The Emerging World

This is the gist of how "The Economist" describes globalization. The Developed Economies, who were enjoying a dominance in the world economy now having to share it with the rest of the emerging world. This is a write up from one of the bunch of surveys on "The New Titans" conducted by Economist.

1. Emerging Economies:

At purchasing power parity (PPP) the emerging world contributed to more than 50% of the world's GDP last year although at current $ terms they still contribute to about 30% of the GDP only. The survey calls this the biggest boost to the world since the Industrial Revolution.

a. The fact that this era has such a huge impact is because this revolution is all round the globe where as the previous Industrial Revolution covered only one-third of the globe.

b. The BRIC that constitute the four major Emerging Economies (EE) of the world today contribute to two-fifths of the GDP of EE and are had an YoY growth consecutively for the last three years.

2. Re-emerging Economies:

The above graph compares the Emerging-Developed emerging economies over a period of time. Emerging economies have been growing @ an avg. rate of 7% and looks like if they continue to do that over a period of 10-15 years then these economies would produce two-thirds of the global output.

Interesting Fact: When America and Britain were industrializing in the 19th century, they took 50 years to double their real incomes per head; today China is achieving the same feat in nine years.

a. Current Status in the Emerging Economies: The current weakness of emerging economies (according to Morgan Stanley Economist) is no longer their dependence on external finance, as in the 1990s, but their dependence on external demand.

3. Emerging Economies started Running:

Its indeed very heartening to see India in the above graphs. While we need to wait a bit more to see if this turns into a reality but the fact that we are heading somewhere towards instills a degree of confidence.

Go grab the latest edition of "The Economist" or check out Economist website if you find this interesting because i think it gives a pretty good insight about the overall globalization era !!

My Ideas:

While all the above stated facts paint a rosy picture of the emerging world these are some of the issues that India, as an emerging economy has to address if it has to go anywhere near or sustain if it happens to get there !! ….I do agree that things are easier said than done …yet…….. !!

Level of Corruption:

There is no country in this world which has zero corruption but according to me the levels at which the corruption begins determines how frequently the common man has to suffer in his day to day life. The lower levels administration with whom the common man interacts on a day to day basis has been free from corruption in most of the developed countries and that should start to happen in India.. In recent discussions with some of my colleagues I've realized that we have started accepting administrators who are corrupt but yet get some work done to those who are completely corrupt or those who are not corrupt but don’t get the work done !!

Wealth Distribution:

One of my friends brought up this point of wealth distribution in his blog..i.e are the rich becoming richer and poor becoming poorer ?

When we chose to be a kapitalistic society by introducing the economic reforms of 1991, the wealth distribution is bound to widen unless we create an equal opportunity society (no i’m not talking about reservations !!) by focusing on improving our poverty l line by creating basic health care and primary education ! I guess we are on the right track but we’ve a long way to go in that !

Dignity of Labor: This has been in my mind for a while… I don’t know if this is my myth or true …but I somehow feel that there is significant difference in # of people who do their job with pride and respect in the developed economies than in India …. I don’t know if this is becos of the minimum wage being high in those countries bringing into picture the standard of living … or it’s the fact that we are not able to identify the importance of the role they play …

Equal Opportunity: This is one aspect that we need to start accepting as a fact of life and move away from all kind of reservations (except for the financially weaker sections … and should not be based on any other criteria …)

I hope some of these will be achieved by 2040 .... !! If you can think of any other issues on the top of your mind while reading this blog ...feel free to post your ideas ... !

PS: All the graphs posted in this writeup are taken from economist.

Freakonomics

Though I'm not a early adopter of best sellers around, recently I happened to read one of them called "Freakonomics" .. Although in all probability u would have heard about this book already …just incase this happens to be the first time you heard that name you might find it interesting !!

Authors: Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.

Highlights of the book from my perspective follow:

1. Perceptions:

To me this book unravels many perceptions (myths) that I've so taken for granted that neither did I ever spend time thinking about them or nor did I find them as inquisitive or enigmatic till the point I read this book !

