Competitiveness of Indian Manufacturing: Finding of the 2001 National Manufacturing Survey

In this paper we present findings of the second national survey on the competitiveness of Indian manufacturing. The paper develops hypotheses on the competitiveness of firms in the manufacturing sector and addresses some key questions on the characteristics of world class firms in India. We analyze the processes and practices that such firms have adopted to become world class. More important, we highlight firm level practices that are preventing Indian firms from becoming globally competitive. The findings point towards three distinct aspects of manufacturing management that define the capabilities of the firm, i.e., strategies related to dynamic control of shop floors, network linkages and innovation. It is found that firms that build distinctive technological and managerial capabilities in these domains are able to compete globally. The paper provides a comparison with manufacturing capabilities of competitors in China and draws lessons for organizing large scale manufacturing. It also provides an assessment of the changes that have happened in manufacturing priorities and strategies in India since our last survey that was conducted in 1997 and highlights the implications of these changes.

Synchronization in an evolving network

In this work we study the dynamics of Kuramoto oscillators on a stochastically evolving network whose evolution is governed by the phases of the individual oscillators and degree distribution. Synchronization is achieved after a threshold connection density is reached. This cumulative effect of topology and dynamics has many real-world implications, where synchronization in a system emerges as a collective property of its components in a self-organizing manner. The synchronous state remains stable as long as the connection density remains above the threshold value, with additional links providing resilience against network fluctuations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Jamming in a lattice model of stochastically interacting agents with a field of view

We study the collective dynamics of a lattice model of stochastically interacting agents with a weighted field of vision. We assume that agents preferentially interact with neighbours, depending on their relative location, through velocity alignments and the additional constraint of exclusion. Unlike in previous models of flocking, here the stochasticity arises intrinsically from the interactions between agents, and its strength is dependent on the local density of agents. We find that this system yields a first-order jamming transition as a consequence of these interactions, even at a very low density. Furthermore, the critical jamming density is found to strongly depend on the nature of the field of view.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures + 3 pages supplementary materia