What You Should Not do in GD

A Group Discussion is nothing but a formal discussion involving 5 to 10 participants in a group. These days GD is being used by B-schools and organizations to judge whether the candidate has certain personality traits and skills that it desires in its members. Normally in GD, the group of candidates is given a topic or a situation, given a few minutes to think about the same, and then asked to discuss the it among themselves for 20-30 minutes. Let’s take an example of a Cricket match, where you have to play like a team, and aim for a common goal which is Victory, similarly GD is also like a team work, incorporating views of different team members to reach a common goal. Today I have compiled a list of 8 activities which you should not do in any GD.

1. Don’t start of with I think: Yeah, it is true. Once in a GD, there was this topic that should Aishwarya marry Abhishek & this gentleman adjusted his chair & pronounced his arrival by saying that “I think Aishwarya is damn more beautiful for a moron like Abhishek”. Just imagine, the GD organizer is big fan of Abhishek. So, please don’t start with your perceptions. But never be quiet in GD. Just speak out you mind. If you are not speaking how will they judge you.

2. Don’t start with the conclusion: This is the common mistake, people generally conclude everything in their first speech itself. This is really a bad practice during GDs.

3. Don’t keep glancing in the paper: The paper is there to make you feel more jittery. The content which is stored in your mind can’t be explicitly placed on the paper. Don’t stare at the paper much. Look into the eyes of your opponent or better dream of some exotic place & then let the horses run.

4. Don’t put that pen/pencil in your mouth: Not only it gives a negative impression, but also bad for your health.

5. Don’t be a clown: One of my friends is expert in this. His dad is a sweet shop owner. He also sometimes sits at the shop & keeps on flying away the flies. So, once we were sitting in a GD discussing about the nuclear deal. Suddenly due to some provocation this guy thought that he was sitting in his shop & started swaying his arms like a jumbo jet

6. Friends are Foes: I must admit that I am a looser in GD’s. Once during a GD I asked my mate who was a great speaker that in the GD you please point towards me & ask me to speak. He agreed. I was happy. Topic was too general. It became a fish market. My friend somehow controlled the situation & pointing towards me & said: “Abhi, would u like to add something”. As I was about to open my mouth, a guy sitting next to me started his Marathon run. After the GD i asked him his name. He said: “Hi! I am Varun”. Avoid such things while GD.

7. Don’t Speak: Yes! Silence is Golden. I realized this during one of college GD’s. People were discussing in a decent manner. Everyone was speaking & getting properly listened. Suddenly, out of the blue we heard a shrieking voice which pierced our ears. The words were: “Guys! Please maintain the decorum of the GD”.

8. Don’t be anxious: There are people who tend to push up from their chair. It looks like they have got ants in their pants. Guys! its really absurd & definitely makes you loose marks.

This article has been guest posted by Abhinandan Ghosh, who is an IIMK Alumni.

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What is Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is still a complete mystery to a large majority of Internet users. For many users, internet marketing is seen as some foreign area of the web, populated with silly get-rich-quick schemes and unsavory characters ready to rip off the innocent and uninformed consumer at the click of a mouse.

In reality, Internet marketing is populated mainly with hard working professionals promoting and selling high quality brand products by many of the world's Top 500 companies

Worldwide there are now over a billion Internet users, representing one large global consumer base or marketplace. The total amount of goods sold online has been steadily increasing each year as the Internet gains in both popularity and familiarity. Studies have shown people shop online because of lower prices, a wider selection of products, easier comparison shopping, and many just prefer not having to travel to stores to make a purchase.
Still Internet marketing has gotten a raw deal.
If you mention to any group of professionals that you're an Internet Marketer and that you work full time on the Internet... you will receive some very skeptical looks and more than one arched eyebrow of disbelief.
Regardless of this lingering skepticism, Internet marketing has become a viable alternative for many disgruntled professionals dissatisfied with their working hours or conditions. It has become a viable alternative for many people from all walks of life. From the college student to the bored housewife to the retired doctor... all are enjoying a part time or full time income from the comfort of their homes.
And since the Internet is now practically available to everyone, anywhere in the world - Internet marketing is a level playing field. There are many forms of Internet marketing. There are many online business models you can follow. There are countless ways to earn a good honest income from the Internet. Which path you take will be largely determined by research, work habits, and the time you are willing to put forth.
Here's a quick rundown of the most popular forms of Internet Marketing:
1. The Brick and Mortar Store Online. Most major companies and retail stores have created online versions of their brick and mortar businesses. Even if consumers don't buy online, many use these sites for gathering product information before buying in the real world. A factor many savvy businesses are exploiting in their overall marketing strategies.

2. Online Services. Many service industries have moved online, everything from travel to banking to dating! Again, the Internet can be a profitable extension for any service company.

3. Internet Gurus... Internet marketing has a whole history of pioneers who have forged the methods and techniques of marketing online - opt-in lists, mini-sites, article marketing, pay-per-click advertising, joint ventures... a brief history populated with such names as John Reese, Marlon Sanders, Ralph Wilson, Yanik Silver, Corey Rudl, Ken Evoy and countless others.
A whole new industry has grown around 'How-to' market online, info products, workshops and web seminars - teaching people how to market on the Internet. A marketer creating his own product can prove very productive - as seen by John Reese's 2004 launch of Traffic Secrets, which earned over a million dollars in one day. (Without a penny of paid advertising!)

4. Online Advertising and Pay-Per-Click advertising such as those offered by Google Adwords and others, presents another viable marketing route. Keywords (the exact words typed into a search engine) fuel a large portion of the web's activity. Keyword marketing has become a major driving force behind most of the economic transactions on the web. This is a very lucrative sector for those Internet marketers who know exactly what they're doing.
Then there is the whole section of SEO experts and consultants who command high prices for positioning companies or products in the top positions on the major search engines. Acquiring organic Top 10 search results will greatly determine the profitability of your online product or company.

5. Affiliate Marketing. One of the least understood, yet one of the most profitable forms of Internet marketing is affíliate marketing. An online marketer can join any affíliate program and promote its products or services on the Internet. You market the products, find customers for the company and receive a commission for each sale you make from your marketing efforts. These commissions can run anywhere from 2% to over 75%. One affíliate click can earn you anywhere from a few cents to several hundred dollars.
Major third party affíliate programs or companies such as Commission Junction, Clickbank, LinkShare, Amazon, Shareasale... act as a brokerage or go-between, representing thousands of Top Brand companies such as Sony, Apple, Dell... to online affíliate marketers. Marketers can join a program such as Commission Junction or LinkShare and be able to promote and market hundred of top quality products or services online. They can consolidate their affíliate marketing through these third party programs.
Perhaps the most common business model for the majority of online marketers is the last example, or a combination of advertising and affíliate sales. Many work-from-home professionals have adopted this business model. They have created a site or sites on the topic that interests them and of which they have or have gained some expert knowledge.

