Welcome to our website

At this place students find the answer of their professional course syllabus. We have find lots of issues related to their exams in an easy language.

Professional Shiksha is for all Professional student. We are working on every aspect of theoritcal work of those student gradually and very soon they will get most out of their syllabus.

Wednesday 30 November 2016

Workforce diversity and management

Introduction
The world’s increasing globalization requires more interaction among people from diverse backgrounds. People no longer live and work in an insular environment; they are now part of a worldwide economy competing within a global framework. For this reason, profit and non-profit organizations need to become more diversified to remain competitive. Maximizing and capitalizing on workplace diversity is an important issue for management.
Supervisors and managers need to recognize the ways in which the workplace is changing and evolving. Managing diversity is a significant organizational challenge, so managerial skills must adapt to accommodate a multicultural work environment.
This document is designed to help managers effectively manage diverse workforces. It provides a general definition for workplace diversity, discusses the benefits and challenges of managing diverse workplaces, and presents effective strategies for managing diverse workforces.

Diversity Defined
Diversity can be defined as acknowledging, understanding, accepting, and valuing differences among people with respect to age, class, race, ethnicity, gender, disabilities, etc. (Esty et al. 1995).
Companies need to embrace diversity and look for ways to become inclusive organizations because diversity has the potential to yield greater work productivity and competitive advantages (SHRM 1995). Stephen Butler, co-chair of the Business-Higher Education Forum, believes diversity is an invaluable competitive asset (Robinson 2002). Managing diversity is a key component of effective people management in the workplace (Black Enterprise 2001). Demographic changes (women in the workplace, organizational restructuring, and equal opportunity legislation) will require organizations to review their management practices and develop new and creative approaches to managing people. Positive changes will increase work performance and customer service.
T he number of dual-income families and single working mothers has changed the dynamics of the workplace. Changes in the family structure means that there are fewer traditional family roles (Zweigenhaft and Domhoff 1998).
Significant changes in the workplace have occurred due to downsizing and outsourcing, which has greatly affected human resource management. Globalization and new technologies have changed workplace practices, and there has been a trend toward longer working hours (Losyk 1996). Generally speaking, organizational restructuring usually results in fewer people doing more work.
Changes in federal and state equal opportunity legislations have made discrimination in the workplace illegal. These laws specify the rights and responsibilities of both associates (employees) and employers in the workplace and hold both groups accountable.
Benefits of Diversity in the Workplace Diversity is beneficial to both associates and employers. Although associates are interdependent in the workplace, respecting individual differences can increase productivity. Diversity in the workplace can reduce lawsuits and increase marketing opportunities, recruitment, creativity, and business image (Esty et al. 1995). In an era when flexibility and creativity are keys to competitiveness, diversity is critical for an organization’s success. Also, the consequences (loss of time and money) should not be overlooked.

Challenges of Diversity in the Workplace
There are challenges to managing a diverse work population. Managing diversity is more than simply acknowledging differences in people. It involves recognizing the value of differences, combating discrimination, and promoting inclusiveness. Managers may also be challenged with losses in personnel and work productivity due to prejudice and discrimination, as well as complaints and legal actions against the organization (Devoe 1999). Negative attitudes and behaviors can be barriers to organizational diversity because they can harm working relationships and damage morale and work productivity (Esty et al.1995). Negative attitudes and behaviors in the workplace include prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination, which should never be used by management for hiring, retention, and termination practices (could lead to costly litigation).

