Ludhiana, January 30
“As the world is going global, the competition is growing and the corporate world is finding it difficult to survive. Two major changes, which have shaken the business world, are global competition and technology revolution,” stated Prof S.C. Vaidya, Professor, University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh, while addressing a seminar on Total Cost Management (TCM) organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, here, today.

Explaining the concept, he said customer was full of options and could dictate prices. So, the only way for companies to sustain in the market was to manage their costs. Taking numerous practical examples, Prof Vaidya emphasised the need for adopting modern cost management techniques for facilitating the TCM in an organisation.

Highlight of the discussion was that companies could not manage their costs effectively if they focused only on the costs incurred during the production stage. Rather it’s more important to focus on pre and post production stages, added Prof Vaidya. He also introduced concepts like target costing, life cycle costing etc.

Earlier, welcoming the participants, Shri P.K. Verma, Regional Director, PHDCCI, said with a volatile and constantly declining revenue stream, organisations were forced to realign their cost structure. A well-conceived cost-reduction strategy could enable managers to capture maximum value in the form of direct savings. Therefore, we needed to adopt an approach to strategic cost reduction and cost management that streamlined the processes and used the best practice to optimise the cost structure of an organisation.

Dr Parvinder Arora, Associate Professor, IMT, Gaziabad, highlighted how traditional costing systems failed to provide required information for decision making. He made his point through a case study that how activity-based costing provided accurate and meaningful information to facilitate effective cost management in an organisation.

Speaking on the importance of benchmarking, Mr Tej Magzine, a consultant, said it was a process used in management and particularly strategic management, in which companies evaluated various aspects of their business processes in relation to the best practice, usually within their own industry. This then allowed companies to develop plans on how to adopt such a practice. Benchmarking may be a one-off event, but is often treated as a continuous process in which companies continually seek to challenge their practices.

Benchmarking should be an integrated effort for business purposes and not an isolated departmental effort, added Mr Magzine. 

Ludhiana, January 30
Former PAU Vice-Chancellor and present Chairman of the Punjab State Farmers’ Commission Gurcharan Singh Kalkat has been awarded the Padma Bhushan. Dr Kalkat is the third student of the PAU to get the award. Earlier, Dr Khem Singh Gill and Dr S.S. Johl have received this honour.

Varsity Vice-Chancellor K.S. Aulakh congratulated Dr Kalkat and said it was a matter of pride that he first got the Padma Shri and now the Padma Bhushan.

PAUTA president A.S. Sohi and secretary Inder Mohan Chhibba also congratulated Dr Kalkat. PAU Director of Research B.S. Dhillon, Director of Extension Education N.S. Malhi, PAU Board of Management members Dalip Singh Sidhu, Mr Avtar Singh Dhindsa and Dr Mohinder Singh Bajwa, president and secretary of the Punjab Kisan Club Pavittar Pal Singh Pangli and Hardev Singh Ghanaur, respectively, also congratulated Dr Kalkat.

Dr Kalkat has served as the Director of Agriculture, Punjab Agricultural Commission, Government of India, the Agricultural Adviser, World Bank, and the PAU Vice-Chancellor.