Undercurrents 5

8/12/2019 Undercurrents 5

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UNDERCURRENTS

Consulting Club of NS

Bought to you by Consulting Club of NSIT facebook.com/consultingclubn

Also inside

5th Edition

Ever thought

of advertising

with theBond

Unravelling

the Keysian

era of

economics

Do fake goods

only benefit

you??

Think again

Tete Tete with Ruchir

Sonkar - Manager -

Reserve Bank of India

Let information be

A tribute to Aaron

Swartz


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What is C2N?C2N is a self interest group which came into being in 2009. Its primary

goal was to be a link between the students of NSIT and the consulting

industry.

What are the Benefits for the members of C2N?

Gain exposure to cutting edge trends within the consulting industry.

Awareness about plethora of opportunities available as a student.

Better understanding of different work profiles, for making the right

career choices

Building a stronger network.

Equipping the members with right tools to harness their potential,

and excel in Placement interviews.

What are the Activities of C2N? Weekly discussion on Case studies from multiple sources

Talks by ex-members and seniors currently a part of the industry on

strategy, leadership, industry trends, consulting tools, methodologies

and frameworks etc.

Workshops on resume building, case interviews and personal inter-

views to help students in preparing for the placements.

Networking forum- For greater interaction between the current batch

and the alumni working in the industry.

How to join C2N? We at C2N have an open door policy. Any student can attend the

weekly discussions on Wednesday in the Connecting block or in

Block-V room no.217, and then decide accordingly if he /she wants

to pursue it or not.

C2N is looking for greater participation from the 1stand 2ndyear stu-

dents in the upcoming semesters. So all those interested can join the

Consulting clubs Facebook page or the google group- consulting-

[email protected]

You can also download the previous editions of Undercurrents from

http://www.nsitonline.in/students/studentinitiatives/consulting/

consultingclub.html


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Editorial

Dear Readers,

We take great pleasure in presenting you with the 5thedition of Under-currents, the official mouthpiece of Consulting Club of NSIT (C2N).Every edition of Undercurrents has been an interface between the stu-dent community and the consulting world. Besides serving as a poolof knowledge, the magazine has consistently motivated the students tocome up with articles of their own, and hence being a part of it. Againthis year, we have come up with some great articles on issues rangingfrom the Japanese Brands to the case of Aaron Swartz to the Keynes-

ian Economics, and much more. In this editions interview, RuchirSonkar sheds some light on his work at The Reserve Bank of India.Under Market watch, we trace the decline of Japanese Brands in therecent times, followed by marketing where we discuss how moviesplay a role in advertising. However, the readers can unwind throughwitty quotes, As if you will get it, the ifunny instances, cartoon strips,sharp brain teasers, and Book & Movie reviews.Since its inception in 2009, C2N has worked towards creating aware-ness about Consulting, and helping its members to develop acumenfor the same. For the upcoming semesters the C2N seeks for greaterparticipation from the 1stand 2ndyear students.We encourage readers to read the magazine cover to cover, relishing inthe veritable delight of widening your mental horizons, in exploringthe magazine. This quote is actually an embodiment of what the edi-torial team requests all its readers focus on the journey, not the desti-nation. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in pursuing it.

Wish you a GOOD READ

Consulting Club of NSIT


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Counterfeits & Its effect on Luxury

The counterfeiting and the piracy market have shown colossalgrowth all around the globe over the past 50 years and particularly

in the last decade. It is generally perceived as having a negative im-pact on the sales and profits of the original manufacturers; in addi-tion to life threatening consequences for the consumers if the prod-ucts being faked are of critical importance like aircraft engines andmedicines to name a few.In this article, we will focus on the counterfeiting of the luxurygoods and throw light on how these knock-offs help the manufac-turers of original goods increase their sales. Thus showing whythey do not pose much threat to the sales as professed by the com-panies.

