D-UA.H

Downloader-UA.h is another one in the series of downloader viruses that have begun this month to unleash its fury onto the uninformed netizens in a perfect game of deceit. Many music and video websites, especially www.fastmp3player.com contain links to files like the following which are enough to attract the attention of adolescents and young adults for obvious reasons (as evident from the names): preview-t-3545425-adult.mpg, preview-t-3545425-changing times earth wind .mp3, et al. When a user attempts to load one of these MP3 and MPG files, they are directed to download a file named PLAY_MP3.exe. When the user downloads and runs PlayMP3.exe, a 4,800 word (End user License Agreement) is displayed. The installed file, PlayMP3.exe from PlayMP3.biz, in reality acts as a browser control wrapped in an exe, which loads a webpage running the Wimpy MP3 Flash player.

All the personal information of the user can be gathered and sent to unidentified locations over the internet on the activation of the Trojan. The best way to remove the virus is to switch off the System Restore utility in the Properties section of My Computer.

There were the five online pests that have destroyed many working PCs in the recent past. We pray, do keep away; rather, stay protected!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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1. Bajaj’s ‘Buland Bharat ki... humara Bajaj’ campaign
2. Amul’s ‘The Taste of India’ ad campaign
3. Vodafone’s campaign where the dog follows the little girl
4. LIC’s ‘Zindagi ke saath bhi, zindagi ke baad bhi’ campaign
5. Asian Paints’ ‘Wah! Sunil babu’ campaign

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A reality check on the “feel good” factory

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Brand: India Shining
Agency: Grey Worldwide

What began as a goodwill campaign transcended into a full-fledged election slogan. And while India Shining was unable to pull off an electoral win for the then ruling BJP; it nevertheless worked its magic on its original target audiences viz. the global community. India’s image as a land of snake charmers & elephants changed forever, thanks to that one campaign. TAM reports suggest that the Rs.500 crore campaign was aired 9,472 times on TV in December and January, next only to ads for the government’s polio campaign.

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A ‘Complete’ faux pas

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What comes to your mind when we say ‘The Complete Man’? With definite conviction, the answer is Raymond. Yes, for several decades, Raymond has been cajoling the desi Adams, through this phenomenally successful tagline. But it spelled disaster for it when suddenly, in the first half of 2007, the company decided to roll out woman’s suiting material. Agreed, that the company was trying to cash in on the credibility generated by the brand Raymond and venturing into woman’s suiting material was just a part of its brand extension strategy. But then, how on earth did Raymond planned to do it without doing away with its famous tagline. Even brand pundits would agree that a masculine positioning is strictly no for a feminine product. So what’s up with the venture now? That’s anybody’s guess!

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It developed entirely new food processing methods

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The burger conglomerate’s special relationship with its suppliers has a unique history. As McDonald’s Chairman Fred Turner expanded the chain in the 1970s, he came across a supply hurdle. The traditional food processing biggies of the industry were either unwilling or unable to supply the food goods that McDonald’s demanded. So, as journalist John F. Love points out in his book - McDonald’s:Behind the Arches – “It developed entirely new food processing methods” by relying on small suppliers. Over the years, the system’s suppliers have grown into some of the world’s largest food processors. Keystone Foods is now a $1billion company and the largest producer of hamburgers in the world; Jack Simplot has become the french fry king of the globe and Schreiber Foods supplies over 65% of the cheese consumed by McDonald’s annually. All these guys did was to shake hands with McDonald’s pioneer Ray Croc in the 1960s & ‘70s and the rest is history.

Decades later, when McDonald’s decided to hit the Indian market, it took them six years (and an investment of Rs.4 billion) to put their supply chain in place. The abundant caution seems to have paid off as today, it’s the only QSR brand in the country that has never been disrupted due to inadequate flow of products or lack of suppliers. The slowdown may be forcing some fast food chains in India to shut down loss-making stores, but McDonald’s is certainly not among them. As was the case globally, the key suppliers for McDonald’s even in India were relatively little know players till about a decade ago. Dynamix Dairies in Baramati (Maharashtra), for example is the key supplier of cheese to McDoanld’s restaurants and began as a largely cooperative movement in 1995. Schreiber, McD’s global cheese supplier gave the initial technological help and Dynamix today has become one of India’s largest dairy companies, with a more than 2.8 million lbs./day fluid line processing facility. Schreiber now also holds a 51% stake in the company. “We help our supply chain partners to grow along with us and even introduce them to our global partners for technological assistance and new processing methods,” explains Upadhye.

