Be the CEO of your Life

Defining Job Satisfaction

2011-04-01T23:53:00.000-07:00

Many of my friends/colleagues have discussed with me in past about a new offer that they are getting and if they should take that or not. I used to share my views to best of my knowledge

Lately, I actually designed a satisfaction scale to make this choice analytically. Let me share my thoughts here
I think a job can be defined a 5 dimensions

1. Your Role
2. Your salary/money/ CTC :)
3. The organisation
4. Location of your work ( in your home city/ dream city)
5. Personal comfort/Work life balance/personal time

Somehow, I feel that any offer can be analysed in these 5 dimensions. Now to make things simple, we can give equal weights to these dimensions ( you can put different weights for different dimensions also) and let us define satisfaction scale from 1 to 3.

1 is for not OK
2 is for Good
3 is for very good

Again, you can have 5 point scale from Very bad to Very good.

Now, on those 5 dimensions, give a score and then total that score

let us assume you get 9 out of 15 score. So your satisfaction score is 60%.
So, evaluate your next offer on these and find out score. If there is at least 10% increase, go ahead and switch your job 

How it helps:

Sometimes, we tend to switch a job only for money but that gives you lesser role growth or personal time. For first few days, you enjoy your money but then the overall satisfaction comes into play which is lower than previous job. Then you repent a lot !!

Example:

Let us assume you are in a job which is 2 in all parameters thus your total is 10. Now, you can get a job with amazing role and money taking those things to 3 each.

We tend to jump for these offers and you also took that. But somehow that took all your personal time and that actually falls so bad that it is zero.

Now, you would see your total score again to be 10.

So overall, you are as good or as bad as before. The difference is, you might enjoy your work a lot but you might get very disturbed from personal perspective.

So, use this scale to judge your overall score before jumping into anything..

Cheers

BBA COACHING

2011-01-23T22:20:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone

I offer 2 month crash course for BBA Entrance exams right at your door step. I can teach you in Noida ( Sectors close to 1 to 18) or in North Delhi ( Pitampura/Shalimar bagh/Ashok Vihar/Punjabi Bagh/Model Town)

The fee is on higher side but results are guaranteed !!

Vivek
9818161391

Study Plan for CAT Quantitative section

2010-07-03T04:10:00.000-07:00

Study Plan for CAT Quant

If you’re seriously aspiring for CAT examination, you must have had a glance at scores of articles & blogs that must be highlighting you on several tried & tested formula for attaining success in this competitive examination. However if you carry gray matter on your shoulders, you’d be knowing that such claims made are most often fake. There is no such formula to crack the CAT or any specific section and along with your hardwork, sometimes luck also plays a very big part.

Study Plan for CAT Quant

Most of the test takers find CAT Quant as the most difficult section to handle since this test not only tests your graduate math competence, but also other skills such as logic, analytical ability and arithmetic expertise. In our school education, we learn basic concepts such as Algebra, Geometry, and Arithmetic etc. but know very little about how to implement these concepts in competitive examinations such as CAT.

What is a Study Plan?

A study plan is like a curriculum chart, which you prepare and list down the time and energy that you’d be investing while preparing for an important exam. This chart is segregated into different sections, each carrying a manageable task to be handled.

If you wish to create an effective study plan, take a tour of the steps enumerated below and rest assured to attain success in any competitive exam including CAT:

1. Never Prioritize topics

It’s a well known fact that CAT exam has an exhaustive area to be covered. As per previous years paper, you might find few topics carrying more questions that others. But this doesn’t mean that the pattern would continue next year. I would share a very interesting anecdote. During my engineering, I had a elective subject in electrical engineering. In the final exam, I just left one chapter, induction motors as it was expected to have maximum 1 out of 7 questions and we are supposed to attempt 5. In that year, the teacher thought that every mechanical engineer should know about induction motors so there were 4 questions out of 7 from that chapter. I failed in that subject and failed for first time in my life.

So, you should prepare all topics with equal focus and dedication.

2. What is prepared & what needs to be learned?

A study plan can help you sail through if you’re clear about the topics, which need your immediate attention. It’s hard to believe if a student claims that he’s absolutely ignorant of the Quant section. You must be knowing some portions, if not all, of the test material. It’s just that you need to run your eyes through the test material once again, and acquire the expertise in those topics. We advise you to take a Diagnostic test, which would help you analyze where you stand in the competitive race for CAT exam. It would also help you realize how much effort you need to put in to stand in the forefront of the queue for a coveted exam like CAT.

3. Time Management

Time Management plays a crucial role in the preparation of a competitive exam like CAT. It can either translate your dream of clearing CAT exam or break your dream of getting an admission in the top business school of the country. However, only a few of the aspiring candidates know how to leverage the power of time management effectively.

Since you’re the architect of your study plan, you must know which areas need your more attention, and thereafter devise an efficient strategy to attain the goals that you’ve set for achieving success in this exam. You can seek help of calendar to set your own targets and deadlines to accomplish these targets accordingly.

4. Set accomplishable goals

Your study plan should be such that it enables you set specific dates for all the topics that you feel are important & need to be covered on a propriety basis. Set small and accomplishable goals. While you chalk out your study schedule, you need to focus on your core strengths & weaknesses, and then work accordingly.

5. Stick to your plan

You might be a good time manager. However, we recommend you to write down your plan on a sheet of paper, and put on the wall of your room or bulletin board, where you can view it regularly get reminded of the goals you need to accomplish from time to time. This exercise would also keep you informed about the pace of progress that you’re making on a daily basis. However, there might be some junctures in your entire study schedule where you feel tumbled down but don’t get disheartened & restart with vigor more than ever. You can reschedule your entire time table as per your convenience & study needs.

By now, you must have got a fair idea about how to get started with CAT Quant preparation in the most effective way. We wish you all the Best!

Tips to Crack the CAT

2010-06-30T00:17:00.001-07:00

Come November and students are frenzied lot! After days or even months of constant burning of the light lamp, it is time to fight the ferocious CAT. Anxiety pangs are a frequent phenomenon. But is CAT really as tough as it is perceived to be? Many a times the not – so - intelligent lot of students are able to crack CAT while the consistent high scorers come out of the examination hall broken – hearted. The truth lies in the unseen. Unlike other entrance test, like JEE for engineering or medical entrance test, CAT does not test your mettle in math formulae or your prowess in Queen’s English. Instead, Common Admission Test or CAT is essentially a race against time – a race which you can win.

Given below are a few tips which can turn you into Formula 1 racer for CAT! Read them carefully and imbibe them in you right now so that you are equipped well when the D-day arrives!!

Analytical skill: Being an application – driven test, CAT would test your analytical skills. It is mandatory to develop strong problem – solving skill rather than memorising the age – old math formulae and grasping the theories. So, after going through Study Lessons and solved examples, start solving the Practice Tests. Follow the 48-hours Principle which means do not look for solutions till 48 hrs. You are free to seek outside help during this time. If you are still confused then only see the answer. The most common mistake students can make is to look at the solved answer as soon as they realise that they are unable to work out a question. This hampers the building up of their analytical power. It is necessary the building up of their analytical power. It is necessary that you strain your brain to solve a question. As a result you would be able to understand the concept in – depth as well as develop sound problem solving skills.

Think long – term: Our brain functions like a computer’s memory. Whatever we learn either gets stored in the short – term or long term memory. One critical mistake which most students make is that whatever they learn gets stored in their short – term memory. This is why students forget about the concepts and principals which they have learned before the exam. To tackle this problem, follow the ‘Times 3 principal’. According to this principal, practice every concept/question three times. First is an attempt, then a solution and finally the last one makes for revision. Revision is an integral part of any preparation. You must not take this lightly.

Start speeding up: As mentioned earlier, speed is a major factor while appearing for CAT. You will not be able to suddenly start solving questions quickly at the time of the examination. Once you are through with the entire course, start giving mock entrance tests. The higher the number of tests. The better it is. However, do not err by thinking that this solely would increase your speed. Rather, you need to analyse every mock examination that you take to ensure that you don’t end up making the same mistakes again. Keep a note of time that you take to solve the paper and the marks that you attain in every mock test. A better option would be to track your rank at a national level. Remember one thing, Never fell in love with a question!! So if you can’t solve a question, leave it ASAP. Also, you all have heard that you should never throw good money after bad. This thing is applicable here also. Even if you have spent 2-3 minutes over a question, do not hesitate to leave it, the question might take another 6-7 minutes or more. So do not worry about wasted 3 minutes, save the next 7 minutes which you are going to waste on this question.

Work smart: Good decision – making skills go a long way in helping you crack CAT. It would be a better idea to deal with simple and less time – consuming questions. Once you have attempted the easier ones, your nervousness would take a back seat and you would be geared up to handle the difficult questions. This in turn would also increase the probability of getting the right answers for such problems. So always start with a section in which you are most comfortable. Get 7-8 right questions in your kitty and you are on the right path to tackle the difficult questions/sections. So is the paper contain questions with different maximum marks, it is better to attempt questions with lower marks first as they logically should be easier. Remember, Nothing matters more than your confidence during those 2-3 hrs
Practice Online: With the CAT exam going online, the test pattern might change considerably. Hopefully, it would follow the structure of GMAT and GRE entrance examinations. It is thus critical to familiarize yourself with the computer and internet as the test is conducted online. So take a lot of mock tests online so that you are comfortable in using online testing softwares.

Happy Cracking CAT !!
Taken from book Asian’s Crack the CAT
By Vivek Gupta
Batch of 2004-IIM Bangalore

Buy the book on flip cart at link below

http://www.flipkart.com/crack-cat-4th-ed-2010-book-8184121164

Online Preparation: Key to Success in CAT

2010-06-30T00:14:00.000-07:00

Online Preparation: Key to Success in CAT

Online preparation is vital in the preparation for CAT. If not the entire course, taking lot of practice tests online is a must if you aspire to crack the CAT. There are various reasons for this

 Put you under real test conditions—A stress-free mind looks at the CAT examination paper from different eyes. However when a student runs his eyes through the question paper sitting inside the examination hall, his perspective is altogether different since his performance on that day is an index of his future. To him, the question paper of CAT seems nothing less than a nightmare since his scores in that entrance examination would decide his admission in a business school. Taking online tests would put him under real test conditions, and repeated practice would make him used to the entire test process. This shapes the student into a confident candidate sitting for the exam. No anxiety, no fatigue!

 Give you required practice of solving bulk questions in one go—Unless you’re put under real exam conditions, it’s human behavior to take frequent breaks & attempt solving a question paper in multiple installments. Online mock tests help you gain enough practice to solve the entire paper in a single attempt, which eventually prepares you to the competence of solving questions in bulk & crack the exam.

 Use elimination method to solve objective questions—CAT examination is objective like most other competitive examinations. Since you score according to the number of right answers you make, it’s not like a regular school or college exam. So, you need to be smart in your problem-solving approach, which would eventually help you gain a competitive edge over the rest. Elimination method can help you score better as you can eliminate 4 (least likely to be right) options out of 5. Hence, this methodical approach increases your chances of scoring better manifold. Then, it’s not necessary for you to attempt 100% questions. You can leave some difficult questions & not devote more than required time to any one question particularly.

 Get maximized percentile—CAT exam is driven by percentile score. The relative grading plays a crucial role in deciding your fate as far as getting admission into a good business school is concerned. You essentially need to have an edge over 99% of the test takers. That can only be possible when you benchmark yourself continuosly with other candidates. The larger the pool of people, better is your estimates of performance. So taking test which is taken by other thousands of students help you to fine tune your preparation as well as test taking strategy, So, practice as many tests as possible online.

After having read this write-up, you must have realized the great significance of online preparation for CAT entrance examination. So, follow this saying stringently—“Practice as if you’re the worst, perform as if you’re the best.”

Union and Delhi Budget-2010...Moving in a Direction

2010-03-23T03:31:00.000-07:00

I am happy with the movement happening in financial planning in India. Finally, government have started sparing the salaried person and started sharing the burden of national expenses on high income but zero tax paying self employed people.

Lowering of Income Tax slabs and increasing excise duty means that rather than taking on individuals which have the weakness of leaving money, they have started taking on good and services. So be it LCD TV's, Cars, Electricity or Cooking gas, self employed people have to pay as much as a salaried person.

Let me explain this in detail:

If govt expenses are Rs 100, they were taking all those from Salaried people before in form of income tax. Now, they lower the tax rate, and thus gets only RS 80 from these people. The rest 20 bucks from increased indirect taxes like excise, service tax etc.

But this Rs 20 is shared by everyone and actually mostly by self employed people who never pays income tax

Similarly in Delhi Budget, the bias seems to be going with more goods coming under tax net which eventually lead to more people leading to pay for government expenses.

Though people are complaining about increased prices of fuel and other commodities, it spreads economic burden on all rather than only few salaried individuals. People also compares our rates with USA rates and how USA manages with such lower taxes and fuel prices, the reason is because there everybody pays income tax. This difference should be clearly understood. When VAT was introduced some years back,it was speculated that the black economy would end but it has failed to do completely. In this scenario, I think increasing indirect taxes is the only way to bring more people under tax bracket.

Finally, good sense seems to be prevailing among policy makers.

Models of B-Schools in India

2010-03-20T03:43:00.000-07:00

With over 50 years of history of management education in India, we are surrounded with several issues and concerns which directly or indirectly affect the future growth and quality of management education. By default or otherwise, however, We need to look into all these matters this stream of education has contributed a lot in improving the overall economic and employment growth of our country, but the issues and concerns remain valid even today.

In order to upgrade their career prospects, every year lakhs of students in India seek admissions to B-Schools. The questions, however, remain-how to select the best amongst thousands of B-Schools and whether degree/diploma in MEA is worth it? What factors should be used to assess and evaluate the quality and value of the institute? The same is the case with recruiters and other stakeholders-where and how to go about to find out the best? The issue is how to measure those who are better than others or how they are similar to each other or different, though all end up with offering the same PGDBM or MEA degree.

This has further been complicated with the mushrooming growth of B-Schools affiliated to different regulatory bodies like AICTE, UGC, Deemed University etc.

