DOCSLIB.ORG

Introduction 1 Introduction

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Introduction 1 Introduction CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Executive summary of the research 1.1.1 Focus and Justification for the Study This study is an in-depth empirical investigation that seeks to compare consumer expectations to perceptions in the delivery of service within MSRTCs in the Ahmednagar District. It has its aim to develop a useful instrument to evaluate service quality by comparing consumer expectations to their perceptions of delivered service. An additional purpose is to determine MSRTC Depot managers' ability to predict consumer expectations in the area of service delivery. The theoretical portion of the study focused upon a review of the history of Public Road transportation industry in India, Maharashtra and its Ahmednagar district, which is uniquely different from the Public road transportation systems of other states. The literature was also examined to review service quality and customer satisfaction. In order to examine methods to predict service quality in MSRTC, an investigation was carried out among consumers of MSRTC from Fourteen Tehsils of the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. The collection of the data was driven by six research hypotheses and involved two questionnaires. One questionnaire asks for customer expectations versus perceptions. A second questionnaire required the Depot managers of MSRTC to state their perceptions of what their consumers expected in the way of service delivery. The main findings of the research built upon and extended the research by various researchers which noted that the three prime components of customer satisfaction revolved aroxmd three specific antecedents—^perceived quality, perceived value, and customer expectations, the study strongly reinforced and confirmed the importance of the three antecedents. This study indicated that while expectations are very high, perceptions are also high, but not as high as expectations. This study concluded that service quality was the most important factor in the selection of a MSRTC in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. With no specific literature relating specifically to MSRTCs' perceptions of service delivery expectations by consumers, one of the most significant findings in this study noted that 77.3 percent of the responses to the questions indicated a match of MSRTCs' perceptions with consumers' expectations. While outcomes indicated that perceptions were equal to or greater than expectations, this does not conclusively prove that satisfactory service quality will tend to be associated with outcomes equal to or above expectations. This could indicate that the customers did not expect much in the way of outstanding service. Based upon results obtained from surveys, there appears to be a high likelihood that a MSRTC could reasonably predict the retention of customers using the overlaid plots that in this study show high expectations and high perceptions. However, this study could not conclusively substantiate that gender, income, and education impact service quality in MSRTC. Given the limited amount of literature relating to the delivery of service quality by Public road transport operators in India , this study provides both researchers and practitioners an empirical study of both consumers' and MSRTCs' expectations and perceptions of service delivery, which had not been fully explored in the past. 1.1.2 Research Aims and Objectives The unique nature of the study revolves around customer expectations and perceptions of service quality in the delivery of Transport services by MSRTC, The aim of this study was to advance academic knowledge in an area that has had limited empirical study-customer expectations versus customer perceptions giving additional support to group discrimination. Research problem The research was undertaken to study the service quality of MSRTC in Ahmednagar district. The i-esearcher tried to find answer to following research questions. 1. Whether selection of MSRTC by customer was strongly influenced by service quality. 2. Whether service quality was more important in the selection process than location, advertising, recommendation of others and fare. 3. What are the expectations of the customers from MSRTC? 4. What are the perceptions of the customers about performance of MSRTC? 5. What are the perceptions of MSRTC about the expectations of the customers? 6. What are the factors which affects selection of MSRTC? 