Wealth Vs Poverty

India Ranks 5th in Wealth Report 2013 with 122 Billionaires but unfortunately has third of the World’s poor.


The Wealth Report provides the definitive global perspective on prime property and wealth. It includes a guide to the performance of the world’s key luxury residential markets and HNWI growth forecasts over the next decade for over 80 countries and cities. 

According to Knight Frank's Wealth Report 2013, India stands in the fifth spot - following US, China, Germany and UK - in the list of top 10 nations with highest High Net-Worth Individuals (HNWI). A high-net-worth individual is a person with a high net worth. India has 122 billionaires. Mukesh Ambani is the richest man in India with Net worth of 22.3 billion dollars, source of wealth being petrochemicals, oil and gas.

The report states that India's High Net-Worth Individuals (HNWI) with assets of 150 crore or more is estimated to increase to 225 billionaires in the coming decade, which would place India along with China and Japan with highest HNWIs in Asia.

Mumbai has been ranked seventh and Delhi 11th amongst 30 globally rich cities with 2105 and 1945 HNWIs respectively. By the year 2022, Mumbai is expected to have 4988 HNWIs with a growth of 137 percent and Delhi 4278 with a growth of 120 percent.

On the whole, Asian countries will witness 88 percent increase in the HNWIs. The rise of the Asian countries is in parallel to many developed countries and they termed it to be 'The Asian Century'. With the historic shift in economic power towards Asia, its cities are undoubtedly going to become more influential in the coming years. The tremendous economic growths of these countries are mainly due to their exports. International business contributes lot towards the developing countries. But in contrary poverty in India is widespread, with the nation estimated to have a third of the world's poor. In 2010, the World Bank reported that 32.7% of the total Indian population falls below the international poverty line of US$1.25 per day (PPP) while 68.7% live on less than US$ 2 per day. India stands 86th in having population below poverty line. The biggest enemy of health and wealth in the developing world is poverty. Though India’s economy is growing the wealth distribution is uneven, ¼ of the nation's population earns less than the government-specified $0.40/day due to unemployment and underemployment and high population growth rate. In this case the rich becomes richer and the poor becomes poorer. The Government’s role in taking steps to control wealth being concentrated in fewer hands should be more active.

Article By

R. Sadhan Kumar
Ist MIB

PSGCAS

PHARMA: COMPULSORY LICENSING – A BOON

         

                                                                       
               
Patent grants a monopoly power to work an invention.  But state reserves the right of intervention to restrict some of the ill effects of patent. Thus patent represents an interventionist instrument ultimately for the sake of community welfare.  When community welfare is no longer served patent gives a right to intervene to bargain for disclosing the invention.  The ultimate beneficiary is the public and the invention should be available to the public. The proprietor of monopoly may try to abuse the right and it is necessary that a protection is available to the public. Patents, an intellectual properties right are the creation of the government policy.  Nations have the right to compulsory licensing on patents.  Compulsory license is to strike a balance.  Compulsory licensing for a patented invention is a part of Paris Convention and the TRIPS.

Paris Convention authorized each country of the union shall have the right to take legislative measures providing for the grant of compulsory licensing. This is to prevent the abuse which might result from the exercise of the exclusive right conferred by the patent.

WTO Member countries may provide for different forms of compulsory licensing that are authorized by TRIPS Agreement. But TRIPS provide number of restrictions for different form of compulsory licensing. Compulsory license is to be granted case by case.

TRIPS provide for the right to establish compulsory licensing other than the ground explicitly mentioned. The consideration is that it must be commercially viable to manufacture the product locally and the party has manufacturing technology.  Both must be satisfied for a compulsory licensing.  Government can grant compulsory license on the ground that products are widely needed.  It is also expected that a competitive source is essential to meet the reasonable requirement of the public.

The compulsory license seeker under TRIPS agreement has to approach the patent holder. He should satisfy the owner to obtain compulsory license on a reasonable commercial terms and conditions.  He should satisfy that his efforts were not successful within a reasonable time.