Required Tools for Managing Diversity
Effective managers are aware that certain skills are necessary for creating a successful, diverse workforce. First, managers must understand discrimination and its consequences. Second, managers must recognize their own cultural biases and prejudices (Koonce 2001). Diversity is not about differences among groups, but rather about differences among individuals. Each individual is unique and does not represent or speak for a particular group. Finally, managers must be willing to change the organization if necessary (Koonce 2001). Organizations need to learn how to manage diversity in the workplace to be successful in the future (Flagg 2002).
Unfortunately, there is no single recipe for success. It mainly depends on the manager’s ability to understand what is best for the organization based on teamwork and the dynamics of the workplace. According to Roosevelt (2001), managing diversity is a comprehensive process for creating a work environment that includes everyone. When creating a successful diverse workforce, an effective manager should focus on personal awareness. Both managers and associates need to be aware of their personal biases. T herefore, organizations need to develop, implement, and maintain ongoing training because a one-day session of training will not change people’s behaviors (Koonce 2001). Managers must also understand that fairness is not necessarily equality. There are always exceptions to the rule.
Managing diversity is about more than equal employment opportunity and affirmative action (Losyk 1996). Managers should expect change to be slow, while at the same time encouraging change (Koonce 2001).
Another vital requirement when dealing with diversity is promoting a safe place for associates to communicate (Koonce 2001). Social gatherings and business meetings, where every member must listen and have the chance to speak, are good ways to create dialogues. Managers should implement policies such as mentoring programs to provide associates access to information and opportunities. Also, associates should never be denied necessary, constructive, critical feedback for learning about mistakes and successes (Flagg 2002).

Conclusions
A diverse workforce is a reflection of a changing world and marketplace. Diverse work teams bring high value to organizations. Respecting individual differences will benefit the workplace by creating a competitive edge and increasing work productivity. Diversity management benefits associates by creating a fair and safe environment where everyone has access to opportunities and challenges. Management tools in a diverse workforce should be used to educate everyone about diversity and its issues, including laws and regulations. Most workplaces are made up of diverse cultures, so organizations need to learn how to adapt to be successful.

Saturday 19 November 2016

Diversity & Innovation

Introduction
The basic formula for diversity is rapidly evolving. It is no longer simply a matter of creating a heterogeneous workforce, but using that workforce to create the innovative products, services, and business practices that can set a company apart and give it a competitive advantage in the marketplace. And as companies compete on a global scale, diversity and inclusion frequently have to shift, as different markets and different cultures have varied definitions of what diversity means.
The globalization of business has created a sophisticated, complex, and competitive environment. In order to be successful, companies need to continually create new products and services. And the best way to ensure the development of new ideas is through a diverse and inclusive workforce.
A diverse and inclusive workforce is necessary to drive innovation, foster creativity, and guide business strategies. Multiple voices lead to new ideas, new services, and new products, and encourage out-of-the-box thinking. Today, companies no longer view diversity and inclusion efforts as separate from their other business practices, and recognize that a diverse workforce can differentiate them from their competitors by attracting top talent and capturing new clients.
Most managers accept that employers benefit from a diverse workforce, but the notion can be hard to prove or quantify, especially when it comes to measuring how diversity affects a firm’s ability to innovate.
But new research provides compelling evidence that diversity unlocks innovation and drives market growth—a finding that should intensify efforts to ensure that executive ranks both embody and embrace the power of differences.
Howard Business Review Research
In this research, which rests on a nationally representative survey of 1,800 professionals, 40 case studies, and numerous focus groups and interviews, we scrutinized two kinds of diversity: inherent and acquired. 
Inherent diversity: It involves traits you are born with, such as gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
Acquired diversity: It involves traits you gain from experience: Working in another country can help you appreciate cultural differences, for example, while selling to female consumers can give you gender smarts. We refer to companies whose leaders exhibit at least three inherent and three acquired diversity traits as having two-dimensional diversity.
By correlating diversity in leadership with market outcomes as reported by respondents, we learned that companies with 2-D diversity out-innovate and out-perform others. Employees at these companies are 45% likelier to report that their firm’s market share grew over the previous year and 70% likelier to report that the firm captured a new market.
2-D diversity unlocks innovation by creating an environment where “outside the box” ideas are heard. When minorities form a critical mass and leaders value differences, all employees can find senior people to go to bat for compelling ideas and can persuade those in charge of budgets to deploy resources to develop those ideas.
Employees of firms with 2-D diversity are 45% likelier to report a growth in market share over the previous year and 70% likelier to report that the firm captured a new market.
Inherent diversity, however, is only half of the equation. Leaders also need acquired diversity to establish a culture in which all employees feel free to contribute ideas. Six behaviors, we have found, unlock innovation across the board: ensuring that everyone is heard; making it safe to propose novel ideas; giving team members decision-making authority; sharing credit for success; giving actionable feedback; and implementing feedback from the team. Leaders who give diverse voices equal airtime are nearly twice as likely as others to unleash value-driving insights, and employees in a “speak up” culture are 3.5 times as likely to contribute their full innovative potential.
These findings constitute a powerful new dimension of the business case for diversity.


