Significance of Migrant Workers and the need to ensure the availability of  Local Labour

Dr.S.Sethuram, Assistant Professor, Department of MBA, Sankara College of Science and Commerce

The presence of large number of textile mills, foundries, engineering and other Industries make Coimbatore region as the most industrialized part of Tamil Nadu.Though these firms generate large amount of employment, they are not able to attract local labour.

In the areas of Coimbatore and Tiruppur, the textile sector requires three lakh to five lakh workers at any point of time. But the industry is facing shortage of labour. From North Eastern states, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar many workers migrate to the Tamil Nadu. They are low skilled workers. The firms have utilized their services and by making flexible agreements with the workers and by building hostels and canteens.

Coimbatore has about six hundred Foundries manufacturing raw gray and ductile iron castings. Four hundred and fifty of them are small foundries. Each of the small foundries manufactures up to four hundred tonnes per month. Further there are one hundred and fifty  foundries which include medium level foundries which manufacture less than one thousand tonnes per month and large level foundries which produce more than one thousand tonnes per month with some of them making steel, aluminum and other non-ferrous castings. Some of the firms also do further machining of the castings. They supply finished components and parts for the tractors, pumps & valves, textile machinery, air compressors or lathes. Two hundred to three hundred persons are employed by each Foundry. Including the ancillary industries the foundries provide employment to be 1.75 to 2 lakh persons, sixty percent of them being migrant workers.

Coir Industry in Pollachi exports coir fibre. Coir fibre is used for making mattresses while the coir pith is used for greenhouse cultivation. Ninety percent of the coir fibre is exported to China. The total revenue generated through exports is Rupees one thousand four hundred crores per year. January to May is the major season for production of Coir. Eighty percent of the workforce comprises of migrant labour. The units feel that it was better to employ migrant labour who are more efficient than the local labour.

Though the region is able to get migrant labour, uninterrupted supply of them is not possible in cases like pandemic and lockdown. To get over this issue, the companies should focus on skill development training to the local youth to fill the gap in between employees and employers. By improving working conditions the firms can attract more youth from the nearby areas. This will ensure uninterrupted supply of adequate skilled labour. 

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HEALTHCARE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Prof. V. Vidhya

Assistant Professor

Department of MBA

Sankara College of Science and Commerce

The Supply Chain Management is about delivering goods and services from manufactures to the customers. It generally refers to the resources needed to deliver the goods and services. In Healthcare, managing the supply chain is very difficult and complex process. Healthcare supply chain involves managing resources and supplies and delivering goods and services to the Healthcare Providers and Patients. For this process to complete the information’s about the medical products and services should go through number of stakeholders, like Manufactures, Hospitals, Providers, Insurance companies and Regulatory agencies.

The healthcare supply chain is initiated at the clinical product manufacturer where the products are produced and it is in turn send to the distribution centre. The hospitals can purchase the products either through directly to the manufacturer or to the distributor, or else they can purchase through group purchasing organisations which has contract with the manufacturer on behalf of the hospital.

Medical products are sent to the healthcare providers where it is stocked in the inventory for patients. The Providers ensures that they are not left without essential medical products and patients have access to the lifesaving products.

Healthcare supply chain management also involves the participation of some regulatory agencies which determines that the medical resource is fit for the consumer use and the providers will be reimbursed for using the resources on necessary patients.

The Healthcare supply chain is important for business as it helps to reduce costs, increases supply chain efficiency, create strong agility and resilience. The hospital caters many people for that they need proper stocks of all products starting from syringes, medicines, PPE and other specialised drugs. The industry has greater responsibility to have proper stocking of all essential requirements and as well as to manage their inventory. They cannot dump in their inventory with the items and products which will expire soon.

Several risk factors are there that challenges the functioning of healthcare supply chains,

• Lack of resilience – The pandemic situation exposed the need of good supply chain resiliency. The risk of supply chain disruptions in healthcare have greater consequences for the patient care.
• Lack of visibility – Lack of resiliency is due to the poor visibility of the healthcare supply chain. Specifically due to lack of quick access, real time data on inventory and less knowledge on future demands.
• Cost management – In the pandemic situation the demand for PPE and other medical supplies went up high and the costs also geared up high. This led to delayed procedures with high inventory and carrying costs.

Conclusion

The current scenario the need for AI enabled supply chain control towers can help an organisation to gain greater visibility, can improve the ability to sense the demand and will support inventory management for the improved patient care. Combining all these factors the healthcare ecosystem can better manage future crisis and challenges.