Patent holder must be given an opportunity to speak by the authority.  Doha declaration confirms the right of the countries to issue compulsory licensing. The agreement authorizes the member countries to take steps to protect public health in general and access to medicine for all.   Public interest is established in many laws as a ground for compulsory license.   Compulsory license may be granted on diverse grounds to be determined by national laws.                                                                                                                                        

German patent law authorizes compulsory license to be granted when it is indispensable for the public interest.  If the applicant is a patentee, refuses to permit exploitation of the invention by another person offering to pay reasonable compensation that person shall be given authority to exploit the invention and the permission must be indispensable in public interest.

Federal Patent Court held that a compulsory license cannot be granted for a pharmaceutical company if the public interest can be satisfied with other more or less equivalent alternative preparation.
Again it is to be remembered that public interest cannot be characterized in the same generally applicable manner.  It means the meaning changes over time depending on each case.

In India granting of compulsory license is to see that the patent inventions are worked on a commercial scale in the territory of India and that the interest of any person working in developing an invention is not prejudicial.

In India under Patent Act compulsory license can be granted on the ground that a reasonable request of public has not been satisfied.  When the patented invention is not available to public at a reasonable affordable price compulsory license can be granted.

The controller can secure the article manufactured under patent shall be made available to the public at the lowest price.  Today even a middle class consumer, with an average income feels that the cost of medicine is enormous.  The increase in price is felt more in the case of life saving medicines. Many times the price is beyond the capacity and ability to pay for.  The defendants argue that the cost of the medicines have gone up like any other product. But the present scenario does not support this argument.

Pharmaceutical distributors offer discounts ranging from 8 to 15 percent from MRP at the retail level.  Elderly people remember that they were paying the MRP for a very long time. This explains the attitude of these pharmaceutical companies to exploit if there is no competitor. The governments of developing countries are expected to act to prevent such exploitation.  These days the policy of the state is to liberalize more and more items to be manufactured by local applicants even when there is a patent already registered.  The related provisions may be matter of interest in the context of compulsory license issued to Natco of Hyderabad by the Indian Patent Officer. The patent holder is Bayer of Germany.  Natco is to produce and sell a patented cancer drug at a fraction of the price charged by Bayer of Germany.

The global pharmaceutical companies are disappointed over the use controversial compulsory licensing.  The compulsory license was issued to manufacture and market a generic version of Nexaver, a drug used for treating liver and kidney cancer.  In return Natco will be paying 6% royalty on sales to Bayer. Natco is to sell the drug at Rs.8880 (Eight thousand eight hundred and eighty) for a month’s supply of 120 tablets.  Bayer is selling at Rs.2.8 Lakhs for a month’s supply.   Cipla sells the same version of the product at Rs.28, 000 (Twenty eight thousand) a month.

                                                                         
The judgment revealed that the patent was not used to make available the drug to benefit the Indian patients.  One reason quoted for the compulsory license is that even though there was demand for the medicine   Bayer imported the product and did not manufacture the same in India. While the global sale of Nexavar was 934 million US$ in 2010 the sale in India was only 16 crores. It demonstrates the neglectful conduct of the patentee in India.  Further it is stated that only 2 per cent of the 8842 patients needing the drug got the medicine.

The judgment observed that the patients needing the drug far exceeded the supply.  It appears that the reaction of Bayer was not to contest the details of the price but to protect their Intellectual Property Right in India. Cipla has been dragged to Delhi High Court for infringement for selling its own version of Nexavar.

There is one serious danger lurking. Developing countries like India should be aware of the lobbying power of the pharma companies of the developed countries like US to keep the price of this drug Nexavar closer to $5000/- per month’s supply.  How long the developing countries can resist the lobbying power of the   multinational pharmaceutical companies?  India has already started to react.

