Reading Comprehension

The author was accompanied by:

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.

It was the second day of a long-awaited winter holiday in Queenstown, New Zealand, three years ago. My three sisters and I arrived at our motel at about 10 pm, amidst rain, sleet and total darkness. Coming from warm, well-lit Singapore, it was unnerving. But the wood fire in the lobby and the warm, welcoming smile of our landlady eased my apprehension.
“You poor darlings! You are frozen!” she said as we checked in. “But don’t worry, I have turned on the electric blankets in your rooms and your beds will be soft and warm.”
She kept up the friendly chatter as she led us to our rooms, her torch revealing soft, falling snow and a wet asphalt road. We settled in and after a wash-up, crawled gratefully into our snug beds.
In the morning, I pulled back my curtains and for a split-second I was breathless. A winter wonderland stretched out before me: Lake Wakatipu surrounded by the snow-clad mountains of the Remarkables. A thick layer of fresh snow covered the ground. The clear, cobalt sky greeted the golden rays of the rising sun.
“Pretty, isn’t it?” Lost in nature’s beauty, I had not heard our landlady knock and enter the room. “Make sure you are well wrapped up today. The weather is like quicksilver and turns nasty in a split second. Head back the minute you see snowfall.”
I nodded. By the time we set out to explore Queenstown’s well-stocked shops, the day was bright and sunny, and I started to wonder if she was being unduly cautious.

The ‘obsolete system of government’ refers to

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

During the nineteenth century, liberals everywhere shared the conviction that power politics and war were residues of on obsolete system of government and that with the victory of democracy and constitutional government over absolutism and autocracy, international harmony and permanent peace would win out over power politics and war. The struggle for power on the international scene was seen as a temporary phenomenon, a historical accident that was bound to disappear once the peculiar conditions that had given rise to it were eliminated. Jeremy Bentham believed that the competition for colonies was at the root of all international conflicts. "Emancipate your colonies" was his advice to the governments and international conflict and war would surely disappear. Adherents of free trade were convinced that the removal of trade barriers was the only condition for the establishments of permanent harmony among nations, and might even lead to the disappearance of international politics altogether. For Marx and his followers, capitalism was at the root of international discord and war. They maintained that international socialism would do away with the struggle for power on the international scene and would bring about permanent peace.

In recent times, the conviction that the struggle for power can be eliminated from the international scene has been connected with the great attempts at organising the world such as the League of Nations and the United Nations. The United Nations was thought to usher in a new era of international collaboration to kill power politics, in order that, by the methods of democracy, “the will of the people shall prevail." The reality has, however, been far from encouraging.

The word ‘emancipate’ would most likely mean

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

During the nineteenth century, liberals everywhere shared the conviction that power politics and war were residues of on obsolete system of government and that with the victory of democracy and constitutional government over absolutism and autocracy, international harmony and permanent peace would win out over power politics and war. The struggle for power on the international scene was seen as a temporary phenomenon, a historical accident that was bound to disappear once the peculiar conditions that had given rise to it were eliminated. Jeremy Bentham believed that the competition for colonies was at the root of all international conflicts. "Emancipate your colonies" was his advice to the governments and international conflict and war would surely disappear. Adherents of free trade were convinced that the removal of trade barriers was the only condition for the establishments of permanent harmony among nations, and might even lead to the disappearance of international politics altogether. For Marx and his followers, capitalism was at the root of international discord and war. They maintained that international socialism would do away with the struggle for power on the international scene and would bring about permanent peace.

In recent times, the conviction that the struggle for power can be eliminated from the international scene has been connected with the great attempts at organising the world such as the League of Nations and the United Nations. The United Nations was thought to usher in a new era of international collaboration to kill power politics, in order that, by the methods of democracy, “the will of the people shall prevail." The reality has, however, been far from encouraging.

