CoMES PULSE

INTERVIEW RAJAT KATHURIA

Director & Chief Executive, ICRIER

REPORT WORLD PETROCOAL CONFERENCE

at New Delhi

EVENT

ICMI 2nd International Conference, CoMES

PVC’s Message

I congratulate ‘CoMES PULSE’ team for

envisioning such a newsletter which is a

compendium of views and ideas of the bud-

ding managers on campus and provides

an industry interface. I proudly uphold

them for successfully bringing out the

second edition. I believe, through this, the readers have enjoyed a

wealth of fresh insights and are abreast with the interdisciplinary

activities of the College of Management & Economic Studies.

This newsletter also seeks to create a bridge between the academia

and the industry alumni to pave way for a more enriched

knowledge bank.

I hope this initiative inspires the entire students and academic fra-ternity towards better networking and integration as a college. It is a great medium to publicize the dynamism of CoMES by dissemi-nating news of plethora of activities undertaken, achievements, conferences, seminars, management development programs and articles by experts and students pertaining to various areas of do-main.

Prof. Utpal Ghosh Pro-Vice Chancellor, UPES

INDIAN GAS TRANSMISSION INFRASTUCTURE:

SOMETHING’S ROTTEN?

For India to match the CAGR of 7-8% p.a. it needs uninterrupted clean fuel supplies, suggesting an increase in imports of natural gas by more than 100%. “Is our gas transmission and distribution infrastructure ready to meet the emerging loads?” Read more inside….

Mr. Tajinder Chawla(MBA ET-II) at WPCC-2014

Mr. Neil Broker addressing audience at 2nd ICMI- 2014

Dr.Parag Diwan, VC, UPES Inaugurating CoMES PULSE

Conferences Seminars

Workshops

Training Workshop by GIZ and UREDA

University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Deh-radun in collaboration with Center for Management Development (CMD) organized a Train-ing Workshop on Selling Solar Lights: Technology and Finance for 56 participants from 11 different districts of Uttarakhand. The workshop was part of an initiative under the project funded by GIZ (German society for Internation-al cooperation) and Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Devel-opment Agency (UREDA) in lieu of technical cooperation between Germany and India to promote private investment in providing access to clean energy in rural areas from re-newable energy sources.. Mr. Sudhir Kulkarni (SELCO foundation, Bengaluru), Mr. Rustam Sengupta (BOOND, an incubator of SELCO) and Mr. R N Dixit provided their valuable inputs. Dr. S. J. Chopra, Chancellor, UPES rein-forced the need of capacity building for self-employment generation in the state of Uttarakhand and encouraged the incubation center of UPES, which has been committed for development of state, to offer its services to help the rural youth in setting up their own business.

4th World Petro Coal Conference

The Fourth World Petro Coal Congress 2014 "Energy, Environ-ment, Efficiency, Equity & Entrepreneurship for a Greener Plan-et" was held from 15-17 Feb 2014 at New Delhi, India. It was organized by Energy and Environment foundation. It gave a plat-form to ponder upon stock of new fossil fuels, cleaner use of ex-isting fuels and the need for closer networking amongst the vari-ous agencies handling different fuels for synergizing their opera-tions and strategies. This would make the energy industry achieve higher value addition to scarce and depleting resources, will enhance the benefits to society, and will encourage better environmental management. The eminent speakers of the conference were Dr.M.Veerappa Moily (Honorable Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural gas), Mr. Shri Prakash Jaiswal (Honorable Minister for Coal), Mr. SK Srivastava (CMD, Oil India Limited), Mr. Benjamin Sporton (Deputy Chief Executive, World Coal Association, UK), Mr. Narendra Taneja (a leading expert in energy sector), Dr.SJ Chopra (Chancellor, UPES Dehradun) and Mr.BS Negi (Former Member, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regularity Board). The conference was attended by various students of MBA Ener-gy Trading, Sem II & IV, and MBA Oil & Gas, Sem II & IV. The conference gave an insight about energy access, energy availability and energy affordability along with discussion on the concern over climate change that must be treated as an integrated priority.

Seminar on Foreign trade policy About 15 students of MBA IB II semester from UPES at-tended the seminar conducted by the Jt. DGFT in his office in collaboration with Commissioner of Customs, Direc-torate of Industries in Dehradun on 25 Feb 2014. The Jt.DGFT, Dr. Amiya Chandra was quite impressed with the students and expressed his desire to visit the campus to deliver a lecture on Foreign Trade Policy to all the stu-dents.

Workshops attended Prof. Rajeshwari Deb, from ISM Department attended a workshop from10-15 March, 2014 on Research Methodology’ conduct-ed by Indian Social Institute Delhi. Prof Abhijit Singh from Transportation Department attended Indian Council of Arbitration (ICA) as Maritime Expert, New Delhi (Ministry of Commerce, GOI). Dr. Rajeev Sharma attended two days event on Feb 27-28, 2014 ‘Innovate India – 2014 by NRDC. Dr. Nikhil Kulshretha attended a workshop on HR organized by ISTD Dehradun chapter.

