Loss of NH project will adversely affect Kerala public

Group of Technology Companies (GTECH), a strategic grouping of software companies in Kerala, is of the firm view that reducing the width of the National Highways in Kerala would not be in the long-term interest of the state or its citizens. NHAI has approved the expansion of about 700 kms of highways, at an estimated investment of Rs.10,000 cr, over a 30 months period. However, Kerala politicians cutting across party lines insist that the width of the highway should not exceed 30 meters (as against the NHAI standard of 60 meters), citing the impact of land acquisition on the affected people. This has put the entire project at risk and the state could lose the approved funding and a project vital to its needs.
Currently, the increase in vehicular traffic in Kerala stands at 12% pa and a 30-meter highway will have to operate at several times its capacity on the day it is commissioned!! In other words, the situation after completing a 30-meter highway for which some land acquisition is required will be no different from what it is now. Vehicular accidents will continue to remain high, there will be no let up in traffic congestion, fuel wastage will increase, transportation costs will continue to rise, carbon emission will shoot up and the developmental activities in the state will slow down. Contrary to the general perception, the common man will also be adversely affected by poor and inadequate connectivity.
“Whilst rehabilitation is the most important aspect that the State Government should focus on, there are also a lot of factually incorrect arguments on the impact of the expansions. The total number of people that will be affected by the land acquisition will be less than 50,000, according to the study conducted by NHAI, whereas the figure used by those against the highway expansion is 25 lacs!!! The good thing is that there are plenty of funds already available from Central Government for acquiring land at even 2.5 times the market price. We must realize that the Kerala Government, considering our financial situation and other priorities, cannot afford to acquire expensive land at all, and therefore we should use this Central funding to facilitate total and effective rehabilitation.” says Mr. V K Mathews President, GTECH
Kerala has the highest vehicle density of 1:6 in the country (one vehicle for every 6 people, which is over 4 times the national average) and the highest annual traffic growth. The state has an average of 11 deaths and 120 grievous injuries every day, due to road accidents. Pedestrian accidents account for a majority of this. The number of families, especially those belonging to the weaker sections of the society, devastated by road accidents every year is alarmingly high.
The common man is also adversely affected in several other ways. Traffic bottlenecks increase transportation costs and for a consumer state like Kerala, this will mean higher costs for essential commodities. A smooth flowing traffic is absolutely essential for crisis evacuations in case of natural disasters like tsunami or even in case of terrorist attacks. Besides, emergency transportation of people to hospitals demands decongested roads. The productivity loss and increased fuel costs on the Trivandrum-Kochi stretch of NH-47 itself, due to congestion and lower average speed, is estimated to be about Rs. 2,700 cr p a.
An overwhelming percentage of the youth in Kerala aspires to be engaged or employed in the value adding service sector like Information Technology. For this industry to grow and for new investments to come in, the state needs to have safe and efficient transportation infrastructure, especially roads and highways. It is extremely unfortunate and, in a way, paradoxical that when the whole country is asking for more funds for building more transportation infrastructure, in Kerala, the only topic on which both the Government and Opposition coming united is to block the infrastructure development.
“It is essential that adjacent services, pedestrian roads and medians of adequate dimensions are put in place. All these would require a minimum width of 45 metres. A study revealed that the total number of families affected by road accidents each year in Kerala is three times that of the number of families affected by land acquisition for the current National Highway development project. What is required is a mass awareness programme to bring out the advantages of 45 meter National Highway to the citizenry of the state” sums up Anoop Ambika, secretary GTECH.

