and encompasses social, cultural, political and physical opportunities to lead a long, healthy, creative life and to enjoy a decent standard of living, freedom, dignity, self-esteem and respect of others. Poverty is a major cause of food insecurity. Its reduction has become imperative, to improve the access to nutritionally sufficient and safe food for all. Overcoming human poverty needs a special effort to assess a broad range of national poverty programmes – to find out what is working, what is not, and to draw some general lessons for better policies. The investigations of World Bank reveal that global poverty reduction is possible with a comprehensive approach that addresses the needs of the poor people in three important areas: opportunity, empowerment and security. It is earnestly hoped that the literature compiled in this book would come in handy for drafting multiple policies to reduce poverty by focusing on need-based approaches and their effective implementation. It may also pave the way for further research to find out more pragmatic measures and comprehensive strategies for mitigating global poverty and human misery.
317 978-81-314-1915-1 Affirmative Action: Perspectives and Experiences www.nbcindia.com General Rajagopalan S 7-Feb-08 244 16.5 425 0 0 Almost every society in the world has seen discrimination in one form or the other against certain sections – discrimination based on race, colour, caste, religion, ethnicity or gender. In some societies, prejudices based on such considerations are more deeply entrenched than in others while in some recognition and remedial action have significantly reduced, if not completely eliminated, the malaise. Examples of groups that have faced discrimination include the blacks in the US and South Africa, and the dalits (backward classes) in India. Almost everywhere such groups constitute the minority or the underprivileged. The spheres of life where discrimination is most prevalent are education and employment. Lack of access to education and employment opportunities effectively marginalizes minority groups, and keeps them mired in poverty and deprivation. Discrimination perpetuated over a period of time becomes a source of deep resentment and unrest among the marginalized, often resulting in acts of violence. Different countries have tried to address discrimination through what is called ‘affirmative action’. Affirmative action is so called since it goes beyond non-discrimination, and involves positive strategies or steps for access to opportunities for the marginalized. This book introduces the concept of ‘affirmative action’ to the reader, outlines the issues involved and presents experiences of affirmative action policies and programmes in different countries.
318 81-314-1380-2 Marriage and Migration: Socio-Economic Implications www.nbcindia.com Economy Ishita Mukherjee Samrat Goswami 7-Feb-08 212 15.5 400 0 0 There have been marriage and migration – two completely different phenomena – in each and every society from time immemorial. Being a social institution, marriage is the legal way that leads to the destiny of family formation for a couple by sharing the life through caring attitude for each other. On the other hand, migration is the search for a better way of living, with better opportunities and satisfaction ultimately for better livelihood. But incidentally, both marriage and migration are profoundly linked to each other. Marriage migration takes place for different social, economic and cultural factors. Traditionally, marriage is the cause of migration for the bride from her patriarchal to the groom’s family. But, in the modern age, it is not the case always. In many of the cases, it has been witnessed that education is the factor for which people migrate from the native country to a foreign country. Then after finding the right partner they tie their knot. Therefore, there exists a two-way causation between marriage and migration. This book is a modest attempt to capture the issues related to marriage migration, the social, economic and cultural factors behind it and the impacts of marriage migration on society. The book has been alienated in two sections. The first section tries to capture the conceptual underpinnings of marriage migration, emphasizing upon factors behind them whereas the second section deals with some regional and cross-border experiences involving marriage and migration.
319 81-314-1399-3 Integrated Marketing Communication: Concepts and Cases www.nbcindia.com Marketing Gopalakrishnan P S 7-Feb-08 212 15.5 400 0 0 This book seeks to provide the latest information on the topic of integrated marketing communications (IMC) and the thirteen articles in the book highlight the concepts, process and implementation of IMC, its advantages and drawbacks. The book gives a broad view of IMC, capturing the contemporary views and thoughts on it. Section I of the book contains ten articles on the theoretical aspects of IMC and section II has three articles on the experiences of a few companies. In the fast moving, competitive marketplace, the focus of marketers has been on the efficient and cost-effective ways to communicate with their customers in order to influence their buying behavior. Brands are expanding their horizons beyond national borders in the context of globalization and economic liberalization. Hence, marketers have to develop an enduring understanding of the consumers through the implementation of IMC by designing/developing messages, communication contents that are ‘relevant’ and ‘meaningful’ to the customers/consumers. IMC is an orchestrated marketing communications program on a brand/product/service which can reinforce the message/content manifold in the minds of the consumers. The book provides a historical perspective of IMC, its importance in the changing market scenario, the impact and the overlap of tools of communications. It explores to find the factors that impact marketing communications, factors that encourage IMC programs, and the different approaches that can be adopted by the marketers to implement a successful IMC program. IMC is in an evolving stage, and hence, the Indian corporates would be eager to know and implement IMC in their future marketing efforts. There are tremendous opportunities for the media agencies also, that can offer combined, coordinated and synergistic marketing programs.
