ICFAI Books – förlag

This book provides a comprehensive and critical approach to the study of the discipline. It emphasises the need to effectively integrate human resource with the wider strategic management issues of the organisation. Peter Drucker with his uncanny futuristic vision had predicted that the 21st century would belong to the knowledge worker. People management is central to the thinking and practice of management today. While human relations are largely shaped by the philosophy of trust and fairness, the operational HR aspects like recruitment, training, appraisal and reward management have necessarily to be aligned with operating environment that is intensely knowledge oriented. The first generation HR concepts and tools will obviously be out of place and they must be made relevant to the needs of the 21st century. One-size-fits-all approach that has questionable relevance must yield place to a more responsive and forward-looking HR Policies and procedures that take note of the cultural, organisational and demographic diversity and offer more customised solutions that have strategic relevance for a modern organisation. Knowledge has shifted from its ivory tower existence and is generated contextually for products and services that have commercial implications. HRM has to make a radical shift in the management of people. The collection of these articles attempts to focus on how a firm with a higher level of employee commitment can contribute significantly to the organisational effectiveness.

This book aims at presenting to the reader important concepts relating to Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and how these concepts are being applied in different industries. Part I of the book covers concepts. Part II illustrates these concepts through case studies, featuring well-known companies in different industries. These include Wipro, Dell, Infosys, Polaris, CISCO and Microsoft in the IT industry, Toyota, Ford, General Motors, and PSA Peugeot Citroen in the Automobile industry and Siemens, Honeywell, Agilent Technologies and Nokia in Telecom and Electronics. There are also case studies on companies from other industries. These include Rolls Royce, Boeing, POSCO, Barrick and Statoil. Risk is all about vulnerability and taking steps to reduce it. Several factors contribute to this vulnerability. Unfortunately, much of the focus of risk management has been on movements in interest rates, exchange rates, commodity prices and stock index. The risk management agenda has been hijacked by investment bankers, corporate treasurers and insurance companies and dominated by the use of financial derivatives and insurance cover. Not only that, a silo approach has resulted in a piecemeal approach towards risk management. ERM which is an integrated approach to risk management, addresses some fundamental questions: What are the various risks faced by a company? What is the magnitude of each of these risks? What is the frequency of each of these risk? What is the relationship between the different risks? How can the risks be managed in an integrated way to maximise shareholder's wealth? This book examines the various risks which organisations face and how they can be managed in a holistic manner in the best interest of the organisation.

The rapid pace of globalisation has made it mandatory for the company globally while describing their market, corporate strategy, resource utilisation, operations and HR practices. Cross-cultural differences add a new dimension to the traditional HRM practices. There has been a growing interest in Global HRM among academicians as well as practitioners for the following reasons: Increased mobility of human resources across the nations due to globalisation; poor performance or failure by expatriates in foreign assignments costing global firms heavily. The success of an international business mainly depends on the effective management of HR. Due to cultural differences across the nations, management of global workforce poses various challenges to human resource Managers. In this book, the concept of Global Human Resource Management and the various issues and challenges involved are highlighted. Case studies on Global Human Resource Management in many global organisations are also briefly discussed in the book.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is the hottest auto identification technology that is rapidly emerging as the preferred solution for keeping a tab on people, products, objects and vehicles. Adoption of this revolutionary technology is expected to drastically change the way the organisations manage their inventory, manufacturing, logistics, asset tracking, supply chain and retail environments, while transforming a whole range of industries. This book is an attempt to throw light on the extensive applications of RFID, while bringing out a few exemplary cases highlighting the RFID initiatives across various industries. The book comprises articles providing breakthrough insights into the broad arena of RFID applications across various business processes or functions and within specific industries. Owing to the ongoing technological advances, emerging trends, practices and regulations, besides the ever-lasting need to optimise process/functional efficiency, adoption of advanced technologies such as RFID is crucial. The book offers valuable insights to the executives and managers of manufacturing, healthcare, logistics and other organisations. Besides, academicians, researchers and students of business management and technology can find out immense learning value that makes them better understand the far-reaching applications of RFID.

