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Mar 1, 2021
Sep 21, 2010
NEWS: Recession ended in June 2009 - NBER
Recession ended in June 2009: NBER
20, 2010, 21:30
Washington: The recession ended in June 2009, making it the longest downturn (dec07-june09=1.5 yrs) since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the National Bureau of Economic Research said.
The NBER, considered the arbiter of US recessions, said it chose that month based on examination of data including gross domestic product, employment and personal income. The group's business cycle dating committee, composed of academic economists, is notorious for taking its time in declaring the start and end of recessions.
The committee said it waited to make its decision this time because it wanted to review revised data on national income, released August 27, to get a clearer reading on the path of economic output in 2009. In April, the NBER declined to call the end of the recession, and some of its members said at the time they were concerned the economy could dip back into negative territory. In Monday's announcement, the NBER said any fresh downturn would mark a new recession, not a continuation of the one that began in December 2007. "The basis for this decision was the length and strength of the recovery to date," the NBER said.
US officials have been struggling to find a way to speed up a sluggish recovery that has left unemployment at a painfully high 9.6 percent. The US Federal Reserve's policy-setting committee meets on Tuesday, and is widely expect to discuss whether additional measures are warranted to bolster the economy.
http://biz.zeenews.com/news/news_content.aspx?newscatid=5&newsid=13521Added on 22 Sep 2010
The views are of the official Business Cycle Dating Committee of NBER (USA). Further, it talks about US slowdown which started in Dec 2007. In India, recession actually started around Sep 2008 after Lehman collapse acted as the trigger event following which the world financial system and markets got under panic and started crashing. As supported by the almost vertical and fast rise in equity markets (e.g BSE rose from 800 to 16000 in a matter of few months!), India is believed to have recovered much faster from the recession. India recession is also considered to be less severe as compared to what ppl suffered in US.
Even now when it says the recession got over in June’09, it somewhere admits a possibility of a so called double dip recession AGAIN IN US (‘West’ in general). And that’s the reason it says that such a recession should officially be considered SEPARATELY as a new recession for record keeping purposes.
But the practical fact is US has never really recovered strongly. The recovery has also been a jobless and wek recovery. However, Indian GDP and other data indicates that India is out of recession as such with the only concern at the time being on above the comfort zone inflation side. And even that is slowly expected to come down.
Feb 3, 2010
An insightful article article from IIMB Faculty
[Management Views from IIMB is an exclusive column written every two weeks for india.wsj.com by faculty members of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.]
Who sells the largest number of cameras in India?
Your guess is likely to be Sony, Canon or Nikon. Answer is none of the above. The winner is Nokia whose main line of business in India is not cameras but cell phones.
Reason being cameras bundled with cellphones are outselling stand alone cameras. Now, what prevents the cellphone from replacing the camera outright? Nothing at all. One can only hope the Sonys and Canons are taking note.
Try this. Who is the biggest in music business in India? You think it is HMV Sa-Re-Ga-Ma? Sorry. The answer is Airtel. By selling caller tunes (that play for 30 seconds) Airtel makes more than what music companies make by selling music albums (that run for hours).
Incidentally Airtel is not in music business. It is the mobile service provider with the largest subscriber base in India. That sort of competitor is difficult to detect, even more difficult to beat (by the time you have identified him he has already gone past you). But if you imagine that Nokia and Bharti (Airtel's parent) are breathing easy you can't be farther from truth.
Nokia confessed that they all but missed the smartphone bus. They admit that Apple's Iphone and Google's Android can make life difficult in future. But you never thought Google was a mobile company, did you? If these illustrations mean anything, there is a bigger game unfolding. It is not so much about mobile or music or camera or emails?
The "Mahabharat" (the great Indian epic battle) is about "what is tomorrow's personal digital device"? Will it be a souped up mobile or a palmtop with a telephone? All these are little wars that add up to that big battle. Hiding behind all these wars is a gem of a question – "who is my competitor?"
Once in a while, to intrigue my students I toss a question at them. It says "What Apple did to Sony, Sony did to Kodak, explain?" The smart ones get the answer almost immediately. Sony defined its market as audio (music from the walkman). They never expected an IT company like Apple to encroach into their audio domain. Come to think of it, is it really surprising? Apple as a computer maker has both audio and video capabilities. So what made Sony think he won't compete on pure audio? "Elementary Watson". So also Kodak defined its business as film cameras, Sony defines its businesses as "digital."