Luxury goods are high priced, have high quality and relatively lowutility. These are primarily purchased as a social statement and toposition the consumer in the society. These goods do not obey thenormal rules of demand and supply which states that demand isinversely proportional to price. Unlike normal goods, luxury


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goods show positive price elasticity of demand, i.e. their demandrises as their price increases. With luxury goods a rise in price in-creases their exclusivity and hence their perceived value as a status

symbol. Conversely, as the price decreases, so does their exclusivity.This in turn, decreases consumers desire for them as these are nolonger a social symbol. The objective of counterfeiting luxurygoods is therefore to trade upon the perception of and desire for ex-clusivity and to extract its high value by deceiving consumers intobuying non-authentic and often low quality products.The consumers play a very important role in rise of counterfeitingand piracy markets. As long as there are people willing to buy thecounterfeit goods in order to climb the social ladder, there is noth-ing that can stop the flourishing of this industry. The consumers ofluxury goods can be classified in a hierarchical manner distin-guished by their aim to by luxury goods.

At the top are the trend setters which mainly include celebritieslike actors and sports persons. Most of these are provided theproducts by the elite brands themselves in order to promote theirdesigns.

The next are the cognoscenti. These are the elitist of the con-sumers whose main aim is to exhibit their social standing. These

are the main target audience for the luxury brands as the strictlybuy only original products.

Next is the crowd. It comprises of two levels: Aspiring consumers which consume to position themselves at

the top of the crowd. They consume a mix of authentic and fakegoods.

Conformers which consume so that they do not look differentfrom the others. They mix counterfeit goods with legal lookalike goods.

The counterfeit goods can be classified into four types with respectto two parameters; namely quality and deception. These level ofthese two parameters in the counterfeits is the determinant of thefact if the good contributes to the loss of sales to the brand or not.


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Type 1 goods tend to be imperfect copies, of low quality and eventhough they carry the brand logo, they do not seek to deceive thepurchaser. They, therefore, carry little risk to the buyer and to brandowner. The low quality and low price is hardly going to deceive thebuyer. For instance, few people buying, say, a $5 Breitling watchor Gucci purse from a makeshift market stall in an area notoriousfor counterfeiting such as Canal Street in New York or PetalingStreet in Kuala Lumpur could be under any serious illusion aboutthe origins.

Type 2 counterfeit goods are the ones which are high in quality andlow in deception. Such examples might include sports clothes andtrainers sold in a discount store or market place. Here the counter-feiter trades more on the quality of the goods than the actual brandand since buyers are in little doubt as to the origins they tend to behappy because they receive, in their view, a good value for money.

These types of counterfeits are often called knock-offs. As it isthe design rather than the specific brand mark which is being cop-ied, this form of counterfeiting is linked to design piracy. The or-thodox view is that brand owners who own the design lose out. Butdesign piracy


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helps in speeding up the fashion cycle.

Type 4 counterfeit generates the greatest concern for the brand be-cause the goods are of low quality and also highly deceptive. For

example, if you place the cheap counterfeit Breitling watch in amore plausible retail setting and at a higher price, then the potentialbuyer who is not attuned to the style, look and feel of an original islikely to be deceived. Such a scenario not only deceives buyers andplaces them at financial risk because the goods are often still veryexpensive, but it also creates bad feeling towards the brand ownerwhen the merchandise fails to live up to expectations. Not to men-tion the fact that the brand owner also loses a valuable customer.

Thus, on carefully going through the characteristics and examplesof the four types of counterfeit goods as discussed above; we seethat not all sold counterfeits result in loss to the company. For in-stance, the fakes which are low on deception are mostly bought bypeople who would not have bought highly costly original luxurygoods. It is a flawed assumption that a consumer who buys a fakewould have otherwise purchased the genuine article. It is true thatmillions of fake luxury handbags are sold each year. But (accordingto reports in 2006) only 20% of purchasers of fake brands wouldhave bought the genuine article.


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article

Brand owners suffer lose of sale, only when a consumer buys acounterfeit good in the belief that it is a genuine product - Type 3

or 4 counterfeit goods outlined earlier where the level of deceptionis high. In both of these scenarios the sale of a counterfeit good athigh price arguably affects the sales of genuine retailers. Also, thebrand may suffer reputational damage (primarily due toType 4goods because of the lower quality) through complaints from dis-pleased customers, even though the goods were counterfeit. Con-sumers tend to blame the brand and not the counterfeiter for anyfailings in the product resulting in loss of consumer goodwill.