Once these sites become established and gather a large amount of targeted web traffíc each day, making a nice income can only be a matter of putting the Google Adsense code on their pages and placing a few appropriate affíliate links on their sites.
The more traffíc these marketers deliver to their sites, the more income they earn. The more unique content they create, the more income they earn. The more web sites they design, the more income they earn.
What many people outside of the web marketing field fail to realize is that the Internet is a 24/7/365 business. The Internet is always on and working for you. It is automatically producing income for you 24 hours of the day - while you're sleeping, while you're enjoying a nice meal with friends, or even while you're on vacatíon.
Internet marketing can provide you with a lifestyle that is totally liberating - you can live and work anywhere in the world. You can be the boss, set your hours and work from the comfort of your home. Plus your whole online Internet business can be automated so it basically runs itself.
Internet marketing is totally flexible. You can adjust your workload to suit your work habits. Internet marketing is scalable, once you have learned how to make your first dollar; it is only a simple matter of repeating and scaling up what you did to earn that dollar. Computers and the Internet make it just as easy to handle a thousand sales as it is to handle one sale.
As Internet marketing becomes better known, it will gradually earn more and more respect. It will become a well recognized profession that many will aspire to and follow as a life long career. Mainly because Internet marketing will give you the freedom rarely seen in any other profession.
It offers you mobility, a high standard of living, and a working environment that can't be beat. It gives you the freedom to follow your interests and hobbies; all the while turning those interests into viable revenue streams that supports the lifestyle of your choosing.
When it is all said and done, earning a living just doesn't get any better than this.

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Govt approves revised pay scales for PSU employees

In a bonanza to officers of Central Public Sector Undertakings, the government on Thursday announced a hefty 50 to 300 per cent increase in pay-packages with effect from January 1, 2007.

A Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, approved the new scales for 1,20,000 non-unionised supervisory staff and 2,58,000 board level officers in 216 operational Central PSUs.

It approved uniform fitment of 30 per cent of basic pay plus dearness allowance for profit making PSUs with effect from January 1, 2007. For weak and non-profitable PSUs, the fitment will depend on their affordability and will range between 10 per cent and 20 per cent.

The package would include revision in other allowances like house rent allowance, besides performance related incentives, Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office Mr.Prithviraj Chavan told reporters in New Delhi.

“The revised pay scales would be implemented by issue of Presidential Directive in respect of each CPSE separately by the administrative ministry concerned,” he said.

While the new pay structure would be implementable from January 1, 2007, the new allowances would accrue to employees only after the decision is notified by individual units.

The Cabinet relied on the Committee of Secretaries recommendations to classify PSUs into four categories - A, B, C and D, instead of five categories - A+, A, B, C and D recommended by the Rao Committee in May.

The chairman of ‘A’ category PSU will now be eligible for Rs 80,000 to 1,25,000 pay scale as against Rs 18,500 to 23,900 currently.

Check here the Report of 2nd Pay Revision Committee For Executives of CPSEs

Also check the Salient features of Recommendations of 2nd Pay Revision Committee for PSU Executives

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Yahoo To Hire New CEO As Yang Steps Down.. And Fire Atleast 3500 by 10th December

Well economy slowdown means you get a new CEO and everybody else gets fired! Well not as bad but bad enough as far as Yahoo is concerned. In a press release Yahoo has stated that its Board of Directors has initiated a search for a new Chief Executive Officer. Jerry Yang, co-Founder of Yahoo!, has decided to return to his former role as Chief Yahoo! upon the appointment of his successor as CEO, and he will also continue to serve on the Board. Yang, 40, assumed the CEO role at the Board’s request in June 2007, and he has led Yahoo! through a ’strategic repositioning and transformation of its platform’.

Really? Strategic repositioning? Like turning down the offer from Microsoft?

Jerry Yang had this to say about stepping down as the CEO “From founding this company to guiding its growth into a trusted global brand that is indispensible to millions of people, I have always sought to do what is best for our franchise,” said Jerry Yang. “When the Board asked me to become CEO and lead the transformation of the Company, I did so because it was important to re-envision the business for a different era to drive more effective growth. Having set Yahoo! on a new, more open path, the time is right for me to transition the CEO role and our global talent to a new leader. I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo! realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation.”

There have also been rumours that come december 10th and Yahoo could cut 3500 jobs. Though none of this is ofcourse officially confirmed but given the excess hiring that has happened over the last year or so across the board in companies in the sight of growth its unavoidable that some sort of downsizing in staff takes place.

So its seems Yahoo board is thinking .. lets get a new CEO and fire 10% of staff and we should sail through this depression. Hopefully Microsoft will bid for us again?

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Maruti Suzuki Launches A-Star

Maruti Suzuki Launches A-star today , November and December is normally tough time for Auto industry Maruti suzuki kas released A-Star in order to win some customers in a slowing down market , Maruti A-Star goes head to head with Huyindai’s i-10 ,First impression is the interior is kind of good in Hyundai i-10 but the exterior is kind of good in Maruti A-Star let it run on the road we can see more info.

Export Details

A star will be made in 200 variants and exported to 150 countries across Europe, Middle east , Latin America, Asia, Australia, and Africa.It will be exported under the name of Suzuki Alto and Suzuki Celerio. Nissan also plans to market the same car under the name Nissan Pixo in middle East and African markets.

Price - Ex showroom Delhi Price.

A-star Lxi - Rs3,46,775
A-star Vxi - Rs3,74,775
A-star Zxi - Rs4,11.775

Get other Car Details from here.

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Website Slowing You Down?

In a world where more and more households are connected to the internet, bandwidth is becoming an issue and brownouts have been predicted to occur in the next few years. With the strain on the infrastructure of the internet this makes having an efficient, fast loading website all that much more important.
The bottom line for most site owners though, is not the efficiency of the internet as a whole, but rather the financial sustainability of their websites. While there are many ways to make a site perform better in terms of converting visitors, one of the simplest, and probably most important aspects is simply to reduce the load time of your website.

If your site suffers from poor performance, you could be missing out not only on sales and average visitor time on site, but also search rankings. Below I will discuss some of the negative impacts a slow loading site may experience, as well as a few ways you can correct the issue. In some cases, correcting the problem will cost you only some time, although it has the potential to really pay off in the long run.
Negative Impacts of Long Load Times
If your site takes too long to load this can have a number of negative effects including loss of sales, loss of rankings, and increased pay per click cost. It can even raise your hosting costs depending on the cause.
Loss of Sales
Let's pretend for a moment that search engines just didn't exist and rankings didn't matter. People are impatient - if your site takes too long to load, many potential customers will simply give up and go elsewhere.
Broadband connections are growing incredibly fast in the US; however, according to a study posted at FoxNews this past July, approximately 10% of Americans still have dial-up internet access. If your site loads slowly, you may be alienating 10% of your potential customers.
The last thing you want to do is frustrate your visitors. If you do this, you may drive them away, never to return. If you can provide a fast loading efficient website, you will improve the likelihood that your visitors will make a purchase, and return again in the future.
Increased Pay per Click Costs
Only a few short months ago a post by Heather Lane at the Inside AdWords blog announced that landing page load times will affect a keyword's quality score. The reason for this is quite simple: a fast loading website improves the end user experience. As a result, ads directing to a slow loading page will be given a lower quality score. This in turn will cause your keyword bids to be higher, costing you significantly on a per click basis.
Loss of Organic Rankings
We know two things for a fact. Google factors in load times with AdWords, and Google focuses on an improved end user experience. As a result, I for one am convinced that a site's load time does impact overall organic search rankings. While this is likely only a small piece of the very large algorithmic puzzle, it does play a part, and if you can speed up your site, you just may be able to move your rankings up a notch or two.

