Financial products

This one is for people who have an enthu about finance. I am one of 'em. The article, though old, is written very lucidly. A sheer excellence from Ajay shah.
http://www.mayin.org/ajayshah/MEDIA/1997/spiral.html

Happy Reading.

Traffic problem - a mild soln.

Yes..This is one of the biggest problem in Delhi ( read NCR) . Since I have travelled for around 10 days to Noida in my bad time ( which may come again any time) , I know it very well. Travel any day from Gurgaon delhi highway or DND ( delhi noida direct) and you shall note the number of cars that occupy the roads. I say this to the extent that Raipur and Delhi are same in the traffic ( just replace the cycles and two wheelers by car in delhi) .

Now, the thing..a thought just came to my mind which I would like to jot down, lest I forget the same. I was reading economics basics while timepassing today when I read about the concept of " Relatively Inelastic Demand ". For people who want to know, a commodity is said to have a relative Inelastic demand when the quantity demanded doesnt changes much with the change in price ( read price rise ). Ex..Gas, petrol. What would people do when the price of petrol rises by say 20 % ( quite a big one huh !!!) ..would you not go to office. Of course these delhi people would. Just that you'd like some trick to make you sail those tough days when prices are soaring big time. So ?? what do do ? As a part of CSR ( corporate social responsibility) companies can tie up with the govt of india to do this : Identify people who travel daily from car from one place to another..say GGN to Noida or the other way as well. Say them to travel daily in one car instead of using 4 cars separately to inflate their egos. Now, where does govt come into the scene. Ask govt to keep a check post where people would come and show their respective car RC Books. To do what ? to show to the check post that see..we had 4 cars and now we are travelling by 1. Cousins of R.K.Pachauri. Give each of 'em a point like the I-Mint points. When you get some x I-Petrol points by travelling together give them 5 litres of petrol free ( just a number ..) . This is one big incentive which would raise employees motivation to travel together. Win win for every one. First the employee saved money by travelling with his peers( which otherwise his ego didnt allow him to ) and secondly all got some incentive for doing this. Take my bet, people would go jealous and form big time groups. Combine this with the award that your company gives..example..." Green employee of the year " or "eco frndly employee " of the year. Use some line like " get petrol by saving petrol " ..isnt it catchy ??. This model is applicable to allt the places..example...Metro. Go to office by metro carrying your RC book and get some points. This would increase traffic in Metro but would reduce pollution in the road by ( I think 20 % atleast ). That would help India reduce its Per capita carbon emission and give a blunt slap on the face of big shots like US.

what do you say ?? Tell me..

MBA - My disgust

Its been long since the CAT result is announced. Go to any mba site ( my fav Pagalguy) and you'd find out plethora of links about each college giving their cut off candidates ( the gd pi list). Click on any list and you'd see thousands of comments. The comment typically reads : " Yippie..I made it to IIM xyz.." " first call of the season..I am coming IIM xyz " and with that you'd find comments like " shit..I couldnt make it ..had 99.xx with balanced sectionals ". The next question someone asks is "dude how were your acads " ? Poor comes back the answer. Thats it ? done ?? Poor acads and out ? Yes..terribly. When it comes to getting an IIM call the rules are more or less like this. The last post I pasted shows the disgust of a professor who is not done with the bad policy IIM A has taken this year. Since long time, they had a stringent requirement of balanced sectional and this time they have learn a lesson from the youngest one. 70 % in board. And if not then ?? Then get 100 % and get a reject.

Now what is board exam ? class 10th ? class 12th ? No..both ? and extrapolating on this ? the next restriction will be on class 8th board. When I was in class 10th I was 15. Most of us are 15-16 when they are. Going by the present trend most of us apply when we have 2-3 yrs of work ex. So an average junta is 24-25. You see a lot of world, learn a lot many things and of course learn the most important thing that grades are not to be taken easily. Given a chance most of us would like to rectify the mistakes of life what we did ? Its really unfortunate that some policy maker is seating in a CAT office of IIM A and deciding people's fate for a small mistake they did in Class 10th. Come on Man !! grow up. Past is an indicator but not the only factor to decide somebody's entry or exit. That too for a GD PI ? I see. This to me is a gross
injustice to the students who didnt do well in the initial phase of their life but did good after that.

It seems like IIM A is relying too much on the statistics to decide a binary value. Who has the guts to tell 'em that the logistic regression doesnt work this way in this field. Why cant they have advanced measures to calculate a person's capability. Why cant they invite even those who didnt do well in class 10th but did well in CAT. Does that mean that from next year in the CAT form a person who has less than 70 % need not apply to IIM A ? Gross harshness. Come on Man you are the shapers of the nation. Motivate the candidate to do well in life by selecting him. If that doesnt work, coax him to some extent. But dont debar him. Actually this is also a way to escape themselves from a pain. The pain of selecting a worthy but an average class 10th performer. Why to make them write essays and then analyze whether they have sufficient mettle. We have plenty of applicant. Who bothers about those 400 candidates.

And the North east don ..IIM Shillong..Hilarious. 75 % in 1oth, 75 % in 12th. 80 % in BTech. Result. 70 % worthy candidates out. Their moto.." dont worry about CAT..CAT just measures your pressure handling capacity " class 10th measures much more than that. One IIT Bombay guy who had some 7.5 CG was shouting over a conventional university guy who had 85 % in BE.
IIM Shillong is not even fuzzy at this minimum level. By that equation an IIT degree is less important for admit to IIM S than class x board.

And other IIMs are learning. This time IIM I gave 30 % weightage to acads and so I was out..

IIM B is already the darling of X, XII toppers and the 4 pointers of the Institutes. Where is then CAT ?? CAT has gone from the major criteria to just one of the criteria..

No ends to this injustice..fate will remain the fate. 2 pointers..earn well and live happily..

Cognizance at its best

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Outraged/entry/iim-ahmedabad-s-retrograde-move

--- This article from V Raghunathan is for some of the people in IIM A to read and think before doing gross injustice to students.

a smiler for corporate people..

http://www.livemint.com/column/2010/03/04211652/New-company-laptop-policy.html

--this would make u smile for sure..

Happy reading.