Chennai, Dec 30 (ANI/Business Wire India): Maveric Systems, one of India's leading software testing company enters 2009 on a high note after having been chosen as one of Asia's 100 most promising companies at the Red Herring 100 Asia Awards for the year 2008.

The 100 winning companies were announced at the Red Herring Asia event at Hong Kong earlier this month.

he 200 finalists for this award were chosen from 16 countries in Asia including China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, South Korea, Australia and Vietnam.

"The 200 finalists whom we selected from across 16 countries and regions are all excellent contenders," said Joel Dreyfuss, Editor-in-Chief of Red Herring.

"They are exceptional companies who thrive on innovation and strongly define the important role of technology in Asia's economy and throughout the world," added Dreyfuss.

Maveric Systems has also been selected as a finalist for the Red Herring 100 Global Awards.

The Red Herring Editorial team deploys a detailed process to whittle down a pool of 600 eligible, promising, companies to the 200 finalists of this global award.

The evaluation was made on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, innovation, management, global strategy and ecosystem integration.

An ecstatic Ranga Reddy, Chief Executive officer of Maveric Systems said, "In 2006 we set ourselves a goal of getting 30 per cent of our revenues from IP-led services, by 2012. Breakthrough innovation by our R and D teams is accelerating our progress towards this goal".

"IP-led services have helped us redefine our competition and also significantly increase the average size of deals that we have won in the last 12 months," Ranga Reddy added.

He said, "We take great pride in winning this award as it underscores our achievements and innovations over the years. We expect a healthy growth in the coming year because of our niche focus and IP-led offering". (ANI)

Washington, Dec 9 (ANI): Promotional strategy, which involves frequent price cuts, can actually work against even for the most popular and well-respected brands, according to a study.

Titled "A Dynamic Model of Brand Choice When Price and Advertising Signal Product Quality," the study was conducted by Tulin Erdem of NYU; Michael P. Keane of the University of Technology Sidney, Australia and Arizona State University; and Baohong Sun of Carnegie Mellon University.

According to the study, recurring price promotions that reduce the perceived average price of a brand can feed back and adversely impact perceived quality.

Simulations of the authors' model imply that approximately one quarter of the increase in sales generated by a temporary price cut represents cannibalisation of future sales due to the brand-equity-diluting effect of the promotion.

For the study, the authors tested quality with Nielsen scanner data for ketchup brands.

"It may seem unglamorous, but this category is well suited to the analysis. One dominant brand (Heinz) is generally perceived as being high quality. It is also higher priced and has substantially higher advertising expenditure than its name-brand competitors, Hunt's and Del Monte. In fact, the lowest-priced name brand (Del Monte) does not engage in any TV advertising. Thus, there is scope for consumers to use price and ad expenditures as signals of quality in this market," wrote the authors.

With the model, the researchers could know the importance of different information sources in influencing perceived quality. For example, the authors predict that a 10 percent permanent price cut for Heinz would increase sales by 26 percent. But if the price cut could be implemented without reducing perceived quality (and, hence, brand equity), the increase in sales would be considerably greater - 32 percent.

The implications of the results would be much more pronounced in high-end product categories. For instance, a Cunard Line promotion that employed aggressive push strategies reducing fare prices by half before Queen Elizabeth 2 left port could severely damage Cunard brand equity.

Whether the brand is Cunard, BMW, or a similar company, high-end brands will be better off if they target price promotions at micro-levels rather than through generic price reductions; integrate sales promotions in a consistent manner with the rest of their communications; and refrain from using price promotions frequently.

In the study, the authors developed a structural model of household behaviour, in which there is uncertainty about brand attributes, and both price and advertising signal brand quality.

And the authors claimed that four quality signalling mechanisms are at work: (1) price signals quality, (2) advertising frequency signals quality, (3) advertising content provides direct but imperfect information about quality, and (4) consumer experience using a product provides information about quality.

They show that price is the most important signal of brand quality. The role of advertising frequency in signalling quality is also significant, but less important quantitatively.

The study has been published in Marketing Science, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). (ANI)

Colombo, Dec.9 (ANI): During a UNDP meeting held here, experts have proposed a five-point action agenda to reduce inequalities within and between countries in Asia, which they say have contributed to social strife.

It was felt that while Asia and the Pacific is the fastest growing region in the world, the benefits of growth have been distributed unevenly, benefiting certain countries more than others.

A UNDP press release said that fourteen Least Developed Countries (LDCs) lag far behind the Asian 'economic miracle'. The unequal nature of growth within countries reveals itself in widening regional inequality and rising urban poverty and increasing conflict.

The experts were participating in a session on Regional Policy Dialogues on Inequality organized by the UNDP Regional Center here.

The dialogues focused on the policy implications of rising inequality levels in Asia, exploring development policy options to address the issue. Particular emphasis was put on deepening horizontal inequalities that could potentially be cause for unrest.

"Horizontal inequalities exist in many countries of Asia and they need to be acknowledged and addressed," said Frances Stewart, Professor of Development Economics and Director of the Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity, Oxford University.