The same is the case with the state aided or university departments, as they cannot decisively be termed as better than the rest, except for a few. While the tuition fees may be comparatively low in the university system, they do not have the freedom and autonomy to revise or improve the course curriculum or the admission system. There are other factors and issues. It is a myth and some institutes claim to be the centres of excellence, as they simply have huge infrastructure and charge exorbitantly high fees. In many cases, students are further confused with the difference between MEA and PGDBM degrees.

In the following paragraphs, an overall picture of the existing status of management education in India is given.

Models of B-Schools: Different models of B-Schools existing in the current scenario are:

1. Department of a University: Of late, most of the universities have established a separate department of

management for MBA programme.

2. Deemed Universities: Over hundred deemed universities have been established and recognised by the. University Grants Commission (UGC) to . teach and offer MBA degrees. Transparency of academic activities and good governance are questionable. However, there are always exceptions, and some of the deemed universities have performed very well. For example, IITs in India have independent department for MBA programme. The quality of teaching and the students of IITs are much better and are comparable to those of the top B-Schools of India.

3. Institutes affiliated to Universities:

Many private B-Schools are affiliated to some universities for their MEA programme and degrees. But in most of the cases, it turns out to be universities providing only distance learning degrees which may not benefit the students at all.

4. Autonomous Institutes:

Most of them are approved by AICTE and award PGDBM degrees. Quality of education provided by these institutes varies depending on the quality of governance of the institutes. IIMs were created as autonomous bodies in active collaboration with Government of India and State governments and provide PGDBM courses. IIMs are considered to be the premier institutions in India.

5. Distance Learning Programmes:

Open Universities like IGNOU, Kurukshetra University, Annamalai University and many other universities provide distance learning MEA degrees. Normally, a distance learning course is not considered to be of much use.

With different kinds of models available for management education, students often get confused about which one they should opt for. Moreover, the information generally available about the institute is not always true. In order to attract students, many a time, some institutes give their success stories in their advertisements, particularly highlighting the infrastructure, faculty, placements, networking with foreign universities, foreign tour etc. Added with advertisements, the institutes also publish brochures, giving information which, at times, is not reliable.

In a divergent country like India, where due to existence of regional disparities in distribution of the management institutes, lots of students from small towns and cities come out every year who largely depend upon the information provided in the advertisements and brochure of a institute, filled with hopes and aspirations to pursue management education, but in the end, they feel disappointed as they do not find what they read about prior to admission.

Admission system: The multiple system of entrance test for admission is yet another area of concern and issue for immediate attention. The admission/ entrance tes t in the management institutes depends upon the requirement of a particular institute. The test varies according to the institutes and their affiliation or associations with the regulatory body. Many institutes have developed their own entrance test. It is difficult to give the list of all entrance tests, but we believe that there may be more than 30 such tests. To name a few are: CAT (Common Admission Test), MAT. (Management Aptitude Test), XAT (Xavier Aptitude Test), FMS Test (test for admission into Faculty of Management Studies), GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Te~t), CET (Common Entrance Test), IRMA-AlEE (Institute of Rural Management Anand: All India Entrance.Exam), MHCET (Maharashtra Common Entrance Test), G-CET (Gujarat Common Entrance Test), admission tests carried out by the State Technical Education Boards, University regulated tests ete.

CAT is used by all the IIMs and most of the top management institutes. CAT is considered as one of the best competitive exams to judge the potential of the candidates.

There is, however, lack of standardisation i.e. one common system of admission in a management institute in India. It is really a matter of concern that for the same level of degree, different standards of entrance tests have been introduced by different institutes. These tests are of different standards and as a result, the quality of intake of students also differs. This kind of practice is perhaps prevalent nowhere in the world and we are unique in following it. This will never allow us to standardise our quality of management education in our country.

Fee Structure: This is yet another area to be looked at. The fee structure of management education in India varies and ranges from Rs. 11 thousand per annum in a few schools to Rs. 9 lakh per annum. While some university departments or affiliated institutes have low fee structure due to being Government funded, others have low to very high fees structure which, at times, does not seem to be justifiable. The variation has generally been seen in autonomous institutes. We have not come to any kind of understanding as to what should be the appropriate cost/fee structure for a good MBA education. So far, no rational basis has been established and Institutes are arbitrarily charging fees at their own discretion.

Faculty Recruitment, Development and Retention: One of the issues being faced is in the area of faculty related issues namely faculty recruitment, retention and development. In a very short span of time, we have witnessed a massive growth in the number of B-Schools, however, the number of faculty has not grown at the same pace. This has led to a gap between demand and supply of qualified, competent and experienced faculty. Good quality of faculty is a major pre-requisite for all the good business schools, however, because of this gap in demand and supply of faculty, good quality of faculty is found to be missing. Faculty to student ratio, in different institutes, varies from 1:6 to 1:25/30, which has an impact on quality of imparting education. The institutes have, therefore, resorted to poaching of faculty from the peer groups and this has in turn led to the retention problem.

In addition, the governance of the institution has contributed to the present climate. In order to meet requirement of a large number of faculty, the B-Schools have compromised on the quality of faculty recruited, by not giving any consideration to the fact whether they are qualified for imparting management education or not. MBA is a highly professional education which requires faculty with high competence not only in terms of having a Ph.D. degree but also in terms of having the required experience in academics & industry / corporate sector. Unfortunately, this is not available in most of the institutes as almost 50% of the faculty recruited, do not have the required experience and in many cases, even fresh MBAs have been recruited to fulfill the requirements.

Faculty, as academicians by nature, need to and want to work in an environment where basic facilities are available for research, attending conference, seminars, writing papers, MDPs and many other activities in addition to teaching which is not found in most of the institutes.

The need of the hour is to strengthen the faculty development strategy & programme and train the faculty irrespective of the background they may be from. The strengthening of FDP is an absolute must-have in the given situation, both for meeting the requirements and improving the quality of management education in India.

Pedagogy & Research: Quality education is a consequence of effective pedagogy amongst other factors. Lack of skill and knowledge in designing courses in the management education area, is much more important than the content or teaching techniques. We do realise that the lack of teaching techniques, in a large number of management institutes is evident, which has a direct impact on the quality of education.

Generally, Indian B-Schools rely mainly on Harvard Case Studies based on American or European situations which are different from Indian cultural values and business environment. But management theories of 'Western B-Schools are not relevant to India and so Indian B-Schools should stick to their own management philosophy. To enhance students' critical and analytical thinking in Indian business context, the students should be allowed to discuss case studies related to Indian business environment. But lack of availability of such case studies is a major problem. Though some premier institutions claim to have a pool of case studies and many other institutes have taken steps towards writing their own case studies, these practices have not become popular yet.

One of the main strengths of the best B-Schools is their strong research base and its impact on society. Scientific status of a discipline depends on the quality of research it produces. Research not only enriches the quality of teaching, but contributes to the advancement of the discipline also. Although management education has been on academic scene for nearly half a century in the country, there is regretfully, not much to write home about the quality and the volume of research undertaken by management schools and scholars in India.

We strongly believe that the future of management education in India is closely interwoven with the quality of research it produces. Research which reflects scholarship; research which advances the discipline; research which promotes management knowhow; research which encapsulates and aligns management with Indian ethos, values and culture; research which deals with management beyond business and research which anticipates future priorities and concerns, has not come yet. While there should be opportunity for management scholar to pursue research in his area of interest, schools could also identify their own research thrust. At macro level, there should be nationally and regionally coordinated programmes in important, identified and publicized areas of management, relevant to Indian economy and society.

MDP: Management Development Programmes carried out by the B-Schools, not only give them the edge of industry interface, but also help them financially, by generating revenue for the institute. In India, one of the main strong points of the JIMs and other top institutes like MDI (Management Development Institute, Gurgaon), is the MDPs carried out by them, which helps them maintain a strong relationship with the industry through interaction like MDP . JIMs have a very strong relationship with the industry as well as with the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) of India, which acted as a saviour during their campus placements during the economic recession of 2009.

Barring a few institutes, MDP has to go a long way in making its presence felt in most of the B-Schools.

Standardisation through Accreditation and Survey Methodology: One of the indicators for India's success will only be known when the institutes are accredited by the global associations of accreditations. By getting rated and ranked in the national environment is not likely to raise the quality and standard of management education, unless they compete, qualify and are accredited by the international accreditation bodies. So far, Indian Institutes have not been able to place themselves in top 100 global ranking. It proves that Indian management education still has a long way to go as far as global recognition is concerned.

Similarly in case of international accreditation, apart from JIM, Ahmedabad and Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, no other Indian institute has been accredited by international organisation as far as our knowledge goes. JIM, Ahmedabad has the accreditation of the European Quality Improvement System (E.Q.U.I.S.). MDI is the first Indian Business School which is internationally accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBA), London and MDI has also been granted South Asia Quality Assurance System (SAQS) accreditation and National Board of Accreditation(NBA)

To have a global platform and attract students from outside the country, it is necessary for the Indian management institutes to try for these global accreditations.

Conclusion: It is obvious that we lack proper planning in establishing management institutes in India vis-a.-vis the manpower requirement. In the absence of implementation of provisions established by the regulatory bodies, the chances of improvement are very bleak. Apart from applying the present provisions meticulously, there is a need for -improving the provisions in qualitative terms and not just in

quantitative terms.

History of management education shows that there is a big gap in quality between the institutes established during 1950/60s to 1990s and institutes established in the later period. It is observed that as the number of institutes in India started increasing, the quality of management education started deteriorating. It is very obvious that the institutes established in the first two generations i.e. from 1960s till 1990s were few in numbers, but they have been maintaining their quality of education till now, or rather, have improved it. They have the best faculty and are hub of research. They take pride in their alumni.

But after 90s, the management education in India got surrounded by a mix of B-Schools. Some are, no doubt, doing well, but many others lack quality.

In absence of proper implementation of the provisions by the regulatory bodies, due consideration has not been given in separating the best from the rest. As a result, the students graduated from different institutes have different levels of competence. Students graduated from some of the management institutes cannot be even termed as management graduates in the real sense of the term as the quality of such institutes is at much lower level.

This problem needs to be resolved. Proper standardisation of management education and presence of single regulatory body are the need of the hour. Improvement is a continuous process. Majority of the business schools should keep on improving with time and try to move to the next level of excellence. Expansion without preparation and quality maintenance is not proper. Lots of new B-Schools have brought in improvements in infrastructure and boast of their state-of-the-art facilities, but governance, leadership, faculty quality also equally matter and are valuable factors. Though standardisatipn is an important factor, diversity and innovation in curriculum are also required.

We need to look into all these matters and aim at building a management education system of excellence in the country.

Career Counseling

2010-03-18T04:30:00.000-07:00

Lot of people ask me tons of questions regarding career. So I have compiled all of them together here.

satys asked, Do employer reject candidate in sr. mgt round? i.e 2nd round, after technical round is clear?
Answers, Yes, it is possible. So please dont think that you have got the job simply because u have cleared initial rounds

hanumantharao asked, i want to improve my communication skills, actually i have stage fear. please suggest for improvement. Thks.
Answers, Hi, please refer to responses to other queries. we have already covered this

kalchek asked, I am a student from a top US business school. Of late, I've been extremely low on confidence after being unable to clear any interviews. I've clearly been lacking on the softer aspects of being able to influence and negotiate hard. Is there something I can work on to improve these skills, or is my career over?
Amit answers, Hi Kalchek, no your career is not over. Please read stephen covey's book - the 7 habits of highly effective ppl

Prem asked, Nowadats each company wants experienced candidates not freshers but if fresher will not get a chance how will he become experienced?What should a fresher should do in such a scenario?
Answers, Hi Prem, One can showcase the development one has undergone in one's student years to get a good break. Your CV and how you perform in the interview will determine the break

mukti asked, Sir,I am Mukti, I like to know from you, what are the main crriterias employor see in the candidates?
Answers, Hi Mukti, pls refer to earlier responses - I have already dealt with it

girish11 asked, Sir do you think bpo jobs have a career in future
Answers, In the globalised world, the bpo is here to stay

girish11 asked, Hi sir my name is Girish i am doing my gradyuation from mumbai university can you tell me what are the best possible opion to get into Banking Industry.
Answers, Hi Girish.. you could think of entering the banking industry either frm the tech side in data analysis or frm the management side by studying management

prabhakar asked, I am doctorate in Agriculture and working with Indian MNC in product development field. My problem is fluent english.
Answers, Hi Prabhakar.. we have already dealt with this.. please refer to earlier responses

SMEdreams asked, does Obssesive cumpulsive disorder affected people get any reservation in seats ...
Answers, Hi SME, No. Unfortunately, OCDs do not get covered for reservation.

