What ITC did right in its Crisis Management

Crisis management is akin to ‘firefighting’ in the Corporate arena. It is when you try to mitigate instant damage to your company’s reputation built over the years. If done right, it can be just the ticket in a PR professional’s  career. If handled sloppishly, it can do long term harm to a brand. For instance, Nestle Maggi’s sales dropped 20 per cent year on year because of the lead in noodle scandal.

Earlier this year, an old fake video spread like wildfire on social media claiming that the ITC’s Aashirvaad brand had mixed plastic in its flour. The video got the multi-billion Corporate’s crisis management team in full swing. It seemed that ITC had learnt its lessons from Nestle's Maggi crisis.

What ITC did right:

1. Quick Mover: According to the company, the first video claiming presence of plastic in Aashirvaad Atta appeared in July 2017. It was telecast on a local TV channel in Siliguri, West Bengal. The Company officials quickly took notice of the matter and contacted the channel, asking them to withdraw it.
2. Legal Action: As soon as the video got viral on WhatsApp and Facebook, the Company lodged police complaints in three cities including Kolkata, Hyderabad and Delhi. They also moved the City Civil Court in Bengaluru and won a restraining order against anyone circulating such videos.
3. Widespread Media Coverage: Through its legal course of action, the Company succeeded in garnering enough media attention with an almost daily coverage in newspapers.
4. Advertising Campaign to win trust of consumers: ITC launched an advertising campaign on TV countering the allegations (https://youtu.be/YBA_tXKsDB0). With a rational appeal, it tried to establish that what is being called as plastic is in fact a wheat protein known as Gluten which is naturally found in wheat flour. To build trust and a two-way communication the ad concluded by providing a tollfree number urging consumers to get in touch with the brand respresentatives regarding any complaints or clarifications.
5. Putting up a strong case online: On the home page of its website - http://www.aashirvaad.com/, the Company posted detailed Q&A that dispelled the rumours and myths around the controversy. It also posted videos from experts as well as sample test reports from FSSAI Notified External Labs.
6. Being on the right side of the Food Regulators: Hemant Malik, ITC Divisional Chief Executive (Foods) was quoted in newspapers stating that “even FSSAI mandates that wheat flour should contain a minimum of six per cent gluten, which is wheat protein, on a dry weight basis. Indian wheat typically has 9-10 per cent gluten. We urge our consumers not to be misled by false and malicious videos. ” ITC openly made claims that were in line with Indian food regulators. Unlike Nestle Maggi they appeared to be right by being on the right side of the regulators.

Ms. Chhavi Bakaria

Assistant Professor

Department of Communication Studies

Artificial Intelligence: The Power of Future

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is the field of computer science which addresses the ways wherein computers could be made to do cognitive functions ascribed to humans. It is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. When access to digital computers became possible in the middle 1950s, AI research began to explore the possibility that human intelligence could be reduced to symbol manipulation. Artificial intelligence and increasingly complex algorithms currently influence our lives and our civilization more than ever. Everything we love about civilization is a product of intelligence, so amplifying our human intelligence with artificial intelligence has a potential of helping civilization flourish like never before – as long as we manage to keep the technology beneficial. The areas of AI application are diverse and the possibilities extensive: in particular, because of improvements in computer hardware, certain AI algorithms already surpass the capacities of human experts today. As Artificial Intelligence capacity improves, its field of application will grow further. In concrete terms, it is likely that the relevant algorithms will start optimizing themselves to an ever-greater degree may be even reaching superhuman levels of intelligence. This technological progress is likely to present us with historically unprecedented ethical challenges. Many experts believe that alongside global opportunities, AI poses global risks, which will be greater than, say, the risks of nuclear technology—which in any case have historically been underestimated. Furthermore, scientific risk analysis suggests that high potential damages should be taken very seriously even if the probability of their occurrence are low. Furthermore, science fiction often portray AI as robots with human – like characteristics, AI can encompass anything like autonomous weapons. AI may be dangerous as autonomous weapons are artificial intelligence systems that are programmed to do wrong things. In the hands of criminals, these weapons could easily cause mass casualties. Moreover, an AI arms race could inadvertently lead to an AI war that also results in mass casualties. To avoid being attacked by the enemy, these weapons would be designed to be extremely simple to simply “turn off,” so humans could possibly take control of such a situation. This risk is one that’s present even with narrow AI but grows as levels of Artificial Intelligence and autonomy increase. Artificial intelligence will drastically change the future of this world as we are trying to create self-learning machines.

The future of this world is in our hand, it depends on us that how we evolve technologies. Artificial intelligence can be asset or can be dangerous depends upon the way we are evolving machines.