The brands benefit from their counterfeits in the sense that they

help in increasing brands geographical coverage and recognitionamong the people especially in countries like China, where fakesare in market even before the original product has been launchedby the brand.

Fakes are also often the first place where consumers develop anawareness and aspiration for genuine luxury. After according to re-ports, a third of consumers who bought fake luxury goods saidthey would be more likely to buy the real thing in the future as a

result.

A major gain from counterfeits is that they contribute to the accel-eration of the fashion cycle by saturating the market and causingthe elite consumers to seek out and buy new and more exclusiveproducts as symbols to separate them from other consumers andhelp them maintain their elitist position.

So, we may conclude that counterfeiting of luxury goods is not det-rimental to the brands once we carefully weigh the positives derivedfrom it. In fact surveys suggest that there appears to be a high levelof consumer support for counterfeit luxury goods often voiced byconsumers with the claim that luxury brand owners charge inacces-sible and over-inflated prices for their authentic products.By Raunaq Sawhney (ICE, 2nd year)


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The Curious Case of Japanese Brands

Not that long ago, Japanese companies such as Sony, Panasonicand Sharp were considered premium brands. They made virtually

everything in the consumer electronics world, from televisions tomicrowaves and digital music players. There seemed to be no wayto stop their momentum. Their products often carried higher pricetags to reflect their perceived quality, and people snapped them up.After years of bets gone wrong and lost opportunities, three of Ja-

pans consumer electronics giants are showing some signs of falter-

ing. Sony reported a net loss of $5.7 billion while Sharp Corpora-

tion too reported $4.66-billion loss. Toshiba stayed in profit , but its

net profit fell 46.5% at $937 million. Investors are losing their faithon these marquee brands as their shares have slipped to below Yen

1,000 after decades. As a result , Sony, which was


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worth $125 billion in March 2000, is now valued at less than $13billion.

So how did the likes of Sony and Sharp lose their way?

As with many other downfall stories, these companies failed to payattention to shifting trends and were outmaneuvered by overseascompetitors.While Sharp is in the most serious trouble, the three companieswoes are similar at the core. All three make good quality, even cut-ting-edge products but so do their overseas competitors, usuallyat lower prices. None of the three have managed to generate thebrand pizazz of Apple, or the marketing muscle of Samsung Elec-tronics. As consumer markets shifted to digital media and games,mobile devices, software apps and the Internet, the Japanese strug-gled to keep up. External factors like the rising value of the Japa-nese yen, which made products exported from Japan more expen-sive abroad and cut into margins at home, further squeezed thecompanies. In addition, a stubbornly strong yen continues to saptheir competitiveness, while Japans territorial dispute with Chinahas hurt sales there. The scale of the losses is the result of specificmissteps, from huge investments in the wrong technologies to a re-luctance to exit loss-making businesses.

TelevisionThe decline in the Japanese television business present best illus-trate their downfall. Sony, Sharp, and a myriad of other Japanesecompanies were dominant in the television business when bulkytube TVs ruled. Few of them managed the transition to flat-paneldisplay televisions all that well . In their place were companies suchas LG and Samsung. Samsung, in particular, focused on buildinghigher quality flat-panel TVs, packing them with a larger array offeatures and selling them for a competitive price -- and steadily

boosted its share.In consumer electronics, outsourced manufacturing became thenorm. Still, Sharp did not change course. It built a new factory inSakai, Japan, which could make 6 million large LCD panels a year more than the size of the global market at the time.


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a year more than the size of the global market at the time. Pana-sonic, for its part, also bet heavily on plasma televisions in 2003,pouring some 600 billion yen into a series of factories in Ama-gasaki, not far from Sharps own plant. It also bet on solar panels

and rechargeable batteries, buying Sanyo in 2009. But with plasmanow a fading technology and solar power struggling, Panasonic issaddled with major losses.Another problem lies in the sheer breadth of products these compa-nies offered, many of which barely exist anymore. Do people buydigital music players or DVD or Blu-Ray players at a time wheneverything is streamed?