In digital camera the two markets perfectly meshed. Kodak was torn between going digital and sacrificing money on camera film or staying with films and getting left behind in digital technology. Left undecided it lost in both. It had to. It did not ask the question "who is my competitor for tomorrow?" The same was true for IBM whose mainframe revenue prevented it from seeing the PC. The same was true of Bill Gates who declared "internet is a fad!" and then turned around to bundle the browser with windows to bury Netscape. The point is not who is today's competitor. Today's competitor is obvious. Tomorrow's is not.
In 2008, who was the toughest competitor to British Airways in India? Singapore airlines? Better still, Indian airlines? Maybe, but there are better answers. There are competitors that can hurt all these airlines and others not mentioned. The answer is videoconferencing and telepresence services of HP and Cisco. Travel dropped due to recession. Senior IT executives in India and abroad were compelled by their head quarters to use videoconferencing to shrink travel budget. So much so, that the mad scramble for American visas from Indian techies was nowhere in sight in 2008. (India has a quota of something like 65,000 visas to the U.S. They were going a-begging. Blame it on recession!). So far so good. But to think that the airlines will be back in business post recession is something I would not bet on. In short term yes. In long term a resounding no. Remember, if there is one place where Newton's law of gravity is applicable besides physics it is in electronic hardware. Between 1977 and 1991 the prices of the now dead VCR (parent of Blue-Ray disc player) crashed to one-third of its original level in India. PC's price dropped from hundreds of thousands of rupees to tens of thousands. If this trend repeats then telepresence prices will also crash. Imagine the fate of airlines then. As it is not many are making money. Then it will surely be RIP!
India has two passions. Films and cricket. The two markets were distinctly different. So were the icons. The cricket gods were Sachin and Sehwag. The filmi gods were the Khans (Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and the other Khans who followed suit). That was, when cricket was fundamentally test cricket or at best 50 over cricket. Then came IPL and the two markets collapsed into one. IPL brought cricket down to 20 overs. Suddenly an IPL match was reduced to the length of a 3 hour movie. Cricket became film's competitor. On the eve of IPL matches movie halls ran empty. Desperate multiplex owners requisitioned the rights for screening IPL matches at movie halls to hang on to the audience. If IPL were to become the mainstay of cricket, as it is likely to be, films have to sequence their releases so as not clash with IPL matches. As far as the audience is concerned both are what in India are called 3 hour "tamasha" (entertainment). Cricket season might push films out of the market.
Look at the products that vanished from India in the last 20 years. When did you last see a black and white movie? When did you last use a fountain pen? When did you last type on a typewriter? The answer for all the above is "I don't remember!" For some time there was a mild substitute for the typewriter called electronic typewriter that had limited memory. Then came the computer and mowed them all. Today most technologically challenged guys like me use the computer as an upgraded typewriter. Typewriters per se are nowhere to be seen.
One last illustration. 20 years back what were Indians using to wake them up in the morning? The answer is "alarm clock." The alarm clock was a monster made of mechanical springs. It had to be physically keyed every day to keep it running. It made so much noise by way of alarm, that it woke you up and the rest of the colony. Then came quartz clocks which were sleeker. They were much more gentle though still quaintly called "alarms." What do we use today for waking up in the morning? Cellphone! An entire industry of clocks disappeared without warning thanks to cell phones. Big watch companies like Titan were the losers. You never know in which bush your competitor is hiding!
On a lighter vein, who are the competitors for authors? Joke spewing machines? (Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, himself a Pole, tagged a Polish joke telling machine to a telephone much to the mirth of Silicon Valley). Or will the competition be story telling robots? Future is scary! The boss of an IT company once said something interesting about the animal called competition. He said "Have breakfast …or…. be breakfast"! That sums it up rather neatly.
Who sells the largest number of cameras in India?
Your guess is likely to be Sony, Canon or Nikon. Answer is none of the above. The winner is Nokia whose main line of business in India is not cameras but cell phones.
Reason being cameras bundled with cellphones are outselling stand alone cameras. Now, what prevents the cellphone from replacing the camera outright? Nothing at all. One can only hope the Sonys and Canons are taking note.