LEAD WITH PURPOSE
Ms.K.Sindhuja
Dept. of MBA
Sankara College of Science & Commerce
“The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have.”

Leadership is not simulated, it is self-made. These formulations were realized in the scenario of Mrs. Malavika Hegde. The amazing part of her role as CEO has recently become a trend. Here, I will go to the trending news of Mr. Malavika Hegde. CCD is the most popular coffee retail sector. As the coffee culture became more prevalent, VG Siddhartha considered starting a coffee-focused business. For a while, he couldn’t bear the burden of debt and committed suicide. At that time, the choice was made for her wife, who is now the CEO, to steer. Many thought that the Coffee Day Company would not survive after Siddhartha’s death, and there were many questions about who would continue to run the company after him. People started spreading rumors that the company could not recover from the debt.

Being a single woman and mother of two children she broke all the suspicions and achieved a milestone in preventing CCD from its disappearance.

            Malavika Hegde came to charge in December 2020 which was really a hard time for many businesses. From day one she made constant and consistent efforts to help the company grow.  In 2019, Coffee Day had a debt of over 7,000 rupees. This was a heavy burden for Malavika Hegde, who was saddened by the loss of her husband. But she never gave up. After Siddhartha’s suicide Mrs.Malavika Hegde managed to reduce her debt even during the hard times of Covid.

            The Enterprise had a debt of 7,000 rupees as of March 31, 2019. From the initiative of Malavika Hegde, she showed a result in reducing the debt by the next year itself. And she made her achievement as a benchmark setter. Her goal is to turn CCD into a debt-free and multi-billion enterprises in the future. Malavika Hegde’s dream of following in the footsteps of her deceased husband has led to the move of coffee day shops across the country. Many companies have been closed since COVID 19 infected the world. However, Cafe Coffee Day was able to grow even during the pandemic.

 All this is made possible by the new CEO of CCD, Malavika Hegde. She said her motto is to maintain the value of the brand, build relationships with many new investors, bring capital to the business, and convince investors that it is worth investing in the brand CCD.

            When many businessmen flee abroad, she decided to run the company and took care of the reconstruction. Salute to her courage and determination From the above narration of CCD we can see through the Leadership quality in a women who was forced to be in position later took that as an challenge and revamped the business by not letting her husband’s dream down.

Finally, leadership isn’t about high-flying crowning acts. It’s about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to work hard to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences are severe. It is about laying the groundwork for others to succeed, then standing back and letting them shine.

Jobs which will face impact due to AI

• Dr.K.ThirugnanaSambanthan, Asst.Professor, Dept. of MBA

Disruption is unavoidable in today’s technological world. Some of the technologies that what we use today as fully automatic were manually operated. People who were involved in these operations had lost their job due to automation. Lift which is now fully automatic was manually operated by Lift operators, they were manually operated and controlled with the timing of the lift for each floor. Years back Bowling pins were manually arranged by people, nowadays we have automatic pin arrangement. Telephone operators played a vital role in connecting calls from the sender to the receiver but today everything is automatic. Think about all these people who have lost their jobs due to automation. Within another 10 years due to the development of Artificial Intelligence following people will tend to lose their jobs.

1. Retail workers
2. Receptionist
3. Cooks, Waiters
4. Courier services
5. Bookkeepers
6. Data-entry operators
7. Doctors, Nurses
8. Manufacturing
9. Soldiers
10. Proof readers
11. Market Research Analysts
12. Software Developers
    Because of Self driving cars many taxi drivers will lose their jobs. Jobs will always be there but due to technical advancements people who does not have adequate skills will lose their jobs. Already China had successfully used Artificial Intelligent robots as Judges. Artificial Intelligence will create more job opportunities for people who are technically skilled.
    

Be Skillful to get a Job in Future….

Working Parents

Dr. Priya Kalyanasundaram, Head of Department,Sankara Institute of Management Science(SIMS)

Working parents are the major work force of the organisation. The organisation that fails to deal with higher rates of burnout and turnover can struggle to retain top talent as working parent are more stressed and burnout then parents without children. The mother’s working full time are experiencing 40% more stress than mom with no children, not only women men are also stressed and depressed. The organisation can look into implementing certain factors which can help in reducing the stress.

Flexi working hours

The organisation can provide flexi working hours or work from home options for the working parents as working parents need flexible schedule to balance their work and family. A recent study conducted states that only 8% of employees prefer to work from office while 29% prefer to work from home. Whereas 69% percent prefer hybrid arrangement.