The experts also noted that migration patterns in the Region send a clear signal to governments to manage the transition from rural to urban areas, particularly in light of growing urban inequalities.

Urban tensions have already exploded into ethnic conflict in several Asian cities. It was noted that conflict, both by state and non-state actors, is hampering development and destabilizing a number of countries. The experts called for human development strategies aimed at reducing these conflicts.

It was pointed out that an exclusively growth oriented policy was resulting in heightening inequalities. Sir Richard Jolly, Honorary Professor at the Institute of Development Studies emphasized the need for adopting policies that emphasize redistribution with growth.

Asia is home to the largest number of mega cities and urban slums. In 1970, only one in five people lived in an urban city and by 2000 one in every three was an urban resident.

Growing urban inequality throws a unique set of issues that need to be dealt with urgently to avoid further fuelling the social tensions between different groups living side by side.

"There is a direct relationship between growing inequalities and conflict. Urban poverty is on the rise. Hunger and maternal mortality continue to remain serious concerns. The Region has more than 900 million people living in extreme poverty, more than the population of Sub-Saharan Africa," said Omar Noman, the Head, UNDP Regional Centre for Asia Pacific in Colombo.

Proposing the following five point action agenda the experts said that the current financial crisis demonstrates the need for policy to have a good mix of market and state action, which is critical in reducing inequalities:

The economic slowdown and migration towards urban centers calls for generating employment, both in rural and urban areas, in addition to maintaining a strong focus on economic safety nets. Urban sustainability needs to be the cornerstone of any long-term development strategy.

There is a need for strengthening progressive fiscal systems in many countries in the Region.

In addition to urban development, public investment should also be targeted towards the rural sector where over 70 percent of the poor in Asia and the Pacific still live and work. Investments in agriculture, rural infrastructure, and education would help to reduce the rural-urban disparity.

Conflict, both by state and non-state actors is hampering development and destabilizing a number of countries. Regional institutional coordination and collaboration is needed. Conflict prevention should have a strong regional dimension as a growing number of conflicts are cross-border in scale and scope.

Asia is home to the largest number of megacities and urban slums. Strategies to reduce poverty in urban areas require a different approach as the issues span a wide range from controlling pollution and disease to issues of citizenship and other legal entitlements.

The multi-country dialogues on inequality held in honour of Professor Frances Stewart are based on research conducted by UNDP in Nepal, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Timor-Leste and had high-level participation from governments of these countries.

As part of its efforts to raise awareness and mobilize action around human development, UNDP Regional Centre also announced an annual award for young Sri Lankan social scientists in honour of Sir Richard Jolly. (ANI)

New Delhi, Dec.3 (ANI): The global economic meltdown has started to influence the expansion plans of the world's biggest steel producer, ArcelorMittal in India.

According to Vijay Kumar Bhatnagar, the Chief Executive Officer-India of ArcelorMittal, the company has opted to adapt a cautious approach, keeping in view the new dynamics of the present economic situation being faced around the world.

"The kind of macro-economic environment which has come suddenly, now...is allowing us to pause and be cautious."

Talking exclusively to Asian News International, Vijay Kumar Bhatnagar, the Chief Executive Officer-India of ArcelorMittal, said that the ArcelorMittal's India plans got halted due to the ongoing turmoil across the world and could be pushed ahead.

"No... it will not go as planned because we had not anticipated this imposed macro-economic condition. So we have to pace our project with the reality which is surrounding us. What that reality will be, only time will tell because it's changing everyday. So that's why we have to align ourselves with how things emerge," Vijay Kumar Bhatnagar said.

ArcelorMittal has plans to invest 20 billion US dollars in setting-up two Greenfield projects in Orissa and Jharkhand states to up its global production capacity by 20 million tonnes to 130 million tones by 2012.

Bhatnagar's statement coincides with a massive lay-off of 9,000 administrative staff by ArcelorMittal from its global operations. The steel-giant has also announced to cut its production capacity by 30 per cent in the fourth quarter globally to address the unprecedented downturn in demand.

The demand for steel is presently on a decline in India as well due to sluggish demands from real estate, automobile and consumer durables.

"There is no point putting-up a plant when demand is not there. So we have to adjust the pace of our project that it produces when the demand is there," Vijay said.

On the government's protectionist measures, Vijay said, "Putting in export duty or import duty, these are, in a way, protectionist measures. Beyond a particular point, I think the protectionism doesn't help. In short-term, somebody may gain benefit but over a long-term, protectionism does not help."

To protect the Indian steel producers from the dumping of cheaper steel from China and other countries, the Government at the Centre had earlier imposed a five per cent import duty on steel.

ArcelorMittal is today the largest steel company in the world, with 310,000 employees in over 60 countries. The company was formed in 2006 by the merger of Arcelor and Mittal Steel. It ranks 39th on the 2008 Fortune Global 500 list.

The company is headquartered in Luxembourg City, the former seat of Arcelor.ArcelorMittal is a market leader in automotive, construction, household appliances and packaging.

It holds sizeable captive supplies of raw materials and operates extensive distribution networks. By Ashwani Upadhyay (ANI)