My Views for the World...

India in top 5, Want to know where?

2010-08-10T22:20:00.000-07:00

Every single person wants to look good. The desire and wish to attract people and look good is not only the habits observed in western countries but also on the shores of India too. According to a global survey released on Tuesday, India ranks among the top five nations for cosmetic surgical and non-surgical procedures. The statistics, released by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, shows that cosmetic surgery is becoming popular in countries with emerging economies, such as India and China because these emerging economies are generating a lot of wealth and as that wealth is passed around, people are choosing to spend their discretionary income on aesthetic procedures.

While rhinoplasty or a nose job was the favourite surgical procedure in India, it is no longer the case. In fact, like with the US, the most popular procedure is liposuction or surgical removal of fat tissues.In India, too, the demand for liposuction has increased, along with hair transplant and breast augmentation. All the techniques are easily available in metro cities and towns, people have more disposable income than before to spend.

International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery's Top 10 Countries - US, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Turkey & Spain.

So now we can rightly say, you can buy beauty with money, with no guarantee how long it will last.

Source: TOI

Permission Marketing

2010-08-04T03:28:00.000-07:00

Its been quite sometimes that I have updated my blog. So I thought its better I do it soon. Of late, I have been following the blog of Seth Godin, an American author, public speaker and entrepreneur. While going through all his work, I came to know that he was the sole person behind coining and popularizing the term 'Permission Marketing'. It is more specifically used for e - Marketing. Marketers obtain permission before advancing to the next step in the purchasing process. For example, they ask permission to send email newsletters to prospective customers. It is mostly used by online marketers, notably email marketers and search marketers, as well as certain direct marketers who send a catalog in response to a request.

This form of marketing requires that the prospective customer have either given explicit permission for the marketer to send all the necessary promotional message (e.g. an email or catalog request) or implicit permission (e.g. querying a search engine). This can be either via an online email opt-in form or by using search engines, which implies a request for information. Most marketers feel that this is a more efficient use of their resources because the offers are only sent to people that are actually interested in the product. This is one technique used by marketers that have a personal marketing orientation. They feel that marketing should be done on a one-to-one basis rather than using broad aggregated concepts.

As Seth Godin says, permission marketing is one which turns strangers into friends and then eventually, friends into customers.

Source: Wiki

Refreshing Quotes...

2010-03-21T23:58:00.000-07:00

Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.

Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone.

Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.

Life itself is a quotation.

By George Luis Borges

No Google in China!!!

2010-03-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

Google says that its 99.9% sure. Now what is Google so sure about? Its sure about closing down the Chinese search engine. A detailed plan has been chalked out to stop operations of Chinese search engine. China warned Google against flouting the country's laws, as expectations grow for a resolution to a public battle over censorship and cyber-security. Google shocked business and political circles in January when it threatened to pull out of China if it could not offer an unfiltered Chinese search engine. The threat came after cyber attacks originating from China on it and about 30 other firms.

"If you don't respect Chinese laws, you are unfriendly and irresponsible, and the consequences will be on you," China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Li Yizhong, told reporters in answer to a question on what China would do if Google.cn simply stopped filtering search results. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shares oversight of the Chinese Internet with a number of other bodies. Still more bureaucracies are involved in matters of foreign investment, complicating the Chinese government's response to Google's challenge.

Source: TOI

Save Tigers, Save the Planet!!!

2010-02-01T02:15:00.000-08:00

Intensified efforts have been made this year, 2010 to save tigers around the world with the species being named as one among the endangered of WWF's top 10 animals. Biologists have placed Panthera tigris at the top of a list of 10 key animals facing extinction, which should become the focus for major conservation efforts in 2010. This year has been designated the International Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations and so they have created a list of 10 critically important endangered animals that they believe will need special monitoring over the next 12 months.

The world's population of tigers has been reduced by 95 percent as a result of hunting and poaching for their body parts, which are used in traditional Asian medicine. There are only around 3,200 tigers left on the planet. Of its nine main sub-species, three - the Bali, Caspian and Java tigers - are now extinct, while there has been no reliable siting of a fourth, the South China tiger, for 25 years. This leaves the Bengal, Amur, Indochinese, Sumatran and Malayan tigers, the numbers of which, with the exception of the Bengal and Indochinese, have been reduced to a few hundred per species.

Tiger is an umbrella species. It’s conservation automatically ensures the conversation of a large number of flora and fauna and entire ecosystems. Thus, a properly planned tiger conservation programme is actually a programme to protect and save large number of species. However, a dwindeling tiger population and news of declining number of tigers only implies an immediate threat to what is remaining of our natural ecosystems. A healthy tiger population thus also protects all that remains of our natural ecosystems.

The combination of grace, strength, agility and enormous power has earned the tiger its pride of place as the national animal of India. Thus, save tigers in order to save our National Pride.

Algorithmic Trading

2010-01-26T23:21:00.000-08:00

Algorithmic Trading - a trading system that utilizes very advanced mathematical models for making transaction decisions in the financial markets. The strict rules built into the model attempt to determine the optimal time for an order to be placed that will cause the least amount of impact on a stock's price. Large blocks of shares are usually purchased by dividing the large share block into smaller lots and allowing the complex algorithms to decide when the smaller blocks are to be purchased.

The use of algorithmic trading is most commonly used by large institutional investors due to the large amount of shares they purchase everyday. Complex algorithms allow these investors to obtain the best possible price without significantly affecting the stock's price and increasing purchasing costs.

It is also referred to as algo trading, black box trading or robo trading, is the use of computer programs for entering trading orders with the computer algorithm deciding on aspects of the order such as the timing, price, or quantity of the order, or in many cases initiating the order without human intervention. Algorithmic Trading is widely used by pension funds, mutual funds and other buy side (investor driven) institutional traders, to divide large trades into several smaller trades in order to manage market impacts and risk.

Source: Wikipedia

Get Inspired!!!

2010-01-07T20:38:00.000-08:00

Appreciate yourself by allowing yourself the opportunities to grow, develop, and find your true sense of purpose in this life.

Happy New Year 2010!!!

2009-12-30T20:52:00.000-08:00

Wishing all my blog readers, family and friends a very Happy New Year 2010. May this coming year surmounts the crisis world has seen over the last few months and brings in new hopes, aspirations, luck, prosperity and success to one and all.

Richest Arab

2009-12-20T21:29:00.000-08:00

Saudi Arabia's prince Alwaleed bin Tala is the richest Arab. CitiGroup's largest individual investor, Alwaleed who added $1 billion to his personal wealth, was ranked the richest Arab businessman by Arabian Business magazine.

Alwaleed’s assets were valued at $18 billion, the Dubai-based magazine told in its 2009 Arab Rich List, adding that the figure was confirmed by the Saudi Arabian prince’s office in Riyadh. It compares with Alwaleed’s wealth of $17.1 billion that was reported last year. Alwaleed, 54, has seen his wealth recover as the global financial crisis shows signs of easing and share valuations recover from lows earlier in the year. In August, his assets were valued at $16.3 billion, the magazine reported, citing the accounts of Kingdom Holding Co, the prince’s Riyadh-based investment company.

The prince built his fortune by investing in brand-name companies he considered undervalued, including Apple, News Corp and Time Warner. Forbes magazine estimated he was worth $13.3 billion in March, ranking him 22nd among the world’s billionaires.

Source: ET

Famous Sayings!!!

2009-12-10T01:45:00.000-08:00

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind - Albert Einstein

The energy of the mind is the essence of life - Aristotle

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough - Oprah Winfrey

Each man is capable of doing one thing well. If he attempts several, he will fail to achieve distinction in any - Plato

Hasty climbers have sudden falls - Robert Greene

It is easy when we are in prosperity to give advice to the afflicted - Aeschylus

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens - Carl Jung

Look out for more quotes at, http://www.indianchild.com/Quotes/famous-sayings.htm

Google knows what you searched!!!

2009-12-02T22:34:00.000-08:00

Google knows exactly what everyone searched for. Starting from Katrina Kaif, Rahul Gandhi, Satyam shares, Nokia 5800 and everything under the sun roof. Google released its year-end Zeitgeist, a compilation of fastest rising and most popular words Indians keyed into the search engine this year. The guys at Google made their lists after going through billions of queries, using data from multiple sources, including Insights for Search, Google Trends and internal data tools.

Globally, Michael Jackson emerged as the fastest rising on Google search, most likely because of his untimely death. Social networking site, Facebook was No 2. In India, the fastest rising search words were budget 2009, Kambakth Ishq, IRCTC – the Indian Railways online ticket reservation website, Satyam share price.

The most popular searches, however, were for Gmail, Youtube (watching your favourite movie while at work?!), Yahoomail, Orkut and, yes, the Indian Railways. Looks like we Indians really love our trains. India’s five most popular celebs according to Google: Katrina Kaif, Michael Jackson, Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Shahid Kapoor. Shah Rukh only made it to No 7. Everyone was also looking for these politicians: Rahul Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Sachin Pilot, Sarah Palin, P Chidambaram and Mayawati came in at No 6.

Source: TOI

Nice One!!!

2009-11-30T20:42:00.000-08:00

E Payments made Easy

2009-11-29T22:05:00.000-08:00

Life has become much more easier with the advent of electronic money payments. Now it seems to be flexible even further. RBI, in order to make such electronic commerce more faster and reliable has made it mandatory that all such transactions should be credited directly to merchants, instead of getting cleared by intermediaries such as CC Avenue and Paypal.

Currently, until a payment is authorized and processed by intermediaries, a transaction is not completed. For instance, online retailers such as eBay do not ship goods purchased online unless funds are credited to their account, before being routed through an intermediary. CC Avenue, BillDesk, Direc-Pay, ICICI PaySeal and Paypal are among major payment gateways in India.