The most dominating factor of international politics is

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

During the nineteenth century, liberals everywhere shared the conviction that power politics and war were residues of on obsolete system of government and that with the victory of democracy and constitutional government over absolutism and autocracy, international harmony and permanent peace would win out over power politics and war. The struggle for power on the international scene was seen as a temporary phenomenon, a historical accident that was bound to disappear once the peculiar conditions that had given rise to it were eliminated. Jeremy Bentham believed that the competition for colonies was at the root of all international conflicts. "Emancipate your colonies" was his advice to the governments and international conflict and war would surely disappear. Adherents of free trade were convinced that the removal of trade barriers was the only condition for the establishments of permanent harmony among nations, and might even lead to the disappearance of international politics altogether. For Marx and his followers, capitalism was at the root of international discord and war. They maintained that international socialism would do away with the struggle for power on the international scene and would bring about permanent peace.

In recent times, the conviction that the struggle for power can be eliminated from the international scene has been connected with the great attempts at organising the world such as the League of Nations and the United Nations. The United Nations was thought to usher in a new era of international collaboration to kill power politics, in order that, by the methods of democracy, “the will of the people shall prevail." The reality has, however, been far from encouraging.

The passage ends on a note of

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

During the nineteenth century, liberals everywhere shared the conviction that power politics and war were residues of on obsolete system of government and that with the victory of democracy and constitutional government over absolutism and autocracy, international harmony and permanent peace would win out over power politics and war. The struggle for power on the international scene was seen as a temporary phenomenon, a historical accident that was bound to disappear once the peculiar conditions that had given rise to it were eliminated. Jeremy Bentham believed that the competition for colonies was at the root of all international conflicts. "Emancipate your colonies" was his advice to the governments and international conflict and war would surely disappear. Adherents of free trade were convinced that the removal of trade barriers was the only condition for the establishments of permanent harmony among nations, and might even lead to the disappearance of international politics altogether. For Marx and his followers, capitalism was at the root of international discord and war. They maintained that international socialism would do away with the struggle for power on the international scene and would bring about permanent peace.

In recent times, the conviction that the struggle for power can be eliminated from the international scene has been connected with the great attempts at organising the world such as the League of Nations and the United Nations. The United Nations was thought to usher in a new era of international collaboration to kill power politics, in order that, by the methods of democracy, “the will of the people shall prevail." The reality has, however, been far from encouraging.

Jeremy Bentham believed that the root cause of international conflicts was

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

During the nineteenth century, liberals everywhere shared the conviction that power politics and war were residues of on obsolete system of government and that with the victory of democracy and constitutional government over absolutism and autocracy, international harmony and permanent peace would win out over power politics and war. The struggle for power on the international scene was seen as a temporary phenomenon, a historical accident that was bound to disappear once the peculiar conditions that had given rise to it were eliminated. Jeremy Bentham believed that the competition for colonies was at the root of all international conflicts. "Emancipate your colonies" was his advice to the governments and international conflict and war would surely disappear. Adherents of free trade were convinced that the removal of trade barriers was the only condition for the establishments of permanent harmony among nations, and might even lead to the disappearance of international politics altogether. For Marx and his followers, capitalism was at the root of international discord and war. They maintained that international socialism would do away with the struggle for power on the international scene and would bring about permanent peace.

In recent times, the conviction that the struggle for power can be eliminated from the international scene has been connected with the great attempts at organising the world such as the League of Nations and the United Nations. The United Nations was thought to usher in a new era of international collaboration to kill power politics, in order that, by the methods of democracy, “the will of the people shall prevail." The reality has, however, been far from encouraging.

What is the meaning of vocational training?

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the related question.

The much promised national policy has three major components: selective ban on the morally, indefensible and socially reprehensible practice of child labour, prevention of exploitation of child workers in permitted areas of activity and rehabilitation of those pulled out of prohibited employment.