Reverse Innovation – An article from HBR by VG of GE

Imagine you're German, you need a new family car, and you have a limited budget — say, US$9,400. What can you do? Continue using public transportation? Buy a used car? Or maybe buy a brand-new Dacia Logan!
Dacia is a Romanian car manufacturer acquired in 1999 byFrench automaker Renault with the aim of designing low-cost passenger vehicles for emerging Eastern European markets. The Logan, a five-seater with a spacious trunk, was introduced in Romania in 2004 and subsequently to neighboring countries. The Logan's basic version, costing US$6,500, was revolutionary in the automotive industry well before the Tata Nano appeared on the scene. Dacia now offers pickups, vans, station wagons, and mini SUVs in emerging as well as developed markets. In Germany alone, where the car is offered starting at US$9,400, Dacia's sales jumped from about 6,000 units in 2006 to about 85,000 units in 2009 — this in a land studded with its own car brands.
To offer the car at such low prices, Renault followed a stringent design-to-cost approach. The Logan consists of fewer parts than the average Western car and is made of traditional steel in a labor-intensive assembly process in a low-cost country. To meet the needs of emerging market customers, the car has a fuel filter, increased ground clearance, and a battery that can survive extreme weather conditions. Maintenance is simple; a basic technician can do the work. Interestingly, the Logan originally was conceived at Renault's French R&D headquarters. Product development responsibility gradually shifted to the company's new R&D center in Romania.
When Dacia launched the Logan in Germany, they followed five principles that may be useful to other companies planning to bring emerging market products into developed markets.
Focus on building platforms, not products. Platforms can be scaled up or down for global markets. For the German market, Dacia scaled up the product platform with more safety features and more appealing exterior characteristics, such as metallic paint. This allowed the automaker to charge higher prices and, in turn, reap higher profit margins.
Select target customers. The company carefully chose its target customers. Typically, these customers are people who buy a Logan instead of a used car, a cheap, Asian import, or a very small European car. These customers value price, space, and reliability. Renault highlights Logan's best space-price ratio in its respective car segment. The car's exceptional reliability is highlighted via guarantees, regular checks, and customer satisfaction surveys.
Emerging market platforms must be low cost but not low quality. Dacia's marketing emphasized the fact that it's able to offer low prices without sacrificing quality and safety.
Commercial innovations are essential. The Logan is not just a product innovation, but a commercial innovation as well. Dacia employs low-cost marketing (they don't advertise on TV) and they initially sold the Logan through existing Renault dealerships.
Protect global brand. Renault introduced Dacai as a separate brand, to avoid potential negative effects on its core brand.
We may be at the cusp of a new era where breakthrough innovations happen first in poor countries and those innovations subsequently are taken to rich countries. Logan is a powerful example of suchreverse innovation.

Technopark firms lift ban on poaching

Special Correspondent
Thiruvananthapuram: The Group of Technology Companies (GTECH), a common platform for IT companies in Kerala, has decided to lift the self- imposed restriction on poaching each other's resources.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, president-elect of GTECH V.K. Mathews said the decision was influenced by the need to ensure better ‘ mobility' for technology professionals to further their career prospects within the State and prevent their migration to other IT destinations like Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Formerly the Group of Technopark Companies, GTECH's new avatar reflects its broader representation of IT companies across the State.
“The employment scenario and industry profile have undergone major changes over the last 10 years. Initially, a professional employed in a GTECH company could seek posting with another only if he produced a no-objection certificate from the first employer. That was a time when the number of employees in Technopark could be counted in thousands. But today, their number runs into tens of thousands, especially after GTECH expanded its profile,” Mr. Mathews said.
Anoop P. Ambika, secretary, said moves were on to establish a mechanism to deal with gender issues in the profession.
“It is envisaged as a platform for women employees to air their grievances and seek redressal,” he said.

GTECH outlines roadmap for IT growth

Special Correspondent
Thiruvananthapuram: The Group of Technology Companies (GTECH), a body representing the software industry in the State, has announced a slew of initiatives aimed at the accelerated growth of the IT sector. Outlining a roadmap for the revamped GTECH, president-elect V.K. Mathews said the fraternity would work closely with the government to promote Kerala as an IT destination.
The industry is eminently suitable for a State like Kerala where the availability of land is at a premium and the density of population the highest. The IT industry has one of the lowest land-to-employee ratio. It is neither polluting nor power intensive and offers huge employment opportunities, he said.
Four objectives
GTECH will pursue four main objectives during the course of 2010, which are ensuring physical security of IT parks in view of recent threats; containing costs; expanding reach and consequence by collaborating with external institutions; and enhancing collaboration among members to improve competencies of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It will collaborate with the government on tactical actions and strategic campaigns to promote Kerala as an IT destination. It will take part in consultations on policy matters and offer support in the State's e-governance projects, besides cooperating with the Labour Department for reforms in labour laws.
Mr. Mathews said GTECH would promote and support existing IT companies, promote IT entrepreneurship and small companies and engage ‘key influencers' to mobilise public support for the IT industry. “The software sector is characterised by intense global competition, demanding global standards in quality and delivery schedules at all times, an employee-driven job market, high voluntary attrition, flexible resourcing needs and periods of recruitment spree. For the industry to grow, ‘key influencers' should understand its special nature and requirements. GTECH will work towards creating and increasing this awareness,” a press release here on Tuesday said.
Mr. Mathews said GTECH would try to propagate the key message that ‘Supporting IT is supporting people.' K. Nandakumar, vice-president, GTECH; and Binu Sankar, chief executive officer, were present.