Speeding up your site is unlikely to move your site from page 8 all the way to page 1, but it may be enough to move up a few positions.
Increased Hosting Costs
Assuming your load times are due to file size issues and not other server constraints, your hosting costs may be more than they need to be. This factor will vary a great deal based on the hosting company and the package you have chosen.
Many hosts now provide packages where a significant amount of bandwidth usage is included, resulting in a single flat monthly or annual rate. (LunarPages for example, has a $4.95 monthly plan with unlímited bandwidth per month.) If your hosting provider does put a limit on usage and you are using beyond the allocated max, you could be paying a fair bit in overage charges. If you fall into this category, optimizing your files to reduce bandwidth usages could save you a considerable amount of cash.
Issues and Fixes
There are a number of issues that can cause a site to load slowly. Below I have noted a few items that are fairly common and can be relatively easily corrected.
Issue: Un-Optimized Images
This is probably one of the biggest culprits out there impacting load time today. I have seen countless websites where image optimization is simply not done, resulting in significantly increased page load times. One of the biggest problems is when images are scaled down to fít the application.
Quite often webmasters will take a large image, and scale it down using the height and width attributes rather than physically resizing the image. What this does is then require the browser to load the full high resolution image, when it really only needs a fraction.
Let's take this real world example. A client recently had a photo on their home page; the photo was 600 x 403 pixels, weighed in at 124.68 KB, and visually they had scaled the image down to 473 x 317 pixels.
By resizing the original image to the desired dimensions, and then reducing the quality of the jpg to 70%, the end result was an image that looked identical on his website but weighed in at only 23 KB - that's 101.68 KB smaller than the original. Using a simple filesize download calculator I found online, 101.68 KB would take 14 seconds to download using a 56 Kb modem, or about 2 seconds on your run of the mill broadband connection.
For broadband users 2 seconds may not seem like much, but remember, this is only for a single image. When you add up all other images and on-site components, the time can significantly add up.
Issue: Un-Optimized files
Another way you can speed up your sites load time is to have clean HTML, CSS, and other included files. Remove extraneous code from your files, and use CSS wherever possible. Every piece of old html code adds up in size, even if it doesn't impact the visual site itself. I have seen many cases where links have been removed but the code remains accidentally, leaving something like:
<a href="http://www.site.com"></a>
This code, as tiny as it is, does contribute to an increased load time (and in this specific example, could also be seen as spam by search engines).
If your site makes use of CSS, consider compressing it to save on load times. You can do this by grouping identical styles to save space. For instance,

p {
font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:12px
}
li {
font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:12px
}
can be compressed by grouping these two styles, reducing the coding by half:
p,li {
font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:12px
}

Again this may not seem like much, but when you add this up with all of the other little things, it can ultimately result in a significantly increased load time for the page as a whole.
Audio and video can also be compressed. If your site uses a fair bit of multimedia, see if you can compress these files a bit more than you have already. You may be able to save some load time here as well without impacting user experience.
Issue: Hosting Server
It is possible that your site is perfect in every way, but the culprit is simply your web host. It does not necessarily mean that your host is slow, but if you are paying for an account on an old archaic computer with limited system resources servicing 1000 websites, this could seriously impact your site's load time. If you have worked to ensure that the site is well optimized for efficiency and the load times are still extreme, you may need to upgrade your hosting account to one more suited for your business needs.
If your site is a fairly basic, such as a static 8 page html site, then a slow server may have little to no impact, but if your site requires extensive database queries and the help of an intensive content management system, and serves up tens of thousands of visitors a day, then you may need to switch to a higher end dedicated server. If you have found that your server is the only problem in your slow load times, contact your host to see what they can do for you.
Issue: HTTP Requests
According to a post at the Yahoo Developer Blog, "80% of the end-user response time is spent on the front-end. Most of this time is tied up in downloading all the components in the page: images, style sheets, scripts, Flash, etc. Reducing the number of components in turn reduces the number of HTTP requests required to render the page. This is the key to faster pages."
The article discusses combining files in order to reduce the number of HTTP requests, largely by the use of CSS Sprites. They also discuss using image maps to combine multiple images, however, from an SEO perspective, this is not something that I would recommend as my experience has shown image-mapped links are not always followed by search engine spiders.
They go on to explain a vast number of rather technical aspects to speeding up a page. If you are a technical person capable of implementing advanced techniques, the Yahoo Developer Network is definitely something you should check out.
Load Time Tools
Before you undergo any changes to your site to resolve the slow load times, I suggest first finding a tool and benchmarking your progress. Record how long your site takes to load, and then try again after you have made an effort to correct the problem.
There are a number of tools out there that can help you calculate your load times. One such tool is WebSiteOptimization.com. This site specializes in optimizing the performance of your site in order to decrease bandwidth and load times. They have created a very simple tool which will give you the load times for the individual components of your site, which can give you a good idea where to start.
Summary
If you take a bit of time to speed up the load time for your website by optimizing your existing content and cleaning up your code, you may just find yourself making more sales. As an added bonus you may also find improved search engine rankings, which will then in turn raise your sales further. Depending on your hosting provider, you may even have a reduced monthly hosting bill. Decreasing the load time of your site is really win-win for all.
As the internet becomes more and more bandwidth intensive with an ever increasing stream of users and higher use applications, doing whatever we can do reduce the strain on the system will make for a faster internet for all. If every webpage on the internet could be reduced by even just 100 kb, the web would be a much faster place.

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BigAdda Claims 3 Million Users

BigAdda the social network backed by Reliance ADAG is claiming crossing the 3 million registered users mark within 15 months of its operation. Besides for the number of registered users it is also claiming that more than 50% of its users come from tier-II & III towns like Pune, Nagpur, Chandigarh, Vishakapatnam, Allahabad etc.

Though the chunk of the users come from tier 2 and 3 towns they are pretty young as well with 85% of the registered users being between the age group of 18 to 30 years with almost 32% being between 21 to 24 years.

BigAdda has always played the entertainment + video strategy. We had analysed this in an earlier post as well and had also mentioned the fact about TIER 2 and 3 users being passive consumers of entertainment oriented video content. BigAdda’s recent partnership with Jivox the video ad network was also directed at monetizing this Tier 2 & 3 video views traffic which comes to the site to consume entertainment and bollywood oriented content.

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LIC Jeeven Saral ; 250 times insurance cover of Monthly installment.

