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INFOCORPS Logging Out Of IT.Com The hottest infotech companies were missing from the show.
Even Bangalore's own didn't log in to IT.Com. And the absence of some of the marquee names on the city's infotech map from the fair was a pointer to the city's decline among the digirati. Sure, many of India's top infocorps, like Compaq, Intel, Texas Instrument, dell, Microsoft, and IBM, were present, but Wipro was the most conspicuous absentee. This was more surprising because Wipro's CEO, Azim Premji, is a member of the Chief Minister's Infotech Task Force. Likewise, in the ERP pavilion, top ERP vendors like BaaN and sap were not present. NASSCOM, the software industry body, was not visible either. Says Dewang Mehta, 38, the high-profile President of NASSCOM: ''Although there was a NASSCOM representative who had presented a paper, I personally did not go there as IT.Com is more of an exhibition than a conference.'' Even a year ago, IT.Com was a glittering showcase of cutting-edge developments in infotech. But, with competing events like NASSCOM 99 and India Internet World stealing the show, the event will have to reboot itself to bring back the infostars. -Sanjiv Rana ECONOMY
The answer is not too difficult to find. The difference of 1.5 percentage points amounts to an additional figure of Rs 20,000 crore. While Rs 10,000 crore is slated to come in from disinvestment, there is little chance of this target being met. Thus, once again, the fiscal deficit remains the key problem for the government. Related to it are several aspects of the economy which, if tackled, could put growth into overdrive. Reducing the fiscal deficit by cutting costs would imply a smaller government, a reduced wage-bill, and less red tape. Generating more revenues would entail a radical sell-off of state-run companies in areas where the private sector is strong and confident, as well as widening and deepening the tax-base with efficient retrieval systems. A lower deficit would, thus, mean falling interest rates, reducing borrowing costs for corporates, and, therefore, better profits. ''Attacking the fiscal deficit is not a sin,'' thundered Sinha when badgered about the yawning gap. So is running out of options. Earlier this year, the government had resorted to cross-holding of equity between PSUs to raise money while the plan to make NTPC buy NHPC displays desperation-not innovation. To be fair, the government is planning to introduce a series of measures, including zero-based budgeting and a Fiscal Responsibility Act, to keep expenditure in check. The Act will make it mandatory for the government to take Parliament's approval for exceeding the prescribed fiscal limits. This could help scale back spending. Sinha indicated that among the other measures he is considering is a reduction in interest-rates by lowering the small-savings rate. High small-savings rates force the Centre to lend at higher rates to India Inc.. Is that the real solution? No. And Sinha knew he couldn't convince the cynical business Press that his government has the political wherewithal to kill the deficit. Ultimately, the deficit generated a credibility gap. -Pranjal Sharma DISINVESTMENT The Vajpayee Administration may have decided that disinvestment is the cure for its fiscal ills, but it offered no clue to who is in charge. While, in most countries, the privatisation process is implemented by an independent body, there is still no such mechanism in India. So, the Economic Editors' Conference saw committed buck-passing on just who would handle the momentous task of raising Rs 10,000 crore for the government this year-and on who would take disinvestment to its logical conclusion of PSU privatisation. Finance Ministry officials were at pains to point out that a ''well-established procedure already exists.'' But what they did not admit is that the process is being overseen by a Core Group of Secretaries, for whom disinvestment is just one of the items on the agenda. How can it be expected to focus on privatisation alone? In any case, expecting a ministry to relinquish control is self-contradictory. True, the government has set up a Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment. But this authority is only meant to give the final go-ahead to the sale; the nitty-gritty should be left to a professional body. The Disinvestment Commission had been created solely for the purpose of recommending the mode of disinvestment and its implementation. However, with its term coming to an end, there is still no news about who or what will replace it. Union Finance Secretary, P.G. Mankad, said that the decision to renew the term of the Commission-or not-will be taken by the Union Minister for Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises, Manohar Joshi. Joshi, on his part, said that his decision will depend on what the prime minister wants. At the end of 3 days, the participants at the Conference were none the wiser about the method of disinvestment. With such an attitude prevailing, don't expect PSU reforms to be completed in a hurry. -Pranjal Sharma POWER