“The new measure will ensure that the epayments made by customers are remitted to the accounts of the merchants who have supplied the goods and services without undue delay,” G Padmanabhan, chief general manager at RBI said. Under the new system, all payments to merchants shall be effected within a maximum of three days from the date of transaction. The Internet and Mobile Association of India has also welcomed the move.

Source: ET

Lesson for Counterterrorism.

2009-11-22T22:09:00.000-08:00

Life is so very unpredictable. Sometimes pain and sometimes pleasure. But whatever days it might be, time just passes by. It was almost a year back that Mumbai was engulfed with the terrible hands of terrorism. 26/11 was a major eye opener for the Indian Inc and its fragile security systems. This has made large MNCs and business enterprises to take their necessary security measures and steps to counter attack terrorism. When large Indian corporations such as the Mahindras and the Essar group have formed independent teams to tackle security related issues, multinationals are forging alliances to quickly react for adverse conditions.

Multinationals such as Citi, JP Morgan, Disney, HSBC and StanChart, among others, have joined hands to rope in the law, and enforce agencies to provide nimble-footed response to an event like 26/11. Indian business houses such as the Tatas are also doing risk analysis based on information given by law-enforcement agencies. “We do periodic risk analysis to bolster security,” said R Gopalakrishnan, director, Tata Sons.

Retail companies, which are at a higher risk with thousands of people entering it every day, have been aggressive in bringing better security practices. Shoppers Stop, a Mumbai-based retail chain, has installed bomb checking machines, similar to the ones used for airport security, at most of their outlets.

Source: ET

Social Networking Alliances

2009-11-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

Now a days we can see a good lot of social networking sites coming together and merging with one another in order to have maximum impact on the fellow online and internet users. Linkedin and Twitter are now in the news. LinkedIn and Twitter have linked up. Starting immediately, users of LinkedIn and Twitter can communicate and use services of both by checking a box on either Twitter or LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the largest professional social network with 50 million members around the world who post information about themselves, such as resumes, to help find jobs or employees, and to stay in touch with each other.

Twitter allows people to broadcast short messages up to 140 characters to subscribers, LinkedIn also has an update box, which happens to be 140 characters. in addition to the obvious advantage of increasing the audience for either tweets or LinkedIn information there were two other advantages to the new collaboration.

Twitter "wants to take advantage of the strong identity in LinkedIn to make those professional tweeters more successful." While anyone may sign up for a Twitter account without revealing their real identity, LinkedIn is based on the social networking idea that people put their identities on the Web. Second, LinkedIn users who cross-post will be speaking both to their followers and to the broader Twitter audience that searches for tweets by keywords, location, user and the most current topics.

Source: ET

Dry Run

2009-11-03T23:15:00.000-08:00

Dry run means a rehearsal, an opportunity to practice, in simple terms. Douglas Wilson, of the American Dialect Society, has traced the origin of Dry run back as far as 1899 where it was used by fire companies to describe a type of drill. More technically, A dry run is a testing process where the effects of a possible failure are intentionally mitigated. For example, an aerospace company may conduct a "dry run" of a takeoff using a new aircraft on a runway before the first test flight.

In computer programming, a dry run is a mental run of a computer program where the computer programmer examines the source code one step at a time and determines what it will do when run. In theoretical computer science, a dry run is a mental run of an algorithm sometimes expressed in pseudo code, where the programmer examines the algorithm's procedures one step at a time.

Source: Wikipedia

If your Beautiful, then you have a Website to join

2009-10-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

Membership only for beautiful people! Yes, you heard it right. An online dating agency that allows membership only to good looking people is to launch its website worldwide despite being criticized a lot. The site, Beautifulpeople.com, was launched in Denmark several years ago is going to operate once again globally.

The lonely hearts website has currently some 180,000 members, who were asked to submit a photograph of themselves, allowing other members to decide through an online rating system whether they were attractive enough to be admitted. Only about one in five applications to the website succeed in getting through the rating system, which draw flak from various quarters for being superficial and discriminating people who are relatively less attractive.

Greg Hodge, managing director of the site, however, defends the process and says there is nothing wrong in creating a club of beautiful people in the world. The website, which has presence in the US and the UK currently, promises successful applicants "glamorous parties, a jet-set global network and "potential contracts from top modelling agencies".

Source: ET

2009-10-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self - Aldous Huxley

Doctors don' t wash their hands!!!

2009-10-20T22:30:00.000-07:00

A good eye opening survey for the doctors and medical practitioners. Doctors are still lagging behind nurses when it comes to keeping their hands clean, collaborative research from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission has found. A series of four landmark studies found that nurses were far better than doctors and other allied health workers in matters of hand hygiene.

There was a campaign conducted for clean hands and overall improvement in hygiene between February 2006 and February 2007 but the result was not satisfactory. The findings suggest much more needs to be done to educate doctors and allied health workers about the benefits of clean hands and to empower nurses to initiate changes. "Doctors are going to be horrified when they see this data. No doctor thinks 'I'm going to work today to infect my patients'," said study author Mary-Louise McLaws, director of Public Health Programs at UNSW.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified hand hygiene as a key element in reducing rates of hospital acquired infections.

Source: TOI

Happy Diwali

2009-10-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

Wishing all my dear friends and blog readers a very Happy and Prosperous Diwali. May this light brings joy, love, happiness, peace and prosperity to everyone's life.

The Nazca Lines...Mysterious!!!

2009-10-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Nazca Lines are a series of geolyphs located in the Nazca Desert, a high arid plateau that stretches more than 80 kilometres (50 mi) between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana in Peru. There are hundreds of individual figures, ranging in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish, sharks or orcas, llamas, and lizards. The lines are shallow designs in the ground where the reddish pebbles that cover the surrounding landscape have been removed, revealing the whitish earth underneath.

There are many theories which explains the existence if such lines. Many scholars have specified several understandings and explanations. Scholars differ in interpreting what the lines were for but generally ascribe religious significance to them. "The geometric ones could indicate the flow of water or be connected to rituals to summon water. The spiders, birds, and plants could be fertility symbols. Other possible explanations include: irrigation schemes or giant astronomical calendars.

One famous theory tells that the purpose of the lines is that the Nazca people's motivations were religious and that the images were constructed so that gods in the sky could see them. However till date the exact reason for such lines out there can't be explained. Why were such lines drawn which can be seen only if flied high up in the sky, mind it, airplanes were next to impossible thing at that time to think.

Source: Wikipedia

Twitter is all about Oneself!!!

2009-10-13T03:31:00.000-07:00

Most of the twitters generally tweets about themselves as like what they are doing, what they are eating, drinking, etc etc. A Rutgers University study released this week shows that 80% of Twitterers are largely tweeting about themselves - what they’re doing, their feelings, their opinions and other personal information. Only 20% of the 350 Twitter users surveyed are sharing non-personal information and they tend to have larger social networks and interact more with their followers.

“While ‘meformers’ typically post messages relating to themselves or their thoughts, informers post messages that are informational in nature,” wrote Rutgers researcher. In August, Pear Analytics LLC reported that 40.55% of tweets are “pointless babble. The study about the frivolousness of so many tweets have come out just as Twitter has gained much-needed credibility in recent months. Astronauts used Twitter to communicate from space, tweets have been issued from the White House, and Twitter turned into something of a lifeline for the people of Iran during the recent government crackdown over disputed elections there.

Twitter, though, is still dogged by the reputation that many people simply use the site to blather on about a bad cup of coffee, a good hair day or the annoyance of having to park too far from the mall entrance. Despite this, the microblogging site has been skyrocketing in popularity this year. Though it’s only the fifth most popular social networking site, use of Twitter increased by 3,712% year-over-year this past April to nearly 300 million minutes.

Source: ComputerWorld

Unified Communications

2009-10-12T04:10:00.000-07:00

Unified communications (UC) is the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging, presence information, IP Telephony, video conferencing, speech control and call controls with non real-time communication services such as unified messaging (integrated voicemail, fax, SMS, email, etc). UC is not a single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types.

UC allows an individual to send a message on one medium and receive on another. It should be possible to easily transfer any activity or message to another medium. For example, one can receive a voice mail message and choose to access it through email or a cell phone. If the sender is online according to the presence information and currently accepts calls, the response can be sent immediately through text chat or video call. Otherwise, it may be sent as a non real-time message that can be accessed through a variety of media.

Unified communications helps businesses, small and large alike, to streamline information delivery and ensure ease of use. Human delays are also minimized or eliminated, resulting in better, faster interaction and service-delivery for the customer, and cost savings for the business. Unified communications also allows for easier, more direct collaboration between co-workers and with suppliers and clients, even if they are not physically on the same site. This allows for possible reductions in business travel, especially with multi-party video communications.

Source: Wikipedia

Rise in Indian GDP

2009-10-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

After days and months of turmoils, ups and downs, now we can see a healing economy. The latest Government data showed the economy growing by 6.1% YOY during the first quarter of the fiscal. This growth rate means India remains the second-fastest growing major economy after China, which notched almost an 8% growth rate. More importantly, it's an improvement over the 5.8% notched up by India in the previous quarter and 5.3% recorded in the quarter before that.

Electricity generation and mining output were the best performers as they grew 6.2% and 7.9%, respectively, in the first quarter of this fiscal against 2.7% and 4.6% a year ago. Financing, insurance, real estate and business services also expanded 8.1% against 6.9% from a year-ago period. Construction was slightly down at 7.1% from 8.4% and community services at 6.8% from 8.2%. The services sector, which accounts for more than 57% of the economy's output, grew an annual 7.8% in the first quarter, against 10.2% in the year-ago period. Manufacturing output expanded 3.4% in the June quarter, while farm output was up 2.4%.