Death Benefit:
250 times the monthly premium + loyalty additions + return of premiums excluding first year premiums and extra/rider premium, if any, is payable in lump sum on death of the life assured during the term of the policy.
Maturity Benefit:
The Maturity Sum Assured plus Loyalty additions, if any, is payable in a lump sum. (e.g This can come to more then Rs. 40 lakhs if you are investing Rs 5000 per month for 25 years at the rate of 10%)
Surrender Value:
surrender value will be the greater of the guaranteed surrender value and special surrender. The plan also allows for partial surrenders.
Guaranteed Surrender Value:
The policy can be surrendered after it has been in force for at least 3 full years. The Guaranteed Surrender value will be equal to 30% of the total amount of premiums paid excluding the premiums for the first year and all the extra premiums and premiums for accident benefit / term rider.
Special Surrender Value:
80% of Maturity Sum Assured if 3 or more years’ but less than 4 years’ premiums have been paid; 90% of the Maturity Sum Assured, if 4 or more years’ but less than 5 years’ premiums have been paid and 100% of the Maturity Sum Assured, if 5 or more years’ premiums have been paid. The Maturity Sum Assured for this para will be the Maturity Sum Assured corresponding to the term for which premiums have been paid under the policy.

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MyDuniya shuts down

SMS service startup, MyDuniya (review) has decided to shut down the service.

In a letter (sent a month back) to it’s users, the startup mentioned current business condition as the sole reason behind the decision to shut down.

I am writing this note to inform of you of the termination of SMS services by MyDuniya due to poor business conditions that has threatened our viability.

Our servers will be brought down by October 17, 2008, Friday 5 p.m. We request you to delete or download data from your account. Please note that data retrieval beyond the above date will not be possible. We also request you to inform your customers suitably ahead of this time as appropriate.
We have identified alternate vendors who will be able to offer attractive prices to continue the core service of push messaging under their framework.
Please let me..know if you need any help in this transition.
We once again thank you for the supporting us and deeply regret the inconvenience.

What, do you think went wrong? Do share.

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Matrimony Goes Offline: BharatMatrimony Takes Magazine Route While JeevanSathi Goes Retail

The first generation of web services like classifieds are constantly looking at multiple touch points to reach the consumer which go way beyond their main source of revenue i.e. the web. So if the matrimony players foray into both mobile and DTH wasn’t enough now matrimony players are looking to go offline be it offline centres or even matrimony magazines.

So two matrimony players in Bharatmatrimony and Jeevansaathi have taken steps to go offline.

BharatMatrimony is launching a matrimony magazine targetting NRI’s in US and Canada. The magazine will be a free-of-cost called BharatMatrimony Times and will be published once in two months, to begin with. The online version of the magazine will soon be available on http://www.bharatmatrimonytimes.com/ Well the NRI marriages with Indian girls has been a trend for quite sometime now and its important for matrimony players like Bharatmatrimony to invest in attracting this segment and therefore the magazine route as other offline options of TV ads (which they have used in India) might be very expensive to do.

Jeevansaathi on the other end is the late bloomer as far as opening offline centres is concerned. It announced its foray into offline centres in april and also announced its plan to open 25-30 centres in 6 months. The launch of the centre in Mumbai is part of this roll out plan. Both Shaadi.com and Bharatmatrimony.com have ventured into the offline touchpoint model a couple of years ago. For Jeevansaathi the challenge is to compete with two equally strong players and brands in Shaadi.com and Bharatmatrimony.com.

As they say in any business the number 1 and 2 players makes money the 3rd breaks even and the others just trail behind. For Jeevansaathi its a game of beating one of these two players.

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What is portfolio re-balancing

What is portfolio re-balancing and how is it done ?
stage 1:
Lets assume initial ratio of investment is as follows
Equity : 50%
Debt : 50%
stage 2:
Markets rise rapidly and give very high returns and so the equity component grows faster as compare to debt such that now equity is more than 75%.
Equity : 75%
Debt : 25%
Since market has risen so much and there is high probability of it going down then going up. so its better to sell some of your Equity component and move it to debt fund. you can sell 25% of equity and invest this 25% in debt.
This will re-balance your portfolio to the initial ratio of 50 - 50
Stage 3:
Markets crashes dramatically and equity gives you a maybe even -ve returns and the debt gives you better return and your equity-debt ratio gets skewed such that
Equity : 25%
Debt : 75%
Now in this scenario you should rebalanced your portfolio such that you take 25% of your money from debt and invest it in Equity and make the ratio as was the case initially to 50% - 50%.
NOTE:
you can have your own initial fixed ratio maybe not 50-50 but 60-40 or vice-versa depending on your risk appetite. you can even decide the criteria when to rebalanced your portfolio but the idea is as and when markets give phenomenal results you need to book partial profit. and when the markets crash you need to invest when equity get cheap thereby you getting more units.Happy Investing !

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Angelina Jolie Plans To "Fade Away" From Hollywood

Angelina Jolie is planning to "fade away" from Hollywood. The 33-year-old actress, who raises six children with partner Brad Pitt, wants to make another movie in February and then spend more time raising her family.

She said: "I don't plan to keep acting for very long. I will take a break for a year. And then one film a year, one film every three years, one film every six years. I'll just fade away and wait to be a grandma one day. I have it all planned."

Angelina - who has three adopted children, Maddox, seven, four-year-old Pax and Zahara, three, along with two-year-old biological daughter Shiloh and new twins Knox and Vivienne - insists she is still planning to adopt as soon as her current brood has adjusted to the latest arrivals.

She said: "Most likely we'll adopt again. As we layer them in, with two new ones, we're watching that balance, that shape and form, and once we feel that's solid, we'll know when it's time to bring in another."

Angelina recently revealed starring in new movie "Changeling" - in which she plays a woman whose son goes missing - helped her get pregnant.

She said: "I got pregnant right in the middle of shooting and I think partially because of the film. I was so emotional about children that I think something in me kicked into gear."

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ICICI Bank Becoming More Selective with New Credit Card Customers

ICICI Bank India’s second largest bank and the country’s largest credit card issuer has decided to ease up on the growth of its credit card business following in the same footsteps of Standard Chartered Bank as was reported here a couple of weeks ago. In fact seeking better quality clients that are more likely to repay their obligations has been a long running theme within Indian retail banking over the last few months, as the rush to grab market share at any cost including compromising on credit quality has clearly not paid off.
ICICI bank faced with a slowdown in economic growth and an increase in delinquencies and defaults is slowing down expansion of its credit customer base and focusing instead on improving credit quality of its clients.
ICICI Bank claims to have issued over 9 million credit cards and has an unsecured credit card portfolio valued at Rs 9,600 Crore or US$ 192 Million. That represents a whopping 60% increase in the value of that portfolio from just a year earlier. In a statement to the Economic Times ICICI Bank’s head of cards Sachin Khandelwal said “We have become very cautious on new customer acquisitions and now looking at good customers only. We have tightened the credit norms and looking at fewer new customers.”
ICICI Bank now requires that card holders with high value purchases must opt for monthly repayment schemes. in order to contain the possibility of default. Industry indications are that the delinquency rate for the local credit card industry has risen to 10-14 %, compared to 9-12% a year ago. Mr. Khandelwal commented “We keep tracking customers’ credit worthiness regularly and revise the credit limits as deemed appropriate based on their credentials”.
ICICI Bank indicated that the demand for new cards from customers has also slowed down as the global financial crises loomed large on the psyche of its customers. In another precautionary step, the card issuer is advising existing customers to shift some high value transactions to monthly repayment options. “This is to help them reduce their monthly outgo and plan better when doing with high value purchases,” An ICICI Bank spokesman said. It has already raised the interest rate on revolving credit to 3.4% per month this June from 3.15% per month earlier