This book looks at a few indicative aspects of rural infrastructure facilities in India, without which the dream of achieving a sustainable economic development would remain a dream only. The objective of this book is to look at rural infrastructure in all its aspects and present examples of how various parts of the country as well as comparable developing countries have resolved the problems and emerging issues. The book throws up a few ideas about how private infrastructure can be financed and managed. The problems of rural infrastructure provision are different from those of the urban, given the smaller size, density and per capita incomes of rural agglomerations. It is necessary, therefore, to have a public-private partnership where innovations are developed and a "stretching" of incentives provided by the government through suitable leveraging would help to direct private investment towards these disadvantaged areas. It is hoped, that the book would be useful to practitioners in NGO's, State and Central Departments, delivery wings of national and International Agencies as well as leading academic and training Institutions. All efforts have been made to select aspects of Rural Infrastructure, which are practical and related to the ground level reality in India, and also to discus these ground level issues (where possible, with successful examples in India or in comparable countries).

This book is about how Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is evolving in the financial services industry. Key risk management issues facing financial service firms include: Risk Governance, Regulatory and Economic Capital, Credit Risk Management, Market Risk and Asset/Liability Management, Operational Risk Management, Risk Systems and Technology. ERM is being used by financial institutions seeking better decision-making, greater shareholder value, and stronger internal controls. ERM can simultaneously improve a company's financial performance, manage its risk profile and provide better risk disclosures to boards, shareholders, regulator, and rating agencies. It is not only external pressures (such as Sarbanes Oxley), which are giving an impetus to ERM, but also a growing realisation within companies that it can be used as a tool for creating shareholder value. The growing seriousness of ERM initiatives is also helping to formalise the linkage between a company's business operations and its overall risk management program. This first part of the book covers conceptual issues. The second illustrates these concepts, using case studies on well known financial institutions such as, Lehman Brothers, Royal Bank of Canada, ING Group, Comerzbank, Lloyds TSB, BNP Paribas, ABN AMRO, Credit Suisse, DBS Group, Dresdner Bank, Bank of Scotia, Standard Chartered andAmerican Express. It is hoped that the book will be very useful to students, academics and bankers, wanting to know more about ERM.

Intellectual property rights are based upon the primary issues of capturing the unique ideas of an individual or a group. When the idea is captured into a form of an intellectual asset, it gains great value in terms of the company turnover as well as it gives the company a competitive edge. Intellectual properties are primarily in the form of copyrights, trademarks, patents and industrial designs. A registered intellectual property assigns exclusive rights to the inventor. India has been rich by way of traditional knowledge and research. However, due to the fact that it is mostly undocumented and the laws of patents are not very conducive, India has not been able to gain by way of intellectual property. The Patents Act 1970, where process patents were granted, replaced the British Regime Act, but was not successful in increasing the knowledge wealth of the nation. The various amendments of 1999, 2002 and 2005 have been able to remove some lacunae in our legislation. The Indian laws have been amended to comply with the provisions of the TRIPS agreement, but have not been able to take advantage of its flexibility. The law could have been much better drafted to suit the national interest. With the passage of time and implementation of the Patent regime, India can look forward to more litigations and consequent judicial pronouncements than the number of sections in the Acts. Knowledge is economic strength and India is losing out on this front due to lack of suitable protective legislation regarding intellectual property. There are various provisions of the acts and amendments, which need further critical evaluation as some issues are highly paradoxical in nature. The book highlights these issue at the national and the international levels. It is backed with various cases the have occurred in the world of business.

The term knowledge worker has been used for decades, but to date, there is not much understanding as to what knowledge workers do and how their productivity can be improved. As economies are increasingly moving towards becoming knowledge based economies, enhancing knowledge workers' performance has emerged as the most important economic issue. Knowledge worker has become the key to growth and differentiation in today's knowledge economy. Success of organisations in the future will come through the use of brainpower, not natural resources, or the labour-force. Knowledge workers do not necessarily work in knowledge-intensive industries, rather they work from small start-ups to big global corporations. As knowledge is an invisible asset that resides largely in the minds of human beings, management is no longer about close observation and monitoring. Because knowledge work can be and is done by both managers and workers, differentiation between them no longer make sense. The right balance of managing and doing knowledge work varies with particular individuals and situations. It involves developing others, in addition to cultivating one's own capabilities. So, management in the knowledge economy is a different game, with different rules. Against this background, the proposed book focuses on the perspectives and the factors that impact the performance of today's vital workforce.