The worst-hit sectors were trade, hotels, transport & communication. Together, these sectors posted 8.1% growth in the first quarter this fiscal compared to 13% a year ago. Manufacturing was down to 3.4% against 5.5% and agriculture to 2.4% versus 3%.

Source: TOI

Few Oscar Wilde Quotes

2009-10-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.

One should never trust a woman who tells her real age. If she tells that, she'll tell anything.

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.

Turnkey Projects

2009-10-07T10:03:00.000-07:00

A turn-key or a turn-key project is a type of project that is constructed by a developer and sold or turned over to a buyer in a ready-to-use condition. Turn-key refers to something that is ready for immediate use, generally used in the sale or supply of goods or services. The term is common in the construction industry, for instance, in which it refers to the bundling of materials and labor by sub contractors.

In a turnkey business transaction, different entities are responsible for setting up a plant or equipments and for putting it into operation. It can include contractual actions - at least through the system, subsystem, or equipment installation phase. It may also include follow-on contractual actions, such as testing, training, logistical, and operational support. It is often given to the best bidder in a procurement process.

Turnkey projects can also be extended, known as turnkey plus, where there is perhaps a small equity interest by the supplier and it will later on continue its operation through a management contracts or licensing. Turnkey is often used to describe a home built ready for the customer to move in. If a contractor builds a "turnkey home" they frame the structure and finish the interior. Everything is completed down to the cabinets and carpet.

Source: Wikipedia

Kubera Kolam

2009-10-06T01:59:00.000-07:00

Magic squares have fascinated humanity throughout the ages, and have been around for over 4,120 years. They are found in a number of cultures, including Egypt and India, engraved on stone or metal and worn as talismans, the belief being that magic squares had astrological and divinatory qualities, their usage ensuring longevity and prevention of diseases. The Kubera-Kolam is a floor painting used in India which is in the form of a magic square of order three. It is essentially the same as the Lo Shu Square, but with 19 added to each number, giving a magic constant of 72.

The 3x3 magic square was used as part of rituals in India from vedic times, and continues to be used to date. A well known early 4x4 magic square in India can be seen in Khajuraho in the Prashvanath Jain temple. It dates from the 10th century. Kubera is the god of wealth and god's treasurer. Kubera watches over the earth's storehouse of all jewels, gold, silver, and the nine Nidhis (special treasures). We worship him to attain wealth and prosperity. Kubera kolam is drawn in the pooja room to obtain prosperity in the form of wealth. Red color flowers are considered auspicious for Kubera.

Cyber Security should be given importance.

2009-10-04T06:28:00.000-07:00

Using internet from home and office. Its time to be aware. We should think before we click because who knows who is there in the other receiving end. What we say or do in cyberspace stays in cyberspace, for many to see, steal and use against us or our government. The Internet, said former national intelligence director Michael McConnell, "is the soft underbelly" of the US today. Speaking recently at a new cyber-security exhibit at the International Spy Museum in Washington, McConnell said the internet has "introduced a level of vulnerability that is unprecedented."

The Pentagon's computer systems are probed 360 million times a day, and one prominent power company has acknowledged that its networks see up to 70,000 scans a day, according to cyber-security expert James Lewis.

Steps to improve computer security at home include:

1) Using antivirus software, spam filters, parental controls and firewalls.

2) Regularly backing up important files to external computer drives.

3) Thinking twice before sending information over the Internet, particularly when using wireless or unsecured public networks.

Source: ET

Rich Old Man...Funny One!!!

2009-09-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

The rich old man
Wants nothing at all
But the comfort of his money
Available on call.

He has no lover,
He is far too old
But his bonds and his equities
Warm him in the cold.

He has no tailor
And he buys no gear.
He totals his investments
When he needs some cheer.

He drinks no claret
And he has no friends.
He only talks to brokers
About his dividends.

He owns a Bentley
Which has two flat tyres
But the old man's faxes
They burn up the wires.

Buy Emerging Markets,
Gold is a Sell
And the old man chuckles
When it all goes well.

And the young folk wonder
How they might switch
From poor, young and happy
To greedy, old and rich.

By - Joe Pamanian

Underwater World!!!

2009-09-24T08:21:00.000-07:00

Is it a true underwater picture? Looks amazing.

Indians most corrupted Abroad

2009-09-23T08:04:00.000-07:00

At least 30 per cent of 2,742 business executives surveyed across the world regard Indians among the most corrupt when doing business abroad to "speed things up", according to a report by an NGO Transparency International India (TII). "The Global Corruption Report 2009: Corruption and the Private Sector (GCR)" which was released today worldwide claims that Indian and Chinese companies play an active role in global business but engage in "bribery" when doing business abroad.

The Competition Act enacted in 2002 which promotes and sustains competition in markets and protects the interest of consumers has remained a non-starter in India, as per the report. "A minimum of 100 senior executives each in 26 countries were questioned regarding the practices used by business persons from various nations," it says.

Another concern the report addresses is how the sheer economic power of some firms and business sectors translates into disproportionate and undue leverage on political-decision making.

Source: ET

ILLUSION

2009-09-22T08:09:00.000-07:00

Longest Words in English

2009-09-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

Don't know how much true, but this is the longest words in English.

Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl...isoleucine consists of 189,819 letters is Chemical name of titin, the largest known protein.

Verisign Certificate Authority

2009-09-18T07:47:00.000-07:00

Cryptography, the science of coding messages so that only a specific audience understands them. Certificate authorities provides encryption services for "netizens" of the world wide web that insure security for anything from credit card purchases to national defense intelligence. Verisign, the largest certificate authority (CA) organization, assigns a digital signature to a customer that contains two encrypted codes called keys--a private key that certifies the customer and a public key, which certifies the customer to anyone using the customer's web site. These codes form what is called a "secure socket layer", or SSL (a digital system developed by Netscape) that insures the website's authenticity.

Verisign verifies web sites using a process that examines traditional documents like articles of incorporation and business licenses as well as digital verification of each site operated by the organization. It is this certification process that is represented by the Verisign trademark on participating web sites. The trademark is generally found in an upper or lower corner of a page and any order forms where personal information is requested should display one.

For more details, check out the link http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4564075_verisign-work.html

3 Indians among 25 highest paid globally

2009-09-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

Sanjay Jha of Motorola and Vikram Pandit of Citigroup are among the three who have made it to the league of top 25 highest paid men in the world. According to the list published by Fortune and compiled by executive compensation research firm Equilar Inc, Motorola Co-CEO and CEO, Mobile Devices Sanjay K Jha with a total annual compensation of $104.5 million for the year 2008 was ranked second in the list.

While, Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Vikram S Pandit with a total compensation of $38.2 million for 2008 was ranked 14th and Dinesh C Paliwal, Harman International Industries Vice-Chairman, President, and CEO with an aggregate compensation of $30.4 million secured the 25th position. The list was topped by Aubrey K McClendon Chairman and CEO of Chesapeake Energy, whose total compensation amounted to a whopping $112.5 million.

The top five highest paid men in the world include Aubrey K McClendon of Chesapeake Energy ($112.5 million), Sanjay Jha of Motorola ($104.5 million), Lawrence Ellison of Oracle ($84.5 million), Richard Adkerson of Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold ($72.3 million) and Bob R Simpson of XTO Energy ($53.5 million).

Source: ET

Anti Money Laundering

2009-09-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

Anti-money laundering (AML) is a term mainly used in the financial and legal industries to describe the legal controls that require financial institutions and other regulated entities to prevent or report money laundering activities. Today, most financial institutions globally, and many non-financial institutions, are required to identify and report transactions of a suspicious nature to the financial intelligence unit in the respective country. To do this, many financial institutions utilize the services of special software, and use the services of companies such as C6 to gather information about high risk individuals and organizations.

Many people have confused Anti-Money Laundering (AML) with Anti-Terrorist Financing (ATF). Under the Bank Secrecy Act of USA, Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing are classified into two different categories when financial institutions file suspicious activity reports (SAR). The US government encourages financial institutions to work together for AML and ATF purposes in accordance with Section 314(b) of the USA Patriot Act. However, since financial institutions are required by law to protect the privacy of their clients, section 314(b) cooperation has not been generally adopted by financial institutions. To overcome this obstacle, the United Crimes Elimination Network (UCEN) has been established by AML and ATF professionals to achieve this global cooperation goal in compliance with the privacy laws of most countries.

The financial services industry has become increasingly vocal about the rising costs of anti-money laundering regulation, and the limited benefits that appears to bring.

Source: Wikipedia

2009-09-15T08:56:00.000-07:00

I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics - BARACK OBAMA

No Indian Driver good enough for F1

2009-09-14T07:48:00.000-07:00

Karun Chandhok can kiss his Force India ambitions good-bye, at least for the time being, after chairman of the resurgent outfit Vijay Mallya said he doesn't consider any Indian driver good enough for Formula One. "My job is to make sure that the team is successful. Whichever driver I need, that is completely my decision. I want someone to convince me and justify the drama about this Indian driver thing," Mallya told Indian journalists via teleconference from Monza, where Force India driver Adrian Sutil came fourth to underline the outfit's growing stature.

"The fact remains, right now no Indian driver is good enough for Formula One," he added. "Force India carries the hope of a billion and I too would love to have an Indian driver but he must be good enough. "There is no rule, even though some people trying or propagate otherwise, that you have to have a driver of particular nationality. We need only the best drivers to get the maximum performance," he added.

Source: TOI

Some Stupid Questions!!!

2009-09-13T07:22:00.000-07:00

Why is it that when someone tells you that there’s billions of stars in the universe, you believe them. But if they tell you there’s wet paint somewhere you have to touch it?

Did you ever notice that if you blow in a dogs face it goes mad, yet when you take him on a car ride he sticks his head straight out the window?

Have you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical situations?

If man evolved from monkeys and apes, why do we still have monkeys and apes?