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What is Repo Rate

The Repo Rate is the official short term lending rate set by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Repo is short for repurchase, and the full form is repurchase agreements. Outside of India, a repurchase agreement is usually a private interbank borrowing and lending practice. Banks will own certain kinds of what are known as liquid assets, usually government bonds, or the highest rated corporate debt which are short term in nature, ensuring that they have the deepest markets.
If a bank needs to raise cash or wants to borrow, then, it enters into an agreement with another bank that has money to lend, and it puts up these liquid assets up that is owns as security, and pledges to repurchase them at a later date and at a higher price in the future. The increase in price that the lending bank receives when it sells back those securities to the borrowing bank, represents the interest that the lending bank receives on making such kind of loans. Usually the interest is dependent upon the things one normally expects would determine the cost of borrowing, credit worthiness of the borrower, liquidity of the securities put up as collateral, the term of the loan etc.
In the rest of the world, the Repo Rate is largely a private affair with banks using this method of lending and borrowing to and from one another. In India, the rate is used as a monetary policy tool and the RBI uses it as a means of setting official short term interest rates.
Instead of banks transacting with one another, borrowing and lending from each another using such agreements, they tend to transact with the RBI instead. This is largely due to the fact that the majority of banks are government owned public sector banks, which control 80% of India’s deposits; it is perhaps easier and also cheaper for such banks to conduct open market short term borrowing and lending operations with a central clearing house like the RBI rather than deal with each other directly.
The other reason the Repo Rate is used as a monetary policy tool, is that under Indian banking regulations, banks are required to hold a large proportion of their liquid assets (i.e. funds they have not used to make cash advances to their customers with) in government securities rather than corporate debt (A market for corporate debt in India is almost non-existent), since the issuer of assets held as security is unique, it is far easier to set a standardised rate.
In most countries there are similar mechanisms whereby banks can pledge collateral to the central bank and borrow against it. In fact in America, the use of this financing technique has increased dramatically over the last year, and has been expanded since the failure of Lehman Brothers. The Federal Reserve, the US central bank has allowed even non banking finance companies such as Investment Banks to borrow from them using this method, and they have been increasingly liberal in what securities they will accept as collateral. This in fact was the only alternative available to them to ensure there was some liquidity remained in the market since the credit crisis froze short term interbank lending completely towards the middle of September.
A Reverse Repo is exactly what the name suggests, and is the opposite process of a repurchase agreement. A Reverse Repo is an open market operation of the RBI and is used as a means of borrowing back from individual banks in the Indian financial system rather than lending to them. The RBI engages in such an operation when it feels there is too much liquidity in the system, it is a short term method of mopping up cash rather than issuing bonds outright or tightening the Repo Rate which would also do the same thing.
The other monetary policy tools the RBI has in its arsenal, is the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR). The Cash Reserve Ratio is the amount of funds that commercial banks must keep with the RBI as cash. If the RBI decides to increase this ratio, the available amount that banks have to lend falls and vice versa. Similarly the SLR is the proportion of deposits that banks must hold as government bonds, and the RBI can use either of these two ratios to either add or reduce liquidity in the financial system.
Central banks use monetary policy to control money supply, the main reason they do this is to try and limit inflation. The most basic reason for inflation in economic theory is that there is too much money chasing too few goods, which is why prices end up rising. Hence it is the central bank’s mandate to try and keep a lid on inflation by ensuring money supply is monitored and not allowed to expand uncontrollably.
Central banks are also faced with the conflicting goal of maintaining growth and ensuring that money supply is not too tight nor interest rates too high as a result. High interest rates have the effect of reducing investment which impacts economic growth negatively. The higher the interest rate, the less demand there is for private firms to raise capital, because it costs more and the less investments they make as a result.
India is one of the few countries to use Repo Rates as a benchmark for official lending rates. In most other countries Repo Rates are usually associated with interbank borrowing and lending practices and are usually unofficial. For reasons mentioned earlier, the RBI uses the Repo Rate as its official short term lending policy. As of October 20th this year, the Repo Rate stood at 7.5 percent. The CRR stands currently at 5.5 percent whilst the SLR is a whopping 24%.
The Government should not be eating up close to a quarter of all retail and corporate deposits. Though western banking systems are probably looking at the Indian SLR with some envy right now, because it would have meant that their banks would have made less risky loans, that is no way to run an economy. Indian Government debt as a proportion of GDP is unhealthy and such a regulatory regime will only ensure that situation persists. Excessive Government borrowing results in higher interest rates for everyone and means that less private investment takes place constraining long run sustainable economic growth.

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Ekta Kapoor's latest offering on Star Plus, Tujh Sang Preet Lagai Sajna

Ekta Kapoor's latest offering on Star Plus, Tujh Sang Preet Lagai Sajna (the show that replaced Kahanii Ghar Ghar Kii…and surprisingly doesn’t start with a 'K'), tells a tale of two childhood friends with different backgrounds – Vikramaditya, a zamindar and Balwant, a farmer. Their friendship was the topic of discussion for everyone in the village. The villagers loved them. But the bliss was not meant to last forever. Due to circumstantial misunderstandings the two friends parted ways and love turned into enmity.
Cut to the present… Yugandhar (Kunal Verma) and Vrinda (Pooja Bose) are the grandchildren of these two friends and are completely oblivious of the tensions between their families. In the backdrop of the ensuing enmity, love blooms in the hearts of Yugandhar and Vrinda. Sounds familiar?
The plot and the characters come straight out of Dilip Kumar-Rajkumar starrer Saudagar (1991) direcetd by Subhash Ghai.The similarities don't end here. As Ghai had introduced Manisha Koirala and Vivek Mushran in the film, the protagonists of Tujh Se… Kunal and Pooja are also newcomers. TV veterans Uday Tikekar and Chetan Pundit play their granddads Vikramaditya and Balwant who dress up and behave like Dilip Akumar and Rajkumar respectively.
Deepak Qazir plays Anupam Kher's character in the serial — a faqir —the only person who is allowed to roam around freely and visit people in both the villages.
The scriptwriter of the show didn’t have to do much it seems, as the dialogues too sound the same. The show offers a bouquet of emotions, which sometimes become intolerable with an overdose of melodrama and over-the-top histrionics.
The less talked about the music the better. No prize for guessing, the show takes off with the song Natkhat Bansiwale Gokul Ke Raja… a hit number from Saudagar yet again.By now, one can easily predict which way the story will unfold. Tujh Sang Preet Lagai Sajna will put to test the love of Yugandar and Vrinda in trying times. What remains to be seen is whether their love will transcend borders and make a new beginning.
Considering the K Queen is too busy with her big screen projects these days, (her next film venture EMI with Suniel Shetty will release shortly), one wonders if she has already tied up with Ghai for her next

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Private Student loans are the best way to pay college expenses

Most of the college students need money to purchase things which are useful to their studies. An engineer student may needs money to purchase some technical books or instruments. A medical student may need money for his practical materials. Money must be needed for any college student. But the problem is they are students. They have to ask their parents or guardians if they need money.If they borrowed from others they have to pay back the money. Now days students saving money but their savings may not be sufficient for their requirement. They look for lend money from others. Some students do part time works to earn money and they can purchase whatever they want and they try for loans and pay back successfully.

