Search results

After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to understand the following aspects:▪ how good strategic planning can convert a crisis into an opportunity;▪ importance of service excellence and customer satisfaction through customer delight and customer feedback; and▪ utilisation of resources and excellent time management strategies.

This case discusses how vital teamwork and motivated leadership can convert a crisis such as Covid-19 into an opportunity. This case study talks about Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC), a metro rail corporation working to develop metro trains in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The case discusses how challenging it was for the metro rail corporation to transform its processes in a short period and deal with the crisis on major fronts such as facilities maintenance, human resource management, ensuring safety and security of its staff and riders, motivation of staff, service quality and maintaining all operational aspects. The case discusses how UPMRC is a leader on all fronts and has excelled in its operational work. It talks about what challenges the lockdown and unlocking phase posed in front of the leadership and how teamwork, dedication to exemplary service quality and customer satisfaction gave the team the strength to make changes that improved their processes and helped them overcome the crisis.The case starts with a discussion of metro rail inception and incorporation of UPMRC and then how this newly formed metro has to face the challenges of pre-lockdown period where the team worked very hard for sanitisation and safety. The lockdown created a completely different set of challenges related to the facilities and the entire metro train systems, which was a difficult situation to deal because of restrictions and other challenges. However, the team dealt with situations with strength and strategic planning, leading to better managed processes and staff. The unlocking phase also gave many challenges that the team handled with a lot of care and efficiency.

This case is suitable for post-graduate-level courses on services marketing, service operations management, general management, crisis management and strategic management. Participants can use the case to develop an understanding of strategic planning and management.This case can also be used in the executive education program for managers to encourage them to think through challenges faced by metro rail corporations.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 10: Public Sector Management.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, India's tourism industry has the opportunity to further grow and expand through the development and implementation of sustainable policies. The diversity of India's geography is observed in its weather which is variable both spatially and temporally throughout the year. Seasonal changes in weather influence the number of foreign tourists arrivals in India. Consequently, significant reductions in visitor numbers are observed during the monsoon season. In future decades, the changing climate has the potential to shape tourism patterns. Warmer temperatures and an increased frequency of high-intensity rainfall are the two most common predictions concerning future climate in India. It will result in a shorter winter tourism season in the northern states where the cold weather enables winter sports activities such as skiing and snowboarding. Coastal tourism along India's stretched coastline may become less attractive to tourists due to damage and disruption to coral reefs and marine wildlife. Sea-level rise and coastal erosion may push beach tourists to more desirable and scenic destinations. India's transport infrastructure is key to enabling the safe and efficient movement of tourists around the country. The current weather is already impacting the air, road and rail networks and, further challenges are highly likely due to a changing climate. There is still an opportunity for India's tourism industry to adapt through physical and policy developments. It would make India a more competitive and sustainable tourism destination.

It is to be noted that there is prevalent widespread opposition, specially by the left parties towards FDI in retail trade in India. May be in the early 1990s employing safeguards to protect domestic retailers was the need of the day. Almost more than one and a half decades down the line there is a need for Foreign Direct Investment in retail trade. It is a flawed argument that the Wal‐Marts’, Tescos’ and Asdas’ will lead to the winding up of the small scale domestic retailers. Instead it is going to provide a stiff competition to the Pantaloons’ and the Westsides’. This paper starts by stressing the need of FDI in India. It uses the argument that FDI is allowed in multiple sectors and the effects have been quite good without harming the domestic economy tries to stress on the fact that FDI in retail sector must be allowed.

Travel and tourism has played an instrumental role in the growth of a progressive Indian economy. Contributing 6.3 per cent to the total Indian gross domestic product in 2015 and expected to rise by 7.3 per cent in 2016, the sector has exhibited positive signs of growth and is delivering to its forecasted potential (WTTC, 2017). To manage this growth, it is estimated that there is an incremental need of 4.9 million people to take up varied job roles. To cater to the growing need and take advantage of being the youngest economy, Skill India mission was launched with a view to training 400 million people by 2022. This paper aims to explore the recruitment of Skill Initiative-certified candidates for Luxury Hotels in India, identify the challenges in recruiting Skill Initiative candidates and explore whether the knowledge of the English language is important to the recruitment of skilled personnel by employers.

Primary information was gathered via conversations with industry practitioners to gauge the effectiveness of the hospitality-based curriculum design and to explore the concept of employability and the challenges they face. To measure the effectiveness of a course designed to develop English language proficiencies, interviews were conducted with language trainers.

Skill India initiative is not delivering the promise that was expected. The key findings were that the initiative is being perceived as a program for those not willing to help themselves or the marginalized who would have opted out or failed to complete formal education. There should be structural changes in primary education to develop English language skills in particular. The program needs to reconsider the time it allocates to developing soft skills. The biggest barrier to the absorption of candidates after being skilled and certified via the Government’s skilling agenda is poor English language communication, especially verbal expression.

Although the issue discussed is a genuine bottleneck, there has been no prior formal research on this topic in relation to the Skill India initiative. There is an abundance of literature on the topic of communication skills as it relates to employment and growth, but there is very limited work in the Indian context, especially in relation to the Skill India Initiative. The research forms a platform for various stakeholders, government planners/agencies (for understanding gaps and making necessary changes), training providers (to identify requisite profile of trainers), researchers and industry specialists (to recognize their role and contribution) to build upon and develop.