Tuesday, August 26, 2008

BRIC’s BRICKS

Time to pay attention to the finer points of the BRIC report
Goldman Sachs’s most famous Global Economics Paper No. 99 named Dreaming with BRICs: Path to 2050 is no news now-a-days, at least in India, given the impunity with which this has often been referred to by nation’s polity and policy makers to showcase the bright future of our country. And also as if forewarn all those, who are yet to make up their minds about investing in India or take it seriously, as to what a grave mistake they would commit if they gloss over the writing on the wall.

This year, Goldman Sachs even revised their previous estimation thereby putting India even ahead of the US by 2050 in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Much to the glee of the Indian policy makers, soon thereafter, India entered the exclusive trillion dollar club. But in the midst of all these, one thing was completely ignored, i.e. the warning from Goldman Sachs which had laid down four conditions namely, macro stability, institutions, openness and education. While India’s combined fiscal deficit (that of the Centre and the states together) of about 9-10%, is a major dampener to the right kind of macro stability, lack of reforms in agriculture, power and education spheres and several other government departments like the Department of Post make sure that fiscal deficit would continue to remain high. Its reduction, if at all is not in absolute numbers but because of the increasing GDP, as a percentage looks lesser. Subsidies continue to serve the rich and middle class and incredible amount of loss in power and oil sectors is a proof enough of lack of right kind of institutional mechanism. All that oil bonds end up doing is to shift the subsidy burden to a future date. Sheer lack of pragmatic regulatory bodies ensure that cross subsidies remain very much a part of system of governance, thereby stifling growth in key sectors like aviation which continues to pay the price of the distorted price juggleries in oil sector. Incidentally, the price of aviation fuel in India is about 70% more than that in the international markets. In the same league, absence of institutional mechanism, translates into a challenge, when venture capital for starting a business is sought. Industries like insurance and banking are yet to receive full dosage of foreign investment even when they, and especially the insurance sector, are in dire need of fund infusion.

That the Indian economy is yet to be opened properly is vindicated by the fact that a stronger rupee is increasingly becoming a major cause of concern for the government and the exporters, at a time, when India ideally should be celebrating the strengthening rupee as a sign of a growing and potent economy. Instead, strict controls on capital outflow ensure that India isn’t being able to extract maximum mileage from it. The fourth and the most important point as stated by the Goldman Sachs report is on education. Unfortunately India’s dismal ranking (128th) in the UNDP Human Development Report portrays the dismal condition in terms of education and health. This can severely impede India’s economic dream run as it would invariably dry down the future supply of quality manpower. In addition to it, distorted subsidies for education like in other sectors, make sure that even today, urban college students spend more on one time recharge of their cellphones than on paying college fees, thereby depriving the millions who otherwise deserved the subsidy, more. It is for all these reasons that for India, BRIC dream is still nothing more than just daydreams. And to make it a reality, the bricks of the BRIC will have to be first of all put in the right place. Or else, the ‘I’ of BRIC would just collapse like a pack of cards.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

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Monday, August 25, 2008

Tech giants’ leap to the cloud

Cloud Computing is the new buzzword, but can it deliver the expected?
Remember ‘Grid Computing,’ a concept that emerged almost a decade ago and was talked about in the IT arena as ‘the’ idea that would take away computing from the desktop to an imagined central hub – of course known to most, today, as the Internet. After a promising start ‘Grid Computing’ eventually found no takers, but the idea lingered on and has now made a comeback of sorts, reinvented and rechristened as ‘Cloud Computing’ or simply stated, a cluster of programs running through thousands of parallel computers and accessible through the Internet.

So shall we call it the first death-nail to the idea of personal desktops with individual copies of Windows Vista? Not for now but it’s surely an idea that has also taken big daddy Microsoft into its grasp – the people originally deriding the entire concept of Ethernet-connected graphics terminals but have now released Windows Live – a photo sharing and file storage application served from new data centers instead of just being served on the usual desktops.

But what exactly is ‘Cloud Computing’ and what is it about the idea that is causing ripples amongst geeks and technocrats alike? For one, you can call it a cluster of low cost extremely fast processing servers capable of handling tens of trillions of complex calculations in a jiffy that can be accessed through the Internet, thus empowering the common man in a way the Supercomputers have done to large corporations and government agencies.