Though value based management has been used for a decade now, it is still considered a new management technique. The organisations using this technique have been successful and have increased the value of both the shareholders and the company. To measure the value of a company, apart from traditional accounting methods, financial performance tools like EVA, CFROI and Cash Flows have been used by consultants like Stern Stewart, BCG Group and McKinsey. This book is useful for leaders, management professionals and managers in creating, managing, measuring and enhancing the value of companies and shareholders. It also helps them in creating a sense of ownership in the minds of their employees by making them involved in the decision-making processes and thus improving the organisational performance. The book is divided into two sections. The first section titled "Introduction" discusses what is VBM, the many facets of shareholder value creation, comparison of old accounting methods and new management techniques, and new concepts of VBM. The second section titled "Experience" discusses the implementation of VBM and other measurement tools in various Indian and global companies.

Roads are the main blood vessels of a city. Road Network and its standard indicate the status of a city. Road transportation is under stress due to increase both in population and in vehicles. Apathy shown towards road transportation system, lack of enforcement and improper road culture have resulted in a global epidemic called Road Traffic Injuries (RTI). Across the world, about 1.2 million people lose their lives and as many as 50 millions get injured annually in road crashes. Out of which, 85% of the deaths and 90% of the injuries occur in developing countries. This costs the developing countries about 1-3% of their GNP. An integrated, comprehensive and sustainable road safety management is essential. The government of -- a nation should take the initiative and co-ordinate with all stakeholders of the roads. The participants who can make valuable contributions, other than the government, are the non-Governmental organisation, private stakeholders, driving schools, vehicle manufacturers, medical fraternity, research organisations, media and the road users. Moreover, it requires technical and non-technical measures which have to be taken up simultaneously to curb this major disaster. The purpose of this book is to sensitise all to issue of road safety and to discuss the steps which need to be taken by the government and all stakeholders of the roads. This book is divided into three sections. Sections I discusses the causes responsible for road accidents like alcohol, human error, bad roads, defective vehicles etc. Section II talks about technical and, non-technical steps to curb this disaster, like Intelligent Traffic System (ITS), Road Safety Index, Emergency Medical Services and other tools. Section III consists of country experiences and cases like impact of Road Crashes on the Poor (Bangalore and Bangladesh); Road Safety: Issues and Initiatives in Bangladesh; Road Accident Reporting Computerised System in Thailand; Carriageway and Safety of Life in Nagpur City: Before and After Renovation of Roads and Driving Road Safety Forward (Shell initiatives in the Middle East).

Rural-urban disparities, especially in developing countries, have for long been a major concern for policymakers. The disparities can be seen in all spheres of human life -- economic and social. The income inequalities, lack of employment opportunities, lack of infrastructure and civic amenities, inadequate access to education, healthcare and other basic services are some of the major areas, where rural areas lag behind urban. Globalisation and the spread of the consumerism culture has further deepened these disparities, visible in the affluence and glitz of urban areas, which stand in stark contrast to the poverty, deprivation and squalor that characterises the rural landscape in developing countries. The burgeoning slums in urban areas populated largely by migrants from rural areas are an outcome of these disparities. Seen in the context of countries like China and India, which together account for close to two fifths of the world's populations, and where 70% of the people still live in rural areas, the rural-urban divide assumes great significance. The rural-urban 'divides' is however, not the only perspective on the rural-urban equation; increasingly, experts and analysts point to the linkage that exists between rural and urban areas that mutually strengthens the rural and urban sectors. Seen from the 'linkage' perspective, the rural and the urban areas form a continuum, rather than exist as discrete geographical territories with boundaries. This book explores the rural-urban dynamics from both the 'divide' and the 'linkage' perspectives, and looks at ways in which the rural-urban gap can be bridged.