Besides, global supply partners like McCain (for frozen French fries) and Vista Processed Foods (for lettuce) have also entered India over the past few years. “McDonald’s helped us to come and set up our plant in India,” avers Jaideep Mukherji, Country Manager, McCain Foods India, which also supplies to Yum! Brands and Nirula’s. The reason why these suppliers have even caught the fancy of rival food chains is because of their quality and reliability. So how do they maintain the exclusivity of McDonald’s success recipe, we asked Vista, which is also a vendor for other 5-Star hotels. “Whatever we are manufacturing for McDonald’s, its exclusively for them and we don’t share it with anyone,” reverts Bhupinder Singh, CEO, Vista Processed Foods. When we visited the McDonald’s sprawling distribution center – run by Radhakrishnan Foodland (another vendor!) – located in Greater Noida, cartons of buns, cheese and eggs were lined up in sub-zero temperature (to lock nutrition), each labelled ‘Made for exclusive use of McDonald’s.’ In fact, McDonald’s is the only QSR chain that has a standing record of having the same logistics partner – Radhakrishnan Foodland Pvt Ltd - for more than a decade.

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An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Though exchange-operated currency futures are still at a nascent stage in India, it can go a long way in helping us duel with global risks and uncertainties

Although a risk management system to hedge the currency risk has long existed in India in form of over-the-counter (OTC) market, the ever-increasing frequency and scale of risk exposure has necessitated a more transparent and efficient mechanism in the country. To overcome this problem government decided to allow futures trading in currency beginning August 2008. Currency derivatives trading picked up since then beating the expectations of many.

The country’s derivatives turnover for 2007 was about 29 times its national commerce estimated at $440 billion. Though this is a significantly large figure, it falls fairly short of the size of the global derivatives market that was 40 times the international commerce of over $63 trillion in the same year.

The large size of the Indian derivatives market is very much commensurate with the country’s ever-growing exposure to various global risks, high price volatility, and an increased number of asset classes such as equities, commodities, and currencies. In this context, it is pertinent to look at the scale of risk only the traders are exposed to in terms of the price and exchange rate volatility. India’s international commodity trade for 2007-08 stood at more than $272 billion. With an annualised volatility at 14% as found in the composite index of prices (COMDEX) and 6% volatility in Indian rupee during the same period, Indian traders were exposed to a massive risk of $55 billion/annum due to commodity price and exchange rate fluctuations. It is quite evident that the unhedged positions with regard to either type of risk would mean a big blow to the competitiveness of traders. The recent development involving the palm oil importers amply illustrates this. The importers were caught on the wrong side of the fence by a sudden crash in the international benchmark prices by the time the forward contracts they had entered into matured for delivery. No wonder, they ended up defaulting on their import obligations, thus hurting their credibility in the global market.

The incident emphasises the need for hedging both price and exchange rate risks efficiently in order to stay competitive. As for hedging against the price risk, an efficient risk management instrument in the form of commodity futures has been available since 2003, thanks to the burgeoning growth and spread of the country’s online national commodity exchanges. However, despite a huge daily turnover of $34 billion in the OTC market, until August 2008 when the futures trading in currency was started, there had not been a transparent and efficient hedging avenue for entities facing the risk of exchange rate fluctuations.

The exchange-traded currency futures overcome many of the flaws that plague the OTC market. First, the exchange-traded currency futures offer a single quote for a specific contract to all the participants at any given point of time, while in the OTC market contract prices vary depending on the relationship between the issuer and the client. Second, the cost of trading at these fully transparent exchanges is relatively low. The high liquidity build-up on these state-of-the-art electronic exchanges, through the leveraging of their robust technology and best risk management practices, results in lower cost of participation and more efficient price discovery. Additionally, the counter-party-risk, which is a major limitation of the OTC market, is fully taken care of by the exchange operated derivatives.

These are, however, still very early days for the exchange-operated currency futures in India and the market has a long way to go. As they evolve along the way at par with other derivative markets, and as participation and product portfolio grows with the likely permission for the participation of increased number of heterogeneous stakeholders to come on board on the exchange platform attracted by relevant products, the benefits to businesses and the economy would multiply. No doubt, strengthening derivative markets would also make us more confident in taking on one of the major challenges of an open economy i.e. spreading global risks, in a seamless manner.

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The ark is sinking...