Mr. Deepak Sharma

Assistant Professor

Department of Information Technology

Smart Dust the future of IOT

Smart Dust is combination of tiny wireless sensors of few millimeter in size. These tiny sensors are deployed in the air and they are very hard to detect. The tiny sensors works in the group of hundreds or more to monitor light, magnetism , temperature, vibration, and chemicals. They work on radio frequency identification technology.  Smart Dust is emerging as the future of IOT because the general principle of IOT is to use sensors everywhere to monitor and transmit the data back to the database or computation center for analysis.

The drawback in IOT is that sensors have to be place on different areas and  these sensors are traditional sensors which require external power backup and are big in size. Further it is difficult to place traditional sensors inside pipelines, unreachable places or where secrecy is required.  In future this may not be an issue as smart dust can be used anywhere. The proposal of Smart Dust was introduced in 1992 at DARPA for military applications. The proposal was to build wireless sensor nodes with a volume of one cubic millimeter.

Components of Smart Dust

• Different type of Sensors
• Optical Transmission for device to device communication and device to base station communication
• Signal Processing unit and control circuitry
• Power source in form of solar cells.
• TinyOS for working with low power sensors. The alternate to TinyOS is Ardunio which can be used to control hardware. The advantage with TinyOS is that it is designed specially to work low power sensors over the wireless communication. 

A single smart dust is called mote. A single smart dust mote consist of above mentioned components. The challenge with smart dust is to package all the components into one single entity. While advancement in the field of digital circuitry and wireless communication would made smart dust a successful technology in near future in the field of military applications, healthcare, agriculture sector and forest protection. 

Mr. Vijay Gupta

Assistant Professor

Department of Information Technology

Crypto Currency in India

Crypto Currency is a digital asset that works as a medium of exchange. It uses cryptography to secure its transactions, to control the creation of additional units, and to verify the transfer of assets. It is designed to be secure and, in many cases, anonymous. It is associated with the internet and uses cryptography, the process of converting legible information into an almost uncrackable code, to track purchases and transfers.

Its genesis stems from the discipline of mathematical theory and computer science to become a mode of online money exchange. It uses cryptography, networking, open-source software and block chain technology

These are virtual currencies which use decentralized control. This makes them different from centralized electronic money and the central banking system.

The  first virtual currency system,  Bitcoin was created in 2009 “ Satoshi Nakamoto”. However it is not known whether "Satoshi Nakamoto" is real or a pseudonym, or whether it represents one person or a group. Thereafter a number of crypto currencies have been created across the world. The rationale was to shift power and control from institutions to individuals. According to Andresen, a software developer and entrepreneur based in Amherst, Mass, "Bitcoin is designed to bring us back to a decentralized currency of the people."

The number of crypto currencies available over the internet  in April 2018 was over 1565. By market capitalization, during April  2018,  Bitcoin  had  the largest blockchain network, followed by Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and EOS.

Do we need crypto currency?

The concept of crypto currency is based on the fact that it shifts money control from the state to the individual. This places a lot of responsibility in the hands of the individual so as to use it judiciously without compromising the good of the society at large. It is a well known fact that there may be many vested interests that would only be concerned about amassing wealth at the expense of the gullible folks.

An illustration to the above point was the incident in the month of April when the Delhi cops busted a crypto currency minting unit at Dehradun. The gang had cheated people to the tune of more than a hundred crores and had then vanished with the loot.

In this regard, the RBI (the central banking agency of the country), has given the lenders a period of three months to sever ties with crypto currency traders and exchanges. It has barred regulated lenders from facilitating crypto currency traders.

In spite of this, trading volumes have risen. The experts have offered the explanation  of this phenomena as follows- procuring it now  would enable investors to convert rupees into crypto currency, which could  be later swapped for other coins via private trading platforms when the rules stipulated by the RBI get enforced. It is astonishing that many investors are still hoping that government would frame suitable policies to regulate it rather than ban it outright thereby moderating the stand taken by the RBI.

Our economy as envisaged in our constitution is a ‘socialist economy’ which aims at an equitable distribution of resources. Legalizing crypto currency would mean going against the principles of the constitution. Banning it outright will also not serve the purpose. Hence there has to be a via media which regulates its use.

Notable in this regard is the stand taken by the US Government which has legalized the use of crypto currency with the condition that –

The U.S. Congress may have the power to prohibit VCs under its power to “regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States” and under its exclusive constitutional power “to coin Money” and “regulate the Value thereof”. In a decision taken in November 2014, the Court upheld the power of regulators to prosecute a defendant who “designed, created and minted coins called ‘Liberty Dollars,’ coins ‘in resemblance or in similitude’ (or made to look like) of U.S. coins.”