Conferences Seminars

Workshops

Started in 2013, by College of Management & Economic Studies International Conference on Management & In-frastructure, ICMI returned again in February 14-15, 2014, after a notable success last year. ICMI 2014 provides an interdisciplinary forum for discussion, debate and dissemination of information about the newer ways of managing, mitigating and regulating the emerging challenges in ever-changing Energy, Infrastructure, and Transportation sector. A total of 181 selected research papers were presented from across the globe. Apart from the Chancellor of UPES, Dr. S.J. Chopra,VC Dr. Parag Diwan, PVC Mr. Utpal Ghosh, Dr. Anirban Sengupta, Dean, CoMES, Mr. Neel Bro-ker, CEO-Laureate International University, Mr. R.S. Tolia, Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Uttarakhand, important personalities and academicians from various industries, Mr. Rajeev Puri, CAO & Sr Dy Director (IT), Indian Port Association, Dr. Reshmy Nair, from Administrative Staff College of India, Mr. B.S.Negi, Former member PNGRB, Mr. Sushant Chatterjee, CERC, Mr. Akhil Mehrotra, British Gas and Mr. Narendra Kumar, MD-IGL, Prof. Dr. Lars D. Wellejus from University of Applied Sciences, Frankfurt, Germany, Mr. Dinesh Kumar, ED – Training, Indian Aviation Academy, AAI presided the event & addressed the students and various other participants. Best papers from Energy Sector- Mr. Ayush Gupta & Mr. Narendra Nath Dales (Research Scholar/Corporates/Academicians Catego-ry); Vivek Goyal, Lakshmi Narayan, Anjali Gupta & P.Jacob Chako, Ben Paulson, Suhas (Students Category). Trans-portation Sector- Mr. D.P. Singh, Dr. A.K. Nigam, Mr. Manish & Mr. Ashish Bisht (Research Scholar/Corporates/Academicians Category); Utkarsh Yadav, Rajeev Kumar, Mustakeen Khan & Haniksha Kabra, Vikas Kanwar, Dr.Ajit Nigam (Students Category). Infrastructure Sector- Dr. Liju Joshua & Mr. Anand Chakarvarthi (Research Scholar/Corporates/Academicians Category); Dhaval Shah, Raman Shahi, Vikas Gupta (Students Category). Allied Sector- Prof. Patiraj Kumari, Shivani Thapliyal (Research Scholar/Corporates/Academicians Category); Aparna Na-rayan, Gunjan Chabra (Students Category).

2nd International Conference on Management & Infrastructure

Paper Presentation in Conferences

Research paper titled “Brand engagement on social media: challeng-es and opportunities” was presented by Ms. Meenakshi Tomar, Dr. D.K. Punia, Dr. Tarun Dhingra and Dr. K.K. Pandey at International Conference on Research in Marketing (ICRM 2013) held at IIT Del-hi, Dec 21-22, 2013.

Mr. Sunil Barthwal presented a paper titled “Generational differences in interpreting ‘gestalt’ cultural value from Indian durable goods ad-vertisements: A qualitative study” in IIM Lucknow annual Confer-ence on the theme ‘Listening to Consumers of Emerging Markets’, Jan 9-11, 2014.

Dr. Hiranmoy Roy presented a paper “An Empirical Study on Fac-tors Determining Energy Demand: Japan’s Experience” in the Inter-national Conference on Research and Business held in IIT Roorkee on 8-9th March, 2014.

Dr. Priya Grover presented a paper “A conceptual model for the suc-cess of brand extended products” in the Global Conference on Man-aging in Recovering Markets organized by MDI Gurgaon, March 5-7, 2014.

E-cell (Incubation center)

Workshop on Share Market & Investment

A workshop on Share Market & Investment was organized by ‘Innovians Technologies’ supported by E-cell of UPES under the supervision of Apoorv Agarwal (E-cell) on 5th and 6th April 2014. Trainer of the workshop, Nasir Mirza, a well-known equity trader and investment analyst, trained 65+ students of UPES on investment de-cisions in buying of stocks in terms of cash/currency from commodity, derivative Market with good market exposure. Participants worked live on various trading software and charting techniques thereby learning how to technically analyse and trade profitably. At the end of the workshop 8 winners of the trading game were awarded Certificate of Excellence whereas par-ticipation certificates were issued to all the par-ticipants. A two days Business Simulation Workshop, organized by E-Cell of UPES was conducted by EnParadigm, Mumbai, on 20-21st April 2014. The workshop was facilitated by Mr. Garvit Bhandari (MBA from Virginia Tech University, USA) with the aim to bridge the gap of theoreti-cal studies by actually providing practical situa-tions to the students of management.

