Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As) are used as an instrument of exponential growth by companies. Companies choose to merge for various reasons: to avoid the long gestation period of projects, for access to new markets and technology, for better economies of scale, etc. The Indian Companies Act, 2013 has been the new revelation in the M&A regime in India. Mergers have become tools of business strategy to not only gain strength and expand customer base but also for eliminating competition and tax liabilities, and to cover the losses of one company against the profits of another.1 In 2016, an alternative to the lengthy and time-consuming process for mergers was introduced under Section 233 of the Act. This paper aims to understand the concept of fast-track mergers and compare the procedures in India and Singapore. The paper also aims to comprehend if fast-track mergers will help overcome a plausible recession.

he strategic benefits of managing suppliers' relationship cannot be over emphasized as more and more organizations have started to realize that they are becoming completely reliant on the suppliers in terms of innovative power, security of supply, corporate social responsibility, and cost saving. Managing strategic partnerships is the top agenda of many organizations both in developed and developing countries. Despite the strategic benefits of the SRM, not all companies are appreciating the value of building strong relationship with the suppliers. This study investigates the challenges facing organizations in the whole process of creating competitive advantages through building strong supplier relationship. The study investigated 120 small manufacturing organizations in the country in order to gain better understanding of the typical challenges that hinder the ability of the companies to create competitive advantage. The study found that many organizations surveyed encounter difficulties in imitating, developing, and managing the relationships. Out of the surveyed organizations, less than 20% are found to have business relationships with their suppliers, and that relationship is not even strong to guarantee success to both parties. Lack of trust among the suppliers and manufacturers has been cited by many as the main challenge facing organizations in managing supplier relationship. Managers in these organizations believe that creating partnerships with suppliers, is all about exposing the organizations to the competitors and losing ground in the market place. The other challenges mostly mentioned were corporate culture, business strategy, leadership skills, technical and functional competencies among others. By using exploratory factor analysis, the findings were categorized into supplier-buyer interface challenges, buyers own challenges, suppliers own challenges and the size of the organizations.

The Wuhan Municipal Corporation reported the first case of coronavirus in China on December 31, 2019. After that, the virus spread across the globe. And as the pandemic caused by the coronavirus continues to spread, governments across the globe are having a difficult time in analyzing and predicting the course of the evolving situation. The first case of coronavirus in India was reported on January 30, 2020, post which the virus gradually spread its tentacles, forcing the government to declare a stringent lockdown on March 24, 2020. While the pandemic is a global problem, it is all the more severe in India given the large population base of 1.3 billion people. The other challenge is limited medical resources per capita population base. The leadership has to contain the spread of the virus and at the same time upgrade its medical infrastructure to deal with the disease. This paper is an effort to map leadership initiatives in the context of VUCA, an acronym which stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity, to fight the coronavirus.