Why isn’t the number 11 pronounced onety one?

20 Indian Cos in Forbes "Best Under a Billion" list

2009-09-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

20 Indian companies have made the cut to enter the list of 200 best companies having sales less than $1 billion in the Asian Pacific region, compiled by business magazine Forbes. Biotech major Biocon, industrial equipment firm AIA Engineering, IT outsourcing firm Allied Digital Services, software entity AurinoPro Solutions and construction materials company Birla feature in the league of 200 companies.

"All have either increased sales and profits over the past 12 months or are forecast to do so in coming quarters. Apparel, media, technology and health care led the way. "Nearly 40 per cent of the companies are from greater China," Forbes said. The top 200 companies were picked from over 12,000 publicly-listed firms with sales of less than $1 billion in the Asia-Pacific region. "They were vetted for consistent growth of both sales and profits over three years, modest indebtedness and future prospects," the magazine said.

This year's Forbes Asia "Best under a Billion" list was mainly dominated by as many as 78 small and mid-sized firms from China and Hong Kong thanks to the relative economic strengths of these regions. Japan was the second most represented country in the coveted list with 24 companies, while its neighbour South Korea had 23 firms. India was ranked at the fourth place with 20 entries, followed by Australia with 18.

Source: ET

Man in the Browser(MITB)

2009-09-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

Man-in-the-Browser (MitB), a recent form of Internet threat related to Man in the middle (MitM), is a trojan that infects a web browser and has the ability to modify pages, modify transaction content or insert additional transactions, all in a completely covert fashion invisible to both the user and host application. A MitB attack will be successful irrespective of whether security mechanisms such as SSL/PKI and/or Two or Three Factor Authentication solutions are in place. The only way to counter a MitB attack is by utilizing transaction verification.

In an example exchange between user and host, e.g. an Internet banking transaction such as a funds transfer, the customer will always be shown, via confirmation screens, the exact payment information as keyed into the browser. The bank, however, will receive a transaction with materially altered instructions, i.e. a different destination account number and possibly amount. The use of strong authentication tools simply creates an increased level of misplaced confidence on the part of both customer and bank that the transaction is secure. Authentication, by definition, is concerned with the validation of identity credentials.

One of the most effective methods in combating a MitB attack is through an out of band(OOB) Transaction verification process. This overcomes the MitB Trojan by verifying the transaction details, as received by the host (bank), to the user (customer) over a channel other than the browser; typically an automated telephone call. OOB Transaction Verification is ideal for mass market use since it leverages devices already in the public domain (e.g. Landline, Cell Phone, etc) and requires no additional hardware devices yet enables Three Factor Authentication (utilising Voice Biometrics), Transaction Signing (to non-repudiation level) and Transaction Verification.

Source: Wikipedia

2009-09-09T08:01:00.000-07:00

The principle of give and take is the principle of diplomacy - give one and take ten - Mark Twain.

Real Time Gross Settlement(RTGS)

2009-09-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

Real time gross settlement systems (RTGS) are a funds transfer mechanism where transfer of money takes place from one bank to another on a "real time" and on "gross" basis. Settlement in "real time" means payment transaction is not subjected to any waiting period. The transactions are settled as soon as they are processed. "Gross settlement" means the transaction is settled on one to one basis without bunching with any other transaction. Once processed, payments are final and irrevocable.

The RTGS system is primarily for large value transactions. The minimum amount to be remitted through RTGS is Rs.1 lakh. There is no upper ceiling for RTGS transactions. The RTGS service window for customer's transactions is available from 9.00 hours to 16.30 hours on week days and from 9.00 hours to 12.30 noon on Saturdays for settlement at the RBI end. However, the timings that the banks follow may vary depending on the customer timings of the bank branches.

Under normal circumstances the beneficiary branches are expected to receive the funds in real time as soon as funds are transferred by the remitting bank. The beneficiary bank has to credit the beneficiary's account within two hours of receiving the funds transfer message.The remitting bank receives a message from the Reserve Bank that money has been credited to the receiving bank. Based on this the remitting bank can advise the remitting customer that money has been delivered to the receiving bank.

Source: RBI

Dalda reinvented

2009-09-07T08:32:00.000-07:00

Who in India would not know about Dalda, the iconic Indian brand once synonymous with hydrogenated cooking mediums or "vanaspati ghee", has been given a new identity and makeover after 75 years with its re-launch here as an edible oil with healthier proposition. "Bunge understands that India and Indian consumers have changed significantly in the last few years," said Adhiraj Sarin, managing director for India operations for the New York-based Bunge that acquired the Dalda brand in 2003.

"It was imperative that with edible oil business being one of our future growth drivers, Dalda needed to re-invent itself for the edible oil consumer," Sarin told a press conference here marking relaunch of the brand. The company said all Dalda oil variants will be now fortified with vitamins A, D and E. Apart from vitamins, the oils also have higher level of anti-oxidants. The product range has been launched in Kolkata and Delhi and will be rolled out nationally over the next few weeks.

The company officials said they were aiming at a double-digit market share of 15 percent by 2011 in the soybean oil category with this initiative.

Source: ET

Carbon Credits

2009-09-05T10:09:00.000-07:00

Carbon credits are a key component of national and international attempts to mitigate the growth in concentrations of greenhouse gases(GHGs). One Carbon Credit is equal to one ton of Carbon. Carbon trading is an application of an emission trading approach. Greenhouse gas emissions are capped and then markets are used to allocate the emissions among the group of regulated sources.

The idea is to allow market mechanisms to drive industrial and commercial processes in the direction of low emissions or less "carbon intensive" approaches than are used when there is no cost to emitting carbon dioxide and other GHGs into the atmosphere. Since GHG mitigation projects generate credits, this approach can be used to finance carbon reduction schemes between trading partners and around the world.

There are also many companies that sell carbon credits to commercial and individual customers who are interested in lowering their carbon footprints on a voluntary basis. These carbon off setters purchase the credits from an investment fund or a carbon development company that has aggregated the credits from individual projects. The quality of the credits is based in part on the validation process and sophistication of the fund or development company that acted as the sponsor to the carbon project.

Source: Wikipedia

Mumbai one of the "Capitals of the Future"

2009-09-03T08:45:00.000-07:00

India's financial hub Mumbai is emerging as one of the "world capitals of the future", with an expanding industrial base, the world's largest movie industry and a burgeoning middle class making the city globally prominent. Other Indian cities, Bangalore and Hyderabad, also find mention along with Mumbai with the two cities having "leveraged software and business services into a seemingly unstoppable growth engine," according to a Forbes.com report.

Mumbai's prominence rests not just on an expanding industrial base, but also on the illustrious Bollywood, the world's largest movie industry. The bust of Mumbai's ridiculous housing-price boom has actually seemed to help the economy," the report by Forbes columnist and presidential fellow at Chapman University, Joel Kotkin said.

While the gulf between the extremely wealthy and destitute remains deep in Mumbai, a burgeoning middle class is helping reshape the economy, Kotkin said, adding that "Small vehicle, motorcycle and modest-apartment sales are all on the rise." In less than a lifetime, we have seen the rapid rise of a host of dynamic new global cities -- and the relative decline of many others. The world capitals of tomorrow may largely be not in the Western world, but in countries such as China, Russia and Australia," the report said.

Source: ET

2009-09-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

Never could interpret this funny picture. Can anyone help me out?

Motivation is the centre of everything!!!

2009-08-31T09:25:00.000-07:00

Harley Davidson in India by 2010

2009-08-30T07:12:00.000-07:00

Harley-Davidson Inc plans to start selling its motorcycles next year in India, the world's second-largest market for bikes, the US-based company. Harley said it expects a growing economy, rising middle class and investment in highways to boost leisure motorcycle riding in the country. India is now dominated by small, inexpensive bikes that are used as essential transportation.

The company said it named Anoop Prakash as the managing director of its newly-announced India unit and had begun the process of seeking dealers in key cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and the state of Punjab. motorcycle sales in India rose about 15 per cent in four months to July, helped by the fact that bikes are more affordable than cars for the cost-conscious Indian.

"Given the rapid development of India's economy and physical infrastructure, this is exactly the right time," Harley Chief Operating Officer Matthew Levatich said in a statement.

Source: ET

World's best 10 airport

2009-08-29T06:19:00.000-07:00

Lets look at the world's top 10 international airport.

1. Seoul's Incheon International Airport
2. Hong Kong International Airport
3. Singapore's Changi Airport
4. Zurich Airport
5. Munich Airport
6. Kansai International Airport, Osaka
7. Kuala Lumpur International Airport
8. Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport
9. Japan's Centrair Nagoya airport
10. New Zealand's Auckland International Airport

Source: Reuters

Browser Helper Object(BHO)

2009-08-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

A Browser Helper Object (BHO) is a DLL module designed as a plugin for Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser to provide added functionality. BHOs were introduced in October 1997 with the release of version 4 of Internet Explorer. Most BHOs are loaded once by each new instance of Internet Explorer. However, in the case of the windows explorer, a new instance is launched for each window.

With Browser Helper Objects we can write components—specifically, in-process Component Object Model (COM) components—that Internet Explorer will load each time it starts up. Such objects run in the same memory context as the browser and can perform any action on the available windows and modules.

For example, a BHO could detect the browser's typical events, such as GoBack, GoForward, and DocumentComplete; access the browser's menu and toolbar and make changes; create windows to display additional information on the currently viewed page; and install hooks to monitor messages and actions.

Confidence....

2009-08-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talents, but with great inner drive, go much further than people with vastly superior talents - Sophia Loren

Unusual Words

2009-08-26T07:28:00.000-07:00

Lets look into few of the unusual words that I came across today (same as usual surfing the vast informative world of internet).

