LEVELS OF ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT

There are three levels of environment management:

1. International level – Serious environment problems are taken up at the international level. For e.g. The need to increase area under forest cover has to be tackled by all countries in order to reduce global warming
2. National level – Every country must have its national policy for environment management
3. Local level – Environment management is important at local level. For e.g. every industrial establishment must clear its waste before discharging it into air / water bodies.

Environment Management is the management of eco-friendly development.

Effective environment management needs:

1. Good knowledge of existing physical and economic environment
2. Studying the impact of economic activities on the environment
3. Enacting laws and regulations which protect the environment
4. Political will to apply laws and regulations strictly at local, national and international levels.

ROLE OF AN ENVIRONMENT MANAGER

• Tackling environmental issues and problems, such as ecology, natural resources and pollution
• Advising management about natural resources and environmental depletion as well as conservation policy.
• Conducting audit of energy consumption.
• Keeping updates about environmental legislations.
• Studying and dissolving environmental conflicts.

CSR AND E-WASTE MANAGEMENT / MEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT

E-WASTE (ELECTRONIC WASTE) / WEEE (WASTE ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT) / E-SCRAP

Electronic waste or e-waste describes all used and discarded electrical or electronic devices. Some of the components of electronic equipments (e-waste)are considered toxic and non-biodegradable.

E-waste includes secondary computers, entertainment devices, mobile phones, office electronic equipment, television sets, refrigerators, etc.

If treated properly e-waste can be a valuable source of secondary raw materials. However, if not treated properly, it becomes a major source of toxins and carcinogens.

The problem of e-waste is a fast growing one around the globe on account of rapid technological change, low initial costs as well as the growing problem of consumerism. The growth in the electronic industry has led to economic as well as social impacts. With high rates of production and exports, increase in consumption rates there is higher generation of electronic waste.

As countries like India have lower environmental standards, electronic waste is being sent here for processing – in most cases illegally. Delhi and Bangalore have electronic waste processing areas. The uncontrolled disassembling / burning and disposal cause both environmental as well as health problems.

The need of the hour is to have proper e-waste management. One of the best ways is to encourage recycling. Television sets, mobile phones, audio visual equipment contain valuable elements and substances that can be recycled. For e.g. Circuit boards contain precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum, etc and base metals such as copper, iron, aluminum, etc. which can be extracted and reused.

The proper disposing of or reusing of electronics and e-waste can help prevent health problems, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create jobs with reuse thus offering a more environment friendly and socially conscious alternative.

MEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT

Medical waste management is a major concern and responsibility of health care organisations. Disposal mechanisms for medical waste must be stringent and foolproof to prevent the risk of infection, toxicity and contamination. Ethical and religious norms are also to be respected.

ADVERTISING & WOMEN - INDIA

The portrayal of women in advertising has received a great deal of attention through the years. Gender stereotyping has varied little over time. Advertising has been criticized for stereotyping women and failing to recognize the changing role of women in our society.

Different forms of media e.g. Television, film, music, etc, communicate strong gender stereotypes. e.g. blonde women are commonly stereotyped as being beautiful and fun loving but dumb. Women are shown as lacking intelligence and credibility.

Advertisements also portray idealized, sexist and racist images of women - women are mostly depicted as sex objects. The behavior of women in advertising makes them appear subordinate and available for men. Even in advertisements aimed at children, one can see gender stereotypes. Boys are shown as being more knowledgeable, active, aggressive than girls. Dominance and control are strongly associated with boys than girls.

Television which is the most pervasive and persuasive medium still continues to show women in stereotypical roles. Research shows that the more television children watch, the more likely they are to hold sexist notions about traditional male and female roles and these images shape the notions children have about male and female roles in real life.

Popular culture - greeting cards, books, songs, films, etc, communicate images representing the cultural ideals of womanhood and manhood.

While sexism and stereotyping still exist, advertising's portrayal of women is improving in many areas. Many advertisers have begun to recognize the importance of portraying women realistically. The increase in the number of working women has resulted not only in women having more influence at family decision making but also in more single-female households, which means more independent purchasers.

Women have now crossed the boundary from the domestic sphere to the professional arena, expectations and representations of women have changed as well. Many advertisements are now depicting women in a diverse set of roles that reflect their changing place in society. In many advertisements, the stereotypical traits attributed to women have shifted from weak and dependent to strong and independent.

