*MDV.Kumaraswamy
In my opinion it is too early to talk of over capacity as the concept of retail mall in India is still in the nacent stage and has not been fully appreciated. What will happen if Wal-mart decide to enter India and revloutionaise the relail industry ? The current players are still not playing the right game and have not fully integrated their operational effeciency as giants like Wal-mart have done. Retailing in all forms will begin to emerge in a more productive manner.

*Sandeep Sharma
Its a key issue which also indicates some level of herd mentality among retailers. Yet It seems to be in the right direction as MDV points out. Indian middle class or the mass consumer is definitely growing with lot of aspiration values and desires for changes in retail formats.

Retailers looking for top line achievements is also tapping as much retail space and get into organized retailing which at present is far below even compared to SE Asian countries what to talk of Europe and US and the likes of Walmarts. In fact petro retailers like us have also started looking at our retail station as retail space for future and working on various plans.

So it is only a matter of time ( right now I agree it is the nascent stage) . Infact, likes of BIG bazzar , food world etc have already shown the way on optimization of retail space with all possible integrations.

* Prof. Dwarika Prasad Uniyal
iI think we need to go to the historical evolution of retail formats in UK, then in US. The development of high streets and downtowns, and slowly the
malli'sm. In india, the traditional markets have evolved around specialised mandis and shops were developed on the both sides of main road of a city which worked as life line for that city. With organised retail just a decade old and the type of formats emerging, its still very early to say which ones will survive and evolve because like any business, in retail too the operational efficinces and critical know how will take some time. Secondly its typical of india that despite of bigger formats coming. hybrid and smaller retailers have grown up too. Since indian consumer class is very heteregenous and so many sub classes, for every CP there is a karol bagh, for a Forum Mall there is gharia hat , for every CG road there is a releif road which is very necessary to cater to the diffeentiated needs of segmented people.

Also it took WAL MART 40 years to reach where it is today. The biggest advantage with indian retailers is that they can benchmark against the best, avoid the mistakes early players have committed and reduce the evolution time to 5 years which was 25 in case of eurpoean formats. With FDI still a question mark, i guess indian retailers will have to learn on their own, understanding indian markets. The question of overcapacity will come little later as even consumers will learn to adapt themselves to new culture of shopping.

Though the shift has happened, from metros to A class towns to B class town.. retailers have slowly realised that skewed growth will be detrimental for their business. Even mall developers will realise that after a point no place can sustain if there is an overcapacity. for example 4 malls in gurgaon???
why can't we have 2 malls there and 2 at ludhiyana and chandigarh?? they are equally lucerative markets...? leaving you with this thought

* Abeer Chakravarty
Overcapacity isn't an issue yet and whether it will be is too premature to conclude at this nascent stage. We are still grappling with formats and markets, and not in a stage of consolidation and conclusion yet. Since we love jumping into a trend, I suspect there would be overcapacity.

Property developers would need to better understand that just any property won't help - key issues would be high-street location for city malls/supermarkets/chains, and anchors for malls. Too few are considering the crtitical need to have huge parking spaces with ability to cart the purchases to the car boot. So it is more likely that we will have wasted capacity rather than overcapacity.

* Raja Sekar
At present i see overcapcity happening only in certain clusters like Gurgaon,Delhi in the near future. But there is good demand for malls if we go beyond the
metros.These places will be the engines for the growth of organised retail after the metros.

Building capacities will also definately bring down one of the main entry barriers like high rentals and improve operational efficiencies.This will also help
to bring in new and smaller players with new concepts and services and contribute to the overall gowth of the organised retail industry.

1. SPIC MACAY presents Ke Jun from the Jiangsu Kunqu Opera, China
Date: 11th Dec 2003, Thursday
Time: 11.00 AM
Venue: Cathedral Composite PU College and High School, Richmond Road.
For details/passes logon to www.spicmacayblr.org or contact Ms. Nivedita Honnatti