According to Gareth Murphy, a senior central banking officer, US, “widespread use (of crypto currency) would also make it more difficult for statistical agencies to gather data on economic activity, which are used by governments to steer the economy”. He cautioned that virtual currencies pose a new challenge to central banks’ control over the important functions of monetary and exchange rate policy.

Hence we expect some farsighted decisions from the panel that has on its board members from the RBI, the finance ministry and market regulator SEBI.

Ms Suchitra Srivastava
Associate Professor
Department of Management Studies

Blog on Exposure Triangle

Photography is defined as drawing with light with the help of a light tight box called camera. To click a picture we need to provide a sufficient light to the camera so that it can identify the subject to be clicked.

To get that amount of light the camera needs to click a good picture we should understand the concept of exposure triangle, because the overexposed and underexposed images are not considered good images. 

    

   Underexposed

Exposure triangle is the combination of aperture, shutter speed and ISO. We must balance these three variables to get a perfectly exposed picture. These three components are parts of camera which depends on each other. So an adjustment in one will require adjustment in others.

   Correctly exposed

Aperture

Aperture is the hole in the lens through which light enters into the camera.  Size of this hole can be increased or decreased as per the lighting conditions. A wide aperture means more light will enter into the camera while a narrow aperture will allow less light. 

Aperture is denoted by f number which is universal. The usual numerical values for the f-stop are 1.4, 1.8, 2.0., 2.8, 3.6, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16 and 22. If we are shooting in low light conditions we need to lower down the f number to 2.0 or 1.8 while for situations where we have more light we need to increase the f number to 16 or 22.

Shutter speed

Shutter speed decides the time for which shutter remains open and thus for how the sensor is exposed to light. Faster shutter speed means less time while slow shutter speed means more time for which light is inside the camera.

Shutter speed is measured in seconds or fraction of seconds like ½, 1/4, 1/100s, 1/250 and so on. 1/100s, shutter speed means that shutter will open for one hundredth part of a second while 1/1000 shutter speed means that shutter will open for one thousandth part of a second. We keep high shutter speeds when we want to freeze the action or capture the motion.

ISO

ISO is the sensitivity of the film in case of film camera while image sensor in digital camera. It means how sensitive your film or image sensor is towards light. High sensitive image sensor needs less amount of light to get exposed or click the image while less sensitive image sensor needs more light to get exposed.

ISO value is measured in numbers. Lower the number, the lower the sensitivity to light. Higher values mean it is more sensitive to light. Depending on the camera, the lowest value stars from 50 can go up to 6400. Photographers who want more saturation and less noise and more details in the picture should go for ISO 100 or 200.

Thus by combining the ISO, aperture and shutter speed gives a correct exposure value for a particular setting. One thing you have to keep in mind is that if any one of the elements is changed or adjusted then we also need to change the other two to get the correct exposure otherwise your image would be too bright or too dark or noisy.

Ms. Sanyogita Choudhary

Assistant Professor

Department of Communication studies

Social Pressure

Man is a social animal and we learn most of the things from our surrounding. Society, friends, colleges have a great influence on our behaviour. At times this influence becomes so deep that this starts exerting pressure on us. This pressure commonly known as peer pressure or social pressure can be a positive one or a negative one.  As long as an individual can sustain it, it adds to growth of the individual but the time when it gets out of control it starts creating problems.

Social pressure is when an individual wants to get well accepted to the group and hence group norms. There is no fixed age at which an individual gets into the trap of this pressure i.e from children to oldies anyone can fall victim to this pressure. Adults by virtue of age and experience are in better position to handle this pressure but our younger generation specially the adolescent or a teen are not mentally grown to handle this pressure and hence the chances go getting indulge in harmful actives are high. In these situation individuals often lose the sense of right or wrong and hence peers becomes a great source of influence. The impact of this influence can be visible with respect to their style, taste, appearance, ideology, and values.

Social pressure is not always negative, I have seen this working as a magic for few. If we get aspired by a group that has got better values, performance, ideology or acceptance in the society then this group influence people to have better ideology and behaviour. This leads  to improvement in performance that can be in academics, higher affiliation with parents,  participation in co- curricular activities like sports, dramatics, singing, etc.