7. Whether Differences in gender, age, income, and education would have a significant impact on service quality perceptions and service quality expectations. Objectives of the Research 1. To study whether selection of MSRTC by customer was strongly influenced by service quality. 2. To study whether service quality was more important in the selection process than location, advertising, recommendation of others and fare. 3. To study Customer's Expectations from MSRTC in Ahmednagar district. 4. To study Customers' Perception about performance of MSRTC in Ahmednagar district. 5. To study MSRTC's perceptions of customers' expectations. 6. To determine if satisfactory service quality would tend to be associated with outcomes equal to or above customer expectations. 7. To study impact of differences in gender, age, income, and education service quality perceptions and service quality expectations. 8. To study Performance of MSRTC in Ahmednagar district. Scope of the Research a) The scope of the research covers the entire Ahmednagar district having 14 tehsils. b) The scope of the research covers customers of MSRTC from Ahmednagar district. c) The scope of the research covers Depot managers and stand in charge of MSRTC from Ahmednagar division. d) The scope of the research covers measuring service quality of MSRTC using SERVQUAL model developed by Parasuraman et al. e) Scope of MSRTC Ahmednagar division performance analysis was related to only following parameters. 4 Schedule operated Effective kms. !n lakhs: Earnings (traffic) in lakhs Rs. Load factor (%) : Earnings per kilometer in paisa. (EPKM in ps.) ; Cost per kilometer in paisa (CPKM in ps.); Margin (+)/!oss (-) per kilometer in paisa (Margin/km ps.) ; .Rate of breakdown per 10.000 kilometers ; Rate of accidents per lakh kilometers ; Cancelled kilometers in lakhs : Average bus-staff ratio. ; Average off road vehicles 1.1.3 Research Design and Methodology Tvpc of research: Exploratory and Descriptive Research -..' . 'i; Data used for research: , >' Primary and secondary data Data collection method: Field research -Cross sectional Sample survey, observation and desk research. Sources for data collection: Primary data was collected from MSRTC passengers and MSRTC Depot managers/Stand in charges. Secondary data was collected from Books .journals. MSRTC website. MSRTC Divisional office, MSRTC Central oftlce. MSR'fC Passengers associations, Ahmednagar District official website. Central Institute of Road fransport. Pune, Central Training institute ,MSR'1C. Pune, ASRTLf Delhi. Sampling technique: Stratified random sampling technique was used . Research instrument used: Modified SERVQUAL questionnaire is used Statistical tools used for Data analysis: SPSS 16 software, labulatioii. Graphs, Charts and figures are used for analysis of data. Statistical tests used: Percentage, frequency, mean, standard deviation, paired sample t teat, spearman correlation coefficient, anova tests are used for analysis oi'data. Sampling Design: The research sample consists of MSRTC passengers from fourteen tehsils of Ahmednagar district. Total 546 Passengers travelling from MSRTC Buses were surveyed .A list of the Tehsils and MSRTC Depots are set out in Appendix 1, Total fifteen Depot managers of MSRTC Depots from each of the tehsils were asked to complete the MSRTC's questionnaire, and return it directly to the researcher. The resulting research sample represented fourteen tehsils with response of 100 percent. 1.1.4 Structure of the Study. The study was organized into a total of seven chapters to order the study to sequentially flow to conclusion. Chapter 1 It has its main thrust to set the scenes of the study. First, it informs the audience about the focus, value, and justification for the study, and secondly, it focused on the extensive lack of knowledge on predicting customer retention as a result of service quality. Third, it specified the reasons why the study focused on MSRTC in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, India. Fourth, it presented the aim of the study and the research objectives, and concluded by giving an overview of the remaining chapters of the studyr— Chapter 2 It is dedicated to a review of the literature in the area of customer satisfaction with a three-fold aim of examining and exposing customer loyalty, customer retention, and customer relationship management. First a discussion of the evolution of the literature on customer satisfaction mih its primary elements—customer loyalty, customer retention, and customer relationships was presented. Finally, the chapter concludes by providing concepts that indicate the interrelationships of customer loyalty, customer retention, and customer relationship management and how they impact the customer satisfaction aspects of service quality. The chapter concludes by focusing on the conceptual framework of the study and a summary of the research issues. Chapter 3 Upon completion of the review of the literature, the study sought a direction for the research methodology. Most of the literature related to non-Public road transportation in the study of service quality. There were no publicly available standard scales