2. In the Hour of God
Pattabhi Rama Reddy is proud to announce the staging of "In the Hour of God" on December 11th, 12th & 13th at Chowdiah Memorial Hall, Bangalore. This play is inspired by Sri Aurobindo's Savitri. We are staging it as a tribute to Snehalata Reddy who had a great love for the theatre. Please do come and forward this to anyone who will be interested.
Direction & Music by Konarak Reddy
Featuring: Arundhati Raja, Ashok Mandanna, Hema Mandana, Jagdish Raja, Kirtana Kumar, Sameer Sheikh, Shiva Subramaniam, Tuffy Taraporevala
SFX & Surround Sound : Little Jasmine Films/DIGIFUNK Lighting Design : Daniella Zehnder
Video Edit : Challam Bennurkar Choreography : Tripura Kashyap Sets : Rajesh & Studioline
Sets Execution : Basil Carter Costumes : Julie Kagti, Sutra & Grasshopper
Photography : Sorab Mehta Sound & Lights : Reynold's Sound & Light Stage Management : Sneha, Shibani, Priya, Vijay, Nitin Publicity : Ahalya, Kala, Anjula AT CHOWDIAH MEMORIAL HALL, DECEMBER 11th, 12th & 13th 2003 Tickets are available at KC Das, Casa Picola (all branches) & Supermarket (Brigade Road)

3. Massive protest programme - 6 December

On 6th December various secular and progressive groups, organisations and individuals are jointly organising a massive protest demonstration in front of Town Hall. This protest is against the attempted communalisation of the Bababudangiri shrine by the Sangh Parivar and also against the communal mobilization by the VHP for its Virath Hindu Samajothsava in which Pravin Togadia will be participating.

We request all of you to gather in front of Town Hall by 4:30pm. Please bring placards, banners with you.

After the protest, there will be a cultural programme at Samsa open-air theatre (next to Town Hall) from 6:30pm onwards. A film on the Bababudangiri issue, made by Pedestrian Pictures, will also be screened during this programme.

Please join in large numbers to make the protest a success.
- Bababudangiri Souharda Vedike (Bangalore)

The second edition of The RainSeed Festival (hopefully, this time, the weather will be crisp, cold and clear) will find Thermal And A Quarter, Bangalore's favourite rock act, sharing stage for the first time with Antaragni, on December 6, 2003, Saturday, at TownsEnd, Yelahanka. Another eco-village on the lines of Trans-Indus, TownsEnd provides the perfect ambience for this mostly acoustic show.

Antaragni has made waves for its unique blend of Indian folk, and for the instantly recognizable vocal style of frontman Raghu. Featuring a revolving cast of stellar musicians, this is one group that is always a treat to watch live. As the opening act for Bryan Adams in Bangalore (2001), Antaragni acquired an even larger following. Currently, the lineup has Raghu on guitar and vocals, Allwyn Fernandes on guitar, mandolin, khomak, oud and percussion, Josy John on bass, and Gopinath on drums and percussion.

Also on the bill is stand-up comic Ashvin Matthew, a self-confessed 'clown at home, and generally all through life.' Ashvin studied drama in Sydney, Australia, where he honed his comic talents working as a waiter in a restaurant. He also studied radio and television production in Cyprus, where he seriously did the university, pub and festival comedy circuits. With recent performances at Sparks and various corporate events, he's all set to split those sides.

Put that on your to-do list for this weekend: Saturday, December 6, 2003 at TownsEnd, Yelahanka. 8 pm onwards. Donor passes at Rs 100 available at the venue. Be sure to spread the word.

For more information, call 9845384297

1. Antaragni. 28Nov

From Raghupati Dixit of Antaragni: ""Hey Friends...Antaragni will be performing at St.Josephs Commerce College (brigade road) on of 28th November, 2003 (this friday) at 6.30 p.m. Please come along and tag your friends too. Tickets are available at the venue for 50 bucks ONLY!!!!!!!!!!"

2. The Tallest Rock band from Finland.....Live in Bangalore
Guruskool and Royal Orchid Present THE STEREO JUNKS! The Tallest Rock Band in Finland
A LIVE concert
on 28th and 29th November at the Geoffery's @ the Royal Orchid 1, Golf avenue,Adjoining KGA Golf course Airport Road Bangalore.

3. Cryptic Live

One of Bangalore's finest progressive rock bands, Cryptic, plays live at the Baldwin Boys' School (Hosur Road, near Johnson Market) this Saturday at 7 pm.
Passes are priced at Rs 100 and Rs 200, and all monies go towards aid for the Shristi, a school for the mentally handicapped.

This may well be the last show that Cryptic does for a while, since Durga, their drummer, will be leaving for higher studies in Australia shortly. She's one of the finest drummers in Bangalore, so it will be quite a loss.

