Mandatory voting bill

Gujarat being the first state in India where voting will become mandatory to all the registered voters of the state with the bill (Declaring voting compulsory) getting approved by the state assembly. Registered voters in Gujarat who are absent will be summoned by the local election officer to submit a valid reason for being absent with proof within a month, absentisum without a valid reason will result in voter being declared as defaulter.

This is a good initiative from the state government to strengthen the democratic process by brining all the registered voters to election booth. State government also plans to forward the same bill to the central government so that the same status quo can be implemented on a national level.

The reason for making voting mandatory might be many. There is a low the turnout of voters to discharge their duty in most of the election, because of which the true spirit of the will of the people is not reflected in the electoral mandate. It is mandatory public holiday whenever there is an election, but people hardly exercise there option; instead they sit at home and enjoy the holiday. Government spends a huge amount of money in conducting the election process and low turnaround of people result in higher expenditure of acquiring each vote.

People on the other side have there own reasons for not casting a vote. They feel that nothing is going to change by there vote and they can’t bring a change in the system. But imagine if there is 100% turnaround of people then the real picture of election process will emerge and the winning candidate will have a clear mandate from the people, fake voting will be a passé, expenditure per vote made by government will come down and a clear mandate from the people will help in forming a stable government at each level.

image source: scientificamerican.com

“Option” left me with no option.

Day Thursday 24th Dec-09, Market made a V shaped recovery in the second half, I saw nifty trading somewhere around 5150 and my sixth sense said that “it is overvalued” and it should see some corrections. Though I was very skeptical about taking a short position in nifty and was totally clueless about how and what to judge in the market.

I decided to use one more instrument of trading i.e. options “call and put” for the first time, as there was a long week end ahead and only three trading days left for the year closing and contract closure of December, I though that nifty will see some correction in those three trading days.

But as usual; the fate of my financial transaction; the instrument that I sell appreciates and the instrument I bought depreciates, I took a put of 5000 nifty December at certain premium and since then nifty has appreciated by almost 50 points and the premium for the put option has deprecated by 40%. Though this was my first transaction in the options and was purely based on speculation and what is called sixth sense “which seems dosen;t seems to be prudent in my financial decisions”; I was at minimum risk of losing the premium if nifty doesn’t approaches the opted price figure. Still 2 days to go I’m keeping my fingers crossed.


For those who want to understand the technical terms here is a brief description

Option

An option contract gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation to buy/sell an underlying asset at a pre-determined price on or before a specified time. The option buyer acquires a right, while the option seller takes on an obligation. It is the buyer’s prerogative to exercise the acquired right. If and when the right is exercised, the seller has to honour it. The underlying asset for option contracts may be stocks, indices, commodity futures, currency or interest rates

Types of options

Options can be classified as ‘call’ options and ‘put’ options. When you buy a ‘call’ option, on a stock, you acquire a right to buy the stock. And when you buy a ‘put’ option, you acquire a right to sell the stock. You can also sell a ‘call’ option, in which, you will acquire an obligation to deliver the stock. And when you sell a ‘put’ option, you acquire an obligation to buy the stock.

Option premium

Option premium is the consideration paid upfront by the option holder (buyer of the option) to the option writer (seller of the option). The option holder gets the right to buy / sell the underlying

Strike price or the exercise price of the option

The right or obligation to buy or sell the underlying asset is always at a pre-decided price known as the ‘strike price’ or ‘exercise price’, which is linked to the prevailing price of the underlying asset in the cash market.

Technical terms source: www.financialexpress.com
Image source: seekingalpha.com

We are not working today.

Have you ever been to bank on the last day of any quarter? You might have found that banks are not working to there fullest potential, clearance, withdrawal of big amounts and other processing either closed or very slow, The reason that is stated is “Quaterly Closing” and no transaction can be made.

I believe banking is a life time service and when i say life time it cannot be time bound. It has to be available 27X7X365 there should be limited holiday’s and offs, banks are as important as Emergency services. Probably this the bankers might have thought of and “ATM” might be an outcome of this.