Private Student loans are the best way to pay college expenses. They are not free money and they must be paid back. Students must know about private student loans. A private student loan is called as alternative college finance.Interest rates on student loans are low and make repayment more affordable.

iStudentLoan is a guide that helps students find private student loans over the Internet.i Student Loan has been providing current and reliable information to students since 1999. The site also offers information on private student loan consolidation as well as graduate and undergraduate loans for college students.So getting a private student loan is easy now.

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Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System

Microsoft has unveiled the details of its new operating system under the brand name Windows 7. The Windows 7 is supposed to be more responsive and slimmer compared to the earlier versions of operating system. Windows 7 will replace the Windows Vista in January 2010.
Windows 7 will have a new taskbar which combines features that are currently divided between the taskbar, and quick launch menu. Window management will also been improved. The user can maximize any window just by dragging it to the top of the screen. The new operating system would incorporate more powerful search features and an easier-to-use home network. Windows 7 will be the seventh operating system manufactured by Microsoft.

The new software will be without some prominent features included in Vista such as Calendar, Windows Mail, Movie Maker, Contacts and Photo Gallery, which will now be available for free download from the Microsoft website.

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WiMAX Embedded Laptop Computers Launched In India

The Union Minister of Communications and IT, A. Raja unveiled WiMAX embedded laptop computers at a global WiMAX exposition cum conference in New Delhi. The expo cum conference has been organized by WiMAX forum in association with Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). Endowed with Intel chip, the WiMAX laptops will extend computing power and connectivity to tertiary towns and remote areas in India.

Speaking on the occasion, the IT minister has emphasized on the fact that the WiMAX spectrum should be used optimally by operators for providing next-generation Internet services. The introduction of WiMAX or wireless broadband will enable all the IT related industrial sectors to meet their needs. WiMAX is supposed to deliver high speed internet service at any time, any where.

A WiMAX Applications Lab is likely to be set up at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. This lab is expected to focus solely on improving the WiMAX quality of experience and WiMAX community services for underserved areas. WiMAX out scores wired connection by offering the subscribers to access applications along with mobility and portability.

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Indian matrimonial portals booming

The fusion between tradition and modern technology in India is nowhere more apparent than in the growing popularity of online matrimonial websites, which are booming, according to new research.

Empower Research's latest report, A Web Partner for Life: Indian Matrimony Web Sites are Modernizing Matchmaking for the Offline World and Positioning to be Lifelong Portals for the Online One, says this trend is set to continue.

"One of the most popular lifetime milestones emerging on the web is marriage matchmaking," says managing partner Kyung Hang. "Its popularity has grown mainly due to convenience and costs savings, and, as a result, the online matrimonial industry will reach 20.8 million registrations with revenues of $63 million by 2010 -2011."

This postitions such sites well to pick up further business from their users. The report says, "Indian matrimony sites are emerging as leading candidates in controlling access to a majority of future, web-based personal services/products - because of the still-evolving, online behavior of the average consumer, these match-making destinations have an advantage in creating lifelong customer stickiness with the developing Indian web user. This position of strength could very well change the future internet landscape in one of the largest national economies in the coming years."

Some of the most popular sites include Bharat Matrimony, Shaadi.com and sulekha.com. However, all these matrimonial sites face hurdles in terms of Indians' sensitivity about revealing personal information, which users fear may get into the wrong hands. The report emphasises the importaqnce of measures such as thorough security checking, data control and user experience enhancement under one broad umbrella brand.

Hang also believes that portals need to upgrade the sites with Web 2.0 technology and social network tools.

Based on user suggestions through the customer service desk and user research programmes, Shaadi.com - owned by the People Group - has recently introduced its users to Matrimony 2.0. People Group CEO and chairman  Anupam Mittal says, "We have always put our members at the forefront of our business strategy – we’re now thrilled to be able to put them in control."

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Websites To Listen Bollywood Hindi Songs Online For Free

As Bollywood films and music are becoming increasing popular world wide, many web sites started offering legally free access to listen to Bollywood Hindi songs. We can find dozens of web sites that offer legally free music streaming but only very few are providing good quality streaming with minimal or very less pop-ups ads.
Here are the few best web sites that offer high quality Bollywood Hindi MP3 songs streaming for free
in.com
in.com web site is from the popular web18 Venture that also owns Indian news channels CNN IBN & IBN Live. The user interface of in.com is the best when compared to the rest of the web sites that offer free music streaming. The quality of songs streaming, esthetic look and feel with web 2.0 standards makes in.com to stand out from other sites. Personally in.com is my favourite web site to listen to the latest Bollywood songs.

The downside of the web site is the lack of huge collection of albums. The number of music albums available are considerably small when compared to other web sites. But if you are looking for latest Bollywood Hindi songs then in.com is the best place to hang around.
Raaga.com
Raaga is one of the first web sites that started offering free music online. It’s been around for several years and has a huge collection of songs. Almost every Hindi Movie Album, Private Albums, Ghazals are available for streaming.

You should install Real Player plug-in (i don’t like this software) to listen to the songs. Also the pop-up ads are very notorious, you need a pop-up blocker software to browser through this site.
MusicIndiaOnline.com
MusicIndiaOnline.com has a very good collection of Bollywood Hindi songs for streaming. But the web site does not follow any of the web 2.0 standards. The layout is very plain and advertisements are slapped top, left & bottom of every page.

Apart from providing free streaming of Bollywood Hindi songs, the web site also features music reviews, most popular songs lists( current top 10 & 20 songs).
DhinGaNa.com
At Dhingana.com you can not only listen to Bollywood Hindi songs but also you can build a social network with people who loves music. Dhingana platform allow you to discover new music and share it with your friends easily.
To play your favourite movie songs you can explore Alphabetical Album List or Recent Album List or Most Listened Album List. Also there is an option to filter the movie albums based on the time - Today, This Week, This Month and All Time
MusicPlug.in
I love the domain name of this site as it is chosen creatively like del.icio.us. The site has good collection of Bollywood Hindi Songs with zero pop-up ads. Another nice feature is that it offers high quality music playback for high speed Internet connections and medium quality music quality playback for low speed Internet connections.
Dishant.com
This is another source for good Hindi music online.
Rediff Music
Rediff, the popular portal for Indian news, movies, reviews, classifieds and shopping, offers free music streaming. But the user interface is so unusable you never think of going to this site until or unless they have the songs that are not available anywhere else on the web.
These are the web sites that I came across and personally used to listen to songs online. Hope you will also find these web sites useful to listen music.
What are your favourite web sites to listen Hindi songs? If we missed any of your favourite sites lets us hear through comments.