2. Simplicity in relating the book to everyday life:

The most impressive part about the book is the simplicity with which it has been dealt with, the way one can relate to these questions very easily as most of the situations are relevant to the society one lives in and has almost no usage of the so called high fundaa economics/MBA jargon

3. Thought Process

I don’t know if this is true with everyone but these questions are certainly very thought provocative ..I cant say at this point if I can improve my "thought process" after reading this book but it surely gave me a chance to appreciate the new way of looking at things that we see in our daily lives !

Here is a glimpse of some of the questions that the author tries to answer !

Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool?

What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common ?

Why do drug dealers still live with their moms ?

Where have all the criminals gone ?

.

.

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. And many more …. !

4. Historical Facts:

The chapter on Ku Klux Klan presented lot of historical facts and itz surprising that such organization was able to survive for over 100 years although deteriorating towards the later half of its existence. The method adopted by Kennedy in restraining its activities, which led to the klan's demise is worth noting.

Reviews on Freakonomics and about the authors.

Movie of the Day

Oct 4th 2006

With all the best intentions, respect and no offence meant to anyone or anything. This one is out of frustration !!

I happened to attend an in house (literally inside my house) TV training program today.

My key take-aways:
There are 7 channels broadcasted by my cable TV operator today!
They are:
ETV,
Udaya News,
Udaya,
Zee,
Raj,
C Bangalore,
U2 live

If your cable TV operator broadcasted any more channels, I request you to join me in ransacking my cable TV operators office for denying me the privilege of watching that channel in Bangalore.

Last but not the least... The movie of the day goes to "Chitra" on ETV .. Two other movies gave a very tough fight but this one got thro becos its a movie very different from other movies and also its taken differently and actors acted differently :) (its a remake of some other movie) :)…

PS: Hahaha .... These people could not block DD-News .. I guess my TV's internal antenna is intelligent enuf to break their firewall :)

Psycho...... !!

I don’t think I'm a psycho or anything.. …but this write up is on dreamz .. which is related to psychology so that title !

I found this website while stumbling and it talks about different stages of Sleep, Dream Recall, Controlling dreamz and Lucid Dreaming.

Do you know that some people actually know that they are dreaming and its not their real life in their dreamz?

I'm not psychology student or anything but that line was enuf to make me read the article .. Turned out to be quite interesting in the end !!

According to the article there are ways to control nightmares if they happen to visit u often by controlling your dreamz .. (this is called controlling the dreamz and this is not Lucid Dreaming).

Can you recall your dreams after you wake up …I can in some cases … well, the article says that u can learn how to recall ur dreamz after u wake up which is actually useful in cont

My Philosophy for sleeping more:

The more you sleep the more probability for recalling dreamzz .. So don’t call me lazy from now on … I'm only working hard on developing lucid dreamzz :)

Check out this site for further info DreamViews

Who are Angel Investors !

From Boozing to "financing an entrepreneurship !! ...

This write-up is based on the article "Giving Ideas Wings" from "The Economist". If you have a subscription to the magazine I would recommend you to read it as it gives some insights into financing aspects of starting a firm.

Things like what are your likely sources of capital for starting out a venture and what are the problems that entrepreneurs face during this time and probably some hints on where/whom to look out for …. May be this is not very exhaustive but it will certainly help you get started..

The high risk that a VC takes in funding a start up is often accompanied by setting ambitious commercial objectives—milestones, as they are known—and complex provisions to protect the value of their shares. If things do not go according to plan, company founders can quickly end up losing their voting rights and even their jobs as the VC's have opportunity costs involved in choosing this venture over another.

Here is what I found useful from the article:

• Apprehensive Investors

The risk of becoming out of pocket and faced with unproved business plans makes the investors (VCs) apprehensive in investing into a start-up venture. On an average 3 out 5 ventures die due to lack of finance to get the business off the ground and to sustain in the longer run. I guess this a good enuf reason for them to be apprehensive !!

• Equity Gap:

The article defines a term called "Equity Gap" which exists in this era as the Venture Capitalist firms have expanded so much that they usually don’t show much interest in funding the start-up's unless they find huge worth of the business.

Apparently this was never a problem about 10 years back as VC firms used to fund businesses even if they find reasonable profitability in the business.

So where do the entrepreneurs get financing to get the business rolling?

• Early stages of financing …How long do they last ??