Diverse Workforce in Services

A study released by Forbes Insights, “Diversity & Inclusion: Unlocking Global Potential—Global Diversity Rankings by Country, Sector and Occupation,” ranks and measures diversity of workforces. Gender and age in particular determined the rankings of diversity by industry sector.
The Forbes Insights study measured diversity by gender, age and geography. The only countries to track employment by ethnicity are the U.S. and the U.K., where the hotel and catering sector ranked #1 in ethnic diversity.
The fastest-growing sector in terms of number of people employed is services, reflecting the global economy’s shift to a service-based economy. However, the labor force is strongly differentiated by gender. Health, education and hotels (the top three overall) have the highest rates of female employment, while more manual labor-intensive sectors have lower female employment rates. Mining and construction have the lowest proportion of women employees.
Agriculture has the most diverse workforce when it comes to age distribution, most likely because family-run farms continue to be common. The least age-diverse sectors are utilities and mining.
Again, not surprisingly, agriculture ranks the lowest in geographic distribution, being concentrated mainly in developing economies in Asia. In the age of technological globalization, business services, health, financial services and transport all rank high in the geographic aspect.
The one thing missing, perhaps rather significantly, is that the diversity rankings account for the numbers of various minority groups in each sector but do not take their job positions into account. There may be many women or ethnic minorities in the hotel and catering sector, for instance, but they are likely in lower-ranking jobs such as maids or bellhops. These rankings, therefore, may only account for numbers overall, but not necessarily the influence women or minorities wield in particular sectors. For all we know, women may hold high-level positions in a sector that does not have many female employees overall.
Top 5 sectors are






Diversity Matters

New research makes it increasingly clear that companies with more diverse workforces perform better financially.

We know intuitively that diversity matters. It’s also increasingly clear that it makes sense in purely business terms. Our latest research finds that companies in the top quartile for gender or racial and ethnic diversity are more likely to have financial returns above their national industry medians. Companies in the bottom quartile in these dimensions are statistically less likely to achieve above-average returns. And diversity is probably a competitive differentiator that shifts market share toward more diverse companies over time.
While correlation does not equal causation (greater gender and ethnic diversity in corporate leadership doesn’t automatically translate into more profit), the correlation does indicate that when companies commit themselves to diverse leadership, they are more successful. More diverse companies, we believe, are better able to win top talent and improve their customer orientation, employee satisfaction, and decision making, and all that leads to a virtuous cycle of increasing returns. This in turn suggests that other kinds of diversity, for example, in age, sexual orientation, and experience (such as a global mind-set and cultural fluency) are also likely to bring some level of competitive advantage for companies that can attract and retain such diverse talent.
McKinsey has been examining diversity in the workplace for several years. Our latest report, Diversity Matters, examined proprietary data sets for 366 public companies across a range of industries in Canada, Latin America, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In this research, we looked at metrics such as financial results and the composition of top management and boards.1The findings were clear:
·         Companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.
·         Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.
·         Companies in the bottom quartile both for gender and for ethnicity and race are statistically less likely to achieve above-average financial returns than the average companies in the data set (that is, bottom-quartile companies are lagging rather than merely not leading).
·         In the United States, there is a linear relationship between racial and ethnic diversity and better financial performance: for every 10 percent increase in racial and ethnic diversity on the senior-executive team, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rise 0.8 percent.
·         Racial and ethnic diversity has a stronger impact on financial performance in the United States than gender diversity, perhaps because earlier efforts to increase women’s representation in the top levels of business have already yielded positive results.
·         In the United Kingdom, greater gender diversity on the senior-executive team corresponded to the highest performance uplift in our data set: for every 10 percent increase in gender diversity, EBIT rose by 3.5 percent.
·         While certain industries perform better on gender diversity and other industries on ethnic and racial diversity, no industry or company is in the top quartile on both dimensions.
·         The unequal performance of companies in the same industry and the same country implies that diversity is a competitive differentiator shifting market share toward more diverse companies.
We’re not suggesting that achieving greater diversity is easy. Women—accounting for an average of just 16 percent of the members of executive teams in the United States, 12 percent in the United Kingdom, and 6 percent in Brazil—remain underrepresented at the top of corporations globally. The United Kingdom does comparatively better in racial diversity, albeit at a low level: some 78 percent of UK companies have senior-leadership teams that fail to reflect the demographic composition of the country’s labor force and population, compared with 91 percent for Brazil and 97 percent for the United States.
These numbers underline the work that remains to be done, even as the case for greater diversity becomes more compelling. We live in a deeply connected and global world. It should come as no surprise that more diverse companies and institutions are achieving better performance. Most organizations, including McKinsey, must do more to take full advantage of the opportunity that diverse leadership teams represent. That’s particularly true for their talent pipelines: attracting, developing, mentoring, sponsoring, and retaining the next generations of global leaders at all levels of organizations. Given the higher returns that diversity is expected to bring, we believe it is better to invest now, since winners will pull further ahead and laggards will fall further behind.