Load more

Recommended publications
  • An Overview on Indian Inland Waterways by Abhishek Soni Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering Department, Mandsaur Universi
    An Overview on Indian Inland Waterways By Abhishek Soni Assistant professor, Civil Engineering Department, Mandsaur university Amit kumar sinha Assistant professor, Civil Engineering Department, Mandsaur university ABSTRACT Inland waterways is a network in the form of rivers, canals, backwaters and creeks that can be used for transportation in place of or in addition to roads and rails. Through the ages, rivers have served as effective waterways, carrying people and goods over long distances. Even today, many countries depend heavily on inland water transport, especially for large and bulky cargo, as it is cheaper, more reliable and less polluting than transporting goods by road or rail. A vast country like India with a huge network of rivers and interconnecting canals could ordinarily be an ideal place for an efficient inland waterways system as it has multifarious economic advantages and is the cheapest mode of transportation. But this potential could not be tapped as developing inland waterways as means of passenger and cargo transportation, as a result, burden on the road and railways networks went on piling and they became over stressed. The objective of this paper is to find out the growth and constraints in Inland Water Transportation in India and also find out the major problems faced by institutions involved in this sector in India. This paper presents the detailed insights about the dynamics of Inland Water ways in India. The paper presents past few years growth of Inland Water ways. We also try to analyse the government policies regarding this inland waterways. As per study done in the some countries Inland Water ways has been known as most cost effective and fuel efficient mode of transportation which attracts the attention of scholars to make some efforts relatively to study of growth and challenges of Inland Water ways related to India since attempts has been made in this paper to highlight present status, growth, opportunities and problem of Inland Water ways in India.
    [Show full text]
  • Market Intelligence Newsletter August, 2017— Issue II Roads & Highways 01
    DBLInfrastructure & Beyond Market Intelligence Newsletter August, 2017— Issue II Roads & Highways 01. Bharatmala Project ( Total Budget Rs. 10 lakh Cr.) 06. PM Narendra Modi will roll out more than 9,500 road projects including national highways, state roads and rural roads under PMGSY and Rajasthan's flagship programs on August 29 109 projects are being funded by the road transport ministry and NHAI, which are primarily widening of highways, improvement and construc- tion of state roads. These will cover little over 3,000 km and involve Rs 15,000 crore 07. The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA), the nodal agency for the Noida Inter- national airport project, has started the process to pre- pare a techno-feasibility report It has also sought Rs2,000 crore from the state government to acquire 1,000 hectares of agricultural land for the first phase of the project. On The Bharatmala program will subsume unfinished components of NHDP the whole, the project requires 5,000 hectares besides focusing on new projects like development of Border and Interna- tional connectivity roads, Coastal and port connectivity roads, National 08. To decongest the Delhi-Gurgaon stretch of NH-8, Corridors Efficiency improvements, Economic corridors development etc. NHAI has prepared a plan to complete a slew of pro- It will also focus on improving connectivity to Char Dham jects with an investment of at least Rs 8,000 crore in the Bharatmala Phase 1 details next three years Road Type Kms Bids for improvement of Gurgaon-Badshahpur - six-lane highway with Economic Corridors (44) 9,000 service roads - have been invited and it will require Rs 1,700 crore Inter-corridor & feeder Routes 6,000 investment National Corridors Efficiency Programme 5,000 The other major project is building of Dwarka Expressway.
