Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

About: Indian Institute of Management Calcutta is a education organization based out in Kolkata, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Supply chain & Emerging markets. The organization has 415 authors who have published 1354 publications receiving 21725 citations. The organization is also known as: IIMC & IIM Calcutta.

A decision support system for mean-variance analysis in multi-period inventory control

Abstract: Traditionally inventory management models have focused on risk-neutral decision making with the objective of maximizing the expected rewards or minimizing costs over a specified time horizon. However, for items marked by high demand volatility such as fashion goods and technology products, this objective needs to be balanced against the risk associated with the decision. Depending on how the product performs vis-a-vis the seller's original forecast, the seller could end up with losses due to either short or surplus supply. Unfortunately, traditional models do not address this issue. Stochastic dynamic programming models have been extensively used for sequential decision making in the context of multi-period inventory management, but in the traditional way where one either minimizes costs or maximizes profits. Risk is implicitly considered by accounting for stock-out costs. Considering risk and reward simultaneously and explicitly in a stochastic dynamic setting is a cumbersome task and often difficult to implement for practical purposes, since dynamic programming is designed to optimize on one variable, not two. In this paper we develop an algorithm, Variance-Retentive Stochastic Dynamic Programming that tracks variance as well as expected reward in a stochastic dynamic programming model for inventory control. We use the mean-variance solutions in a heuristic, RiskTrackr, to construct efficient frontiers which could be an ideal decision support tool for risk-reward analysis.

The planning and development of New Bombay.

Abstract: Since independence (1947), foremost among the issues related to the growth of Bombay has been the decision to build New Bombay, a new city on the mainland across from Bombay island. In this paper, I examine first, the emergence of the idea of New Bombay and the interest groups who influenced the planning process. Secondly, I examine the actual achievements of the New Bombay project and the disjuncture between planning and reality. The New Bombay case shows clearly the way the political environment can influence the planning process. Confronted with the demands of different interest groups, the state in its urban planning opted for a solution which would accommodate all of them. In the process, many of the original objectives of building the new city have remained unfulfilled.

Sustainable Development and Governance: Complex Processes and Unpredictable Outcomes

Abstract: This article tries to demonstrate how the concept of sustainable development is fraught with tensions that are political and ethical in nature. In trying to implement any notion of sustainability the agenda for policy action would be quite different in different contexts. The complex set of problems to be addressed would differ considerably in countries with different levels of economic development. Similarly, on certain issues global governance is called for. In other contexts, local conditions and culture must be understood before any policy intervention can be thought of. This is the first level of complexity with which any governance mechanism for sustainability must come to terms with. Governance itself is also inherently complex. It is an unfolding of a complicated interaction between different participants such as policy-makers, the wide variety of agencies which come together in the process of implementation and the beneficiaries themselves. Policy, and its outcomes, should not be viewed as a line...

Securing the Himalayas as the Water Tower of Asia: An Environmental Perspective

Abstract: T he crucial role of mountains as the creators and providers of large volumes of freshwater and as the natural storage site of this vital ecosystem service attracted the special attention of world leaders after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992.1 This essay addresses the role of the Himalayas as the provider of crucial freshwater supplies to a larger number of people than any other mountain range in the world. The essay first describes the eco-hydrology of the Himalayan region, and then turns to examine the role of the Himalayan rivers in Asia’s economic and demographic growth. It concludes by analyzing the ecological imperative of sustaining the Himalayan waters.

An optimal ordering policy for situations with uncertainty in supply

Abstract: A one-period inventory model where supply is a random variable with mean proportional to the quantity ordered has been considered. Under new better than used in expectation assumption on the supply variable, a strategy which maximizes a minimum profit has been suggested. An estimate for this maximin order quantity whenever the (customer) demand distribution is unknown has been proposed and almost sure convergence of this estimate to its true value with increasing sample size has been established.