Richa Misra

An analysis of factors affecting growth of organic food: Perception of consumers in Delhi-NCR (India)

Purpose Food gives us essential nutrients to lead a healthy lifestyle but lately it has been found that many food products have become hazardous due to contamination and lead to many diseases. The rampant use of pesticides and chemical-based fertilizers in agriculture has, increased the productivity but at the same time they have created an alarming situation for the environment. The demand of the hour is to therefore to encourage organic farming and offer a better choice to consumers as well as save the environment. The purpose of this paper is to explore and understand the factors affecting perception of consumers on organic food products in Indian context. Design/methodology/approach The study used a structured survey of 150 respondents covering Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) of Ghaziabad, Noida and Faridabad (India). Exploratory research was used to know the variables from the literature that affect the perception of consumers regarding organic food. Descriptive research was used to understand the demographic profile of the organic food consumer’s. Conclusive research design was used to test the hypotheses based upon the motivating and inhibiting factor in the growth of organic food. Findings The data collected from the survey were analyzed using t-test, χ2 test, factor analysis and multiple linear regression tests. Results indicated that the intention to purchase organic products was impacted by the consumer’s belief on the safety and health aspect of the product, trust and certification, information and availability and lifestyle and are hence drivers of growth. And certain impeding factors were identified like doubt in the professed quality of organic food, lack of awareness and price parity. Social implications There are enough evidences of fertile land being converted into wasteland because of use of agro- chemical-based fertilizers in farming. There are also enough incidents of polluted water (ground and surface) due to agrochemical-based farming. Heavy use of pesticides leads to adverse effect on the health of farmers also. There were many reports of farmers committing suicide because of debt due to heavy investment on pesticides and fertilizers. Organic farming is a win-win proposition for environment, farmers and consumer’s. Originality/value The study was an effort to understand awareness and perception of organic food consumers in urban India post-agriculture revolution. The result would help the organic food producing and marketing companies to understand the factors that influence the belief of consumers when they purchase organic food and henceforth they can formulate communication strategies and marketing policy based on consumer’s expectations.

Archiving ERP data to enhance operational effectiveness: the case of Dolphin

Transaction-intensive, customer facing applications and the most critical high volume ERP and CRM applications are collecting and storing huge amount of data resulting in exponential increase in the size of database. ERP applications are based on layered architecture and complicated relational databases. An overloaded relational database reduces ERP performances and increase hardware and maintenance cost. Managing security and growth of databases size has become the prime concern of organisation to enhance performance and reduce cost. The article has taken a case study to highlight why data archiving is crucial for the enterprises running SAP solution in optimising business performance. The present article discusses the challenges faced by an organisation in managing the growing SAP data and how a data management strategy in place can help the organisation in enhancing the performance of the system.

Review on factors affecting customer churn in telecom sector

The communications sector is emerging with new technologies, wireless and wireline services. The industrys success expects a better perception of customer requirements and superior quality of service and models. Customer churn has a huge impact on companies and is the prime focus area for the companies to remain competitive and profitable. Hence, significant research had been undertaken by researchers worldwide to understand the dynamics of customer churn. This paper provides a review of around 75 recent journal articles (starting from year 2000) to identify the various churn factors and their complex relationships, in existing telecom churn literature. It gives detailed discussion of what factors were identified in various studies, the sample sizes used and the method used for the study by different researchers. The gaps identified in the previous studies have also been discussed. A model on churn factors, identified from the study is proposed to serve as a roadmap, to build upon exciting churn management techniques.

M-education in India: an effort to improve educational outcomes with a special emphasis on Ananya Bihar

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to undermine the role of cellular technology, government and the funding agency to deliver reliable and cost-effective health services for the people living in the bottom of pyramid and remote areas of the country where quality healthcare facilities are not available. The people living in rural Bihar (India) have a limited education and are reluctant to visit the female healthcare centers. The Ananya Bihar project has employed volunteers from the same community and aid from the foundation and government to improve the maternity and neo-natal healthcare initially in eight districts of the state. Design/methodology/approach The study reviewed various m-health projects and m-education projects with a detailing of the Anaya Bihar Project initiated by Melinda Gates foundation and Government of Bihar, India. The study uncovers technical, operational aspects and methodology followed by Ananya. It has detailed the best practices followed by the project. The study also features the capability of mobile as a tool to reach the masses in most cost effective way. Findings The use of mobile application with the association from the social worker has been tremendously successful in maternity and child healthcare in the state of Bihar, India. The application includes educating the user’s about the healthcare, training for midwives, alerts related to vaccination and thereby reducing the mortality rate and improving the maternal healthcare for the people from the bottom of pyramid. The project has created awareness among the rural families and has improved the maternity healthcare in the eight districts of Bihar, India. They were also planning to expand the project in other states of India. Research limitations/implications The study is exploratory in nature and has not involved primary data collection and statistical analysis. The study has compiled the data and information available. Practical implications The present study may be used as a reference to the organization working on mobile healthcare projects to understand the best practices of m-health project. The study also explains the role of various stakeholders (as Ananya-Bihar was a collaborative effort of Social trust, Technical experts, Network service provider, Community, State Government and the People) in the success of the project. Social implications The study explains the role of technology for the benefit of people. In the present case mobile healthcare initiated by the foundation has been very effective in dealing with maternity healthcare in rural Bihar, where people cannot afford expensive healthcare facility. The only silver lining is increasing tele-density at the most affordable rate in the globe, with funding from NGOs and full support from government. Such types of m-healthcare projects will support the government in delivering quality healthcare to the people who are living below poverty line and deprived of basic healthcare facilities. Originality/value The study details the methodology and technical details of Ananya Mobile health care platform.