Try this. Who is the biggest in music business in India? You think it is HMV Sa-Re-Ga-Ma? Sorry. The answer is Airtel. By selling caller tunes (that play for 30 seconds) Airtel makes more than what music companies make by selling music albums (that run for hours).
Incidentally Airtel is not in music business. It is the mobile service provider with the largest subscriber base in India. That sort of competitor is difficult to detect, even more difficult to beat (by the time you have identified him he has already gone past you). But if you imagine that Nokia and Bharti (Airtel's parent) are breathing easy you can't be farther from truth.
Nokia confessed that they all but missed the smartphone bus. They admit that Apple's Iphone and Google's Android can make life difficult in future. But you never thought Google was a mobile company, did you? If these illustrations mean anything, there is a bigger game unfolding. It is not so much about mobile or music or camera or emails?
The "Mahabharat" (the great Indian epic battle) is about "what is tomorrow's personal digital device"? Will it be a souped up mobile or a palmtop with a telephone? All these are little wars that add up to that big battle. Hiding behind all these wars is a gem of a question – "who is my competitor?"
Once in a while, to intrigue my students I toss a question at them. It says "What Apple did to Sony, Sony did to Kodak, explain?" The smart ones get the answer almost immediately. Sony defined its market as audio (music from the walkman). They never expected an IT company like Apple to encroach into their audio domain. Come to think of it, is it really surprising? Apple as a computer maker has both audio and video capabilities. So what made Sony think he won't compete on pure audio? "Elementary Watson". So also Kodak defined its business as film cameras, Sony defines its businesses as "digital."
In digital camera the two markets perfectly meshed. Kodak was torn between going digital and sacrificing money on camera film or staying with films and getting left behind in digital technology. Left undecided it lost in both. It had to. It did not ask the question "who is my competitor for tomorrow?" The same was true for IBM whose mainframe revenue prevented it from seeing the PC. The same was true of Bill Gates who declared "internet is a fad!" and then turned around to bundle the browser with windows to bury Netscape. The point is not who is today's competitor. Today's competitor is obvious. Tomorrow's is not.
In 2008, who was the toughest competitor to British Airways in India? Singapore airlines? Better still, Indian airlines? Maybe, but there are better answers. There are competitors that can hurt all these airlines and others not mentioned. The answer is videoconferencing and telepresence services of HP and Cisco. Travel dropped due to recession. Senior IT executives in India and abroad were compelled by their head quarters to use videoconferencing to shrink travel budget. So much so, that the mad scramble for American visas from Indian techies was nowhere in sight in 2008. (India has a quota of something like 65,000 visas to the U.S. They were going a-begging. Blame it on recession!). So far so good. But to think that the airlines will be back in business post recession is something I would not bet on. In short term yes. In long term a resounding no. Remember, if there is one place where Newton's law of gravity is applicable besides physics it is in electronic hardware. Between 1977 and 1991 the prices of the now dead VCR (parent of Blue-Ray disc player) crashed to one-third of its original level in India. PC's price dropped from hundreds of thousands of rupees to tens of thousands. If this trend repeats then telepresence prices will also crash. Imagine the fate of airlines then. As it is not many are making money. Then it will surely be RIP!
India has two passions. Films and cricket. The two markets were distinctly different. So were the icons. The cricket gods were Sachin and Sehwag. The filmi gods were the Khans (Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and the other Khans who followed suit). That was, when cricket was fundamentally test cricket or at best 50 over cricket. Then came IPL and the two markets collapsed into one. IPL brought cricket down to 20 overs. Suddenly an IPL match was reduced to the length of a 3 hour movie. Cricket became film's competitor. On the eve of IPL matches movie halls ran empty. Desperate multiplex owners requisitioned the rights for screening IPL matches at movie halls to hang on to the audience. If IPL were to become the mainstay of cricket, as it is likely to be, films have to sequence their releases so as not clash with IPL matches. As far as the audience is concerned both are what in India are called 3 hour "tamasha" (entertainment). Cricket season might push films out of the market.
Look at the products that vanished from India in the last 20 years. When did you last see a black and white movie? When did you last use a fountain pen? When did you last type on a typewriter? The answer for all the above is "I don't remember!" For some time there was a mild substitute for the typewriter called electronic typewriter that had limited memory. Then came the computer and mowed them all. Today most technologically challenged guys like me use the computer as an upgraded typewriter. Typewriters per se are nowhere to be seen.