Abacinate: To blind by putting a hot copper basin near someone's eyes.
Batrachophagous: One who eats frog.
Brevirostrate: Having a short nose.
Cruciverbalist: One who loves doing crossword puzzles.
Gongoozler: An idle spectator
Nelipot: One who walks without shoes.
Pyknic: Short and fat.
Saprostomous: Having bad breath.
Wanweird: An unhappy fate.
Viraginity: Having masculine qualities in a woman.

For more of such words, check out: http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/unuwords.htm

5 Banks of the Size of SBI needed

2009-08-25T07:11:00.000-07:00

The growing needs of the Indian Economy has compelled bankers to expand, consolidate different banks across India. This is done in order to meet the demand of the customers/clients. State Bank of India chairman O P Bhatt said that the country needs atleast 5 banks of the size of SBI to service the growing needs of the Indian economy.

One way of getting size would be consolidation. We need to kick in consolidation as quickly as possible and we should have atleast 3-5 banks as size of State Bank of India," SBI Chairman O P Bhatt told a private television channel. Admitting that Indian banks are not in a position to service the rising demands of the Indian corporates, Bhatt said, "we should have at least one, possibly two banks, which should emerge as global champion for Indian industries." Indian banks are just about well capitalised but are not capitalised to be able to do justice to the needs of the Indian economy, he said.

SBI has already started the consolidation process with its associates bank. Last year, it merged the State Bank of Saurashtra (SBS) with itself. In June this year, SBI initiated efforts to merge another associate bank, State Bank of Indore.

Source: ET

Few of the Amazing Galxy Pictures

2009-08-21T03:58:00.000-07:00

World's Most Powerful Women

2009-08-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

Forbes magazine has come up with the new list of powerful women in the world. Reflecting the world's focus on recession and the struggle to keep the financial markets afloat, Angela Merkel was followed almost exclusively by businesswomen. Michelle Obama came into the list for the first time. Although she has the ear of the US president around the clock, she ranked only 40. Below her, at 42, came Britain' Queen Elizabeth II. Lets look at the top 10 women:

Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Christian Democratic Union(CDU)
Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, which insures US banks.
Indra Nooyi, chief executive at PepsiCo.
Cynthia Carroll, the chief executive of mining giant Anglo American.
Ho Ching, chief executive at Singapore's government investment company Temasek Holdings
Irene Rosenfeld, chief executive of Kraft Foods in US
Ellen Kullman, chief executive of DuPont in US
Angela Braly, chief executive of WellPoint in US
Anne Lauvergeon, chief executive of Areva in France.
Lynn Elsenhans, chief executive of Sunoco in US

Source: ET

Why Chefs wear White Caps?

2009-08-19T07:52:00.000-07:00

I always wondered why chefs wear white caps. While surfing net, I got the answer. Let me share the same with you people too. Someone of you might be interested to know like how I was. So here it goes. This type of hat is called a "toque blanche" (French for "white hat"). It is usually shortened to just "toque" (Pronounced toke). They are worn because the health department requires restaurant employees to wear a hat or hair restraint of some sort. (It doesn't have to be a toque.) This prevents hair from falling into the food. Well that was only the reason and I used to think that it had something big associated with it.

It is believed that the toques originated in the 18th century when professional cooks wore "casque a meche", (stocking caps) which were popular in France at that time. The color of the casque a meche denoted the rank of the wearer. Bouche, the personal chef to French statesman, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, was the first chef to insist that all cooks wear white hats for sanitary reasons.

These hats have 100 pleats. It is believed that this represents the chef's knowledge of the number of ways to cook an egg. Awesome indeed.

Source: Yahoo Answers

What is Blu Ray?

2009-08-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson).

The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. As of June 2009, more than 1000 Blu-ray disc titles are available in Australia, 2500 in Japan, 1500 in the United Kingdom, and 2500 in the United States and Canada.

While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray. Despite the different type of lasers used, Blu-ray products can easily be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit.

Blu-ray is currently supported by about 200 of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer, recording media, video game and music companies. The format also has support from all Hollywood studios and countless smaller studios as a successor to today's DVD format. Many studios have also announced that they will begin releasing new feature films on Blu-ray Disc day-and-date with DVD, as well as a continuous slate of catalog titles every month.

Source: http://www.blu-ray.com/info/, Blu - Ray FAQs.

Maruti Suzuki with new luxury Sports Car

2009-08-17T06:44:00.000-07:00

We all know Maruti Suzuki as the market leaders in small car category. Now it will be competing with the big car majors like Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, etc. With the plan of launching the sports luxury car Kizashi in India by 2010.

MSI's parent, Suzuki Motor Corporation, has already launched this mid-sized sedan in the US. As per an auto industry executive, Kizashi, Suzuki’s first big car developed in-house, will be introduced in India in the 2010 Auto Expo. The car will be powered by a 2.4-litre Euro IV engine developed by Suzuki. A six-speed manual transmission will be standard in the car, while the automatic one-based on continuously variable transmission (CVT) technology will be optional and will have paddle shifters mounted on the steering wheel (like those in Honda City and Toyota Corolla Altis).

Maruti has not been successful in launching premium-to-luxury cars in India. The Baleno sedan model could not excite and penetrate the market while the flagship sedan SX4 launched in 2007 lost momentum after the initial pick up, while its competitor Honda City sedan has been holding on to its leadership position for the past decade.

Source: ET

The History of Mozilla Firefox

2009-08-16T08:56:00.000-07:00

Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browsers descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. Firefox had 22.47% of the recorded usage shares of web browsers as of July 2009, making it the second most popular browser in terms of current use worldwide, after Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The Mozilla Firefox project was created by Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross as an experimental branch of the Mozilla project.

The Firefox project has undergone several name changes. Originally titled Phoenix, it was renamed because of trademark issues with Phenoix Technologies. The replacement name, Firebird, provoked an intense response from the Firebird free database software project. Continuing pressure from the database server's development community forced another change; on February 9, 2004, Mozilla Firebird became Mozilla Firefox. The Firefox project went through many versions before 1.0 was released on November 9, 2004. After a series of stability and security fixes, the Mozilla Foundation released its first major update, Firefox version 1.5, on November 29, 2005.

With series of updation, Firefox is now released its Mozilla Firefox 3.5.2 version with greater security and stability updates. In 2007, the Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation had a combined revenue of US$75 million, with 88 percent of this sum (US$66 million) from Google.

Source: Wikipedia

Some sign of Relief for Global Economy

2009-08-14T02:18:00.000-07:00

With some lights showing up in the betterment of the world's economy, France and Germany announced unexpected returns to the growth path whic indicates that four of the world’s five largest economies and six of the top 10 are now not in recession. the US Federal Reserve left rates unchanged, saying that the world’s largest economy was showing signs of leveling out.

Both France and Germany had been predicted by most economists to face a decline of about 0.3% in their GDPs for the second quarter (April-June) of 2009, but they surprised themselves and the rest of the world by announcing that they’ve actually recorded growth of 0.3% each.

China and India are already growing at healthy rates, although lower than their own pace for the last few years. Japan too has climbed out of recession and so has Germany. These economies and the US account for 47% of world GDP in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.

Source: ET

Funny Financial Terms

2009-08-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

EBIT: Earnings before irregularities and tampering.

EBITDA: Earnings before I tricked the dumb auditor.

Value Investing: The art of buying low and selling lower.

Discounted Stock: A stock that is less expensive than last month and more expensive than it will be next month.

Cash Flow: The movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet.

CEO: Chief Embezzlement officer.

CFO: Chief Fraud officer.

Auditor: Person that arrives after battle to finish off the wounded.

Self Confidence

2009-08-12T08:14:00.000-07:00

India 2nd in Consumer Confidence Level

2009-08-11T07:24:00.000-07:00

Indians are turning out to be the most optimists in the world. India has emerged as the second most optimistic nation across the world in terms consumer confidence level. This because of people having opinions related to job prospects, personal finances and their willingness to spend in the next 12 months.

According to the survey conducted by global consultancy firm The Nielsen, consumer confidence in India is on upswing, registering a 13 point rise to 112 index points in the second quarter after Indonesia (113 points). The recent elections in India have had a positive effect on Indians' sentiments towards its economy. With the UPA government back in power for the second term, consumers are more confident that political and policy continuity will help recover the Indian economy as quoted by the survey.

The consumer confidence in India witnessed an uptrend after three parameters – job prospects, personal finances and willingness to spend – on which it is based, witnessed significant rise. In terms of job prospects also India ranked second after Indonesia.

Source: ET

Beware of Swine Flu

2009-08-10T07:39:00.000-07:00

With the waves of Swine Flu grappling India and other countries of the world its time to be alarm and cautious. Experts have warned that a new wave of the deadly virus is ready to explode and cause damage to millions by sickening them. Health authorities and experts have warned governments across the world that the new wave of swine flu could badly hit people in the poor and least-prepared parts of the globe.

Health Minister told that closing down schools was no solution to control the spread of swine flue even when after some students tested positive for the disease. Since children between the ages of 10 and 14 years are more vulnerable to the influenza virus, a close watch is being kept on the schoolchildren. It is more important that parents ensure that children who show signs of influenza like illness stay at home and do not socialize.

This holds equally good for adults also. Even parents, businessmen, politicians, media persons and others should restrict themselves to their homes if any symptom appears, separate themselves from others and should go for a clinical examination.

Source: TOI

Once in a LifeTime Moment

2009-08-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

Today after few hours it will be 12:34:56, the time and date will be 12:34:56 7/08/09. That only happens once -- or twice -- every 100 years, so for some, it's worth celebrating.

Its once in a lifetime moment, so enjoy and cherish the BIG memorable time!!!

Why do we get hiccups?

