Hindustan Gum is an agro-processor in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. It is primarily in the business of processing guar gum. The market volatility in demand and prices have shot up due to the need of guar gum in the new and growing shale gas fracking, primarily in the US. Hindustan Gum has been trying to respond to this by considering options like expansion in processing, and contract farming for guar seed sourcing.

This case describes the social cultural challenges confronted by Mr. Srikanth, President, Rotary Club, Chennai in making a village near Chennai in rural Tamil Nadu, Open Defecation Free (ODF). It highlights the role of a non-profit organization such as the Rotary Club and behavioural change consultants such as Feedback Foundation in the effective deployment of toilet construction and bringing about a social cultural change in village communities towards acceptance of ODF. The case also points to the of critical need of Swachh Bharat Mission addressing the socio cultural issues and bringing behavioural change, towards acceptance of ODF.

This case describes the events following an incident of a rape in a taxi associated with Uber, by its driver. Uber was an application based taxi operator. The events raised several issues for government systems and processes, such as need for regulation of new formats of business like application based taxi services, integrated databases, checks against forgery and holistic approach towards women safety. The case also brings out how an e-commerce business raises regulatory concerns.

KaraikalPort Private Limited (KPPL) was a special purpose vehicle created by MARG on February 18, 2006 to develop Karaikal port. According to the concession agreement signed for a period of 30 years, KPPL was given rights to Karaikal port on a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis. It was to build the port in three different stages, based on short term, midterm and long term demand. By August 22, 2011, it has completed construction of phase I and phase II of the port. Though the project had not faced any major problems in its development, there were issues such as restriction on availability of land for any future expansion, limited scope of hinterland businesses, small scale environmental issues and others that needed to be addressed for a positive future development of the port.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) suggested the construction of a dedicated express metro line from the city centre to the airport, which had just been handed over to a private party for development. Among the options available to the DMRC was private participation in the project. The structuring had to be such that the project would be completed by the Commonwealth Games deadline of September 2010. The case provides an opportunity to discuss the various structuring options for a public-private-partnership (PPP), the criteria for assessment, and financial analysis in the context of a large infrastructure project.

Towards the end of 90s, mounting losses forced Madhya Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (MPSRTC), the sole provider of public transport in Madhya Pradesh, to suspend their urban services. As a consequence, organized public transport services ceased to exist in Indore, the largest metropolitan city of the state of Madhya Pradesh. This void was filled by Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) consisting of minibuses, tempos and auto rickshaws. As of January 2004, 300 private minibuses, 150 tempos, and 10,000 auto rickshaws were plying as IPT, but with poor service levels. Lack of public transport was a catalyst for rapid increase in personalized vehicles, and high level of pollution and accidents. Worried over the rapid growth of personalized vehicles, and high levels of pollution and accidents in Indore, policy makers and administrators had made several attempts of reviving the public transport system in the city. In 2005, the Collector and District Magistrate of Indore decided to make another attempt of reviving the public transport. The two cases, Indore City Bus Transport Service (A) and Indore City Bus Transport Service (B) discuss the complexity involved in the planning, rolling out, and running of public transport services in Indore on a sustainable basis.

Supplement to case A00024. Towards the end of 90s, mounting losses forced Madhya Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (MPSRTC), the sole provider of public transport in Madhya Pradesh, to suspend their urban services. As a consequence, organized public transport services ceased to exist in Indore, the largest metropolitan city of the state of Madhya Pradesh. This void was filled by Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) consisting of minibuses, tempos and auto rickshaws. As of January 2004, 300 private minibuses, 150 tempos, and 10,000 auto rickshaws were plying as IPT, but with poor service levels. Lack of public transport was a catalyst for rapid increase in personalized vehicles, and high level of pollution and accidents. Worried over the rapid growth of personalized vehicles, and high levels of pollution and accidents in Indore, policy makers and administrators had made several attempts of reviving the public transport system in the city. In 2005, the Collector and District Magistrate of Indore decided to make another attempt of reviving the public transport. The two cases, Indore City Bus Transport Service (A) and Indore City Bus Transport Service (B) discuss the complexity involved in the planning, rolling out, and running of public transport services in Indore on a sustainable basis. Case (A) details the prevalent socio-economic condition, travel characteristics, and positions taken by various stakeholders on provisioning of public transport service in Indore as of November 2005. Case (B) discusses the challenges during the growth and operation of the services as of June 2008. Unprecedented rise in crude oil prices along with (i) increase in maintenance cost of buses, price of new buses, and bank interest and (ii) decrease/marginal increase in the fare box revenue (more people were shifting to passes) and advertisement revenue depleted the margin of the operators. The fares had not been increased since the launch of services in February 2006.

This case exercise enables an understanding of applying Queuing models in the context of Queues in a post office. The issues of universalization of country due to computerization, appropriate segmentation of client system to help demand analysis are also highlighted.