Upcoming! ‘Agro Supply chain conference’ -2014 supported by

NABARD on 22nd Aug 2014 Keynote Speakers: Mr. Vijay

Sardana, Co-Chairman, Agribusiness Committee at PHD Chamber of

Commerce and industry, Mr. B.S.Negi, Mission Director, Horticulture

Mission Uttarakhand For contributions and details contact:

nanand@ddn.upes.ac.in ; sumeetbgh2007@gmail.com

Management

Development

Programs

Centre for Management Development (CMD) is a brainchild of the two path-breaking institutions- University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) and Indian School of Petroleum (ISP)- that have cumulatively dedicated more than 2 decades in im-parting training and education programs in the energy and core sectors. It offers unique management development programs (MDPs) in the areas of energy, infrastructure and transportation (E.I.T.) for industry professionals. MDPs are designed to equip practicing managers with necessary competence to take business decisions more effectively. Moreover, they aid in developing an understanding of the nuances of different facets of the sector. Department of HR conducted its second successful MDP in a row on the theme Talent Management on May 23-24, 2014 with Dr. Nikhil Kulshrestha as the Program Director. The MDP had 18 participants from organizations like HPCL, BPCL, GAIL, UPCL, PTCUL, Airport Authority, Ministry of railways, THDC and Sanmarg. The resource persons were a mix from academics and Industry. This MDP focused on all the aspects of Talent acquisition, Motivation and Retention and the pedagogy was a combination of lectures and Experiential Learning. The sessions were well received and appreciated by the participants

February 21-22, 2014: Occupational Health, Safety, Fire and Environmental Issues in Indian

Industries: Challenges and Solutions Modern industry has ever growing hazards of health, fire and explosion causing substantial dam-age to the environment. Main challenges in the OSH (Occupational Safety and Health) scenario is the huge workforce in the organized sector, availability of cheap labor, meagre public spending on health, inadequate implementation of existing legislation. The main objective of the MDP was to present sce-nario of safety challenges in industries and solutions thereby for India and on a global basis. Due stress

was laid on innovative approach towards implemen-

tation of the HSE concept, use of behavior based

safety program, current environment issues and se-

lection of best available technology. Key note

speakers were industry professionals such as Mr. R.

K. Singh, Deputy Chief Inspector-Factories, Depart-

ment of Labour, Uttarakhand, Dr. Piyoosh Rautela,

Executive Director, Disaster Management Centre,

Uttarakhand, Dr. Sanjay Bhutani, Deputy General

Manager, ONGC, along with academicians Dr. N.

A. Siddiqui, Prof. Manish Dubey and Prof. Nishan-

thini from HSE Department of UPES.

April 17-19, 2014: Management Practices in Oil and Gas Sector The global oil and gas industry is faced with a stream of challenges as

emerging economies demonstrate a huge appetite for oil and gas to

fuel the development process. The objective of the program was to

equip the leaders of the future with a deep understanding of the man-

agement processes and methods that aid decision making. During

these three days various dignitaries from the industry such as Shri. B.

S. Negi discussed various regulatory regimes and policies pertaining

to Oil & Gas. Gas industry, Mr. Jayant S. Pandya (Ex-Head, Capital

Projects Consulting Group, USA) discussed on how to accomplish a

successful project, Mr. Kumar Amit (Associate specialist, Smart Cu-

be) discussed on energy trading and risk management concepts and

Ms. Surbhi Arora (Associate Professor, Glocal University) spoke on

the economic importance of Oil & Gas. A total of 13 participants of

mid-career government and non-government officials from 8 different

organizations such as IOCL, OIL, GAIL, MNGL, EIL, IGL, Total Oil

attended the program

UPCOMING MDPs

June 26-27, 2014: Power Distribution Management: Opportunities and Challenges July 4-5, 2014: Driving Solar Power Growth August 8-9, 2014: Advanced Data and Business Analytics August 21-23, 2014: Future of Civil Aviation in India September 12-13, 2014: Project Risk and Contract Management September 19-20, 2014: Business Leadership and Law October 10-11, 2014: Port and Shipping Management November 14-15, 2014: Energy Trading and Risk Management November 21-22, 2014: Building Supply Chain for Strategic Excellence December 5-6, 2014: Leveraging People Skills for High Performance

For more information on MDPs Contact: Dr. Neeraj Rawat, Assistant Director, CMD.

Phone: +91 9412079731, Email: neeraj.rawat@hotmail.com

Interview with Mr. Rajat Kathuria, Director & Chief Executive, ICRIER

Interview by Saurabh Sahni (MBA ET) & Charlene Miriam Samuel (MBA ET)

Q1: RBI has changed the measure of inflation from WPI to CPI. How effective do you feel this move would be to control

inflation?

Answer: Controlling inflation is a separate issue; it’s about getting the measure of inflation right. I think in that spirit, it’s the right

measure because WPI is wholesale and CPI is retail. Various policies worldwide are based on retail prices rather than wholesale

prices. And there are some other problems with CPI in terms of whether it adequately reflects the structure of the economy and

structure of the consumption process. It may not, it almost will never do that because different people have different consumption

baskets. Thus, it should be as representative as possible. So, the good thing about this move is that it’s a move in the right direc-

tion. As a policy measure, it’s CPI that is relevant and not WPI. But whether it will control inflation is a later thing. The first step

is to identify the right measure. So now at least we’ve got the right measure.