Business writers, who rarely agree on any issue, virtually ganged up against Kumaramangalam. As a result, he had to field more than a dozen questions on the deal. His office had prepared a paper which outlined the technical and economic synergies between the 2 companies. It sought to show that power sector PSUs would benefit from the decision. But nobody was taken in. When a scribe suggested that the fiscal deficit, and not power-sector problems, had sparked the decision, the pressure mounted on the minister. Another editor said that the Minister was attempting post-decision rationalisation. Irked, Kumaramangalam shot back: ''Just because I am a politician, it does not mean I have mental aberrations. My IQ is not minus 500.'' However, he is believed to have admitted to some delegates that the decision was imposed on him. For the Vajpayee Administration, this was a warning. Solving the fiscal mess may be a priority, but ill-conceived sales of PSUs will not go completely unchallenged. -Pranjal Sharma TQM TQM drives India Inc.'s cars. But has the quality movement really spread beyond the auto industry? Finally, the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) Seventh Quality Summit showed signs of TQM percolating to other sectors, including consumer goods and infotech. As the corporate cases showcased at the Summit reveals, the benefits of quality are being seen everywhere. The results of the cluster approach to learning and management propagated by the Japanese Union of Scientists & Engineers (JUSE) was explained to the delegates. An entire day of the 3-day Quality Summit was devoted to sessions on implementing Daily Work Management (DWM), which is a critical part of TQM, by Maruti Udyog's vendors. Spearheaded by JUSE counsellor, Yoshikazu Tsuda, and Maruti's Director (Engineering), K. Kumar, cluster members presented their quality initiatives under DWM. Says Tsuda: ''DWM is like a self-starting motor. It gives you the measure of quality, cost, and delivery. The cluster companies are doing well in the implementation.'' Earlier, NIIT Chairman R.S. Pawar stole the show on the first day with his company's unique initiative of setting up the MD's Quality Club. It is meant to bring together the brightest brains within the company to think, alongside the managing director, about how to be a TQM corporate. The club sets the agenda at the beginning of the year and, then, implements it through the year, with the objective of building a pool of knowledge and, then, disseminating it across the organisation. Says Pawar, 48: ''It's how one gets to open up people's hearts and minds. It's the inspiration that leaders create to bring about aspiration among followers that is important.'' Godrej-GE Appliances' introduction of the Balanced Scorecard technique also stirred tremendous interest among the audience. The tool leads to a balanced and robust strategic management system which looks beyond mere budgeting and financial accounting. Within a single framework, it focuses on shareholder value, the internal and the external customer, and the learning requirement of the business to create a system of linked objectives to define how the organisational goals can be achieved. It was partly by applying the Balanced Scorecard, said CEO Vijay Krishna, that the company was able wash off a loss of Rs 61 crore in 1996-97 and reported net profits of Rs 21 crore in 1998-99. Hero Cycles' Managing Director Sunil Kant Munjal credited an ''ear-to-the-ground'' approach listening to the customer's voice for his company's transformation from a 3-model company 15 years ago to a 150-model bicycle-manufacturing company. And Sundaram Clayton's Chairman Venu Srinivasan described how to look inwards for reasons of quality-related problems before globalising. Says Srinivasan, 46: ''We were so far behind global quality standards that we could never hope to export huge numbers.'' Srinivasan's company first re-engineered its plant into cells in the early 1990s, and then, worked on developing engineering accuracy and lead-time reduction to reach a level of 20 per cent of sales from exports. Quality shows-on the bottomline. -Rajeev Dubey
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28022000 loomed
large over the Economic Editors' Conference, 1999-that ritualistic annual interface
between North Block and the business Press. Fifteen weeks shy of B-Day 2000, the fiscal
fitness of the economy, as anticipated by Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, was the
key issue. Where will the fiscal deficit stand when the books are closed? At 4 per cent of
GDP, which Sinha has been promising, or 5.50 per cent, which the critics think it will be?
It was
history-turned-farce in the making. The Vajpayee Administration's decision to ask the
National Thermal Power Corporation to buy the National Hydro Power Corporation turned out
to be too hot for the government to defend at the Economic Editors' Conference. While the
decision was cleared by the Prime Minister, it was Union Power Minister Rangarajan
Kumaramangalam who had to face the flak. 