One last illustration. 20 years back what were Indians using to wake them up in the morning? The answer is "alarm clock." The alarm clock was a monster made of mechanical springs. It had to be physically keyed every day to keep it running. It made so much noise by way of alarm, that it woke you up and the rest of the colony. Then came quartz clocks which were sleeker. They were much more gentle though still quaintly called "alarms." What do we use today for waking up in the morning? Cellphone! An entire industry of clocks disappeared without warning thanks to cell phones. Big watch companies like Titan were the losers. You never know in which bush your competitor is hiding!
On a lighter vein, who are the competitors for authors? Joke spewing machines? (Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, himself a Pole, tagged a Polish joke telling machine to a telephone much to the mirth of Silicon Valley). Or will the competition be story telling robots? Future is scary! The boss of an IT company once said something interesting about the animal called competition. He said "Have breakfast …or…. be breakfast"! That sums it up rather neatly.
Sep 7, 2009
Useful sites and software
As you discover 'unlimited' amount of good free stuff on the internet, two things become increasingly important: 1. the ability to search it fast and effectively, and 2. the ability to filter and differentiate what is 'really good' from what is average (as the problem is not of 'scarcity' anymore, but that of 'plenty and over-choice'). Its the latter where I am attempting to provide you 'expert' advice on what i 've learnt through 'a lot of experience, talent, time, and effort':). There are bigger experts around, but the list below will easily take your level to 'above-average' to begin with...
USEFUL SITES
Online storage & sharing of large files + Downloading free ebooks:
www.mediafire.com
www.4shared.com
www.scribd.com
www.esnips.com
Search rapidshare ebooks/other files: www.filecrop.com
Free Hindi Song download http://songs.pk
USEFUL SOFTWARE
Desktop search: Yahoo desktop search File name search: Everything
Application launcher: Find and Run Robot
Pdf Tools: Pdf Exchange Viewer (Reader allowing highlight commenting in free 'portable' version), Dopdf (to convert any printable document to pdf), Pdf Split and Merge (to combine or split pdf document pages)
Browser: Firefox (for its awesome address bar, bookmark and history managers, tab features, and wonderful extensions)
Portable 'mini' software from www.nirsoft.net (e.g. My Uninstaller, Outlook Attachview)
Firefox extensions
DownloadHelper (to download Youtube type of videos)
Download them all (Download manager)
Google enhancer
Page Title Eraser
OTHERS
Email: Gmail (due to innovative, marvellous and 'revolutionary' 'lab' features), Outlook
Software with high impact: MS Office (especially Excel and word)
Internet search: Google incl News, blog search (what else:), Bing
Hard drive space usage analysis: WinDirStat, Xinorbis
So what's your software or site that you consider extremely useful, you have already tried and tested and it really works:)
USEFUL SITES
Online storage & sharing of large files + Downloading free ebooks:
www.mediafire.com
www.4shared.com
www.scribd.com
www.esnips.com
Search rapidshare ebooks/other files: www.filecrop.com
Free Hindi Song download http://songs.pk
USEFUL SOFTWARE
Desktop search: Yahoo desktop search File name search: Everything
Application launcher: Find and Run Robot
Pdf Tools: Pdf Exchange Viewer (Reader allowing highlight commenting in free 'portable' version), Dopdf (to convert any printable document to pdf), Pdf Split and Merge (to combine or split pdf document pages)
Browser: Firefox (for its awesome address bar, bookmark and history managers, tab features, and wonderful extensions)
Portable 'mini' software from www.nirsoft.net (e.g. My Uninstaller, Outlook Attachview)
Firefox extensions
DownloadHelper (to download Youtube type of videos)
Download them all (Download manager)
Google enhancer
Page Title Eraser
OTHERS
Email: Gmail (due to innovative, marvellous and 'revolutionary' 'lab' features), Outlook
Software with high impact: MS Office (especially Excel and word)
Internet search: Google incl News, blog search (what else:), Bing
Hard drive space usage analysis: WinDirStat, Xinorbis
So what's your software or site that you consider extremely useful, you have already tried and tested and it really works:)
Preview of Office 2010
A preview of Office 2010 released in July 2009 and final version is expected in 1st half of 2010. The interesting features/changes expected include:
Download full article
- A web-based lighter 'subset' version also to accompany the desktop-based full version aimed at competing with google docs
- Ribbon to be introduced in all office applications
- Office button on top left to be redesigned
- Outlook to have good features including gmail like conversations
- Paste preview will allow live preview before pasting
- In Word, search feature to allow you search charts, tables, footnotes and other content
- PowerPoint to have some nifty video editing features
- And then there's Excel, where i would be most interested...:) Excel to have "Sparklines" - small cell-sized charts next to data to get a quick visual representation
Download full article
Jul 6, 2009
My observations on union budget 2009-10
06July09: Union budget 2009-10 presented by Mr. Pranab Mukherji
Things that matter to our lives
The income tax deduction has been increased from 1,50,000 to 1,60,000. So we save some Rs 1000 of money. SARAL – II forms are also to be introduced shortly.