    [Show full text]
  • Infrastructure
    Page 1 of 89 INFRASTRUCTURE Page 2 of 89 ● INTRODUCTION ● TYPES OF TRANSPORTATION ● IMPORTANCE OF TRANSPORTATION IN ECONOMY ● PROBLEMS OF TRANSPORTATION CHAPTER 1: ROADWAYS ● GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF ROAD TRANSPORT ○ NATIONAL HIGHWAYS ○ STATE HIGHWAYS ○ DISTRICT ROADS ○ RURAL ROADS ○ OTHER ROADS ● PROBLEMS IN ROAD TRANSPORT ● RECENT INITIATIVES ● FUNDING MECHANISM IN ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE ○ NATIONAL HIGHWAYS INVESTMENT PROMOTION CELL (NHIPC) ○ MEASURES TO REVIVE LANGUISHING STALLED PROJECTS ○ TOLL OPERATE TRANSFER MODEL ○ CENTRAL ROAD FUND ● PLANNING FOR MULTI MODAL TRANSPORT SYSTEMS ● Urban Mobility in India ● GREEN INITIATIVE ● E-INITIATIVES ● ROAD SAFETY: A TOUGH TASK ● MOTOR VEHICLE (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2017 ● COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 2: RAILWAYS ● INTRODUCTION, ● SIGNIFICANCE OF RAILWAY ● INSTITUTIONS GOVERNING RAILWAYS(RDB) ● MERGER OF RAIL BUDGET WITH UNION BUDGET ● RAILWAY ZONES ● RAILWAYS FOR URBAN MOBILITY ● NEED OF RAILWAYS IN URBAN TRANSPORT ● TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT ● PROBLEMS IN INDIAN RAILWAYS ○ POOR PERFORMANCE OF FREIGHT SEGMENT: ○ INEFFECTIVE CONNECTIVITY AND PROBLEMS OF DELAY: ○ POOR SERVICE DELIVERY AND EFFICIENCY: ○ PROBLEMS OF RAILWAY SAFETY ● MAJOR-COMMITTEES ● RECENT DEVELOPMENT IN RAILWAYS ForumIAS Offline Guidance Centre 2nd Floor, IAPL House, 19, Pusa Road, Karol Bagh, New Delhi – 110005 | [email protected]|9821711605 Page 3 of 89 ○ DEDICATED FREIGHT CORRIDORS ○ BULLET TRAIN ○ TRAIN 18 ○ RASHTRIYA RAIL SANRAKSHA KOSH (RRSK) ○ AVATARAN ○ ALTERNATE TRAIN ACCOMMODATION SCHEME – VIKALP
    [Show full text]
  • Investment in India for Pdf.Pmd
    FOREWORD The path of economic reforms in India, particularly since 1991, has been characterised by a well-defined policy and direction. Several path-breaking reform measures have been successfully undertaken during this period. The investing community would perhaps have liked it to be quicker. However, as we look back over our decade-long experience, the one aspect that is clearly discernible is that the reforms have been doggedly and persistently moving in the same direction. Challenging as it has been, to shape the consensus around key reform initiatives, it is also clear that there has been no hint in favour of reversing, or even stopping, the process. The continuity of commitment to reforms over the period is, in itself, a significant contribution to the development of a stable, long-run investment climate in the country. Long-term investors, like those in infrastructure sectors, would evaluate the attractiveness of investment on the basis of three kinds of risk – policy risk, regulatory risk and business risk. One of the key focus areas of our reforms is the redefinition of the respective roles of the public and private sectors in infrastructure and, within the private sector, the contribution of foreign investment. Going beyond general principles, there are, inevitably, debates around the optimal strategy for each sector. However, the prevalence of divergent views should not detract from the entrenchment of the general principles themselves. There is recognition that the private sector, including foreign investors, has a significant role to play in raising the standards of infrastructure services in the country. This virtually eliminates the risk of there being reversals and ‘flip-flops’ on basic policy principles.
