Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers

In this Perspectives piece, R H Patil, a specialist on capital markets and stock exchanges, analyses the challenging task before the private corporate sector in raising funds from the capital market to meet the investment targets envisaged in the Seventh Plan. Author of several articles on capital markets and finance, R H Patil is General Manager (Research & Planning], Industrial Development Bank of India, Bombay.

Although take‐overs are becoming important means of diversification, there is no established technique which incorporates uncertainties involved and gives a range of values of a target firm which can form the basis for offering a price.

Using a model of the firm's cash flows after acquisition, Malay Kanti Roy simulates the likely cash flow streams from the acquisition of India Cements for various values of the key variables such as growth rate and earnings before interest and taxes. He shows how such models and simulation analyses can help negotiators set upper and lower limits for a take-over bid.

Reliability, a statistical concept, is the probability an item or system in use will operate over a specified period of time. The concept can be used as a marketing tool to aid decisions such as on war‐ „ ranty periods, after‐sales service networks, and their staffing.

With the shifting of the emphasis from construction of new irrigation projects to better utilization of the already created irrigation potential in the Seventh Plan, there is a need to find out why the Command Area Development Agencies (CADAs), created specifically for this purpose over a. decade ago, have failed to achieve the anticipated results.

Based on his study of CADAs in a number of states, UK Srivastava identifies two missing links: (1) organizational innovation to create unified responsibility for utilization of already created irrigation potential at the national CADA and small unit area levels and (2) the need to train CADA personnel to deai with the farmers arid their problems in actually utilizing the irrigation potential created.

Economic., technological and social changes compel organizations to adapt themselves to the new environment to survive and prosper. This is true of large as well as small organizations. Both find that, often, their size hinders them from achieving their goals. AS a result, a new form of organization, intermediate organization, emerges. The paper illustrates the new mode by citing a few cases of intermediate organization and argues that a new mode of organizational analysis has to be evolved, for neither intra- nor inter-organization analysis appears adequate for understanding the new mode.

Bankruptcy prediction is essentially a judgemental task. Yet, most models use statistical methods to select the relevant financial variables for prediction. This study provides behavioural evidence from 31 bank managers and officers of financial institutions in Nigeria on the appropriateness of the choice of variables for bankruptcy prediction.

The study finds that there was a consensus on short‐term liquidity ratios being consistent predictors of financial distress, a finding which confirms the usual choice of these variables based on statistical models.

Interestingly, the short-term lending orientation of the financial institutions represented on the study appears to have yielded a consensus in the respondents' preference for the short-term liquidity ratios. The study finds that the level of experience of the manager has an important bearing on the choice of variables to be used in predicting bankruptcy.

As the Indian Police force assumes an increasingly important role in the life of the nation, it conies under rigorous scrutiny and harsh criticism. What are its weaknesses and strengths? How can the weaknesses be remedied and strengths reinforced?

In this article, G K Valecha and Subha Venkataraman, who have conducted a questionnaire‐survey of Inspector Generals and Deputy Inspector Generals, present the perceptions of these highranking police officers and some prescriptions.

Discipline, job security, and esprit de corps are the three major strengths identified and corruption, political interference, and poor interaction within the force, the three weaknesses. Delinking police from politics, encouraging participation, recognizing merit in promotion, and improving motivation are suggested as measures to be adopted to improve efficiency and ensure impartiality of the police force.

Abstracts of management research in India are intended to facilitate research in management. The Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, sponsors the abstracting service.

Vikalpa would very much appreciate it if the authors send a reprint of their articles in management and related disciplines to Vikalpa office. Their inclusion will help render the referencing service complete.

The areas of management covered in the abstracts are, Financial Management; Management Accqunting, and Control; Marketing; Organization and Administration; Personnel Management and Industrial Relations; Production Management, Computers, and Operations Research; General Management; and Policy, Planning, and Development.