4. Mahila Okkoota presents a one-woman show and film screening

November 30
The Screening of the film The Day I Became a Woman by Marziyeh Meshkini, at Bal Bhavan at 5.00 p.m. to observe the South Asian Women's Day for Peace, Justice and Human Rights
December 2
An One-woman show Hennu Allave? by renowed theatre person, Laxmi Chandrashekar at St Joseph's Commerce College Auditorium at 5 p.m.

Donation passes of Rs.10/- per person are available at 5496934/5492782. For details contact: Padma or Prema.
Programmes organised by Mahila Okkoota (a coalition of Women's and Human Rights Groups) in solidarity with the International Campaign Protesting Violence against Women and Girls.

-----Original Message-----
Subject: Fw: Important-- Help the IIM's

IIM side of the CAT scam...and a request to all alumni to chip in with watever help they can...
******************************************
From Media cell co-ordinator, IIMA:
Hello all,

Since there has been a lot of confusion prevailing amongst all regarding the CAT paper leak, IIMA director, Prof. Bakul Dholakia today convened a meeting of all current students at IIMA and put forward

1. the account of events as they happened on Sunday (the day of the leak).
2. IIMA investigation of the incident
3. the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD)
4. Steps that IIMA is taking

Part 1: Account of events on Sunday:

* 7:15 AM: Director receives call from DIG, CBI. He informs Director that he has copy of question paper which seems to be CAT paper and he would like to cross check with CAT paper. Director says that even he doesn't have CAT paper and it is CAT committee (comprising of Admissions Head of six IIM's which can throw light on this). Director asks him to call back.
* 7:30 AM: Director contacts Prof Vijay Sherry Chand in Mumbai (IIMA's admissions head) and explains the situation. Prof. Sherry Chand gives him contact of Admission head of IIML (zonal IIM for Delhi where leak was detected), who is in Delhi for administering CAT.
* 7:35 AM: DIG, CBI calls again. Director gives him contact info of Prof Sherry Chand and that of IIML admission head.
* 8:00 AM: IIML admissions head is contacted. He directs CBI to Prof. Arpana Shukla (Prof at IIML) who is also in Delhi and supervising one of the centers in South Delhi, closest to CBI office.
* 8:15 AM: CBI goes to nearby center and finds that all trunks with CAT paper are safe. They try to open up trunk for paper. But Prof. Shukla opposes saying paper are sealed and cannot be opened before 11 AM. (What if CBI is wrong?).
* 11:00 AM CBI in presence of Prof Shukla and principal of DPS (CAT center) opens CAT paper.
* 11:35 AM: Paper was confirmed to be matching with one of the four sets of question paper.
* 11:40 AM Aaj Tak flashes CAT leak news.
* 11:45 AM Director receives a call from HRD ministry. They force him to cancel CAT. Meanwhile MHRD announces CAT retest. Director refuses saying only CAT committee can order retest which will be decided only after they confirm the news.
* 12:00 AM Director is attacked by media in Ahmedabad. Meanwhile, HRD ministry gave ample publicity to news. Director takes charge of defending IIM system (and thus, IIMA gains focus of media).
* Director convenes meeting of CAT committee in IIMA on Tuesday and that of all other IIM Directors on Wednesday.

Part 2: IIMA investigation of the incident:

This is fairly long process. CAT process is divided into pre-printing and post-printing. Pre-printing process is totally in-house. All evidences (even soft copies) are destroyed immediately. No single person is coordinator and hence cannot have all the information all the time. Finalized question paper is converted into butter-paper copy (again in-house) and then taken personally to printer who prints it in fairly secured area. Printing, sealing and boxing up of paper takes almost 3 weeks. Then these papers are doubly locked in trunks, sealed and trunks are sent to various centers, where trunks are opened between 8-8:30 AM on CAT day. Papers re opened only during exam.

IIMA has contacted all 147 centers in 26 cities and their investigation has reveled that NOT A SINGLE trunk was opened and NOT A SINGLE paper
was disturbed. This shows that paper was photocopied before sealing it at the printer. (CBI has got photocopy of printed paper).

When Director has explained this to CBI and they are satisfied with their investigation, CBI has given clean chit to IIM's and declared that IIM system is fool-proof. Director is now working on re-test which will hopefully happen in the first week of Feb.

Part 3: the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD)

There has been tremendous pressure from MHRD for centralizing admission procedure for management schools. They wanted CAT to be postponed this
year. They had asked IIM directors on 22nd Oct to postpone CAT, which Directors declined. There have been MHRD demands to reduce the corpuses
at IIMs. MHRD trying hard to make IIMs to fall in line.