Chitra asked, I am in Presales. Can u suggest some techniques to improvize my Business Communication. Wht is the difference between Business & Normal communication
Answers, Hi Chitra, You have asked a very valid ques - business communication involves many things that maynot be required in normal communication. For eg, in normal communication, we do not use business language / jargon. It will help if you pick up a book that is specific to your domain and master the kind of language / grammar used

Prem asked, I have study background of hindi medium and now it is very difficult for me to talk in english with someone. Kindly suggest how can I improve my spoken english skill?
Answers, Hi Prem, it is not only a problem of Hindi medium, but for all people who are non-native speakers of english. the first thing we need to do is to stop thinking in our native language. make a conscious effort to think in eng. then follow it up by following the principle of reading, writing, speaking and listening to eng. the more you do this, the better your english will get

Bhabtosh asked, Dear Sir, Thank you for being with us, my question is regarding high level communication, how to improve judgement of your own communication skills, everyday, we watchh something new in this market, how to get automatically improved according to it?
Answers, Hi Bhabtosh, We need to keep our eyes and ears open - listen and watch people who communicate well and try to learn from them; read as much as possible; and apply it all consciously. We can continue to grow, learn and improve as long as we live

Rawki asked, What does an employer look for in an interview? How to sound like the one who indeed need a job.
Answers, Hi Rawki, An employer wants to know 3 things: 1. can you do the job 2. if yes, then do you have the drive to do the job 3. will you fit in with the culture of the company keeping these in mind, pls present yourself accordingly

sapna asked, hi, i m very straight forward person & speak very straight which usually go against me,i can't speak sweetly or diplomatically,what to do?
Answers, Hi Sapna, there is a difference between being simply. truthful / straightforward and doing so selectively. If you are selectively straightforward and measure your words before speaking, it will no longer go against you. Instead, your words will be valued because of how authentic they are. remember, being straightforward is not a bad thing, no matter what others say

asim asked, i am very poor in writing as well as speaking . can you help me how to improve .regards
Answers, Hi Asim, please refer to the answer i have given to similar questions before

kamal asked, Hi,I am working with an insurance company from the past 2 years and i have an experience of 4years...my question is what to do if the company is going against you despite your manager backing...should i quit or fight against the company's laws through my performance
Answers, Hi Kamal, in your position, I would do a mix of both.. while in the company, I would continue to prove myself through my work, make myself indispensable and fight diplomatically for my rights. At the same time, I would look out for better opportunities. but dont quit till you get something good

Velu asked, After B Tech Biotech what to do ? M Tech or MBA ?
Answers, Hi V elu, This is a personal choice - are you someone who thrives on research? Or are you someone who wants to manage and lead people? Make your choice accordingly. But follow the path of your interest and do not go by what others are doing or saying

AJAY asked, I WANT TO IMPROVE MY COMMUNICATION SKILL.PLS ADVISE ,AS HOW IT CAN BE ACHIEVED??
Answers, Hi Ajay, please refer to the response i gave to suresh

Vivek asked, Is it a good idea to move from technology to management in an IT company
Answers, Yes Vivek, it is a good idea, particularly if you don't see yourself as someone who can be with the tech team all your life. Once you enter management, with experience, you can even go from one industry to another

Santosh asked, How can we train students based in Rural areas?
Answers, Santosh.. you have asked a very valid ques... the best way to reach out to students in rural areas is to heavily leverage technology.. use VSAT, video conferencing, etc and also suppliment it by training support staff who are on-site

suresh m asked, Amit, Is there a book or a way you would suggest me/everyone to improve his/her communication skills?
Answers, Hi Suresh: Communication is made up of two things: your language and your personal effectivenss. trying following Raymond Murphy for grammar and read "The 7 Habits of highly effective people" by stephen covey for personal effectiveness

Uday asked, I am working with IP past 3 years but still my communication skill is bad. I intreact with customers through english language only. But sometimes i am not confident about that. can u pls help me out to improve the skill?
Answers, Hi Uday, it is important to work on: 1. grammar.. refer to books by Raymond Murphy 2. Improve your pronounciation - listen to English news channels in the evening, and then the next morning, read out the same news from the newspaper - see the difference in pronounciation. 3. but the most important thing that will give you the required confidence is the ability to think in English. Please start thinking in English and not your native language

abu asked, iam degree final year what i do next
Answers, Hi Abu.. it depends on your interests.. what would you like to do? Can you tell me something more about yourself?

ganeshj asked, Hi, I have about 9 years of experience in sales as at various levels both in India and abroad. At present I am employed as a senior manager in a reputed financial servies company, although it is a mid-career move and sacrifies have to be made, I would want to shift to the IT industry. Please advice as to what skill sets would be required and is it advisable to make such a shift?
Answers, Hi Ganesh, I would like to go into more details of this. Please mail me at amit@purpleleap.com

red asked, if we employ smart , dynamic person then the work done will b gud but that person will look out for other things and if we employ average person then that person might stay but the work done will not b gud. where to draw the line??
Answers, Red.. that's a very valid point.. companies follow to kinds of policies... 1. At the start-up stage, you need dynamic people to set up the business. 2. Once the processes are in place, the business has been established, then companies like to have a lot of average people on board to simply run the business

Shri asked, I have SIX years of IT exp.But I am not getting calls?
Answers, Shri.. you are not getting calls for what? What kind of profiles are you applying for?

Murali asked, is it wise to move out od IT after 10 years of IT experience?
Answers, Hi Murali... moving out of IT after 10 years of experince.. can be both a good and bad decision depending on what you do next. You could study further to help you move up the corporate ladder, you could open your own business, etc. Whatever you do, ensure that your next step is meaningful and creates value in your life without sacrificing on money

maruthi asked, Sir currently i am working as manager in educational consultancy in Hyderabad. I am weak in grammar. Can u tell me how to master in grammar.
Answers, Hi Maruthi, there are many ways of improving grammar... one of my favourite writers is Raymond Murphy. He has a trilogy - Beginners', Intermediate and Advanced English Grammar. According to your requirement... please go through the book.. it is very user friendly

xkcd asked, i have a very poor comm skill.i am a graduate from one of the premier institute of india in engg. i am a mechanical engg. i am not able to express myself when it comes to explain to biggies of the firm i work in. i get jittery. what shud i do?
Answers, 3. please tell yourself that what other people think of you is not important.. if they are unkind in their opinions, it is their problem.. motivate yourself to do your best

xkcd asked, i have a very poor comm skill.i am a graduate from one of the premier institute of india in engg. i am a mechanical engg. i am not able to express myself when it comes to explain to biggies of the firm i work in. i get jittery. what shud i do?
Answers, 2. If you are in a public-speaking situation and you are not comfortable looking into the eyes of the people around.. look at their hairline. It will create the impression of eye contact and you will feel less jittery

Investment Planning and Financial Advisory

2010-03-17T01:09:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Lot of people ask me how to save tax, what is the best investment planning strategy. So I have compiled a list of FAQ's on this. The questions were asnwered by Anuj Shokeen, leading financial advisor. He can be contacted at

anujshokeen@in.com

So let us start

carl asked, Hi, my wife and I take home 1.10lakh every month. We need to buy a house in Bombay costing 60 lakh, make other long term investments and also save some liquid cash. Please tell me how we should go about this. Also, is this advisable considering my wife might have to stay home once we have a child (2 years down the line). We currently have about 4 lakh in savings, and 3 lakh as investments.
Answers, i would advise you to consult a financial planner.

malcom_bh asked, Hi Trideep, I am investing Rs 2000 each in Tata Infra, HDFC Top 200, ICICI Discovery and Reliance Growth. My horizon is 15 years. Can you please advise me on this about possible change in the strategy
Answers, Continue with HDFC Top 200 and Reliance Growth, while switch your investments from ICICI Discovery to ICICI Dynamic, while stop Tata Infra and instead invest in DSP Top 100.

RahulG asked, I would like to save 50 lakhs towards my daughter's education. She is 6 months old. I have taken a termn plan from LIC for 50 lakhs for 30 years paying premium of 15000, and started SIP in HDFC top 200 of 4000 PM. Can i achieve my goal in 20 years of time? PLease provide your valuable insights/recommendation?
Answers, IF you are saying that you would require 50 lacs 20 years from now, then you you need to enhance your SIP to rs 7,000 a month. However if you want to educate your daughter with an equivalent of 50 lacs as of today then she would require a sum of 3.3 crores (current cost 50 lacs projected 20 yrs at a rate of 10% inflation) and your SIPs would give 33 lacs. I woud advise you to either reduce your goal amount or enhaance your investments with suitable advise

bharat asked, dear sir, please suggest two good & cosistence performers of diversified equity fund ,balance fund.income fund for medium term investment plan. should i redeem or stay invested in jm core-11,sundaran bnp paribas select focus equity, dws investmnet opportunity fund.
Answers, HDFC Top 200 and DSP Top 100 for diversified equity, HDFC Prudence for Balanced. move out of JM Core 11. while you can hold on your other investments.

mahesh asked, for gross income Rs.40000 pm with age of 30 years & just married what you suggest as investment catagories
Answers, Congratulation on the new chapter in life. At your age and circumstances I would advise you to first prioritize and quantify your goals with the advise of a financial planner. This is the most important step to investing. As a thumb rule you can invest approx 65-70% in equity (via MFs) 15-20% in gold (ETF) and the rest in debt instruments.

Sonali asked, Hi Trideep, I am Investing 2000 in DSP blackrock top 100, 2000 in HDFC top 200 growth, 2500 in reliance rsf. My target years of investing is 20-25 years. what rate of return i should expect ? Advise if any change is needed.
Answers, All your scheme selection is good, continue with your investments as all the schemes are top performers. The traget return in equity should be around 12% p.a., all above that should be considered as a bonus.

sanjai asked, Iwant to invest Rs.30000/- in HDFC Tax Saver Fund for Tax purpose. Is it correct decision? Otherwise what is the best option for me. I am a Banker (35 Yrs)having one 6 yr old daughter.
Answers, HDFC Tax saver is a good scheme, you can also look for fidelity tax advantage.

Asokan asked, I am 50 years old. How much is the risk if I dab in share trading? Or How should I be invested?
Answers, Equity share trading is a high risk game. Risk is a function of your appetite and tolerance, appetite can be irrespective of age, however tolerance is a factor of ability tpo replace lost capital, as you age your ability to replace lost capital goes down. Hence I would advise you to stay invested in equity portfolio (max 50% of your portfolio) and the remailder in debt.

Kireeti asked, How much it costs to get the financial planning done from a 3rd party? Kindly suggest some 3rd party Financial planners from Bangalore?
Answers, various financial planners charge fes ranging from 2000-80000. However what you should do is to see how comprehensive is their plan and also the strength of their recomendation.

SHYAM asked, wHAT WILL BE THE IMPLICATION OF DIRECT TAX CODE ON LONG TERM CAPITAL GAINS WHEN THE SAID CODE COMES INTO FORCE
Answers, At the draft stage the direct tax code aims to consider capital gains as normal income and hence the normal tax rates would be applicable. THus there is a possibility that the indexation benefits of capital gains could be taken away if this code is implemented as it is.

BVENKATM asked, AMONTH SUNDARMA S.M.I.L.E, UTI DIVIDEND YIELD, UTI DIVIDEN YIELD, RELIANCE REUGLAR SAVINGS EQUITY, HDFC TOP-200, BIRLA SUN LIFE MIDCAP PLAN-. OUT OF THESE SIX, SUGGEST ME 2 LARGE CAP AND 1 MIDCAP FUND FOR MY SIP PORTFOLIO.
Answers, out of these only HDFC Top 200 is a pure large cap fund. however for SIP, you can go for HDFC Top 200 and DSP Top 200, for Mid caps you can add to Birla SL Midcap.

RAMANA asked, DEAR SIR,is there any MF which covers under 80c and give us good returns.
Answers, HDFC Tax Saver and Fidelity Tax Advantage would be my pick

nmah100 asked, my MF investments over the past 5 years have remained almost flat, except for some dividends. Would you recommend that I liquidate and start all over or hold to my portfolio (65% equity and 35% Bonds/deposits). I am 37 yrs of age and have time on my side.
Answers, You can hold onto your investments, while you can move out of your bad schemes and move into good schemes. however MF's on an average have grown @ 16% to 20% over the past 5 years.

adad asked, I ve invested in L&t infrastructure (20000), Fortis future leaders (20000). Returns are negative till date. Shouls i hold or switch to another funds?
Answers, Move out of both the funds as they are too risky. better switch to HDFC Top 200 and DSP Top 100.

Aftab asked, Hi Sailesh, unknowingly i have invested in a ULIP plan of Bajaj Allianz New Unit Gain, the premium is Rs.12,500/- yearly, the policy was started in April 2009, please advice.. shall i continue and pay the next premium or cancel the policy?
Answers, hi, continue with the premium payment. Dont surrender the policy. Over the next 7-8 years you should be able to make good returns.

aish_786abhi asked, Which mutul nd is best for investment only for 3 years
Answers, hi,for 3 years the best option would be a balanced fund. These funds invest 65% and more in equities and balance in debt. HDFC Prudence and DSP BR Balanced Funds are my best picks.

SUPPANDI asked, Sir, can you please suggest some good short term debt mf's
Answers, hi, if your invesment horizon is less than a year, then you can consider funds like HDFC Short Term Income Fund and Templeton India Short Term Income Plan.

klas asked, Please suggest plans to invest Rs 20L for me due for retirement after two months so as to lead moneywise a happy retired life.
Answers, hi, first ensure that the money that you will need to meet your day to day expenses are kept aside in a bank FD. The rest can be invested in equity funds to ensure that there is no erosion of capital. Inflation will eat into your capital over a period of time and hence it is always better to have atleast 10%-15% of your corpus in equity funds to growth the same.

mahesh248 asked, I have investment in TATA-AIG invest assure-II (amount Rs.18000/annum) and LIC's market plus (Rs.10000) (growth) ulips. now completed 3 years in both the plans. Can i continue with the same plan or can i switch to other plan..
Answers, hi,continue with your plan. Complete the 3 year mandatory period then see if you are making any money exit from the same

anil.gupta123 asked, sir , i have 50 thousand ruppes .i want to make it grow but without risk . i have invested in stocks but ia ma in deep loss .so i fear to invest any more . kindly suggest what to , i want the money to invest it for 1 year for a gain of 12 -15%
Answers, hi, if you want to make your money work harder for you then you will have to take risk. Equity funds are the answer to your question. I would first of all advice you to increase your investment horizon from 1 year to atleast 5 years. This will ensure that you minimise the chances of losing money in equity. Also, take help of a professional investment advisor to help you select the good funds that will help you make the returns in the range of 12%-15%. I have given the names of few funds earlier in my chat.

Salil asked, I am investing Rs. 2500 each in ICICI Prudential Infrastructure Fund and Reliance Regular Savings Fund for the last 2 years and i am planning to continue with these two funds for another 7-8 years. What you suggest? Also should i book profits from time to time or should allow the money to grow. Also want to start one new SIP for around Rs. 3000 pm. for long term. Please advice
Answers, hi, continue with your investments, try and add 2-3 more schemes in your portfolio. Yes,keep booking profits at regualr intervals to balance your asset allocation.

raghuram asked, hi sir. I am getting 4L annual as salery how to make my earnings divided for investment with target of house purchase, childern education,marriage, after retirement security, what type of investment methods & funds you suggest
Answers, hi, the answer to your question lies in doing a comprehensive financial planning for yourself. The plan will tell you how much you need to save on a regualr basis to meet all the goals you have mentioned. It will also suggest ways and means to reach your goal in case your savings are not adequate. Take help of a profesional planner to help you with the same.

hasnainali asked, Heloo , To gain Rs 1 cr in next 20 years , what should be my monthly investment in MF?
Answers, hi, assuming your investment earn you an average return of 12% p.a.you need to invest a sum of Rs 10,000 (approx) to become a crorepati in next 20 years.