The 1966 Act has been dubbed as a law that legitimises child labour and the target of attack particularly has been the proviso which in effect says that a child can work if it is part of family labour. This has rendered existing enactments in this field totally ineffective.
The rehabilitation segment of the policy is much too weak to make any impact. In the first phase, about 30,000 child workers are to be freed from the prohibited areas of employment and given education, health and vocational training. If the overseeing of rules and regulations intended to end exploitation – as for instance , higher minimum wages,  non-oppressive work schedule and facilities for rest and recreation – is a question of gearing up the watchdog machinery, social activist groups and voluntary welfare agencies should be given a significant supportive role.

The best title for the passage is

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the related question.

The much promised national policy has three major components: selective ban on the morally, indefensible and socially reprehensible practice of child labour, prevention of exploitation of child workers in permitted areas of activity and rehabilitation of those pulled out of prohibited employment.

The 1966 Act has been dubbed as a law that legitimises child labour and the target of attack particularly has been the proviso which in effect says that a child can work if it is part of family labour. This has rendered existing enactments in this field totally ineffective.
The rehabilitation segment of the policy is much too weak to make any impact. In the first phase, about 30,000 child workers are to be freed from the prohibited areas of employment and given education, health and vocational training. If the overseeing of rules and regulations intended to end exploitation – as for instance , higher minimum wages,  non-oppressive work schedule and facilities for rest and recreation – is a question of gearing up the watchdog machinery, social activist groups and voluntary welfare agencies should be given a significant supportive role.

Ending exploitation of the working child involves

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the related question.

The much promised national policy has three major components: selective ban on the morally, indefensible and socially reprehensible practice of child labour, prevention of exploitation of child workers in permitted areas of activity and rehabilitation of those pulled out of prohibited employment.

The 1966 Act has been dubbed as a law that legitimises child labour and the target of attack particularly has been the proviso which in effect says that a child can work if it is part of family labour. This has rendered existing enactments in this field totally ineffective.
The rehabilitation segment of the policy is much too weak to make any impact. In the first phase, about 30,000 child workers are to be freed from the prohibited areas of employment and given education, health and vocational training. If the overseeing of rules and regulations intended to end exploitation – as for instance , higher minimum wages,  non-oppressive work schedule and facilities for rest and recreation – is a question of gearing up the watchdog machinery, social activist groups and voluntary welfare agencies should be given a significant supportive role.

Give three words or phrases to signify the three major components of the national policy on child labour.

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the related question.

The much promised national policy has three major components: selective ban on the morally, indefensible and socially reprehensible practice of child labour, prevention of exploitation of child workers in permitted areas of activity and rehabilitation of those pulled out of prohibited employment.

The 1966 Act has been dubbed as a law that legitimises child labour and the target of attack particularly has been the proviso which in effect says that a child can work if it is part of family labour. This has rendered existing enactments in this field totally ineffective.
The rehabilitation segment of the policy is much too weak to make any impact. In the first phase, about 30,000 child workers are to be freed from the prohibited areas of employment and given education, health and vocational training. If the overseeing of rules and regulations intended to end exploitation – as for instance , higher minimum wages,  non-oppressive work schedule and facilities for rest and recreation – is a question of gearing up the watchdog machinery, social activist groups and voluntary welfare agencies should be given a significant supportive role.

In the first phase, 30,000 children are to be

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the related question.

The much promised national policy has three major components: selective ban on the morally, indefensible and socially reprehensible practice of child labour, prevention of exploitation of child workers in permitted areas of activity and rehabilitation of those pulled out of prohibited employment.

The 1966 Act has been dubbed as a law that legitimises child labour and the target of attack particularly has been the proviso which in effect says that a child can work if it is part of family labour. This has rendered existing enactments in this field totally ineffective.
The rehabilitation segment of the policy is much too weak to make any impact. In the first phase, about 30,000 child workers are to be freed from the prohibited areas of employment and given education, health and vocational training. If the overseeing of rules and regulations intended to end exploitation – as for instance , higher minimum wages,  non-oppressive work schedule and facilities for rest and recreation – is a question of gearing up the watchdog machinery, social activist groups and voluntary welfare agencies should be given a significant supportive role.