Surcharge on various direct taxes to be phased out; in the first instance, by eliminating the surcharge of 10 percent on personal income-tax. I am not sure if this was needed (its pro-poor ‘symbolic value’ was there at least) doing this, given that the education cess of 3% still very much remains there. Anyways, simplification is welcome!!
There are recommendations all over to buy stocks like Reliance Industries, L&T, BHEL, SBI, ICICI Bank etc, as a) BSE Sensex has sharply ‘corrected’ (down 870 points) and b) the budget is being touted as being pro-infrastructure.
GDp growth rate was 6.7% during 2008-09 and is ‘expected’ to be back at 9%. The sentiment (and it natters!!) appears clearly upbeat.
Rs 120 cr allocated for unique ID; first set expected in 18 months
Interesting to observe though not affecting my life directly!!
The threshold limit for wealth tax has been doubled to Rs 30 lakh (wealth tax rate is 1% of net wealth exceeding Rs 30 lakh now). This translates into a saving of upto Rs 15,000 a year.
Rs.2,113 cr allocated for IITs and NITs, which includes a provision of Rs.450 cr for new IITs and NITs
Increase in Non-plan expenditure is mainly due to implementation of Sixth Central Pay Commission recommendations, increased food subsidy and higher interest payment arising out of larger fiscal deficit in 2008-09
Fiscal deficit is projected at 6.8%of GDP
Structural changes in direct taxes to be pursued by releasing the new Direct Taxes Code within the next 45 days and in indirect taxes by accelerating the process for the smooth introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) with effect from 1st April, 2010
FBT (Fringe Benefit Tax), CTT (Commodities Txn Tax) abolished
Customs duty on LCD Panels for manufacture of LCD televisions to be reduced from 10% to 5%
Somebody else noted that 6.8% fiscal deficit may see some downgrades from rating agencies.
As per ministry document, “Tax proposals on direct taxes to be revenue neutral. On indirect taxes, estimated net gain to be Rs.2,000 cr for a full year.”
Udyan Mukherji sums up: “The market is disappointed as there is nothing on the fuel policy, foreign direct investment, and disinvestment roadmap. Two things seem to have spooked the markets. One, the fact that fiscal deficit is seen at 6.8% versus 6.2% in the interim budget. And second, the hike in Minimum Alternate Tax to 15% from 10%.”
SP Tulsian says: He further adds that some of the major disappointments from the budget were no fiscal deficit control (no big ticket reforms), no indication for divestment & increase in MAT from 10% to 15%. He feels this is a buying opportunity for investors in the market as the weakness would not last more than 1-2 days.
References
http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/news/budget-news/udayan-mukherjee-sums-upbudget/404745
Download pdf document "Budget Highlights"
Things that matter to our lives
The income tax deduction has been increased from 1,50,000 to 1,60,000. So we save some Rs 1000 of money. SARAL – II forms are also to be introduced shortly.
Surcharge on various direct taxes to be phased out; in the first instance, by eliminating the surcharge of 10 percent on personal income-tax. I am not sure if this was needed (its pro-poor ‘symbolic value’ was there at least) doing this, given that the education cess of 3% still very much remains there. Anyways, simplification is welcome!!
There are recommendations all over to buy stocks like Reliance Industries, L&T, BHEL, SBI, ICICI Bank etc, as a) BSE Sensex has sharply ‘corrected’ (down 870 points) and b) the budget is being touted as being pro-infrastructure.