320 81-314-1384-5 Capital Account Convertibility – Global Experiences www.nbcindia.com Finance Laila Memdani 7-Feb-08 208 15 375 0 0 Convertibility of a currency implies that a currency can be transferred into another currency without any limitations or any control. A currency is said to be fully convertible, if it can be converted into some other currency at the market price of that currency. The need for the currency conversions arises mainly from foreign exchange transactions. But these foreign exchange transactions are subject to some regulatory restrictions. If currency has to be convertible, it shall not be subjected to these restrictions. Current account convertibility refers to currency convertibility required in the case of transactions relating to exchange of goods and services, money transfers and all those transactions that are classified in the current account. The present book “Capital Account Convertibility – Global Experiences” is divided into three sections. The first section “Overview” discusses the concept of capital account convertibility. It discusses the pros and cons of capital account convertibility. It further helps in understanding the merits and the demerits of capital account convertibility. It also discusses the recommendations of Tarapore committee. It explains the effective road map of fuller capital account convertibility. The second section “Issues and Challenges” contains articles of economy experts on different issues and challenges while implementing capital account convertibility. The third section “Lessons from Global Experiences” explains the experiences of South East Asian Countries towards capital account convertibility. It contains articles on evolution of capital account liberalisation. It briefly describes the Mexican crisis, East Asian crisis, and Malaysia and Thailand experiences.
321 81-314-1388-8 Forensic Accounting and Financial Frauds – Volume III www.nbcindia.com Accounting Padmavathi C Sunitha T 31-Jan-08 372 21 525 0 0 Forensic accounting is the specialty practice area of accounting that describes engagements that result from actual or anticipated disputes or litigation. Forensic accounting is thorough and complete in all aspects, so that an accountant, in his/her professional judgment, can deliver findings and results as to accounts, inventories and the presentation that is of high quality and that it would be sustainable in some adversarial legal proceedings or administrative review. In the light of increasing white-collar crimes and its high costs to corporate and the public, combating this menace is of the highest priority. The expansion of computers makes organizations more vulnerable to fraud and abuse. The role of forensic accountants has been amplified. A forensic accountant is a professional who goes beyond the numbers and combines his financial expertise with investigative prowess to uncover frauds of all magnitudes. In addition, a concerted effort by the management of the business, the external auditors and by all employees of the business is needed to combat and counter the fraudsters. The orientation of forensic accounting is cause and effect approach and the primary methodology employed by forensic accountants is objective verification. This book attempts to present a comprehensive literature on some specific white collar thefts which are all pervasive and which have social repercussions.
322 978-81-314-2043-0 Critical Infrastructure – An Overview www.nbcindia.com Infrastructure Pramod Rao Ravikant S Wawge 31-Jan-08 256 17 425 0 0 Critical Infrastructure refers to those sectors of an economy which have direct impact on the functions and sustainability of the economy. It embraces material assets, facilities, industries and capabilities that are essential for the functioning and well-being of a society and economy. These days, due to global terrorism and increasing international political upheavals, nations the world over, face high security risks and need to instate an integrated and well-planned critical infrastructure protection system that assesses risks and plans for potential contingencies. After the attack on World Trade Centre, all the countries of the world have shown their concerns for identification, development, maintenance and protection of their critical infrastructure. Countries have their own priorities for deciding the infrastructures of critical importance. Poor countries have to compromise with their critical infrastructure on account of scarce resources, but the proper approach and planning in critical infrastructure can help those countries to balance their security needs and maintain the continuity, sustainability and feasibility of economic affairs. The criticality of the infrastructure can be observed from the economic consequences of various Pandemics such as Anthrax, SARS, plague, natural disasters like Tsunami and hurricane Katrina, the terrorist activities, cyber attacks, political unrest, wars and disturbances in public services. This book provides select readings on the concept of critical infrastructure, its assurance, protection and discusses the emerging issues from various critical infrastructure sectors.
