YOUR CORN, MY JOB: WHAT’S CHEAPER?

EITHER YOU DISBAND THE WTO OR RESPECT IT’S ABILITY TO TAKE DECISIONS
When in 2005, Pascal Lamy was elected by 148 members of the World Trade Organisation to succeed Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi as Director-General, the melancholy of the failure of Doha Development Agenda didn’t even touch his dreams. His jaunty statement – We will place the interests of developing countries at the centre of the world trading system – from the speech on 26 May, 2005, clearly projects his hopes. But things got worse and the hopes faded after the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial of December 2005. The latest in the list of failures is the Geneva talks in the first week of July, 2006. The year 2001 saw the launch of the Doha Round, which was aimed at improving the trading conditions and uplifting millions of poverty-stricken people in developing countries – deadline set as the end of 2005.

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy,

Initiative:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri

INDO-SWISS RELATIONS

Though known better for Bollywood’s love for the seductive scenic beauty of the tiny country at the heart of Europe, the relationship between India & Switzerland is much more deep rooted and dates back to 1856 when the Volkaart brothers (also referred to as the Swiss East India Company) established their trading office in India. Since then, there has been no looking back. Companies like Nestlé, Novartis and Holcim have become a part of the daily life of millions of Indians. After the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1948, an Indo- Swiss Joint Commission was set up in 1959 in order to amplify economic & commercial relations. This body still contributes towards the betterment of bilateral trade.

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Editor:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006

RUSSIAN CRISIS (IIPM-Publications)

IIPM-Publications

IIPM-Bangalore ! IIPM-Chennai ! IIPM-New Delhi ! IIPM-Mumbai ! IIPM-Pune ! IIPM-Hyderabad ! IIPM-Ahemdabad

Irrational liberalization and rampant privatization along with fundamentally weak reforms drove Russia, the country rich in natural resources with educated population and diverse industrial base, to a critical financial situation. But then with a disaster on your cards, you can’t help it. So did Russia. Policy makers hammered the final nail by allowing rouble (official currency) to fall against major foreign currencies, making Russia the first modern world country to default in paying its debt instalments.

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Source IIPM-Editorial,2006

A TALE OF TWO COMPANIES

On all counts, they deserve respect. There was a day and age when they were the most respected organisations in the world. They started the US automotive revolution and changed the way the world look at cars. But, contrarily, respect is no more a term one associates with Ford and GM these days, especially due to their constant flirt with bankruptcy. At the end of the first quarter of 2006, GM recorded losses of $323 million, while Ford reported a mammoth loss of $2.9 billion. With such unsustainable losses and rising operational costs, the two monoliths face the heat due to their own fl awed strategies. When the Japanese arrived in the US market in 1950s, there was a scramble among all auto majors. GM and Ford tried to compete with large scale production, which would reduce costs and allow them to offer better value. Unfortunately, demand could not catch up with supply, which led to huge inventories of unsold cars. Their fuel guzzlers did not find many takers due to high fuel prices. As sales didn’t match expectations, the costs became unbearable. Japanese majors like Toyota and Honda, on the other hand, worked efficiently and smartly, hence giving the Detroit majors a tough time. GM & Ford remain true symbols of American glory, as well as its downfall, in the past 25 years.

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Source IIPM-Editorial,2006

WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION

ARTICLE-IIPM EDITORIAL

Professor John Sutherland, Chair of the Panel, triggered the annual fireworks with his jibes likening the judging pro­cess to a ‘World Wrestling Federation’ match and term­ing fellow evaluators (that comprised the London Evening Standard literary editor David Sexton, noted author Josephine Hart, the Times Literary Supplement fic­tion editor Lindsay Duguid, and the rare books dealer Rick Gehoski) as ‘light on the minorities’.

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Source IIPM Editorial-2006