A Committee has been set up to work out a pricing mechanism applicable to pharmaceutical products.  Mechanisms like reference pricing and fixed pricing are under consideration. It may also be noted that patented drugs are free of price controls.  At the same time one must be aware of the fact that the price controls are applicable to 348 drugs classified as essential drugs.
                                                                                                                   
All these developments will result in opening up of new avenues of availability of life saving drugs at an affordable price to the suffering masses in India.  Definitely the patients will welcome more and more medicines be made available at the affordable prices. There is likelihood of more Indian firms applying for similar applications.  Innovator companies may lower their prices of their patented drugs.  One can expect long drawn legal battles in the courts of law also.

One question lingering in the mind is why the patent authority passed this order at the far end of his term prior to his retirement?  Why not early?

Article By

Dr. Reena Louis

Faculty, MIB
PSGCAS

Video Marketing

In this competitive world to make our product succeed in the market we have to upgrade ourselves with new techniques in marketing. The new era in marketing which grabbed my attention is the video marketing. It is an internet marketing and advertising in which one creates 2-5 minute short videos about specific topics using content from articles and other text sources. The videos are then uploaded to various video sharing websites like YouTube for distribution and exposure. It is an easy way to make our product known to the world from the place where we are.

If we write an average of one web page an hour, it would take us 150 days of writing to achieve the impact of one minute. The market for online video is 45.4%. The average user is exposed to an average of 32.2 videos in a month, increasing the chances that our marketing message will be seen 100 million number of users watch online video each day and a whole of them are looking to buy a service or product.

According to the Online Publishers Association 80 % of internet users who recall watching a video ad on a website in the past 30 days 26% looked for more information about the subject of the video, 22% visited the website named in the ad, 15% visited the company represented in the video ad and 12% purchased the specific product featured in the ad.

AMUL

www.amul.com has over 3 lakhs viewers per month of which 39 per cent are from India. It has already set up cyber shops in 125 cities and fetching average order of  Rs 300 plus per visit. It has e-mail database of over one lakh customers
Published on Feb. 23, 2010
Explores why McDonalds has an important local strategy for each country alongside its clear global strategy: more on website www.global-strategy.net

Converting articles into videos

There are several ways for turning articles into videos. The most traditional way is by creating a PowerPoint presentation of the original article, which is basically transforming the article text into an animated slideshow. Relevant pictures are then added to the slideshow and voice is recorded over each slide to create a voice-over narration for the video. Finally, the presentation is recorded using a screen capture software like Camtasia and the slideshow is now turned into a video that can be uploaded to a video sharing site like YouTube for sharing.

Advantages of Article Video marketing
Article Video marketing is an extension of Article marketing but serves as an alternate medium for businesses to convey their message to a wider audience, and get more exposure. Being an audio-visual medium, articles turned into videos also reduce the time required to read the articles.

Article By

M. Kiruthika

Ist MIB

PSGCAS

Laugh out louder

International advertising entails dissemination of a commercial message to target audiences in more than one country. Target audiences differ from country to country in terms of how they perceive or interpret symbols or stimuli; respond to humor or emotional appeals, as well as in levels of literacy and languages spoken.
When it comes to International business advertising, it should be so effective in attracting the world people in the International business environment. All of these marketing slogans and brand names mentioned below were perfectly fine in English. However, once they were translated into other languages they took on hilarious new meanings!

1. KFC

China has often seemed a land of dashed dreams for foreign companies eager to sell to 1.3 billion mainland consumers. In China, where there are more than 900 KFC restaurants and at least one new branch opening every other day. When American fast food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken opened their first restaurant in Beijing in 1987, they accidentally translated KFC's famous slogan, “Finger-lickin' good” to “We'll Eat Your Fingers Off!” in Chinese.

2. Pepsi

Revenue from Pepsi's emerging markets reached $22 billion in 2011, representing 34% of total revenue and nearly tripling from $8 billion in 2008. Much of that growth came from China. When Pepsi was advertised in China its slogan “We bring you back to life” caused a bit of panic, where they read it as, “We bring your ancestors back from the grave” in Chinese Language.

