Maulana Muhammad Ali - A Strategic Point in Indo-Muslim Politics (Comment)

‘A great man’, says Justice Oliver Wendell, Jr, ‘represents a great ganglion in the nerves of society, or to vary the figure, a strategic point in the campaign of history, and part of his greatness consists in being there’. (italic ours). And Maulana Muhammad Ali was one such nerve-centre in Indo-Muslim society during the second and third decades of the twentieth century. Indeed, he was one such strategic point in the onward march of Indo-Muslim politics that eventually found culmination and crystallization in the emergence of Pakistan. Actually no one else represented the tone, tenor and temper of the romanticist, Khilafatist era (in the 1910s and 1920s) as he did in his hectic life, his revolutionary activities his numerous discomfitures, and in his tragic death. Whether he led a hectic life, whether he took recourse to a revolutionary path, or whether he goaded himself to die a tragic death outside the frontiers of his motherland cataclysmically, in whatever he did, he, consciously or unconsciously, carried forward the campaign of Indo-Muslim history: the redemption of Islam in India and abroad. In other words, he stood, above all, for an honourable existence for Muslims in India and in the rest of the troubled Muslim world in the existential crisis that convulsed Muslim India and that world.

Challenges of Manufacturing Born Global SME : Evidence from Surgical Instrument Manufacturing Cluster, Sialkot, Pakistan

Owing to their gigantic participation in global economic growth, the phenomenon of SMEs internationalization has become the centre of attention for numerous researchers. The firms operating from low-tech industry and from developing nation were largely ignored. Internationalization phenomenon from underdeveloped cluster of a developing nation facing daunting challenges that hinder SMEs performance and growth; turns out to be an attention-grabbing area – hence, worth-investigating. The purpose of this study is to investigate the challenges of manufacturing born global SMEs from surgical instrument manufacturing cluster Sialkot, Pakistan. More specifically, the objective is to explore the kind of challenges and their effect on the performance of these born global SMEs. To carry out this research, data was collected through a questionnaire from 100 respondents (managers/entrepreneurs). Based on the findings, the study identify the challenges like employees' loyalty, shortage of skilled technical workforce, retention of experienced and skilled workforce, staff motivation, staff recognition and promotion, staff development, and performance appraisals. The results of this study also support the hypothesis that poor management skills (FIRM, marketing, finance, and production) are challenges and contribute to the poor performance of manufacturing born global SMEs. Manufacturing born global SMEs are facing challenge of lack of government policy on born global SMEs, tax issues and reduced rebates, and shortage of skilled labor force.