Friday 18 November 2016

Diversity & Manufacturing

“Success and failure in our own national economy will hang upon the degree to which we are able to work with races and nations whose social order and whose behaviour and attitudes are strange to us”


These words by Ruth Benedict aptly reflect the very essence and the need of maintaining cultural diversity within any manufacturing firm.

Finding, maintaining and nurturing the right diversity and talent is crucial to any business’s success especially in today’s world. Maintaining cultural diversity in many situations is a fact of life and not a matter of choice. However manufacturing industries often see a lot of inter-group conflict especially related to cultural diversity.



Some of the common reasons for it can be summarized as
·         Competing goals
·         Competing for resources
·         Power discrepancies and power distance
·         Cultural differences
·         Assimilation versus preservation of micro cultural identity
Given the above mentioned possible conflicts that may arise in a firm, the choice of strategies that need to be adopted by any manufacturing firm varies on firm to firm basis. To illustrate the same - fora manufacturing company which manufactures hazardous chemicals, the most important HR aspect to ensure continued employee commitment and loyalty is the safety of employees.
Similarly for a company which believes in innovation and bringing new inventions in the marketplace, undertaking appropriate measures to foster creativity and innovation is the major HR challenge. Thus it is the mission, vision and the objective of the company which shall eventually determine the appropriate strategies that need to be adopted.
Some of the possible strategies that can be adopted by an HR Manager to resolve the commonly observed conflicts and avoid a diversity-consensus dilemma are
·         Mediation & compromise
·         Collaboration & Negotiation
·         Structured interaction
These strategies can be effectively used to increase the group cohesiveness and dilute the impact of conflicts that may arise in employee-employee relation or employee-employer relation or in the work involved.
Further Competency based HR system which uses the concept of STAR- Situation, Task, Action, Results can also be implemented. All these factors shall play an important role in assessing employee capability and performance and ensuring harmony among them while driving the productivity of the employees.Developing HR scorecard can also be used effectively to enhance employee productivity, drive long term shareholder value and avoid a diversity-consensus dilemma.
Balanced scorecard is yet another strategy possible to avoid cultural conflicts and drive corporate performance by balancing short term and long term measures, financial and non-financial measures, performance drivers with outcome measures. A commonly used approach is the Six sigma approach used to ensure the improvement in the quality of the product along with the removal of defects.
More stark measures include Organizational redesign. Organizational redesign is a process by which dysfunctional aspects of a business is recognized and steps are taken to realign the business in accordance with the realities. It can result in immense improvements in quality, customer service, decreased cycle times, lower turnover and absenteeism and productivity gains from 25 to at least 50% also.  It can be used in almost any type and size of business.
The time required to complete a redesign process varies depending on the nature, size and resources of the organization. Along with it is essential an appropriate Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy and its application. CRM would help bring a lot of information about sales, customers, marketing effectiveness, marketing trends and effectiveness. Further putting in place an exhaustive Knowledge Management System (KMS) comprising of a range of strategies and practices to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences would help further enhance productivity while maintaining diversity.
Another important aspect in maintaining cultural diversity within any manufacturing firm is the process of recruitment and selection. An organization is made by the people who work in it, the people who lead it and here in lies the importance of recruitment and selection. The process of recruitment can be done efficiently through interviews, departmental examinations, performance appraisal, promotion and various other such means to ensure a culturally diverse environment.
In today’s competitive scenario where companies are facing immense skill shortage and high attrition rates avoiding thediversity-consensus dilemma and maintaining cultural diversity within an organization is extremely vital for its success. Employees working within an organization are equally important as the customers outside waiting to buy the product. Therefore designing appropriate and innovative HR policies, ensuring the employees a proper work-culture and work-environment remains an integral part of any business’s success today.