Ashu asked, Hi Sailesh. Could you please suggest some good pension plans? What is your opinion about NPS(National Pension Scheme)? Also I want to invest 5-Lacs now. Please suggest how to go about the same in Shares/MF/Pension plans. Thanks
Answers, hi, NPS has not become popular with investors. As an alternative, you should get retirement planning doen for yourself that will tell you exactly the corpus you need to accumaulate by the time you retire to ensure that it generates adequate income year after year to meet your post retirement expenes. Pension plans offred by insurance companies are not the ideal solution.

sbkulkarni asked, i am 43 yrs old. i have invested in sip (rs.1000 each) in hdfc top-200, reliacnce reg saving fund, birla sunlife front line equity, idfc pre equity, sundaram financial opportunities, select focus, kotak 30. and 1 lakh in uti ulip. i need not have to plan for income tax as i hv savings of more than 1 lakh per annum in PF, please review and comment. i would like to go for 250000 term insurancewhat is yr opinion.
Answers, hi, so many funds! All are good. Stay invested. Dont like the idea of having Rs 1 lakh in UTI ULIP. While I appreciate your decision of taking a term plan, the sum assured of Rs 2.50 lakhs is on the lower side. I am assuming here that you do not have any other insurance policy in your name. It would be a good idea to add one more zero after Rs 250000.

montecito asked, Hi sailesh, I have two questions for you : 1. Is Mutual Fund better or Ulip ? 2. I want to invest 10000 rupees a month which funds should i pick ?
Answers, hi, if investment is your objective then mutual fund is my answer. Divide the amount equally between well managed and diversified equity fund. Stay away from ULIPs.

chemistanand asked, Hi Shailesh, I am earning 100K per month and would like to invest around 50K monthly. Can you advice me apart from MF &Shares what is the better bet with income tax exemptions?
Answers, hi, consider investing your savings of Rs 50k into mix of equity and gold funds. You can buy gold worth Rs 10k every month through gold ETF. the remaing Rs 40k can be invested in well managed diversified equity funds like HDFC Top 200, DSP BR Top 100, Franklin India Bluechip and Sundaram Select Midcap. For tax saving you can consider fund like Fidelity Tax Advantage Fund among others.

shuklaji asked, which is the best and safest investment option..FD or shares?
Answers, hi, the safest investment is defineitely bank FD when compared to equities. However, one needs to have both the investment in portfolio. By playing 100% safe you may not be able to build wealth for yourself. Some amount of risk is necessary to make your money work harder for you.

mahesh asked, dear Mr.Sailesh Gud Afternoon, I am 40 years old and i have 2 lacs rupees, is it better option to repay my home loan or plz suggest me where to invest
Answers, hi, I am always in favour of repaying the loan over any other alternative invesment. Its always good to have a healthy balance sheet with minimum or zero debt. Whatever you save on EMI, should be channelised into equity funds to buld wealth over the long term.

gunz asked, Hi Sailesh...I have received around 30000 rupees as bonus..Can you advice me on how to invest this amount to get good returns in the near future? Is open eneded MF's a good option?If yes which MF would you suggest?
Answers, hi, if your invesment horizon is 5 years and more and you are willing to take high risk then invest your money in diversified equity funds. Funds like HDFC Top 200, DSP BR Top 1000 Equity fund are among the better managed funds.

LML asked, HI I AM SELF EMPLOYED- I HAVE INVESTED 20000 EACH IN HDFC TOP 200 , RELIANCE REGULAR SAVING AND DSP BLACK ROCK I WANT TO INVEST FURTHER - AROUND 60000 LET ME KNOW IF I SHOULD CONTINUE WITH THE SAME FUNDS OR LOOK FOR OTHER FUNDS
Answers, hi, consider funds like Franklin India Bluechip and Sundaram Select midcap. I am assuing that your investment horizon is atleast 4-5 years.

anilanil asked, i wants to invest some surplous for short term in instrument which can be liquidated easily within 3-4 days. expected return is 10-12% p.a. pls suggest some such instrument.
Answers, hi, the best investment for you is liquid funds. the returns of 10-12% are impossible from liquid funds. Hence, my advice to you would be to reduce your return expectation to somewhere between 4%-5% p.a.

Karan asked, I want to invest 5000 each month. What is the safe bet which can help me build a nice corpus in next 10yr or so. Secondly, what is the best way to invest when i m looking for both safety n good money growth?
Answers, hi, if you are looking at 10 years horizon and wish to grow your money then the best option would be equity funds. But these are high risk investment. The best strategy would be to divide the money into 2 halves - invest 50% in safe product like Bank FD. Invest the balance half in high risk, high return generating product like equity funds. This will take care of growth with safety.

bhaskarwar asked, Hi Sailesh, I am investing Rs 2000 each through SIP in TATA Infrastructure, HDFC Top 200, Reliance Growth and ICICI Discovery Fund. Can you suggest changes if any?
Answers, hi, I would prefer a large cap diversified equity fund like DSP BR Top 100 Equity over TATA Infrastructure Fund. Rest all are good.

VarunSingla asked, Is it better to invest in Gold ETFS ?
Answers, According to me investment in gold should be done through Gold Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). Every unit of Gold ETF is backed by half or one gram of physical gold. The units of Gold ETF are held in demat form. Hence, there is no botheration about safekeeping of gold that is associated with physical form. Also, the gold held by Gold EFTs are backed by physical gold of 0.995 fineness which is secured and insured. Gold ETF score on the wealth tax front too; they are not considered as wealth for Wealth Tax purpose. Physical gold is considered as wealth for wealth tax purpose. Also, Gold ETFs are treated as long term capital assets if held for more than 12 months from the date of purchase. One can avail of the indexation benefits claim concession from long term capital gains tax, if any. Don’t rush into buy gold. Invest a small a sum every month. Spread your investments over the next 6-12 months.

sds asked, My age is 31. My monthy salary is 38k of which i have i have home lone premium of 15k.I have one endowment and one money bag LIC policy. I also invest 5000k yearly in market plus. I have also one money bag policywhich has yearly premium of 12000 yearly.I have ULIP policy of HDFC (HDFC Youngter plan II)having monthly premium 2000 resp. CCan you please advise me on the investment that i have made and how i can balance my portofolio.
Answers, Hi, you seem to be investment savvy or rather insurance savvy. You have lot of insurance policies in your portfolio which is fine. Insurance should be there in your portfolio to protect you from the risk of dying too early. The investments like shares, mutual funds will help you meet your life goals. My advice to all the investors through this chat is that first they should get an investment plan made for themselves and then move onto the selection of products that will help them achieve their goals.

Peter asked, I am Anil, and my monthly take home is 19k. Please advice any investment plan which is sutable for me. Thanks
Answers, Hi, there is nothing like a best financial plan. Every financial plan is different and suited to the need of a particular individual. Having said that I would like you to be crystal clear of your life goal like retirement, buying a house, children education and their marriage, etc. Since its a specialised task I would advise that you take help of an expert financial planner to help you with your financial planning. I can assure you that once you have done the planning, the process of investing will be very simple and easy. Don’t jump straight to buying investment products like mutual l funds, insurance and bonds. Know what you need to reach your goals on time and then take action accordingly.

NAYAN asked, ONLY IN INVESTING MF, FD, POST, BANK INTEREST, STOCKS, CAN MAKE SENSE. WAT ABOUT PROPERTY?
Answers, hi, properrty is a good investment avenue. Historically, property and equities have given the highest returns. Property investment requires relatively large capital investment to begin with. Also, in India there is not regualator in the property market. So a lay investor is at the mercy of real estate agents. Also not research is avaialble on the property unlike equity. Hence, it is a relatively difficult job to buy property. Real Estate mutual funds when launched will be a good option to invest in prpoperty.

Balu asked, Dear Shailesh, what is your views on ULIPS(after IRDAs reduction of charges)do you think they have gotten better. And also 7-years highest NAV stuff which some insurers are peddling now?
Answers, hi, I am not in favour of ULIPs. I prefer to keep investments and insurance separate. The job of insurance companies is to provide insurance to protect the life of people. Investments are best handle by mutual funds and portfolio managers. I am not sure how 7 years highest NAV guaranteed products will be managed. Its better to wait and watch the performance of these products. As far as insurance is concerned go for the term plan. Stay away from ULIPs

raj asked, i want to invest Rs 50000/- for my 3 yr old child, time to invest min 10 years . shall i invest one time or invest with SIP. as u suggested i am planning for hdfc top 200 & franklin. thx
Answers, hi, its a god idea to start an SIP in HDFC Top 200 and Franklin India Bluechip fund for your 3 year child. Assuming you are going to spend the amount on his/her higher education, you have more than 10 years time horizon which is very good for equity investments. I am confident that if you follow the practice of SIP over the next 10 years you will be able to build a sizeable corpus for you child's education.

Kireeti asked, Can we consider the normal influation while caluclating future education and marriage costs?
Answers, hi, the cost of education and marriage is growing faster than the cost of day to day living. In my calculations I take the inflation as 10% for children education and marriage cost.

skh asked, what is your opinion about ICICI dynamic fund?
Answers, hi, its a good fund. IF you have any invesment in it continue with the same.

hasnainali asked, Sir , I am investing 2000 each in HDFC top200 , SBI tax gain , 1000 in DSP BR top 100 via sip .Investing time horizon is 15 years. can you pls inicate me ultimate corpus after 15 yrs.total invetment will be 9 Laks.
Answers, hi, assuming an average return of 12% p.a. over the 15 years, you the value of your investments will be approx Rs 15 lakhs

sid asked, which one u suggest for a period of 5 years - ELSS or RD or FD or Gold
Answers, hi, all three are good for 5 years time frame. I would adivse that allocation to gold be capped at 10%. The balance 90% can be equally divided between ELSS and RD.

Ashok asked, My taxable income is under 20% tax slab. if i invest 3 Lakh in FD, the tax on the intrest earned when added to my income will fall in 30% slab. Is it wise to go for FD. I guess there is TDS for FD also.
Answers, hi, please check if you have considered deduction of Rs 1 lakh under section 80C in your calculation. If yes and still you have to pay tax, then there is no other option but to pay the tax. TDS is tax deducted at source - that doesnt reduce your tax liability.

Fundamental Flaws in Indian Financial System

2010-03-16T23:27:00.000-07:00

Friends

Today morning during car pool discussion, I noticed two very huge flaws in Indian Financial system. So I thought to write them down for general feedback and comments. Also, my friends who are abroad can throw more light on how things happen there

1. The Auditors are appointed by organisations and their term can end any day

While remembering PWC-Satyam incidence, I thought who is to blame. Is PWC the real culprit or the system itself. When Mr Raju would have asked Satyam to do those fudging, what options do they had. If auditors actually audit accounts of Indian companies, they would be appointed auditors anymore. So the major work of auditors is to cook your books in compliance with legal and statutory obligations which they did.

2. Anyone can deposit money in your account:

people and I used to wonder why and how someone would exploit this. I need protection that no one should be able to withdraw my money, who cares if someone deposits by mistake.

But actually this deposit can have more serious consequences as government is bothered more about deposits than with drawls in your account. So If I deposit Rs 10 lakhs in your account, you can safely in IT net for next 5 years or may be more. The bigger the amount, the more is the trouble.

If I remember few scenes from movie, Guru, this was a strategy adopted by Guru in a very effective way. Be it pressurizing the IAS officer or the minister, always a threat of huge deposit was given to them.

Can anyone throw some more light on this

Roles that Participants Play in a Group Discussion

2010-03-07T00:07:00.000-08:00

Roles that Participants Play in a Group Discussion

There are a number of roles that a candidate can play in a GD. It has been observed that many candidates act or behave in a certain way or make their points in a particular manner.
Let us discuss some of the roles that candidates may choose to play:

The Initiator

Such a person typically is the one who tries to commence the discussion and make his point in the beginning. He may try to give direction to the GD and speak as much as possible in the beginning, before the GD gets too noisy or chaotic.
However, this person does not speak much later or participate in subsequent stages of the discussion. It appears that he has exhausted himself early in the game.
• Remember that if you initiate, do so with a structure and aim to give direction to the discussion. Lay down the ‘paramaters’ of the discussion-i.e. what all can be discussed
• Do not think speaking in the beginning is enough. You need to participate actively throughout the discussion

The Data Giver

The person playing the role of a data giver provides all the statistics and data relevant to the discussion. He seems to be a ‘talking newspaper’ or ‘talking journal’. However, he does not use the data that he gives to present his point of view in a logical manner.
Thus, the points he makes can be considered as being incomplete-although the supporting statistics are there, it is not really clear what the point of presenting them is.
You must try and go beyond just giving data in the Group Discussion-you are not meant to play a role of being a ‘talking newspaper’!

The Criticiser

Some participants play this role, in which they contradict or criticize the points that others make. Whatever others say, these participants object and state that the point may not be correct or accurate.
However, such participants do not make sufficient and impactful points of their own; they merely respond to the points that others make. They are unlikely to score well.

The Supporter

These participants play an opposite role to that described above. Here, participants agree with or support the points that others make. Whatever others say, these participants indicate their agreement, possibly by nodding their heads or saying, ‘hmm’.
Once again, the issue is that such participants do not make sufficient and impactful points of their own; they merely respond to the points that others make. Hence, just like above, they are unlikely to score well.

The Questioner

Rather than make points of his own, the ‘Questioner’ asks others questions-he solicits the opinions of others or asks them for data. He seems to almost play the role of an interviewer.
Since he doesn’t make substantial points of his own, the evaluation panel is not going to be too impressed with his performance and will not award him too many marks.

The Gatekeeper

Have you ever heard, during a Group Discussion, someone suddenly state that the others had better hurry up as only a few minutes were left?! This is the gatekeeper’s role, among other things.
This role is played by some participants who keep a check on various aspects-the time that has elapsed during the discussion or the time left, who all have spoken and how much etc. They seem more bothered by these aspects and in maintaining order and decorum rather than in making substantial and impactful points of their own.