2009-08-05T07:07:00.000-07:00

Hiccups is a very common phenomenon for all human being. Hiccups are caused by the collision of two sudden and involuntary contractions within the diaphragm(located between the chest and the stomach). Sometimes, due to the formation of gas or increase of acidity in the stomach, the diaphragm gets irritated and as a result contracts suddenly. The air passing into the lungs experiences obstruction and makes the peculiar sound, which is the hiccup.

We generally get hiccups if we eat too much or too fast, if we eat something that doesn't agree with us, or, classically, if we've had a few too many. And men are more prone to hiccups than women. The best way to stop hiccups is to drink a glass of cold water because cold water stops the irritation produced in the diaphragm and it resumes its normal movement.

Classic remedies for mild attacks include holding your breath for as long as possible, drinking a glass of water while holding your breath, drinking a glass of water rapidly, and swallowing three times with your mouth closed while holding your breath.

Benefits of Social Networking sites

2009-08-04T06:55:00.000-07:00

The new wave in today's world are the social networking sites like Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, etc and millions of people get hooked on to it hours after hours. Despite the huge success of sites like MySpace, Friendster and Reunion.com, millions of people have not yet seen the advantages of social networking. Perhaps it is due to the awkward situations where users find themselves wary of the friendships offered by strangers.

Social networking sites present a number of advantages for small businesses. For one, they are typically free to join and easy to use, whereas creating and maintaining a detailed and useful website might be cost prohibitive for some small businesses. Social networking sites allow businesses to connect with both customers and other associated businesses. By linking to other businesses in the same or related fields, small businesses have the opportunity to form mutually beneficial alliances and cross promote.

Other benefits may be:

Refined search
Built in groups
Expand network easily
Receptive members
Affordable visibility

These sites have the unlimited possibilities that can be provided . The role has evolved as a medium where old friends meet and new relationships are created. Today, online businesses consider these sites as the best resources of new ideas as well as potential buyers.

Underwriting

2009-08-03T07:06:00.000-07:00

Underwriting refers to the process that a large financial service provider like bank, insurer, investment house uses to assess the eligibility of a customer to receive their products, mainly equity capital, insurance, mortgage or credit. The name derives from the Llyod's of London insurance market. Financial bankers, who would accept some of the risk on a given venture in exchange for a premium, would literally write their names under the risk information which was written on a Lloyd's slip created for this purpose.

Once the underwriting agreement is struck, the underwriter bears the risk of being able to sell the underlying securities and the cost of holding them on its books until such time in the future that they may be favorably sold. In investment banking, underwriting is defined as the transaction between the issuer of the instruments of debt or equity and the firm which has agreed to liquidate the instruments immediately upon their issuance.

Each insurance company has its own set of underwriting guidelines to help the underwriter determine whether or not the company should accept the risk. The information used to evaluate the risk of an applicant for insurance will depend on the type of coverage involved. The underwriters may either decline the risk or may provide a quotation in which the premiums have been loaded or in which various exclusions have been stipulated, which restrict the circumstances under which a claim would be paid.

Source: Wikipedia

Truely Said...

2009-08-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

Edward de Bono and Lateral Thinking

2009-08-01T06:47:00.000-07:00

Edward de Bono is a author, consultant, physician and inventor. He is best known as the originator of the term lateral thinking and a proponent of the deliberate teaching of thinking as a subject in schools. Lateral thinking is a term coined by him, for the solution of problems through an indirect and creative approach. Lateral thinking is about reasoning that is not immediately obvious and about ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic.

There are four types of "thinking tools" defined in Edward de Bono's Lateral Thinking: The Power of Provocation manual

Idea generating tools that are designed to break current thinking patterns - routine patterns, the status quo
Focus tools that are designed to broaden where to search for new ideas
Harvest tools that are designed to ensure more value is received from idea generating output
Treatment tools that are designed to consider real-world constraints, resources, and support

There are various idea generating tools which may be random entry, provocation, challenges and concept fan. Thinking out of the box is one such concept which is to think differently, unconventionally or from a new perspective. This phrase often refers to novel, creative and smart thinking.

Beware of Fake Currencies

2009-07-31T01:31:00.000-07:00

Next time watch out carefully if you are holding a Rs100, Rs500 or even Rs1000. It may be fake. Around Rs 1,69,000 crore of fake money is in the Indian markets and system. And it's growing enourmously. The proliferation of fake Rs 500 notes has just got into a bigger nexus. You never know when you are holding one, or more.

Even ATMs are disgorging them, indicating the counterfeits are so good that even bankers are failing to detect them and mark a difference between the genuine and the fake. Despite measures taken by RBI, the home ministry and intelligence agencies, the fear of the fake has grown in almost all parts of the country. Which is an alarming call.

Officials say there's a high volume of fake notes of Rs 100, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 in the market, and that they have had limited success so far in controlling their spread. However both the government and common people are aware of the problem, but feel ill equipped to deal with it. "Although several steps have been taken by the finance ministry and RBI, weeding out fake Indian currency notes (FICNs) may take long," says a senior home ministry official.

Source: ET

Flanking Marketing Strategies

2009-07-30T08:16:00.000-07:00

Flanking marketing warfare strategies are a type of marketing warfare strategy designed to minimize confrontational losses. The fundamental principles involved are:

avoid area of likely confrontation
make move quickly and stealth fully
make moves that the target will not find threatening enough to respond decisively to.

Offensive flanking attacks: This is designed to pressure the flank of the enemy line so the flank turns inward. Firm make gains while the enemy line is in chaos
Defensive flanking attacks: This involves the re-deployment of the resources to deter a flanking attack. It strengthen the flank if things are vulnerable.

The flanking strategy works best when the market is segmented (in other words, there are plenty of niches) and there are some segments that are not being well serviced by existing competitors. Also, if the larger competitor has strong resources and is able to withstand a full frontal attack and a firm is able to defend the niche markets.

Measure Happiness and Saddness Now

2009-07-29T07:42:00.000-07:00

According to two U.S. scientists who have devised a way to measure the happiness of millions of bloggers, have found Michael Jackson's death was one of the saddest days while the U.S. election was the happiest in four years. Peter Dodds and Chris Danforth, a mathematician and computer scientist from the Advanced Computing Center at the University of Vermont, have created a "sensor" to mine 2.3 million blogs and gather sentences beginning with "I feel" or "I am feeling." Each sentence is then given a happiness score from 1 to 9 depending on a point system allocated to 1,034 words.

For example, "triumphant" averages 8.87 points, "paradise" 8.72, "pancakes" 6.08, and "suicide" 1.25. They said this "hedonometer" showed that the U.S. election day last November was the happiest day in four years with a spike in the word "proud". The proliferation of personal online writing such as blogs gives them opportunity to measure emotional levels in real time.

Their study involved gathering nearly 10 million sentences. Since the bloggers now a days are young and more educated than average, they are used to the usage of such jolly and lively words.

Source: Reuters India

Motivate Oneself

2009-07-28T09:10:00.000-07:00

Take the extra step and do whatever is necessary to make yourself unique. Be the absolute best at what you take pleasure in, and let nothing stop you from reaching your aspirations.

Switching Barriers

2009-07-27T09:16:00.000-07:00

Switching barriers or switching costs are terms used in microeconomics, strategic management and marketing to describe any impediment to a customer's changing of suppliers. In many markets, consumers are forced to incur costs when switching from one supplier to another. Thompson and Cats-Baril (2002) defines switching costs as "the costs associated with switching supplier" while Farrell and Klemperer (2002) write that "a consumer faces a switching cost between sellers when an investment specific to his current seller must be duplicated for a new seller".

Types of switching costs include: exit fees, search costs, learning costs, cognitive effort, emotional costs, equipment costs, installation and start-up costs, financial risk, psychological risk, and social risk. Some of these costs are easy to estimate. However, the psychological, emotional, and social costs of switching are often overlooked or underestimated by both buyers and sellers.

Switching costs are a major reason for pursuing order of magnitude, improvements in costs, efficiencies, and benefits to the consumer. Switching costs affect competition. When a consumer faces switching costs, the rational consumer will not switch to the supplier offering the lowest price if the switching costs in terms of monetary cost, effort, time, uncertainty, and other reasons, outweigh the price differential between the two suppliers.

Source: Wikipedia

Some Funny Definitions

2009-07-26T06:41:00.000-07:00

Conference: The confusion of one man multiplied by the number present.

Committee: Individuals who can do nothing individually and sit to decide that nothing can be done together.

Philosopher: A fool who torments himself during life, to be spoken of when dead.

Chickens: The only animals which we eat before they are born and also after they are dead.

Miser: A person who lives poor so that he can die rich.

Opportunist: A person who starts taking bath if he accidentally falls into a river.

Customer Data Integration (CDI)

2009-07-25T10:40:00.000-07:00

Customer data integration (CDI) combines the technology, processes and services needed to set up and maintain an accurate, timely, complete and comprehensive representation of a customer across multiple channels, business-lines, and enterprises — typically from multiple sources of associated data in multiple application systems and databases. is the process of consolidating and managing customer information from all available sources, including contact details, customer valuation data, and information gathered through interactions such as direct marketing.

Major problems associated with customer data integration may be:

Data latency
Inaccuracy
Lack of data and distribution standards
Completeness
Ownership
Management

All the above mentioned problems can be reduced with the help of CDI, which have the following objectives:

Timely
Accurate
Distributed
Point of interaction

The process of CDI can be summarized as per the following steps:

Cleansing, updating, completing contact-data
Consolidating the appropriate records, purging duplicates and linking records from disparate sources to enable customer or donor recognition at any touch points
Enriching internal and transactional data with external knowledge and segmentation
Ensuring compliance with contact suppression to protect the individual and the organization

Emergent Theory for Organizational Strategy

2009-07-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

An emergent strategy is a pattern of action that develops over time in an organization in the absence of a specific mission and goals, or despite a mission and goals. Emergent strategy is sometimes called realized strategy. It is a kind of strategy which emphasizes letting the strategies emerge as things gradually becomes apparent. It is considered as an onging process of continuous learning, experimentation and risk taking.

