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3721 items in total found

Working Papers | 1976

Corporate Planning in the Context of National Planning

C Rangarajan

The concept of a mixed economy, as practised in India, by its very definition limits the area of operations of the private sector. But the national plan, viewing the economy as a whole both from the short run and the long run point of view indicates the appropriate fields of development for the firms in the private sector as well. Depending on the vigour with which the policy instruments are sued, these indications can become much more than mere expectations. However, the targets set in any plan for the various industries and sectors must be treated with some circumspection. This caution applies as much to industries in the public sector as they are to those in private sector. First of all the targets set for various industry groupings are highly aggregative and therefore must be broken into productwise demand. Second, the implications of the physical targets laid down in the plan need to be translated into economic and financial terms to determine the profitability or otherwise of entering a particular field. Finally, the targets set for the various industries are highly interdependent and shortfalls in the output of some of the crucial sectors can completely upset the targets set for most of the industries. Our past plan experience quite clearly warns us to be on the guard on this score. It is only legitimate that a corporate planner should treat the national plan as given and make his own schemes of expansion in that context. But at the same time, it is important for him to understand the strategy and assumptions underlying the national plan because that will enable him to quickly reassess the segment of the plan he is interested in, if some of the underlying assumptions go wrong. In this he might be even a few steps ahead of the national planners, if he is perceptive enough Without doubt, the plan provides the broad framework within which the corporate planner can draw his own plans. But in so doing he cannot escape from making his own judgment on the key assumptions of the plan.

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Working Papers | 1975

Agricultural Development Through Community Action: Scope and Limitations

Gaikwad V R

The purpose of this paper is to generate discussion on certain basic issues pertaining scope and limitations of community actions for agricultural development. For this purpose a sociological-historical-cultural approach has been followed keeping in mind the two roles of agricultural development, viz., production of food with the optimum utilization of human energy and other resources and socio-economic transformation. Various components of the environment that affect community participation in agricultural development are analysed. Community participation is influenced by the structure and organization of the community. These in turn are influenced by the nature of the technology used. This paper examines the close interrelationship between agricultural technology and social structure, organization, and processes. The interaction of four major components of the environment, viz., land-man ratio, nature of traditional agricultural technology, law of inheritance, and joint family system is analysed. This is followed by an analysis of micro-level realities covering the spatial distribution of settlements, pattern of land ownership, and pattern of social interaction. At the end, some suggestions are given keeping in mind the demands and constraints of the environment.

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Working Papers | 1975

The Chemistry of Effective Management

Khandwalla P N

A number of dimensions of top management philosophy or style are identified. Management philosophy may be considered risk taking or conservative, technocratic or oriented and seat-of-the-pants methods, participatory or qua-participatory, organic or mechanistic, and coercive or non-coercive. Based on data from a study of Canadian firms, it is found that some of the combinations of these dimensions are far more effective (as judged by corporate performance) than others. The reasons underlying the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of these combinations are explored. Implications are drawn for the design of organisations, for the strategy of organizational planning, and for management education.

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Working Papers | 1975

A Strategy Model for Export Marketing

Dholakia Nikhilesh and Khurana Rakesh

Marketing planning for exports may be suboptimal if the product-market strategy itself is not maximally effective. In this paper, a method is developed for choosing an appropriate product-market strategy, given the relative endowments of the exporter and the possible client countries. It is argued that in selecting product-markets for exports, competitive advantage as well as export potential are important. Furthermore, competitive advantage should be computed on the basis of marketing and technological factors in addition to traditional factors. The method is illustrated by means of a simulation using hypothetical data.

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Working Papers | 1975

Production Function in Indian Sugar Industry

Gupta G S and Patel Kirit

The purpose of the study is to (a) examine the degree of substitutability between labour and capital, (b) estimate returns to scale, (c) compute the factors' marginal productivities and relative contribution to output and to (d) test the predictive ability of the estimated relationship. These objectives are pursued with the aid of annual time series data for the period 1946 to 1966. Both inter-regional and inter-temporal comparisons have been attempted. The multiple regression technique is applied to various forms of the production functions. It is found that the elasticity of factor substitution is unity in the Indian Sugar Industry. It has experienced increasing returns to scale. Labour as a factor of production is more important both in terms of marginal productivity and contribution to the output and it is more efficient in all-India than in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and more in Bihar than in Uttar Pradesh. All these findings imply that there is a good scope for employment of more labour and the expansion of sugar industry in India. The paper suggests that the output of a manufacturing industry can reasonably be forecasted through the multiple regression technique.

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Working Papers | 1975

Behaviour of Income Shares in a Developing Economy - The Indian Experience

Dholakia Bakul H

This paper makes an attempt to analyse the behaviour of relative factor shares in an underdeveloped country passing through the early stages of rapid economic development. The main purpose of the analysis is to advance some broad hypotheses regarding the pattern of income distribution and the trends in factor shares in a developing economy. The empirical basis of the analysis is provided by the data relating to the Indian economy for the period 1948-49 to 1968-69. The analysis is conducted by dividing the economy into two broad sectors, viz., the agricultural sector and the non-agricultural sector. The main finding of the analysis, which is offered largely in the spirit of a general hypothesis, is that the overall share of labour would be steadily rising in a developing country, though the major factors that account for the rising trend would be essentially different during the different stages of development.

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Working Papers | 1975

The Communication Effects Gap: A Field Experiment on Television and Agricultural Ignorance in India

Shingi P M and Mody Bella

This paper attempts to interpret a part of the findings of a communication experiment carried out in India in the light of the communication effects gap hypothesis. Recent research in the U.S. mainly concentrated around the issues of perceived inequalities-the knowledge gap-created by the existing information delivery systems. The hypothesis that "as the infusion of mass media information into a social system increases, segments of the population with higher socio-economic status tend to acquire this information at a faster rate than the lower status segments, so that the gap in knowledge between these segments tends to increase rather than decrease" was tested in this paper. The results, however, indicated that television as a medium of information delivery did not discriminate between the socially powerful and the economically poor and seemed to be an equalizing tool.

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Working Papers | 1975

Perception of College Environment Work Values and Professional Aspirations of Students of a Medical College

T. V. Rao and Sarupriya D S

This study sponsored by ICSSR, attempted to assess the perceptions of campus climate by the first, second and third year medical students. Differences in the work-value patterns and Professional aspirations were also studied. The results revealed that students of final years view their medical college environment less favourably than those in the early years. Students in the final years had work-values emphasizing the economic and status aspects more than those in the early years and academic aspects less than those in the early years. Creativity and independence were valued the most. The results of this study indicate the need for value education in the medical colleges.

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Working Papers | 1975

Stewart Maturity Scale (Practice Stores)

T. V. Rao

This is a continuation of Technical Report No. 77. There are 5 sets of practice stories. Scoring system is described at the end of each set. Reliability coefficients have to be computed on the basis these stories and the keys supplied in this.

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Working Papers | 1975

New Marketing in a New Environment: Some Thoughts on a Basic Restructuring

Dholakia Nikhilesh

A case is developed for some basic changes in the conceptual repertoire of the marketing discipline in view of the changes in the economic and social environment in India today. It is argued that the adaptation of existing marketing concepts, techniques, and institutions is not enough because these concepts are rooted in a type of economic environment quite different from that prevailing in most Third World countries. Some guidelines are presented along which changes can be effected in the marketing discipline so as to make it more relevant and realistic.

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