Early stages involves the owner's credit cards and other precarious kind of investments which are of course limited. Then comes family and friends … Unfortunately there is only one family and limited # of friends ..so this might last for a month or so … then where do u turn to ?

• Who are angel Investors ?

Then come into picture these "Angel Investors" … These are probably the high net worth individuals who are rich and are prepared to invest in a risky venture.

• Well, before reading the article I used to think that this kind of financing is very rare but the #'s projected in the article seem to suggest that this is a huge market which the would-be entrepreneurs can tap into to finance their dreams ! Then at a later stage they can turn into VC firms to get things going ...

• Since VC firms are usually critical of these Angel Investors the entrepreneur has to be extremely careful in selecting the Angel Investor as a clash of intentions would lead to end of dream (lead to bankruptcy) for the entrepreneur.

• Advantages and Pitfalls of choosing an Angel Investor

• Pitfall :

Inquiries about the investor have to be made and everyone has to be sure what every investor wants from the business so that it doesn’t lead to any kind of disaster in the long run.

• Advantage:

Since the Angel Investor usually has specialized knowledge in the industry he/she would usually end up helping the entrepreneur to find customers and use his experience in guiding the owner.

Where will you find these Angel Investors:

They have organized themselves into networks to invest in different ventures so as to spread their risks… If you read the complete article you might find some links to them in the industry you are venturing into !!

If you want to know how much money did the investors of Skype made and how many VC firms rejected to fund its seed capital ….you'll get it in this article !!!

…hopefully u'll find the article interesting !! This is one source i got to know ..If you happen to know any other source of funding .. plzz feel free to post it in the comments section ... !!

BKMs for a Boozer !!

These are the BKM's of drinking I liked in the whole list of 86 in this Drunkard Magazine..

• The only thing that tastes better than free liquor is stolen liquor
• Buying a strange woman a drink is still cool. Buying all her drinks is dumb
• If someone offers to buy you a drink, do not upgrade your liquor preference
• Being drunk is feeling sophisticated without being able to say it.
• After your sixth drink, do not look at yourself in the mirror. It will shake your confidence.
• If you can't afford to tip, you can't afford to drink in a bar. Go to the liquor store.
• Never complain about the quality or brand of a free drink.
• Learn to appreciate hangovers. If it was all good times every jackass would be doing it
• If you do a shot, finish it. If you don't plan to finish it, don't accept it.
• If there is ever any confusion, the fuller beer is yours.
• If you’re going to drink on the job, drink vodka. It’s the no-tell liquor.
• You will forget every one of these by your fifth drink.

Lazily alive .........

Now u know why my blog is named the way it is .. I even forgot the password had to click on forgot password and update it :)
What have I been doin all this while ..
Actually nothing much other watching some movies which ended up to be good movies like Eternal Sunshine of a spotless mind, 12 Angry Men and surprisingly "Bommarillu" the gult movie ..it falls into romantic comedy genre but it so well taken and directed that it was tough restraining watching back to back shows at PVR although watched it the second time the next day ! after all cant resist ...its a gult movie!!

Went to hyd for a loooong weekend and took the cheapest/unsafe airline around ..Dhakaan a..line ..My god the way the flight took off reminded me of escape velocity and stuff in physics ... inspite of making such a huge noise it barely managed to remain in air .. The weather looked ok but i guess the minimum velocity requiried for that flight to exp. turbulence is like what ...around 15 m/s ! I can manage to sleep almost anywhere but given the fact that i couldn't sleep in that flight gives u an idea !

I happened to get hold of some links that were infact an eyeopener to me esp. in the middle east crisis.. You need to spare about an hour to get thro it.. It will certainly make u feel paranoid of the news channels around u ..
Google Video

I managed to finish "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell..its a very good read if you happen to like anything related to psycology (but its not the sigmund freud kinda psychology ..) It talks about how to organize our first feel of things a little better and unconscious attitudes towards different things in life !! Herez the link to the summary ..if u like this write up u'll definitely like the book too !!
http://www.gladwell.com/blink/

If you are betting on the Indian Economy or interested in Stock Markets this link will probably
valuate stocks:: Found a link that will certainly help u get started on how to do stock valuations .. Hope u find it useful
http://www.moneychimp.com/articles/finworks/fmvaluation.htm

Of late i've been doing some work talking to bankers/lawyers to establish a non-profit trust..Hopefully in the near future i'll be making good enuf progress and write the steps involved for doing that

till then c ya .. njoy & have fun !!!