Today, discourses on innovation are ubiquitous, as enterprises world-wide are turning their focus on innovation to sustain competitive advantage. The emerging global electronic marketplace, which is characterised by increased personal computing, improved communication networks, newer digital applications, rapidly evolving web environments and the proven fact that the Internet is emerging into a global market place, is creating a radically new environment world-wide. As these technological inventions are poised to improve the way enterprises collaborate and manage their information, it is important to highlight, that the rapidity of technological change is being driven by the innovations in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and driving the design and creation of all ICT artefacts is the field of software engineering. This collective change to innovation favoured by ICTs is called 'E-Innovation' and in the present competitive landscape, the large as well as the small enterprises are depending on ICT-based innovations to sustain the lead. Today, 'E-innovation' is an emerging discipline for proactively responding to an electronic environment, whose main attribute is continuous radical change and the spread of 'E-Innovation' is driving the growth of the global economy. The delivery of traditional innovation is being enhanced through innovative applications based on the Internet. In this context, it is important to highlight E-Business as an internet-mediated integration of business processes, applications and information systems. E-Business innovations are redefining the existing business processes, besides changing the internal business processes of the firm. Against this backdrop, this volume offers a mix of articles and cases and delves into the emerging trends in e-innovation with focus on e-business innovations.

All products require a branding effort to successfully complete for customers, and places are no exception. Destination Branding is all about discovering the true essence of a place (city, state, nation), developing it into core competency by incorporating all the attributes associated and communicating the same to the target audience in a favourable manner. Most of the destinations in this world have no idea as to how they are perceived outside their little world. This eventually calls for a strategic branding initiative, in order to portray the image of a city, state or a country, in such a manner that the world perceives their image the way they want them to. This helps them to garner global attention and carve out a niche that expresses a unique identity and personality of the destination and differentiates it from its competitors. Nowadays, an intense competition among the nation-states can be witnessed in order to position themselves as perfect destinations for tourism and investment. Place are creating their brand identity around do reputations and attitudes in the same way as the corporate does. Nevertheless, evaluating the brand building measures and interpreting the perception and response of the target audience are uphill tasks. Some of the major aspects of Place Branding, covered in this book are: Conceptual understanding of the destination branding process; How to structure, implement, and manage it; Comparative analysis of a product brand and a nation brand; Unmanageable dimensions of a Destination Brand; Case studies of India, Dubai, Kerala, Singapore, and Malaysia.

In today's competitive scenario, Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) has emerged as the new buzzword. The birth of globalisation has paved the way for increased competition among countries. The gap between the cost of capital and productivity has made companies realise the significance of managing costs for business efficiency. This has resulted in the migration of support services from developed to developing economies in the form of "Outsourcing". As a consequence, Business Process Outsourcing has emerged as one of the major opportunities for labour abundant developing economies. BPO generally functions with pre-determined set of designs of operations for the desired solutions. The emergence of Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) has transformed this, since the companies want to have tailor-made solutions for specific issues like, cycle time efficiency, market research and demand-based management. According to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), KPO industry is expected to grow at 45% in size reaching $17 billion mark by 2010. It is in this scenario of the emerging trends and boom in Knowledge Process Outsourcing, that this book provides and insight into the evolution of KPO, its role in Indian and global scenarios, the strategic shift from BPO to KPO, high-end services in KPO and also its future prospects. This book presents a series of well-written racy articles that give a bird's eye view of the scenario prevailing in KPO industry, both regionally and globally. It is hoped that this book would be of immense value to the corporates who are entering into KPO, academicians, researchers and students, as a reference book on the perspectives and challenges of Knowledge Process Outsourcing.

The Internet has shrunk the world into a global village. It has not only evolved as a preferred medium for communication and information sharing, but also as a medium for entertainment and economic activities, building communities and transacting at professional and personal levels, contributing to the global and local economic development. With nearly one fifth of the world's population being connected to the Internet conducting millions of transactions every day, a whole new virtual world has evolved on the Internet. Our dependence, as an individual, as a society and as a country, on the Internet need not be overemphasised. This situation raises certain fundamental questions as to who controls the Internet and how the Internet infrastructure and activities on it are governed. These questions introduce us to a widely debated topic -- the 'Internet Governance'. Internet governance revolves around the control and supervision of the logical and physical infrastructure of the Internet-definition of protocols, control of root servers, and domain name resources etc. It primarily refers to all policies and regulations that influence the way the Internet is structured, the way it works and the way it is used. Major stakeholders involved in Internet Governance -- individuals, business organisations, and the countries -- interpret it differently and have different connotations and perspectives of it. Issues galore related to the Internet Governance are hotly debated among the countries of the world as to what they want and what they do not want, who should control it, and how it, and how it has to be governed and so on. This book attempts to provide a clear understanding of the concept, the need and the issues related to the Internet governance, along with various country perspectives of it.