INDIA - NEW ECONOMIC POLICIES

The new economic policies were on two levels

 1  Liberalization measures which is further divided into

a. New Industrial Policy
b. New Trade Policy

2. Macroeconomic reforms and structural adjustments

I   LIBERALIZATION MEASURES

1. New Industrial Policy (NIP) - Under the New Industrial Policy there was:
       a.  Liberalization of industrial licensing which resulted in
            -licensing
            -decontrol
            -deregulation
            -broad banding
            -abolition of registration

       b.  FERA liberalization. The Foreign Exchange Regulation Act liberalized foreign                    
            investments and technology imports
      
       c.   MRTP liberalization  The Monopolies Restrictive Trade Practices was removed and                           threshold asset limit was abolished and clearance for expansions, mergers were not needed                                                                                                
       d.  Curtailment of public sector.
            Several industries previously reserved for public sector opened up to the private sector. Only               eight core industries remain reserved for the public sector

2.    New Trade Policy (NTP)
       Under this policy there were seven reforms as follows:

       a. Lowering of import tariffs
       b. Import licences were abolished
       c. The exim regime was more open
       d. The rupee was made convertible
       e.  Exports were encouraged
       f.   India’s economy was to be integrated with global economy


II      MACROECONOMIC REFORMS AND STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENTS

1    Macroeconomic reforms: There were three types of reforms:

      a.   fiscal and monetary reforms which included
            -reduction of fiscal deficits
            -reform of tax systems
            -interest rate reforms
            -inflation control

      b.   banking sector reforms included the following
            -banks to operate as commercial institutions
            -priority sector lending to be phased out
            -deposit interest rates deregulation
            -operational freedom in lending rates
            -norms on capital adequacy to be kept up
            -disinvestment in public sector banks
            -permission for new private sector banks

       c.   capital market reforms were;
            -abolition of CCI (Controller of Capital Issues)
            -strengthening of SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India)
            -opening of Indian capital markets of FII (Foreign Institutional Investors)
            -allowing foreign brokers in Indian capital markets
            -private sectors allowed into mutual funds
            -allowing Indian firms to raise capital abroad

2.    Structural adjustments were

       a.   market driven price and dismantling of price controls
             -phasing out of subsidies
             -dismantling price controls
             -abolishing fertilizer, sugar, export and petro-product subsidy
             -partial decontrol & parallel marketing of kerosene and LPG
             - steel price decontrol

        b   public sector restructuring and disinvestment  
             -no new public sector units or expansion with government equity
             -budgetary support for PSU to be phased out
             -disinvestment of government equity in PSUs

        c.   exit policy
             -support to VRS
             -creation of NRF(National Retail Federation)  

ADVERTISING AND POPULAR CULTURE

Popular culture refers to beliefs and practices and the objects through which they are organised that are widely shared amongst a population. It is the ideas, perspectives, attitudes and other phenomena that are within the mainstream of any given culture. Heavily influenced by mass media, popular culture permeates the everyday lives of the society. It includes everything from ‘common culture’ to ‘folk culture’ to ‘mass culture’.

Popular culture is the expressive content that is produced and consumed. It is light entertainment that is delivered through the channels of mass media and finally absorbed voluntarily, to be interpreted by the individual who receives it. Information then goes back in the form of ratings or sales figure that will influence the subsequent round of offerings.

Popular culture consists of symbols, for e.g., television serials, films, comic books, music etc. Popular culture gives pleasure upon reception and this pleasure giving feature is a central aspect of the popular culture experience.

Advertising on the other hand refers to the paid-for messages that attempts to transfer symbols into commodities to increase the possibilities of its purchase. For this reason advertising may be looked at warily. Although advertising comes in many forms, the main mediums focused on are television, radio and magazines.

Advertising is seen as a means of communication and aims at changing behaviour (forces individuals to purchase advertised goods). Popular culture  however aims to give pleasure and not to change viewers behaviour.

Advertising is almost always briefer than instances of popular culture (30 sec of a commercial against 30 minutes of popular culture) Media and space is expensive and advertisers have to work within budgets.

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN ADVERTISING AND POPULAR CULTURE

Both are products of culture industries and are to be understood as artistic products.
Both pay great attention to style.
Both share the use of same mass media method.
Both are approached as economic entities as well as symbolic entities

Advertising and popular culture have come to occupy central positions with a global economic growth.