GDp growth rate was 6.7% during 2008-09 and is ‘expected’ to be back at 9%. The sentiment (and it natters!!) appears clearly upbeat.
Rs 120 cr allocated for unique ID; first set expected in 18 months
Interesting to observe though not affecting my life directly!!
The threshold limit for wealth tax has been doubled to Rs 30 lakh (wealth tax rate is 1% of net wealth exceeding Rs 30 lakh now). This translates into a saving of upto Rs 15,000 a year.
Rs.2,113 cr allocated for IITs and NITs, which includes a provision of Rs.450 cr for new IITs and NITs
Increase in Non-plan expenditure is mainly due to implementation of Sixth Central Pay Commission recommendations, increased food subsidy and higher interest payment arising out of larger fiscal deficit in 2008-09
Fiscal deficit is projected at 6.8%of GDP
Structural changes in direct taxes to be pursued by releasing the new Direct Taxes Code within the next 45 days and in indirect taxes by accelerating the process for the smooth introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) with effect from 1st April, 2010
FBT (Fringe Benefit Tax), CTT (Commodities Txn Tax) abolished
Customs duty on LCD Panels for manufacture of LCD televisions to be reduced from 10% to 5%
Somebody else noted that 6.8% fiscal deficit may see some downgrades from rating agencies.
As per ministry document, “Tax proposals on direct taxes to be revenue neutral. On indirect taxes, estimated net gain to be Rs.2,000 cr for a full year.”
Udyan Mukherji sums up: “The market is disappointed as there is nothing on the fuel policy, foreign direct investment, and disinvestment roadmap. Two things seem to have spooked the markets. One, the fact that fiscal deficit is seen at 6.8% versus 6.2% in the interim budget. And second, the hike in Minimum Alternate Tax to 15% from 10%.”
SP Tulsian says: He further adds that some of the major disappointments from the budget were no fiscal deficit control (no big ticket reforms), no indication for divestment & increase in MAT from 10% to 15%. He feels this is a buying opportunity for investors in the market as the weakness would not last more than 1-2 days.
References
http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/news/budget-news/udayan-mukherjee-sums-upbudget/404745
Download pdf document "Budget Highlights"
Jun 26, 2009
Adaptability: Get 'reactive'
The TV advt featuring Shahrukh and Dhoni says "Whatever life throws at you, play it BIG"!! I normally argue on the side of being prepared, anticipating things and being proactive, but on this one i am more than willing to agree with the other side of the perspective that this is how we need to react to things in life...
On only a remotely related note(!), I also recall when (not long back when i was studying at FMS Delhi) our IT course prof M S Singla said... whatever you do in life, always "think BIG'!! I just through it was just another piece of 'great words', but anyways subconsciously agreed to ponder over its merit...and i 've increasingly discovered that perhaps it does make sense...
So what's ur take on that?
On only a remotely related note(!), I also recall when (not long back when i was studying at FMS Delhi) our IT course prof M S Singla said... whatever you do in life, always "think BIG'!! I just through it was just another piece of 'great words', but anyways subconsciously agreed to ponder over its merit...and i 've increasingly discovered that perhaps it does make sense...
So what's ur take on that?
Get 'strategic' and philosophical
The article makes 2 interesting oberservations:
1. Get strategic – talk to your client about where he is today, where he wants to be in one year, how he plans to get there
Strategy is all (or at least mostly) gas and philosophy...yet i think both are important stuff. i mean in spite of all the skepticism and criticism of being vague and non-operational stuff, they are valuable underlying ideas.. and i firmly believe ideas drive our lives at its roots!! So the point is its extremely worthwhile to consciously put some effort in analyzing your current personal and career status, future objectives and priorities and planning to get you in that direction.. your long-term goals should always be there in all that you do and plan to do...
2. Build case studies – there is a lot to be learnt from success and failure. Document your findings, iron out your processes, glean interesting trends and understand patterns.