The Act of 1966 is said to legitimise child labour because

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the related question.

The much promised national policy has three major components: selective ban on the morally, indefensible and socially reprehensible practice of child labour, prevention of exploitation of child workers in permitted areas of activity and rehabilitation of those pulled out of prohibited employment.

The 1966 Act has been dubbed as a law that legitimises child labour and the target of attack particularly has been the proviso which in effect says that a child can work if it is part of family labour. This has rendered existing enactments in this field totally ineffective.
The rehabilitation segment of the policy is much too weak to make any impact. In the first phase, about 30,000 child workers are to be freed from the prohibited areas of employment and given education, health and vocational training. If the overseeing of rules and regulations intended to end exploitation – as for instance , higher minimum wages,  non-oppressive work schedule and facilities for rest and recreation – is a question of gearing up the watchdog machinery, social activist groups and voluntary welfare agencies should be given a significant supportive role.

In the first and last paras, the author mentions ‘lean’ production. What is meant by that?

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question that follows.

Thirty years ago the bosses of America’s car industry were shocked to learn that Japan had overtaken America to become the world’s leading car producer. They were even more shocked when they visited Japan to find out what was going on. They found that the secret of Japan’s success did not lie in cheap labour or government subsidies (their preferred explanations) but in what was rapidly dubbed “lean manufacturing”. While Detroit slept, Japan had transformed itself from a low wage economy into a hotbed of business innovation. Soon every factory around the world was lean, or a ruin.
Management gurus are always glibly proclaiming revolutions. What happened in Japan qualified, as did the advent of mass production in America a century ago. Now something comparable is taking place in the developing world.
It is hardly news that the world’s centre of economic gravity is shifting towards emerging markets. Buy a mobile phone and it will almost certainly have been made in China. Use it to phone a customer helpline and your call may well be answered by an Indian. Over the past five years China’s annual growth rate has been more than 10%, and India’s more than 8%. Yet even these figures understate the change that is taking place. Emerging countries are no longer content to be sources of cheap hands and low - cost brains. Instead they too are becoming hotbeds of innovation, producing breakthroughs in everything from telecoms to car making to health care. They are redesigning products to reduce costs not just by 10%, but by up to 90%. They are redesigning entire business processes to do things better and faster than their rivals in the West. Forget about flat, the world of business is turning upside down.
As our special report argues, the rich world is losing its leadership in the sort of breakthrough ideas that transform industries. This is partly because rich - world companies are doing more research and development in emerging markets. Fortune 500 companies now have 98 R&D facilities in China and 63 in India. IBM employs more people in developing countries than in America. But it is also because emerging - market firms and consumers are both moving upmarket. Huawei, a Chinese telecoms giant, applied for more international patents than any other firm did in 2008. Chinese 20 - somethings spend even more time on the internet than their American peers.
Even more striking is the emerging world’s growing ability to make established products for dramatically lower costs: no - frills \$3,000 cars and \$300 laptops may not seem as exciting as a new iPad but they promise to change far more people’s lives. This sort of advance, dubbed “frugal innovation” by some, is not just a matter of exploiting cheap labour (though cheap labour helps). It is a matter of redesigning products and processes to cut out unnecessary costs. In India Tata created the world’s cheapest car, the Nano, by combining dozens of cost - saving tricks. Bharti Airtel has slashed the cost of providing mobile phone services by radically rethinking its relationship with its competitors and suppliers. It shares radio towers with rivals and contracts out network construction, operations and support to specialists such as Ericsson and IBM. Just as Henry Ford and Toyota both helped change other industries, entrepreneurs in the developing world are applying the classic principles of division of labour and economies of scale to surprising areas such as heart operations and cataract surgery, reducing costs without sacrificing quality. They are using new technologies such as mobile phones to bring sophisticated services, in everything from health care to banking, to rural communities. And they are combining technological and business - model innovation to produce entirely new categories of services: Kenya leads the world in money transfer by mobile phone, for example.
All this is obviously good news for the billions of people who live in the BRICS (see article) and other developing countries. More consumers will have access to goods and services that were once confined to the elite. More than 90% of Indians and Chinese tell pollsters that they are optimistic about the future. Anand Mahindra, an Indian business leader, has described his dreams about the future as “not just colourful, but steroidal”.
What about the slow - growth rich world? Emerging firms are advancing on a greater number of fronts than the Japanese did 30 years ago and also advancing much faster, gobbling up Western rivals. Their charge will upset many established Western firms, which will face increasingly savage price competition, and also overturn many assumptions about the rich world’s competitive advantage. Many of globalisation’s most vocal supporters have justified the loss of manufacturing jobs in the West on the ground that the rich world will maintain an edge in innovation; the clever jobs will stay at home. Emerging economies are not merely challenging that lead in innovation. They are unleashing a wave of low - cost, disruptive innovations that will, as they spread to the rich world, shake many industries to their foundations. All sorts of chief executives will scream for protection.
Change will indeed be painful for incumbents, as disruptive innovation always is. But cheaper goods and services will be a blessing for Western consumers, who are likely to face years of slow income growth. It could also be good news for rich - world governments, which are plagued with deficits even before the baby - boomers begin to retire. Frugal innovation may well prevent America’s health - care system (which already consumes 17% of its GDP) from swamping the rest of the economy. Clever ways of applying economies of scale and scope in new ways could boost public-sector productivity.
Moreover, it is in the nature of innovation to feed upon itself. Innovation in the emerging world will encourage, rather than undermine, innovation in the rich world. Western carmakers learned the techniques of lean production from their Japanese rivals, just as the Japanese had earlier learned the techniques of mass production from the Americans. This great insurrection, like its predecessors, will make us all richer.