Similarly for Share trading also there is a constraint of timings, the bourses trade between 9.55am to 3.30pm. But matters of fact, persons who are salaried/ businessman who knows/ understands the concept are not able to participate in the trading because they are engaged with his own assignments.

If the market is open 27X7X365 there might be a lot of participation from the retail investors. Working class people will be hooked to there terminals after reaching home and finishing off with there household chores, housewife’s can participate while watching there television soaps and what not can happen if there is an extension in timings. Foreign investment will increase as it will be easy for them to track the market at there timings.

Recently there was an announcement of extended timings but because the entire machinery of banking, clearance and clearing houses were not in sink with the extended timings the decision was rolled back. I feel that in this competitive world we need to work more and harder to increase the productivity. To progress and excel we need to multiply our efforts and commitments and we should come out of the “9 to 5” mentality.

That’s a well accepted fact that there will be an additional load on the entire machinery of banking, clearance clearing and broking houses but that is what they are meant for, they are getting a handsome commission from the transaction and its a service that they are offering and they cannot offer a “denial of services”.

No matter it’s a festival or any big event hospitals, emergency services are open 27X7X365 so why can’t India work in 27X7X365 mode. Services has to be at convenience of the customer and not at the convenience of the Service provider. Time demands that we should come of the barriers of timings and holidays and work beyond our limits and redefine our exisiting limits.

Image source: fahahm.wordpress.com

Story of Telangana

Telangana is in news with lot of agitation and political statement floating over the issue of a separate Telangana state. It was on Nov 29 that the five-decade-old problem heated up when Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao was arrested by the police ahead of his fast unto death to achieve a Telangana state.

He continued his fast in jail and hospital for 11 days while Telangana was boiling with mass protests and violence. Rao’s deteriorating condition and the explosive situation in the region forced the centre to announce at midnight on Dec 9 that the process for forming a Telangana state would be initiated.

Mass resignations by legislators from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions cutting across party lines to protest the centre’s move to bifurcate the state. Mass protests, shutdowns, hunger strikes, road and rail blockades began in 13 districts of the two regions from Dec 11 even as Telangana was celebrating Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s announcement.
Thirteen days of protests paralyzed normal life and the government was forced to alter the statement. On the evening of Dec 23, Chidambaram made the latest statement stressing the need to hold wide ranging consultations over the issue in view of the altered situation in the state
No sooner had Chidambaram finished his statement, protesters were on the streets in Hyderabad and the rest of Telangana - burning buses and government offices. Rising above political affiliations, MPs and legislators started submitting resignations. The 48-hour shutdown Thursday called by them has brought the focus back on the region even as protests ceased in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema.

What I feel that one needs to have a clear plan to separate these two states, not just geographically but also administratively, to avoid chaos and implosion of administrative systems, which seems to be happening. The investors need confidence that the ongoing project commitments will be honored and an effective transitional arrangement will be made.

The question arises here is that what will be the Cental Goverment stand if every few cities come up with seperate state demand or rather few state demanding for a seperate country all together. This is a good example of "Divide and Rule" Strategy. We Indian should stand united above all cast, creed and religion and the only objective we should have is Progress. "Nation First" should be the thought process everyone should carry.

About Andhra Pradesh


Andhra Pradesh (AP) is the fifth largest State in the Indian Union having an area of 275,909 sq. kms and a population of about 75-80 million. AP is bound in the North by Orissa and Madhya Pradesh States, in the East by bay of Bengal with a 960 km long coast line, in the South by Tamilnadu State, and in the West by Karnataka and Maharashtra. AP forms a major link between the north and the south of India.


Andhra Pradesh consists of three distinct regions, namely, Andhra, Rayalaseema and Talangana. Andhra and Rayalaseema were part of Madras province of the British empire. For approximately 400 years, Telangana was part of Hyderabad State, an independent kingdom ruled by Muslim Qutub Shahi and Nizam dynasties. Thanks to the sacrifice of Sriramulu Potti, Andhra and Rayalaseema were separated from Madras State in 1953.

Andhra state (Andhra and Rayalaseema) was the first state that was formed purely on linguistic nationality, like many European states. Later Andhra merged with Telangana in 1956, based on their linguistic and national affinity, to form the present state of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad as the capital city. However, this has resulted in two major agitations: Jai Telangana in 1969 and Jai Andhra 1972, both for separate states.