Hence, the evaluation panel will not give such a participant high marks.

The Traffic Policeman

This person behaves like a traffic policeman trying to control the flow of traffic. He makes a number of gestures with his hands, trying to stop someone from speaking or waving his hands about while making a point.
Too many gestures are unlikely to impress the evaluation panel; so try and avoid this. do not stop others from speaking by raising your hands!

The Spectator/ Audience

These participants hardly say anything on their own, but almost seem part of the audience or spectators. They make no contribution, except nodding their heads or saying ‘Hmm’ almost to themselves!
When probed as to why they did not speak, they sometimes claim to be listening to others in the group. Such participants are unlikely to get selected.

The Leader

This is the role that you should try and play. We have discussed in another module as to how you could be perceived as the leader of the group.
Keep in mind that if you wish to be recognized as the group leader, then:
• You must try to initiate the discussion and provide a structure to the discussion
• You must try and provide a direction to the GD
• You may try and lay the framework or boundaries of the discussion
• You support your points by strong logic
• You give adequate examples to support your views
• You may try and involve others in the discussion
• You could try and manage the ‘flow’ of the discussion
• In the end, the ‘leader’ may try and summarize the discussion and review all the ideas discussed

The Summariser

This person tries to summarize the discussion at the end. Remember that this could be a good strategy, but you also must participate during the course of the discussion; you cannot only summarize!
Keep in mind, the following points while summarizing the discussion:
• Present both sides of the discussion while summarizing, not only the points reflecting the view you support
• Do not add new points during the summary-typically limit the summary to what was discussed during the GD
• Remember that you need to summarize the points that the group as a whole discussed, not just the points you made!
• Points mentioned during the summary must be in brief; yet the summary as a whole should be comprehensive: Present both sides of the picture, as mentioned earlier, and try to mention at least 4-5 points that came up during the discussion in the summary

Impact of Budget'10 on Salaried people

2010-03-03T01:13:00.000-08:00

Dear All,

I have compiled some FAQ's on impact of Budget'2010 on salaried people.

Question: Has Gratuity exemption limit raised in the Budget from Rs 3.50 lakh as was widely predicted ?
Answer: No.

Question: The budget speaks about audit for Professional income beyond 15lakhs. Is this something existing already or newly introduced? Who fall into this Professional category?
Answers, Actually, earlier one needed to audit one's income if it crossed Rs 10 lakh. Now it is required only if it crosses Rs 15 lakh.

Question : My CTC is 60 Lacs so now what will be my tax
Answer: You are likely to save in excess of Rs 50K pa. One would need to try and understand components and see if there is any further tax saving opportunities, but because of the budget, you are likely to save about Rs 50 k in taxes for the year.

Question :My salary is 6 lakh including Rs. 9000 as HRA, I am paying Rs. 9000 as rent and getting Rent Receipt, and also investing Rs. 100000 u/s 80, now what will be my benifits in new budget
Answer: On account of the lower tax slabs , you are likely to save around 20K in taxes.

Question: Hi, My Annual Income is 8.5 and taxable income say 6.5, how it will affect me
Answer you will save in excess of 30K of taxes.

Question: What are your views on the current tax policies. Don't you feel that govt. has ignored the lower class and middle class ppl who earn about 3-5 lac p.a. Because govt could have easily exempted taxes for the 0-3 lac Rs. and 10% for 3-5 lac Rs. and so on. This is because the standard of living has increased drastically and 3lac is not what 3 lacs used to be 5 years ago.
Answer: Yes.. there is no benefit for those below Rs 3 lakh.. however keep in mind that one is already at the lowest tax bracket of 10%. Yes, increase in tax slabs could have helped especially considering the inflation rates.

Question : My sal is 8L P.A, how much tax will I have to pay considering I invest up to the ceiling of all the sections
Answer: There could be some difference between your salary stack and your taxable income due to exemptions of some components. If your taxable income is Rs 8 lakh, then you will pay 96K of tax instead of 1.48 lakh for the year subsequent to this change. The budget will be very beneficial for you.

Question : I m having a home loan on flat under construction & will be completed in Jun-2010. Will i get Income-Tax rebate on Interest Part.
Answer: Tax benefit starts only after occupation of the property. So you can get a benefit from financial year 2010 -2011.

Question ... do u think gov will remove the tax benefit to Home Loan EMI ?
Answer: As per the new tax code this could happen, though I believe that the govt will hesitate to remove a deduction as this could impact growth in the economy. Spending in housing and infrastructure benefits several other sectors and employment as well. We will have to wait and watch.

Question : How can this budget help a salaried person but not working in IT sector or in Government sector, whose income is only 1.8lac?
Answer : For a person in this income range, the tax payable will be the same as last year. Those with income above Rs 3 lakhs will benefit from the increase in the 10% tax slab

Question : I want to know about the addition of 10 K investment in Infrastructure Bonds.
Answer : Additional deduction is 20K. This is for infrastructure bonds. It is likely to be like a fixed deposit for fixed tenure. We will have to await launch of these bonds to assess the interest rates that one would get.

Question : is there a way of claiming tac deduction under section 80GG? How can I avail of this tax benefit?
Answer: This section is for a non-salaried person or a salaried person who is not getting house rent allowance. One can claim the deduction for the rent one pays to the extent of the least of the following: (i)Rent paid in excess of 10% of total income. (ii) 25 per cent of total income. (iii) Rs 2,000 per month. The total income of the individual is computed after reducing the amount deductible under other sections, receipts exempt from tax, and long-term & short-term capital gains taxable at concessional rates. Deduction is even not allowned, if the assessee owns a house in any other place, and the concession of self-occupied house is claimed by him.

Question: I am getting Rs 22000.00 per month as HRA what kind of rebate is expected as this is being acconted as perks and included in my income
Answer: HRA exemption will be to the extent of the minimum of 3 conditions - (i)the HRA component (ii) 40% of basic (50% of basic in 4 metros) (iii) Rent paid - 10% of basic. The rest will come in as taxable income.

Question : right now my package is 5.85 LACS PA, if i invest and utilize all 80CC then what will be my income? How much i can get more compared to prev year? Thanks in advance!
Answer: It would depend on the salary components. It is likely that your taxable income comes to about Rs 5 lakh. I am assuming you will claim exemptions like HRA, conveyance, food coupons, etc to the extent of Rs 85K. In that case, your tax as per the new slab is likely 35K for the year after the budget Vs 55.6K before the change. This results in a decent saving of about 20K because of the budget change.

Question: does the new tax slabs will be applicabal from this year?
Answer: Next financial year.

Question : MY CTC is 6.5. I am taking full benefit of 80 C and House loan exemtion. other than this i have medical allowance of 15000 so what will be my tax after and before budget. Thanks in advacne.
Answer : You are likely to save around 20K in taxes for the year.

Question : Hi my gross salary is 9.2 lakhs and taxable income is 6.75 lakhs. can you tell me aproximately how tax can i save?
Answer: closer to 40K will be the savings

Question :There has been an announcement by FM about 80 C Exemptions available for additional 20 K in addition to current 100k, Is there any restriction on where this investment can be
Answer: Only in infrastructure bonds.

Question : does the new tax slabs will be applicabal from this year?
Answer: Next financial year.

Question.. MY CTC is 6.5. I am taking full benefit of 80 C and House loan exemtion. other than this i have medical allowance of 15000 so what will be my tax after and before budget. Thanks in advacne.
Answer" You are likely to save around 20K in taxes for the year.

Question: I left the previous Employer in Aug-09 & joined new one. How should i evaluate my Income-Tax at the time of filing Saral-Form (when i will have two Form-16), if any part of Income Tax not paid, then what is the time limit to pay extra Income Tax. both Form-16s will be recieved after mar-10.
Answer: Each company will give a separate form 16 and when you club this together there will be a double count of deductions and exemptions and hence tax is likely to go up. You will need to make an estimate before march end and pay advance tax on the same. Interest will be charged right from the current financial year.

Question : dont you think we should get tax rebate in personal loans also? one more thing for equity related mutual fund if we keep more than year we should get tax benifit of the same
Answer: Only home loans have a benefit since the govt is trying to encourage spending on the sector as it has a positive impact on the economy. Tax benefits are only available on ELSS funds and not any other equity MFs.

Question: CAN I GET 80 G DEDUCTION 4 PURPOSE OF MY TDS FROM MY EMPOLYER
Answer: No. One needs to separately claim

Question: There has been an announcement by FM about 80 C Exemptions available for additional 20 K in addition to current 100k, Is there any restriction on where this investment can be
Answer: Only in infrastructure bonds.

Question: does the new tax slabs will be applicabal from this year?
Answer: Next financial year.

Question: , please could you provide the details about Service Tax rule for under construction property, How it will work?
Answer: There have been a lot of questions on service tax. The same is payable by the contractor and not by you. However, the contractor is likely to recover the same from the builder. The tax is not on the full property, but only to the extent of the contract. Costs are likely to be higher by about 3-5% on an average and depends on how much of the building is contracted. I hope this clarifies to queries of all persons in this regard.

Question : I left the previous Employer in Aug-09 & joined new one. How should i evaluate my Income-Tax at the time of filing Saral-Form (when i will have two Form-16), if any part of Income Tax not paid, then what is the time limit to pay extra Income Tax. both Form-16s will be recieved after mar-10.
Answer: Each company will give a separate form 16 and when you club this together there will be a double count of deductions and exemptions and hence tax is likely to go up. You will need to make an estimate before march end and pay advance tax on the same. Interest will be charged right from the current financial year.

Question :dont you think we should get tax rebate in personal loans also? one more thing for equity related mutual fund if we keep more than year we should get tax benifit of the same
Answer: Only home loans have a benefit since the govt is trying to encourage spending on the sector as it has a positive impact on the economy. Tax benefits are only available on ELSS funds and not any other equity MFs.

BHARTI asked, CAN I GET 80 G DEDUCTION 4 PURPOSE OF MY TDS FROM MY EMPOLYER
Answers, No. One needs to separately claim

Vivek Gupta in press

2010-02-26T02:13:00.000-08:00

Time to have some footage. Below are the links of my press coverage

http://www.merinews.com/article/studyplacescom-launches-personality-profile-test/133524.shtml

http://www.dmanewsdesk.com/StudyPlaces.com_-8-2412-1.html

http://www.alootechie.com/node/584

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/investing-in-elearning-proves-to-be-lucrative/314400/

http://www.pressbox.co.uk/detailed/Education/StudyPlaces.com_A_unique_web_based_platform_for_career_counselling_education_information_search_a_186444.html

http://www.merinews.com/article/crack-the-cat-book-launched/155654.shtml

http://www.india-now.net/artdisplay.aspx?cat_id=263&art_id=19277

http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/blogging/

Cheers

Sexual Harrasmant: How much Clothing is the reason

2010-02-13T22:05:00.000-08:00

Hi guys,

I shall start this by sharing a personal thing and do not assume that I am sick. After 5 years of my marriage, I just saw that my wife wear blouses which shows her cleavage. I asked her a very innocent question , " is this because of some design issue" ( May be the blouses can't be stitched neck high" . She just smiled and told me that I am stupid.

Then I observed that just about every woman in my neighborhood wear these kind of blouses including my mother. The reason told by my wife is to arouse sexual feelings in Man. Very fair as pole can't erect on his own as it needs some kind of stimulus.

But then why the woman wear same kind of clothes i work places and then complian of sexual harassment. Don't you think like your husband, other Men shall also be aroused by seeing your cleavage or bare back or thighs underneath your short skirt.

When I shared this to some of my female friends, they told me that they have right to wear anything till they are comfortable. There is no consideration about making others uncomfortable.

We all in India and most of us have brought up seeing certain things. By wearing too much of revealing clothes, woman makes most of the men uncomfortable. Then they also expect them not to stare t their thighs or cleavages though they could have easily wore a top which doesn't show the cleavage. In other words, woman show you cleavege and then expect you t be totally self controlled. But if you are a husband , you are supposed to see that get arousal.

How difficult is the life of Man in this woman's world.

Luck-The biggest Succuss Factor

2010-02-13T21:52:00.000-08:00

Friends

For quite long, we have always seen and heard that the world is not fair. The most hardworking, honest and talented people keep struggling whereas some good for nothing chaps are found to be CEO's of very prestigious organizations.

Many reasons are discussed for this including right timing, right place at right timing, diplomacy, network, good connections, influential parents etc all contributing in establishing the above phenomenon.

Recently, we say the biggest case of pure luck to prove the title that only luck can override all fairness of the world.

The scenario is India Vs South Africa test series, test Match 1. Selectors know that Rahul and Yuvraj can't play to their replacements are Murli Vijay and Badrinath. As the match is happening in India, Srikanth decided to follow an Autralian model. As There was Duleep trophy final coming on same days and no dubt that Kartik would be warming benches in Nagpur, Selectors decided to give international dressing room exposure to a guy called Wridhimman Saha. Two days before match, there were concerms about Laxman so selectors called Rohit Shrama as back up. So the line up was decided as

Segwag, Gambhir, Murli Vijay, Sachin Tendulakar, Laxman/ Rohit, Badrinath, Dhoni and then 4 bowlers. Mithun and Saha are surely to sit out and the only suspense was the choice between Amit Mishra/ ojha.

Match moening and just about 15 minutes befre the toss, Rohit Sharma is injured ( or he never wanted to face Dteyn, god knows) and guess what, Mr Wridhimman saha made his test debut after playing first class cricket for only 2 years, scoring 1200 run at average of 35.

Though as expected, the bugger failed as a batsman and I realy do not know when he wud be again in 15 member team. But just Imagibe if he would have scored a 100. he would have been playing in 2nd test as a batsman and another 50 wouldhave made him a specialist batsman.

people like Badrinath, Rihit Sharma, Kaif, Pujara would hev waited for another 7 years to see Sehwag retiring before getting next chance.

So, my point is basically most of the top 0.001% people are same. Most of the IIM guys with 10 years of ex can be CEO's and can manage companies. The luck is some got that chance and some are still business analysts

Luck..What a Fuc_

Are we really living in Democracy

2010-02-02T22:02:00.000-08:00

Dear All,

In the recent past, MNS ( Maharashtra Nav Nirman Sewa) or Shiv sena actions have created a doubt in my mind about our freedom. I am wonderign these days do we really live in a free country.

