Vol. 6(1) January 2013
The Indian Government and FDI in Retail Sector in
India
Paul Uttam* and Roy Swapan Kumar
The policies of the GOI on privatization, liberalization,
trade and investment will undergo some transformation if the newly elected United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by the Indian National Congress Party
were to implement its policies. The early policies until around 1961 were quite
liberal on trade and investment. Subsequently, from 1962 to 1977, the trade and
investment policies were mainly driven by the needs of local industry and economy.
From 1978, the policies were clearly towards liberalization of the economy, though
they were implemented in small steps. The year 1991, however, was a major watershed
in the liberalization and privatization process in India. And 2004 saw some slowing
down of the liberalization and privatization process in India. In 2011, the government
of India offered a policy permitting foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail sector
of India. It says this move will boost the economy and create more jobs. There is
a section of people excited about this. And there is a section of people going against
it. Foreign direct investment in retail sector (single and multi-brand) is a much
talked about subject today. To the politicians, economists, business magnets, people
engaged in retail sectors and above all the rank and file, it has become a cynosure
of discussion.
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Impact of Fuel Price Control on Finances of Indian
Public Sector Oil Companies
Singh Satyendra Kumar
The prices of petroleum products Diesel, PDS Kerosene
i.e. Kerosene sold through public distribution system and domestic LPG (Liquefied
Petroleum Gas) in India are currently controlled by the Government of India and
consequently, state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs), viz Indian Oil Corporation
Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation
Limited are selling these products at below cost prices. As a result, they suffer
revenue losses (under-recoveries) on sale of these products. The under-recoveries
are shared by the Government and up-stream public sector oil companies, viz Oil
and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, Oil India Limited and GAIL (India) Limited
to the extent and in proportion as determined by the Government from time to time.
Any part of under-recoveries that is not shared by the Government or up-stream public
sector oil companies is absorbed by the OMCs themselves as losses. As the up-stream
public sector oil companies partly share the OMCs’ under-recoveries, their finances
are also affected adversely. This paper makes an analysis of the impact of fuel
price control on finances of publicly owned down-stream oil companies i.e. OMCs
as well as up-stream oil companies.
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Converting Waste into Energy: A Study on Practices
of Solid Waste Management in Selected Cities of India
Loonker Sangeeta1* and Jain Samta
Waste Management, quite specifically solid waste management,
is a major concern among all the Asian countries. The new slogan today is: “waste
to wealth, refuse to resource and trash to cash.” Our environment is chiefly comprised
of soil, air and water. It is a well established fact that the modern industrialization,
application of large scale technology in our industrial planning, rapid growth of
trade and commerce and the growth popularity of the use and throw products – all
these have changed the disposal of waste patterns in the environmental perspective.
Biosphere is an important zone for the biological activities and is responsible
for ecology and environment. Thus in order to meet the challenges of environmental
degradation caused by unplanned and unmanaged activities, we need to look forward
for establishing a totally recycling society, actively encouraging the residents,
industries and the public sector to cooperate with each other.
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A Study on Financial Constraints and Challenges in
Retailing Trade: A Bird’s Eye View
Srinivasan K.1* and Saravanan S.2
This paper discusses the financial challenges confronted
by the retailers in Tamil Nadu. The unorganized retail format has been rapidly replaced
by the modern organized retail format. This format has not been only established
in metro and urban cities, but semi-urban areas are also decorated by the modern
retail business. Though it signifies the development in one hand; another side it
severely disturbs the livelihood and survival of unorganized retailers. Though the
retailers face many challenges in the wake of modern retailers, financial challenges
occupy a prominent place. In this circumstance the paper examines some of the key
financial problems encountering by retailers. 300 sample respondents were selected
across the Vellore district by stratified simple random sampling method. The study
found that low margin of profit, huge investments and lack of financial resources
are the significant financial challenges faced by the unorganized retail traders.
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Impact of Electronic Tax Registers on VAT Compliance:
A Study of Private Business Firms in Kenya
Kiprotich Naibei1, Siringi Elijah M.2 and Etienne Musonera3*
The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of
use of Electronic Tax Registers (ETRs) on Value Added Tax (VAT) compliance among
private business firms in Kisumu city, Kenya. A sample of 233 private firms was
selected from a population of 590 private firms using stratified sampling technique.