Content Source:

vepachedu.org
sundayposts.blogspot.com
blog.taragana.com

Image source : topnews.in

Opportunities knocking.

Private sector was holding there investment until the conclusion of Copenhagen conference. As the future investment in clean technology was heavily dependent on the outcome of the 15th Conference of Parties (COP 15) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), private sector was anxious to hear the target world leaders would have committed to and the mitigation actions developing countries would have to take.

Prior to the conference major of the countries proposed plans and targets to further reduce their emissions; however, all of those plans were contingent on reaching an international agreement.

With no concrete conclusion deriving of the conference and many developing countries having an opinion that climate change is a moral issue, caused by developed countries and it should be solved at their cost, the counter argument was that developing countries are causing greater extend of damage to the climate due to faster industrialization and deforesting, so owners are with them.

Every one from the industrialist to governments might be relaxed as of now and relaxing on there chairs because if any concreate decision would have arrieved at Copenhagen conference then they could have been in trouble to comply with those commitments. But this is not the time to push back to our seats and relax, instead this is a time to make strategy, (What is strategy : Strategic is nothing but being different in the context one is operating).

This a opportunity knocking at the doorsteps for People/entrepreneurs who are interested in cleaner energy, people who are farsighted and can see the benefits of implementing a Cleaner energy project at this juncture, I Consider this as Value Investing and the investment made today will reap immense profit in the coming future.


Wind, not the sail determine the way we go…

Image source: farmersguardian.com

Value Investing

Value investing is all about spotting the areas/ players which can yield better results in the near future but as of now today those areas/ players are low valued. Based on the same priniciples I found Wind energy segment worth focusing.

Looking at the commitment we as a country have in terms of reducing the carbon emission, Wind power project are turning to be a lucrative investment avenues and to add more government is announcing more perks in terms of tax holidays, commitment of purchasing power generated and flexible tariff. (Refer Govt to give incentive to wind power producers.)

Fossil fuels are the source for 70% of 90,000 MW installed capacity for electricity generation, Hydro-electricity contributes about 25%, and the remaining is mostly from nuclear power plants (NPPs).

Current stocks of Fossil fuels in India are not sufficient enough to suffice our needs of power (about 70% oil is imported), with currency getting dearer and government imposing emission norms (It is accepted that Indian power plants are highly polluting Refer CO2 emission by Indian power plants increases) the cost of per unit of power generated through fossil fuel will be compatible with non-conventional energy.

So I believe this is the right time to do a Value Investing and initiate a Power project that is eco friendly having early breakeven and having subsidiary projects of livestock farming, organic farming and carbon credit trading.

Image source: http://www.cedarcapital.ie/

Incentives to wind power project

In my previous article “Copenhagen before and after” I have mentioned the perks Government will be taking in the immediate future to promote non conventional energy.

Today only I came across news in business standard stating that

Government will give 50 Paisa as incentive for a unit of electricity generated by wind power producers for 4-10 years, this sop will be given under the government's generation-based incentive (GBI) for grid interactive wind power project.As per the GBI scheme, incentive will be provided to wind power producers at 50 paise per unit of electricity fed into the grid for a period not less than four years and the maximum of 10 years.

In India the installed capacity of wind energy project is approximately 10000 MW and India is ranked 5th in terms of installed wind power capacity. There is still huge potential and far away from exhausted. According to Indian Wind Energy Association The unexploited resource availability has the potential to sustain the growth of wind energy sector in India in the years to come. During the financial Year 2008-2009 around 1465 MW has been added to the total Indian wind power. (Figures are rounded off)

India has a lot to do in terms of projecting the growth of non conventional energy and allowing entrepreneurs to set up wind power projects. On the other hand our neighbor, China has more than tripled its target for wind power capacity to 100 giga watts by 2020, likely making it the world's fastest growing market for wind energy technology.

The other problem entrepreneurs like me feel is about financing of the projects. I have a project report ready with me for a power project (non conventional) but not able to find a venture capitalist to fund the project. Any power project requires high power (money power) as an input to yield real power (electricity) & Profits. After the slowdown not a single VC’s have ventured in this sort of project because of the obvious reason “high investment”.