Emergent strategy implies that an organization is learning what works in practice. It is a set of actions, or behavior, consistent over time, a realized pattern not expressly intended in the original planning of strategy. An emergent strategy develops when an organization takes a series of actions that with time turn into a consistent pattern of behavior, regardless of specific intentions.

The few benefits of having emergent theories in organizations are as follows:

Flexibility
Learning
Opportunism
Building support
Entrepreneurship

There are four major kind of emergent theories. They being:

Uncertainty based theory
Survival based theory
Human Resource based theory
Innovation and knowledge based theory

Mobile Number Portability

2009-07-23T07:15:00.000-07:00

India may allow mobile number portability by the end of 2009, told by the telecom secretary of India, Siddhartha Behura. The Government of India has finalized the the road map for the introduction of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) that will give mobile phone users the freedom to choose their service provider while retaining their numbers. In November 2007, the minister had announced the decision to introduce MNP, and the modalities have now been finalized with suggestions from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

he Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will select a few centralized operators, Mobile Number Portability Clearing House Administrator (MCHAs), to setup Number Portability Database (NPDB), administer and implement the MNP service. The Number Portability Database will have the mobile numbers of all mobile users. All mobile service providers will then link their networks with that of the MCHAs and NPDB.

The concept of MNP will be relevant in India because more than 90% of Indian mobile users are on prepaid connections and do not have number loyalty. As far as cost of the service is concerned, the charges are likely to be less than Rs. 300 and operators will take maximum 2 days to change the provider. MNP is prevailing in most of the parts of the globe and ready to penetrate India very soon.

Search Engine Optimization(SEO)

2009-07-22T04:25:00.000-07:00

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a website from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.

SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. SEO may generate a return of investment. However, search engines are not paid for organic search traffic, their algorithms change, and there are no guarantees of continued referrals. Due to this lack of guarantees and certainty, a business that relies heavily on search engine traffic can suffer major losses if the search engines stop sending visitors.

Optimization techniques are highly tuned to the dominant search engines in the target market. The search engines' market shares vary from market to market. SEO techniques can be classified into two broad categories: techniques that search engines recommend as part of good design, and those techniques of which search engines do not approve. An SEO technique is considered white hat if it conforms to the search engines' guidelines and involves no deception. Black hat SEO attempts to improve rankings in ways that are disapproved of by the search engines, or involve deception.

Source: Wikipedia

Whats HNIs?

2009-07-21T07:35:00.001-07:00

A high networth individual (HNI) is a person with a high net worth. In the private banking business, these individuals typically are defined as having investable assets (financial assets not including primary residence) in excess of US$1 million. The number of high net worth individuals worldwide is estimated at 9.5 million. HNI wealth totals US$37.2 trillion, representing an 11.4% gain since 2005.

Although there is no precise definition of how rich somebody must be to fit into this category, high net worth is generally quoted in terms of liquid assets over a certain figure. The exact amount differs by financial institution and region. The categorization is relevant because high net worth individuals generally qualify for separately managed investment accounts instead of regular mutual funds.

Companies exist which cater exclusively to high net worth individuals and their lifestyles. Everything from personal real-estate, jewelry brokers, kidnap and ransom insurance, yachting, and financial investment has specialists who devote themselves to high net worth or ultra-high net worth individuals and their specific needs. HNIs are in high demand by private wealth managers. The more money a person has, the more work it takes to maintain and preserve those assets. These individuals generally demand (and can justify) personalized services in investment management, estate planning, tax planning, and so on.

With the depreciation of the dollar against many foreign currencies, large sections of foreign populations were also raised to the status of high net worth individuals simply as a result of the relative value of their wealth.

World's 20 Economical Cities to Reside

2009-07-20T06:53:00.000-07:00

When planning to settle abroad, which city to choose. The most expensive ones or the most cheapest/economical one. given the current state of the global economy, most sensible people these days would probably opt for the place where their money stretched the farthest. Here is a list of 20 cities all over the world, which are considered to be for those who are cost conscious. The ranking starts from 20 till the number 1 economical city

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei(20th)
Birmingham, England(19th)
Manila, Philippines(18th)
Winston-Salem, N.C(17th)
Santiago, Chile(16th)
Glasgow, Scotland(15th)
Adelaide, Australia(14th)
Montevideo, Uruguay(13th)
San Jose, Costa Rica(12th)
Bangalore, India(11th)
Tunis, Tunisia(10th)
Chennai (Madras), India(9th)
Quito, Ecuador(8th)
Mexico City(7th)
Auckland, New Zealand(6th)
Wellington, New Zealand(5th)
Karachi, Pakistan(4th)
Asunción, Paraguay(3rd)
Monterrey, Mexico(2nd)
Johannesburg, South Africa - the 1st ranked world's cheapest city

Source: BusinessWeek

The Great Barrier Reef, Australia

2009-07-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefsand 900 islands stretching for over 3,000 kilometres (1,600 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi).The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia.

The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms. This reef structure is composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps.The Great Barrier Reef supports a wide diversity of life, and was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981. CNN has labelled it one of the seven wonders of the world.The Queensland National Trust has named it a state icon of Queensland.

The Great Barrier Reef supports a diversity of life, including many vulnerable or endangered species, some of which may be endemic to the reef system. The most significant threat to the Great Barrier Reef is climate change. Climate change has implications for other forms of life on the Great Barrier Reef as well - some fish's preferred temperature range lead them to seek new areas to live, thus causing chick mortality in seabirds that prey on the fish. Climate change will also affect the population and available habitat of sea turtles.

As the largest commercial activity in the region, it was estimated in 2003 that tourism in the Great Barrier Reef generates over AU$4 billion annually. Approximately two million people visit the Great Barrier Reef each year.

Source: Wikipedia

Rise Up

2009-07-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man - George Bernard Shaw

Another Feather in The Cap

2009-07-16T03:39:00.000-07:00

You call him King Khan or King of Bollywood or Badshah, but now you can call him with doctorate title too. Shahrukh Khan received a doctorate from University of Bedfordshire. Describing the Honorary Doctorate conferred on him by a leading British University as a "very very special honour", Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan has pledged to utilize the recognition to further the cause of under-privileged children in India. He received the doctorate in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the arts, media and culture at a special ceremony held at Washington

"I promise to dedicate a large proportion of my time to do whatever within my capacity to further the cause of education among kids as a way of my thankfulness and gratitude for this honour," Khan said after receiving the Doctorate. The Bollywood heartthrob, who has won several international recognitions including the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of the Arts and Literature) from the French Government, the Malaysian title of Datuk - equivalent to a British Knighthood.

Management By Objectives(MBO)

2009-07-15T03:29:00.000-07:00

Management by Objectives (MBO) is a process of agreeing upon objectives within an organization so that management and employees agree to the objectives and understand what they are in the organization. The term "management by objectives" was first popularized by Peter Drucker in his 1954 book 'The Practice of Management'. The essence of MBO is participative goal setting, choosing course of actions and decision making. An important part of the MBO is the measurement and the comparison of the employee’s actual performance with the standards set.

The important features and advantages of MBO are:

Motivation – Involving employees in the whole process of goal setting and increasing employee empowerment increases employee job satisfaction and commitment.
Better communication and Coordination – Frequent reviews and interactions between superiors and subordinates helps to maintain harmonious relationships within the enterprise and also solve many problems faced during the period.
Clarity of goals – With MBO, came the concept of SMART goals i.e. goals that are:
Smart, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound.

Objectives can be set in all domains of activities (production, services, sales, R&D, human resources, finance, information systems etc.). Some objectives are collective, for a whole department or the whole company, others can be individualized. Objectives need quantifying and monitoring. Reliable management information systems are needed to establish relevant objectives and monitor their reach within certain specific period of time.

Indra Nooyi..CEO of the year

2009-07-14T07:58:00.000-07:00

Pepsico's India-origin Chief Executive Officer Indra Nooyi has been named as 2009 CEO of the Year by Global Supply Chain Leaders Group (GSCLG) for promoting socially responsible business practices. The CEO of the Year award recognises industry leaders who have made extraordinary contributions in responsible corporate citizenship, the combat against global warming, involvement in social causes and creating jobs in America in a globalised economy.

Nooyi's key contributions include promoting and supporting socially responsible business practices, including climate change. Nooyi was also instrumental in the company's efforts to provide a wider portfolio of nutritious foods and beverages and her commitment to global citizenship was evidenced by her multi-year growth strategy. GSCLG is an association of senior supply chain executives, magazine editors, selected consultants and other supply chain thought leaders who come together to share and enhance their rich intellectual capital for the benefit of its members and their organizations.

Source: TOI

The Sign Story

2009-07-13T08:33:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, today I received a mail with this inspiring story from my friend. Thought of sharing the same with you. Here it goes...

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: 'I am blind, please help.' There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words. Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, 'Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?'

The man said, 'I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.' What he had written was: 'Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it.'

Moral of the Story : Be thankful for what you have. Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently and positively.

Invite others towards good with wisdom. Live life with no excuse and love with no regrets. When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1000 reasons to smile. Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear. Keep the faith and drop the fear.

Rise of IT in India Inc

2009-07-10T07:47:00.000-07:00

India is seen globally as the major R&D provider for the IT companies in the world. There is no technology giant that does not have a R&D centre in India. These R&D centres tap into the country's vast pool of skilled manpower and help their parent companies to churn out world class products and technologies. India's R&D success story is not a recent phenomena but a history of two decades. The success trail goes more than 20 years back to early eighties.