Which theory/ies are put forward to explain the retrograde flow of information?

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question that follows.

The word “premonition” literally means a “forewarning,” which hints at the importance of these experiences. They often warn us of something unpleasant - a health challenge, physical disasters and impending dangers of all sorts. These are haphazardly mixed with all sorts of other premonitions, such as neutral or pleasant things - who is going to call on the phone, who I’ll meet at the party, when I’ll get a job promotion, when and where I’ll meet my soul mate, and so on.
Premonitions are a huge gift. They serve a survival function. They probably arose early in our evolutionary development in the predator - prey relationship, because any organism that knew when danger would happen in the future, could take measures to avoid it. This meant they would be more likely to remain alive and procreate, passing this ability to future generations. By now, the capacity to know the future is probably engrained in our genes and is widely distributed in the human race. Recent computerbased studies - the presentiment experiments by Dean Radin and others - suggest the capacity to know the future is indeed extremely common and is present in some degree in just about everybody.
I regard premonitions as a form of preventive medicine, because they so often warn us of threats to our health. For instance, one woman reported a dream premonition of a breast cancer before it appeared on breast exam or on a mammogram, when there was no lump or symptom of any kind. She even saw the specific location. A breast biopsy confirmed her premonition, and minor surgery completely cured her.
Information seems to be coming from the future into the present. There are several theories how this might happen, such as “closed, time - like loops” in which time might curve back on itself, bringing information from the future into the present, which we might experience as a premonition. An old idea called the “block universe” is also occasionally put forward by physicists to explain knowledge of the future. In this hypothesis, everything that has happened or will happen is already a given; the mind could theoretically gain access to any of this information under certain conditions (dreaming, meditating, impending danger, etc.).
Nearly all the current hypotheses rely on redefining the mind as a non - local phenomenon that is spread throughout space and time. This means that the mind is not confined to specific points in space, such as the brain, or to specific points in time, such as the present. It is infinite in space and time. This view fully permits premonitions, a kind of knowing that is non-local with respect to time. I have long favored this image of consciousness, and in 1989 introduced the term “non - local mind” in print in my book Recovering the Soul.
Non - local mind is unbounded, which means that at some point minds come together and form a single, unitary mind. Some of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century have held this view, such as Schrodinger, Margenau, Bohm and Eddington. The idea of One Mind clearly permits telepathy and clairvoyance, and the sort of person-to-person contact we often see in premonitions, such as when one individual has a premonition that another individual is in danger.

