Page 37 - DECO303_INDIAN_ECONOMY_ENGLISH

Indian Economy

Notes 2. India’s …………………… made conscious effort to remove all these retrogressive forces
and foster social as well as individual development.
3. …………………… of income and the establishment of a socialist society create conditions
in which everyone will have equal opportunities in the matter of education and
employment.

4. A very small group of persons in India are …………………… and have not experienced
poverty and misery.

Caselet Technology and Innovation at Asian Paints

t would be appropriate to undertake a study of Asian Paints in this caselet, for its use
of technology through the years to gain a competitive edge in the marketplace. “Today,
Ithe company has formulated an entire range of decorative coatings through home-
grown technology. It has always given emphasis to R&D and continuously made
investments in the development of Information Technology. It has used IT as a tool to
bring efficiencies and streamline operations. The use of IT and R&D will continue to be
important in the future and Asian Paints will not hesitate in making investments in these
areas to gain advantages for the organization.”
Continuous reconfiguration of activities in the value chain is a key task of all companies
aiming to remain competitive and to achieve the highest value-cost leverages. Given this
requirement, what were the key initiatives taken by Asian Paints during the last 5 years?
In last five years, reconfiguration of value chain activities to increase competitiveness has
been one of the major focus areas for Asian Paints. In fact, Asian Paints has transformed as
an organization. The sales and profit figures will reflect the strong financial condition of
the company. But most important have been the initiatives undertaken in all areas of
operations to increase efficiencies. Some of them are as follows:
Manufacturing to reduce losses at factory
Sourcing efficiencies
Introduction of new technology to boost efficiencies and increase productivity

Implementation of a new supply chain solution
Implementation of an ERP solution
Besides the above, it has focused on continuously improving environment management
standards at our plants. Today, all Asian Paints manufacturing facilities are accredited
with the ISO 14001 certification for environment management standards. These systems
have enabled the company to reduce effluence from the manufacturing facilities. The
introduction of the new supply chain solution has transformed functions like management
of inventory and forecasting demand. A new solution that helps centralise demand
forecasting has brought significant benefits for the company through reduction of working
capital. It has changed the manner of functioning of the supply chain division.
Source: Business Environment, Dr Vivek Mittal, Excel Books

3.2 Development Strategy in India

In this section, you will learn about the development strategy in India. The basic goals of our
Five-Year Plans were “development along socialist lines to secure rapid economic growth and

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