3. Gerber

Gerber Products Company is a purveyor of baby food and baby products, a subsidiary of Nestlé Group. When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the smiling baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the labels of what's inside, since many people can't read.

4. General Motors

General Motors Company commonly known as GM, is an American multinational automotive corporation which is World’s largest automakers by vehicle unit sales, employing 202,000 people. GM tried to market the Nova car in Central and South America. Nova sold poorly in Spanish speaking countries because "No va" in Spanish means, "It Doesn't Go".

Article By

A. Abinaya

Ist MIB

PSGCAS

AIFTA proves "Look East" can pay rich dividends to India

                           

The economic development is the key factor which transforms a developing country to a developed country. India being a developing nation has to strengthen its trade relation with other countries in order to enhance its economic growth. The free trade between nations will open up new areas for competition and innovation leading to increased investment and acquisition of new market. India’s “Look East” policy (1991) has turned its attention towards East Asian countries which resulted in an initial framework agreement between India and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) in October 2003.After six years of negotiation ASEAN-India Free Trade Area (AIFTA) agreement was signed on August 2009. The AIFTA  is a free trade area consisting of the 10 member states of the ASEAN(Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) and India.
The free trade agreement which was concluded in 2010, has helped trade to grow by 41 percent in 2011-12. Trade between India and ASEAN presently stands at roughly US$80 billion. The implementation of the 2012 FTA on services and investments has set annual India-ASEAN trade to grow to US$100 billion by 2015.

 Through FTA there was tariff elimination for about 4,000 products between the regions. Duties for 3,200 products will be reduced by December 2013, and duties on the remaining 800 products will be brought down to zero or near zero by December 2016. ASEAN and India have agreed to allow between 7 percent and 9 percent of tariff lines or products to be excluded from tariff reduction commitments.

India’s main exports to ASEAN include: Petroleum products, Oil meals, Gems and jewelry, Electronic goods, Cotton yarn and wool, Machinery and instruments, Primary/semi-finished iron and steel, Transport equipment, Marine products, Drugs and pharmaceuticals, Inorganic, organic, and agro chemicals, Dyes and intermediates.

ASEAN’s main exports to India include: Coal, coke, briquettes, Vegetable and petroleum oils, Electronic goods, Organic chemicals, Non-electrical machinery, Wood and wood products, Non-ferrous metals, metalliferous ores and metal scrap.

Indonesia and India signed a bilateral strategic partnership agreement in which the two countries agreed to increase bilateral trade to $10 billion by 2010. This target was actually exceeded that year with total trade amounting to roughly $12 billion, tripling the $4 billion amount set in 2005.

Vietnam continues to be an attractive investment destination for our Indian companies in sectors ranging from oil and gas, steel, minerals, tea, coffee, sugar and food processing. Our country granted Vietnam the “Most favoured Nation” status .They both have expanded cooperation in information technology and education, and are collaborating on their respective national space programs.

Our Indian government has worked to extend air, land and sea routes to strengthen trade links with Myanmar, in addition to establishing a gas pipeline. In 2001, India and Burma co-constructed a 160-kilometer highway called the Indo-Myanmar Friendship Road to open up a commercial transport. India and Myanmar have agreed to construct a new triangular 4-lane highway running 3200 kilometer through India, Myanmar and Thailand and is expected to be completed by 2016 which will increase our trade relationship with Myanmar.

Indian businesspeople in Cambodia have also established an Indian Chamber of Commerce to promote bilateral trade and investment ties which in turn resulted with a tremendous increase in trade growth from  -11.86% (2008-09) to 17.13%(2011-12).

The discovery of oil in 1929 brought a substantial number of Indians seeking their fortune to Brunei. India also signed a free trade agreement (FTA) on goods with Brunei in 2010, which effectively slashed import duties on products ranging from seafood to chemicals and apparel. The main export from Brunei to India has been crude oil, while Brunei predominately imports textile products and vehicle parts from India.