Intel - The chip giant, Intel, started its India operations in 1988 by setting up a sales office in Bangalore. Since then Intel India has played a key part in most of the company's product roll outings.
HP - In the year 1989, when only a few multinational companies had operations in India, global PC giant Hewlett-Packard began R&D work in the country.
Oracle - In 1993 formed Oracle India Private Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oracle Corp., focused on the sales and marketing of Oracle software in India.
Genpact - In the year 1997, Genpact (GE) established GECIS (GE Capital International Services) as an outsourcing unit to provide services from India.
Microsoft - Microsoft entered India in 1990. In 1998, the company launched its India Development Center at Hyderabad, the second largest development center outside the US facility in Redmond.
DELL - In 2001, Dell too started its R&D center in India.
Yahoo - The year 2003 saw Internet giant Yahoo open its software development center in India.
Google - In 2004 India became an R&D hub for internet search leader Google.
IBM - The year 2005 saw IBM expanding its India presence with the opening of another research lab in Bangalore.
Cisco - In 2006, networking giant Cisco established its Globalisation Centre East in Bangalore.
Accenture - In the year 2008, Accenture formally opened its Technology Lab in Bangalore, its fourth such facility following sites in the United States and France.
SAP - SAP recently inaugurated its third Co-Innovation Lab in Bangalore. The company's other such labs are located in Palo Alto, California, and Tokyo.

Source: TOI

Google's Operating System

2009-07-09T08:28:00.000-07:00

With lots of speculations , hopes and amazement, Google announced this week that it is developing a new operating system for personal computers, Google Chrome OS. It is considered to be a direct attack against the long-dominant Windows franchise - Microsoft. Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and Google is working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.

The company said it’s working with personal-computer makers such as HP, Acer and Lenovo Group Ltd. to get the software onto PCs by the second half of 2010. The Chrome OS is consistent with Google’s focus on getting people to use software online, which contrasts with Microsoft’s approach of providing programs on the computer itself. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the Web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems.

It is promising that users will be able to fire up their computers and get on the web in a few seconds. If Google manages to create a great user interface, the new operating system could be very successful.

Vertical Marketing Systems(VMS)

2009-07-08T08:56:00.000-07:00

A vertical marketing system (VMS) is where the main members of a distribution channel—producer, wholesaler, and retailer—work together as a unified group in collaboration with one anothe in order to meet consumer needs. In conventional marketing systems, producers, wholesalers, and retailers are separate businesses that are all trying to maximize their profits. When the effort of one channel member to maximize profits comes at the expense of other members, conflicts can arise that reduce profits for the entire channel. In order to overcome this problem, VMS has been successfully implemeted by many firms across the world.

The concept behind vertical marketing systems is similar to vertical integration. In vertical integration, a company expands its operations by assuming the activities of the next link in the chain of distribution. Vertical marketing should not be confused with horizontal marketing, in which members at the same level in a channel of distribution band together in strategic alliances or joint ventures to exploit a new marketing opportunity.

There are three major VMS. They being:
1) corporate, where coordination and conflict management are attained by common ownership;
(2) contractual, where coordination and conflict management are attained through contractual agreements among members of the system;
(3) administered, where leadership is assumed by one dominant system member.

Few advantages of VMS are as follows:

risk reduction
better market coverage
shared profits
better customer satisfaction
work in integration
better reach of the market
collaboration and partnership

Think about it!!!

2009-07-07T09:12:00.000-07:00

Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is! - Anne Frank

IT Budget 2009 Highlights

2009-07-06T09:49:00.000-07:00

Much awaited Budget 2009 is out. Lets look into the main highlights stored for IT budget for the fiscal year 2009 which was presented by the Union Finance Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee in Lok Sabha.

Sunset clause for Software Technology Parks of India (STPIs) extended by 1 year
Govt to spend Rs 120 cr in FY10 in unique ID
Mobile phone accessories to become cheaper
Customs duty on LCD panels cut from 10% to 5%
Custom duty on set-top boxes is now 5%
Set-top boxes to cost more
Unique Identification ID project to tap private talent
Rs 2,113 cr for IITs and NITs
Fringe Benefit Tax to be scrapped
Corporate tax unchanged

Source: TOI

Changing trends in FMCG

2009-07-05T06:11:00.000-07:00

FMCG sector in India is experiencing a tremendous growth. The Indian FMCG sector with a market size of US$13.1 billion is the fourth largest sector in the economy. A well-established distribution network, intense competition between the organized and unorganized segments characterize the success of the sector. The changing dynamics in the FMCG sector through the late 20th century, which forced the FMCG majors to revamp their product, marketing, distribution formats to meet the changing customer requirements or preferences.

A survey conducted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has shown positive growth trends of the FMCG sector. In the light of this, there has been some innovative customer-centric initiatives taken by companies such as HLL, CavinKare and TVS. The changing dynamics in the Indian retailing industry at the turn of the 20th century, which is mainly driven by the growth of organized retailing sector and increased personal consumption of customers on account of rising disposable incomes, increased exposure to foreign goods and growth in nuclear families and double income families. These factors contributed majorly for the rise and shine of FMCG in India.

Marketing and distribution are very important in FMCG companies. New products require a large investment in product development, market research, awareness campaign, developing franchise for a new brand advertisements, free samples and product promotions. All these developments have made the consumers strong , who are in a position now to choose a variety of products, from a number of companies, at different price points. Bargaining power of customers is high. Thus in order to match up with the changing and ever increasing demand of the consumers FMCG giants should buckle up and come up with new innovative products and services.

Have a Thought!!!

2009-07-04T08:21:00.000-07:00

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter - Martin Luther King

There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents - Thomas Jefferson

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give - Winston Churchill

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment - Buddha

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter - E. E. Cummings

Mystery Shoppers

2009-07-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

Mystery shopping or Mystery Consumer is a tool used by market research companies to measure quality of retail service or gather specific information about products and services. Mystery shoppers posing as normal customers perform specific tasks—such as purchasing a product, asking questions, registering complaints or behaving in a certain way – and then provide detailed reports or feedback about their experiences.

Mystery shopping began in the 1940s as a way to measure employee integrity. Tools used for mystery shopping assessments range from simple questionnaires to complete audio and video recordings. Many mystery shopping companies are completely administered through the internet, allowing potential mystery shoppers to use the Internet to register for participation, find mystery shopping jobs and receive payment.

It provides management a method to quickly yet efficiently evaluate their business practices, deliverables, and employees from the perspective of a non-biased consumer. Mystery shopping is used in a wide variety of industries such as retail, restaurants, financial institutions, convenience stores and gas stations, service providers, manufacturers, department stores, travel and entertainment, etc. The purpose of mystery shopping is to help business increase sales and improve employee customer service awareness. It provides a realistic picture of how customer perceive their company and the products offered.

Inflation rate still negative

2009-07-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

For the third week in a row, inflation rate in India is negative, at -1.3% for the week ended June 20th even as the prices of fruits and vegetables rose as compared to last year same period. his is the third week in a row that inflation remained in negative territory with the index being (-)1.14 per cent for the week ended June 13.

Inflation for the corresponding week last year stood at 11.91 per cent, a time when price rise was a major cause for the government's concern. During the week ended June 20, prices of food articles like fruit and vegetables rose by 0.6 per cent and non-food articles by 0.3 per cent. However prices of food items like tea and fish marine declined by 4 per cent each, and jowar by 3 per cent.

Source: TOI

Fuzzy Logic and the Systems

2009-07-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

Fuzzy logic is a form of multi valued logic derived from fuzzy set theory to deal with reasoning that is approximate rather than precise. In contrast with binary sets having binary logic, also known as crisp logic, the fuzzy logic variables may have a membership value of not only 0 or 1. A fuzzy control system is a control system based on fuzzy logic - a mathematical system that analyzes analog input values in terms of logical variables that take on continuous values between 0 and 1, in contrast to classical or digital logic, which operates on discrete values of either 0 and 1 (true and false).

The input variables in a fuzzy control system are in general mapped into by sets of membership functions similar to this, known as "fuzzy sets". The process of converting a crisp input value to a fuzzy value is called "fuzzification". A control system may also have various types of switch , or "ON-OFF", inputs along with its analog inputs, and such switch inputs of course will always have a truth value equal to either 1 or 0, but the scheme can deal with them as simplified fuzzy functions that are either one value or another.

Fuzzy control system design is based on empirical methods, basically a methodical approach to trail and error. The general process is as follows:

Document the system's operational specifications and inputs and outputs.
Document the fuzzy sets for the inputs.
Document the rule set.
Determine the defuzzification method.
Run through test suite to validate system, adjust details as required.
Complete document and release to production.

Source: Wikipedia

Al Azhar Park, Cairo

2009-06-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

Al Azhar Park in Cairo, Egypt is listed as one of the world's sixty great public spaces. The park project was not only the development of the park, but also included aspects of archeology, historic building rehabilitation and several quality of life improvement initiatives. Those initiatives included skills training, area rehabilitation, micro finance, and support in the areas of health and education among others.

In transforming such a large part of Cairo, which was used as an open dump, the impact of Al-Azhar Park on the city is tremendous and mind boggling. It has been planned with a multitude of activities in mind and incorporates a conceptualised hilltop lookout kiosk, a children's play area, an amphitheatre and stage, playing fields, a viewing plaza and a historical wall promenade.

l-Azhar Park on Al-Darassa spans 30 hectares and was opened in 2005 by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture's Historic Cities Programme to act as a 'green lung' for the city, as its largest designed greenspace.Previously a municipal rubbish dump (for about 500 years), approximately 80,000 truckload of debris had to be removed before construction started and in the process a 12th century Ayyubid city wall of Cairo that was built during the reign of Salah el-Din, as well as some valuable stones with hieroglyphic texts were uncovered.

Source: Project for Public Places, New York