Recently, on November 15, IBM embraced the process of ‘Cloud Computing’ by releasing a system named Blue Cloud, which will allow the banks to distribute their programs and processes across number of machines, delivering faster data analysis. “We’re aiming to train tomorrow’s programmers to write software that can support a tidal wave of global Web growth and trillions of secure transactions every day,” says IBM’s CEO Samuel J. Palmisano commenting on the tie up that aims at providing research setups to several American Universities, with Carnegie Mellon paving the way. Even Yahoo jumped into the ‘Cloud Computing’ bandwagon on November 12, allowing schools and colleges to conduct software research, housing around 4,000 processors to run on Yahoo servers.

However, the journey from ‘Grid to Cloud Computing’ is full of stumbling blocks. Be it the lack of Internet infrastructure or ignorance of mobile devices centred at tapping the Web world through ‘Cloud Computing’, for without a proper focus, the concept of ‘Cloud Computing’ will simply remain just another brilliant idea. Are the tech biggies like IBM and Yahoo listening?

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
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The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
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IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Increased presence of supercomputers

With ‘bus’ sizes doubling up, possibilities for the increased presence of supercomputers have only got better, which therefore calls for greater investments in R&D on the part of the companies. Amongst those in the current pack of leaders, Microsoft leads the rat race and its Windows Blackcomb OS (in the developmental stage) certainly holds many promises, even when you measure it by the ‘security’ rod. However, it fails to address the ‘size’ question; what with handheld and sophisticated computers (like palmtops, which call for embedded OSs) gaining enormous popularity these days? Well, we are not left with nothing here too with names like Chorus, coniX, VxWorks, and DR-DOS (which are far better alternatives to the likes of Windows CE, Palm OS & QNX).

Where OS for your darling handheld ‘mobile phone’ is concerned, Linux seems to be clearly heading towards to leader’s spot in the near future with mobile handset companies swearing by it. Mobiles with powerful applications call for devices to be compatible with each other; so that there is greater hardware flexibility and an enhanced ability to handle voice and data simultaneously (unlike what the traditional Palm OS is capable of). As per ARB Research, Linux with web-its browsing experience OS is forecasted to be the fastest growing smart phone OS by 2012 – a truth that is vindicated by the fact that currently, more and more handset producers are favouring it over the others in the category.

The future of operating systems surely seems to be favouring the community of ‘Open source’ (which was once termed as a ‘Cancer’ by Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft, when explaining how it was eroding his company’s market share), primarily because it offers more flexibility to users. In future, operating systems will employ traditional methodologies to code, control & coordinate the software development tree and these developments will certainly be giving the behemoths, mainly Microsoft, a slew of sleepless nights!

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

What’s the right time to exit?

Observe performance of the fund for a while before you say, “I Quit”

It is proven by facts that the right timing of entry and exit from the stock market or a mutual fund is a difficult call. The decision purely depends on the investor’s choice, driven by his investment objectives, his perception of the market and other relevant factors. However, common sense tells us that a good time to enter a market is when the market looks attractive and valuations of stocks seem relatively cheap. Similarly, exit when it is on a high. But for a happy exit, the following points should be kept in mind:

Under performance: One should study the performance of this fund against the benchmark and the peer group. If the fund is outperforming the benchmark and peers then one may remain invested in the fund till the time his objective is met. Selection of peers should be done carefully. One should never compare a debt-based fund with an equity-oriented fund or a sectoral fund with a diversified fund. Though every mutual fund publishes its data on regular intervals, it is not prudent to sell a fund because of its short term performance only. As a prudent investor one should observe performance of his fund for a while before he decides to exit.

Change in fund’s objectives: A fund says a lot about investor’s risk profiles and its own plans on investment. What it says and how it complies with them has to be seen. Any material change in the investment objective of the fund is an exit point worth considering. For instance, a fund whose primary objective is to invest in a diversified portfolio may start investing only in a particular sector. The investor needs to be cautious because it’s alarming if such changes are too often.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs