glaxy

ET in the classroom: Mortality Charges

2009-11-19T20:48:00.000-08:00

Mortality charges are that part of life insurance premium that go towards providing a death benefit cover. In other words, these are the actual cost of insurance in a life policy.Looking for an investment avenue that protects your capital even in a falling market? Portfolio Management Scheme’s just for you

Sail shines on new project plans

2009-11-17T23:05:00.000-08:00

The Jharkhand government has agreed to renew Sail's Buddhaburu lease — part of the Chiria iron ore belt — having reserves of 810 million tonnes. Chiria is Asia’s largest iron ore belt, with two billion tonnes of reserves.

Moreover, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the state-owned mining company NMDC and Steel Authority of India (SAIL) to jointly develop a limestone project at Arki in Himachal Pradesh with a three-million tonne per annum capacity.

Dabur appeals against 'Pachmola' sale

2009-11-15T20:53:00.000-08:00

Dabur has alleged infringement of its 'Hajmola' trademark by Alka's 'Pachmola'.Led by costlier food prices, wholesale inflation rose to 1.34 per cent in October.Today, the world leaders who are desperate to bail out the economy from the current financial crisis by pumping in billions of dollars.

Bengal industry's laltest bone of contention: Coal India

2009-11-10T01:39:00.001-08:00

If coal India sticks to its ground that projects should be relocated, industrialisation will suffer since the Asansol-durgapur belt is largely barren or at best single-crop, which is why it has been earmarked for projects

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

2009-11-05T02:24:00.000-08:00

Infosys has topped the value chart on the BSE with a turnover of Rs 475,63 crore. It is followed by HDFC (Rs 167.37 crore), SBI (Rs 127.57 crore), DLF (112.65 crore) and Reliance (Rs 109.40 crore).

NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE (NREG)

2009-11-03T20:45:00.000-08:00

It is the single-largest employment programme in the human history ever. Before NREG, there were many employment generation schemes in India, but these were barely adequate to provide even 20 days of employment to each BPL household, these were mostly allocation-based and not demand-based. Further, these used to be implemented through contractors which led to large-scale corruption.

Parliament in 2005 enacted National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) thereby making it compulsory to state governments to provide at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to each rural household whose adult member volunteers were ready to do unskilled manual work. If, for any reason, an applicant is not provided employment within 15 days, he/she will be entitled to a daily unemployment allowance as specified by the state government. In budget 2009-10, finance Minister reiterated Congress poll promise of guaranteed Rs. 100 a day minimum wage under NREGA.

Other key features of NREGA are—

(a) Implementation through panchayti Raj bodies.

(b) a) Localwork (within5 km radius).

(d) c)33% reservation for women.

(e) d)Labour intensive works (wage material ratio = 60 : 40).

Thus, Bharat Nirman is viewed as an effort to unlock rural India’s vast growth potential and be a key for ushering ina new era. It is epectyed that Bharat Nirman will lead to considerable rural assets creation along with NREGA.

PRACTICE MAKES A MAN PERFECT

2009-11-02T21:26:00.000-08:00

“I know you’re going

to make it

It may take time

and hard work

You may become frustrated and at times you’ll feel

Like giving up

Sometimes you may even

Wonder if it’s really worth it

But I have confidence in you

And I know you’ll make it

If you try.”

This is the motto which the parents should instill in the mind and thoughts of their children if they really want them to be successful in life, instead of casting aspersions on the capabilities of children, the parents should boost their morale and encourage them to keep on trying until they achieve success in their respective endeavors, such a step can go a long way in strengthening your children’s self- confidence and in enabling them to pursue their ain with full dynamism, vigour and enthusiasm, secondly, they should not expect miracles from their children overnight. To achieve anything, one has to try hard again and again without getting deterred by temporary failures which certainly demands time consumption, when your child is undergoing through that crucial phase of trying his best to achieve what he desperately wants to achieve that is the time when he definitely requires your total unstinted support, cooperation and encouragement to do better and to keep on trying till he realizes his goal, such an optimistic approach will definitely help in scaling the balance or in changing the equations in favour of your child.