Missing out on mobileThe Japanese similarly missed the boat on mobile. Panasonic and

Sharp were too insular and focused on their home market to be ef-fective enough to compete around the world. Sony was tied downby its joint venture with Ericsson, which actually saw some successwith basic phones.But when Apple came knocking a few years ago with the iPhone,these companies quickly found themselves unable to compete.When Google and Android arrived a bit later, the Japanese compa-nies were slow to adopt the burgeoning platform and found them-selves far behind as Samsung and HTC took the lead.

As with the television market, the smart phone business has provenincredibly cutthroat, with only a few winners in the business. Alongwith Apple, Samsung is the only other major player able to gener-ate significant profits with its smart phones.

New pressuresWhile all have laid out a path back to profitability, the truth is thepressure will only get worse. The competition isn't just comingfrom the U.S. and Korea, but increasingly from China. Lenovo hasshown its dominance in the PC business. On the smart phone side,Huawei and ZTE are making strides around the world with bothlow and high end


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phones In the television market, the Chinese companies represent apotential threat.

The Road Ahead?

These companies are in for some drastic changes in the comingyears -- if they survive.Sony and Panasonic have chosen divergent survival paths. Sonyhas moved to slash costs and jobs and sell off some unprofitablebusinesses, refocusing the company on digital cameras and imagingtechnology, video games and mobile devices. This quarter, the saleof its chemical products business, which made materials for LCDsand optical discs, helped alleviate losses. Sony is now making apush into the medical field with an investment in the endoscopemaker Olympus.

While Panasonic is looking to expand its businesses in appliances,solar panels, lithium batteries and automotive components.Rather than consumer products, Sony and Sharp have found someheadroom supplying to other more popular companies. Sony, forinstance, provides the camera for the iPhone, while Sharp is one ofseveral display suppliers to Apple's smartphone.No one knows if any of them will succeed. What is clear is that

they all have a rough road ahead.

By Piyush Panwar (ICE,3rd year)

AS IF YOU WILL GET IT A Greek, a Portuguese and a Spaniard ask God when their

countries' debts will be paid off. God says, In 100 years forPortugal and in 150 years for Spain. Disappointed, they say:But, well be dead by then. When the Greek asks, God re-plies, I don't know I'll be dead by then.

The euro zone leaders were looking for a stimulus package.and Silvio Berlusconi suggested two Viagra and a Red Bull.


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Aaron Swartz: A Federal Criminal or Hero?

Aaron H. Swartz was a computer programmer, writer, political or-ganizer and an Internet activist. By the age of 14, Swartz hadplayed a key role in developing the RSS software that is still widelyused to enable people to manage what they read on the internet. Atthe same age, he also played a vital role in the creation of Reddit, asocial networking site. When Reddit was bought , Swartz receiveda huge sum of money making him something of a legend in theinternet and programming world before he was 18.Swartz was also involved with the campaign to prevent SOPA(Stop Online Piracy Act) Bill from passing that tried to check Inter-net for copyright violations and also would have made it easier forUS Government to shut down websites accused of copyright viola-tion.Following the defeat of the bill, Swartz was the keynote speaker atthe F2C:Freedom to Connect 2012 event in Washington, D.C., on

May 21, 2012. His speech was titled "How we stopped SOPA andhe informed the audience:There's a battle going on right now, a battle to define everythingthat happens on the internet in terms of traditional things that thelaw understands... [Under SOPA], new technology, instead of


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criminal hack when I see it, and Aarons downloading of journalarticles from an unlocked closet is not an offense worth 35 years injail", the maximum length of incarceration that might have beenimposed had Swartz lost at trial.On the morning of January 11, 2013, Swartz was found dead in his

Crown Heights, Brooklyn, apartment by his girlfriend. A spokes-

woman for New York's Medical Examiner reported that he had

hanged himself. Suicide is allegedly blamed on the vindictiveness

of prosecution.

Several members of the U.S. House of Representatives - Republi-

can Darrell Issa and Democrats Jared Polis and Zoe Lofgren - all

on the House Judiciary Committee, have raised questions regarding

the government's handling of the case. Rep. Lofgren introduced abill bringing us greater freedom, would have snuffed out fundamen-

tal rights we'd always taken for granted.

Swartz also volunteered as an editor at Wikipedia, and in 2006, heran for the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Directors, but he wasunsuccessful.

