IIPM Editorial: 03/01/2013

Thursday, March 28, 2013

A No-Fly Zone for Libya

John F. Kerry, US Senator and Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, takes a view on The Implications of a no-fly zone Over Libya in The Prevailing Situation in The Country

Leaders around the world are vigorously debating the advisability of establishing a no-fly zone to stop the violence unfolding in Libya. Some cite Bosnia, where NATO took too long to protect civilian populations in the mid-1990’s, as a reason to act. Others remember Rwanda, where President Bill Clinton later expressed regret for not acting to save innocent lives. But the stakes in Libya today are more appropriately underscored by the tragedy in southern Iraq in the waning days of the Persian Gulf War twenty years ago.

As coalition forces were routing the Iraqi army in February 1991, President George H. W. Bush encouraged the Iraqi people to “take matters into their hands to force Saddam Hussein, the Dictator, to step aside.” When Iraqi Shiites, Kurds, and Marsh Arabs rebelled against Hussein, they believed that American forces would protect them against their brutal dictator’s superior firepower.

Instead, when Iraqi attacked helicopters and elite troops began butchering their own people, coalition forces were ordered to stand down. The world watched as thousands of Iraqis were slaughtered.

The situation in Libya today is not identical. Inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt, the Libyan people rose up spontaneously against four decades of repression by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Still, the specter that haunts me is the same – ordinary people facing off against an autocrat’s airpower and well-armed soldiers, counting on the free world to protect them against massacre after we have applauded and bolstered their bravery with our words.

So far, Qaddafi’s forces have relied on airpower selectively. But Qaddafi is shrewd. My fear is that he is either choosing to bleed the opposition to death, rather than invite global action with a broad massacre, or waiting for the world to prove itself unwilling to act – at which point he might well begin killing civilians in large numbers.

We cannot wait for that to happen. We need to take concrete steps now so that we are prepared to implement a no-fly zone immediately if Qaddafi starts using his airpower to kill large numbers of civilians. Diplomacy is urgently needed to build broad support for a no-fly zone.

The most important imprimatur should come madman from the United Nations (UN), where debate should begin immediately over a resolution authorising a no-fly zone. China and Russia have expressed reservations. If the Security Council fails to authorise action, those of us determined to protect Libyan civilians will face a more difficult choice should the violence escalate.

So, our diplomatic efforts must extend beyond the UN. The support of NATO and the African Union are important. To avoid the perception of NATO or the US attacking another Muslim country, the backing of the Arab world is also needed.

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

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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Seven Sins by Nielsen in India

The Agency was Supposed to be among the Top Recalled Names in the Indian MR Landscape. Then Why is it being given Such a Unanimous Thumbs Down by Clients?

Where did they exactly go wrong? Well, there is no single answer to that; rather there are seven. Nielsen India has no problems in terms of recall, where it is among the top 3. Even in terms of quality of analysis, network and tools and techniques used, the research agency came out tops, being ranked at 4, 2 and 3 respectively. The trouble comes in the other factors that are so crucial for sustainability where Nielsen got a shocking thumbs down in terms of ranks, which are as follows – reliability and authenticity of data (14), cost effectiveness (15), time duration (19), transparency (14), favouritism (14), impact (17) and associations (14). The net result is that Nielsen gets the horribly unlucky rank of 13.

When you look closely at the parameters, one undercurrent that’s clearly visible is the lack of confidence in the research agency. This undercurrent was expected due to the flak that some of Nielsen’s surveys in the past have generated, but what was surprising was the degree. It would still be fresh in the minds of the industry how FMCG giants Dabur and Perfetti Van Melle India had taken up the cudgels against Nielsen for underreporting their sales numbers last year. It was also reported that they terminated the services of the agency. Dabur officials confirmed their displeasure when contacted by 4Ps B&M. In fact, another official from a research agency we contacted revealed that the list of clients exiting Nielsen’s services is not restricted to these two companies.

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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

The strategies that have worked for them in India

Gaurang Pandya, the newly appointed MD of Carrier India, reveals to B&E the strategies that have worked for them in India

B&E: But doesn’t this at times act as a hindrance to the company’s growth?

GP: You can talk about long term, short term benefits and hindrances. But a corporation like Carrier that has been in the business for almost 100 years, believes in sustainable growth. Therefore, our practices are governed by policies which are sustainable in the long run.

B&E: Which segment contributes more to your topline in India – residential or commercial?

GP: Actually both are almost at parity with each other. Further we have got the entire product range which gives us an edge over the competition. From packaged units to ducted units, from small chillers to huge chillers with a capacity of 2,500 tonnes, we can boast of almost anything when it comes to ACs. This gives us the power to cater to anyone.

B&E: Carrier has been betting big when it comes to green initiatives. What is the biggest hurdle that you come across in this area?

GP: No doubt there is a lot of work going on in this field, but the problem is that we are not the only manufacturer involved in such initiatives. There are others too that have been participating in such drives. Moreover, there is a huge cost involved in it. But we believe that if you move in the right direction then people will automatically follow you and that’s the reason we have been working closely with Bureau of Energy Efficiency. In fact, it’s been a healthy relationship with the government where we keep them pushing on various issues.

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Monday, March 4, 2013

It’s time to take nuclear disarmament seriously

Else, the whole world may soon succumb to some irreparable damage

People sometimes forget that the boy who cried wolf ended up being eaten. True, nobody has been killed by a nuclear weapon since the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 65 years ago this month. And, with Cold War tensions long past, it is all too easy for policymakers and publics to resist the doomsayers, be complacent about the threats that these weapons continue to pose, and to regard attempts to eliminate them, or contain their spread, as well-meaning but futile.

But the truth is that it is sheer dumb luck – not statesmanship, good professional management, or anything inherently stable about the world’s nuclear weapon systems – that has let us survive so long without catastrophe. With 23,000 nuclear weapons (equivalent to 150,000 Hiroshimas) still in existence, more than 7,000 of them actively deployed, and more than 2,000 still on dangerously high launch-on-warning alert, we cannot assume that our luck will hold indefinitely.

We know now – with multiple revelations about human error and system breakdown on both the American and Russian sides during the Cold War years and since – that even the most sophisticated command and control systems are not foolproof. We know that some of the newer nuclear-armed states start with systems much less sophisticated than these. And we know that, across the spectrum of sophistication, the risk of destabilising cyber attack beating cyber defense is getting ever higher. So it should be obvious that maintaining the status quo is intolerable. Moreover, there is the real risk of proliferation, especially in the Middle East, multiplying the dangers that nuclear weapons will be used by accident or miscalculation as well as design.

There is also the sometimes exaggerated but unquestionably non-negligible risk of non-state terrorist actors getting their hands on insufficiently secured weapons or fissile material and exploding a bomb in a major population center. And there is the disconcerting prospect that new civil nuclear-energy players will insist on building uranium-enrichment or plutonium-reprocessing plants of their own, rightly described as “bomb starter kits.”

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