eChapters

Abstract

The major objective of this chapter is to examine how knowledge management initiative can bring competitive edge and help organizations to compete in a knowledge era. People now viewed as being the most valuable asset and ‘people management’ being a pertinent issue in knowledge management, the pivotal role of HR is being increasingly recognized by the organizations in a knowledge economy. The chapter starts with a discussion on the nature of knowledge management, theory, and process and then explores the role of human resource practices in facilitating the KM process in organizations. The author examines how different HRM practices like talent management, performance management, training and development, fostering trust, reward systems, institutionalizing learning systems and leadership can be linked with the knowledge management process to achieve competitive advantage.

Management of Calf

Management before birth

    ·    As calf management begins before birth, a few days before the calf is born, the pregnant cow is transferred to a maternity paddock, which should be near the homestead (for closer observation), well watered and free from physical objects.
 
    ·    The signs of imminent parturition (calving) include filling of udder with milk and is turgid, vulva swollen with a string of mucus hanging from vagina.
 
    ·    Insemination records can also be used to estimate the expected calving date.

Abstract

Service tax is an indirect tax.  It is a tax levied by the Central Government on service providers on certain service transactions, but is actually borne by the customers. Just like excise duty is payable on goods which are manufactured, similarly service tax is payable on services provided. Service tax is charged on all services except the services in the negative list of services.  Based on the manageing business in emerging economics, this article discuss about the person liable to pay service tax, negative list, rates of service tax, due date of paying tax and penalty for non-payment of tax.

“Necessity is the mother of invention”, all of us must have heard this statement at some juncture in our lives. Most of us may even have even gone through the motion of inventing something when needed. However, more and more inventions happening today may not necessarily be necessities. These inventions definitely perform the task of improvingand making convenient our overall living environment. Past few years have seen an increasing awareness and understanding in the field of intellectual property. Among all aspects, one aspect of intellectual property that is gaining increasing attention of intellectual property owners is management of the intellectual property rights.

This brings to our minds one question, how was intellectual property management practised by early mankind? We all do know that early mankind has left no stone unturned to make theabove statement”Necessity is the mother of invention”, a reality. Mankind prospered by leaps and bounds on account of sharing their various discoveries and inventions. Way back then knowledge was meant to be shared, as aptly captured in the Sanskrit Sloka:

The word market is derived from the latin word “marcatus” which means “merchandise or trade or a place where business is conducted “. The term market has been widely used in various means, such as:

• A place or a building where commodities are bought and sold (e.g. Super market)

1. ____________ aims at elimination of unhealthy and unscrupulous practices, reducing the marketing charges and providing facilities to producer and sellers in the market

a) Regional market

b) Controlled market

c) Regulated market

d) Revised market

2. The market charges are paid by the _____ of agricultural commodities in a regulated market.

a) Buyers

b) Traders

c) Farmers

d) Sellers

3. __________ is a voluntary business organization established by its members to market the farm products jointly to reap the direct benefit out of it.

a) Regulated market

1. The expansion of firms by consolidating supplementary marketing functions and activities under a single management

a) Market Segment

b) Market integration

c) Market channel

d) Market Regulation

2. When a firm gains control over other firms which performing similar marketing functions are __________

a) Vertical co-ordination

b) Horizontal integration

c) Vertical integration

d) conglomeration

3. When a firm performs more than one activity in the order or sequence of the marketing process is known as _________

a) Vertical co-ordination

b) Conglomeration

c) Horizontal integration

d) Vertical integration

The present study examines the role of market intelligence in enhancing the efficiency and profitability of India’s agricultural sector. With agriculture contributing about 16-18% of India’s GDP and supporting 58% of the population, optimizing agricultural supply chains is crucial. Through tools like real-time data, AI, and blockchain, market intelligence enables farmers to reduce post-harvest losses estimated at INR 92,000 crores ($12 billion) annually and make informed decisions on crop cycles, pricing, and risk management. Initiatives such as e-NAM and Digital India have expanded access to data, empowering smallholders, who make up 85% of India’s farmers, with valuable market insights. The study presents case studies of successful applications, such as blockchain for organic certification in Sikkim and precision agriculture in Punjab, resulting in 20-30% income growth and 15% higher yields, respectively. Despite challenges like limited rural internet access and high costs, public-private partnerships and increasing smartphone penetration are advancing market intelligence adoption. The findings suggest that as these technologies evolve, market intelligence will be instrumental in driving sustainable growth, mitigating risks from climate variability, and securing India’s food systems for the future.

