Editorial

We are happy to present to you the first issue of the fortieth volume of Vikalpa. This is the inaugural issue under the publishing arrangement that the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) entered into with SAGE recently. We would like to introduce IIMA to readers who are visiting the journal for the first time. The Institute was set up in 1961 by a coalition of five actors: the Indian government, the government of the western Indian province of Gujarat, local industrialists, the Ford Foundation and the Harvard Business School. Over the years, IIMA has developed into a highly respected institute of management education. It has been ranked the number one management school in the country, year after year, over the last several years. In its latest ranking, The Economist ranked IIMA at 56 among the top 100 international B-schools in the world that offer a full-time MBA programme. The Financial Times (FT) has ranked the two-year postgraduate programme in management of IIMA in the top ten programmes in the category of Masters Programmes in Management that do not require work experience as a prerequisite for admission. FT has also ranked the one-year postgraduate programme for executives among the top MBA programmes globally. The two-year postgraduate programme in Food & Agribusiness Management that the IIMA offers is ranked number one globally within the Food and Agribusiness sector by Eduniversal. IIMA was the first management school in India to be awarded EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System) accreditation. Please visit www.iimahd.ernet.in for more details.

IIMA started its own peer-reviewed journal, Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers in 1976. The word Vikalpa, in Sanskrit, carries a rich repository of meanings: diversity, alternatives, logic and freedom of choice. The journal seeks to reflect this range of meanings vis-à-vis management research, managerial problem solving and decision-making. Its objective is to disseminate knowledge of and good practices in professional management. It especially emphasizes management issues relevant to emerging economies like India. Vikalpa has an excellent track record of uninterrupted on-time publication over 39 years. Our partnership with SAGE seeks to build on this platform.

This inaugural issue under the new arrangement continues with the structure that the journal has developed over the years—we present our usual sections, Perspectives, Research, Colloquium, Notes and Commentaries and Management Case. In their contribution, A Race to the Top? Should Labour Standards be Included in Trade Agreements, Maria Artuso and Carolan Mclarney reflect on the contribution of the deepening economic integration to a ‘race to the bottom’ of labour standards. They highlight the role of transnational actors like the WTO and the ILO and labour unions, in integrating labour standards with trade agreements. Our Research section contains three articles. Neharika Vohra, Neerpal Rathi, and Deepti Bhatnagar present the design of a leadership development programme that used a mix of experiential learning methods, self-awareness exercises and other reflective activities, in the process highlighting the importance of innovation in management education curriculum. Smita Roy Trivedi discusses the moves by Indian banks to add non-interest income streams to their traditional interest earning activities. She notes that while the rising share of such streams adds to profitability, its impact on risk adjusted performance and stability is not significant. D.C. Sah and Yogesh Kumar examine the usefulness of exit surveys to ascertain the quality of and the demand for healthcare services, and do not find evidence of bias in the reported satisfaction.

In our Notes and Commentaries section, Rachit Tiwari, S Bhattacharya, and Piyush Raghav discuss non-coking coal pricing systems in a few countries and draw lessons for India. In our Colloquium on Big Data: Prospects and Challenges, coordinated by Janakiraman Moorthy, we ask a few academics and practitioners to focus on a topic that is very contemporary—the potential of Big Data. The Management Case, ‘Tata Power Delhi Distribution: Automation vs. Manpower', by Monica Singhania and Ram Kishan Kinker, describes the transformation of a public sector entity into a profitable business enterprise through automation and planned redeployment of human resources. We also carry an analysis of the case by Meeta Dasgupta. Finally, we present a review of the Oxford India Short Introductions, a series that informs the general reader about different facets of India. We hope you enjoy reading this issue.

The time has also come for a reconstitution of the Vikalpa Editorial Board. The current Board took over in April 2012 for a period of three years. We had noted in the April–June issue of 2012 that maintaining continuity with the sound editorial policies of the past was a guiding principle for the Board. At the same time, we had indicated that some reflection was needed to meet future challenges. This began with a readership survey which was followed by a reassessment of our place in the journal publishing scenario. The final outcome was a realignment of the journal with the emerging internationalization focus of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad through a partnership with a professional publishing house which, as mentioned earlier, comes into effect with this issue. We hope greater international reach and visibility will follow in the coming years. We thank our contributors, readers, reviewers and other stakeholders for their continued support. Please send us your feedback at [e-mail] or [e-mail].