But I’m sure that I will be able to find a VC for my project as government is already working with lot of sops in terms of tax holiday’s, lower interest rate loans and fixing the tariff. These initiatives will open new avenues to VC’S and dreamer like me

Wind, not the sails determine the way we go..."

Celebrity Endorsement.

If a product or service is strategically designed and the customer feels delight after using that product or service and the if the experience is incomparable with the peer competitors than customer marries product/service.

To create and deliver a product/ service which is loved by the customer, the deliverable has to be unique, designed and developed keeping customer interest in mind and should be difficult to be copied/replicated by the competitors. If right strategies are followed for the product design and delivery then the brands can prevented themselves from turning to commodities.

There are lot many similar products (in hot drinks, electronics, sports gear etc), competing for the same customer segment, with there products being identical and compatible to each others in terms of price, quality and customer experiences. To distinguish themselves from there competitors they are forced to endorse celebrities for there marketing campaign as a result of which there final cost of product increases.

A close observation to the brand endorsement will revel that the celebrities keep on changing (take example of legendry golf player) based on the face value. It doesn’t really add much to the quality and deliverable of the product if “xyz” is brand ambassador for that and neither it is affected if “xyz” is replaced by the someone else.

The deliverable of company remains same and neither does it add any value to the customer by endorsing a specific celebrity.

One company (communication Industry) strategically entering into new mode of advertisement by using “zoozoo” (Dummy but live characters) for advertising its products and services. The benefit the company has in long term and short term are:

1. The company need not have to worry for endorsing celebrities as the character can be performed by anyone and everyone.


2. The advertisements are of low budget.


3. The advertisements are highly recognized and are to the target(delivering the message clearly).


4. No voice over effect is used, so dependency to a specific person voice is minimized.


5. Being low cost the company can by additional slots of the advertisement time.
   

You will also like to read Tiger Woods and the Coming Decline of Celebrity Endorsements

Mini Bombay

I happened to visit Indore (my birth place) which is also known as mini Bombay and I was astonished to see the way it has developed in last 5-10 years. Indore which is a major trading & educational hub, business capital of Madhya Pradesh boasts on its location on National Highway and good connectivity with Mumbai and other trading centers and that is the reason it is also called mini Bombay.

The founder of the Indore dynasty was Malhar Rao Holkar (1694-1766). In 1724, the Peshwa at Pune,delighted by his soldierly prowess, gave him command of 500 horseback soldiers and appointed him as the Peshwa's chief general in the Malwa with headquarters at Indore. In 1733, Peshwa gifted him the Indore area, thereby catapulting him to the ownership of a vast domain stretching from the Deccan to the Malwa table land. He gradually became independent of the Peshwa central rule and by the time of his death, he was the de facto ruler of Malwa.


Though Indore dynasty was ruled and established by Marathi speaking people, today Marathi language is heard rarely rather it is lost in the city. I remember real gentlemen (Marathi manus) of Indore and the congested streets which have been taken over by swanky buildings and roads and life style has taken a sea level change.

There is no one to take care and preserve the heritage (I mean language here) of the city and worry for the Marathi manus, the story does not end here, there are other cities who have the same story, Ujjain, Gwalior, Boarda (Vadodara) are the other cities which I believe are in the same league. There are lot many Palaces which has been converted to school, colleges, hospitals, museum but people living in the vicinity of those palaces, or enjoying the services hardly know the history and neither the people living in those cities try to preserve the heritage.

People are busy with there own agenda’s and the common man is getting lost in the concrete jungle. City has progressed a lot in last years but at a cost of what?

Image source: dpchallange.com

Copenhagen Before & After

Before Copenhagen meet Indian government projected a 20-25% reduction (From year 2005 level) in carbon emission by the year end 2020 under the U N framework, even though this commitment is not presently quantified. It is anticipated that Indian foreign policy has to face immense pressure from the international community to have quantified limitation or reduction commitments.