Q2: What is your view on the current debate of tax reforms, whether it is regres-sive or progressive? Answer: A desirable attribute of a tax is that it should be progressive. If you have an expenditure tax type of thing, it’s regressive because the poor pay much more. So we have to make the income tax process progressive. So my view is that we need to im-prove the administration of tax, and we need to use IT sector. It’s almost a no brainer, making greater use of information technology in tax reforms. We need to do 2 things; 1 is we need to increase the tax space and 2nd, we need to improve the administration, the Governance. These two moves will be sufficient in getting the desired revenues for the Government because a lot of income goes unreported, and people who ought to be paying taxes don’t pay them. I’m not even getting into issues such as agricultural tax, and so. I mean those are other issues which will probably come much later. I’m sure some people take advantage of the fact that agriculture activities are not taxable. By this I mean that a lot of income could be shown as agricultural when it not truly agri-cultural. Q3: You’re the founder member of Broadband Society of Universal Access. What is this society all about? Answer: The society essentially is, what the name suggests, universal access in the sense that broadband services are available

Rajat Kathuria, Director

and Chief Executive

ICRIER along with PVC

Prof. Utpal Ghosh

About 25 guest speakers were invited by CoMES between Jan-May 2014 for various domains specializations. A glimpse of some speaker profiles are reported here.

Mr. I. P. Agrahari, DGM, IOCL Kozikode delivered a guest lecture on, ‘Gas and Re-newable Energy Hybrid Systems’ on 16th of Jan 2014.

Mr. Arun Sharma, GM, Orient Electricals delivered a talk on ‘Managing Supply Chains of different Products’ for the students of MBA LSCM

Dr. Devashish Chakravarty (DGM-Exploration and Development) ONGC, Dehradun addressed MBA students in IGNITE – 2014.

Mr. Dulal Halder-Chief Engineer (P) –Business Development, ONGC addressed MBA OG & ET students on the topic ‘Augmenting Energy Security through Overseas Acquisi-tions: Challenges and Opportunities’.

Mr. KMN Pillai- Sr. Project Manager- Worley Parsons addressed MBA OG, ET & Inte-grated students on the topic ‘Project Management in Engineering Consultancy for Oil and Gas Projects’.

Mr. Hanoob Hakim-Sr. Project Engineer- Chevron (Saudi Arabia) addressed MBA OG & ET students on the topic‘Project Management and Phase Gate Process’.

Mr. Rahul Kale-Industrial Business Development (Petronas Lubricants) addressed MBA OG & ET students on the topic ‘India Lubricant Market and New Channel Partner Devel-opment’.

EXTERNAL INTERFACE

everywhere so that can deliver as many services to the people without having phys-ical delivery. I’ll give you an example of education and health services, because it is inaccessible for people in remote areas. A lot of primary health centers don’t work and teachers don’t come to school; even if they come, they’re not teaching. So univer-sal access means make it as widespread as possible. But it has also got to do with the content of the delivery mechanism riding on this network. And we’re hoping that a lot of social and education services, and citizen services can get delivered through broadband. And I think that’s going to happen in future because broadband when it’s available on mobile, it could be a game changer in terms of delivery. India falls awfully short in delivering quality services. So this can be a way to improve the quality of services.

EXTERNAL INTERFACE

Question 4: Various Maharatna companies, like CIL, in spite of having autonomy have failed to spearhead the economic growth. Your comments on that! Answer: See I can make a general comment on the public sector companies. The incentive structure in PSUs like CIL, ONGC, etc, is not conducive for an independent sort of dom-inance. CIL paid Rs.20,000 Cr dividend last year, but it doesn’t have independence. It was told to pay that money, it paid that. Question 5: Where do you see India’s economic position 5 years from now, especially with the new political scenario coming into place? Answer: In the new political scenario, there will be a new Government. So I think we are on our way to recovery, be-cause people are just waiting to invest. India’s growth story is robust. I think we’ve had a temporary lift. “Hoga”, India will grow. You’ll find it out when you’ll go to the job mar-ket. When is that? -“Sir, next year” (student)- So you’ll be riding the wave of 6.5-7% of growth!!

Despite being flooded with work, Mr.Shinghal gave us his precious time to talk about various issues related to UAE’s banking system and also the corporate scenario of UAE in an exclusive interview with Mr.Sunil Barthwal for PULSE. The interviewer acknowledges Mr. Vishal Rajput, BBA OG-IV in organizing the interview. Mr. Gaurav Shinghal, Head, Collection & Recoveries, Emirates National Bank Of Dubai Q: Could you please tell us briefly about yourself? A: I was born and brought up in New Delhi, did my masters from Fore School of Management and started my professional career in New Delhi worked with several banks and institu-tions like HSBC, Barclays, American Express and Standard Chartered mostly as risk analyst.