Tuesday 15 November 2016

Media in Advertising

Definition
Communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data, or promotional messages are disseminated. Media includes every broadcasting and narrowcasting medium such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, telephone, fax, and internet.




Types of Media
The main intent of any media is to pass information to pubic. Two main media are electronic and print media, the public needs to be aware of the news. Most of the people in daily lives start with print media and gradually, as the day passes by, switch to electronic media. Print media typically includes newspapers, articles, journals etc. on the other hand, electronic media could be internet, television etc.


Features of Print Media
  • ·         Choice of reading – Allows user to read anytime and can be carried anywhere.
  • ·         A much affordable form of media when compared to electronic.
  • ·         For an individual, it’s quite an easy proof for any sort of information – People specially living in rural areas can easily afford a newspaper as compared to TV’s etc.
  • ·         Relatively easier form of accessibility public for campaigns etc.



Features of Electronic Media
  • ·         A more advanced form of media.
  • ·         Introduces more revenues and job opportunities.
  • ·         Relatively a more innovative form of media. Thanks to motion pictures, animation etc.
  • ·         A variety of options available unlike print media. People can surf through different channels, site etc.
  • ·         Very appropriate for instant POLLS reviews of public.
  • ·         Works better for people with hearing and seeing disabilities.
  • ·         Can be reached faster and can be made LIVE


Importance of Media
Effective advertising refers to informing the public about the right product at the right time through the right medium. Conveying a right message through a wrong medium at the wrong time would definitely a waste of resources.
For e.g. cigarette advertising. 
The target market for this is man in the age group of 25-60 years. The advertiser would consider placing ads in magazine having a predominantly male readership. Advertising in magazines having a predominantly female readership would be mostly wasteful for this product. 
It may be true that rarely does any magazine have a 100 % male readership. 
Therefore, the right media selection is the crux of the success of the entire advertising campaign.The effectiveness of a well-designed advertising message depends upon “when” &”where” it is realized.

There are “time” &”place” decisions. In short we may say that the success of advertising depends upon the right selection of media, the timely release of the advertisement message, its frequency and continuity, and the place of its release.


Saturday 12 November 2016

Indian Consumer and Marketing: Rural & Urban context

Introduction
Families, rural and urban both are the most important organizations in the society that influences consumer buying behavior, and family members constitute the most influential primary reference group. Family as a unit has been researched extensively. We can distinguish between two types of families and their influence on buyer behavior: the family of orientation and the family procreation. The family of orientation consists of parents and siblings. A person acquires an orientation towards religion, politics, economics, and a sense of personal ambition, self-worth and love from his or her parents. Even if the buyer no longer interacts with his or her parents, their influence on the buyer’s behavior can be significant. In countries where parents live with their grown children, it is seen that their influence can be substantial. A more direct influence on everyday buying is from the family of procreation, namely, one’s spouse and children. This research paper is a comprehensive study that centers on differences in urban and rural families in the context of purchase decision making.



Rural Market
A vast majority of Indians live in villages whose behavior as consumers is believed to be largely different from urbanites. Consumer is the pivot around which the entire business revolves and consumers differ in how they make purchase decision, owing to variables like type of family, income, occupation, status, etc. and the role the individual play in the decision process. Understanding of consumer behavior, which leads to purchase, is therefore, very important. From marketing point of view, investigating family as consumption unit becomes crucial as attitude towards saving and spending, and even brands and products are molded quite often by the family. Therefore, decision making in families are complex phenomena to understand and quality as a bulk of decision are made in a group in order to have a choice suitable to all.
India population went up from 683 million in 1981 to 1029 million in 2001. During this period, rural population remained between 76.7 and 72.2 per cent of total population. Thus, the size of rural consumer group is quite large which about three-fourths of the total population is.