What is/are the advantage/s that diversified conglomerates have? (a) They never suffer from paucity of resources, financial or human. (b) They are better suited to tackling a risk - laden market situation. (c) Western multinationals can use them to gain access to difficult markets, thereby gaining them foreign exchange. (d) They can better market new products, based on brand value of existing ones.

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question that follows.

IN DECEMBER 1872 HMS Challenger sailed from Portsmouth to conduct the most ambitious survey of the oceans ever. During the ship’s four year journey the crew discovered over 4,000 unknown species and provided invaluable material for the raging debate about evolution. Business travellers in today’s emerging markets often feel a bit like the Challenger’s crew. They constantly come across what to Western eyes look like exotic corporate species and new, unfamiliar kinds of business which raise profound questions about the evolution of companies and business models.
Most emerging countries have a penchant for highly diversified conglomerates. India’s Tata Group, which accounts for almost 6% of the country’s GDP, has subsidiaries in car making, agricultural chemicals, hotels, telecommunications and consulting. Reliance Industries’ range sprawls from petrol products and clothes to fresh food. But such diversifi cation is not confined to giant organisations. China is full of small and medium - sized companies that have fingers in many pies, taking advantage of opportunities as they arise.
Many emerging countries also rely heavily on state owned enterprises. These organisations are peculiar hybrids that have never been seen before; the closest relatives are the European trading companies of the 16th - 19th centuries, such as Britain’s East India Company. They are neither old - fashioned nationalised companies run by the government and designed to control chunks of the national economy, nor are they classic private-sector companies that sink or swim. Instead they are amphibious creatures that flit between sea and land, borrowing money from governments at subsidised rates one moment, plunging into the global market the next.
China and Russia are the main exponents. Thousands of Chinese companies have convoluted ties to central or local government. Russia has created a large class of state companies that enjoy various legal privileges. But countries in Latin America and the Middle East are jumping onto the hybrid bandwagon.
Hybrid organisations are particularly prominent in the energy sector. The world’s 13 largest oil companies, as measured by reserves, are all controlled by governments, and three - quarters of the world’s crude oil reserves are in the hands of state - backed companies. Many of China’s best high - tech companies, such as China Telecom and Lenovo, are also state - backed. But such organisations are active in lots of other areas too. Like the developing world’s private giants, they are often diversified.
In their different ways both of these corporate forms are creative responses to their circumstances, much like the exotic ocean creatures that the Challenger’s crew dredged up from the depths. Diversified conglomerates can adapt to environments rife with political and financial risks. Tarun Khanna, of the Harvard Business School, argues that they are also good at dealing with shortages of vital resources such as capital and talent. The Tata Group can use capital from established businesses to support growth in new ones, and has the resources to attract and train the best people. It can also use its brand name to sell all sorts of products. Indians who have grown up enjoying Tata tea might be more inclined to buy the latest Tata electric car.
State owned companies also draw on long traditions. Authoritarian governments can use them to direct economic activity (and also to preserve their economic power). Local entrepreneurs can use them to seize business opportunities. And even Western multinationals can use them to gain access to difficult markets. Looked at one way, a huge organisation such as China Mobile is a throwback to an earlier era; looked at another way, it is an attempt by those in charge to embrace a more dynamic economy, an evolutionary change.
How are these companies likely to fare as they compete in a global marketplace? Most Westerners have little time for diversified conglomerates; they expect a “conglomerate discount” when they buy such shares on the stockmarket, and regard them as a primitive corporate form that tends to disappear as local stockmarkets improve and investors rather than companies get to do the diversifying. But the inefficiency of capital markets is only one of the reasons for diversification. Two of the others, talent shortages and brand-building, are likely to be around for a long time yet. Conglomerates may have an enduring advantage in attracting and training talent in rapidly growing markets, and in building brands in regions where brand recognition is low and potential consumers are numbered in their billions rather than millions. The Tata Group reckons that its brand is worth about 100 billion rupees (\$2.2 billion).