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BSNL Broadband Festival offer- Double Usage

Here is a happy news for all BSNL India broadband users. Yesterday I met a BSNL official and learned that all the broadband users of BSNL can enjoy 100% more bandwidth this month with no extra cost. For example if your regular monthly bandwidth limit is 2.5 GB, this month you get additional 2.5 GB.
The news is also published in Economic Times news paper with more details on offers for new broadband and land line phone connections.
Please bare in mind that this is a limited festive offer and applicable to this month only. From next month onwards, your regular bandwidth limits will apply.
Happy browsing.
Update: To avail this offer you should be at least 6 months old BSNL customer. If you would like to confirm the offer, speak to customer by dialling the number 1500 from BSNL land line

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Gone are the days,"when you used to pay 60-70 cents a minute, even 7 - 8 cents nows days"
Gone are the days, "when we worried about spending 10's of dollars to buy cheap and good calling cards
Gone are the days, "when we have to worry about all types of charges eating up our balance in the card
Gone are the days, "trying to hunt down for cheap and best calling cards and services"
Gone are the days, "worry about getting disconnected when our balance dry's up in the account"
Gone are the days, "we switch back and forth from Reliance, Airtel and other cards to get cheap rates"
Rumor: Verified.
Status: Valid and Good one. Magic Jack can be used to call from anywhere to USA only for a cheap $20/year subscription.

Details:
Who wants to pay for calling to India now, when we have a free way to do. Yes, it is almost free now calling to India. Its even better, they can call us too.Thanks to Magic Jack. Another wonderful invention of man kind especially a savior to NRI's about to get married. They understand what I am talking. Been there, done that. (For other, let me give an hint. Big International Calling card spenders are NRI's who just got engaged and have 3-6 months of time before marriage.)
Anyway, I heard about this Magic Jack about 6 months ago but never gave thought about it. Because I thought its only for local long distance in USA and I was getting pretty good deal with Vonage. I didn't care to check it out. Just a month ago, one of my friend mentioned about it again. He said,he just sent a Magic jack to his parents back in India. Once they plug-in to the USB adapter intheir computer. Wallah!!! They can immediately able to make the international call to USA. That was cool except you have to have a pretty good broadband connection in your home. Nowadays, that is not a problem. BSNL and many other companies are offering broadband internet connection for much cheaper than it used to be.
True Test:
Obviously as a desi(bargain hunter) I jumped into researching more on it to see whether it will be a viable solution for my parents. News reaches very fast in this internet era. My wife's cousin who just got an admission in USA for his masters got this news about Magic Jack from his seniors. He wanted us to order a Magic Jack for his parents even when he was in India. We sent it via my wife's parents who visited us. Once he got it, he installed and called us one fine day. I was able to hear him "loud and clear". He is now in USA and his parents call him every other day. Isn't it sweet of him? I guess its getting very popular with Indian students who can't afford to call using calling card everytime.
How much and How it works?
Alright, I know lot of questions popup in your mind. How much is it and is it worth? What is the support and so forth? After my initial research, it seems to be steller deal until it works. It works in a simple VOIP technology similar to Vonage or any Internet phone. It works great when the broadband connection is good but if you encountered there is no phone support. Only email support and I don't blame it for just $20 a year subscription.
Is it worth it?
Just think about it. If you are paying $5 for an hour worth of talk to India from USA, most NRI's spend $10/week - $40/month = $500 a year. A $20 deal for calling anytime from India to USA all around the year is an unbeatable price. It will work from anywhere to call to USA. The concept is, once you connect to the computer which has Internet. You will automatically get a local USA number. Connect your phone to the adapter jack and you can call any other USA number since long distance is free. Thats simple as it is.
Hope I convinced you to buy one. But I am yet to get one for my parents because they don't use computer all the time and sometimes get stuck with it. It has lot of Pro's especially saving dollars but whether it suits your situation is the question you need to ask.

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Reliance offer Free Netbook-laptops With Datacard Contract

Reliance Communications will offer free netbook(mini laptops) with their WiFi Internet Service NetConnect Datacard for a two year contract.Reliance has roped in Intel, Acer, Asus, HCL and Lenovo to provide their netbook with this free netbook give away offer.That is the buyer will have option of not only one but many netbooks offered by these laptop manufacturers.ASUS has Eee PC netbooks,Lenovo has S9/S10 Ideapads,Acer offer Acer Aspire One, and HCL offers leaptops.The contract will be : With two year subscription of the Reliance NetConnect Datacard service (Rs. 1,500 per month) the buyer will get a Netbook free.This will actually cost 1500×24=36000 Indian Rupee(INR).Means in Rs.36,000 you will get a netbook plus 2 year WiFi Internet Datacard usage.No official word yet from the Reliance Communications regarding this Offer.(source:gigaom)

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What do u feel about your Investments?

Few would dispute that the year 2008 has been tough on investors. This holds especially true for first-time investors i.e. the ones whose tryst with equity markets only began in the last few years. After having seen the markets surge to record highs, the downturn has certainly caught several investors off-guard.

And the despondency is not restricted only to those who have participated in equity markets via the direct equity investment route. Even investors in equity mutual funds have borne the brunt of falling markets. As a result, several investors are in panic mode. Some are even contemplating redeeming all their mutual fund investments and instead making investments in risk-free avenues like fixed deposits and bonds.

But is that the right course of action? We don’t think so. To begin with, investors must conduct an honest appraisal of their risk profile and investment horizon. Also, they must candidly answer the question – why did I get invested in a given mutual fund?

If an investor truly believes that he can take on higher risk and is willing to stay invested for the long-haul (at least 3-5 years), then we believe there is no reason to panic. In fact, given the attractive valuations, investors should consider adding to their investment portfolios. As regards, the reasons for getting invested – if it was to achieve a predetermined investment objective, then it’s all the more reason to stay the course.

Conversely, if the answers are on the lines of ‘have a low risk appetite’, ‘wanted to make a quick buck’ or ‘to ride the rising markets for the short-term’, there is a cause for concern. Such investors got invested in avenues that were wrong for them or made investments for the wrong reasons. In either case, they would do well to work out an exit strategy in consultation with their investment advisors.

As for investors who have the requisite risk-taking ability, investment horizon and clearly defined objectives backed by investment plans, it’s a good time to evaluate if they are invested in the right avenues i.e. in this case, the right mutual funds. Even the best of plans will not deliver if poorly-managed funds are deployed to achieve them. However the evaluation process needs to be a proper one.

To begin with, investors would do well to understand the fund’s nature and investment style, before evaluating its performance. For example, an aggressively-managed equity fund that professes to take stock and sector bets should be expected to deliver above-average results in rising markets. On the other hand, when markets move southwards, such a fund is likely to be worse hit as well. This is keeping in line with the fund’s high risk – high return investment proposition. Comparing the fund’s performance on the downturn with that of a conservatively-managed equity fund would be unfair, akin to comparing apples with oranges.

Similarly, understanding the fund’s investment universe is vital as well. For instance, a professed mid cap fund would be predominantly invested in stocks from the mid cap segment. Expecting it to feature among the top performers at a time when large caps are rallying would be unfair.