Developing countries have a parallel market for carbon trading among them with potential to implement it, especially among India and china, who are the largest sellers of carbon credits and Japan which is the largest buyer of the carbon credits

At the moment, India has drawn up a National Action Plan on Climate Change, which includes increasing solar power generation and other non conventional energy resources and improving energy efficiency.

To bring down carbon emission at the national level government will have to promote non conventional energy projects and plantation immensely and will be offering high incentives on the same. At present, India is largely agriculture and service sector based economy (which is low carbon intensive) but is expected to grow in manufacturing sector (which is high carbon intensive). And this growth might experience difficulties as a result of the new target.

Image source: heatingoil.com

What is Strategy

Being strategic is nothing but being different in the context you are operating. Being strategic is nothing but being different – the moment you are not unique, you get copied and you lose your market share.

Strategies exist at several levels in any organisation - ranging from the overall business (or group of businesses) through to individuals working in it.

Corporate Strategy is concerned with the overall purpose and scope of the business to meet stakeholder expectations. This is a crucial level since it is heavily influenced by investors in the business and acts to guide strategic decision-making throughout the business. Corporate strategy is often stated explicitly in a "mission statement".

Business Unit Strategy is concerned more with how a business competes successfully in a particular market. It concerns strategic decisions about choice of products, meeting needs of customers, gaining advantage over competitors, exploiting or creating new opportunities etc.

Operational Strategy is concerned with how each part of the business is organised to deliver the corporate and business-unit level strategic direction. Operational strategy therefore focuses on issues of resources, processes, people etc.

How Strategy is Managed - Strategic Management

In its broadest sense, strategic management is about taking "strategic decisions" - decisions that answer the questions above.

In practice, a thorough strategic management process has three main components, shown in the figure below:

Strategic Analysis

This is all about the analyzing the strength of businesses' position and understanding the external factors that may influence that position. The strategy evaluation and choice depends on the analysis of the following five key factors

1. PREST Analysis - a technique for understanding the "environment" in which a business operates. Political, regulatory, environmental, social and technological analysis


2. ICA: Industry and competitor analysis (includes Five Forces Analysis)


3. RCS: Resource and capability analysis


4. Cultural analysis


5. Stakeholder’s expectation
   

The result of above analysis help in swot analysis

PREST+ICA = Opportunities and Threats
RCA +cultural analysis = Strengths and weakness
Stakeholder analysis = Vision and goals

On the basis of above analysis, strategic options are generated. Strategic options nothing but different business models
1) Customer selection
2) Competition selection
3) Value =P+S+E (Products+ Solution +Experience)
4) Value delivery model i.e. the way value is delivered.

References :
Prof. Ranjan Das Professor IIM-Calcutta
thestrategyacademy.org
&
tutor2u.net

Image source: povray.tashcorp.net

When boss losses respect

There is some basic requirement which a boss needs to address and understand in order to win respect of his team.

1. Employee should be respected : Respect reciprocate, to win respect of the Employee, Employee should be respected first.
   
   
2. Employee dislike micro-managers and under- managers: Employee like to be treated like adults by there managers and hate micromanagers, they also don’t like under-managers where they receive little or no support from there managers.
   
   
3. Meeting an necessary evil: Employees don’t like meeting as a rule; but managers can make the meeting interesting by planning meetings carefully, imposing strict time limits, making goals and action items clear, and by creating a conducive environment where employees can voice their opinions.
   
   
4. Employees need appreciation: All creativity, ideas, innovation should be appreciated, awarded and acknowledged in absence of which employee feel de-motivated.
   

Management by Democracy

In my previous article "Human resource management"I have put across a comparison and tried to re-present “management” in a more easy and understandable way. Human resource is a functional area of the organization and many such functional areas lead to overall organization, and the person who is leading the organization has more responsibilities to deliver and is the only individual responsible for the fate of the organization.

Now the question is that whether that individual should be free to take decision or is there a better way to do that. “Prudent decision”.

I suggest that there are ways to take prudent decision; the key for that is “management by democracy”. Being the person in charge doesn't mean that he needs to have all the answers and neither he/she should pretend that he knows everything (Real business geniuses don't pretend they know everything). Decision should always taken in a democratic way by gathering subject matter experts and domain experts. But if the boss thinks that he knows everything (Aham Brahmasmi: Ravana had a gut-feeling that he knows everything and his decision are correct) and those decision are leading to fatal problems and downfall of the organization then there should be a provision of employees vote their boss out of office.

