Business Today 15 January 2017

In January 1992, when Business Today came out with its first edition, the then prime minister Narasimha Rao and his finance minister Manmohan Singh had just embarked on the first generation of economic reforms. The reforms were not by choice but were forced on the government. The previous year, India had come close to defaulting on its international obligations. The bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had come with strings attached. Meanwhile, in the corporate sector, Ratan Tata had just taken over as the chairman of Tata Sons the year before (1991) and had embarked on a battle with the entrenched satraps of the Tata empire – Russi Mody, Darbari Seth and Ajit Kerkar. Rajan Pillai was firmly ensconced as the king of Britannia and his fight with Nusli…

India’s Best Chieftains This refers to your Special Issue (India’s Best CEOs, January 1, 2017). The BT-PWC study is, indeed, a painstaking labour of love and dedication. It has thrown up some new best corporate chieftains, who have managed to take their enterprises to glorious heights in spite of global glitches like the Chinese dragon fires ebbing out and the country’s uncertain business environment plus other factors like technology disruptions, drive towards digital space, etc. These CEOs have once again proved their mettle during tough times. Stiff competition in almost all sectors, push-pull factors of e-commerce on one side and brick and mortar stores on the other side, coping with the recent demon of demonetisation, have all been taken in their stride. The brief listing with the portraits of the…

We have come a long way in the past 25 years. When Business Today was launched in January 1992, the first generation of India’s economic reforms were just being conceptualised and implemented. Now as we enter 2017, a new generation of reforms are being tried out and we are trying to leapfrog into a new era leaning heavily on technology and a host of policy initiatives and programmes. Since it came to power in 2014, the Narendra Modi led NDA government has been pushing a range of programmes and policies – from Swacch Bharat, Make in India, Digital India, Smart Cities, tax reforms and others. To be fair, some of the programmes now being accelerated were initiated by the previous government – the second UPA government led by Manmohan Singh.…

Over the past few years digital governance, or e-governance, has become a buzzword in most big states. The central government as well as most state governments have been trying to digitise all services, create apps and offer a better, more transparent, and simpler customer experience, while cutting down on corruption, time delays and discretion enjoyed by officers and staff across government departments. Some states have been faster off the block than others, but each one of them has tried to take things forward in their own way. The Digital India initiative announced by the Narendra Modi-led NDA government in July 2015, and the current drive to move more services into the digital payments systems are all part of those efforts. This is particularly useful as the country’s access to Internet…

R.CHANDRASHEKHAR, President of National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), believes good governance is all about leveraging new age technologies. People, processes and technology should effectively combine to deliver Maximum Governance with Minimum Government. Indeed, Chandrashekhar asserts, no governance reform programme can be designed without e-governance at its core. It can be said that the role of ICT in the public sector has evolved from informatisation to providing smart government. But that’s rather a staid way of looking at it. The old model (1980 – 2000) led to high costs with limited results, and was merely an attempt to computerise brick and mortar. Major shortcomings were experienced – there was lack of change management techniques and process re-engineering which often led to duplication, creation of silos and sub-par outcomes.…

He is up 19 hours a day with a good part of his early mornings and late nights spent in group chats on WhatsApp. No, he is not another teen living life in cyberspace glued to his smartphone and tab. It is a slice out of a typical day of 53-year-old U. Ramamohan, the superintendent of police dealing with cyber crimes at the office of the CID in Hyderabad. “In cyber crime, there is no crime scene from where to begin your investigations. In many cases, the criminal is not even physically present,” says Ramamohan. This is one challenge he needs to constantly face; the other is coming up with innovative ways to outsmart the digitally-savvy criminal. That partly explains the time he chooses to spend in group chats. These…