Management Research in India: Roughly between March and June, business schools carry a vacant look. The first-year-going-on-second-year MBA batch leaves for its summer internships to the corporate world whereas the faculty gets temporary relief from teaching and can concentrate on the other vital role incumbent on them — management research. This essential mandate of a b-school to pursue knowledge creation has largely been overlooked by the public eye amidst the expression surrounding placement salaries and admission cutoffs. It provides a guide to what various leading academics think about their subject, explains why it is a topic of debate and provides some background to what you will be learning on your Masters’ or diploma course. It identifies the potentially significant contributions that can be made by Masters’ students to management knowledge through carrying out research projects, and discusses the need for a critical approach in all management research and thinking. • Mass Market: A mass market can be defined as a term used for the largest group of consumers for a specified products. A mass market is broad in nature and is not categorized by demographics. Mass market is the extreme opposite of niche markets. To explain a mass market, it can simply be compared with a niche market. A niche market is one where a very small market segment exists. Example – Tractors are a niche market. They are applicable only to agricultural lands But a mass market on the other hand is much larger and has diverse demographics. For example – Automobiles – cars and two wheelers, usually target the mass markets with heterogeneous ages, locations and preferences. . However these mass markets can be further diversified into smaller segments. Products which target a mass market generally vary their promotion strategies according to the market. Example – An automobile company or a telecom company targets a mass market. However each individual might have a different preference for automobiles or telecom service providers. Does within the mass market, there exist individual segments. A smart marketer will try to promote his product to the biggest chunk of the mass market. For example – In soft drinks, Pepsi is targeting the youth, but on the other hand coke is targeting whole families through defining values. Thus coke has a bigger market and it is a more wider recognized brand when compared to Pepsi. • Mind Over matter: Simply this phrase means the power of the mind to control and influence the body and the physical world generally. The phrase mind over matter promotes the theory that the human mind is more powerful than the body and it has the strength to influence any matter that it so desires. Thus, starting from basic concentration power, will power for self development to a bit more advanced like focusing away your mind to bear pain and till the extreme end of influencing or moving physical objects with your thoughts, all fall within the scope of the power of your mind. It refers to the psychic ability of a person to move physical objects with the power of his/her thoughts. Suppose you are hungry and your mind had the power to make the bread fly out from the refrigerator and into your hands? It is also known as psychokinesis. Previously the phenomenon was known as Telekinesis when such movements of objects were thought to be the work of spirits or departed souls. But during the 19th century a lot of research upon this subject was undertaken and later on when the involvement of the human mind was predicted about, the new term of psychokinesis was coined. • Mobile Number portability: Mobile Number Portability is the process by which, you can shift to another operator of your choice, but can keep your old number. Best is, you don’t have to go through the trouble of informing all your friends & family that your number has changed. In India MNP was launched in 20th January 2011. The subscriber, who likes to avail this service, need to send a SMS from his mobile to 1900. Once the customer sends SMS, he will be receiving a unique porting code from the current service provider. Then he need to fill the application in a particular format and mention the new service provider, the customer would like to subscribe for. The new service provider will collect the information about the user from the current operator. Atime period of seven days will be taken for the complete transfer of mobile number to the network of the new mobile operator. As a transformation charge for the new operator the subscriber has to pay the amount of Rs 19. However it gives subscribers the freedom to choose operators based on criteria like services, price, and customer service. Their freedom of movement is not influenced by the inconveniences and costs that come with changing numbers. • Modern Indian Cuisine: Today, Indian cuisine has moved beyond the realms of fusion gourmet. Modern Indian cuisine is making rapid strides. Close your eyes and imagine Indian cuisine - sinful desserts laden in oversized kadais, rich lentils simmered with spices served with a dollop of cream and butter, sprigs of cilantro added as an afterthought, flatbreads stacked high and glazed with butter. The portions are large, the focus is on quantity, and are served with a rustic touch. Restaurants rustle up the authentic Indian touch by ensuring food is served in the customary kadais and metal bowls. There is also a book written by Hari Nayak & Bikash Khanna i.e. “Modern Indian Cooking “ which explain the modern Indian cuisine . How ever there is a demand for these recipes in allover India now a day. • Multi sided platform: “Multi-sided Platform” is one of the business model patterns. Multi-sided Platform brings together two or more distinct but interdependent groups of customers. Such platforms are of value to one group of customers only if the other groups if customers are also present. The platform creates value by facilitating interactions between the different groups. A multi-sided platform grows in value to the extent that it attracts more users, a phenomenon known as the “Network Effect”. For example, the more people that use Google search, the more data the company has, and that data is the raw material for refining its search results further. And the greater its market share in search, the more advertisers wants their ads placed on Google to reach the largest audience. That, in turn, solidifies Google’s position as the dominant ad market, and strengthens its pricing power. According to Bill Gates, “There are several positive feedback loops in this business, and they are particularly powerful”. • Micro Credit: Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to poor borrowers who typically lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history. It is designed to spur entrepreneurship, increase incomes, alleviate poverty and often also to empower women. Microcredit is a part of microfinance, which is the provision of a wider range of financial services, in particular savings, to the poor. It helps to be self employed. The origins of microcredit in its current practical incarnation can be linked to several organizations founded in Bangladesh, especially the Bank. The Grameen Bank, which is generally considered the first modern microcredit institution, was founded in 1976 by Muhammad Yunus. Yunus began the project in a small town called Jobra, using his own money to deliver small loans at low-interest rates to the rural poor. Microcredit quickly became a popular tool for economic development, with hundreds of institutions emerging throughout the third world. Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work providing microcredit services to the poor. In India the micro credit facility are being provided by all the banks which is mandated by RBI. Micro credit has been helping the poor people in India to sustain and stand in the society by being self employed. • Organisational Politics: organizational politics is "the use of one's individual or assigned power within an employing organization for the purpose of obtaining advantages beyond one's legitimate authority. Those advantages may include access to tangible assets, or intangible benefits such as status or pseudo-authority that influences the behavior of others. Both individuals and groups may engage in Office Politics." The aims of office politics or manipulation in the workplace are not always increased pay or a promotion. Often, the goal may simply be greater power or control for its own end; or to disrepudiate a competitor. While office politics do not necessarily aim at selfish gains - they can be a means towards outcomes which are corporate and benefit the company, not the individual - a 'manipulator' will often achieve career or personal goals by co-opting as many colleagues as possible into their plans, strengthening their own position by ensuring that they will be the last person to be accused of any wrongdoing, because they ally themselves with everyone, changing sides to suit their own personal, hidden agenda. Office politics is a major issue in business because the individuals who manipulate their working relationships consume time and resources for their own gain at the expense of the team or company. In addition to this problem, the practice of office politics can have an even more serious effect on major business processes such as strategy formation, budget setting, performance management, and leadership. This occurs because when individuals are playing office politics, it interferes with the information flow of a company. Information can be distorted, misdirected, or suppressed, in order to manipulate a situation for short-term personal gain. • Public Interest Litigation: In India Public interest Litigation means litigation for the protection of the public interest. It is litti introduced in a court of law, not by the aggrieved party but by the court itself or by any other private party. It is not necessary, for the exercise of the court's jurisdiction, that the person who is the victim of the violation of his or her right should personally approach the court. In Public Interest Litigation, the power to file a suit is given to a member of the public by the courts etc through judicially conscious judicial activism.That member of the public can be a NGO, Institution or an individual.In India, Supreme Court, rejecting the criticism of judicial activism, has said the judiciary has stepped in to give directions only because of executive inaction what with laws enacted by Parliament and the State legislatures in the last 63 years for the poor not being implemented properly. • History: The Supreme Court of India in Sunil Batra (II) v. Delhi Administration, 1980 (3) SCC 488 : 1980 SCC (Cri) 777 : AIR 1980 SC 1579 : 1980 CriLJ 1099 has accepted a letter written to the Supreme Court by one Sunil Batra, a prisoner from Tihar Jail, Delhi complaining of inhuman torture in the jail. In Dr. Upendra Baxi (I) v. State of U.P., AIR 1987 SC 191 the court entertained letter sent by the two Professors of Delhi University seeking enforcement of the constitutional right of the inmates in a Protective Home, at Agra who were living in inhuman and degrading conditions. In Miss Veena Sethi v. State of Bihar, 1982 (2) SCC 583 : 1982 SCC (Cri) 511 : AIR 1983 SC 339 the Court treated letter addressed to a Judge of the Court by the Free Legal Aid Committee at Hazaribagh, Bihar as a writ petition. In Citizens for Democracy through its President v. State of Assam and Others, 1995 KHC 486 : 1995 (2) KLT SN 74 : 1995 (3) SCC 743 : 1995 SCC (Cri) 600 : AIR 1996 SC 2193 the Court entertained a letter addressed by Shri Kuldip Nayar, an eminent journalist, in his capacity as President of "Citizens for Democracy" to one of the Judges of the Court complaining of human rights violations of TADA detenues and the same was treated as a petition under Art.32 [1].[2] Prior to the 1980s, only the aggrieved party could approach the courts for justice. However, post 1980s and after the emergency era, the apex court decided to reach out to the people and hence it devised an innovative way wherein a person or a civil society group could approach the supreme court seeking legal remedies in cases where public interest is at stake. Justice P. N. Bhagwati and Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer were among the first judges to admit PIL's in the court.[3] Filing a PIL is not as cumbersome as any other legal case and there have been instances when even letters and telegrams addressed to the court have been taken up as PIL's and heard by the court.[4] • Quality Assurance Vs Quality Control: Quality Assurance: A set of activities designed to ensure that the development and/or maintenance process is adequate to ensure a system will meet its objectives. Where as Quality Control: A set of activities designed to evaluate a developed work product. QA activities ensure that the process is defined and appropriate. Methodology and standards development are examples of QA activities. A QA review would focus on the process elements of a project - e.g., are requirements being defined at the proper level of detail. QC activities focus on finding defects in specific deliverables - e.g., are the defined requirements the right requirements. The main difference is that QAis process oriented and QCis product oriented. Quality Assurance makes sure you are doing the right things, the right way. Quality Control makes sure the results of what you've done are what you expected. QC find defects where as QA prevent defects. QC is reactive where as QA is proactive.