India must move beyond outsourcing label: World media

NEW DELHI, Oct 24: The global media perceives India as shaking off isolationist, self-sufficiency mindset, embracing globalisation, even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the high priest of economic reforms, continues to push forward his agenda despite resistance from the Left parties.

But India needs to talk more about other strengths to take it beyond outsourcing label, according to the first-ever global study of media perceptions of India.

India is perceived by the world’s media as a country that has "thrown off its isolationist, self-sufficiency mindset for the most part, is no longer wary of western influences and is embracing globalisation. But there is the need for planned and sustained communications that take India beyond the outsourcing label," says the study.

Interviews conducted by Edelman and its India partner R PMC with journalists in 10 major cities across the US, Europe and Asia indicate that India enjoys a very strong reputation among media. However, India’s Share of Voice (SOV) in the US media is dwarfed by China (46 per cent), which has a 3-1 advantage over India (14 per cent).

The contrast gets even more striking, as an analysis of content shows that one out of every four stories on India is about outsourcing, whereas only one out of every 16 stories on China is about outsourcing.

The findings were presented recently to the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM), the international advertising association and select CEOs by Richard Edelman, president and CEO of Edelman, the world’s largest independent public relations firm.

Mr Edelman said the findings were significant in that they indicated "a continuity in the reforms process even with the change of Government in the world’s largest democracy." He added that India and Indian companies "have a strategic imperative to reach out to all critical stakeholders to ensure the market is seen in the appropriate mode of sustainable growth."

Offering a regional perspective, Edelman Asia-Pacific president Alan Vandermolen said, "the comparisons to China are certainly natural. However, the emphasis of multinationals in the region should be to concentrate on how to leverage relationships across both of these markets, instead of looking at them as competitive for investment dollars."

R PMC chief executive officer Roger C B Pereira said the study was invaluable in that it highlighted the growing importance of India. "Current perceptions are dominated by India’s it prowess. It is time that the world sees India’s other strengths, be it in automotive, biotechnology, steel, banking, intellectual capital, our democratic institutions, pharma, textiles, tourism and emerging areas like medical R D. We need to drive perceptions closer to reality."

The study perceives India as having stronger five-year plus prospects and places it in a different class from other emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, Poland and Mexico.

Brazil is perceived as just beginning economic reforms, Russia’s economy as still weak and its Government as autocratic, while Poland and Mexico are way behind in perceptions of emerging markets even in Europe and the US.

India is perceived as excelling in high tech (96 per cent of those interviewed), software (44 per cent), textiles (40 per cent), pharmaceutical sector (32 per cent), call centres (17 per cent), automotive (16 per cent) and consumer products (16 per cent).

The survey indicates that India needs to emphasise its strong management expertise (having a corporate executive leadership with a vision for the future), transparency, corporate governance and leadership role in corporate social responsibility.

Media perceptions indicate that emerging markets are closing in on India s dominance in BPO and posing a threat with the Philippines offering a lower cost structure, Mexico and Canada offering greater proximity to the US, and Ireland and South Africa being closer to Europe.

It says India’s key advantages over other emerging markets lie in its educated, English-speaking young workforce, a democratic and business-friendly Government (despite administrative hurdles in the transition process), a low cost structure and an eager and savvy consumer market with growing buying potential.

India’s downsides are perceived in infrastructure (35 per cent), transportation (35 per cent), financial services (30 per cent), pharmaceuticals (20 per cent), manufacturing (20 per cent), automobiles (15 per cent), heavy industry (15 per cent) and its poverty (14 per cent).

In a detailed analysis of India’s sector-wise strengths, the study says both international and Indian media agreed that it is a strength (over 80 per cent across countries). However, there is a difference of opinion on India’s prowess in the pharmaceutical and auto sectors.

Media in Asia (69 per cent), EU (73 per cent) and the US (50 per cent) believe that India is strong in pharma in contrast to the Indian media (30 per cent). In the auto sector, 60 per cent of Indian media felt that the country is strong, whereas international media held exactly the opposite view, with the lowest opinion held by Asian media (7 per cent) followed by EU (18 per cent) and the US (20 per cent).

On whether Indian corporates doing business in their country are transparent in business conduct, only 33 per cent of the US media agreed. But only 17 per cent of the US media believe that MNCS doing business in India are transparent and adhere to high standards of corporate governance.

Interestingly, 67 per cent of the US media believe that Indian companies doing business overseas are transparent and follow high standards of corporate governance. (UNI)

Khurana to resign as Rajasthan Governor today

NEW DELHI, Oct 24: Rajasthan Governor Madan Lal Khurana, whose continuance at the Raj Bhavan has been a matter of speculation for quite sometime, will resign tomorrow.

He told PTI over phone from Jaipur that he will arrive in the capital tomorrow morning and after meeting some well wishers will hand over his resignation letter to President A P J Abdul Kalam at 1.45 pm.

The senior BJP leader and former Delhi Chief Minister had earlier survived in the post when the UPA Government had sacked nda appointed Governors for alleged links with RSS.

Khurana who was keen to return to Delhi politics, is understood to have got clearance from the BJP high command.

Khurana was made Rajasthan Governor in January this year after he resigned as Delhi BJP chief following the party’s drubbing in Assembly elections in December last year.

He had hesitantly accepted the assignment given by the NDA Government but was keen to return to active politics of Delhi, which he considers his "temple."

After the BJP’s setbacks in Delhi in the Lok Sabha elections Khurana had expressed his desire to the BJP high command to return to capital politics to help stregnthen the party. But had been told that he could take the step only after the Assembly elections in Maharashtra.

Recently after the controversy over relocation of industries in Delhi, several aggrieved people met him in Jaipur and requested him to take up their cause, the sources told PTI adding this was a major reason for his decision to quit as Governor.