It had been a fair while. I wasn’t sure if she’d remember. But was she gorgeous… a flame haired beauty with the most soulful eyes in the world… though a child I was, I knew what I had felt then was something not far from the neighbourhood of love. Her name – Pinky, was the only dampener. Nothing against the name … just didn’t suit her. But I didn’t care… I remembered the first time we’d met… I remembered her touch… that gentle caress as she held my hand. No words, but we did have a moment there…

I burst through the gates and ran towards the doorway where I had last seen her… it had been a bit like that scene from “Dilwale…” She’d walked away into that dark corridor, and just before crossing into her cell, she had turned back… and looked… for a moment that had seemed like it would last an eternity, and it had… As I ran towards that same dark corridor, my heart beat to strange rhythms… there was joy, anticipation… and fear… it surprised me. It wasn’t an emotion I had expected… perhaps I was worried - would she still remember me? Would she still be there? Of course she would, I told myself… where could she go…?

Breathless and exhausted, and with my heart pounding away, I threw myself on the walls of the precinct and peered over the edge... she wasn’t there… I went around the back, towards the corridor… not there either. I walked up to the guard. He seemed bored… “Pinky?”, he pondered, and then, as he dragged the very last wisp of smoke from his bidi, he added “Woh toh gayi, sir… she’s gone.” Where to? I was shocked… was she… “Dead!” he said. “Ab to kaafi time hogaya…” I looked around at the empty cell in disbelief… my legs felt wobbly and I felt my eyes well over… the warm wet tears a strange comfort in the cold dry November winds… How could she die? She was only 15, young, even for an Orangutan… I trudged back through the zoo, back the way I’d come. I was sad and miserable. And the place seemed depressing… In that moment, I’d grown up and had begun to see the zoo for what it was…

I must have been 14 or so, but until that day, in a zoo, I’d been like Alice in Wonderland, enchanted by the proximity of beasts and birds, hitherto, unaware of the terrible crimes this institution had been committing on its inmates. And inmates they were, incarcerated for life and destined to die, well before their years, of illness and disease if lucky, or boredom if not. Pinky, I was told died of both… ....Continue

Writing on the wall

Unmet expectations lead to discontent, discontent to confrontation and long unsettled confrontation to wars. But thankfully, there also exist evidence of rationalisation and human goodness to counter this logic of wars. And it is so, more thankfully, not just in the hearts of an enlightened though voiceless few, but also in the minds of an articulate and creative fraternity of individuals.

This is how hopeful and secure I felt for all of us at the Jaipur Literary Festival this year. While last year, it was the prospect of meeting the creators of some eminently treasurable books and movies that got me going, this year was different. To begin with, the theme centering on “Terrorism, Fundamentalism and Pakistan”, as William Dalrymple mentioned, set a serious tone already. The first sounds of we-are-here-for-a cause resonated when I heard Nadeem Aslam, the young Pakistani-origin author of "The Wasted Vigil", address a jam-packed hall, “I had never seen myself in light of being a Muslim, but after 9/11, I did. I told myself that I am a Muslim and we look like this too. And, I thought, I am not going to let Osama Bin Laden define the way we Muslims are.” He said he was aware that “people down here (at the citizen level) know we are all the same but people up there (referring to the establishment) don’t” and was looking to bridge the gap by means of his writings. While he blamed many for injecting arms and weapons into third world countries like Afghanistan, Tarun Tejpal, head of the Tehelka news magazine and author of “The Story of My Assassins” overtly expressed anger against India, “How can you live in India and not be angry? If my book sounds it…I am happy.” Referring to the Bhagawad Gita as a book of choice for Indians that acts as the touchstone to discern the moral from the murky, he added, “We are the most complex and contentious society of the world. Hinduism’s strength is its weakness too. The good isn’t differentiated from bad the way it is in Islam and Christianity. We have an extraordinary gift of genuflecting to the rational and genuflecting to the irrational and see no contradictions between the two. Even the most brilliant thinkers and scientists are like that.” Clarifying to the audience about his differing stands as a journalist and a writer he said, “A journalist is like a warrior. He knows what’s right and wrong but to the same question an author may fumble and scribble and give a bigger picture. It is a great privilege to do both and there is no dissonance.” Certainly no mean task.....Continue

Lotteries won, but homes stay locked

But like everything else, recession has hit home and personal loan policies of all banks. Things are better for government servants but not for those in the private sector. In fact, a bank official says there are verbal orders asking banking officials not to sanction new loans if the loan seeker and guaranteer are both not in government service, and failure to pay up means the house would be have to be returned to the Mhada.

The situation worsened ever since Mhada came out with its Malvani offer. Thirty per cent of those who have won the lottery and have been allotted homes haven’t got their loans cleared, confided a Mhada official. Meanwhile, the builders have earned mega profits by exploiting customers, as the per square-foot rate put up by Mhada is 40 per cent less than the one offered by builders. Apparently, more than half of the profit margin goes to politicians and government offcials.

