Of Trees & Rain

Among the various problems that India faces, the most serious problem is that of misuse of natural resources. Today our country is having a vast mineral, forest & water resource. Our nation has suffered huge loses both economically & socially. The major problem now is drought & if the forest & mineral resources would have been utilized properly there would have been a huge generation of employment & revenues.

In India the areas of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh & Orissa are severe drought affected region. If we analyze the data we can find that it’s rural India that is most affected. The rural population largely depends on the natural resource. Due to drought there is a sharp decline of resources. This has serious implications on the economic & social front.

Drought in India is the result of poor water management since no sincere effort is made to conserve the rainwater. This also results in poor agriculture. Simultaneously, there are huge deforestations going on. Houses and factories are set up not realizing the after effects. The most important reason for all this problem is the lackadaisical attitude of government & misuse of govt. funds.

Inspite of all odds there are some examples where people have got together to show that concerted efforts by dedicated people does lead to economic resurrection and prosperity. Rajiv Gandhi Water Shed and several NGO’S have come to the forefront to improve the situation.

“ Every cloud has a silver lining”, that’s what the people of a small village in the Alwar district of Rajasthan has proved. The village is recognized for its outstanding contribution to rainwater harvesting. People built mud dams or “johads” to stop wasteful drain of rainwater.

Afforestation was carried out. Uncultivable land was converted to cultivable land.

Illegal felling of trees should be stopped. The natural resources like minerals should be utilized properly. Govt. should take measures to stop the pilferage of minerals. There should not be any slack time of collection & delivery of raw materials to the industry. So above all 3 points have to be remembered: -

Economic well being of a community of a country is related to the natural resource.

Decentralization & people participation are always essential.

Literacy & awareness among the village folks is essential.

Govt. should take up the following measures: -

o Implementation & monitoring of the programmes.
o Making the water management policy more equitable.
o There should be full financial & legislative support.
o Emphasizing the significance of interdepartmental cooperation for a successful programme.

Such developmental policies have already taken place in Rural India. But there is need to make this an all-encompassing movement to prevent further loss. Effective management of the natural resource will lead to reduction of poverty & generation of employment.

Mainak Gupta, Offline (The Material World Online Management Journal) Volume-4, No- 7, June 2006

The State of The Mind

Psychology – Scientific study of human & animal behavior and mental processes.

Behavior-Anything that a person does (writing, thinking, etc.)

Behavior may be overt meaning anything that is observable and measurable or covert, something that cannot be measured e.g. mental representation of the world, i.e. memory, strategies, and attitudes.

Modern Schools of Psychology

Psychodynamic approach- this is concerned with motives, conflicts and other forces that influence over behavior. The guiding factor being that most things are done in the unconscious state. Understanding just how much our world was changed because of Freud's work can just be difficult to grasp (or worth an MW debate!), but fact is we are immersed in a world of Freudian concepts. Every time we make reference to doing something "unconsciously", or refer to someone as having a big "ego", we are after all using Freudian terms.

Behavioral Approach: (Erickson, Skinner, Watson et al) – According to Watson, people learn by conditioning. Examples: going to school; induction process for a new corporate recruit. Infact, Watson claimed that psychology was not concerned with the mind or with human consciousness.

Skinner said that people learn by re-enforcement.

According to studies:

* It takes 30 days for our brain to establish or understand a new idea or concept.
* At around 90 days of consistent behavior, a new fragile pattern starts to run automatically.
* Miss a day during this 90-day training period and the brain kicks back to day one.
* At a year your new lifestyle is stable and you have new behaviors that you will find pleasant and comfortable. This new pattern is not like the old behaviors of the past. Your new habits continue to need low-level re-enforcement on into the future or they will revert back to the old ones.

Humanistic Psychology/Phenomenological (Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslowe et al)

Here we are talking about Problems, Potential & Ideals. Humanists reject the Freudian idea that unconscious forces rule personality. Humanists have immense faith in human nature. They say that human nature is in general good (what does law keepers have to say about this?). Though this school has gone (and is going) through lot of flux, the most notable contribution is Maslowe’s "hierarchy of needs."