Abstract
The present study examines the role of market intelligence in enhancing the efficiency and profitability of India’s agricultural sector. With agriculture contributing about 16-18% of India’s GDP and supporting 58% of the population, optimizing agricultural supply chains is crucial. Through tools like real-time data, AI, and blockchain, market intelligence enables farmers to reduce post-harvest losses estimated at INR 92,000 crores ($12 billion) annually and make informed decisions on crop cycles, pricing, and risk management. Initiatives such as e-NAM and Digital India have expanded access to data, empowering smallholders, who make up 85% of India’s farmers, with valuable market insights. The study presents case studies of successful applications, such as blockchain for organic certification in Sikkim and precision agriculture in Punjab, resulting in 20-30% income growth and 15% higher yields, respectively. Despite challenges like limited rural internet access and high costs, public-private partnerships and increasing smartphone penetration are advancing market intelligence adoption. The findings suggest that as these technologies evolve, market intelligence will be instrumental in driving sustainable growth, mitigating risks from climate variability, and securing India’s food systems for the future.
Keywords: Market intelligence, Agricultural supply chain, post-harvest losses, Sustainable agriculture

Indian agriculture – the back bone of our economy accounts for about 65 per cent of the country’s employment and 20 per cent the total export earnings. Despite a drastic increase in the food grains production during the last five decades, the profit margins of farmers particularly small and medium farmers has declined due to certain serious problems like declining water table, deterioration in soil health, outbreaks of new pests diseases and weeds, and environmental pollution etc. With the globalization of market, the farmers will have to change themselves from mere producers’ in the domestic markets to producer cum seller in a wider market sense in order to best realize the returns for his investments, risks and efforts. Now the focus should be on high quality produce, low cost of production and high productivity.

When it comes to the fow of goods and services from the point of production till they reach the hands of fnal consumers, marketing is defned as “the performance of all business operations involved in that fow.”

Market structure is defned as “those aspects of the market’s organisation that appear to strategically infuence the nature of competition and pricing inside the market.”The market structure is decided by the following factors in general.

1. Number and size of the frms.
2. Degree of product differentiation.
3. Conditions for entry and exit.
4. Flow of market information.
5. Degree of integration.

Abstract

Entrepreneurs take responsibility of their ‘business’ tad differently than their counterpart, the traditional businessman. A businessman walks on the pre-defined route whereas the entrepreneur creates his own alley-way, which if successful, becomes the rulebook for that trade. Lately, ecological issues have taken centre-stage as climatic changes have endangered the sustainable growth of the business. A new breed of entrepreneurs, alias ecopreneurs, functions in this ‘new’ space and endeavour to frame an innovative business landscape. Ecopreneurs possess singular focus on the safe-keep of the ecology. But in order to sustain the efforts of businesses in ecology, it is imperative that they remain economically viable too. Thus, ecopreneurial process is not only about fulfilling the business’ responsibility towards ecology, but also about the marketability of the product or service. In order to evaluate the ecopreneurial process, organic farming is considered as a case. In this paper, selected organic farms are analysed in an environment - market continuum, developed particularly for this study which is in tandem with the works of Schaltegger (2002) and Blake and Mouton (1964).The study reveals inadequacy of market performance of the individual and farm level ecopreneurs in the state of West Bengal, in spite of their strong inclination towards care for the environment.