It is speculated that he was also a source of Wikileaks.In 2008, Swartz downloaded and released 20%(approx.) of thePublic Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) database ofcourt documents. PACER was charging 8 cents per page for publiccourt documents that was created at public expense which offendedSwartz. He believed that this data should be free as governmentproduced documents are not covered by copyright. He donated thedocuments, amounting to 19,856,160 pages, to Malamud's pub-lic.resource.org . For that act of civil disobedience, he was investi-gated and harassedby the FBI, but never charged.But in July 2011, Swartz was arrested for unlawfully obtaining in-

formation from JSTOR (Journal Storage), the online digital librarythat digitizes and distributes scholarly articles written by academicsand then sells them, often at a high price, to subscribers. As MariaBustillos detailed, none of the money goes to the actual writers(usually professors) who wrote the scholarly articles - they are usu-ally not paid for writing them - but instead goes to the JSTOR


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In 2011, The New York Times wrote of the case: "A respected Har-

vard researcher who also is an Internet folk hero has been arrested

in Boston on charges related to computer hacking, which are based

on allegations that he downloaded articles that he was entitled toget free."Swartz was a faculty member at Harvard University which pro-vided him with a JSTOR account. Over the course of a few weeks,he downloaded the documents from a network wiring closet at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology and, in the process, crashedsome of JSTOR's servers..After his arrest, JSTOR put out a statement saying it would notpursue civil litigation against him, while MIT did not comment onthe proceedings. Prosecution of the case still continued, with

charges of wire fraud and computer fraud, carrying a potentialprison term of up to 35 years and a fine of up to $1 million.Alex Stamos, a computer forensics investigator wrote, "I know a

Aaron's Law, to exclude terms of service violations from the 1984Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and from the wire fraud statute.Lawrence Lessig wrote of the bill, This is a critically importantchange... The CFAA was the hook for the governments bullying...This law would remove that hook. In a single line: no longer wouldit be a felony to breach a contract." Polis called the charges againstSwartz "ridiculous and trumped up", while referring to Swartz as a"martyr"Issa, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, an-nounced that he is investigating the Justice Department's actions inprosecuting Swartz's case.In a statement to the Huffington Post,Issa praised Swartzs work toward open government and free ac-cess to the people. Issa's investigation has garnered some biparti-san support.Lessig wrote :

A kid genius. A soul, a conscience, the source of a question I have

asked myself a million times: What would Aaron think? That per-son is gone today, driven to the edge by what a decent societywould only call bullying.In my books hes a hero and the prosecutors in this case shouldhang their heads in shame for the overzealous prosecution


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(bullying) of Schwartz. He was facing 35 yrs in jail for a crime hewas not getting a penny from. The punishment was completely outof proportion to his gain. His act was not criminal in nature. Whatkind of a case did the prosecution want to pursue where the

victim did not feel wronged and yet there was a guilty persondriven to the edge.To think of it ,if he would have walked into the offices of JSTORwith a gun still he would have gotten at the most 20 yrs of prisontime. You certainly can see insanity pouring out of it now.He could have easily opted for a life of huge riches with the money

he earned yet he chose to fight instead for good causes that he be-

lieved in. Now, thats not how I describe a federal criminal but then

its for you to decide

By Praneet Singh (MPAE 3rd year)


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Keynes in a nutshell

Be that the 2008 G-20 Washington summit or while addressing abusiness community at Mumbai, Indias economist PM Dr. Man-mohan Singh has often quoted the man who is widely held to bethe most influential economist of the Twentieth century. Dr Singhhas repeatedly talked of reviving the animal spirits of the econ-omy, the belief that markets are revived by a spontaneous urge toaction, when people have substantial trust and confidence and aterm widely advocated by economist John Maynard Keynes.