The recent mega scandal that has rocked Delhi Development Authority has shaken Mhada. And not taking any chances, Mhada is taking precautions by upgrading its lottery system.....Continue

Ain't nobody like this desi girl...

A lot is being said about how different you look? Is it plastic surgery?
It's just the confidence that comes from finding acceptance. When you're accepted you become more comfortable in your space. And that shows in your personality. Every actor goes through this metamorphosis and has shown it in the way he or she looks. Why am I being singled out? I've only now begun to understand camera angles. I know which side of my face and physique to present to the camera within the range of character.

When did this metamorphosis happen?
I think I grew conscious of my best angles and ability during "Drona". It actually began when I focused on looking like two different characters in "Love Story 2050". "Drona", "Fashion", "Dostana" and "Kaminey" made me realise my potential.

Did you enjoy working with Shahid Kapoor in Vishal Bhardwaj's "Kaminey"?
Oh he's a smashing actor.
I've already wrapped up "Kaminey". Now I'm shooting with Harman in "What's Your Raashee".

This has been the year of Priyanka Chopra?
The fact that my films did well made me happy. Every time my film flops, my heart breaks. Whether it was "Love Story 2050" or "Drona", I worked so hard on every project. I hate it when people say I've sleepwalked through a film. I've never had the chance to go to acting school. I've learnt everything I know about acting on the job. It took me a long time to come into my own. In 2008 I finally began to understand the craft of acting. I watch people like Kay Kay Menon and Jayaji on the sets and I feel I'm still taking baby steps.....Continue

Bachi Singh Rawat, BJP MP, Uttarakhand

Both his pair of school clothes – and he got only two pairs every year – would invariably have betel leaf-shaped patches on them. Trudging up and down hill tracts would see them get torn many times and so his mother would stitch those patches. “Now I make sure that all my clothes last at least 10 years!” says Bachi Singh Rawat. He adds, “On passing school, my father gifted me his wrist watch, which till date is my best prize and I still have it.”

Despite having donned the garb of the minister of state for defence, he has not made an increment of even a square yard in his father’s sparse farmland. But he is always aware of what grows on his two pieces of land in Thapla and Ranikhet. For he is in the farm most often to meet people when he visits home. He can be seen working on the land and even asks some visitors to put in a hand. He can barely stay in Delhi for than a month at a stretch. Then, he runs off to his native village for a clean hill breeze. After graduation, he studied law, during which he came under the strong influence of Jan Sangh, and later, via Janata Party, he came into BJP and became an MP in 1996. “My friends made in all these years fund my poll campaigns, which is why my expenses are so low. I don’t contest elections, my party comrades do.”

His monthly savings are Rs 40,000, but let that not startle you. “Our needs for my three-member family is just about Rs 20,000 a month, so the rest of my MP’s salary is saved, and I spend it on serving tea and snacks and paying for the travel expenses of the poorer people visiting him from his constituency.” As for the ADF, most of that is spent in upgrading schools in his locality.

Once he had been offered a big position and a fat purse to induce him to join Congress. “I told the person that my principles do not find echo in Congress party!”....Continue

This one's on the House

Though the rise of income has guaranteed food and clothing to the average Indians, a major portion of them still remain deprived of the third basic requirement – shelter. India has been unable to provide better, safe housing to its over 350 million middle-class population. And the demand is only increasing with another hundred million coming out of poverty, thanks to the high growth of corporate sector and its better economic performance. However, the exponential increase in demand for housing but slow pace of supply is widening the demand-supply gap rapidly, which clearly calls for immediate attention and intervention from the concerned authority.

A close analysis reveals a few basic maladies – bad management and inadequate regulations. To start with, average Indians are least motivated for home-credit, and somewhere it reflects the government’s failure to encourage people to opt for credit. Innumerable economic researches reveal that housing is one of the investment options which directly contribute to the economy in any situation. Well, our government and bureaucrats perhaps forgot that. The proportion of housing loan as a percentage of India's GDP went up from 3.4 per cent in 2001 to 7.25 per cent in 2006, yet it remains abysmally low when compared with other countries. The same in US is 54 per cent, 57 per cent in UK, 40 per cent in the European Union, and 37 per cent in Malaysia, according to the National Housing Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of RBI. Along with this, limitations in infrastructural development and geographical differences are other primary hassles.....Continue

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Setting the pace

The elephant moves slowly but firmly. Its motionless figure is often undistinguishable from the brown background of forests, especially in the summers, till one reaches well within its striking distance. Bahujan Samaj Party seems to have acquired some such qualities of its election symbol. The party doubled its vote share in all the four state Assembly elections in the Hindi heartland – Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi – touted as the semifinal before the General Elections due within next six months.