The data were gathered by use of questionnaires and analysed by use of correlation
and descriptive statistics. Empirical results reveal that effective and regular
use of ETR has a significant impact on the Value Added Tax (VAT) compliance (R=0.622,
p<0.05), frequency of inspection of businesses by tax authorities has a slight impact
on VAT compliance (R=0.15, p<0.05) while sales had insignificant negative relationship
with VAT compliance (R=-0.077, p>0.005). Based on the research findings the study
concludes that use of ETR has a significant impact on VAT compliance in Kenya.
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Price Behaviour of Shares using Technical Analysis
Khadke Leena N.* and Sarode Anil P.
Technical Analysis is a study of the stock market relating
to factors affecting the supply and demand of stocks. It helps in understanding
the intrinsic value of shares and knowing whether the shares are undervalued or
overvalued. The stock market indicators would help the investor to identify major
market turning points. This is a significant technical analysis of selected companies
which helps to understand the price behaviour of the shares, the signals given by
them and the major turning points of the market price. Any investor must certainly
consider technical analysis as a tool whether to buy the stock at a particular point
of time though it is fundamentally strong. It is the most useful and consistent
approach to trading in the markets. It is the art and science of putting stock information
on a chart in the form of various kinds of bars and detecting different patterns
indicators tosses the market direction. While a lot of people know at least a little
about technical analysis, very few really know how to use it. The main function
of technical analysis is to show the current demand-supply position of the market,
or the particular stock, define risk and reward of each particular trade. This paper
describes about the use of technical analysis for investors while buying and selling
decisions with the technical analysis done for the stocks of few selected Indian
Automobile companies. This study focuses on the technical analysis on selected stocks
of automobile sector and interprets on whether to buy or sell them by using techniques.
This would help investors to identify the current trend and risks involved with
the scrip on par with market. For the purpose of analysis, Relative Strength Index
and Simple Moving average are used for the analysis to know if the stock is technically
strong or not.
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A Conceptual Framework for Demographic Diversity and
Performance
Park Michael Hyung-Jin* and Overby John D.
Much research on the effects of diversity in group composition
on group performance has been conducted. We review the previous research, find the
enablers to make diverse group effective and propose a conceptual framework that
explicates how groups can maximize the benefits of diversity and minimize the costs
and finally improve the performance in demographically diverse settings. Our conceptual
framework suggests that (1) flow of diverse knowledge is positively related to performance,
(2) demographic diversity is not necessarily positively related to the flow of diverse
knowledge, (3) stock of diverse knowledge is positively related to the flow of diverse
knowledge when behavioral integration is high and (4) demographic diversity is positively
related to behavioral integration, when there is a mechanism to facilitate behavioral
integration.
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Hotel Employee Attitude and the Quality Service: An
Impact Framework with Empirical Investigation
Khanna Suvidha
In an increasing competitive market, the issue of quality
has gained great significance for all tourism businesses. In fact service quality
has been increasingly identified as a key factor in differentiating service products
and building a competitive advantage in tourism. The process by which customers
evaluate a purchase, thereby determining satisfaction and likelihood of repurchase,
is important to all marketers but especially to services marketers because, unlike
their manufacturing counterparts, they have fewer objective measures of quality
by which to judge their production. The issue of measuring service quality has received
increasing attention in recent years in the tourism and recreation literature. Indeed,
research has identified a generally positive relationship between an organization’s
product or service quality, its return on investment and its market share. This
service being intangible in nature, delivering superior service quality is a pre-requisite
for its success and survival in today’s competitive world.
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The Influence of Marketing on Consumer Attitude Functions
for Kitchen Appliances with Special Reference to a study at Kochi Metro
Anilkumar N.
This study investigates the relationship between Marketing
Mix Strategy and Consumer Attitude function for domestic kitchen appliances. Regression
analysis was conducted to test the relationship between the 4P’s and consumer attitude
functions. The findings show that only the pricing strategy has a positive impact
on consumer attitude function while the promotion strategy has a significant negative
impact on consumer attitude function. The product and place strategies do not influence
consumer attitude functions. These findings suggest that consumers do not look for
product characteristics and store location when buying kitchen appliances products.
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Tata Group for Retail Store Formats
Bhalerao Dipanjay
Over last 100 years in India TATA group has been leading
the business arena in its everlasting thrust on sustainability on business. When
talking about its retail ventures we learn the comprehensiveness of the group.
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