Part 4: Steps that IIMA Students are taking:

1. We have contacted all major dailies, magazines and some TV media for raising our voices against HRD initiatives.
2. Since Monday morning, the Media Cell at IIMA has given interviews to CNBC, Doordarshan, BBC among others to put forward our point of view.
3. The other 5 IIMs are also being roped in.

This is just to give you a brief update on what has been happening back at home. The Alumni and the Media Cell will be working to bring in the support of the alumni which will surely be needed in this. We really look forward to your help in this crisis where the autonomy of the IIMs (in their admission procedure and day-to-day functioning) is under threat. We will be grateful for absolutely any help that you extend us in this hour of need.

Best regards,
KS....PGP-2

1. AvantGarde - IIT Kanpur MBA
Greetings from MBA @ IIT Kanpur!

The department of Industrial and Management Engineering at IIT Kanpur has been running an online monthly management newsletter "Avant Garde"(AG) - The first of its kind among management institutes in India. Avant Garde, now out with its 8th edition for the month of November 2003, focuses on current industry trends, technology management, management research papers, gist of seminars given by leading corporate personalities through our lecture series and of course the happenings in the student community at MBA in IIT Kanpur.

Please visit the link below to experience what it is all about:

http://www.iitk.ac.in/ime/MBA_IITK/avantgarde

AG Team
MBA - IIT Kanpur

2. Horizons-2003 from IIMK

The fourth annual management seminar of the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode(IIMK) "HORIZONS- Exploring the Frontiers of Management" is being
organized on the weekend of 15th & 16th November 2003.

Registration is open online http://www.iimk.ac.in/events/horizons/registration.html

bout Horizons:
To reflect upon the constant flux in the business environment and emerging opportunities,IIMK organizes an annual management seminar- Horizons. IIMK
believes that its students as leaders of tomorrow and citizens of the corporate world need to align themselves with the changing times. Interactions with Professionals from academia, industry and government create an awareness of the challenges that management professionals must address. Horizons is IIMK's attempt at translating some of these trends and changes into a language of possibilities and moving the frontiers of management a few steps closer to the realm of application. In the past Horizons has seen eminent speakers from industry and academia share their wisdom with the students.

The website url is: http://www.iimk.ac.in/events/horizons/

The Themes for the event this year are:
1. Manufacturing- the coming of Age
2. Built-to-Order Banking
3. Knowledge Workers: International Pulls and National Pressures
4. Brand Wars - Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones?
5. Integrating Operational Risk into Risk Management Systems
6. Panel discussion
The Lame Blame Game: Board Vs Management Vs Society

Some of the confirmed speakers are:
Mr. Ashvin Parekh, ED, Deloitte and Touche Tohamatsu
Mr. Chander Bansal, MD, Tansport Division, Alstom India
Mr. Pandia Rajan, MD, Ma Foi Management Consultants
Mr. Pramod Sadarjoshi, Director, HR, Cognizant Technology Solutions
Mr. Shashi Kalathil, ED, Pepsi International.

3. ViewPoint: The Paper Presentation Competition
ICFAI Business School Mumbai presents to you it’s Annual Business School
Meet-“konflux-2003” to be held from 24th – 26th November 2003.

We are inviting entries for “ViewPoint” The Paper Presentation for which
the last date is 10th November. The maximum word limit is 3000. Please
visit our website http://www.konflux-ibsm.com for further details. You can
also win attractive prizes by playing interesting online games on our site.

In my opinion, following kinds of blogs would not survive:
a) Personal Blogs - They are reward-expctation based blogs: Blogger's enthusiasm is fueled by expected comments. In the long run, however, the small fan following wouldn't stick with the same personal blogs! (unless the blogger is a celeb)

b) Feeder Blogs - Blogs that link to other news /stories without much to say of their own. You can also call such blogs recycling blogs. They are headed for doom, again unless they from some reputed agency (e.g. O'Reilly etc). People don't need yet another place to spoon-feed them about whats happening around on the Net. Today net users are sophisticated and know where to find the info of 'their interest'!

What will survive are the blogs that add value (no jargon) to the reader. For example, a professor in Harvard might be talking about copyright issue and thats what will remain there. Rest of 'em blogs will just vanish in the obscurity of the Net just like the millions of never-updated-anymore geocities homepages!