323 81-314-1271-1 Marketing Metrics: Models and Applications www.nbcindia.com Marketing Ravi Warriar 31-Jan-08 212 15.5 400 0 0 Without metrics, plans are ineffective. It is critical to know what needs to be measured in marketing and how it should be measured in order to improve its effectiveness. Marketers are under pressure to deliver hard data on how their efforts improved the company’s bottom line. Measurement of marketing performance and marketing ROI is a high priority. CMOs are searching for meaningful metrics, and for the ability to assess the business impact of marketing programs. This book attempts to provide a detailed review of marketing metrics. It includes sub areas such as assessing marketing program productivity/ROI, linking internal marketing program metrics (e.g., awareness) to external financial metrics (e.g., ROI), valuation of customers, valuation of brands, valuation of innovation, measuring short- and long-term effects, etc. Divided into three sections, the book has the first section introducing the concept of metrics, its evolution with time and the need to see beyond numbers. The second section gets down to details of implementing metrics. The third section dwells on linking metrics to financial consequences. The book ends with two applicative models in the domain of metrics.
324 978-81-314-2055-3 Online Retailing: A New Paradigm www.nbcindia.com Retailing Pheba Anandan Pillai 30-Jan-08 284 18 450 0 0 Online retailing is also known as B2C (Business to Consumer) ecommerce, E-tailing or E-Retailing. Online retailing is about the selling and buying of goods/service through the internet. Online retailing is an additional marketing channel for the brick and mortar retailers and opportunity for retailers interested to provide only online retail service. Online retailing is where the retail store is brought to the consumers at their desktops. The retailer has an opportunity to provide wide product assortment and more brands at attractive prices, communicating personally with consumers and having effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM). From consumers’ perspective online retailing provides convenience i.e. store is at just the mouse clicking distance, wide variety of brands to choose, shopping any time and attractive prices. Online retailing is gathering attention and momentum in this era of Information Technology. The book introduces some basic perspectives and gives practical insights through experiences of internationally known online retailers. The book is divided into four sections. Section I: Introduction gives the readers an insight into emergence of electronic form of retail, experts’ advice to pure online retailers, global and Indian scenario and the changes it brings in consumers’ shopping behavior. Section II: Consumers Perspectives comprises articles which discuss about profiling consumers into different segments, consumer behaviour in the B2C environment, consumer attitudes towards online shopping and online advertising techniques to attract consumers. Section III: Organization Perspectives includes articles on online payment systems, reverse logistics, e-Supply Chain Management and steps to be taken during online crisis situations. The last section, Section IV: Cases comprises cases on Tesco, Amazon and eBay.
325 81-314-0869-8 Global Stock Exchanges: The Dawn of a New Era www.nbcindia.com Finance Arindam Banerjee 30-Jan-08 252 17 425 0 0 It has been observed that traditionally stock exchanges have been mutual structures having access to trading floors restricted to some intermediaries, primarily its members. Added to this, the regulatory barriers resulting in regional or national monopolies protected the trading business. Therefore, the mutual structure was the type of organization that assured the protection of monopoly power.In contrast to this structure, the last decade has witnessed a radical change in the organizational structure of stock exchanges in India as well as across the globe. One of the major factors that have led to such transformation has been triggered from the intense competition existing between the exchanges. As an outcome, major stock exchanges across the globe decided to transform themselves from a traditional non-profit model to a “For Profit” model, which came to be known as demutualized stock exchange. Although there is no standard definition of demutualized exchange, one can safely say that a demutualized stock exchange simply means converting a mutualized exchange into a corporate body and running it on a “For profit basis”. In addition, a growing number of exchanges have introduced shares of their companies into the stock market they operate; a process commonly termed self-listing that emphasizes at the same time, the for-profit and public nature of the activity. In the mid 90s, the number of World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) members that were for-profit structures was around 10% that has subsequently increased over the years.This book explores the different issues pertaining to demutualization of stock exchanges and various countries across the globe that have undergone demutualisation of their respective stock exchanges.