    [Show full text]
  • Inland Water Transport
    GOVERNMENT OF KERALA KERALA STATE PLANNING BOARD THIRTEENTH FIVE-YEAR PLAN (2017-2022) WORKING GROUP ON INLAND WATER TRANSPORT REPORT INDUSTRY AND INFRASTRUCTURE DIVISION KERALA STATE PLANNING BOARD THIRUVANANTHAPURAM MARCH2017 PREFACE In Kerala, the process of a Five-Year Plan is an exercise in people’s participation. At the end of September 2016, the Kerala State Planning Board began an effort to conduct the widest possible consultations before formulating the Plan. The Planning Board formed 43 Working Groups, with a total of more than 700 members – scholars, administrators, social and political activists and other experts. Although the Reports do not represent the official position of the Government of Kerala, their content will help in the formulation of the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan document. This document is the report of the Working Group on Inland water Transport Sector. The Chairpersons of the Working Group were Shri V. J. Kurian IAS and Shri R.M.Nair. The Member of the Planning Board who coordinated the activities of the Working Group was DrRavi Raman K. The concerned Chief of Division isShri N. R. Joy. Member Secretary FOREWORD Inland Water Transport is a fuel efficient and environment friendly mode of transportation. In order to promote Inland Waterways in Kerala, Government has made adequate financial support for the development of this sector. The Government agencies engaged in the development of Inland Water Transport in the State are Coastal Shipping and Inland Navigation Department (CSIND), State Water Transport Department
    [Show full text]
  • Coastal Shipping: Anchoring Prospect @ Ports Is Coastal Shipping a Sustainable and Efficient Alternative to Road Transport?
    Postal Reg. No.: DL (ND)-11/6002/2016-17-18. WPP No.: U (C)-272/2016-18 for posting on 04th - 05th of same month at G.P.O. New Delhi-110001 Vol.: XVIII Issue 08; July 2018 RNI No.: DELENG/2003/10642; Date of Publication: 03/07/2018 Pages 52 Rupees 50 cargotalk.in A DDP Publication Coastal Shipping: Anchoring prospect @ ports Is coastal shipping a sustainable and efficient alternative to road transport? Sagarmala Multi-modal sees fruition vital for port-led after 4 years development Analysing Sagarmala’s procured World Bank states that India needs more achievements for Indian marine industry investments in multi-modal connectivity Shipping Logistics: PORT-LED DEVELOPMENT CARGOTALK editorial EDITOR SanJeet MANAGING EDITOR Peden Doma Bhutia ASSISTANT EDITOR Jessy Iype SR. REPORTER Kalpana Lohumi DIRECTOR Priti Khanna GENERAL MANAGER Harshal Ashar Dear Reader, NATIONAL HEAD - SALES Rajiv Sharma The government is preparing a new National Air Cargo Policy with a focus not only on major aspects like dwell time. Pertinent factors like timing, availability of more airspace for the movement MANAGER MARKETING of cargo, are also being considered. The ministry is giving its final touches on the policy for the Gaagan Dugal logistics sector, as part of a comprehensive plan to boost business and exports. MANAGER On the other hand, the Haryana government is formulating a dedicated and comprehensive Gaganpreet Kaur logistics, warehousing and retail policy to promote and project the state of Haryana as the logistics hub of North India. This shows the level of commitment from the government to procure efficacy in ASSISTANT MANAGER the industry.
    [Show full text]
  • A Systemic Analysis for Development of Smart Transit System: an Indian Prospective
    ISSN: 2455-2631 © July 2019 IJSDR | Volume 4, Issue 7 A Systemic Analysis for Development of Smart Transit System: An Indian Prospective Shashank Yadav1, Ajit Singh2 M.Tech. (Transportation Engineering)1, Assistant Professor2 CBS Group of Institutions, Jhajjar, Rohtak1,2 Abstract: Today when India, through the Smart City project, plans to ease the ever-growing pressure of its burgeoning urban population on services, one of the key factors determining its success will be good mobility and transportation system. The pollution levels in Delhi, traffic snarls in Bangalore or low average speed of mobility in Mumbai is a clear indication that out cities must urgently build sustainable public transport systems. Indian cities are already facing a plethora of problems like severe congestion, deteriorating air quality and increasing road rage and road accidents. With an increasing urban population that is projected to more than double to 590 million by 2030, the traffic situation is set to worsen further. The Intelligent Transportation System (STS) is a key area of the Government of India's Smart City initiative. According to a report issued by the Federal Ministry of Transportation on March 22, 2016, some buses were more and more, because the number of passengers was twice, more than RTO's rules and restrictions. Once verified that the model is working properly, you can see the final result. To do this, run immediately and access the results immediately to see everything recorded from the model. The result is a summary that contains a perspective grid table that contains all the objects in the model, and summary statistics for some metrics.