Where is India heading ......???????

U might have seen in many instances where the original intent of a decision is usually lost in course of its implementation.. This serves as a perfect example if you are looking for one..
Its a pity/curse that on a day when Indian Economy is almost growing at two times compared to the US Economy we are talking about reservations in some of the most prestigious institutions of the country..
Where did these reservations come up from ??As far as my knowledge goes the First Planning Comission/Constitution drafters introduced the concept of reservation for a specific period of 10/20 years as some sections of the society in the pre-independence era were literally treated lower compared to the other sections. So inorder to get them back into the society they were given certain special priveleges (reservations) but unfortunately people have used it for their own political advantage and thatz the reason i believe it has been lasting for ever.. Wow what a tool it has bcom for the politicians to increase its vote bank !! nothing less than a lottery to them .. For me it makes much more sense to provide some financial help to the economically backward people (not socially)
Its a shame to see students getting beaten up the police and all severely but the way the students are fighting for this cause is really great I sincerely hope that they will achieve the desired result. This reminds me that "Common Sense is the most uncommon thing is this world"

Apart from that ....
What a bloody day for Indian markets today !! the market cap that has been lost is about 4 lakh crores !!

Well haven't written for 2 weeks now ...
India bt Pak in the second one-dayer @ abu-dhabi and the manner in which Inzamam got out (the run-out) made me feel i can at best be the second best in being lazy ... dont know whether to feel sad or happy..i'm not the best even in being lazzyyy :(
Indian Stock Market bounced back this week and it was good to see some of my stocks gain :)..was studying how to value stocks and so invested in some of them ..dont know if this is a beginners luck or am i really getting to learn sthng ??
A year since i started the epbm course ...now that its over (time really flies)
was pretty occupied over the past yr on the weekends now i've to start thinking about the weekends again !! this is the first weekend after the exams...slept thro the day today just another instance of laziness getting better of me ..)
Not that i'm a voracious reader or anything but i've started reading a book called The world is flat (still in progress) by Thomas Friedman..its looking like a great read.. its on the ten most important factors that led to globalization (the berlin wall relation was truly great to read) !! sounds like a good book ..will post the details after i read
wow ..therez a booze treat @ 8 ..just the right way to start a saturday evening ..vodka is awaiting me in large smirnoff bottle..what can be more exciting on a saturday night? :)
Awaiting the soccer worldcup starting on june 9th :) although brazil is the favourite i want to see a england-brazil clash this time again and may the best team (england) triumph!!

Phunny Exams!!!

as i write this blog i'm half hungry..the rice got over after i started eating :(
I had to give my exams 1.Strategic Management(SM) 2.Corporate Finance(CF) 3.Marketing1(MM)
I studied a bit of CF so its answer paper would match most closely to the text book ..(dont ask % of match..such questions will not be entertained at any point)
In Marketing there was a case study on Nike with 5 questions ..questions were framed differently but unfortunately i felt all the answers should be the same..so had to mince with words using active and passive voice (thats the only grammar i claim i know)
SM question paper: Would any company reach its perpertual value because of its strategy ? (Yes/No)and explain with the cases discussed in the class !!
Yes/No answer was easy ..
Then started all the confusion ..Was Nivea/Titan/Reliance/Phuket-Beach/Tobu-cycles/M&S case discussed in marketing/strategy/CF/HR/Operations class ... shouldv'e been 1-1 mapping but it soon became many-many mapping (set theory).. who knows what is correct! everything looks perfect till the grades come out

All the while i was writing this _________________________
I was wondering why day light savings exist !!!!!!
"you cant change urself, so change the time" !! u also think about it !!!

Now that the rice is cooked ..i should go and eat ..

Finally today !!!

bonsoir
i never thought i would be able to create this account and start typing ....
au revoir for now ... tomorrow i've three exams ...not that i'm studying now but just that laziness prevailed over activeness yet again ..:)