Negative social pressure is something that is of great concern. This is an outcome of either getting into a wrong group or having an affiliation for something that negatively perceived. Outcome of negative social pressure can be disastrous. Person can alienate from the family i.e start avoiding parents, disinterested in studies, wrong habits like indulgence in smoking, alcohol, drugs and other violent activities. If such negative social pressure is not taken care of on time then the life of the person can be ruined. This becomes a cause of major psychological and behavioural disorders.

There are four possible responses to peer pressure:

• Compliance – When we do not agree with group opinion or actions but, gets along with it.
• Conversion – When we convert our thoughts and ideologies to confirm with the group.
• Congruence – when we agreeing with the opinion/action of the group from the onset.
• Non-Conformity – Either remaining independent (e.g., not succumbing to group pressure and maintaining personal opinion), or anti-conformity (purposefully expressing opinions or actions contrary to the status quo).

So, it depends on individual to individual as to how one will react to this pressure. One should consider society and its norms but certainly not at the cost of one’s happiness or life...

Ms. Anu Bhardwaj

Assistant Professor

Department of Management Studies

बिखरता बचपन टूटते सपने

छोटु दो कप चाय जल्दी लेकर आ, बिटू जल्दी से साहब की गाडी साफ़ कर, रामू जल्दी से बर्तन साफ़ कर ग्राहक आने लगे है, छोटे गाड़ी का पाना पकड़ा, अरे कन्हेया जल्दी से टेबल साफ़ कर । कुछ इस तरह के वाक्यांश आप लोगों के कानों में सुबह की भाग दौड़ के साथ गूंजने शुरू हो जाते है ।

ममा स्कूल के लिए देरी हो रही है जल्दी करो मेरा लंच बॉक्स डाल दो, पापा आपकी वजह से मेरी स्कूल बस छुट गई अब आप मुझे स्कूल छोड़ कर आओ, पापा मैं स्कूल तभी जाऊंगा जब आप मुझे शाम को नयी साइकिल दिला कर लाओगे, ममा मेरे

जन्मदिन पर मुझे नई ड्रेस चाहिए, आज चाचा हमे पार्क लेकर जायेंगे । इस तरह के वाक्यांश भी हमे अक्सर इन्ही लोगो की भीड़ में सुनने को मिलते है ।

अलार्म की घडी के साथ सुबह के छ बजे गये । रोज़ की तरह स्नान करके पूजा पाठ कर अपने स्कूल के लिए निकल चला । स्कूल भी था तो बहूत दूर इक गाँव में, जहाँ तक पहुंचने के लिए मैंने लोह पथ गामनी अथार्त रेलगाड़ी पकड़ी और स्कूल पहुँच कर अपनी क्लास में बैठे बच्चो की उपस्थिति दर्ज कर रहा था । राम ..आया हूँ बिटू ... आया हूँ मास्टर जी सीता आई हूँ मास्टर जी भोल्ला ... आया हूँ श्याम... आया हू । बस क्लास लेकर फिर मैं थोड़ी देर 

के लिए बाहर बगीचे में बैठा और सोचा की चाय की चुस्की ले लू तभी स्कूल के गेट से अंदर की और आता हुआ 10 साल का एक मासूम सा बच्चा रामू जोर से आवाज़ लगाते हुआ बोला कि मास्टर जी चाय लोगे ।

दोपहर होते ही पास ही के एक होटल में हम अपना भोजन करने के लिए चल दिए । टेबल पर बैठते ही होटल मालिक ने आवाज़ लगायी जोर से और कहा की भोला जल्दी से टेबल साफ़ कर मास्टर जी का खाना लगा दे, लगता है की मास्टरआईन ने आज खाना नहीं भेजा साथ में । बस फिर भोला ने खाना लगाया और खाना खा कर फिर से स्कूल में कक्षा लेकर मैं लौट चला घर की ओर । शाम को मेरी बेटी गीता ने कहा कि पापा मुझे नए जूते चाहिए । रात का खाना खा कर जब मैंने बिस्तर पकड़ा और आँखें मूंदी तो तभी मेरे कानों में मासूम बच्चो सी आवाजें गूंजने लगी और मैं उठ कर बैठ गया ।

फिर याद आया मुझे एक मासूम बचपन रेल की पटरियों पर खेलते हुए । जब सुबह मैं अपने स्कूल को ट्रेन पकड़ कर चला था । सीट तो थी नहीं तो बाहर गाड़ी के गेट पर जाकर खड़ा हो गया मैं । तभी दूसरी ओर रेल की पटरी पर मुझे कुछ चहकते हुए मासूम से चेहरे दिखें जो एक हाथ में बहूत बड़ा झोला