The former Delhi Chief Minister, who is keen to return to active politics, had arrived here on Friday and is believed to have met some the top BJP leadership to convey his intention to quit.

Khurana, considered close to new BJP president L K Advani, is understood to have made up his mind to resign before the new team of office-bearers of the main opposition party is formed by October 27, they said. (PTI)

Lal Bahadur Shastri’s house to be turned into museum

NEW DELHI, Oct 24: From the overcoat he wore in tashkent to the pen he used in signing the historic peace declaration with Pakistan on that fateful day of January, 1966 as also the car he bought on loan after he became Prime Minister will be part of the memorabilia at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Museum that will open here next month.

The address - 1, Motilal Nehru place, where Shastri moved in 1952 as Railway Minister in Jawahar Lal Nehru’s cabinet and lived for rest of his life except for a brief period of 8 months, is being converted into a memorial of the late Prime Minister coinciding with his birth centenary celebrations.

Lending a glimpse into the simple life that Shastri led, a part of the house, including his bedroom, drawing room, ‘pooja’ (prayer) room and lawns that he used to take strolls, are being reconstructed with the help of photographs to resemble what they looked like in those times.

"Furniture, photographs, other personal belongings are being arranged as they were on January 11, 1966, the day he died. This section of the museum will be called `period rooms’," said the late premier’s son and senior Congress leader Anil Shastri.

The museum, being put together by national museum in association with Central Public Works Department, and which will be managed by the Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial Trust, will have a section for Shastri’s personal memorabilia.

"Among the memorabilia will be the overcoat he wore in Tashkent, the pen that he signed the historic peace treaty with and also the fiat car that he bought on loan in 1964 after he became Prime Minister," Shastri said.

Anil Shastri informed that the car, bought with a loan of Rs 12,000 from Punjab National Bank, is still in working condition.

He said the trust has written to a number of people who have articles like books and photographs so that those can also be kept at the museum.

"The house is symbolic of the ideals that my father believed in. It was shorn of any opulence. There were no carpets in any of the rooms, except for one ordinary carpet that was kept in the drawing room," Shastri said.

"The place stands as a symbol of the personal integrity and simplicity of my father," he said.

Shastri’s wife Lalita lived in the house till her death in 1993 and the rest of the family continued to live there for a few more years.

The Central Government decided to convert the house into a museum after around 200 MPs wrote to it two years back asking for a memorial to be constructed there.

Work on converting the address into a museum began shortly afterwards, and coinciding with the late Prime Minister’s birth centenary celebrations this year, it will be opened in November. (PTI)

Thousands still await freedom from bonded labour

CHENNAI, Oct 24: As many as 24,933 identified bonded labourers, involved in agriculture, gem cutting, beedi making, silk weaving, brick kilns, making matches, rice mills and quarrying, are yet to be rescued and rehabilitated in Tamil Nadu.

Citing the findings of NGOs as per an order of the Supreme Court, Society for Abolition of Bondedness (SAB) secretary K Chandra Sekar said though 37,706 bonded labourers were identified by the Government between 1997 and 2003, it took six years to rescue 12,773 of them.

He said it might take another 12 years to rescue the remaining labourers and would cost the Government Rs 2,000 crore for their rehabilitation.

Mr Sekar said the number of cases filed against the employers for practising bonded labour system was 762 and only 676 of them had been punished. Against the actual punishment of three years imprisonment and Rs 2,000 fine, they were only awarded an imprisonment of two weeks, he added.

Stating that those who did not get minimum wages as stipulated by the Apex Court guidelines were also bonded labourers, he said on this basis, two crore employees working in unorganised sectors in Tamil Nadu would also come under the bonded labour system.

Mr Sekar said a study conducted among 550 rescued and rehabilitated labourers revealed that 345 people were unable to utilise the rehabilitation assistance for lack of guidance and 72 went back as bonded labourers to old employers.

Of them, 28 lost their rehabilitation assistance to their employers, he claimed.

As many as 99 people became bonded labourers under new employers, he said and added that 44 per cent of labourers belonged to the Scheduled Caste, 26 per cent to the most Backward Class, 24 per cent to the Backward Class and six per cent to the Scheduled Tribes.

Lack of stringent action against employers of bonded labourers, vesting the power to handle the bonded labour system with Revenue Divisional Officers who were already overburdened with other responsibilities, initiating rescue act without proper planning of rehabilitation activities, lack of follow up action after rehabilitation and non-coordination among Government departments in dealing with bonded labourers were some of the reasons for the continuance of bonded labour system, he said.

Non-appointment of a competent authority to handle the problem and not caring for the loopholes in the Bonded Labour (abolition) Act were also major factors for the continuance of the menace, Mr Sekar claimed.

Mr Sekar suggested an alternative scheme to provide the labourers a permanent bondage-less life, without affecting the employers and without costing the Government huge expenditure on rehabilitation.

Besides maintaining attendance register, pay register, over time register and pay receipts for a good relationship between the employer and the employees, the industries should also provide them basic rights along with minimum wages as recommended by the Labour Welfare Act.

He said the employer who violated the above mentioned conditions should be compulsorily punished with three years of imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 2,000. In addition, the employee should pay Rs 20,000 to every Bonded Labourer released from his custody and if he refused, his property should be confiscated.

The Government should ensure that employers had registered their industries with the local administration, the electricity board, Labour Department and District Industrial Centre.

The Labour Welfare Act should be amended to plug the loopholes so as to stress punishments for employers who refused basic rights to labourers, Mr Sekar said and also suggested the separation of the Labour Court from other courts and vesting special powers with it to enable it to dispose of cases quickly and efficiently. (UNI)

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