Born in 1883 at Cambridge, to a middle class family, Keynes had alargely comfortable and supporting family consisting of an econo-mist father, a social reformer as mother with two more kids.Keynes childhood went through the times of Queen Victoria andKing Edward VII, both of whose governments were largely stableand peaceful. It was also a time when Britain ruled the world econ-omy. And so Keynes passed on to India Office in 1906, as a clerkfor the British Government. And although he worked hard, he was

soon bored and went back to Cambridge to work on probabilitytheory, while coming out his first book Indian Currency and Fi-nance in 1913. Keynes was amongst the very few who highlightedthe fact that British investments on Indians were far less than re-quired and the and the pity condition back in India


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After the First World War, when the popular opinion in Englandand other allied powers was to punish the government of Germanyasking for heavy reparations and concessions, John MaynardKeynes rightly argued that such penalties on Germany would even-

tually trouble the worlds economy in the coming years. Keynes infact came to public prominence with his blunt denouncement ofthe Treaty of Versailles and in his bestselling book The EconomicConsequences of Peace; he continued to argue his viewpoint. Thetreaty has been argued by several historians as amongst the chiefcauses of the rise of Hitler and subsequently the World War II.With the central idea that when the amount of money saved ex-ceeds the amount being saved, unemployment rises, Keynes beganto work on a theoretical work on his massive Treatise on Money.A liberal man he was, Keynes favoured a policy of low interest

rates and found the policy of budgets deficits as not unhealthy.Thus, at the height of The Great Economic Depression of 1920-30s, when unemployment was high and there was an atmosphereof pessimism all over. Keynes published his The Means to pros-perity, a set of recommendations for the Government in Britain inparticular so to recover from the depression.

Keynesian Economics

At a time when most classical economist were in favour of increas-

ing taxes on the super rich so as to reduce fiscal deficit and balance

the government budget. Keynes advised for tax cuts instead to in-

crease spending. He argued that when the economy was at an all

time low, demand for products was less and unemployment high,

the governments must intervene and solve such problems because

according to him-in the long run, we are all dead. Keynes re-

jected the need for cutting down labour costs or abolishing mini-

mum wages as was advocated by the classical economic theories of

that time. He rather highlighted the multiplier effect, an effect

wherein the government increases its spending on public outlays,thereby making the money available to people. The people who re-

ceive this money spend the most of it on consumption items,

thereby making the money available to people.


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The people who receive this money spend the most of it on consump-tion items, thereby causing business activity and causing rise in de-mand for goods and services. This in turn shall allow businesses to

hire people and the process continues.

This was in complete contrast to the classical notions, who believedthat increasing government spending would decrease the labour sup-ply and raise wages, which may end up alienating private investment.This also contradicted to Says law which, in short stated that Supplycreates its own demand. However Keynes followers largely argue thatover a period of time, money gets hoarded in the hands of individualsand firms, which is not spent on purchasing products and often leadsto decrease in financial activity. While the simple classical notion atthis time would argue for cutting the interest rates, as to make the sav-ings by these people less attractive, Keynes rejected their idea as forhim most people do not invest for short term gains but rather for longterm profits. He believed that monetary policy should be used but forregulating the economy.


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Keynesians eraSoon after the depression of the 1930s, Keynesian economy poli-

cies were largely adopted by the entire developed world and many

in the developing nations. Although he soon met his successor in

Friedrich Hayek, eminent economist(s) such as Paul Krugman,Paul Anthony Samuelson have been influenced by his work, while

many other governments including those of Barrack Obama(US),

George W. Bush(US) and Gordon brown (UK) continue to take in-

spiration from his works.

By Rahul Dhingra (MPAE 3rd year)

AS IF YOU WILL GET IT!!!!


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Products that are integrated within the plot of a movie are betterremembered than those that are not well integrated with the plot ofa movie.The James Bond films have been associated with product place-

ment since their inception. The role of Bollinger (champagne), Jag-uar, and Aston Martin was looked at in three vignettes from James

Bond movies. In each of these vignettes, these products took on a

personality and a role that consumers would want to indulge in and

take on. For example, the Aston Martin seemed to be heroic while

the Jaguar seemed to be villainous and their roles within the movie

held true to these characteristics. The Bond film The Man with the

Golden Gun(1974) features extensive use of AMC cars, even in

scenes in Thailand, where AMC cars were not sold, and had thesteering wheel on the wrong side of the vehicle for the country's

roads. Three of the Bond films that star Pierce Brosnan feature

a BMW car. After pressure from fans, the producers returned to us-

ing the traditional Aston Martin.