Cognitive Approach: Proponents of the cognitive approach say that what people think will affect what they do. This approach is concerned with thinking, knowing, understanding, and information processing. Cognitive approach, thus, has special significance for educators/trainers. The following link may be of interest to readers: http://faculty.washington.edu/krumme/guides/bloom1.html

Neurobiological Approach: According to this school there are psychological processes that’ll explain behavior. Influence of hormones and genes are predominant. For e.g., a victim of an accident may undergo some behavioral changes. More than anything, neurobiological approach is useful in providing basic data for Cognitive Psychology.

(Credits: Prof W. Slater, my Psychology Professor at Ohio, US, whose discourses acquainted me to the power of the human mind)

Rajib Kumar, Offline (The Material World Online Management Journal) Volume-4, No- 7, June 2006

Material World Anniversary Debate Series 2006

MW instituted the Material World Anniversary Management/Tech Debate Series in 2004. The theme of the 1st in the series was “Good Managers Need Not Be B School Graduates” and the second was “For the Indian-Commerce Is A Far Off Dream”.

August 31, 2004 – Topic “Good Managers Need Not Be B School Graduates”

Chief Guest: Mr. Dipak Rudra, Fmrly, Transport Secretary, Govt of West Bengal
Speakers: Dr. G D Gautama, Principal IT Secretary, Govt of WB, Mr. D P Patra, Jt. MD, MCC PTA Corp Pvt Ltd, Mr. Santanu Bhattacharya, Executive Director (Materials), CESC Ltd etc.

August 31, 2005 – Topic “ For the Indian, E-Commerce Is A Far Off Dream”

Chief Guest: Prof (Dr.) Sujit Basu, Vice Chancellor, Vishwa Bharati University
Speakers: Ms. Preeti Desai, President, Internet & Mobile Association of India, Dr. G D Gautama, Principal IT Secretary, Govt of WB, Mr. Khokan Mookerji, Secretary General, Bengal Chambers of Commerce & Industry, D K Chaudhuri, CEO, Skytech Solutions, Dr. Abhijit Sen, Past President, Bengal Chambers etc.



MATERIAL WORLD ANNIVERSARY DEBATE SERIES 2006- August 31, 2006

For India Inc, Corporate Social Responsibility is Just another Jargon

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an expression used to describe what some see as a company’s obligation to be sensitive to the needs of all of the stakeholders- in its business operations -and that includes subsidiaries and affiliates, partners, local neighborhood, investors and shareholders.
CSR is closely linked with the principles of "Sustainable Development" in proposing that enterprises should be obliged to make descisions based not only on the financial factors but also on the social and environmental consequences of their activities.

CSR policies should ideally be built on transparency, stakeholder dialogue, and integrity in the conduct of business.

Today’s heightened interest in the proper role of businesses in society has been promoted by increased sensitivity to environmental and ethical issues. Issues like environmental damage, improper treatment of workers, and faulty production leading to customers inconvenience or danger, are highlighted in the media. In many advanced nations government regulations regarding environmental and social issues have become stringent in recent years. Again, some investors and investment fund managers have begun to take account of a corporation’s CSR policy in making investment decisions. Further, some consumers have become increasingly sensitive to the CSR performance of the companies from which they buy their goods and services. These trends have contributed to the pressure on companies to operate in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable way. But is India Inc doing enough?

Internationally, many corporate houses now bring out annual reports describing how they fared on the environmental and social responsibilities front. McDonald, as an example, participates in the National Spring Clean Campaign and in 1989 they set up the Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities. Among other things, this charity funds around 200 “Ronald McDonald Houses”, which provide free accommodation to the families of children in hospital. There other companies as well like BP, Body Shop, which report annually on environmental and social initiatives.