No person is born perfect, to achieve perfection in nay field, one has to devote years of sustained, l dedicated and constant efforts in the right direction. Their is no short cut or ready made formula to success. It is practice and practice alone which makes a man perfect and enables him to achieve his coveted goal in life and thus acquire supreme satisfaction for himself,

Failure should not be treated as an obstacle or hindrance in our journey to success rather it should be treated as a stepping stone to success. What matters in life is not how may times you failed but how many times you tried and ultimately kept on trying or gave up in despair? Once success is bagged by you, no one will ask you as to how many times you had failed in your endeavours. Success is nothing but a game of trial and error and hence if you desire success for yourself, failure should not be able to dissuade you from trying again and again. Instead of getting disheartened by failure, one should learn right lessons from it,

History of AIG Life insurance of corporation

2009-10-29T22:48:00.000-07:00

Tata-AIG Life Insurance Company is a joint venture between the Tata Group (74% equity stake) and
American International Group Inc. (AIG) (26% equity stake). The company offers a broad range of life
insurance products to individuals and groups. The products offered to individuals are variations of term
life with or without a savings element, e.g., endowment policies and money back policies. Tata-AIG Life
has been in operation since April 2001 (incorporated on Aug 23, 2000). While the company itself is
relatively new, the Tata group is widely known in Indian households.
The Tata Group is one of the oldest and largest industrial conglomerates in India. Established in 1868, it
has interests in engineering, consumer products, chemicals, financial services, hotels, information
technology and telecommunications. With over 80 companies, and with revenues close to 1.8% of the
country’s GDP, the Tata brand is very well respected across the socioeconomic classes. Most
importantly, it manufactures a large variety of goods that are highly visible to low-income households,
like consumer goods, trucks and automobiles that bear the Tata logo. Having been around for over a
century, the name Tata introduces immediate credibility in its microinsurance operations. Agents selling
micro insurance products are able to assure potential clients that such a large conglomerate would have
little interest in stealing their miniscule (in relative terms) premiums. AIG is the one of the world’s
largest insurers. Aside from its massive pool of in-house technical capacity, it has experience working on
micro insurance in Uganda.7 Although Tata is the largest shareholder in Tata-AIG, AIG manages the
company with strategic guidance from AIG’s Hong Kong office.

COMMUNICATION REACHES THE CONSUMER

2009-10-29T00:18:00.000-07:00

Consumers are affected by the communication a brand has with them. This communication as well as the experience they have adds to the brand’s value in the mind of the consumer and builds on their cognitive and emotional ties to a brand.

THINK OF IT THIS WAY

Communication is the message that is delivered to the client; marketing is the means of getting it there. Therefore, communication is not just a part of the marketing mix but also should be integrated into your customer service process from the accounts payable department all the way through to your sales staff and even the CEO of your company. It is your message to the customer. The message you wish to communicate with them, your ethos and way of thinking.

Knowing that communication is part of the marketing mix but also your entire company message, you need to think about what that message will be and think about it seriously. As an organization you should all be delivering the same message and the same ethos, there is little point being customer friendly and bending over backward for them on the advertising if the sales person is harsh and unmovable, there is not point giving guarantees as a salesperson that your customer service team is unable to deliver on.

IMPORTANCE OF SEGMENTATION IN MARKETING AND ITS RELEVANCY IN BANK MARKETING

the importance of market segmentation results form the fact service are no homogeneous group, Actually, every buyer has individual needs, preferences, resources and behaviors, since it is virtually impossible to cater to every customers' individual characteristics, to market segments by variables they have in common, these common characteristics allow developing a standardized marketing mix for all customers in this segment

DEFINITION

Market segmentation is the segmentation of markets into homogeneous groups of customers, each of them reacting differently to promotion, communication, pricing and other variables of the marketing mix. Market segments should be formed in such a way that differences between buyers within each segment are as small as possible, thus, every segment can be addressed with an individually targeted marketing mix

Worst may be over for major Indian IT firms

2009-10-28T02:55:00.000-07:00

Notwithstanding the growing concern over an appreciating Indian rupee against the US dollar which could eat into their operating (Ebitda) margins, major Indian IT services providers believe the worst is behind the sector.

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All the top three major Indian IT firms — Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies and Wipro — either met or beat market and analyst expectations in the quarter ended September 30, 2009, registering their best performance in six quarters.