As per the constitution, one of the fundamental rights are ' Right to Speech'. But be it Sachin Tendulkar, Aamir Khan or recently Shahrukh Khan, all have been targeted because they expressed their views in open.

They beat North Indians who are in Mumbai, burn public property and I am yet to see Bal Thackerey or Rak Thackrey behind the bars seriously. Going for a 2hr or one day picnic is fine but what about serious punishment.

Rahul Gandhi took an aggressive approach by telling them it were North Indian who saved Mumbai during 26/11 attack. That is 100% true. Why Shiv Sena do not object every non Marathi person living in Mumbai. They target only poor as they are easy prey and create a furore in their vote bank.

I used to be hard core BJP/ Shiv Sena supporter and a 100% Hindu by heart. But if a Muslim PM comes and take my country to 20% GDP growth and allows to me to keep my religion, I would welcome all muslims to come and rule by country.

God Saved India from MNS/ Shiv Sena

Corruption in India: Was it really Dhiru Bhai

2009-12-28T03:05:00.000-08:00

Hi,

I watched movie Guru at least 10 times to get inspiration on the journey of a petrol pump worker to build a company whose owners combined wealth is top in the world, all done in 30 years in total.

Now, sometime last week, I was in discussion with a friend on how you can't get any work done in India without offering bribes. Even, my book ' Be THE CEO of LIFE' highlights this mad chase of money in recent times which has led people to take any decisions how unethical, immoral it might be. Everybody needs that extra money to afford a foreign holiday which 30 years back was a prerogative of elite class, now I think rightly so. As these things like Fancy Cars, Big Houses and Foreign holidays have come to few people belonging to masses, entire middle class is vying for it. It you can't get it from fair means, corruption, bribes, cheating and fraud are a way forward.

So, coming back in a scene in movie, the journalist describes Dhiru Bhai as someone who should be locked in a room and key thrown away. He categorically mentions how Guru is spreading corruption in India.

I wonder is that is where corruption started in India. Police, Judiciary, legislature everyone was bought over by Guru for business gains. laws were drafted keeping Guru's interest in mind and all.

This is what I have heard but last generation people can throw more light into this issue.

Help me !!!!11

Gender Equality--Beyond a Point

2009-12-19T00:57:00.000-08:00

Hi,

Since my childhood, I was made to believe that men are superior to women. This was essentially because of family background coupled with the schooling, both very ordinary

Then, by god bless, I studies in top colleges, Delhi College of Engineering and IIM Bangalore for my BTech and MBA which gave me a different learning. This education was supported by working in US based Fortune 20 companies like Coca Cola and American Express and I completely changed a man who would preach gender equality at any given moment.

I an happily doing that for about 8 years but recently, I have started to figure out that some Gender specific qualities do exist and it is better for humanity in general if we do not try to override them.

On one side, the work of child bearing is given to woman ( and it takes full 9 months, no scientific developments have succeeded in improving efficiencies here :) so they are also given far more patience and emotions than man. They are blessed to wear thousand kind of shades in Sarees, Salwars, Jeans, Long Skirts, Short skirts, Trousers etc etc making shopping necessary for them. To go with those thousand dresses, they need jewelery, shoes, nail polishes and lip sticks. To buy all those stuff, they need time so woman take time to dress up..Totally fair

Men on other hand have 8-10 or at max 20 options. In office, they can wear only trousers with very few shade and pattern options. They do not need to buy jewellary, costmetics etc also

So essentially by nature, I observed Men are asked to earn while Woman are destines to spend that money..Right

So, woman are generally mis fit in working/ corporate environment till men continue to be away from Child Birth, Shopping, Dressing and monthly cycles.

So it is not about glass ceiling for woman. I think the point is they have been destines to involve themselves in more fun so why to bother for late night meetings, 3 hrs travel one way to office or economic class travel 15 days/month.

Like Men help in Kitchen some times or do dishes, wash or press clothes, woman are also best till they provide support to Men at work.

Why do they need to be Vice oresidents???

Someone, please give me some answers

Telengana--What is the issue

2009-12-16T22:55:00.001-08:00

Telengana creation has created a huge national debate?? is it ??

After reading and hearing in all channels, I decided to look into this matter also a little deeply to understand the perspective of various stakeholders

First of all, I should congratulate central Congress leadership to take this step..Why..Because after analyzing from every corner, I was not able to find any advantage to them but only lot of disadvantages. So I , though not at all Congress supporter looks at this as a pure ' Fulfillment of promise' in the best interest of people of Telengana,.

Why disadvantage is proven by why Mayawati is suddenly in favour of Harit pradesh. She got about 55% majority in UP. She has least clout in that area so taking her out from UP increases her majority in rest of UP. This makes her CM of UP for next many years very comfortably.

But for Congress, They are equally powerful in both areas. They do not have any particular clout in that area. So doing this split doesn't give them an extra state to rule in bigger scheme of things.

So, now why local leaders across parties are against this move.

Many people have brought the issue of investment in Hyderabad and those points. Somehow, I think this is true but there is one more angle toward this. Hyderabad is surely the key element but with a different perspective.

During my analysis, I figured out that though Andhra is prosperous in general vis a vis many other states In India, they do not have second city other than Hyderabad. With over 10% of current state population, it is the only metropolitan/ cosmopolitan city in Andhra.

I last went saw Vijaywada/ Guntur 7 years back and just the thought of them being capital city of just a big and prosperous state makes me laugh

For that matter, even UP have Kanpur, Noida which are actually bigger than Luchnow. Gujarat has Baroda, Maharashtra have Pune, Nagpur, Punjab have got Mohali, Haryana have got Punchkula, Gurgaon but Andhra without Hyderabad would be like Assam at best with capital city developed like Guwahati.

Now without world class Airports, Malls, Hotels like Ramada, Taj and Grand kakatiya, Residential places like Banjara and Jubilee hill, where these politicians go. Where would they live?? The local businessman like Raju :) can continue to live in Hyderabad. But politicians and superstars haev to shift where their state is. So be it Chiru or a MLA from a small town, he is living in Jubilee hills now. I do not know a single place outside Hyderabad who is even 10% developed like Jubilee hills so there would be a big change in life style of these people

Even Jharkhand had Ranchi, Uttrakhand had Dehradoon which are far more cosmopiltans than Vijaywada and Guntur for sure.

And why we all make money, to live in style, eat food in exotic locations, travel to places etc etc.

Just few thoughts from me.

I am Busy--How true is the statement

2009-12-04T03:34:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

This is one more issue which drives me to think beyond what is said. Many times, this would have happened with you also that you call up a friend/ relative and he is not able to talk to you properly because he is busy.

This is fine as you can be busy at that particular moment. But what I am not able to comprehend is that the person is not able to call you back or meet you for a week/ month etc etc.

I hear someone saying that I didn't called you back because I am busy for last 15 days. I wonder how busy can you be in 24 hrs x 15 days that you didn't get time to give a 5 minute cal back to a person who supposedly holds a very special place in your life.

Let me clarify further. During my 8 years of work and 6 years of professional studies ( DCE and IIMB), I was busy for 8 months when I was with Studyplaces.com. I used to live in Dwarka and office was in Gurgaon. Because of pressure on start up and my position and sense of accountability, I needed to work 9 AM to 8 PM everyday including some Sundays.

Now, many of others do have these office timing as normal so what so special. The special thigj was 50% of those days, I never had Lunch and rest 50% , I ate with left hand and right hand typing.

So from 9 AM to 8 PM, if there are 11 hours, I was involved in hands on work for at elast 10.45 hrs. I never loggod on to any messenger, the stock market crashed from 21000 to 8000 but I was not able to open my demat account as it might have taken 15 minutes. I guess this is enough to prove my point.

Now, when I talk to few of these people who claim that they are busy for last 15 days, they were having one hour Lunch break as usual, though there is lot of fire fighting in office but you were leaving at 6 everyday, you went for Movie with your spouse last weekend and did tons of shopping but still were very busy.

I am just not able to understand the criteria of someone to be busy !!

Please help me

Bearish Market- How can it exist

2009-11-26T01:30:00.000-08:00

Though I have been out of touch for the last 5 years, my feeble interest in stock markets keeps me not to forget finance and capital markets completely. Whenever I listen to CNBC or NDTV or look at nay recommendation from any of my able friends, One question always bamboozle me.

How can you have a bearish outlook towards any stock or market in particular.

Let me start with an example:

Analysts say buy stock x at price 120 with target of 170. As soon as you reach 170, sell it and get out of that stock.

Why should I?? If I sell at 170, there has to be someone buying at 170..Right. So who is buying at 170 when everyone believes that now stock is expected to go down.

Similarly sometime back during so called recession, the market was at 11000 points. people say that we are still in bearish market but then why do not Sensex falls immediately to 0. Because there are people buying at 11000 points.

Now from a logical perspective. people are long on Stocks or any other asset always. We have more people owning a house right now than who are short and have sold houses. Same for any other asset you can think of.

So expectation from a large segment of people is that prices would always increase of assets. That is why they continue buying/ holding them to sell in future for their financial need. Then second person buys it and holds it as per his financial planning

So, Now can anyone answer

The purpose of stop loss and Profit booking concept if you are not a day trader.

What basket ball did to west indies cricket, T-20 is going to do to world cricket...God Save my favourite game

2009-11-03T22:36:00.001-08:00

Is 20-20 would kill test cricket and one day cricket.

Why let us understand the demise of West Indies Cricket because of basketball.

The game was short, had a lot more money, fame, instant success, attractive, people loved it more...more kids took up basketball.... cricket was left for left overs.... And all the malcolm marshalls and curtly ambroses of the Carribean today are sweating it out on the basket ball courts leaving the cricket fields for B-rung players.

Now, Similarly we haev started seeing players fringing injuries to avoid longer version games. No one is desperate to play for national side, they are more bothered to be for for IPL and recently launched champions league.

So what this would lead to

The face of cricket would totally change just like the face of west indies cricket has changed.....test cricket and 50 overs cricket will lose their importance.....Afridis would be bigger stars than Dravids.... Lot more money would come in... Entertainment top class, Yuvraj hitting six sixes in an over.... but we would no longer see laxman ... and dravid fighting out the aussies the whole day, Kumble taking all ten wickets..... and just like the carribeans may come up with a gayle or a sarwan... but not a richards, ambrose or marshall..... A Deccan Chargers could be a more popular team than Indian Cricket team.... like LA Lakers is more popular than USA basket ball team or Manchester United is more popular than England football team.... etc etc.... not debating on whether its good or bad.... but this is how i see the future of cricket...

Now, this would make sure there are no cover drives on the carpet, you are encouraged to play lofted shots. Bowlers need not work a batsman out as a bowler only have 4 overs and a batsman scoring 25 of 15 balls is a class batsman.

Recession: A Time to hold on to your job or explore your inner self

2009-06-18T00:05:00.001-07:00

Before starting this piece of thought, we would like to mention that this space as the book is applicable to people who are not living on month to month and have enough savings/wealth to last a few months comfortably. Secondly, this should be read by people who think that they are in their job because of their qualification, experience, intelligence and hardwork. If someone knows that he is there because of sheer luck, timing or a favor from a relative, better stay away from this.

We keep on hearing this these days all around us. Hold on to your job !!

Be it your office colleagues, HR managers, Mass Media or even Radio Jockeys advising people on this burning issue or at least it have been made to sound one. It is so funny actually when these RJ’s who themselves are 23-25 year old kids advising people in general about what they should be doing in life but that is case with anyone who have got that authority.

Anyways, let us come back to the topic. Before writing this, we actually spoke to few CEO’s and asked a simple question.

Who is on a beneficial side during Recession: Employer or Employee and all of them were kind and honest enough to say Employer. They are getting the best talent, making them work 12-14 hrs a day and paying peanuts because the people are scared and they have been advised to “ Hold on to Your Job” by the world guru’s including RJ’s.

And we the employees do just what the capitalists want us to do. See, we are not against the capitalism but the inhumane face of it. Inspite of such a strong recession, we haven’t heard about mass suicides in USA. People who have lost their jobs still seem to go along nicely in their lives, many in India these days on vacation. Because they have a very strong social security in place and that is why we had to give the top warning. If India had same social security like USA, we shall have proposed the same with much louder voice and reaching far wider audience LEAVE THE JOB

May be this is time when you should plan for that long 1 year India trip which is your childhood dream. May be that Restaurant which you always wanted to open can be started right now or spending 6 months to renovate your house as per your likings. And anyways, your opportunity cost is lesser. Your salary has recently been cut by 30% and your working hours have increased so much that your monthly medical bills ( present and future in anticipation) are taking another 15% of your salary. So you are working at 50% of your worth. Why not use this time to pursue your dreams and once, things are normal again, we can join some Employer again if we ever need to.

So guys, here is the final word. This is the time to enjoy yourself ..Start your dream venture and do not hold on to a job which makes you miserable.

Note: We again repeat that this should be read by people who think that they are in their job because of their qualification, experience, intelligence and hardwork. If someone knows that he is there because of sheer luck, timing or a favor from a relative, better stay away from this.

( Taken from www.beceooflife.com)

Why Taking Online Tests is necessary in preparation for CAT

2009-06-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

The preparation for CAT is incomplete before taking a lot of practice tests. Full length practice tests/Mock Tests helps a student in multiple ways:

1. Practice to work in real test conditions, so real stress, real anxiety and real tiredness

After CAT’08, one of the student brought the paper back to show to its faculty. The faculty started looking at questions and found them very easy. His first reaction was ‘ such a easy paper”. It was for sure if you also see the questions in the situation of the faculty sitting in his cabin with no stress in his mind. But when the same paper was with Student in CAT examination hall with his future in stake, the same questions looks very different. When the entrance to one the premier institutes depend upon this once performance which can take your life to new summits, things are totally different.

2.Solving 90 ( or more) questions simultaneously is a different art than solving one at a time in home

When you start studying or even working in the morning, the first 30 minutes are perfect. After that, most of us take a coffee break which keeps on happening after every 30 minutes subsequently. During CAT or any other exams like XAT, SNAP, GMAT or SNAP, you do not take coffee breaks. You need to prepare yourself for long extended hours of concentration without coffee.