It is easy to imagine the improved standards our social environment could flourish in, when corporations overwhelmingly decide to step forward with investments in shouldering obligations on social investment more eagerly. Not that this ancient land is being exposed to the concept of corporate social responsibility for the first time. Or, the concept itself is a phenomenon being borrowed from the west ever since globalization has taken on the fast track. Ancient Indian history has innumerable instances of businessmen and traders taking up community benefit projects all on their own, to ensure that the community gets a share of the monetary gains businesses make, in the form of better life. Even Chanakya the economist, had advocated reinvestment of wealth in the community for social progress. So where and when did we Indians misplace our conscientious identity? Is it attitudinal indifference or is it simply the ignorance and nonchalance syndrome. Indian entrepreneurs have the best of corporate minds and stand shoulder to shoulder with the finest breed in the world. They are the living legends. They are not just industrialists but they are also men with a mission – to do good to society. But are they doing enough on this?

Industrial safety, supporting local development and combating poverty, AIDS and environmental stewardship are some of the critical challenges that India Inc face today.

CSR is a relatively new term to have found increasing international legitimacy as today’s way of doing business. In developing countries, this term is widely used by the corporate to convince the people that things have changed and that a new ethical global business practice is underway. However, the ground realities show that industry’s idea of ethical business has not changed much from the days of Union Carbide disaster of 1984. In March 2000, a leading MNC’s high profile India operations was found to have dumped over 300 MT of mercury outside its plant at Kodaikanal in South India (Source toxicslink.org)
On the other hand companies like Canon India says in its website that it understands its Social Responsibility as a good Corporate Citizen and endeavors to make meaningful contributions to the society in several areas like Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief, Social Welfare and Conservation of Environment.

CSR, if applied in its true sense, can be an opportunity of bringing a level of accountability into the business.

For business associations & advertisements in Annual Offline (the MW e-zine) # 2 please call Silajit – 09433116526/ Dipannita – 9831213393or mail at events@materialworldind.com

RELATIONSHIP EXERCISE

A lady walked into a drug store and told the pharmacist she needed some cyanide. The pharmacist asked, "Why in the world do you need cyanide?"
The lady then explained she needed it to poison her husband. The pharmacist's eyes got big and he said, "Lord have mercy, I can't give you cyanide to kill your husband! That's against the law! I'll lose my license... They'll throw both of us in jail and all kinds of bad things will happen! Absolutely not! You can NOT have any cyanide!"

Then the lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband having dinner in a restaurant with pharmacist's wife.

The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied, "Well, now... You didn't tell me you had a prescription".

Offline Humor, Inaugural Edition, June 2006

Marriage Musings

All abt marriage!!Man before marriage and when in love - Superman. Immediately after marriage -Gentleman. 10 years after marriage - Doorman 20 years after marriage - Doberman ³
Every man should get married some time; after all, happiness is not the only thing in life!! --Anonymous³
Bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others. --Oscar Wilde³ Don't marry for money; you can borrow it cheaper. --Scottish Proverb³
I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two years. --Sam Kinison³
A psychiatrist is a person who will give you expensive answers that your wife will give you for free. --Anonymous³
Men have a better time than women; for one thing, they marry later; for another thing, they die earlier. --H. L. Mencken³
Marriage is a three-ring circus: ---engagement ring ---wedding ring ---suffering³
When a newly married couple smiles, everyone knows why. When a ten-year married couple smiles, everyone wonders why. ³
Love is blind but marriage is an eye-opener. ³
When a man opens the door of his car for his wife, you can be sure of one thing: either the car is new or the wife.I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back.³
I asked my wife, "Where do you want to go for our anniversary?" She said, "Somewhere I have never been!" I told her, "How about the kitchen?"³
We always hold hands. If I let go, she shops.³
She ran after the garbage truck, yelling, "Am I too late for the garbage?"³
Following her down the street I yelled, "No, jump in!" ³Bachelors know more about women than married men; if they didn’t, they’d be married too. --H.L.Mencken ³
*She got a mudpack and looked great for two days. *Then the mud fell off. ³
If your dog is barking at the back door and your wife is yelling at the front door, who do you let in first?³
The Dog of course..........at least he'll shut up after you let him in!³
" Marriage is a romantic story, in which hero dies in the first chapter.³
It was told, "Marriages are made in heaven…but so are thunders.

(Sent by Rajesh Poddar, Calicut Engg Works Ltd)

Offline Humor, Inaugural Edition, June 2006