    [Show full text]
  • Inland Water Transportation
    INLAND WATER TRANSPORTATION: GROWTH AND CHALLENGES PERSPECTIVE IN INDIA Kuldeep Sharma Research Scholar, Department of Accountancy and Business Statistics, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur ABSTRACT India has a total coastline of 7551 km with 13 major ports trust, approximately 200 minor ports. The country has extensive network of inland waterways in the form of rivers, canals, backwaters and creeks. Total Navigable length is 14,500 km, of which about 5200 km of rivers and 4000 km of canals can be used by mechanized craft and cargo moved in financial year 2013-14 and 2014-15 are respectively 322.63 and 365.37lakh tonnes in India. The Purpose of this paper is to find out the growth and challenges in Inland Water Transportation in India and also find out the major problems faced by companies involved in this field in India. This paper shows the detailed information about the growth and challenges of Inland Water Transportation in India. The paper reveals that how since past few years the growth of Inland Water Transportation have been taken place in India. As per study done in the some countries Inland Water Transportation has been known as most cost effective and fuel efficient mode of transportation which attracts the attention of scholars to make some efforts relatively to study of growth and challenges of Inland Water Transportation with reference to India since efforts has been made in this paper to highlight present status, growth, opportunities and problem of Inland Water Transportation in India. Keywords: Inland Water Transportation, Ports and Transportation. I. INTRODUCTION India is gifted with a variety of navigable waterways comprising river systems, canals, back waters, creeks, and tidal inlets.
    [Show full text]
  • (IWT)-Steam Boats in India with Special Reference to United Provinces (Uttar Pradesh) B
    IJA MH International Journal on Arts, Management and Humanities 6(2): 11-14(2017) ISSN No. (Online): 2319–5231 A Study of Inland Water Transport (IWT)-Steam Boats in India with special reference to United Provinces (Uttar Pradesh) B. B. Bandyopadhyay and Prof. Roumi Deb Research Scholar, Amity Institute of Anthropology, AUUP, Noida, (Uttar Pradesh), India (Corresponding author: B. B. Bandyopadhyay) (Received 06 July,, 2017, Accepted 16 August, 2017) (Published by Research Trend, Website: www.researchtrend.net) ABSTRACT: India is a country of rivers. It has almost 9010 miles of navigable waterways, maximum of which falls under the erstwhile United provinces (1010 miles), now Uttar Pradesh. Hence, after the railways and the road transport, inland water transport (IWT) could have developed in India as a very important element of communication. Inland water transport always proved to be a crucial mode of transportation in a land endowed with mighty navigable rivers. The appointment of Merbahr, an officer in charge of boats, during the Imperial Mughal rule signifies the importance of water transport in India. The country boats made up of clinkers, though not mechanically propelled, were also used in warfare too. Riverine attack on the Portuguese settlements by Emperor Shah Jahan in 1662 can be referred here. But things changed rapidly with the introduction of steamships by the British East India company in mid-19th century. Indian country boats could no longer withstand the brutal British competition. Their boats, being steam propelled, were fast moving which reduced travel time of the movement of goods and passengers considerably. A situation so arrived at a time that the English ships enjoyed it ‘near monopoly’ in the cargo transportation of India during the British rule.