3.Developing the art of leaving questions and using options

Remember CAT and almost all the entrance exams of this world are relative and objective. You need to score better than others and you need to mark one out of 5 options. There are no marks for most scientific solution so why bother to find one. If you can eliminate 4 options in a question, the last option has to be correct though you do not know why. Secondly, though you need to get over 99 percentile in CAT, the actual marks needed to get this is hardly 50%. So you are supposed to get only 50% questions correct. Unlike your school and college exams where you are habitual to score 90% thus attempting all the questions for sure, here you are supposed to get 50% marks only. So if you leave 3-4 tough questions, no harm is done to you so do that. Do not fall in love with any question.

4. Benchmarking yourself with others, as the success criteria is relative and not absolute(Percentile system).

As mentioned briefly in point 3, CAT and other MBA entrance exams follow relative grading. So you are not trying to get 50 or 90 marks out of 100, you need to get more marks than 99% of students taking that test be it 50 marks or 90 marks. In CATsinglequote06, when the quant paper was dirt easy, many of students being trained by coaching institutes were happy after attempting 10 questions correctly and movign to other section. But incedently, the CAT paper that year had a very easy Quant section adn cut off was higher than last 10 years. So you were supposed to attempt 15 questions out of 25 minimum. Hence there is no startegy regarding the expected cut off marks in a section. The expected cut off would be decide by you and other CAT takers only. So you need to know your percentile scores vis a vis the entire bunch of CAT takers. It would be real helpo if know for the past 5 months so that you can strategise your preparation accordingly.

And most importantly, you can CAT only once a year, why to take the chance in that. Practice as many tests as possible so that CAT is just an another day in office for you.

( This article is taken from www.topCATcoaching.com)

The Success Mantra--C2B Portals/Media Platforms

2009-01-04T20:03:00.000-08:00

The Success Mantras of Internet Portals—Introducing C2B portals or Media platforms

Since joining the Internet/Media bandwagon about 2 years back, everyday seems to throw a new thing to me.

We all agree on one thing that it is always easier to make money from people who make money by giving you some money rather than those who have to shell out money and buying stuff to consume. In Simple language, it is B vis a vis C. So any transaction which involves B at both ends is most likely to succeed. On the other hand, a transaction which involves C at both ends find very hard to complete.
So, we have B2B businesses, transactions or in Internet, portals making lot of money. On the other hand C2C portals are facing the toughest times. The B2C portals which are in majority falls in between (All major sites Yahoo/Rediff or even Google) falls into this bracket.
Now, all this is very common and known worldwide. So what is new that I am trying to share? Here I Go.

Within B2C portals, have you ever wondered why Job portals are generally very succesfull, loan generation portals (apnloan.com) are next, whereas some others are not ( Matrimonial, Real Estate etc).

I observed a very interesting thing. In the B2C portals also, we have two segments. In one segment, Business asks Consumer to buy/respond to something for which he/she needs to shall out money but in other segment, they pay consumer in the end. So it is a reverse model, should I call it C2B. Let me explain

In job Portals, it is the business side which pays the media house to get C and C gets the most coveted thing in life ‘Job’ free of cost. Yes, as a consumer, you never pay in the entire transaction , you are paid eventually when you get a job.
Similarly, the bank loan lead generation is a similar example. The consumer is getting loan ( money) from the banks especially the personal loans. I now most of you which are reading this blog do not want to receive unsolicited calls but there is huge chunk of Indian population who would like to get as much as loan as possible and then personal loan for which you need not give any guarantee. So, they would be jumping to get these loans.
This is the model where B chases C , pays media company also to do so but eventually pays to C also when he gets them. So, media models where Business’s pay Media to get Consumers but eventually also pay consumers in the end ensures maximum success to Business and eventually to Media.

ACE CAT--Some last Minute Tips

2008-10-07T02:18:00.000-07:00

ACE CAT

Come November and students are frenzied lot! After days or even months of constant burning of the light lamp, it is time to fight the ferocious CAT. Anxiety pangs are a frequent phenomenon. But is CAT really as tough as it is perceived to be? Many a times the not – so - intelligent lot of students are able to crack CAT while the consistent high scorers come out of the examination hall broken – hearted. The truth lies in the unseen. Unlike other entrance test, like JEE for engineering or medical entrance test, CAT does not test your mettle in math formulae or your prowess in Queen’s English. Instead, Common Admission Test or CAT is essentially a race against time – a race which you can win.

Given below are a few tips which can turn you into Formula 1 racer for CAT!

Analytical skill: Being an application – driven test, CAT would test your analytical skills. It is mandatory to develop strong problem – solving skill rather than memorising the age – old math formulae and grasping the theories. Instead, you should grab hold of a good CAT preparation book and start practicing with the unsolved questions. Follow the 48-hours to analyse it. You are free to seek outside help during this time. If you are still confused then only see the answer. The most common mistake students can make is to look at the solved answer as soon as they realise that they are unable to work out a question. This hampers the building up of their analytical power. It is necessary the building up of their analytical power. It is necessary that you strain your brain to solve a question. As a result you would be able to understand the concept in – depth as well as develop sound problem solving skills.

Think long – term: Our brain functions like a computer’s memory. Whatever we learn either gets stored in the short – term or long term memory. One critical mistake which most students make is that whatever they learn gets stored in their short – term memory. This is why students forget about the concepts and principals which they have learned before the exam. To tackle this problem, follow the ‘Times 3 principal’. According to this principal, practice every concept/question three times. First is an attempt, then a solution and finally the last one makes for revision. Revision is an integral part of any preparation. You must not take this lightly.

Start speeding up: As mentioned earlier, speed is a major factor while appearing for CAT. You will not be able to suddenly start solving questions quickly at the time of the examination. Once you are through with the entire course, start giving mock entrance tests. The higher the number of tests. The better it is. However, do not err by thinking that this solely would increase your speed. Rather, you need to analyse every mock examination that you take to ensure that you don’t end up making the same mistakes again. Keep a note of time that you take to solve the paper and the marks that you attain in every mock test. A better option would be to track your rank at a national level.

Work smart: Good decision – making skills go a long way in helping you crack CAT. It would be a better idea to deal with simple and less time – consuming questions. Once you have attempted the easier ones, your nervousness would take a back seat and you would be geared up to handle the difficult questions. This in turn would also increase the probability of getting the right answers for such problems. With the CAT exam going online, the test pattern might change considerably. Hopefully, it would follow the structure of GMAT and GRE entrance examinations. It is thus critical to familiarize yourself with the computer and internet as the test is conducted online. For this, you should take numerous CAT mock tests which are easily available on the Internet. please visit http://www.quantaptitude.com/ for some os these.

Note: This article was published in the Educations Special Megazine of Mail Today, An India Today group newspaper.

Online Education in India

2008-09-02T04:24:00.000-07:00

The scope of Online Education in India
Although online education has been a comparatively new entrant in the field of Indian education, it’s already gained a presence in the education sector. And why not, its common knowledge that the current education system with its state funded colleges and universities cannot keep up with the demands of the students. Lack of infrastructure, crowded classrooms and understaffed faculty add to the dismal state of public education. The exorbitant tuition fees of the private colleges and universities have further affected the reach of education for many sections in the society.
The need of the hour is an interface that can make good use of the available resources and provides guidance and creative learning solutions at an affordable price. Online education certainly fits the bill for the above requirement. The online educational products are targeted at school children, as well as students who are preparing for national and international competitive exams. The products can be classified into the following segments:
Online curriculum based programs
Learning solutions for school students
Online tutorials for school children and students of competitive exams
Online test matter for competitive exams like CAT, GMAT, GRE, AIPMT, AIEEE and more

Online curriculum based programs are targeted at children from classes IX to XII. Greycells 18 is one of the companies involved in a similar venture although they use both television and the Internet as their product medium. By hiring people with teaching experience in top institutes like IIM Bangalore, IIT Kanpur, IIT Roorkee, IIT Delhi and Pittsburg University; the company intends to provide secondary Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics learning solutions for CBSE and other related state boards.
Educomp Solutions is another well known name in the online education business. One of its product module, Smart Class is a technology-enabled learning solution that caters to private schools in India under the BOOT (build, own, operate and transfer) model. The Smart class system includes a virtual school, where parents, teachers and students can communicate with each other. Teachers can upload assignments that students can download, as well as make available important information for parents to view. In the financial year 2005, this segment alone contributed INR 2.95 Crore of the total revenue.
But it’s the online tutorial product which is the golden child of the virtual education sector. 2008 witnessed a 150% growth in demand for online tutorials in comparison to 2007. Currently, the online tutorial market in India is worth $27 million (INR 105 Crores). As per the report by brokerage firm CLSA Asia Pacific Markets, in four years, this value is predicted to reach around $280 million (INR 1,092 Crores). Online tutorials not only provide good content, multi-media modules, test papers and recorded sessions; it also facilitates live real time communications between students and teachers. www.2tion.com is one company which has won the student’s loyalty for online tutoring.
Online tutorials have captured the students’ attention as it allows them access to the very best of tutors, geographical locations no bar. A student living in Sangli can have access to tutors teaching in IITs. Thus, a student’s area of choice has widened to include different cities and countries in his selection of tutors. The flexibility of online tutoring is immense. As students can attend the tutorial sessions from the comfort of his homes, travelling with all its incurred costs can be cut down. Besides that, it also saves time and energy. Students also have the provision to clarify their doubts anytime of the day or night through email or chat.
The online availability of test papers for competitive exams like CAT, GMAT, GRE and AIEEE have led to massive online following by various student communities. Web 2.0 interface has further opened up the channels of communications between students and their peers. This means that students can now get feedbacks and recommendations from fellow net users about test matters, online solutions, tutorials, institutes and much more. Perversely, if a company engaged in online educational products or services tries to cheat its user base, then his credibility can take a big hit in forums and blogs. Some of the more popular sites in terms of active user base include pagalguy and goiit.

In spite of the progress of online education, there is still much ground to be covered in India by this sector. The first hurdle that they face is the lack of computer education. The computer is still an item of luxury and it will take some time before we can expect a PC in every home in India. Another important point to be considered is the dismal broadband penetration. The July 2008 report by the Telecom regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) testified that only 4 million users have access to broadband connection. For a country with a population of over 1.1 billion, this figure is indeed dismal.

The success of online education is limited to the metros and tier 1 cities where students are more net savvy and have access to personal computers. For all its worth, online education is still very much in the periphery of the education system in India. This is partly because most Indian schools still follow a didactic system of teaching where the use of technology and multimedia is limited. Parents are also not too aware of the benefits of online education. This means that online education remains a backend support which cannot replace the traditional method of classroom teaching. Only time will tell whether online education can make proper inroads into the heart of the educational system of India.

Demystifying MBA

2008-08-13T06:28:00.000-07:00

I have been asked many times by MBA aspirants about job profile of a Operations MBA and its job prospects. This blog is an attempt to clarify these questions for the larger community.

MBA in Finance

Career: With global trends impacting the financial sector, there is a demand for finance professionals
• With a new set of skills, resulting in careers such as Financial Analysts, Financial Planners, Financial Advisors and Financial Managers
• People who have an eye for detail & are research oriented can go for a finance MBA.

Skills Required: Finance calls for a unique set of skills.
• It is ideally suited for you if you are outgoing and inquisitive by nature.
• You will use your mathematical aptitude and ability to take your organization's or individual client’s goals, resources and options into consideration while making suggestions for their continued financial growth.
• This is one area where employment opportunities are influenced by your academic performance and previous professional environment success.
• Finance people-the bean counters, as they are called-are viewed as pessimists.
• If you are good at number crunching, have a flair for juggling numbers & think you can manage the party well, then finance is the job for you.

Salary Package: Starts from INR Rs 10.35 lakhs Per annum for a fresh MBA and according to foreign standards can earn around US$75,000 salary in the US $ depending, of course on skills & experience.

Famous Colleges: All the IIM’s. i.e. IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Kolkatta, IIM Lucknow, IIM Indore, IIM Kozhikhode, FMS, ISB

MBA in Marketing

Career: Those who have excellent communication skills & have an outgoing personality should opt for marketing.

Sales Management - responsible for achieving of sales target of an area
• In sales & Mktg., there are 2-3 areas where an MBA is recruited for
Brand Management - responsible for successful management of brands through various strategies and achieve market share.

Skills Required: Ability to plan and execute marketing ideas
• Ability to develop ideas which lead to growth in sales
• Ability to mobilize resources to achieve the set objectives
• Communication skills - written & Oral
• Interpersonal skills
• High energy levels and enthusiasm to work
• Analytical skills
• Marketing people- the optimists.
• In short, if you are creative & have zeal to sell, then there’s no doubts you should be in marketing.

Salary: Starts from Rs. 4lakhs per annum approx and in foreign standards of US $67,000 approx

Famous Colleges: Beyond IIM’s, Mica is a very good college for Advertising and Marketing.

MBA in Human Resource Management

Career: One very important trend in the recent times has been the growth of human resource outsourcing.
• HR outsourcing is the outsourcing of peripheral but necessary administrative tasks such as payroll, benefits, education/training, recruiting personnel, administration, to realize economies of scale and achieve standardization of services .
• With an increased focus on people issues, HR guys have everything going for them.
• Ever increasing demand for experienced HR professionals.

Skill required: Ability to understand and deal with people of all levels
• Ability to cope with unstructured situations
• And the person should have the 4 Cs –Creativity ,Calmness, Conceptually sound ,Convincing ability .
• Need patience & perseverance.
• Someone who is passionate about resolving people issues will be the right candidate for pursuing a career in HR

Salary Package: Average Salary start from is 3.5 Lakhs per annum and as per the foreign standards it goes up to US $67,000 & above approx per annum.

Famous Colleges: Sadly, none of the IIM’s are famous for this specialization. So if you very keen on MBA in HR, look for XLRI and Symbiosis as your first choice.