The case for state - owned companies is less robust. Hybrid companies are inherently confused organisations: unclear whether they are responsible to the state or the marketplace, and buffeted by contradictory pressures. They are subject to political meddling, often called upon to save “strategic” jobs and regularly used to oil the state patronage machine. Outsiders often find it hard to know whether to treat them as a business or an arm of government. And the OECD says that state - owned enterprises have significantly lower levels of productivity than private firms. But the road to real privatisation will be a long one, and the recent financial meltdown has hardly made emerging - market governments more favourably disposed towards the Anglo - Saxon model.
It would be foolish for Western companies to dismiss these new corporate life forms as evolutionary dead ends, but there is little scope for emulating them. The same is not true of many of the business models that the emerging world has come up with. They are not only important innovations in their own right but have serious implications for the way Western companies run their affairs.
Three of them are particularly powerful. The first concerns rethinking economies of scale, which usually involves scaling up. Companies reduce unit costs by centralising their manufacturing and producing long runs of standardised items. But centralised production adds expensive layers of bureaucracy, and it is hard to make it work in emerging markets where populations are often widely scattered and distribution systems abysmal. The Boston Consulting Group notes that a growing number of entrepreneurs in the emerging world are replacing scaling up with scaling out, which means involving a wider range of people in the process of production and distribution, something that has been made much easier by mobile phones and the internet. The most successful examples of this are clinics on wheels, but there are plenty of others. Nutriset, a French manufacturer of fortified food for malnourished children, has outsourced production to local franchises in Africa. The company maintains quality control and the franchises are close enough to the children to make distribution quick and easy. Kenya’s Child and Family Wellness Shops offer shares in the company to the nurses who operate the clinics, which encourages them to serve more children and helps stem the brain drain from rural areas.
A second business model takes an equally contrarian approach to production. John Hagel and John Seely Brown, who run Deloitte’s Centre for Edge Innovation, argue that Western companies have spent the past century perfecting “push” models of production that allocate resources to areas of expected demand. But in emerging markets, particularly those where the Chinese have a strong influence, a very different “pull” model often prevails, designed to help companies mobilise resources when the need arises. Hong Kong’s Li & Fung or China’s Chingquing Lifan Group can use their huge supply chains to produce fashion items or motorcycles in response to demand. Taiwan’s Quanta and Compel can produce cheap computers and digital cameras for a fashion-conscious digital marketplace.
These pull models fundamentally change the nature of companies. Instead of fixed armies looking for opportunities, firms become loose networks that are forever reconfiguring themselves in response to a rapidly shifting landscape. Such models are not peculiar to emerging markets: Dell builds computers to its Western customers’ specifications, and Western management gurus have been advocating networks for decades. But according to Messrs Hagel and Seely Brown they are far more widespread in emerging countries.
The developing world’s most innovative business model may be the application of mass - production techniques to sophisticated services. This started with India’s outsourcing firms, which demonstrated that economies of scale and scope could be reaped from services that used to be highly fragmented and geographically rooted. These outsourcers are still expanding and moving upmarket. Indian consultancies are now challenging Western ones in complex services, not just dealing with customer complaints.
Emerging - market entrepreneurs want to apply these techniques beyond IT and the back office. For example, they see a huge market for legal services requiring a high level of expertise. Dr Shetty is only one of many Indians who are applying Henry Ford’s principles to health care. LifeSpring has reduced the cost of giving birth in a private hospital to \$40 by looking after many more mothers. Aravind, the world’s biggest eye - hospital chain, performs some 200,000 eye operations a year. It takes the assembly - line principle literally: four operating tables are laid side by side and two doctors operate on adjacent tables. When the first operation is done, the second patient is already in place.