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3852 items in total found

Working Papers | 1994

IIMA Today - A Case of Depleted Networth

Ragunathan V

Institution building is only one phase of the institutional life cycle. After an institution is built, it must grow, and mature with a healthy long life. Thus, aspects of institution maintenance, and arresting of institution erosion, and institution decay for sustained excellence become increasingly more important as an institution grows older. How is IIMA shaping in the regard? Is it being successful in elongating the growth and maturity phase of its life cycle? Does it show the symptoms of emulating, even if to a limited extent, its more long lasting internationally reputed cousins? Is it maintaining its cherished values, norms and practices-in short, the institutional culture-dreamt and built assiduously in the past by its founding fathers with some care and concern? This paper attempts to provide some perspectives in this direction.

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Working Papers | 1994

Motivation, Leadership, and Human Performance

Kanungo R N and Misra Sasi B

This review critically examines and integrates the vast and diverse research on motivation and leadership in organizations during the past decade (1983-1993). The review prepared for the ICSSR sponsored Fourth Survey of Psychology primarily focuses on research in the Indian context. The main conclusions drawn are: (i) research in the area of work motivation and leadership in organizations in order to be meaningful must be theory driven (ii) programmatic as contrasted to fragmented research in these areas must be initiated (iii) research dealing with measurement of variables must demonstrate construct and criterion related validities and finally (iv) indigenous approaches to problems and measuring instruments developed in the Indian context are necessary.

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Working Papers | 1994

State, Private Sector and Labour: The Political Economy of Jute Industry Modernization, West Bengal, 1986-90

Chowdhury Supriya Roy

In the decades since independence, the jute industry underwent a sharp eclipse as exports and profits declined, technology remained stagnant, mills closed and workers were thrown out in large numbers. In 1986 a Jute Modernization Fund was created by the central government in order to revive the industry. Additionally, the government sought to sustain and expand domestic demand for jute by making jute packaging compulsory for certain sectors such as cement, sugar, etc. Almost all of jute manufacturing takes place in West Bengal. The Left Front government has been in power in West Bengal since 1977. As leader of the leftist coalition, the CPI(M), in order to reinvigorate West Bengal's ailing industrial scene, has sought to encourage private business in general and to some extent, neutralize labor. This paper examines the state's relationship to jute mill owners and to the industry's workforce in the context of the attempted restructuring of the jute industry. The paper does not present an economic analysis of jute restructuring: it locates the halting pace of jute industry modernization in the emerging presence of raw jute traders in the industry, and in the state's vulnerabilities both to mill owners and to workers. The dynamics of these relationships set the limits to the restructuring efforts that had begun in the mid 1980s. In the context of these findings, the paper ends with some reflections on received theories of the developmental state.

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Working Papers | 1994

Restrictive Trade Practices in India, 1969-71 Experience of Control and Agenda for Further Work

Sandesara J C

This paper purports to apprise principally the experience of control of Restrictive Trade Practices (RTP) in India by the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Commission under the MRTP Act, 1969. This experience is examined by the Commission since the enactment of this legislation till 1991 to which the latest published information relates. Among the major findings are: 1. Of the 3,474 RTP inquiries instituted during 1972-91, only 2 (0.05 per cent) were instituted upon reference from government, and 171 (5 per cent) from trade/consumer associations, etc. The principal burden of initiating inquiries has fallen on the Director-General and the Commission with 2,186 and 1.115 inquiries (63 and 32 per cent) respectively to their credit. 2. Of the 3,033 inquiries disposed of during 1972-91, 1,125 (37 per cent) were found by the Commission to prejudicial to public interest and subjected to cease/desist or consent order, and 1,908 (63 per cent) were disposed of otherwise. 3. Of the different types of RTP in the inquiries disposed of during 1982-91, 1,328 out of a total of 3,415 (39 per cent) were found by the Commission to be prejudicial to public interest, and subjected to cease/desist or consent order, and 2,087 (61 per cent) were disposed of otherwise. 4. Thus, the number of inquiries in, and of RTP against, which prejudice to public interest was found were each small, nearly two-fifths of the respective totals. Based on this experience, as a second objective, this paper also presents an agenda for further work in this area. The major points which emerge in that context are: 1. The 1984 and the 1991 amendments to the MRTP Act necessitate a new preamble or a major change in the existing preamble. Two alternative draft preambles are suggested in the paper. 2. For further and better particulars on the inquiries disposed of, the present pro-forma in which the information is given needs to be modified as per the details given in the paper. 3. Specific studies relating to the composition of RTP inquiries disposed of, the efficacy of RTP control, and the general effects on the public interest of certain RTP as such as also with reference to some products/services are called for to increase our knowledge on this subject and also for their possible policy value. 4. The evidence on the arguments for a change in favour of per se approach are not yet sufficiently persuasive, so it is as well that the present rule-of-reason approach continues.

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Working Papers | 1994

Indian Economic Forecast: Post Budget Analysis - April 1994

Rastogi A B

The collective impact of a battery of reforms coming hard on the heels of one another, is still being felt in boardrooms and chaupals. The credibility of the reform dictates that consistent liberalisation policies should be followed. The last budget has introduced the changes in tax structure which are consistent with the liberalisation process. We are forecasting a growth rate of around 6% in 1994-95 and underlying rate of inflation of around 8% as unwinding of many administered prices take place in the first quarter of 1994-95. Current account may post a small surplus in the current fiscal year. Exports would rise by as much as 15% in dollar terms. Improving world trade volume and low crude oil prices are expected to give positive supply shock to the world economy which would benefit Indian exports. Total import value may not rise more than 5% in dollar terms due to a lower value of imports of petroleum products. Dumping of 'exit policy' plans has put industrial restructuring process in the slow land and therefore, generation of large number of permanent jobs in organised sector has got a set back for some time to come.

