As this magazine goes for print, the inhabitants of Manipur possibly would be getting some kind of relief from the ordeal that started on 11th of April. It was on that day that the All Naga Students Association blocked the National Highway 39 (the lifeline of Manipur) in retaliation to the Manipur state government’s decision to not permit National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) leader Muviah to visit his native village in Manipur. The Manipur state government took this stance as they feared that Muviah’s visit might again instigate unrest in the region. In fact, they even turned down the request from the Center to provide adequate security to Muviah during his visit, forcing Muviah to camp at the borders of Manipur. The situation further flared up when a couple of NSCN (IM) supporters got killed in police firing. What followed after that was an indefinite blockade by NSCN (IM) supporters, which almost drove Manipur to a state of complete collapse. With rice selling at Rs. 100 a kg, petrol at Rs. 150 a litre, to a gas cylinder at Rs. 1500, prices shot up to such an extent that it was out of reach of most in Manipur. It was finally when the Prime Minister intervened, and met the Naga students, that they agreed to lift the blockade, temporarily!

Although for the time being, there would be some momentary respite for Manipur, but the problem is complex and it would require the intervention of the Center on an immediate basis. There are three key stakeholders to this problem. First, the NSCN (IM) – who since decades have been demanding a larger and extended territorial right for the state of Nagaland, which eats into the territories of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, much to the dislike of all the three states. The second stakeholder – the state of Manipur, which has been at the receiving end, and is determined not to allow Muviah to visit his native village for the abovementioned reasons. And the third stakeholder is the Central Government, which has been a mute spectator while the situation moved from bad to worse. In fact, the Center’s stance is nothing unexpected. Neither is it the first time that Manipur faced such a situation nor is it the first time that the Center has chosen to remain silent for such a prolonged period when a state, any state, has been suffering. Be it Telangana, Bodoland, Vidharba, Purvachal or Kashmir, the Center seems to deliberately delay, perchance to seek the maximum political mileage from the same. It has become almost a routine that prior to elections, every political party would commit to honour the demands of regional entities with respect to formation of separate states, clearly to gain maximum political mileage from the announcement and mollycoddling. Once in power, neither do they honour their commitments nor do they provide an alternate workable solution. Territorial problems are ubiquitous to India and lack of political decisiveness has a historical precedence. Kashmir has been a classic case in point where perpetual indecisiveness has not only cost the nation crores of rupees, but most importantly also thousands of lives!     Read More....

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I wonder what the US would have done, had a Bhopal like tragedy happened out there. If on account of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre– which unfortunately took 2995 innocent lives, including that of not-so-innocent 19 terrorists, and injured almost 6000 people– they demolished a complete nation in search of one individual, I wonder what would have they done if someone’s negligence had killed a staggering 22,000 innocent people, including children and women, and had caused permanent damages for another 120,000 people and affected some 5,50,000 people in some way or the other! If something like this would not have triggered a demolition drive, like they did in the former case, just on account of the merit of the crime (as World Trade Centre was an orchestrated crime and Bhopal tragedy was a criminal negligence), I am sure they would not have let any nation safeguard the perpetrator of the crime, like they have been doing with respect to Warren Anderson, the former CEO of Union Carbide India Limited, for so many years. In fact, no other nation would have left the US to be at peace, had something similar happened with them. But then the US cannot alone be blamed for such duality, as they can take such an audacious step only when the nation in question is India. It is outrageous that the Indian government allowed Anderson to flee, post the tragedy!

It was the intervening night of 2nd and 3rd of December of 1984, when a Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) and other toxic gases leaked from the Union Carbide India Limited factory located in Bhopal– turning a sleepy town into a morgue, almost overnight. The tragedy has been recorded as the worst industrial disaster in recorded history. It is just not that scores of people died on the spot, but the ones who survived succumbed to permanent fatal injuries, forever. Thousands became orphans and homeless and in a matter of hours an entire generation became the victim of someone’s blatant negligence. It was not that the effects of the lethal MIC were unknown to the perpetrators, nor was it that the union at the UCIL never notified the hazards of the leak much in advance, but nothing was done to mitigate the same. It has been a conspiracy wherein everyone, starting from the US Administration to the government of India to the local state government– has been hand in gloves with each other. Otherwise, how can one explain that immediately after the tragedy, the key culprit, Warren Anderson, was arrested and was immediately released within a matter of two days by the Madhya Pradesh police? How can one explain that he was conveniently declared a fugitive when he audaciously did not bother to revert to the CBI summons? How would one explain that even after he was declared an absconder by the court, the government still remained silent for almost ten long years! And finally, when the government woke up in 2003 to do a formality by sending an extradition order, the US government conveniently denied the request!     Read More....

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website


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WILL ONLY MAKE THEM MORE POWERFUL!

I was in Cannes this year for the annual film festival! The day after the inaugural show, was a symposium on Indian flms. While speaking at the symposium, I said that the West better take India very seriously as sooner or later, in any case, Indians or Chinese will be owning all the major Hollywood studios, since they are mostly bankrupt and on sale. At the end of my speech, most people who came up to me seemed disturbed by my statement! Many asked whether I really meant that statement!

Well, I surely meant that! One look at the global rich list today and you will see how it has been stormed by the Indians. The reasons, as I said in one of my previous editorials, is of course more to do with the way Indian governments have helped privatise national resources than encourage real brand building abilities – (‘Blood billionaires. Scam Billionaires. Indians storm into the Forbes billionaires list’; December 23, 2007). The best proof of my statement is that when it comes to the world’s top hundred billionaires, we have a lot of Indians; but when it comes to the world’s top hundred brands, we don’t find a single brand developed by Indians. However, that, I believe, is going to change – at least partially. Tatas already own Jaguar and Land Rover. And they are seemingly turning the units around. So even if we didn’t create brands thanks to the Kalingas, Singurs and Poscos, our industrialists have been made billionaires by successive governments so that they can now buy up readymade brands and build upon them.     Read More....

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website


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