Private ban on poaching from among Kerala IT cos goes

Thiruvananthapuram, May 4
The Group of Technology Companies (GTECH), the common platform for IT companies in Kerala, has decided to annul the extant ‘gentleman's agreement' that prevented member companies from ‘poaching' each others' resources.
Announcing this, Mr V.K. Mathews, President-elect, GTECH, told newspersons here that the decision was taken with a view to affording needed ‘mobility' for technology professionals to further their career prospects within the State.
LARGER OBJECTIVE
This is a baby step towards accomplishing the larger objective of retaining precious resources, which would otherwise exit the borders seeking better prospects in the IT backyards of Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.
As a matter of policy, GTECH members would, however, desist from ‘actively soliciting' resources from each other, Mr Mathews said.
Explaining, he said there has been a sea-change in the employment scenario and industry profile over the last 10 years.
Initially, a professional employed in a GTECH (then Group of Technopark Companies) company could seek posting with another only if he produced a no-objection certificate from the first employer.
“But this was a time when we could count the number of total employees on rolls in Technopark into the thousands. But today we count them in their tens of thousands, especially after the scope of GTECH has been expanded to include technology companies from all over the State,” Mr Mathews said.
EMPLOYEE FORUM
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Anoop P. Ambika, Secretary, GTECH, said a separate employee forum is being envisaged to take up labour-related issues among member-companies.
Another significant initiative would be a mechanism to deal with gender issues, which would provide a platform for women employees to air their grievances and seek redressal.
Outlining a roadmap for the revamped GTECH, Mr Mathews said that the fraternity would work for the accelerated growth of IT industry in Kerala. Mr K. Nandakumar, Vice-President, GTECH, was also present on the occasion.
The industry is eminently suitable for a State like Kerala where the availability of land is at a premium and the density of population the highest. The IT industry has one of the lowest land-to-employee ratio. It is neither polluting nor power intensive and offers huge employment opportunities. GTECH today has a membership of nearly 100 companies employing around 80 per cent of the software professionals working in the State. All large IT companies operating in Kerala are members, or are in the process of becoming one.
Nearly 70 per cent of the members are from the SME sector employing less than 50 persons each.
AGENDA SET
GTECH has decided to pursue four main objectives during the course of 2010, which include: (i) ensuring physical security of the IT parks in view of the recent threats (ii) containing costs (iii) expanding reach and consequence by collaborating with external institutions and (iv) enhancing collaboration amongst members to improve competencies of SMEs (small and medium enterprises).
It would also work very closely with the State Government to promote Kerala as an IT destination through tactical actions and strategic campaigns, consult on policy matters, support/participate in the State's e-governance projects and closely work with the labour department for timely reforms in labour laws.
The key message that GTECH would attempt to propagate is that ‘supporting IT is supporting people,' which would help mainstream the industry and its employees in the socio-economic fabric of the society.

Interns from Singapore to get a taste of Kerala IT

Special Correspondent

Initiative by GTech in association with Singapore Management University.

Thiruvananthapuram: A number of management students from Singapore will soon be doing an internship programme at Technopark. The initiative is being kick-started through a pilot project by the Group of Technopark companies (GTech) in partnership with the Singapore Management University.
GTech CEO Binu Shankar said this was part of GTech's plan to establish global linkages for the Kerala IT Industry. The two-month long pilot project is being organised at InApp Information Technologies from the first week of May.
The interns would eventually help Technopark companies in identifying business and market opportunities in the South East Asian Market. The idea was mooted during GTech's interaction with Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) held in June 2009.
Wholesome exposure
The objective of the internship programme was to provide a framework by which graduate and post-graduate students of Singapore from diverse academic backgrounds may be assigned to member-companies where their education experience can be enhanced through practical work assignments and exposure to the work of the Kerala IT Industry.
Right strategy
In a press note issued on Friday, GTech said such an initiative would reinforce the strategic relationship between Kerala and the city-state of Singapore. This is in tune with GTech's policy of developing in-depth engagements with the government and the business establishments in Singapore and other South East Asian Countries.
GTech strongly feels that these interns from different nationalities covering the ASEAN countries would act as brand ambassadors for the state IT Industry in furthering the industry's business and strategic interests.