Learning is an ongoing process and contrary to the resources and time, there's no end to it (that's the problem actually for which whole books have been written:) My point is more about making
it a habit of documenting all your major and minor learnings and experiences while on the go... i am proud to recommend this as i 've been actually able to do this with some success and a lot of productivity... all u need to do is develop some small 'systems' and frameworks that work for you and build on that...
http://www.alootechie.com/content/effective-online-marketing-leveraging-best-practices-offline-advertising
1. Get strategic – talk to your client about where he is today, where he wants to be in one year, how he plans to get there
Strategy is all (or at least mostly) gas and philosophy...yet i think both are important stuff. i mean in spite of all the skepticism and criticism of being vague and non-operational stuff, they are valuable underlying ideas.. and i firmly believe ideas drive our lives at its roots!! So the point is its extremely worthwhile to consciously put some effort in analyzing your current personal and career status, future objectives and priorities and planning to get you in that direction.. your long-term goals should always be there in all that you do and plan to do...
2. Build case studies – there is a lot to be learnt from success and failure. Document your findings, iron out your processes, glean interesting trends and understand patterns.
Learning is an ongoing process and contrary to the resources and time, there's no end to it (that's the problem actually for which whole books have been written:) My point is more about making
it a habit of documenting all your major and minor learnings and experiences while on the go... i am proud to recommend this as i 've been actually able to do this with some success and a lot of productivity... all u need to do is develop some small 'systems' and frameworks that work for you and build on that...
http://www.alootechie.com/content/effective-online-marketing-leveraging-best-practices-offline-advertising
Jan 9, 2009
BSE Investing and Trading
LINKS
Tracks prices of BSE30 index stocks on myiris
http://www.myiris.com/shares/market/marketBse/index.php
Basics and more about BSE Index on moneycontrol
http://www.moneycontrol.com/sensex/bse/sensex-live
Tracks prices of BSE30 index stocks on myiris
http://www.myiris.com/shares/market/marketBse/index.php
Basics and more about BSE Index on moneycontrol
http://www.moneycontrol.com/sensex/bse/sensex-live
Jan 7, 2009
New Year Resolution 2009
Keeping up with the small ‘habit’ started in the year 2000, the following have emerged as the natural NYRs (New Year Resolutions) for the year 2009. I will try to keep them in mind while the year passes by and try to align my priorities (big word actually!!) along these lines
1. Generate IDEAS, reach to key CONCLUSIONS fast
2. Build a stronger grip on the FUNDAMENTALS
Hope I would be a few important steps ahead in my learning curve at the end the year and also would also have better self awareness. Wish me luck!! And share you NYR!!
Pal/07jan09
1. Generate IDEAS, reach to key CONCLUSIONS fast
2. Build a stronger grip on the FUNDAMENTALS
Hope I would be a few important steps ahead in my learning curve at the end the year and also would also have better self awareness. Wish me luck!! And share you NYR!!
Pal/07jan09
Jan 5, 2009
Career planning equals career limiting
In Marc Andreessen's words, you can't plan your career because you have no idea what's going to happen in the future. He believes that you will have no idea what industries you will be entering, what companies you will be working for, what roles you will be having, where you will end up living or what you will contribute ultimately to the world.
We are all subjected to change and you will change, industries will change, the world will change and we cannot possibly predict any of it. In other words, what he's saying is that if we attempt to plan our career, it will most probably be an exercise in futility. In the end, it may frustrate us and blind us to the really significant opportunities that life will throw our way.
Therefore, he says that:
Career planning = career limiting
and the sooner we come to terms with that, the better.
Source: http://blog.jobstreet.com/india/
We are all subjected to change and you will change, industries will change, the world will change and we cannot possibly predict any of it. In other words, what he's saying is that if we attempt to plan our career, it will most probably be an exercise in futility. In the end, it may frustrate us and blind us to the really significant opportunities that life will throw our way.
Therefore, he says that:
Career planning = career limiting
and the sooner we come to terms with that, the better.