According to the World Health Report published by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch, the number of High Networth Individuals (HNIs) (with assets greater than $1 million) has grown by over 20% globally in the past five years and by more than 90% in the past decade. The report also highlights that the emerging market economies like India, China and the Middle East have outperformed the developed economies in terms of increase in the number of HNIs. The number of dollar millionaires in India has grown to 83500 in 2005. These emerging "newly rich" individuals lack the time to manage their serious money and will increasingly delegate it to professional wealth managers. This has stimulated the private banking business in India, attracting the attention of global majors like UBS and Credit Suisse. Private banking is the means of managing private clients' money by providing various services like efficient wealth management, saving, inheritance and tax planning. These banks promise to maximise returns and minimise risk along with the tax burden of the clients through careful allocation of their money. Against this backdrop, this book seeks to focus on the emerging opportunities for private banking in India. It highlights the factors driving the growth of private banking in the country and the region, debates the sustainability of domestic and foreign private banks ad analyses the performance of private banks.

The study of entrepreneurship, in spite of its origins in the 19th century, has been rather limited. The study of women entrepreneurs, in particular, is of a relatively recent origin. It was probably felt that the contributions of women entrepreneurs to the economy were not significant enough to warrant independent study. With the entry of women into the economic world, thing have charged. The boundaries that hitherto sharply defined the gender roles have lost their significance to some extent; the time has come to try and determine gender-based differences, if any, in the entire process of entrepreneurship and small business development. In India, the study of women's enterprise has long straddled the two perspectives of entrepreneurship and women's integration into the mainstream economic activity. Participation of Indian women in direct economic activity is a relatively recent phenomenon, except in the cases of the rural and the urban poor. Entrepreneurship and small business are attractive and practicable for both men and women. Entrepreneurship is additionally attractive to women, as it enhances their self-esteem and personal freedom, while offering the opportunity to balance family life and work. However, in the context of their traditional socialisation, they have to resolve many personal and social issues before becoming entrepreneurs. This book is an attempt to define the demographic profile of the typical middle-income urban woman entrepreneurs. It examines the issue of priority of their business. There is a dearth of details in entrepreneurship literature with regard to the managerial/marketing activities and orientations and the impact of enterprise training. It is all the more so in the context of Indian women entrepreneurs. Apart from the exploration of the women entrepreneurs' networks and their impact on the business, this book has tried to assess their contributions to Indian economy. More than anything else, the book has attempted to bring in a managerial rather than a sociological orientation to their efforts. It is hoped that book will be of great value to those who are interested in the study of specific segments of entrepreneurs.

An efficient use of resources and an effective management of waste are essential features of an environmentally sustainable economy. However, in many developing countries, waste management facilities are both inefficient and insufficient. Some of the broad causes of sub-optimal waste management in developing countries, like those in South Asia are poor existing disposal systems as well as lack of awareness of the environmental externalities. The pertinent question, then, is -- what is so worrisome about inefficient and undeveloped waste management systems? The answer is that they cause major damages to the environment, which, in turn, causes health hazards. The fast pace of economic growth and the consequent changes in the standard of living, on the one hand, and population growth, on the other, have led to increasing volumes of waste at an alarming rate. Due to lack of awareness amongst the masses in most developing countries, management of waste is very difficult. Much of this waste has proved to be extremely toxic. The latest scientific assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued in Paris on 2 February 2007 blames humans squarely for environmental damages, like global warming, sea level rise, changing weather patterns (including severity of storms/cyclones) and freak weather in many parts of the globe. Detrimental consequences of being lax with waste management impacts human health adversely and, in the final count, any negative impact on human capital impedes development of society. However, it is important to remember that though waste has a deleterious impact on the environment at global and local levels and immediate steps have to be taken to implement effective waste management methods, it is also important to remember that waste contains resources, which can be reused or recycled to deliver economic value, resulting in greater resource efficiency.