थामे हुए थे और दुसरे हाथ से पटरी पर लोगों के फेकें हुए प्लास्टिक के थेले और खाली पानी की बोतलों को उठा रहे थे लेकिन फिर भी चेहरों पर इक ख़ुशी थी ।

दुसरे ही पल मुझे याद आया वो एक और मासूम चेहरा जो अपने छोटे छोटे हाथों में चाय के गिलास लिए सबको चाय पूछ रहा था । उस पल से उभरता तभी मुझे इक और बचपन नज़र आया जो अपने छोटे छोटे हाथों से होटल के एक कोने में बैठ लोगों के जूठे बर्तन साफ़ कर रहा था ।

ये मंज़र याद कर मेरी आँखें छलक उठी । बंद आँखों के साथ जब इक बच्चा धरती पर जन्म लेता है तो उसे नहीं मालूम कि उसकी किस्मत में

उस खुदा उस भगवान् ने क्या लिखा है । क्या लेकर वो इस दुनिया में आया है और क्या लेकर वो इस दुनिया से जायेगा । लेकिन जीवन के कुछ पड़ावों से होकर जब वो खेलने की उम्र तक आता है उस उम्र में कुछ ऐसे ही बच्चो के हाथों में लोगो के झूठे बर्तन, इक झोला या चाय के गिलास कोई न कोई थमा देता है ।

स्कूल में अक्सर जब बच्चों से पूछता हूँ कि वो बड़े होकर क्या बनना चाहते है उनका क्या सपना है तो कोई कहता है कि डॉक्टर बनूंगा कोई कहता है पायलेट बनूंगा कोई कहता है व्यापारी बनूँगा तो कोई न जाने कितने बड़े बड़े सपनो को अपनी मासूम सी आँखों में सजोये रखता है । लेकिन उन आँखों के सपनो का क्या होगा जो रेल की पर जन्म लेता है तो उसे नहीं

पटरियों को ताक रही है जो लोगों की भीड़ में चाय गरम चाय गरम की आवाज़ लगा रही है या जो किसी होटल की चोखट पर लोगो की झूठन साफ़ कर रही है । वो सपने तो बचपन के साथ ही न जाने कहाँ बिखर गये होंगे । मेरी बेटी गीता के नए जूते लेने की बात सोच कर मेरी नज़र उन बच्चों के नन्हें नन्हें खाली पाँवों की और पड़ी और सोचा की ये नन्हें पांव न तो तपती जमीं देखते और न ही सर्दी की सर्द को महसूस करते ।

आखिर हमारे देश में इन मासूम बच्चों की ये हालात क्यों है । क्यों इन मासूम बच्चों को दो वक़्त की रोटी के लिए अपने छोटे छोटे के लिए अपने

छोटे छोटे सपनों को पूरा करने के लिए अपने बचपन को भूला देना पड़ता है जिस उम्र में जिन हाथों में किताबें होनी चाहिए थी उन मासूम नन्हे नन्हे हाथों में कौन है वो जो इस झोला चाय के गिलास झूठे बर्तन थमा देता है । जिन बच्चों को हम देश का भविष्य बतलाते है वो बचपन आज हमारे देश मे कहीं ना कहीं बाल मजदूरी का शिकार हो रहा है ।

हमारा समाज क्या इन मासूम से बच्चों के सपनो को पूरा नहीं कर सकता । क्या हमारे देश में भी दुनिया के कुछ देशों की तरह बच्चे के 5 साल के हो जाने पर सरकार उसके पढने लिखने, खाने पीने का खर्चा नहीं उठा सकती । जब इस तरह की तस्वीर इन मासूम बच्चों की मैं अपने समाज में देखता हूँ तो खुद को भी बहूत लाचार और बेबस पाता हूँ । क्योंकि जिस देश समाज और लोगो से मैं बाल मजदूरी को खत्म करने के प्रयास की कल्पना कर रहा हूँ आखिर मैं भी इसी का हिस्सा हूँ । लेकिन किसी न किसी को कहीं से तो इसका आगाज़ करना होगा । अगर हम सब मिलकर कोशिश करे और अपने व्यस्त जीवन में से कुछ समय निकाल कर बाल मजदूरी कर रहे इन बच्चों को थोडा बहुत लिखना पढना सिखा सके इनके लिए कुछ सुविधाएँ जुटा सके तो शायद ये मासूम बच्चें अपने कुछ सपनों को पूरा करने का होसला अपने अंदर फिर से जगा सके । शायद इस तरह के प्रयासों से हम बिखरते बचपन के टूटते सपनों को पूरा कर सकें ।

लेखक

सन्नी गुप्ता (आरव)

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