Source: http://blog.jobstreet.com/india/
Dec 27, 2008
Some Photographs
PERSONAL
Myself in a relaxed mood
Family photograph-1
Myself with wife sonia-our formal photograph in the studio
Myself with wife sonia during our 'CRISIL' trip to Murud-Janjeera near Raigarh
'Once in a lifetime' trekking visit to Rajamachi (near mumbai) with SBI friends
Myself with Ravi Garoo sir and Sapna at SBI party
Myself with Giridhar (my IIT Kanpur friend)
Myself with Sreejith (my IIT Kanpur friend)
Myself in a relaxed mood
Family photograph-1
Myself with wife sonia-our formal photograph in the studio
Myself with wife sonia during our 'CRISIL' trip to Murud-Janjeera near Raigarh
'Once in a lifetime' trekking visit to Rajamachi (near mumbai) with SBI friends
Myself with Ravi Garoo sir and Sapna at SBI party
Myself with Giridhar (my IIT Kanpur friend)
Myself with Sreejith (my IIT Kanpur friend)
Some useful links
Personal
My own sites scattered(!!) elsewhere)...an indication of my evolution through personal website creation:)
http://steelpoint.blogspot.com (active, steel sector specific)
http://rajeshpal2009.googlepages.com (not active, hardly contains)
http://pal8ul.blogspot.com (not being updated anymore)
http://pal8ul.wordpress.com (not being updated anymore)
Blog of my dear friend S****** (who for someone reason prefers not to disclose his identity!)
http://theaspirations.blogspot.com
Interesting articles
Top 10 Ways To Raise Your Site In Google
My own sites scattered(!!) elsewhere)...an indication of my evolution through personal website creation:)
http://steelpoint.blogspot.com (active, steel sector specific)
http://rajeshpal2009.googlepages.com (not active, hardly contains)
http://pal8ul.blogspot.com (not being updated anymore)
http://pal8ul.wordpress.com (not being updated anymore)
Blog of my dear friend S****** (who for someone reason prefers not to disclose his identity!)
http://theaspirations.blogspot.com
Interesting articles
Top 10 Ways To Raise Your Site In Google
Formatting and presentation quality
I was just wondering that: Shouldn't they provide more fonts (at least arial narrow, my favorite font these days!!)for blog formatting
Months later I realize: Let me not focus at all on the font.. the default is good enough... the energy i save by not worrying too much about the formatting can be put to good use elsewhere in 'content quality'...
BTW, I still care a lot about presentation quality and consistency where it needs less effort to accomplish and has more long-term impact on my output (the most imp example of such a document is the Resume/CV)... so i consistently have been using Arial narrow (10-11 pts) in Word, Sans Serif (10 pts) in Excel and Tahoma in PowerPoint. And yes, there's Lucida Console (10 pts) in Notepad!!
What's your take on the importance of formatting and presentation quality?
Months later I realize: Let me not focus at all on the font.. the default is good enough... the energy i save by not worrying too much about the formatting can be put to good use elsewhere in 'content quality'...
BTW, I still care a lot about presentation quality and consistency where it needs less effort to accomplish and has more long-term impact on my output (the most imp example of such a document is the Resume/CV)... so i consistently have been using Arial narrow (10-11 pts) in Word, Sans Serif (10 pts) in Excel and Tahoma in PowerPoint. And yes, there's Lucida Console (10 pts) in Notepad!!
What's your take on the importance of formatting and presentation quality?
Interesting and useful facts: Did you know?
EXCEL
- “Undo” can be used to retrace up to sixteen steps prior to where you stopped working.
- When a “Template” (.xlt) file is opened, a copy of the file appears so you cannot accidentally destroy your master template.
-
Some tips and shortcuts that can save the day!!
EXCEL
COMPUTERS
- Shift+File gives you a Close All option
- Shift+Edit gives paste as picture/link.
- Cntrl+' allows you to copy the formula just above exactly i.e. all the cell reference 'as is' without automatic changes that occur when you simply copy the forumla.
- Select a range, type a formula (or constant), press Cntrl+Enter. This will put the same formula (or constant) in all the cells in one shot (Try combining this with point 4 above!)
COMPUTERS
- Adding a shortcut link (say to a folder) in " C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\SendTo" adds it to the right click windows menu. This can be useful. For example, now if you want to copy any file to the added folder, just right click that file and 'send it' to this link in the right click menu under the category "Send to".
Inserting tick symbols in a cell in Excel based on conditions
| 12 | 12 | =IF(B13=C13,CHAR(254),CHAR(253)) |
| 13 | 13 | =IF(B14=C14,CHAR(254),CHAR(253)) |
| 14 | 12 | =IF(B15=C15,CHAR(254),CHAR(253)) |
| | | |
| 251 | =CHAR(B17) | |
| 252 | =CHAR(B18) | |
| 253 | =CHAR(B19) | |
| 254 | =CHAR(B20) | |
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