Popular culture is more welcome than advertising.

Thus advertisers use Popular culture to create attractive messages for consumers. Advertisers appropriate popular culture material such as celebrities, music, comedy styles and anything else that can be used as accepted and as enhanced symbols for their products
.
To communicate with consumers, advertisers comedies, music and celebrities, all part of popular culture. Music has the ability to stimulate extraordinary emotional feelings. Adult consumers derive emotional benefit from popular music. It is this appeal that advertisers try to exploit to stimulate consumer’s interest in their products.

Advertisers choose leading entertainers as spokespeople, as opposed to lesser known individuals, as it helps build audiences attention and the brand ambassador helps increase the brand status and ensures product success.

The utility of music is acknowledged within the advertising industry. Background music can set up a mood with targeted consumers and lend an emotional dimension to a brand. Although much of the music in advertising is original an increasing proportion of it consists of reused popular cultural hits.

Advertising does not deplete or obliterate popular culture. The interpenetration of advertising and popular culture is recognized and highlights from one adds luster to the other. The target audience are always on the lookout for symbols and meanings which reverberate back and forth between the two domains. Popular culture can even aid in the creation of new norms.

To communicate with consumers, advertisers have an ample stock of purchasable symbolic material to draw upon. Advertisers turn to popular culture that is pleasurable, emotional and non-coercive. Popular culture is the seat belt of the stars who can command general recognition from a diverse population. The stars are likely to deliver the emotional material the spectator is looking for. For e.g. the popular song ‘Dhoom Machale’ became a part of the day to day lingo of  youngsters. Advertisers who used ‘Dhoom Macha Diya’ below their visual reported increase in sales.
                         
Cultures are dynamic and change occurs when resistance slowly yields to acceptance. Gradually there comes an awareness of the need for change. Once the need is recognized, acceptance cannot be prevented. .

WEB PAGES

We live in an information age where the most important means of communication and mass media are web pages. Web Pages are an innovative way to get in touch with people around the world thus playing an important role in globalization. It helps bring the world together thus promoting global unity.

When we travel to a foreign country or remote town, we find some information about the place, but through a web page all information can be found sitting at one's desk.

Web pages are not only available to those involved in mass media but are available to all without having to go through the extended traditional method of print publishers.

Finding information about almost anything has been made easy through web pages. One can research, exchange ideas, discover friends world wide, communicate with like minded people, etc., through the web.

Most pages on the web are either self published or published by small/large businesses in order to promote a point of view or for goods and services marketing.

Typical web pages provide hypertext that include a navigation bar or a sidebar menu which helps link you to other web pages via hyperlinks.

TYPES OF WEB PAGES
1. Informative
2. Personal
3. Interest Groups or Political
4. Marketing Oriented
5. Entertainment Oriented

All types of web pages cater to different audiences and different audience needs. They have something to offer to everyone.

WEB PAGES AND WEBSITES HELP:
- Fuel the imagination
- Encourage people to interact with information
- Consumers get an opportunity to interact with brands
- One can communicate and have a conversation
- One can even book tickets, purchase and sell goods online.

This has led to opportunities not only for business houses but also for individual entrepreneurs.

Web pages for premium brands help
-Make consumers appreciate the uniqueness of the product
-Keep users up-to-date
-build brand image and ensures price clarity

CHARACTERISTICS OF WEB PAGES
- Only form of media where other media are also available... e.g. All newspapers are available online and are thus easy to access and allows fro a variety of information
- Web pages are revolutionary in the thought process of media, however they are not checked for accuracy. Personal opinions on certain issues need not necessarily be facts. One can find both points of view online.
- Web pages are an interactive source of information and the user can not only question but can also give his/her won inputs if required
- Web pages have a hierarchical structure in the sense that an individual can easily find what he/she is looking for by putting in the right search words.

DRAWBACKS OF WEB PAGES
-It can be difficult to differentiate between advertising information and actual facts
-Illiterate people, or people without access to computers or smart phones may not be able to access information
-the site creator may not be easily identified
- Credibility is not guaranteed
- Research may be difficult as websites may contain loads of information but sometimes the user may not be able to access the same.