House hold Assistance

       Child care is a huge problem for working mothers and they spend majority of their time cooking, cleaning and taking care of their children. Organisation can provide child care stipends, house hold cleaning stipends and mela kits for their employees apart from their salary  to make their life less stress for the working parents.

Emergency services

             Many times, the working parents take leave as their child may be sick and due to this  they may not be able to look into the responsibilities.  Organisation can provide emergency services so that the employees can be present in their job.

Parenting Loudly

It means not hiding the fact and to be open up  about your child’s doctor appointment, games, Parents meeting etc.

Day to day life pressures have contributed to stress and burnout for the working parents and the pandemic has been a great challenge for the parents. Organisation can provide support to the employees to reduce stress among working parents.

Big Challenges in Indian Banking amidst Covid 19 & Omicron

* Prakash.P., Assistant Professor, SIMS

Indian banking system is very strong when compared to other banks in the world. The system maintained by RBI is one of the best around the world & as a result all banks are comparatively doing well under the RBI. When so many banks around the world were struggling in ancient time but even at the time of crisis, the Indian banks did manage very well, thanks to RBI. However, some Indian banks are struggling because, they fail to meet the norms described by world bank. Let us discuss what are the challenges that Indian banks are facing. In bird’s eye view we could easily conclude that the main problem is NPA but there are other issues too. Before covid 19, the NPAs were slightly low but after this pandemic, the entire system in banking has become problematic. Banks are playing a crucial role towards the liquidity crunch but they have to ensure to reduce inflation & increase money supply in the same time.

The present Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) for Public Sector Banks (PSBs) is not looking too bad, but the tolerances announced by government has played significant negative impact among Indian Banks as the NPAs are soared like anything. Given the moratorium announced by Indian government, which has made banks very difficult to collect the NPAs. Since the government itself told not to be harsh on receiving EMIs, the NPAs are keep on increasing thanks to covid 19 pandemic. Now omicron also around the corner, the corona second wave was just over as so many people still trust, but now Omicron is all set to challenge the people lives in a negative aspect. As a result, once again we could expect complete lock down which will show the way for jobless people & again NPA will go up. So obviously it’s uphill task for all banks in India & world as well, particularly Public Sector Banks (PSBs) will face a huge challenge & cooperative banks especially.

In loan lending system where PSBs are playing an important role, the capital levels of banks are essential for increasing loan lending activities or taking risk by giving more loans. Covid hit sectors in MSME, need more funds for restarting / restructuring their business. The PSBs valuation in stock exchange is too low and as a result the PSBs can’t rise much money from FPO through stock exchange. Moreover, if the PSBs releases more shares to public, then the PSBs ownership will come to a question mark, that’s very dangerous. So the obvious question is how the PSBs will get money to lend more? The simple but the hardest answer for the above question is, “The Government”, but we all should be knowing that the government’s balance sheet for the past two years especially. So it’s not easy for banks to cherish & smile at present till next few years.

People may think about privatization of banks may be solution for all problems regarding NPA but it may be a temporary solution but not the permanent solution. It’s because being private may lead to reduce loan lending to the needy people. The priority sector loans like agriculture, education & housing loans will come down because the private banks may move towards more of a profit than service what PSBs do. Now it’s all in the hands of government to do something new in order to save all PSBs from NPAs. Moreover, Basel IV norms also needs to be satisfied for all PSBs for that, capital infusion from government is mandatory.

To conclude, the government desperately need to finance PSBs for two reasons: one for meeting NPAs & giving finance for the needy & the other for satisfying Basel IV norms.

RAPID GROWTH OF CRYPTO SECTOR IN INDIA

Ms.Nanthini , Asst. Professor, Department of MBA, SANSAC

A cryptocurrency (or “crypto”) is a virtual currency that can be used to buy goods and services, much of the attraction in these unregulated currencies is to trade for profit, with speculators at times throwing prices high.

As virtual currency can be used to buy goods and services, cryptocurrency (or “crypto”) employs an online ledger with strong cryptography to protect online transactions. Speculators are a big part of the appeal to these unregulated currencies, and they can push the price up at times. Some of the most widely traded cryptocurrencies includes Bitcoin (BTC-USD), Ethereum (ETH-USD), Litecoin (LTC-USD), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH-USD). Blockchain, the Internet – Of – things (IoT), and other emerging technologies, such as Cloud Computing, can help the CryptoTech industry survive and flourish. Autonomous agents (e.g., sensors, automobiles, other IoT tech), Digital Twins using IoT, Blockchain & Cloud, and Making Autonomous Decisions are all part of the future of Smart Consumers/Users.