People management is an integral part of progress; as centuries have evolved from the Stone Age, when people left home in search of food, thereafter constructed monuments, to the present times known popularly as the knowledge age. Centuries before Christ, the mobility of people caused changes to happen, the Great Wall of China was built and the Pyramids were constructed. Changes continued even centuries after Christ, as evidenced by the building of the Eiffel tower and the construction of the Tajmahal. The environmental and economic changes led to major changes in the profile of the employee. The industrial revolution and technological advancement brought a steady evolution. People management changed in its matter and manner from welfare to training to industrial relation, personnel management and human resource management and to the present customised practices. People management changed as per the circumstances and the needs of the times; from the employers' side as well as that of the employees. The journey has been an extensive, beautiful phenomenon in itself. This book presents issues which will take the reader on the evolution journey toward the future with various studies on fundamental theories on people management and is reinforced with the experiences of people management in certain industries like the Information Technology Industry, the Police department and the insurance industry. Through its three sections, Evolution, Studies and Experiences, the reader gets sufficient insight into world of people management.

Train travelling is becoming faster and safer due to the advancement in technologies. New technologies are adopted to cope with the increasing demand in the transportation sector especially in rail transport owing to the problems, like congestion, pollution etc faced in road transport. In the current scenario of growing urbanisation and terrorism, a need is felt for an efficient mass transit system ensuring passenger safety. Countries like Japan, China have developed new technologies in rail transit systems, which have simplified the life of commuters. Indian Railways are also not behind in the race of using new technologies. Indian Railways have started metro rails in Kolkata, Delhi and have launched new metro rail projects in many other cities like Mumbai and Bangalore. Over the past few years, positive steps have been taken in creating a modern Mass Rapid transit System in India. Many new technologies have been used in the construction and management of metro rails. The book describes different technologies used by countries world-wide. It covers the experiences and prospects of rail transport in different parts of the world. It also gives and idea of the efforts put in by the Indian Railways in upgrading and modernising their technology and provides a glimpse of their future plans. Indian Railways have taken an encouraging step towards the development of an efficient, new technology based mass urban transit system. With increasing urbanisation and rising population in India, building an efficient mass transit system is a challenge for Indian Railways. Success of Indian Railways to achieve this objective would solve the transportation problems of our cities.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) encompasses all the technologies used by the owners of the digital content to control access and usage of their copyrighted creation. By allowing access and usage of their prized possession, the owners of the digital content make revenues as well as build a viable business model around their content. While the battle between the content owners and the distributors and users exists for nearly a decade, the battle has now reached the digital space with the popularity of the computers, DVD's and software that allows copying of digital content many times without reducing the quality. While the DRM opponents feel that it is designed to restrict the free use of information, the DRM advocates feel that the owners of the content should have control over the use and distributions of their works. The book introduces DRM and covers the work going on in various well known DRM schemes like DIVX, CSS, Product Activation and Digital Water Marking. The book talks about the history and evolution of DRM covering the legal and regulatory framework, which is now in existence after the coming of the digital Millennium Copyrights Act (DMCA). The book also goes into the technique of DRM architecture as well as the security aspects of a DRM package. The book gives valuable insights into issues like cost, compatibility and what a customer of DRM should ask for before buying a DRM packages. On the other hand, the book talks about what the DRM vendors as well as the manufacturers of consumer products should do to better comply with the needs of both the content providers and their customers. The book also predicts the evolution of DRM.

Talent Crunch refers to the lack of skilled manpower. This deficiency is a major problem the companies are facing in today's environment. Companies are trying to attract and retain their employees in all possible ways, but still the problem of shortage is never ending. This deficiency is observed in sectors like IT/BPO, Aviation, Animation, and Tourism. It may be because of many reasons like poaching, ageing problem, unmotivated, and untrained labour force. Even the countries that have a huge population and a good skilled workforce like India and China are also facing this problem. The main reason may be due to the lack of adequate educational facilities in the home country, migration etc. It is, therefore, necessary that the government and the employer take necessary steps to reduce this problem and beat the shortage of skills and talent successfully. This book discusses how to beat the shortage of skills and talent. The book also discusses the reasons for shortage of talent and skills, strategies HR managers implement in overcoming this deficiency. It further discusses in detail the role of government, employer and employee in overcoming this problem. The book examines the experiences of sectors -- IT/BP0, Aviation, Tourism and Advertising and the necessary steps they have taken to defeat the problem. The book discusses the experiences of countries like China, India, Europe, and the US. It highlights the fact that in spite of having a huge population and a good skilled manpower, those countries face the problem of shortage and it also depicts the steps their governments or the organisations in those countries have taken to overcome it.