Management by democracy will reduce concentration of power in one hand and will reduce the possibilities of individual treating/ thinking himself as God. There will be provision of employee generating a trouble ticket the way customer raising ticket and for which a response is required.

Management by democracy requires A 360 Degree feedback implementation. Generally senior managers don’t want to be exposed on there flaws and try to avoid anything that evaluates there way of managing the things, they avoid answering the queries and avoid responsibility of bad outcomes.

India being a Command and control society from centuries; we have a habit of controlling our kids (by virtue of our power & age) till they get married and have there own kids. Command and control is the easiest management style but it may not be very productive for the organization, while democratic accountable model is very difficult on management but it is very productive.

Note: “Innovation emerges from the bottom up, unpredictably and improvisationally, and it's often only after the innovation has occurred that everyone realizes what's happened. The paradox is that innovation can't be planned, it can't be predicted; it has to be allowed to emerge."

“Boss is always right” is an adage but if boss believes in the said concept, then he might be instrumental in downfall of the. If the top notch carry this attitude, they are bound to loose respect of there team members and have to face there rage. Rage need not be a direct expression but may be in there action and behavior.

image source: incollaboration.ning.com/groups

Human Resource Management

I have observed/ read lot many blogs, articles regarding human resource management and to my surprise the readership & respoponses to these sort of articles is amazing; might be the readers try to read the story as if it is written for them and try to correlate there personal experiences with the story.

The same observation was for my earlier post of “How to retain talent”, “People leave managers not the company” & “Making a Happy workplace”; people candidly written there observation and comments. As far as my opinion is concerned HRM is the easiest job in the organization functional area; having said this it is also the toughest job among all the functions.

I consider this as an easy job because if the employees are treated well, nurtured well, given an opportunity to grow well, motivated properly then they can be an asset to the company in years to come. It’s the job of parenting; we treat our kids in well manner, we try and encourage them to excel in various areas, we provide them opportunity to grow, we motivate them to do difficult jobs and so on so forth. We even create ground rules in the family which will allow kids to take the shape of vessel and excel in the right direction of life. Human resource management is as simple as that; managing many kids at single time.

I consider this as toughest job because giving right direction to kids, imparting them human values, a sense of understanding, love & maturity is a difficult proposition and think of implementing all the things to many kids simultaneously.

Would like to have your opinion on the article.

Image source: girlstartblog.files.wordpress.com

Email marketing: Efficiency & effectiveness

In my earlier post “ROI Advertisement” I have elaborated the ways and means to track the advertisement. Now days email marketing is emerging as a cheap and convenient way to stay connected with the customer and to promote the product & services (the obvious reason being the high cost of print and broadcast marketing and there limited reach)

When any of the process of methodology is in nascent stage we hardly talk of effectiveness and efficiency but as the time passes we put efficiency and effectiveness clause in the counting.

You might be wondering as if how to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of email marketing process.

An Email marketing campaign as process can be gauged on the below clause for measuring efficiency.

1. The % of emails delivered out of the total email executed
2. The minimum time duration in which email can be executed.
3. The % of email read by the end users (ensures that mails were delivered in there inboxes and not in junk mail; email can be tracked for opened/ not opened even for the accounts in hotmail, yahoo etc. though they do not allow any build in feature where the users can send a read receipt. Readt ROI Advertisement)
4. The % of email bounced with categorized reason like inbox full, blocked at the gateway etc

An Email marketing campaign as process can be gauged on the below clause for measuring Effectiveness.

1. The % of email read by the end users. Email marketing campaign considered as effective when the number of email opened/ read is very high; indicating that the subject line was effective and forced the recipient to open the email.
2. The % of user replied or took any action in the mail like clicking the link, button etc.
3. Last but not the least the % of goal achieved for which the email marketing campaign was targeted for.
   
   I will also elaborate measures to increase efficiency and effectiveness of email marketing; so keep visiting…..

image source: thefinestwriter.com