India’s crypto ecosystem is impressionable but rapidly growing. CryptoTech supports somewhere around 50,000 professionals. Retail investors in India have diversified $6.6 billion in CryptoTech assets. The 230+ crypto ventures and 150+ blockchain and crypto projects/proofs-of-concept (POCs) show that CryptoTech is here to stay. Since each technology industry is highly competitive by 10-11 percent in the last two years, the crypto sub-sector has grown by 40-50 percent, 4x faster than the whole IT industry. During the same period, financing for Crypto Startups climbed 8x. The retail ownership of Crypto Assets has produced by 612 percent .These are further examples of Crypto Exchanges, Crypto Start-ups, IT firms offering Blockchain/CryptoTech solutions, Financial Institutions adopting Crypto (Remittances), and Public Sector adopters of CryptoTech.

India has the potential to lead the way in the cryptocurrency/blockchain field in the future, creating new opportunities for employment and economic growth. It’s also one of the top 20 most valuable cryptocurrencies right now, based on market valuation. To ease India’s reliance on the dollar in global trade, a decentralised cryptocurrency might be used.

A day after government nominated for a Bill to ban all such cryptocurrencies, with few exclusions, the cryptocurrency industry urged the government to take a nuanced approach to regulate crypto assets in India. As India has the world’s greatest number of crypto owners, and it is up to the government to advance their wealth. “We urge the Indian government to regulate crypto assets with caution. In case the cryptocurrency Bill passes, India will embark on an exhilarating road towards world leadership in crypto. Cryptocurrencies are not uniquely vulnerable to any legislation or prohibitions. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi convened a gathering with senior officials earlier this month to examine cryptocurrencies, and it appears that strong regulatory measures would be enacted to deal with the issue. A climb in the value of Bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, has drawn hordes of Indian investors since the beginning of the year.

An exciting future awaits cryptocurrency users in India. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain – based have the abilities to power India’s objective with the appropriate set of policies and incentives.

Malleable warehouse Designs for Online Strategies

Ms.Susanajoy, Assistant Professor, Department of MBA.

The growth of e-commerce, which accelerated further with the Covid-19 pandemic, has drastically changed the logistics landscape in Asia. Particularly in India, the e-commerce market is expected to grow to $200 billion by 2026, up from just $38.5 billion in 2017. With consumers today increasingly shopping through online channels and expecting fast deliveries, brands, their supply chains, and logistics players are now seeking solutions that will help them fulfil orders more efficiently, writes James Christopher of TMX.

As the outcome brands are entertaining automation and digitalization of their  warehouse for better customer service. Along with physical distribution there is a need for the business to enhance the employees with the required skills to deal with AI packed warehouse.

User friendly Automation

In Digitalised warehouses and Automated Distribution centres, Autonomous mobile robotics (AMRs) and other similar mobile robotic solutions were lay down because of its cost effectiveness and its easily fit within existing warehouse space. Mobile robotics is now allowing smaller players to consider integrating automation into their warehouses to better meet growing consumer demands, particularly the fast delivery expected out of e-commerce.

Human and Automation

Mobile robotic are very much good in serving customers need and satisfying the order on time which is not possible even with implementation of 100 labours in distribution centres. Robotics are to cater the need of the customer and to satisfy the customers to the fullest, which can be expected by the manpower.

Out come of Change

For the optimal work flow of the business it is considered. To replicate existing poor processes it would be useful.

Changes in the work flow and day-to-day operation should be encouraged by the employees where they have to go along with the robotics and ready to accept the change.

In point of fact Supply chain around the nation are increasing and the flexibility and the cost effectiveness made the Digital and Automated warehouse and Distribution Centres escalate.

 Emerging Women Leaders in the Indian Corporates

Dr.S.Sethuram, Assistant Professor, Department of MBA, SANSAC

Indian companies are in the process of attracting more women leaders in their business. The following icons are the role models for ambitious women entrepreneurs in India.

Roshni Nadar Malhotra is the first person to head a listed Indian IT Company, by being the Chair Person of HCL Technologies. Roshni is the Chief Executive Officer of HCL Corporation which is the holding company of the group’s subsidiaries. She is passionate for protecting the natural habitats and indigenous species in India. Towards this objective she started the ‘The Habitats Trust’.