Another common mistake is considering funds in isolation. Any advisor worth his salt will emphasise on the importance of diversification. Hence the norm is existence of investment portfolios, instead of investments in single funds in a standalone manner. The key to a well-constructed portfolio is that the downturn in an investment avenue can be offset by an upturn in another. Similarly in a mutual fund portfolio, the presence of diverse investment propositions and styles should help the investor’s cause. Broadly speaking, so long as the investment portfolio is on course to accomplish the predetermined investment objectives, investors should be fine.

Clearly conducting an appropriate evaluation is easier said than done. Hence investors would do well to engage the services of their investment advisors for the evaluation exercise. The next step is to take corrective measures.

Now depending on the specifics of each case, it could vary right from altering the allocations to various funds, exiting some funds and investing in new ones to doing nothing. Surprised? Don’t be. It’s possible that investors are already invested in funds that are right for them and in the right allocation as well. And it is not uncommon even for the best of funds to hit a rough patch. If no material changes have occurred in a fund’s investment proposition and its ability to deliver over the long-term is undiminished, keeping the faith and staying put wouldn’t be a bad idea.

The importance of the evaluation exercise, especially in testing times cannot be overstated. From an investor’s perspective, the key lies in striking a balance between pressing the panic buttons and being complacent. Also, engaging the services of a competent investment advisor is vital.

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History of Indian Rupee (De)Valuation

In previous week I was thinking that soon one dollar would become equal to 50 rupees. Just after one week, my prediction became correct. Now one US dollar is around 50 rupees. Now I think it is right time to tell you the history of Indian currency, rupee. The origin of the word “rupee” is found in the Sanskrit word rup or rupyah, which means “wrought silver,” originally “something provided with an image, a coin,” from rupah “shape, likeness, image.” Before independence, India was a land of hundreds of princely states. They used to run their own coins and currency notes.

After Independence in 1947, the Indian government brought out the new design Re. 1 note in 1949. The Lion Capital of Asoka was used for the design of that note.

Devaluation of Rupee started in 1960s due to war with China and Pakistan, large government budget deficits and drought there was problem of inflation in India. There was sharp rise in prices. So Indian Government was forced to start some liberal policies to stabilize the economy which finally resulted into huge devaluation of Rupee.

During mid eighties, India started having balance of payments problems and by the end of 1990, India was in serious economic trouble. Our foreign exchange reserves had dried up to the point that India could barely finance three weeks’ worth of imports. Once again, the government decided to devaluate the Rupee. By the start of 21st century, the Rupee stopped declining and stabilized at 45. However in mid-2007, the rupee started gaining strength one dollar came below 40 Rupees. Now again due to recent economic crisis in world economy, one dollar has started touching the historical figure of 50 Rupees.

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Price hike after Diwali from Mobile Companies

Mobile companies may opt for price hikes post-Diwali with the dollar touching a high of Rs 49.95. Among the handset marketers, companies like Spice Mobiles, Meridian Mobile and HTC confirmed of 15% price hike after Diwali.Leading mobile phone manufacturers like Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung are watching the exchange rate closely to follow suit.Handset manufacturers import around 60% of the components from China and Taiwan. Consequently, this is a double expense for manufacturers as even the Chinese yuan is weakening against the dollar. One dollar was worth 6.85 yuan till date.Almost all the new models of all the mobile phone brands will see a price increase of 12-15%. This is mainly because of the import costs that have gone up dramatically over the last few weeks.LG Company is just waiting and watching about the recent happenings and due to the competition, they are not going in for a price hike this week. But an official source informed that if the dollar rises further after Diwali, they will certainly take a call on this.However, the market leader Nokia continues to remain silent on the issue.

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BSNL Broadband Festival offer- Double Usage

Here is a happy news for all BSNL India broadband users. Yesterday I met a BSNL official and learned that all the broadband users of BSNL can enjoy 100% more bandwidth this month with no extra cost. For example if your regular monthly bandwidth limit is 2.5 GB, this month you get additional 2.5 GB.
The news is also published in Economic Times news paper with more details on offers for new broadband and land line phone connections.
Please bare in mind that this is a limited festive offer and applicable to this month only. From next month onwards, your regular bandwidth limits will apply.
Happy browsing.
Update: To avail this offer you should be at least 6 months old BSNL customer. If you would like to confirm the offer, speak to customer by dialling the number 1500 from BSNL land line

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Market Crash- What to do to cut your losses

THE market's blows are only getting harder.

The bad news is that the worst may not be over yet. Amidst all this turbulence, only one thing can save you: The right advice.

Here’s how you can limit the damage, straight from wealth's experts.

Scenario 1: I invested in the markets for the short term; what should I do now?
Right now, the markets are driven by global sentiment. And, financial planner Arvind Rao reckons that it may take up to the fourth quarter of 2009 for the global market to pull up. On the domestic front too, things may look brighter only in the third or fourth quarter of 2009. "This is mainly because of the huge input costs and high interest rates as of now, " he says.

In such a scenario, you have 2 options:
Option 1: If you are hard pressed for money, you have no choice but to withdraw.

PV Subramanyam, financial domain trainer, says, “If you need money soon, say in a year or two, it is better to sell now even if that means booking losses. There’s no way of predicting how the markets would behave.”

Option 2: Sandeep Shanbhag, investment expert and Director, Wonderland Consultants, says, “If you initially invested for the short term but can weather the storm, then wait, provided you have fundamentally good stocks. However, if you need funds, then exit as early as possible and treat this as a mistake not to be repeated.”

Caution: Do not play the markets on a short term basis simply because of the looming uncertainty.

Scenario 2: I am a long term investor: What to do now?
To begin with, relax. If you have invested, you should continue doing so. India has a number of things going in its favour:

-- Among all emerging economies, our export to GDP ratio is the lowest. Consequently, even a full blown US recession will shave only around 40 to 60 basis points off our GDP growth rate, which was a healthy 7.9 per cent for the first quarter. Our economy is fundamentally strong; the situation right now is nothing but a slowdown and it will recover soon.

-- Commodity prices have started to decline, with oil last being traded at USD 90 per barrel. So, going forward, inflation will not be a big threat.

-- Our regulators, SEBI and RBI are proactively taking measures to control the situation and ease capital flows into India.

Sanjay Matai, financial advisor, says, “Long term investors need not worry. In fact, it’s a good time to invest since stocks, expensive at one time, are now available at huge discounts.”

Strategy: You can file away a proportion of your money for the long-term through SIPs. If you are single and salaried, put 70 per cent of your money in large cap stocks and the remaining 30 per cent in mid cap stocks.

Shabhag suggests that this is an ideal time to average out and make piecemeal investments on every fall. "You can invest around 20 per cent of investible funds into equity / equity MFs. Another 20 to 25 per cent of your surplus can be invested in gold through gold exchange traded funds (ETFs)."

There’s a simple theory behind investing: You invest your way up, and you invest your way down.

What NOT to do

-- Don't enter the market for a quick buck.

-- Don't look at borrowings for a while, since interest rates are quite high. Especially stay away from borrowing to invest in volatile assets like equities or even property.

-- Avoid investing in Unit Linked Insurance Plans (ULIPs) if you do not understand the scheme in detail.

-- Don't invest in lump sum.

-- Don't stop your systematic investment plans (SIPs), because market fluctuations can average out your losses with SIPs.

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