Market-Led Extension is an approach that ensures the extension system supports farmers throughout the entire value chain—from providing production-related recommendations to facilitating the sale of produce directly to consumers. The goal is to enable farmers to secure fair and profitable prices for their produce.
Axioms of Market-Led Extension
As outlined by Singh, Swanson, and Singh (2006):
1. Farmers should only be encouraged to produce a specific crop or product if a viable market exists for it.
2. If a product cannot be easily transported to market, alternative products with better market accessibility should be identified.
3. Crops or products unsuitable for local agro-climatic conditions should be avoided, and the focus should shift to those that are well-adapted to the district’s environment.
4. Promoting diversification across various high-value crops or products tailored to the preferences of Farmer Interest Groups (FIGs) or Women Interest Groups (WIGs) within the district is essential. Diversification reduces risk by preventing market saturation with a limited number of products, which can drive prices down.

Concept and Meaning of Market

Agricultural marketing management offers key insights into the agricultural and rural development today. Agricultural marketing and its management is an essential element of every economic activity. It is a most creative, dynamic and challenging activity for every kind of enterprises. Agricultural marketing management has significantly changed and it comprises numerous aspects of the needs of the customers over the selling and distribution of agricultural goods and services to customer and adds value to agricultural products and facilitates marketing and agribusiness opportunities in the economy. It deals with identifying and meeting human and social needs.

The word ‘market’ is a derivative of the Latin word _____

a) Marcatus

b) Markus

c) Marcat

d) Martus

2. ‘Marcatus’ is a _____ word.

a) Greek

b) Latin

c) French

d) Spanish

3. The word ‘Marcatus’ means 

Marketing Channel

Marketing Channel is an organised network of agencies and institutions which in combination perform all the activities required to link producers with users to accomplish the marketing tasks.
Marketing channel is the route taken by a product as it moves from the producer to the consumer.
It is a part of value chain – what the customers are prepared to pay for goods and services and all activities carried out in chain.
Marketing channels are sets of interdependent organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available for use/consumption. Channels normally describe a forward-movement of products from sources to user. Reverse flow channels is used to reuse or recycle products, and to recycling or disposal of solid waste (ecological goods).

1. Price spread will be the minimum in

a) Coconut

b) Rice

c) Milk

d) Green leaves

2. Farmers share in consumer rupee will be the minimum in

a) Gram

b) Milk

c) Cotton

d) Rice

3. Marketable surplus is equal to

3.1 Communicating to the Customers

Philip Kotler defined IMC as, “the concept under which a company carefully integrates and coordinates its many communications channels to deliver a clear, consistent message”.

The Marketing Communications Mix consist of eight Major modes of communications which includes advertising, Sales Promotion, Events and Experience, Public relations and Publicity, Direct marketing, Interactive Marketing, Word of mouth Marketing and personal selling.

Marketing Information System (MIS)

Market information is crucial to effective marketing management. Business success now requires a sustainable and cutting-edge knowledge base. Information becomes knowledge when it is discriminated, classified, processed and assembled in an appropriate manner. Knowledge is the final entity in the sequence.
Marketing decisions are based on marketing information and research. The scientific decisions are based always on the facts and figures. The information based decisions are useful for solving day to day problems. Marketing information are the facts and figures required for taking the marketing decisions. Marketing information assists marketing decisions in right perspectives. The marketing managers are expected to get all the relevant information. They have to evaluate the information for their purposes. The utilities of each source of information are assessed to have optimum use of the resources. Good information improves decision making process. The marketing managers have to make decisions based on available information and try to collect adequate and correct information from all sources. Establishment of an effective marketing information system (MIS) is essential for adequate and correct marketing decisions.

1. Government is concerned with the marketing system for

a) The quality of commodities at the lowest price

b) Maximum price for surplus produce

c) Steady income from marketing of commodities

d) Safeguard the interests of the groups associated in marketing

2. Which of the following statements are correct ?

i) The Jute Corporation of India is providing minimum price support that assists jute cultivators in all the states of India.

ii) The company purchases jute at the fixed minimum price when market prices declined and later sells to jute mills.

iii) The jute industry suffers from wide fluctuations in supply and price due to changes in the cultivated area and due to the effects of the factors associated with weather.

a) i and ii only

b) i and iii only

c) ii and iii only

d) All of the above