Rural Marketing

Rural marketing is a fashionable subject today, though it is far more important for a developing economy like that of India. Different people have different definitions of rural marketing. The opening up of the domestic economy to external competition and the emergence of purchasing power in the rural areas, business and development professional calls for a better understanding of the concept and processes of rural marketing. Rural marketing is the process of developing, pricing, promoting, distributing rural specific goods and services leading to exchanges between urban and rural markets which satisfies consumer demand and also achieves organizational objectives.



Urban Marketing
Urban and rural communities have historically had different demographics, interests and opportunities. While the communications boom of the late 20th century, most notably the advent of the Internet, is blurring the lines somewhat, there are still broad differences. These differences often necessitate varied marketing strategies for companies wishing to sell to both markets.

Urban areas account for about two-thirds of total sales in the sector

  • Urban markets accounted for the major share (67 per cent) of total revenues in the consumer durables sector in India in FY15
  • Demand in urban markets is likely to increase for non essential products such as LED TVs, laptops, split ACs and, beauty and wellness products
  • India stands at 4th position in the top ten global smart phones market

Market Size

India’s urban population would increase to 38 per cent by 2026, compared to in the country, which is 28 per cent in 2001 as per Census 2001. The growth in urban population is estimated to make up for over two-thirds (67 per cent) of total population increase by 2026. Out of the total population increase of 371 million during 2001-2026 in India, the increase in urban population is expected to be 249 million.
Online retailing, both direct and through channels such as eBay, will grow threefold and become a Rs 50,000 crore (US$ 7.46 billion) industry by 2016, increasing at 50-55 per cent annually, as per Crisil. By 2030, cities will generate 70 per cent of net new jobs creation, more than 70 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and drive a fourfold increase of per capita income across India, as per research by McKinsey & Company.

Key Developments

Companies and a new generation of entrepreneurs are aiming to tap into unmet needs of urban population. The emergence and rapid growth of app-based cab service companies such as Uber and Ola are examples in the transportation sector. Similarly, several internet and mobile based services – from grocery deliveries to finding doctors – are all trying hard to secure a foothold in the high potential urban market. Apart from basic services, several niche players with designer products and premium offerings are also trying hard to establish themselves in the urban consumer market. The growing customer base for luxury products coupled with the awareness of international labels and discounts are driving the business of premium products online.

Government Initiatives

Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi had launched three government flagship schemes in June, 2015 aimed at changing the face of urban India—Smart Cities mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Housing for All mission with an expected expenditure of around Rs 4 trillion (US$ 59.65 billion) over the next few years. The government has completed stage one of the Smart Cities Mission worth Rs 1 trillion (US$ 14.91 billion) by shortlisting 100 cities across India for the plan. The Government of India plans to spend Rs 50,000 crore (US$ 7.46 billion) to develop 100 smart cities in the country, with each selected city to receive assistance of Rs 100 crore (US$ 14.91 million) per year for five years.

Friday 11 November 2016

Environmental degradation & Sustainable development

Introduction
The concern about sustainable development to a large extent stems from the universal concern about environmental degradation arising from natural resource exploitation and utilization.
Sustainable development implies the utilization of environmental resources by the present generation of human beings in such a way and manner that the future generation of the human species will come and meet such resources in better qualities and quantities than their predecessors.
Agents & Victims
It has been widely acknowledged that poverty, a deplorable state of human welfare, is closely linked to environmental degradation. The poor are both victims and agents of environmental damage. Poverty may be created by negative and unjust social conditions such as structural inequality. The concept of equity and meeting the needs of the citizens is central to sustainable development…Those who are poor and hungry will often destroy their immediate environments in order to survive. They are responsible for tilling tired soils and cutting down forests. They live in slums and throw waste into gutters and streams, because they lack the basic necessities of life. They lack resources and materials necessary for living within a minimum standard conducive to human dignity and well-being
Causes & Reasons
Since the Stockholm conference of the early 70s, the North has insisted that the population explosion in the South (that is, developing countries) is the major factor in environmental degradation while the South argued that it was the high rate of consumption of the North (that is, developed countries) that degrades the environment. Essentially, mankind’s survival and standard of well-being depends on the environment which ought to be exploited and managed efficiently. Pointing out the relevance of the environment for mankind’s existence as well as its role in environmental degradation, Animashaun (2002) observes thus:
1.     Man depends on the natural environment for his multifarious needs. His food, shelter and clothing are products of the natural environment.
2.     Man exploits swamps, forest, grassland, rocks, the atmosphere, water and other resources of his natural environment to satisfy these basic needs…
3.     Because of its crucial role to life, man has intervened inadvertently in the natural environment and has caused serious disturbance to its natural equilibrium… Today, the rate of exploitation of natural resources is faster than the time it would take nature to replenish them.
4.     Nonetheless, in the process of exploiting environmental resources to satisfy increasing needs, mankind has utilized culture and technology that have caused untold imbalance to the ecosystem.
5.     The use of dams and irrigation as well as soil additives, chemicals and other non-natural techniques of improving yield have also contributed to environmental degradation.
6.     Increasing electricity consumpltion through nuclear power is increasing the level of Co2 and other type of harmful green house gases.

