Forbes India - Jul 02, 2010 Issue

ISSUE DATE Jul 02, 2010

Yogi`s New Clothes

Y.C. Deveshwar is moving into a decisive phase in his mission to transform ITC from a cigarette maker to fast-moving consumer goods company. He has raised the stakes in the FMCG business with a series of bold moves to acquire market share. He has set a revenue target of Rs.12,000 crore for this segment, as against the current Rs.3,700 crore. With less than two years to go before his term as chairman ends, Deveshwar needs to show success in achieving viable growth to secure the company's future. It might even earn him the extension he really wants.

The Conscience of Capitalism

The Bhopal tragedy and more recently, the BP oil leak have raised issues of justice: Of who should be punished. Planning Commission member Arun Maira says, while companies must behave with a conscience, governments too must take responsibility. They must respond to the demands for justice by regulating the behaviour of companies and protecting public interests.

Learning Curve

Government schemes have succeeded in getting more children into school, but have failed in ensuring that they get quality education. Many companies have launched philanthropic initiatives to bridge this gap, but the two that have succeeded best are the Azim Premji Foundation and the Bharti Foundation. So what are they doing right?

The Whethermen

Good monsoon or drought? Indian meteorologists often get the forecast wrong. Now the government is trying to fix that. It has put B.N. Goswami, director of the Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, in charge of trying out a new climate model. But if this sounds like a panacea, rest assured it is not. The new model is far more complex and globally its success rate is not very different from the old one.