326 81-314-1390-X Supply Chain Management in Food Industry www.nbcindia.com Supply Chain Management Kalai Selvan N 30-Jan-08 236 16 400 0 0 The new age consumers are becoming more health conscious in terms of hygiene, source of the food, ingredients of processed food and caloric content. Food safety has become a primary concern across the world. The food industry is vast and diversified, categorized by different segments such as fresh food industry, organic food industry, processed food industry, livestock food industry, etc. Each segment is unique in nature and when it comes to final food products, all segments are interlinked. Each segment needs different supply chain solutions such as procurement and sourcing, inventory management, warehouse management, packaging and labeling system, distribution management, etc. In the food supply chain, the products pass through a number of players who add value to the product at each stage. If they compromise at any one stage in the supply chain, it affects the end-consumer health. Food industries are changing their business model with innovative supply chain to create great customer buying experience and quality and safety food. To build up the competitive advantage, the food industry needs more visibility and better control in the supply chain. For achieving continuous growth in the market share, the food service providers should achieve good quality and hygiene products, less lead time, cost reduction, reliability, inventory control, flexibility, innovation and process efficiency. To meet these challenges, the food industry is beginning to implement the Supply Chain Management (SCM) that creates a balance between customer requirements and supply chain capabilities.
327 978-81-314-2042-3 IT Portfolio Management: Concepts and Applications www.nbcindia.com Information Technology Ravi Kumar Jain B 30-Jan-08 216 15.5 400 0 0 IT is indispensable in smooth functioning of any organization today, irrespective of the industry it functions in. The quantum and quality of IT investment differ as to how the systems are used, the degree to which they align with the strategic goals of the organization and ultimately how much business value they deliver vis-à-vis the resources invested. Further, all IT systems employed are not of equal strategic importance. IT systems are categorized into support, mission critical, strategic and laboratory systems, depending upon the purpose they serve. Therefore, it is critical to ensure that IT investments are evaluated and selected wisely, and managed with prudence. Traditionally, the focus of analysing IT investments revolves around new project opportunities to optimize new IT investments. However, in a majority of the companies, the installed IT asset base remains essentially unmanaged with organizations reporting that nearly 61% of their IT budgets are spent on routine tasks, and 10%-20% of the IT budget being spent on maintaining unwanted applications — an obvious squandering of valuable resources. Further, two out of three companies have no effective means of measuring or managing the benefits of IT investments. This book presents the emerging concepts of IT Portfolio Management (ITPM), a disciplined and structured approach, which design to business requirements for technology decisions and enables organizations to categorize, evaluate, manage IT assets and prioritize projects. Various models and frameworks for building and integrating a portfolio of IT investments for the realization of maximum value, and to fully leverage the value of all IT infrastructure of an organization are also discussed. It highlights many of the seminal aspects and best practices from the discipline of financial portfolio management and intends to be a good reference for executive, IT managers and researchers.
328 81-314-0319-X Case Studies on Managing in Troubled Times www.nbcindia.com Case Study Collection Sumit Kumar Chaudhuri 30-Jan-08 284 0 30 750 The focus of this book is on crisis management or managing companies under troubled circumstances. The companies in focus are faced with financial and operational difficulties and even bankruptcy due to financial losses, lost market share, impending lawsuits, forecasting errors or for conducting unsound operations. These crises have also emerged due to externalities caused by events beyond corporate control like the September 11th 2001 tragedy, which adversely affected numerous companies in the global arena. The spread of SARS that affected the airline industry is another example of a negative externality. This book contains case studies on 23 companies spanning across 18 different industries to illustrate a range of issues in depth. The cases deal with different strategies adopted by these companies to rejuvenate themselves and emerge out of difficult times. The case situations have been carefully crafted to provide a highly practical resource to readers with all levels of experience and are especially valuable for new managers.
329 81-314-1409-4 Trade Unions: Global Concerns and Experiences www.nbcindia.com Human Resource Manag Pramod Verma 29-Jan-08 292 18 450 0 0 Trade unions today are recognized as legitimate social organizations and have become an integral part of business and industr
rinciples and Applications (With Simulation CD) 30.95 7th