Nisaba Godrej, the Chairperson and Managing Director of Godrej Consumer Products Limited is a determined professional who took her one month old child to her office. Nisaba Godrej is also a Director of ‘Teach for India’ which provides education to low income school students. As part of the Corporate Social Responsibility project ‘’Good and Green’. Nisaba Godrej is the Head of  Operations of the Godrej Family Council.

Dipali Goenka, the Chief Executive Officer and Joint Managing Director of Welspun is a successful Industrialist besides her liking for philanthrophy. She has transformed  Welspun to make cultivation of cotton and manufacturing of fabric more sustainable.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the Executive Chairperson of Biocon Limited and Biocon Bilogics Limited. She is a first generation entrepreneur. She has the goal of  making medicines accessible and affordable to millions of  people around the world.

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Taking cue from the above large number of women should venture into business and emerge as business leaders. Many initiatives are being taken by the government and the Industry in this regard. For instance, Vedanta has identified 100 women leaders from its employees and appointed senior executives as mentors. The Government too is creating a space in the board for women leaders through initiatives in the corporate laws. Every listed company, every company having share capital of Rs.100 crore or more, every company having a turnover of Rs.300 crore or more should have a woman director in the board. This provision under the Companies Act, 2013 has the objective of having adequate participation of women in the Board of Directors.

Looking at the success of the self made women leaders and the initiatives of the Industry and Government, we can foresee a large number of women emerge as successful business leaders in the Indian Corporate in the near future.

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BIOETHICAL ISSUES IN HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT

Prof V. Vidhya

Department of MBA

Sankara college of Science and Commerce

As the advancements in the medicine is increasing at high pace healthcare professionals are forced to deal with bioethical issues. It is about investigating and making healthcare decisions by applying principles of ethics to the medicine field. According to the Center for Practical Bioethics, the questions concerned with bioethics are, the right thing to do, worthwhile issues, obligations to one another, responsibility and moral grounds

Bioethics is a multidisciplinary field that combines philosophy, theology, history and law with medicine, nursing, health policy, and humanities. Healthcare system is complex and it enforces to consider issues from multiple points of view.

Bioethics is the combination of Biology with Bioscience with humanistic knowledge. Application of bioethics has become broader nowadays like clinical decision making, new research, acceptance of emerging new technologies, global concerns and public policy.  Bioethics affects both patients and care providers. Adelaide Centre for Bioethics and Culture has described that “Bioethics has an impact on every level of human community from the local nursing home to the huge international conferences on issues like the Human Genome … [It] is full of difficult ethical questions for everybody: families, hospitals, governments, and civilisation,”

Common Bioethical issues are End of life care, medical resource allocation, Eugenics, Euthanasia, and Organ donation.

End of life care:

Elderly people need more care especially when they are terminally ill. It becomes an issue for the family whether they need to take care them on hospital or in home setting. Even after taking care still if they are critical more it becomes an ethical issue whether we need to provide treatment or to cease it.

Medical resource allocation:

The ethical issue arises when medical resources are scarce. It will be difficult to meet all the healthcare needs due to scarce supply. One example is ICU’s. Patients need to be transferred out of ICU but not been transferred if they find some benefit out of ongoing monitoring. Ethics and reality of rationing in Medicine says that decisions like this can be made to accommodate the needs of more seriously ill patients who need access to limited space. Resource allocation on consultation can also be applied to determine which patient to be seen first and how much time to be allotted.

Eugenics

With advance technology it is said that through gene selection, gene manipulation we can improve the quality of gene. But it doesn’t mean that we have more choice and we can take advantage out of it. This becomes an ethical issue.

Euthansia

Euthansia is the controversial topic in Bioethics, as it is said that Euthansia is the termination of very sick person’s life in order to relieve from the suffering. In medical community there two types of euthanasia, active euthanasia is when the doctor allows the patient to die and passive euthanasia is when the doctors don’t do anything to make the patient alive. In both the cases it is done by getting consent from the patient’s family members.

Organ Donation

Ethical issue in Organ donation arises when there is demand for organ and the supply for suitable organ is less. It creates an ethical issue if the patients need to wait long for the donors for organs which can result in death. Bioethical issue is if we need to assess the organ donation to be voluntary or not.

Conclusion:

For leaders in the healthcare there is a need to create the ethical environment in the society to deal with the day-to-day challenges. The leaders should educate their employees to do the right thing when manager prioritize ethics, communicate clear expectations, and practice ethical decision making.