The one movie which has very well captured this phenomenon of

product placement prevalent in todays films and presented it to the

audience in a very thoughtful manner is The Greatest Movie Ever

Sold.Directed by Morgan Spurlock, this movie on product place-ment has been produced entirely by the funds provided by the vari-

ous companies for placing their brands in the movie. In the movie

after hustling between boardroom meetings filled with cautious

corporate executives and paranoid PR reps, Spurlock convinced

enough sponsors -Ban deodorant, Sheetz, Jet Blue Airlines, Mini Cooper

and Pom Wonderful amongst the most prominent - to buy product

placement in his documentary, which was being filmed as they

spoke, right there in that boardroom.

My favorite scene from the movie has to be the boardroom scene in

which Morgan Spurlock presents his out of the box ideas describ-

ing the various scenes in whichPom Wonderful(a pomegranate juice


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could be placed in the movie in order to attract a younger audiencetowards the brand. The ideas bring out the benefits of drinkingpomegranate in a humorous tone targeted towards the youngerpopulace; and the rejection of these ideas by the board membersshows how brands are conscious not to take steps which could hurtthe sentiments of their existing consumers.This documentary also throws light on the loss of creative freedomon the film makers part. Generally most brand managers try tomanipulate the script; at times forcing the film maker to add newscenes in order to showcase their products in a more prominentmovie scene.The brands placed in The Greatest Movie Ever Soldbecame the sitefor promoting the movie as well. For instance, in the weeks leadingto the release of the movie, as the JetBlue flights took off, Morgan

Spurlock popped up on the in-seat television to congratulate pas-sengers on getting a seat on The Greatest Airline Youll Ever Flyand suggesting passengers might want to check out his similarlybranded documentary.Be it the scene in which the actor, stands at a Sheetzgas pump, eat-ing a fresh Sheetzsandwich, filling his Mini Cooper(which he refersto as the greatest machine ever made) with reliable Sheetz fueland calling the Volkswagena piece of shit as they refused to be apart of the documentary; or the scene in which Morgan Spurlock is

shown enjoying the luxurious and lavish suite of Hyatt, one thingwhich he has stressed continuously in the movie is that he is notselling out but buying in.He wanted to make sure that the audience doesnt feel as if they arewatching a 90 minute commercial; which could have been the casehad he compromised his creative freedom, which is what mostfilmmakers do and hence end up selling out.Spurlock's last wordis an offhand: "Best I can do is just show you it's out there."After going through this article the readers will definitely be in a

better position to catch product placements in films. The products

are so nicely integrated in the movie scenes that one often ends up

turning a blind eye towards them without realizing. A recent Bolly-

wood blockbuster Dabaang 2 was replete with such placements.

Hope your eye had caught them!!! By Raunaq Sawhney

(ICE 2nd year)


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Tte Tte WithRuchir Sonkar

Ruchir Sonkar is a Batch09pass out from the Division of

Manufacturing Process and

Automation (2009 batch) and

is currently working as a man-

ager at RBI. In the following

conversation he tells us about

his job profile and the work en-

vironment at RBI. He alsotalks about his experience in

college and things he misses

the most about NSIT.

About RBI1. Please tell us something about your job at the RBI?

I am a currently working as manager at RBI. We are the peo-ple who attend to the core statutory function of note and coinissue and currency management. This involves forecasting the

demand for fresh banknotes and coins, placing the indent withfour printing presses and mints, receiving supplies againstthose indents and distributing them. My Department is alsoresponsible for keeping an account of banknotes in circulationand also the stocks at RBI offices and currency chests.

2. What exactly is a currency chest?We maintain a extension of our services with commercialbanks where the fresh and re-issuable banknotes are stored

and these banks are allowed to withdraw cash for its require-ments and deposit its excess cash. This is known as a currencychest. Soiled banknotes are also stocked in the chests pendingtransportation to RBI.


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3. We usually see the Finance Ministry and RBI going over dif-ferent ways over dealing with the current economic situation?Why does that happen?Perhaps the problem arises, because the RBI being an

autonomous body can go ahead on to the path which it feelsas correct. However, the Finance Ministry is a bit con-strained, since its fate is also decided by the peoples percep-tion of its policy and also the reaction of political groups. Sothere are some small diversions. But still, I think both ofthem do an outstanding job, managing the economy of a bil-lion people.