CONCLUSION
It must be accepted that the internet and its components form the most interactive medium for those seeking information and has definitely promoted global unity. It is not only a new tool of communication but has also created an impact on the lives of many individuals including professionals and students. 

Vinobha Bhave - Bhudan Movement

Vinobha Bhave – Bhudan Movement

Vinoba Bhave was one of the great spiritual leaders & reformers of modern India, whose work & personal example moved the hearts of countless Indians.

Born in 1895, at the tender age of ten, Vinoba took a vow life-long celibacy & selfless service to others.

Vinoba discovered Gandhi, & joined in Gandhi’s work for the regeneration & freedom of India.

In 1940 Gandhi chose Vinoba to be the first Satyagrahi i.e. non-violent resister, to offer non-violent resistance to the British regime.

Vinoba’s social activism was founded on a lifetime’s study of the other major world religions. Vinoba’s life reveals the harmony of the inner & outer life of a great man, who had an unwavering commitment to the practice of non-violence, to an engaged spirituality, & to the universal power of love.

After India won independence, Vinoba started out on his extraordinary & unprecedented in recorded history, the Bhoodan (Land-Gift) Movement.

Over a period of twenty years, Vinoba walked through the length & breadth of India persuading land-owners & land-lords to give their poor & downtrodden neighbours a total of four million acres of land.

The Bhoodan-Gramdan movement initiated inspired by Vinoba brought Vinoba to the international scene.

For Vinoba the future of India was essentially a contest between the fundamental creeds of Gandhi & Marx. In coming to Hyderabad, Vinoba & other Gandhians were confronting a challenge & testing their faith in non-violence.

Pochampalli gave Vinoba a warm welcome. Vinoba went to visit the Harijan (the Untouchables) colony there. By early afternoon villagers began to gather around Vinoba at Vinoba’s cottage. The Harijans asked for eighty acres of land, forty wet, forty dry for forty families that would be enough. Then Vinoba asked,”If it is not possible to get land from the government, is there not something villagers themselves could do?” To everyone’s surprise, Ram Chandra Reddy, the local landlord, got up & said in a rather excited voice: “I will give you 100 acres for these people.” At his evening prayer meeting, Ram Chandra Reddy got up & repeated his promise to offer 100 acres of land to the Harijans. This incident neither planned nor imagined was the very genesis of the Bhoodan movement & it made Vinoba think that therein lay the potentiality of solving the land problem of India. This movement later on developed into a village gift or Gramdan movement.

The movement passed through several stages in regard to both momentum & allied programmes. In October 1951, Vinoba was led to demand fifty million acres of land for the landless from the whole of India by 1957. Thus a personal initiative assumed the form of a mass movement, reminding the people of Gandhi’s mass movements. This was indeed a very remarkable achievement for a constructive work movement. The enthusiasm for the movement lasted till 1957 & thereafter it began to wane.

Meanwhile the Bhoodan Movement had been transformed from a land-gift movement to a village-gift or Gramdan movement, in which the whole or a major part of a village land was to be donated by not less than 75% of the villagers who were required to relinquish their right of owner-ship over their lands in favour of the entire village, with power to equitably redistribute the total land among village’s families with a proviso for revision after some intervals.

The Programme of individual land-gifts was still there, but henceforth became a neglected activity.

The Gramdan idea did not prove popular in the non-tribal areas & this partly accounted for the decline of the movement at the end of the 1950s.

The movement directly influenced the life-style of the co-workers, especially the life-long co-workers & through them many workers & associates or fellow-seekers. By adopting Gandhi’s ideas to the solution of the basic economic problem of land collection & equitable redistribution among the landless, the Movement kept Gandhi’s ideas of socioeconomic reconstruction alive at a period when the tendency of the educated elite was to overlook, if not to reject Gandhi’s ideas as irrelevant. The Movement kindled interest in the individuals to study Gandhi’s ideas & to assess their relevance. Jayaprakash Narayan, a renowned Marxist, and a Socialist, & one of the fore-most leaders in politics, before & after India’s Independence, came to be more & more intimately associated with the movement & realized that it was a superb endeavor to bring about revolution in human relations founded on on the Gandhian philosophy of non-violence. Ultimately Jayaprakash devoted his entire life to the construction of a Sarvodaya society.

Arthur Koestler, in 1959 wrote in London Observer, that the Bhoodan Movement presented an Indian alternative to the Nehruvian model of Western development.