Suggestions & Solutions
1.     There is the need of the government to begin seeing environmental degradation in more conventional terms that is in conventional political instability as environmental degradation is the basis of many insecurity problems besetting the country today. This will enable it to use the existing security systems to monitor and manage environmental resources, thereby reducing tension in the polity
2.     In countries where the enforcement of environmental regulations and standards are weak, the role played by Environmental Impact Analysis (EIA) can not be over emphasized. It act as checks to projects that may have serious environmental impacts on the environment as it tends to regulate the industrialization process with due regard to the environment.
3.     Renewable energy (wind, Solar, etc) will less the amount of nuclear energy production.
4.     Lastly, basic problems like poverty, unemployment, and health problems which have become an off-shoot of oil exploration in the region must be urgently addressed by the government. These problems unattended can become serious threats to security as it has the potential of creating an army of discontent youths who can pose serious problem to national security.


Economic Inequality & Poverty

Meaning of Economic Inequality & Poverty
In India four forms of inequalities are found. Inequality of income, Inequality of consumption expenditure, Inequality of asset holding, and Regional inequality. Inequality of the distribution of wealth and income refers to a situation in which small section of society share large part of nation income whereas large sections of society are devoid of income. There is an unequal distribution of income. Inequality in consumption expenditure refers to a situation in which a large percentage of total consumption expenditure is incurred by a small percentage of population. Inequality of consumption expenditure shows that a large percentage of bottom population has to struggle to survive, whereas a small percentage of top population enjoys a lavish lifestyle. Regional inequality refers to inequality of growth process across various states in the country and different regions with in a single state. Some states or regions are far more prosperous than the others.

Rural and Urban Breakup
In India there are inequalities of income are found in rural and urban areas as well. Per-capita income in rural areas is less than the per capita income in urban areas. However the inequality levels in rural areas are less than the inequality at urban areas.


Causes:
The following few important causes may be pointed out for income in­equality in our country: 

·         Inequality in the ownership of assets
·         Laws of inheritance
·         Cost of professional training
·         Inflation, Unemployment
·         Tax evasion
·         Corruption and smuggling
·       Greater Burden of indirect taxation or regressive tax structure


Government Policy to Reduce Inequalities of Income and Wealth
Ever since independence, Government has been focussed on reduction of inequalities of income and wealth in the country.
1.    Land Reforms
Land reforms have been introduced to remove inequality in the ownership of land. Land in excess of the ceiling limit has been distributed among the tenant farmers, and among the small and marginal holders.
2.    Expansion of Public Sector
 Government pursued a policy of assigning a ‘flagship-role’ to the Public Sector. Many commercial banks were nationalized in 1966-68. However, since 1991, there has been reversal of the government policy. Privatisation has become the centre stage of growth-strategy. This is because public sector has only yielded inefficiency and bankruptcy.
3.    Encouraging Small Scale Industry
The Government is providing support to develop small scale industry.
4.    Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act
Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969 was passed to put a check on concentration of economic power.
5.    Poverty Alleviation Programmes
Government should frame poverty alleviation programmes particularly those which provide gainful employment to the economically weaker section of the society.
6.    Pricing Policies

Government should design the pricing and distribution policies to reduce the inequalities present in the society. Government should provide the basic amenities at lower price to the weaker sections of the society.

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More

 
Design by Free WordPress Themes | Bloggerized by Lasantha - Premium Blogger Themes | Free Samples By Mail