So will it repeat the feat in the finals as well – in the general elections that are due in six months time? It pretty well might. For consider: it took the BSP – founded in 1984 – four Assembly polls (with a single-digit tally each time), three Parliamentary elections and a pre-poll tie up with the Samajwadi Party in 1993 to make its presence felt in Uttar Pradesh. The party had brief stints at power there with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s support in 1995, 1997 and 2002, before it secured a complete majority in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election last year. Those who smirk at the BSP’s tally this time – two seats each in Delhi and Chhattisgarh, six in Rajasthan and seven in Madhya Pradesh – need to wake up to some facts that are not so clearly written on the political wall. Its vote share in Delhi rose to 12; in Madhya Pradesh to 11; in Rajasthan to eight; and in Chhattisgarh to six.

Significantly, all these states have traditionally been two-party states, with almost no space for a third party. The Bahujan Samaj Party still bagged well over 10,000 votes in nearly half of the constituencies it contested in Delhi, and a quarter of those it did in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. “In Delhi, it demolished the notion that the BSP would damage only the Congress,” conceded a senior BJP leader, who naturally did not wish to be named. And he added that but for the BSP, the Congress would almost certainly have registered an even more emphatic win in Rajasthan than it eventually did.....Continue

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Dmitry’s tango in us backyard

Russian President’s visit to South America may well have been pegged as intended to unfasten business prospects for Russian business interests, but in reality it was to demonstrate that Moscow could manoeuvre in the US backyard in the midst of apprehension over Washington's interest in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Dmitry Medvedev wrapped up a week-long tour of Latin America last week with a meeting with Fidel Castro premeditated to reinstate a coalition and reinforce his country's position in the region.

Earlier last week, Medvedev and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez together gave the preliminary shot for a combined marine exercise in the Caribbean. The two nations also signed a nuclear collaboration accord. Also, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is visiting Ecuador to talk about nuclear collaboration with Quito.

Analysts say Russia wishes to reinforce ties with socialist regimes in Latin America in retort to US procedure to build a missile shield in Eastern Europe. Medvedev is the first Russian President to visit Cuba since 2000. Russian representatives refute that Medvedev's trip is intended to aggravate the US, but the voyage incorporated get-together with Washington's staunchest adversaries in the region.....Continue

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Inclusive growth needs to be given one more fillip to help arrest ultra movements

While the politicians are expected to do no better, what is, indeed, disturbing is that even our intellectuals, media experts and/or political analysts sometimes begin to speak their language. That’s how this dominant, hegemonic political discourse becomes a form of social and intellectual discourse, too. Sometimes, I’m compelled to believe that Bollywood offers a much better, sharper and more critical understanding of our social and political issues than our politicians, media experts and analysts put together.


Neeraj Pandey’s recent movie, “A Wednesday”, scores over several other movies on the familiar theme of ‘terrorist violence’ for two different reasons. One, because it helps us understand that one should never underestimate either the patience or the anger of a common man. If pushed too far, he may choose to find his own weird solutions to the growing menace of terrorism. Two, because it succeeds in putting human face on terror, almost inviting us to sympathise with the ‘characters’ we have only learnt to hate over the years. Neeraj Pandey doesn’t leave us in any doubt that the real question is not whether the terrorist is a Hindu or a Muslim, because he only practices the ‘religion of hatred and terror,’ something that all religions unequivocally denounce. The real question is that a terrorist, too, was a human being much before he became a terrorist. In other words, it’s the denial of social justice coupled with economic deprivation that often compels a human being, regardless of his religion, to pick up the gun. In a way, when an individual takes to terrorism, he is making a loud statement. He wants to scream and tell the society: ‘You have pushed me into the oblivion, and here I return, in my new found anonymity to throw your orderly, patterned lives into absolute ruin and anarchy.’ Terrorism is the last outpost of a civil society, triggered off by the failure of dialogue between the citizen and the state, especially when the state fails to deliver. It’s an utterly helpless scream of those citizens who wish to be heard and seen, even ready to enter a system that delivers or assures them a decent place in the mainstream. Be it Kashmir or Nagaland, Assam or Punjab, ‘terrorism’ has reared its ugly head in all those places where the process of development has given common people a miss, or wherever it has substantively failed to transform the lives of the people at the grassroots. Rather than indulge in useless rhetoric, let us give development and inclusive growth one last chance. Also let us give our people, no, not just vague promises (for they have had surfeit of these already), but a genuine reason to believe that justice is possible for all, regardless of their status, position, caste or religion. Who knows, somewhere it may help us minimise, if not eliminate, the ‘horrendous impact’ of this ‘national problem’!...Continue

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