The heartening fact, say analysts, is the growth in volumes which implies that business is picking up. TCS, for instance, registered a 5 per cent growth in volumes while Infosys posted a 2.3 per cent growth. Wipro was the only company to show a dip in volume growth. But Edelweiss analysts opine that, since Wipro has not committed offers to the campus (unlike TCS and Infosys), it can absorb these volume declines without impacting margins in the coming quarters.

Viju George of Edelweiss says Wipro’s numbers were “in line with expectations”. However, he says the company “surprised us positively in registering a margin improvement in IT services of over 140 basis points (bps) sequentially to touch 23.8 per cent and providing a healthy guidance for IT-services revenues for Q3FY10 (2.5-4.5 per cent growth quarter on quarter)”.

And all companies are telling D-street that they see growth. Wipro’s guidance was much more robust than that of Infosys, the guidance of which was in the range of Rs 5,429 crore and Rs 5,476 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009. Wipro guided for revenue in the range of $1,092 million to $1,113 million (around Rs 5,121.5 crore to Rs 5,219.9 crore), representing a growth of 4.5-5 per cent on top line. Wipro has said the next quarter will see volume growth in the range of 2.5-4 per cent.

Further offshoring (moving work to India, in this case) has been a key to improving margins and give cost benefits to clients this reporting quarter. In the case of TCS, for instance, offshoring improved by 74 bps this quarter, bringing the offshore component to 51 per cent of the overall revenue. In the case of Infosys, offshoring recorded a 3 per cent gain. This, coupled with increased utilisation rates, helped the margins grow.

For all the three companies, the growth has been broad-based rather than restricted to a single vertical or client. In case of TCS and Infosys, their largest vertical — banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) — witnessed stable growth. The BFSI segment revenue contribution went up to 45 per cent for the quarter from 43.9 per cent sequentially.

In case of Infosys, of the 35 client wins this quarter, six belonged to the BFSI vertical which now accounts for 33.5 per cent of the company’s revenue. For Wipro, though, the financial services segment has been flat sequentially.

But both TCS and Infosys saw the manufacturing, telecom and hi-tech verticals bear the pressure of the slowdown. In the case of Wipro, revenues from its telecom segment showed sequential improvement. Apart from these, the three IT majors saw growth in the healthcare, power & utility and media & entertainment sectors.

Hitesh Agarwal, head (research), Angel Broking, acknowledges that the “results were marginally above expectations”. He believes margins “are pretty high, and we do not expect them to grow further”. But he asserts that the “rupee is a concern and we are watching it”.

Anil Advani, head of research, SBICAP Securities, concurs that “the only concern going ahead is the rupee. A steady appreciation will be manageable but a sudden or sharp movement below 45 will be a concern”.

India, China reaffirm need for peace on border

2009-10-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

ss Trust Of India / Cha-am Hua Hin (thailand) October 26, 2009, 0:55 IST

In the wake of the recent controversies over Chinese incursions, India and China have reaffirmed the need to maintain peace and tranquility on border pending resolution of the “complex” issue.
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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who met his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao here yesterday on the sidelines of the Asean-India and East Asia Summits, said the two leaders had discussed all issues, including the boundary row, problems concerning common rivers and matters related to Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

“I had a frank and constructive exchange of views with Premier Wen,” the PM told a press conference before winding up his two-day visit here.

“We discussed all these issues and agreed that the existing mechanism of bilateral cooperation should be used to resolve all issues in the spirit of strategic and cooperative partnership,” he said.

Singh said the two leaders had “reaffirmed the need to maintain peace and tranquility on the border pending a resolution of the boundary question. Both of us agreed that we should continue and strengthen efforts to build political trust and understanding.”

Describing the boundary problem as a “complex issue” which “cannot be wished away”, Singh said: “Pending the resolution of the boundary question, both countries have an obligation to maintain peace and tranquillity along the border.”

He noted that Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi would visit India in two days and the foreign ministers of the two countries would have an opportunity to “discuss all issues which have bearing on our relationship”. The Singh-Wen meeting came in the backdrop of war of words over Arunachal Pradesh and some other issues like the Dalai Lama’s proposed visit to the state.