Infrastructure financing is regarded as the lifeline of a nation in view of its significance in economic growth and sophistication of a country. The lack of long-term debt has been the core issue faced by the infrastructure sector. With the upswing of economic reforms process and globalisation effects, umpteen avenues are there for infrastructure financing not only from sources within the country, but from outside too. During the last decade, infrastructure in India has seen several strides, with many projects having been undertaken with public private participation. It is, in this context essential that these huge projects need effective monitoring and control in terms of their performance. Such a measure, which is crucial for the financial structuring and inflow of funds, also boosts the confidence of investors. When investors acquire confidence about their investments, further flow of funds becomes easy. This book attempts to capture all the relevant aspects of infrastructure financing in India, citing examples of similar initiatives in other parts of the globe and to provide insights into the dynamics of infrastructure financing in the context of a globalised economy.

The recent change in the image of India due to information technology revolution has put India into the limelight. The country has become a destination for the whole gamut of travellers, from businessmen to cultural enthusiast. Despite being endowed with a wide variety of geographical, historical, religious and cultural tourist spots, we could not develop the tourism sector as a major revenue earner ever after many decades of Independence. By and large, Indian tourism, till the recent past could not realise its true potential. Many factors contributed to this below par performance, such as underdeveloped tourism infrastructure, insufficient budget allocation, lack of planned vision, and above all, lack of effective promotional measures. However, the scenario turned a 360-degree swing with all the lacking factors slowly falling into place. Increased allocation of resources, special impetus to promotion and development of tourism infrastructure caused this desired shift. Presently, Indian tourism is one of the largest sectors in the Indian economy and contributing sizeably to its GDP. Destination marketing occupies new prominence in the fast changing techno-socio-political- economic conditions. Growth of technology in the form of proliferation of Internet and web technologies, on the one had, and globalisation of economies, on the other hand, has opened up plenty of new opportunities for the destination marketers. As seeing is believing, many new forms of promotion have come into the picture as a result. Many new tourism products have been evolved such as medical tourism, sports tourism, shopping tourism, ecotourism and religious tourism and new means of promotion have been developed, such as development of interactive websites, events organisation, In-film advertisements etc. This is a new beginning for tourism as a whole, especially for tourism marketers. Responsible marketing has become a necessity for the growth of Indian tourism sector in line with the expectations. Designing effective tourism marketing mix, of which promotion plays a very important role, is a challenging job for tourism marketers in the new millennium, especially taking the prevailing socio-economic and political factors into consideration. To create a feel for destination and build traffic promotion is a crucial tool for efficacy in marketing tourism.

Outsourcing is a concept which is fast gaining acceptance from all sectors of business. The outsourcing concept has existed for about 30 years but it came into prominence only around 25 years ago. The manufacturing industry in USA was the first to adopt outsourcing due to the strong dollar and competition from other countries. The next major development was the beginning of the call centre industry and the shifting of this industry to offshore destinations like Indian and Philippines. Around ten years after this, came the knowledge process outsourcing industry, including offshore destinations, which is growing at a very fast pace. The next important development was the outsourcing of business processes called "business process transformation outsourcing". The first major player in the offshore business process outsourcing industry was India. This was mainly due to the availability of English language skills and educated low cost manpower in the country. However, other countries followed suit and the next major player is Philippines whose English language skills are better than India. It also has a huge manpower with accountancy skills. China too is likely to become a major player especially for Asian language business process outsourcing. The Dalian region in China has people who know Chinese, Korean and Japanese and it is becoming a hub for BPO operations in China. Other countries like Sri Lanka, South Africa are also in the process of becoming BPO hubs. This book traces the evolution and growth of the outsourcing industry from manufacturing to service. It delves into the practice of outsourcing related to manufacturing, BPO, and KPO business process transformation. It also discusses the experiences of various countries in the outsourcing business.

Dams have emerged as one of the most important tools for the management of rivers. Over 45,000 large dams around the world have played an important role in helping communities and economies harness water resources for food production, energy generation, flood control and domestic use. The benefits derived from large dams have made a significant contributions to human development. Floods have taken a large toll of human lives over the years and also caused large economic losses. World Bank is pushing construction of large dams. Along with dams, the river interlinking project is also under consideration in India. The more recent focus has been on the strategic development of sustainable irrigation practices within an integrated Catchment Management context. World Commission on Dams (WCD) has suggested some recommendations and strategic priorities for the construction of dams. WCD report has proved to be important in reducing environmental and social challenges. This book aims at exploring the significance of rivers and dams from economic, ecological, social and cultural angles. The book tries to present general patterns and trends in the management of rivers as well as planning and operation for large dams. The central issues in the large dams debate-the benefits and adverse impacts -- are also considered. The book is presented in three sections: "Rivers and Darns: An Overview", "Key Issues" and "Country Experiences".

The purpose of this book is to take a look at how public services in India are operating and a few practical demonstrations of the same. Further, the book examines policies and frameworks which could be of use in this context, whether local or international. To demonstrate the practicalities of the situation a few local and international case studies are included. For the purposes of this book, a public service is strictly confined to that which is required to be provided by the state to its citizens. The delivery could be through various mechanisms and indeed the development of various models is to be welcomed. Different social conditions and capacity and willingness to pay require different approaches although the intent is basically the same. We also confine ourselves to urban public services as the topic is vast and there needs to be focus, if anything meaningful is to be achieved. Much of the work done by the multilateral agencies is sound conceptually but fails to take into account the local conditions and capacity for understanding of the local people. Here is where the NGOs can play the most important role by acting as an interface between these agencies and the common man. This book is essentially for practitioners, who can dip into a sector specific article and see whether it could throw light upon the issues therein in anyway. Every county has had its success stories and it is in concentrating upon those success stories in the same environment that the seeds of success lie.

With the liberalisation of the Indian economy and growing competition, there has been a shift in the perception of the rural sector, particularly from the point of view of financial intermediaries. This sector is now perceived as a continuous source of savings and an opportunity for profitable deployment of funds. Commercial Banks, NABARD, Co-operative Banks and Regional Rural Banks have geared themselves up to cater to this segment of the economy through innovative schemes, focused approach, dedicated manpower and training and educational programs. Microfinance Institutions and Self-Help Groups are also contributing significantly to this process. The required financial architecture is being discussed and design of appropriate institutions is being debated. The purpose of this book is to introduce to the reader, the various financial intermediaries that are involved in credit delivery in the rural sector. Further, it deals with the performance of the various players involved in rural financial sector development and also takes stock of the various policies that have been adopted in this regard. Accordingly, the book is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the various institutions involved in rural financial sector development and their performance. The second part deals with strategies that can be adopted for improved credit delivery.

Property has always been part of the investors' diversified portfolio. Earlier, due to legal barriers and high costs small investors were unable to invest in real estate. The growth of the listed property sector across many markets has enabled the investors to expand their investment in the property market with less risk. Capital is becoming more global. Global real estate investment has become even more widely accepted by investors. Investors around the world are thinking globally and have become willing and even eager to own foreign assets. In the global context, the relatively more stable income streams in the from of cash flow from property operations or dividends from listed real estate securities are becoming more appealing to both individual retirees and pension funds. Both private and public global real estate investment areas have experienced substantial increases in value over the last few years. According to the report published by global real estate consultant Cushman & Wakefield, the global, commercial real estate investment market has grown up by 33% in 2006 to US$645 billion. The book focuses on how global real estate has gone mainstream marking investment in this sector very attractive. It tries to bring out the significance of real estate as a distinct asset class and seeks to know as to why it has become and important component in an efficient portfolio. It gives an overview of the current scenario of the global real estate sector, the players in the global securities market in this segment and various investment vehicles available. It also highlights the advantages of investing in a global real estate portfolio and the issues involved.