Metals, ores, machinery and electronic equipment account for most of the products imported and exported between India and Laos. India ranks 6th in terms of foreign direct investment in Laos. India has previously invested in Laos’ hydro-power, IT, human resource development and mining sectors.

 India and the Philippines have been negotiating to revise and clarify certain aspects of their double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA), with regard to the taxation of income derived from professional services. The newly revised DTAA is set to be signed sometime this year which will be beneficiary for NRIs in Philippines.

The Early Harvest Scheme (EHS) between India and Thailand functioned as a sort of FTA in goods, services and investments between the countries. The agreement eliminated tariffs on a number of goods, including fruits, chromium ores and concentrates, acrylic polymers, precious and semi-precious stones, jewelry, alloy, iron and steel. India’s trade growth with Thailand has increased from12.89%(2008-09) to27.47%(2011-12).

Singapore, which is now India’s 8th largest source of investment has invested in projects to upgrade India’s ports and airports, in addition to developing information technology parks. Both nations are also working to collaborate on aviation, aerospace engineering, space programs, information technology, biotechnology and energy. Singapore now accounts for 38 percent of India’s trade with ASEAN member nations and 3.4 percent of its total foreign trade. The trade growth between India and Singapore is 50.06%(2011-12).

Malaysia is the 24th largest investor in India and India is the 7th largest investor in Malaysia. Malaysia’s major exports to India include electrical and electronic products, chemicals, metal and palm oil. Malaysia’s main imports from India include chemicals and meat products. India’s trade with Malaysia has a growth rate of 30.24%(2011-12)

India’s trade with ASEAN countries in US $ million

ASEAN Countries	Exports 2011-2012	Exports 2012-2013(Apr-Sep)	Imports 2011-2012	Imports 2012-2013(Apr-Sep)
Brunei	900	17	800	283.7
Indonesia	7000	2500	15000	7000
Malaysia	4000	2000	10000	6000
Singapore	17000	7000	9000	4000
Vietnam	4000	1500	2000	1000
Thailand	3000	1600	5500	3000
Philippines	1000	600	500	250
Myanmar	600	200	1500	750
Cambodia	100	55	8	6
Laos	15	6	100	80

India’s Merchandise trade with ASEAN in 2000-01 was 7.06 billion US $, after the implementation of AIFTA there has been a drastic change in the trade turnover which increased to 79.27 billion US $. Though it took six years of negotiation to form AIFTA now it has become a fruitful source of revenue to India

Article By

K. Sakthi Sindhu

Ist MIB

PSGCAS

Where do you want to land???

Airports have grown by leaps and bounds over the last ten years or so and it is hard to believe some of the facilities they now have. There are usually mountains to do and you could easily find yourself spending a good chunk of time there. Some friends I know have even missed their flights because they got too caught up in the shops and facilities. So read on below for a few fun facts about some of the airports you'll no doubt be passing through in the near future.
a r r i v a l 

 This is the part of the airport experience that many of us look forward to the most. But where can you shop till you drop??

Entertainment
This is where it really gets fun!! 

If you are after extra-special treatment then why not try the luxurious waiting lounges??

While having all these things in the same place seems like a fantasy, if you ever come to Incheon airport in South Korea you might want to ask someone to pinch you. Humorous??  Yes!! Voted the worlds best airport it has most of the features listed above. But perhaps the best feature is this :

    
Incheon, Korea, March 11th, 2013 -- Incheon Airport has won the highest score in two categories of the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) survey, an annual evaluation organized by the Airports Council International (ACI) which is an international council consisting of representatives from 1,700 airports across the world, for the eight consecutive year remarkable achievement of operating the world’s second largest amount of air cargo and the world’s ninth largest number of passengers in 2012 based on its wide aviation network across 173 cities in 53 countries.

Article By

G. Jegannath

Ist MIB

PSGCAS