Career Related

4. After completing engineering (a technical course) how did

you end up working for the RBI? Was it tough given your en-gineering background?After graduation I worked in HCL for a short period. Iwanted to serve the Government of India and also had a stintfor economics. Eventually I singled out on RBI. Being in RBIhas helped me to pursue my interest, while at the same time Ihave the opportunity to grow my knowledge in this area.

Obviously it is tough for an engineering graduate to make it

through the RBI entrance exams. The Grade B officers examtests the applicants ability in the field of economics, financeand general awareness; which are generally not known to anengineering student. The selected candidates are grilled in anintense interview which is full of questions related to eco-nomics and finance. But hard work eventually pays off.

5. Most valuable trait you learnt/developed while you were atNSIT.Leadership and human resource management have to be themost valuable trait I developed at NSIT. Being a part ofMoksha and Innovision helped me develop my leadershipskills and gave me an opportunity to manage such high pro-file events. I am proud of myself that I accomplished thistask to the best of my abilities and succeeded in making


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these a renowned brand among the corporate and college go-ers in Delhi. To be chosen to lead the students union was alsoa life changing experience. I was the representative of my fel-low batch mates and served as a link between the students

and college authorities.

6. Your further plans? Thinking of pursuing an MBA?I have no plans of MBA as of now. RBI provides you withopportunity of continuing your education. To enhance yourskills I would like to take it and maybe look forward for a de-gree in Economics. Whatever I do I shall continue with mystint at RBI. It offers huge perks and the work environment isawesome. You get to see some of the most intellectual peoplein the country. It is indeed a privilege to work in one of the

worlds best central banks and to have great minds aroundme.

Personal

7. One thing about NSIT you miss the most in your busy pro-fessional life?There are not one but many things I miss about NSIT. Firstin my list is the early morning drizzling which paints the en-tire campus in green. The rains at NSIT are one of the most

beautiful things that I can remember during my college days.A close second is the experience of sitting at the fountainduring winter months with warm sunrays falling on me. Itwas truly a heavenly experience. Also, the experience of liv-ing in the college hostel was truly out of this world. We hadour share of mischief and fun at the hostel. I would recom-mend everyone to go through this experience as I feel with-out this one can never enjoy college life to the fullest.

8. What kind of internships/ projects would you recommendfor students at NSIT?Try to search for the field that interests you and come outwith some really great ideas into that. I would advise you tonot join the rat race. Instead, look out for things that matterto you, that interest you,


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where you would like to see yourself in the next 30-40 years.In case you want to know more about the work environmentat

9. Your advice to juniors at NSIT.Firstly, I would like to tell them that all the students at NSITare very talented and are capable of being successful in theirendeavors. One should never under-estimate oneself. My ad-vice to juniors is to take part in everything you can put yourhands on while at college. You might feel burdened but thiswill be the time where you will be able to realize what inter-ests you. Once you can identify what fascinates you then youcan work in that direction unreservedly.

As told toRahul DhingraRaunaq Sawhney

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sweat, and tears of the rest of us. The reality is far different


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ACROSS

1. Machinery, equipment and money for production2. A situation where country's economy declines5. Situation where banks greatly reduce the amount of moneythey lend to one another6. To be penniless8. Revenue of a company minus the expenses9. All human resources-workers

DOWN

1. One who buys and/or uses goods or services2. Regular income of a company3. Sole legal right to sell good, service or artistic work

CROSSWORD


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INDIAN POLITY

Congress

BJP

OrAAP???


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In case you wish to contribute for the next editions, feel free to con-tact us.Designed and Edited byRahul Dhingra : MPA 2010 : [email protected]

WritersPiyush Panwar : ICE 2010 : [email protected] Sawhney : ICE 2011 : [email protected] Singh : MPAE 2010 : [email protected]

Special Thanks toVikram Juneja : BT 2009

Consulting Club 2013Copyright for the cartoons used lies with the respective owners

The views expressed in this article are those of theauthor and do not necessarily represent the views of, andshould not be attributed to, Consulting Club NSIT

Documents

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