Q: What are some of the major differences that you would like to highlight in terms of customer that you serve in UAE and in India? A: UAE is a country with more than 170 nationalities and therefore banking is the “heart” of this set of nationality. From the retail banking perspective we need to cater to their requirement keeping in mind the cultural background and the cultural mix as well. Similarly the recruitment of staff also has to face this challenge which you don’t see in India to a large extent, though there also you have employees from all regions of the country and with different cultural background but they do not have that diverse cultural shift which is required to serve the customers in UAE. Q: What are the differences you see in policy decision for a banking firm in UAE and other countries? A: Since this question is very technical, therefore I would tell you about policy decision making models of different countries and UAE as well. The policies are made by the central banks of the respective countries:

Bank of England’s committee structure follows best practice: it has a clear goal, it is made up of diverse members and it is not too big. Also individual contributions can be identified and evaluated, and its members are encouraged to think for themselves. And one very interesting fact is that, in 2005 the governor lost a vote which indicates that the governor’s posi-tion is not dominating in the committee.

Whereas in Bank of Canada, individual contributions are not identified and there are no outside members in the committee. On the positive side board members receive advice from a group of senior advisors, who are encouraged to think inde-pendently.

It’s very interesting to know that The Central Bank of Czech Republic makes it possible to identify individual contributions with a “6 year DELAY”.

At Bank of Israel four different departments have to prepare recommendations before meeting independently. This makes each department to conduct its own analysis which counters groupthink.

Now coming back to the policy decision of banks in UAE: the board of directors of Central Bank of UAE decides the maximum amount of discounts, loans and advances that may be granted by any bank, even the maximum amount that can be lent to a person is decided by the Central Bank depending on his/her assets. The interest rates to be paid to the customers and also the rate of interest to be collected is decided by Central Bank. Interestingly, the minimum required margins to be deposited in cash by bank customers to cover the opening of documentary credits is also decided by the Central Bank. CENTRAL BANK of UAE has no clear set target, the meetings are headed by the Governor and every individual recommendation is taken into consideration.

Q: How do you see the role of a financial institution like BANKS in development of a nation’s economy? Is it different in UAE? A: Disclosing policy issues is a little difficult but overall the role of financial institutions is specific to the developmental issues with respect to the different Emirates of UAE. For instance trade policies would be more focused for Dubai whereas Abu Dha-bhi would have other industries (including oil based industries) also as central to policy framework. Q: What advice do you have for an Indian student who’s willing to work in an international environment like UAE? A: Yes certainly if a student does specific degrees and diplomas that give specializations in accounts and finance would open up good opportunities for them here. However, it certainly takes a while to learn the specific rules of the game for the banking industry here and adapting culturally also is crucial.

DOMAIN AND INFRASTRUCTURE

INDIAN GAS TRANSMISSION INFRASTUCTURE: IS SOMETHING ROTTEN?

By Architt Agarwal (MBA ET)

The Indian economy, with steep economic growth, has positioned itself as one of the fastest growing economies of the world. In the long run, India in order to match the CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 7-8% p.a., needs uninterrupted clean fuel supplies. In the same context, according to 12 -13 fifth year “Plan Document”, natural gas share in energy basket of the country will increase to 20% from cur-rent 10%. This will result subsequently in increase of imports of natural gas by more than 100%, in the following 15 years. However, the major question that arises here is “is our gas transmission and distribution infrastructure ready to meet the emerging loads?” India has relatively under- developed, north-western based transmission infrastructure with 15,283 km of natural gas pipeline. GAIL, who has the world’s longest exclusive LPG pipeline infrastructure and being the quasi-monopoly operator has 70% share. 20% share is under State players like Assam Gas Company (AGC) and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited (GSPCL). A remarkable milestone that took place in this sector was in 2006 when it was opened up for private players. Currently Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Limited (RGTIL) has a share of about 9% of the total pipeline and rest 1% of share lies with National Oil Companies (NOC) like ONGC and IOCL. These networks of pipeline are proposed for expansion to 28,000 km in next 5-6 years. Currently India has 2 LNG terminals which are operational and running with their 100% capacity of 13.75 mmtpa. This is proposed for expansion to a capacity of 20 mmtpa by FY14. About 10 new LNG terminals are planned/ under construction with the capacity of 50 mmtpa. Even after implementation of proposed infrastructure, the supply deficits of the natural gas will be a major concern for the industry. One of the main reasons behind it will be the lack of infrastructure for gas distribution. If we have a look at the current policy for development of gas pipeline or a distribution network, the important and a favorable clause is that it is mandatory to seek approval form the PNGRB and it is granted only if the design capacity is at least 33% more than capacity required for the entity. This 33% of the capacity shall be available for use to other entities of the gas industry on common carrier basis via open access method which would be on non-discriminatory basis and the rate of transportation will be set by the board (PNGRB). Another important restriction is related to the period and time of laying, building, operating or expanding of the gas pipeline which purely depends upon the board decision. Central govern-ment may suggest the board to invite applications from the interested parties. So, if an entity wishes to invest in gas midstream sector, it would have to wait for the invitation of application from the board or suggestion from the central government. In order to support gas dependency of the country or to have a step ahead in greener fuels, the expansion of transmission infrastructure is required. Similarly to other energy projects, land acquisition is identified as a major barrier for gas infrastructure; some of them include forest and other nation wealth reduction. There have been significant steps taken by government to increase investment in the sector in past by introducing FDI to 100%, setting up the Gas Regulatory Board (GRB) which consists of the representation from major companies operating in Indian Gas sector like ONGC, RIL, IOCL, AGC, IGL etc., to give their demands a voice in the decision framework of the board. However, a proactive enabling environment is required for paced development of natural gas infrastructure. This would include providing a policy support and the current signal pricing for investment in the sector, which can be done by introduction of reforms in the present set of rules and regulations for the adoption of changes, and making them vigorous and addressing the warping in the fiscal conditions applicable for the sector of natural gas. In spite of all the efforts made by various regulators, board and central government, there is still a need for amendments in the policies for promotion of investment and accelerating the growth of the supplied quantities of natural gas. Firstly, the open access of the pipeline should be increased to 50% from present 33%. Secondly, the transportation rate which is present-ly regulated by the central government should be relaxed and should be left on companies operating the pipeline, provided the upper limit of the transportation rate is decided by board to have a regulatory framework. Thirdly, an integrated approach of construction of LNG terminals by the entities who wish to lay pipeline would help in all round development of the gas mid-stream industry. Lastly, introduc-tion of gas grid connectivity can be a healthy solution for not only harmonizing the operations but also to provide an inter-connectivity of different gas pipelines. While India is slowly emerging as one of the major natural gas markets of future, there is a significant need for all round development in LNG terminals and gas pipeline. This should go in line with a comprehensive set of technical and safety standards that are required for operational compatibility.