    [Show full text]
  • Promoting Resilience of Kochi City – Role of Waterways
    A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Aziz, Zeba; Ray, Indro; Paul, Sandeep Working Paper The role of waterways in promoting urban resilience: The case of Kochi City Working Paper, No. 359 Provided in Cooperation with: Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) Suggested Citation: Aziz, Zeba; Ray, Indro; Paul, Sandeep (2018) : The role of waterways in promoting urban resilience: The case of Kochi City, Working Paper, No. 359, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/203693 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von
    [Show full text]
  • LOGISTICAL WORLDS INFRASTRUCTURE, SOFTWARE, LABOUR No. 2 Kolkata 7 ‘BUY CHEAP, SELL DEAR’ Brett Neilson & Ned Rossiter
    Logistical Worlds Infrastructure, Software, Labour No. 2 Kolkata LOGISTICAL WORLDS INFRASTRUCTURE, SOFTWARE, LABOUR No. 2 Kolkata 7 ‘BUY CHEAP, SELL DEAR’ Brett Neilson & Ned Rossiter 15 KOLKATA PORT: CHALLENGES OF GEOPOLITICS AND GLOBALIZATION Subhir Baumik 23 WAREHOUSE AND TRANSPORT FACILITIES IN THE PORT OF CALCUTTA, 1870–1950 Kaustubh Mani Sengupta 33 SPACE(S) OF CALCULABILITY AND FINANCIALIZATION IN THE KOLKATA PORT Iman Mitra 41 TRADE UNIONS, INFORMALIZATION AND CONTRACT LABOUR IN WEST BENGAL’S DOCKS Immanuel Ness 51 WHO ARE THE PORT WORKERS AND HOW DO WE STUDY THEM? Mithilesh Kumar 57 A LOGISTICAL EARTHQUAKE: BETWEEN KOLKATA AND VALPARAÍSO Elisabeth Simbürger 65 VARIETIES OF PORT LABOUR POLITICS Carolin Philipp 77 HALDIA, A PORT CITY IN INDIA Samata Biswas 83 THE ‘UNTIMELY’ METROPOLIS OF SILIGURI Atig Ghosh 91 RESILIENT HOPE Orit Halpern 101 CONCEPTS 112 COLOPHON 7 ‘BUY CHEAP, SELL DEAR’ Brett Neilson & Ned Rossiter Moving through the Burrabazar district along Kolkata’s Strand the immediate buzz of hustling and trade obscures the crumbling warehouses that line the thoroughfare. According to a popular saying, ‘Everything is available in Burrabazar’. This ethos of ready supply, at least for those who are prepared to haggle (and almost everyone is), comes with an infrastructural and informational layer. ‘Everyone wants to buy cheap and sell dear’, writes Clifford Geertz in a classic article on the bazaar economy from the 1970s. ‘In the bazaar information is poor, scarce, maldistributed, inefficiently communicated, and intensely valued’. What are the material conduits that support this game of information procurement and coveting and what are the historical and political conditions that have allowed it to flourish? That the root-covered warehouses set back from the Strand look like structures straight out of Victorian England provides a clue.
    [Show full text]
  • Fact Sheet (PDF)
    FACT SHEET: Japan and India, Working Together for Peace and Prosperity 12 December 2015 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a summit meeting on December 12. Following the Joint Statement, they instructed relevant authorities to further advance cooperation in the following areas. The two Prime Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to continue annual summit meetings to give strategic directions to broad and diverse bilateral agenda. Political Dialogues 1. Annual Foreign Ministers Strategic Dialogue was held in January 2015, and the next round will take place in 2016. 2. Annual Defence Ministers Dialogue was held in March 2015, and the two sides shared the intention to meet again in 2016. 3. Dialogues of National Security Advisors and consultations between the two National Security Secretariats were held to share deeper mutual understanding on the ways and means of cooperation across the full range of security issues. 4. The meetings of Vice Foreign Minister of Japan and Foreign Secretary of India were held in June, October and December 2015. 5. The ‘2+2’ meeting with the participation of the Foreign and Defence Secretaries and Vice Ministers was held in Delhi in April 2015. 6. The inaugural Japan-India-U.S. Trilateral Ministerial Dialogue was held in September 2015. The two sides noted that the three countries will seek closer collaboration in such areas as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, regional connectivity as well as maritime security. 7. The inaugural Japan-India-Australia Trilateral Dialogue at the Secretary/Vice-Minister level in Delhi was held in June 2015. The two sides look forward to the next meeting in 2016.
    [Show full text]