MBA --Operations

Career: 'Operations' in the management world encompasses almost all the areas that reflect the efficiency of the organizations in the area of background work and execution.
• It includes inventory management, vendor development, purchasing management, and also a few other areas.
• It demand multi-disciplinary skills viz. supply chain management, enterprise resource planning and also all cost optimization initiatives.
• A typical career would see one handling a few plants/ vendors initially, followed by the responsibility for an entire factory and eventually undertake a more strategic view like global sourcing / alternate materials / imports etc. but, at each stage there is a lot of responsibility and risk.
• Demand for operation management in the areas like BPR (Business Process Re-engineering), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), supply chain management, which integrates all functions offer a great scope for a cross functional specialist .

Skills required: Integrity, ability to negotiate, ability to remain calm in the toughest of situations (there is a fire almost everyday, somewhere) and lastly good coordination skills coupled with technical knowledge

Salary Package: Starts from 7.14lac approx onwards. In abroad maximum salary is between$25000 to $60000 per annum. Approximately.

Famous Colleges: NITTI, Mumbai leads the show for MBA in operations

MBA in IT

Career: With a sound understanding of business concepts is seen as ideal for the job of a project manager in software development activities, such as developing an on-line network with company distributors across the country.
• A fresh MBA(IT) starts at the level or a software development engineer (almost at par with an engineer or an MCA) and is actively involved in coding.
• Students interested in careers in management consultancy, software or database development, enterprise management systems, telecommunication and business analysis.
• They are prepared to help shape twenty-first century organizations in a rapidly changing, globally competitive, technologically sophisticated environment.
• Students usually acquire positions in the top management consulting firms or as strategic analysts in the transportation, telecommunications, and financial sector.

Skills required: Graduates are expected to possess the appropriate knowledge, experience and skills to adapt to change in this dynamic field through a lifelong learning process.

Famous Colleges: Pick any IIM

• IT graduates play essential roles on the business team, typically designing and implementing hardware and software solutions to business problems.
• The program is designed to develop a diverse and integrated group of experts armed with the necessary skills for buildiwwwng new entrepreneurial ventures.

Salary Package: Starts ranges from 10-lacs onwards approx per annum and by foreign standards around $63210 per annum

MBA in Retail

Career: Indian retailers underwent an experimentation phase wherein new formats (department stores like Shoppers' Stop and Pantaloon) and product categories (consumer durables retailing, music retailing etc) were introduced.
• World wide, the retail segment has performed exceptionally well since its inception in the 20th century.
• Retail is currently the biggest industry in the world and 25 of the top 50 “Fortune 500 companies” are in the retail.
• Introducing new marketing strategy as the country marched into the new millennium, the organized retailing scenario began to stabilize, specially over the last 3-4 years when players like Big Bazaar, Barista, Pizza Hut, etc became successful in establishing a national footprint.
• This was also the stage when international retailers like McDonald's, Subway etc adopted a mix of global and India-specific strategies in order to entice the local population.
• The students for starting a career can work as a Trainee Manager in Stock Control, Shop Floor, Sales, Merchandising, Administration, or Purchasing and Brand Management

Skills Required: Excellent Oral and Written Communication Skills
• Good Interpersonal & Negotiation Skills
• Profit Development against Target
• Should be involved in the Marketing survey

Salary Package: Ranges between 4.5lacs to 12 lacs

Famous Colleges: NMIM in Mumbai, Symbiosis Pune.

I hope this would be useful for students.

The Most Uncertain thing in Life--Life itself

2008-07-26T06:20:00.000-07:00

We all try to create a lot of security for ourselves. These various forms of security i.e. emotional, social and personal are needed in anticipation of contingency in the future. But the most sought after security that we all chase is the financial security. The struggle for this security starts right from our childhood. Your parents scolded you for scoring low marks even in one small unit test. That scolding is due to the fear that if you do not study well, you may not make much money when you grow up. You chased seats in Engineering or Medical Colleges for that financial security only. You are under constant stress, in the prime years of your life for this only. All this is planning for the future, to gain that elusive financial security. Little do you understand at that time is that “this struggle for security” is actually never going to end.

There is always a next step in life. The next step maybe the best MBA programme. The next being the best paying job. The next is the race to go to US and earn in dollars to make money grow faster in your bank account. The next maybe is to get married and build a big house. Then one more house from the objective of investment. Next comes planning for your old age and retirement. Where do you actually stop?

In order to create this security, we always live in an atmosphere of fear. When you are in school or college, you fear the tests and results, never enjoy the learning and education. When you are working, this feeling of scarcity and fear is always there. This insecurity and fear becomes a constant phenomenon. It stays with us for our entire lives, and in wake of security for future; for which we keep destroying our present, which we thought would be the bright future.

Then there are other securities which we chase, like emotional and social security. We like to have a status in society, among the peer group, about which we discussed the first chapter. For the emotional security we chase love, a partner to share our emotions.

But while chasing all these securities, we always stay insecure. We develop constant insecurities in our mind. We are insecure all the time, and as we keep going we keep developing newer areas of insecurity. Please understand one thing here, and consider this as a law. The law is something which is there and may not have a base, but since it is law, it has to be followed. So the law here is “Insecurity is a state of mind, It has nothing to with your actual situation”.

Now in order to overcome the fear and insecurities, we keep running for our entire lives. Most of the people don’t ever question the logic of the system they live in, be it job or at home.

But what most of the people don’t realize that losing a job, scoring low marks or losing your love is not the most valuable things for which we plan and try to secure them, the most uncertain thing in life is life itself.

People tolerate all kind of atrocities in the office to keep themselves in the job thinking that this would give them financial security in old age. We pressurize our children to study hard and score very high marks. Under this study pressure, the children don’t have time for other things like sports and general entertainment. This kills their confidence and individuality from inside. Sometimes this pressure is so high that children commit suicide in fear of scoring low marks immediately after an exam in which they haven’t done very well.

Are we sure that we will be alive tomorrow? You can protect yourself in the best possible manner. You can hire the best of security guards, build up the best of cars with all safety equipments, get the best driver in town to drive you through but the risk can only be mitigated. One of those security guards can turn into a traitor and kill you with his own hands. You have the best car and the best driver but all the people on road are not like that. Your driver in the best car could drive in the best possible manner but a drunken driver on a lorry can still send you to the almighty with a slightest hit. A hurricane Katrina or Tsunami can catch you unawares.

Here is a true story to illustrate this issue. There was a boy from a middle class background with his father working in a government organization in India. After high school, he went to a big public school for higher secondary. As he was studying on a scholarship in that school, he used to see a lot of students from very rich families. Those students used to enjoy a lot of luxuries in life of which he could only dream of those days. He made it a point that he has to enjoy all these luxuries in life. From that day, his life changed completely. He studied 8 hrs a day after school to clear Joint entrance examination for Indian institutes of Technology. He cleared it easily and went to IIT. There also, he studied day and night for four years topping in his branch. Like most students, he gave Common entrance test and joined Indian Institute of Management. Again, toil of two years finally got him a job with one of the leading investment banks on the Wall Street. He was really happy that 8 years of sacrifice is finally going to pay off. He reached New York, and started working, one fine day he got the news that his brother had died in a road accident. He wanted to go back for few days, his employers disallowed, at the end; he quit the job and went for cremation of his brother. Now he had not talked much with his brother in those eight years, the whole dream broke down for him. He didn’t understand what he was chasing and he got into deep depression thereafter.

Now think for a while, you must be knowing someone around you who has died an untimely death. You must have gone to the funeral ground sometime in your life. How in those one or two hours, you lose all your stress of life. But as soon as you are out within two hours you are back to your hell. So the point is we think we are never going to die.

The above story is one of the biggest motivations for the authors to take up this challenge to write this book. Now everyone understands the moral of the story, which is the title of the chapter, the most uncertain thing in life is the life itself. As per famous quote of Beatles lead singer John Lennon:

“Life is what happens to you, when you are planning other things”

Ironically, John was himself shot by a crazy fan, at a mere age of 40, at the peak of his career. What do we learn from all these examples, with due regard to the ambitions and the inspirations for a better future, never get your present affected by them. There are million such examples you will find but learning from that maybe very little. Actually we have lost the art of living life in a fearless and free manner. Think about the activities which you have undertaken, which gave you no financial or material benefit. Make no mistake, we are not talking about charity, we are taking about the things which you used to do when you were young. Today, actions like going to park, sitting with friends, sports and so on look like waste of time.

You may say I still meet friends, go to park and take a walk. But now you are reducing your weight or meeting up friends for a crib session. Things are not the same, the point is, and today you even plan your sleeping hours. If you sleep an extra hour, the first thing that comes in your mind is that one hour got wasted. But why is this important? This is important as life is uncertain, so the joy of today cannot be completely sacrificed for plans of tomorrow.

Here is a mythological story if you feel otherwise. This story is from the Mahabharata. During the Vanvas(stay in jungle) of the pandavas, a beggar came to Yudhishter asking for some clothes. Samrat Yudhishter was busy so he asked the beggar to come the next day. The younger brother of Yudhishter, Bhim overheard this. Bhim set out to a village nearby, blowing a drum, singing and dancing in joy. People were amazed to see him doing this, so someone asked him “what is the matter”. Bhim told him that, “Now, I am the brother of a god as Yudhishter has just become one”. After a couple of hours, this reached Yudhishter that Bhim is claiming that my eldest brother has become god.
Yudhishter called Bhim and asked for the explanation. Bhim told him,
“You promised the beggar to come and take the clothes from you tomorrow, which means you are sure that you will be alive tomorrow. I am not very intelligent like you but I know only God knows who will be alive tomorrow. I thus interpreted that you have become God, which is why I was so happy.”
Yudhishter got the message from Bhim and we hope you all will also get the same.

There are so many stimuli every day in life, which we fail to acknowledge as we are busy planning tomorrow. We prioritize things as “important and not important”. We feel playing with kid can happen later, we feel that we can watch movies when we are settled, the best of all, we can get married only when we make a certain amount of money. Even if that takes me over 30-35 years of age.

Now the question, does it mean we should not plan at all and live for today only. But are we anywhere near there, all we are doing in life today is planning, planning and more planning. We are planning of 20-30 years and we not even sure of next 20-30 minutes. Whatever said and done, death is a certainty and the timing of it is uncertain. This is the biggest problem, for an unlimited life, all the planning is fine, but with the death being a fact, all plans are waste.

Here a modern day incident, which happened in August, 2007, which illustrates the same fact. Here is the news clipping of the incident:

8 –LANE BRIDGE FALLS INTO MISSISSIPPI RIVER

A 40-year-old interstate bridge over the Mississippi river in Minneapolis, US, collapsed on Wednesday during the evening rush hour, killing at least 11 people and leaving over 20 missing. Three of the four sections of the 8-lane bridge buckled and fell into the water and onto a freight train.

Officials said the bridge had been given a clean bill of health three years back. An earlier 2001 evaluation reported that there were preliminary signs of fatigue on the steel truss section under the roadway, but no cracking. There was no need for the transportation department to replace the bridge because of fatigue cracking.

We choose to give this example whereas there are hundred such incidences occurring every month in India. The reason is that America boasts of being the most advanced nation with safest and finest infrastructure. But all these safety measures taken by human are nothing against the wishes of the almighty.

The point is that when the tomorrow is so uncertain, why live your life for it. Many people commit the mistake of leaving a lot of good things to do for the future. But that future never comes. There is a lot of stuff that you can’t do today but there is a lot that you can. All of us have some responsibilities, some commitments to fulfill but we are not sure if we can spare two minutes to just stand up and give clothes to a needy person. The point is, there are so many small and little things we can do everyday that would give us immense pleasure. We leave all of them to get something really big but we might not be alive by that time.

So do not leave everything for the future. We are living in present and let us try to make it as beautiful as possible. Let us do things that we like right now rather than waiting for the right time to come.

Some of us are in this trap of not knowing what we want in life. Basically, most of us want everything in life. We want great and successful careers that too in minimal of time. We also want to have an enjoyable family life. We want to contribute to the social causes also and we always want to help our friends in need.

We want to attend religious and social functions as well as kid’s parent teacher’s meetings. But just think, is all that possible in a day of 24 hours? Some of us are god gifted and maybe able to manage this. But the percentage of these people would be less than 0.1%. So what about other 99.9%??? We want to do everything; we have passion to do everything, we have skill to do everything but not the time.

So, we need to lay down our priorities among these. The priorities that fit me as an individual, not my peer group, not of my father and so on. Actually we are chasing a perfect life, and want everything in life. This strange conquest takes us nowhere and to attain peace of mind, we read spiritual books, attend yoga camps and so on. But we will never understand the simple concept of life, we just want another gimmick for ourselves. First we make our lives complicated, then we look at complicated solutions. Now the solution is simple, and can actually be written in one page. But we have written 100 pages of this book to give that solution in order that you are able to comprehend it.

But you can read tons of bulky and complicated literature, wherein all these conclusions have been achieved with complicated stories and measures. The solution is simple and straight, and very objective. Know the facts, like the ones we have discussed in all these chapters, in the most objective manner possible.

You may say, yes I live for my family and I am working 100 hours a week for my family. But is that what you want or your family wants? If you travel 15 days a month, does you wife and kid want that? If you never enjoyed movies, sports and other things, while you were preparing for entrance tests, and now you don’t enjoy it anymore, since the age has passed, who is to blame?

Therefore, please understand and appreciate the invaluable things in life. These are your family, parents, children, your own health, your five favorite passions and above all your own life. Take good care of these and always put them on high priority. Rest all are materialistic things which are good to have but not at a cost of these things. But are you doing this? This is the question which you need to answer yourself.

The last and one of the most important part, If you think you are going to make this change in your life, when are you going to do it ? You need to do it now!! There is no tomorrow here, that’s the essence of the entire story. Whatever you need to do, do it now! Or at least do a fair percentage of it now, don’t do 100% of what you want but stay in the horizon, achieve 80-90% of it now.

So, enjoy your life to the fullest, live like the CEO of your life, each moment is your choice, you are the owner of this universe, it will be the way you like it to be. Since you see it with your own eyes and interpret it with your own brain. You are the ultimate, and you control everything.

This is being the CEO of your life!

The Chapter is taken from the book, 'Be the CEO of Your Life' written by Sandeep Amar and I. You can buy it online at

http://www.flipkart.com/ceo-your-life-amar-book-8184120942