Dear ‘Pulse’ readers, ‘CoMES Pulse’ invites write-ups on issues pertaining to ‘Energy’, ‘Infrastructure’, and ‘Transportation’ (EIT) for its next issue. Also, any interesting or unique ideas in the EIT sector that can make a difference to our country and the state of Uttarakhand are a welcome. Innovative ideas will be published under the column ‘I have an idea’ in ‘Pulse’. Please do mention your name, batch, and email id along with your submissions. You can send in your articles /ideas on: cmespulse.info@gmail.com Join Pulse! Students who have a flair for writing and journalism may send in their resume with their photograph and mobile number at: cmespulse.info@gmail.com

DOMAIN AND INFRASTRUCTURE

AIR SHOW by Vidushi Mehrotra, M.B.A.(AVM) The visit to the India Aviation 2014 was much awaited by the students of M.B.A. & B.B.A. Aviation management. It was organized by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the FICCI and was held from the 12th to 16th of March. After various security clearances students were welcomed onto the tarmac by the magnifi-cent New Large Aircraft that the world was talking about, the Airbus 380, brought to In-dia by Emirates. Not too far away was Air India's Dreamliner, the Boeing 787. Apart from these two prominent displays, there were a number of business jets from man-ufacturers like Dassault and Embrarer and microlight training aircrafts on display. The exhibition had about 350 stalls comprising of national and international aviation businesses and organizations as well as representatives from the different states of the coun-try. The exhibition was an eye opener & students realized that there was more to this industry than what they ever imagined. The Rolls Royce stall displayed a prototype jet engine which would have lower emission levels and capable of running on bio fuels. The HAL stall displayed models of multi role aircrafts and helicopters designed by them for general and military aviation. The Boeing and Airbus stalls displayed models of their various aircrafts and focused on efficient designing and future aircrafts. (check for more stalls on website). Our visit concluded on a high with an aerobatic display by a British aerobatic team in A-berth aircrafts that displayed a number of gravity-defying maneuvers that left the crowd awestruck. The India Aviation Airshow was a great learning experience and from a student's perspective, the event gave us an insight into the various career prospective in the aviation industry.

TRIAL ROOM by Ravish Sundriyal, BBA Automarketing Retail outlets of Lifestyle giants like Nike, Puma, Adidas, UCB and many others have become just a trial room now days. Yes, because people nowadays visit these showrooms just to see colours, check sizes and try the apparels or any other product and come back home without buying. You might be wondering, why? Why don’t they buy the products? It has a very simple answer which we all know very well. “Myntra.com, Jabong.com, zovi.com, Bestylish.com are some of the major online businesses that answer the above two questions. Today people just go and try out the products in the retail outlets, come back home and order the same product on these online shopping websites which provides attractive offers. Discounts are one of the major motivations through which these companies are able to attract the customers. Recently on a festive season these online stores were offering a huge discount of flat 40% on various products of companies like Puma, Nike and Adidas. This trend not only has hampered the sales of retail outlets but has also given an opportunity to online businesses in India to bring a new revolution in the cyber world. In a country like India where “BRANDS” plays an important role in the minds of youth, Click companies are enjoying huge profits today. So if you like a pair of Nike shoes in the Nike Store near your house always try finding it online, you may get the same product with a better deal. And yes do not forget to try it in the “TRIAL ROOM”.

AMAZING FACTS

The American Society of Civil Engineers has given America's crumbling infrastructure an overall grade of D.

It is being projected that Americans will spend an average of 160 hours stuck in traffic annually by the year 2035.

It is estimated that rolling blackouts and inefficiencies in the U.S. electrical grid cost the U.S. economy approximately 80 billion dollars a year.