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Working Papers | 1994

A Note on Cost Monotonic Group Decision Mechanisms

Lahiri Somdeb

In this paper we study the problem of project selection as a group decision making problem and obtain a characterization of cost monotonic group decision mechanism. We furnish two examples of cost monotonic group decision mechanisms – the egalitarian mechanism and the egalitarian equivalent mechanism. The latter is shown to belong to the core of the group decision making problem. In the process of defining an egalitarian equivalent mechanisms we invoke the concept of a composite public good.

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Working Papers | 1994

Financial Sector Reform: Institutional and Technological Imperatives

Samir K. Barua and Jayanth R. Varma

This paper takes the view that financial sector reform is not only a matter of jettisoning old regulations nor even merely a matter of prudential regulation accompanying structural deregulation; it is intimately bound up with institutional and technological issues. On the basis of a detailed analysis of the stock market, debt market and the banking system the paper demonstrates the need for major institutional and technological changes in the Indian financial sector in order to face the challenges posed by liberalization and rapid growth. In our view, the government and regulatory authorities have an important role in facilitating this modernization. Not only should regulatory hindrances be removed, but there should be a positive bias in favour of change. We do believe that changes would take place even without regulatory support, but we also believe that regulatory intervention could hasten the process and make it less painful. This is because the technology is characterized by large externalities and often requires action at the industry level.

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Working Papers | 1994

Determining Lags in Export Supply Function in India

Ravindra H. Dholakia and Peru Muthu

This paper considers a partial adjustment model of the export supply function in Indian economy at the aggregate level. A minimum of one month and a maximum of 12 months is considered as the plausible range of the length of lags in exports supply in India with respect to both the independent variables – domestic production and real effective exchange rate. Instead of the distributed lag model, a specific lag in the two independent variables is simultaneously considered in the paper. Different lags in the two variables would yield alternative models for export supply in India. Since the methodology based on nested model is not likely to work efficiently in such cases, an alternative procedure is suggested here to select the most appropriate model which amounts to determining the lengths of the lags in the two independent variables in the export supply function. The paper uses monthly data on Indian exports and other variables for the period January 1982 to July 1993. It appears from the selected model that in Indian economy export supply response lags by 12 months with respect to domestic production and 5 months with respect to real effective exchange rate changes. The extra-sample forecast accuracy of the elasticity of export supply with respect to exchange rate changes before 5 months are 0.52 in the short run and 1.11 in the long run. It is hoped that the suggested method in the present paper is likely to work more efficiently than the nested model method of selecting the most appropriate regression model whenever a choice has to be made from among a set of highly collinear alternative independent variables.

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Working Papers | 1994

Technology Development in the Indian Foundry Industry: A Case of Choked Potential

Ramanarayan S

1174 The paper presents the results of a field study covering 25 foundries and 5 institutions involved in education, consultancy, and R&D in the foundry sector. The field study was supplemented by interviews with foundry experts in the country and a review of the literature on the Indian foundry industry. This report is an attempt to integrate the different ideas and view obtained from these sources on technology management in the Indian foundry industry. The paper begins with a brief history of the industry and its present form, size, and structure. It, then, presents a brief summary of a study of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research on the technology status in the Indian ferrous foundry industry. This is followed by a description of some of the key institutions concerned with technology development in the foundry sector and the problems faced by them. In the following two sections, the factors blocking technological learning and the factors contributing to technological upgradation are discussed. The report ends with a short summary and some concluding observations.

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Working Papers | 1994

Leaders in Action: Some Illustrations and Inferences

Ramanarayan S and Rao Ram Mohan

Cases of six outstanding organizational helmsmen who had successfully built up and nurtured enduring organizations form the leit-motif of this essay. These organizations are: the Oberoi chain of hotels built up to dizzying heights by Rai Bahadur Mohan Singh Oberio; the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, nurtured by Ravi John Mathai to a pride of place in higher education; the Ahmedabad Textile Industry's Research Association founded by Vikram Sarabhai as a unique industry-sponsored technology institution; Ralegaon Siddhi transformed by ex-army man Anna Hazare; the eucalyptus plantation movement inspired by Vinayak Rao Patil; and the SBI monolith as the prime mover of development banking under the stewardship of R.K.Talwar. following the glimpses of the organizations and the work of six leaders, the paper attempts to understand their role in a theoretical perspective distilling from disparate leadership conceptions and abstractions of John Kotter (distinction between leadership and management), Ake Philips (the intensity of purpose animating the leaders to act as “souls of fire”). Sooklal (leaders as “brokers of dreams”) Roger Harrison (leadership as involving creation of not only passion but also harmony) and Richard de Charms (notion of “origins” and “pawns”). The paper highlights the centrality of institution building in perpetuating the continuity of the best and the brightest of approaches, practices and norms initiated by them. The lasting tribute to leaders is that the culture, institutions and practices set in motion by them persist long after their own departure from the organizational scene. Whereas these organizations move on the imprints of these leaders continue to animate them.

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