Source: theeconomiccollapseblog.com

A woman dries cassava paste by a natural gas flare in Nigeria. Millions of people in Nigeria lack access to modern energy, even though the African nation is a major oil producer. Source: National Geographic

Refrigerators in the U.S. consume about the same energy as 25 large power

plants produce each year.

Enough sunlight reaches the earth’s surface each minute to satisfy the

world’s energy demands—for an entire year.

The amount of energy Americans use doubles every 20 years.

According to Google, the energy it takes to conduct 100 searches on its site is equivalent to a 60-watt light bulb burning for 28 minutes.

Source: fact.randomhistory.com

FROM THE

It has been a yet another eventful year for our College of Management and Economic Studies with the campus abuzz with vari-ous kinds of activities. This includes passing out of the current batch- I wish them the best after their convocation in May end- and the junior batch preparing well for the incoming Summer Internship Project (SIP). M3 pumps the college with a lot of ex-citement with fresh batch of students joining the campus. The challenge of successfully holding the next MDPs and guiding PhD scholars is a continuous activity for the faculty. And - to cap it all - the preparation to move to the new campus at Kandoli in August end (tentatively) is something the entire college is looking forward to. ‘Pulse’ has done well to present the kaleido-scope of all such events and activities in this as well in its previous issue. I hope that as we move forward with many more new ventures, partnerships, and zestful activities in the current academic year ‘Pulse’ will capture all of it as vibrantly as it has done in the past and keep its readers waiting to catch up with developments at CoMES through the next issue of ‘CoMES Pulse’.

Dr. Anirban Sengupta Dean, CoMES

FINANCING INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN INDIA

Physical infrastructure plays an important role in the growth and development of an economy. For better and adequate infrastructure availability in our country, there need a persistent effort to relook the issues of budgetary allocation, fiscal incentives, private sector participation and public private partnerships to ensure that required infrastructure development takes place. The public sector is expected to continue to play an important role in building transport infrastructure along with health and education. However, our past experience shows that we can assume a maximum of 50 per cent of the resources needed from public sector to meet the finances of infrastructure development. Another 50 per cent of resources are much larger and is a challenge for the private sector to invest in infrastructure sector. Therefore, public investment will have to be supplemented by private sector investments, in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. This strategy was seen in the 11th FYP with substantial results. PPPs imply efficiency gains, efficient use of resources, availability of mod-ern technology and better project design along with faster implementation, reduced lifecycle costs and more optimal risk allocation. The Government of India is taking various steps like signing agreement with ADB and other agencies to en-courage private sector participation in infrastructure investment. Fiscal support will continue to be dominant for infra-structure development in India but equally important would be the enabling policies that could lead to encourage private participation in infrastructure sector.

Prof. Anshuman Gupta Professor and HOD Department of Economics and International Business, UPES

Dr. Narendra Nath Dalei

Assistant Professor-Senior Scale

Department of Economics and

International Business

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DOMAIN AND INFRASTRUCTURE

CLUBS & FORUMS

BBA Students encouraging primary school children during the CSR activity in May 2014

CSR ACTIVITY

Under the leadership of Dr. Mandira Agarwal and the co-ordination of Dr. Ankur Kumar Rastogi, a Community Services Event-3 of CoMES was organized with the stu-dents of BBA-IV SEM (AM, LSCM, OG & AVO) on April 5, 2014 at primary schools in Pondha, Bidholi, Bishanpur, Upper Kandoli and Doonga near UPES, Deh-radun. Children of the schools participated and showed their talent in singing, dancing and poem recitation com-petition with great zeal. UPES students also interacted and played various educational games with the children.

UDAAN Udaan- giving wings to your ideas is a fo-rum created by the students of MBA Avia-tion Management, UPES. The objective of creating such forum was to provide practi-cal awareness and network by organizing events, managing e magazine- “Vayu-Veg”, online presence on social platforms etc. There are high dreams for the forum such as to take the forum outside the campus and make it a national one (international, if pos-sible). Events like flash mob, weekly quiz, and expert talk are on the cards.

'GEMS' is a forum for

student activity and develop-ment conceptualized by under-graduate college of manage-ment, UPES. GEMS, has given the pathway to the students for their development which aims to highlight student work, tal-ent, and their creative skills and enhance their learning capabili-

ties and motivate them further. GEMS organized a quiz event “Will win for you!” was successfully organized by GEMS Team in the Annual Technical Fest Ignite’14 of University of Petroleum & Energy Studies, Dehradun on 22nd Feb, 2014. Dr. Anirban Sengupta, Dean, CMES, UPES & Gen. (Dr.) S.P.S. Narang, Associate Dean, CMES had graced the event. At the end of the quiz Dr. Anirban Sengupta ques-tioned the students- How should Reliance position itself in the retail sector? Correct answer to the question meant winning ‘Dinner with Dean’ on the same day. Mr. Vishal Rajput, student of BBA (Oil & Gas) Semester-IV an-swered the question and had the privilege of having a lav-ish dinner with the Dean.

IGNITE- 2014, the university’s third techno-legal-

management fest, held in Feb 20-22 aimed at building a platform to bring students of all domains under a single umbrella to work, learn and grow together. With various activity based competitions, de-bates, paper presentations, seminars and lectures by resident faculty and visiting speakers, the festival aimed to reinvent and showcase the engineering, legal and management acumen of the students. Dr. Jayesh Bellari, from IIT Mumbai presided as the chief guest. The fest saw participation from over 300 students from all across India. There were other various energizing events such as Feel the Field, Quin-nite, National Parliamentary Debate etc. CoMES had over 20 events namely Best CEO, Tech Run, Financial Statement Analysis, Dalal Street etc. GEMS, a CoMES forum also organized a quiz – Will Win For You-a quiz.

JIGYASA The quest for curiosity Jigyasa Club, a Techno Managerial Club is formed by M.B.A. students. The club organized various competi-tive activities like case study competi-tions, white paper contest, business proposals, quizzes, debates etc. in academic year 2013-14.

UPES MAKES US PROUD

PATH BLAZERS

1. Priyadarshini Majundar MBA (OG) KPMG 2. Jaskaran Singh Saini MBA (IFM) Wipro 3. Jyoti Sharma MBA (AVM) AirAsia Ltd. 4. Tanmay Suryavanshi MBA (PM) Beroe Inc.

5. Kumaran Palanisamy MBA (PSM) Maersk Global

6. Harshita Anand MBA (LSCM), Accenture Ltd. 7. Amber Vasudeo Behre MBA (ET) Wipro

8. Gurpreet Singh MBA (IB) Dexler Holdings Pvt. Ltd.

CoMES Pulse Team Editor-in-chief Executive Editors Copy Editors Design Team Mr. Sunil Barthwal Dr. A.K. Jain, Associate Porf, Dept. of Marketing Mr. Saurabh Sahni Mr. Chandan Kumar Asst. Prof. (SG) Associate Prof. , Dept. of Marketing Ms. Charlene Samuel Dept. of Marketing Dr. Sheetal Khanka, Asst. Prof. (SG), Dept. of HR Ms. Neha Taneja Ms. Debika Chakraborty

SUMMER INTERNSHIPS

MBA/BBA AVM

Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation

Virgin Atlantic

Lufthansa Cargo

Make My Trip

Business Aircraft Operators As-sociation

MBA PSM

Singapore Lead Edge Logistics

Jindal Shadheed (Oman)

Gateway Rail

Adani

MBA/ BBA O&G

Mott MacDonald Pvt. Ltd.

AF Mercados EMI

Cairn India

HPCL

IOCL

Navitas Resources

CB & I India Pvt. Ltd

MBA ET

ChemoilAdani

GI Bunkering

Jindal Steel Works

MBA ISM

Jindal Power Ltd.

Efarm

BBA Automarketing

Big Boy Toyz

Mahindra First Choice

MBA IB

Dexter Consultancy Ltd.

Godrej

MBA/ BBA LSCM

Britannia Industries

Panalpina World transporta-tion India Ltd.

ITC Wills Lifestyle

Carrier Air Condition

MBA PM

BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd.

TATA Power Company

POSOCO

MBA IFM

Instititute of Urban Transpor-tation

Voyants Solution Pvt. Ltd.

Company Number of students

Markets and Markets 54

Air India Sats 46

Global Data 16

Accenture India 2

Total Oil 4

Maersk Global Service Centers India Pvt. Ltd.

1

Earth India Infra 5

Albatross Inland Ports Pvt. Ltd. 3

Castrol India 4

L & T Infotech 9

Mott Macdonald 4

Transocean Shipping Ventures Private Ltd. 2

Indian Energy Exchange 3

Evalueserve 10

PLACEMENTS (till April’14)

DOMAIN CROSSWORD

Across 1. Suggests that speed and aggressiveness of the moves and countermoves create an environment in which advantages are rapidly created and eroded. 2. A charge that is created to compensate for delay. 3. A method of trading a commodity in which trader attempts profit from differences in price between 2 or more markets. 4. The ability to control large amounts of an under-lying variable for a small initial investment. 5. Abbreviation for a trade association for world’s airlines. 6. One nautical Mile. 7. A contractual agreement for use of an asset. 8. The process of a transportation vehicle returning from the original destination point to the point of origin. 9. Strategy where organization limits its scope to a market segment and tailors its offerings to that group of customers using either cost or differentia-tion. 10. A window that showcases leadership disclosure and feedback model

Down 1. A carrier's ability to provide service between an origin and a destination. 2. Commodity maintained at the constraint, conver-gent points (with a constraint part), divergent points, and shipping points. 3. Self contained functional units. 4. The plan an organization uses in providing infor-mation services. 5. A rate that is applied broadly over different arti-cles or entities. 6. Man who loads Ships. 7. A generic term for increasing the amount of crude oil that can be extracted from an oil field. 8. Supports the crown block. 9. An extremely small market segment. 10. A group of companies that agree to cooperate rather than compete, in producing a product or ser-vice. Thus limiting or regulating competition. 11. A rapid advance in future prices. Solutions for this crossword can be mailed at cmespulse.info@gmail.com. Solution would be pub-lished in the next issue of CoMES Pulse along