New

(Daily Information Capsules for all those who want to fathom learning in all its depths)

Date: 20th April 2004

(To be used by faculty members
AND
a copy to be kept for students reference in the Library too)

CONTENTS
The following pages contain:
1.
2.
3.
4.

N e w s T r a c k e r : The edit will give you links to important and happening news,
which you just cant afford to miss. Follow the link and read the articles
suggested.
P o o l o f K n o w l e d g e : A collection of definitions and meanings of terms from a
selected field of study.
S p e c i a l i z e r : An article by the gurus on Management Fundamentals.
Q u i z : A GK quiz on Current Affairs, Brand Quiz and Companies Punch lines
etc., to check your reading habits and to hone your memorizing skills!

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NewsTracker
Instructions: We suggest you copy-paste the link on the address bar of your Internet explorer. Avoid keying it
through your keyboard because it might be prone to errors.

THE JOKER IN THE PACK

The market regulator wants to be the best. It will not be so unless its investigative team becomes the ace. "It
is not the number of (Sebi's) orders that is relevant. It is the stuff of the order that matters." Securities
Appellate Tribunal's (SAT's) remark on a Sebi order, October 2003. That's a damning comment on any
regulator. It's doubly damning when it comes from the authority that hears appeals against the regulator's
orders. And it's not the only comment of its kind. Sebi wants to be the most respected regulator - globally. But
it is failing the most important test at home - that of upholding its own orders when challenged. Of the 41 cases
heard since January 2003, SAT was happy with the investigations in only four. In eight compliance related
cases, Sebi's orders were upheld and in three the penalties were reduced. Most of the other cases were
overturned because of faulty investigations.The case that attracted the remarks quoted at the beginning was
against Bama Securities, a broking firm that had been charged by Sebi with manipulative trading to depress
prices in certain stocks. In its ruling, SAT observed: "It is difficult to believe that such a small percentage of
trade would have resulted in such a price crash..." read the edit to scrutinize SEBIs moves.
http://www.businessworldindia.com/apr2604/indepth04.asp

REACHING FOR THE STARS: TOWARDS DOORSTEP HIGHER EDUCATION

For millennia before their tryst with destiny on August 15, 1947 , the people of this land have had a profound
regard for scholarship: our classical literature is replete with oft-quoted references to Saraswati, the goddess of
learning. This thirst for knowledge has from times immemorial drawn Indians as bees to nectar, motivelessly,
without thought of monetary gain. But, today, with the realisation that a good education is the passport to
golden opportunities, there is an unprecedented hunger for it. This begs the question: If we are so aware of the
importance of a good education, why is higher education in such a mess in the country today? The
government of India has for over five decades invested substantially in higher education. Yet, today, its
allocation to this sector (as a fraction of its allocations to other areas of education) is the lowest in South Asia .
Reason: a large proportion of funds meant for education is directed towards promoting primary education.
Follow the link to know the affects.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/626207.cms

INDIA LEARNS TO PLAY THE TRADE GAME

India is making some deft moves of late. But can it catch up with the masters of the game? DO NICE guys win
trade deals? Perhaps they do. But it doesn't hurt to be nice and smart when looking for trade opportunities.
That's what the government decided while putting together a landmark initiative to win allies and influence
trade in January this year. The government of India will provide a $1. 5-billion line of credit to sub-Saharan
African countries for buying anti-retroviral drugs (ARV) along with other medical supplies from India. ARV
drugs are used for treating HIV/AIDS. The scheme, which is being kept under wraps until the kinks are ironed

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out, will run for five years. Credit will be provided through the Exim Bank at Libor plus 0.5%, and repayments
are to be made over a 15-year period. Since many of the beneficiaries would belong to the category of heavily
indebted poor countries there will be a substantial grant element, say North Block officials. There is a lot more
that the country is doing. Check out this article to learn how Bharat is playing the game.
http://www.businessworldindia.com/apr2604/coverstory01.asp

WE'LL TURN SOLAR SYSTEM INTO A JUNKYARD

The US government's decision to issue the first-ever licence for a manned suborbital rocket is good only on the
face of it. This licence will culminate in commercial space flights for private individuals in the next 10 years.
Travelling to new, unexplored places has been one of man's greatest quests through centuries, yet that has
also been the curse and bane of such destinations. By opening up space to tourism, there is an inherent
danger that the delicate and as yet unexplored eco-space' will be laid to waste, replicating the numerous
environmental disasters on earth. When Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed Mount Everest in
1953, the peak was breathtaking in its virginal beauty. Today, if Everest takes one's breath away, it is because
of the magnitude of garbage and litter left behind by tourists. Everest is known as the world's highest junkyard.
Read the article to know more.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/626228.cms

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Pool of knowledge
All the terms and definitions that have baffled you all these days. Get acquainted with them and solve all your
queries.

Marketing:
Off-Price Retailer - a retail store specialising in buying leading brand items in bulk for resale at discount
prices.
Oligopolistic Competition - a competitive situation in which there are only a few sellers (of products that can
be differentiated but not to any great extent); each seller has a high percentage of the market and cannot
afford to ignore the actions of the others.
Oligopoly - a market situation in which there are only a few sellers; in an oligoplistic situation the marketing
action of one firm will have a direct effect on the others.
Oligopsony - a market situation in which there are only a few buyers.
Omnibus Survey - a type of marketing research survey, commonly organised by a major professional
marketing research company, in which different cross sections of the community are interviewed by probability
sampling at regular intervals about buying habits, product and brand preferences, etc; called an "omnibus"
survey because any marketer can join in (on a regular or ad hoc basis), for a fee, to add questions.
On-Pack Premium - a common form of consumer sales promotion in which a gift is banded to the package of
another product to encourage its purchase. See Premiums; In-Pack Premium; Near-Pack Premium; With-Pack
Premium.
On-the-Job Training - sales training given in the field rather than in a formal classroom setting.
One Level Channel - a marketing channel in which there is only one intermediary (for example, a retailer)
between manufacturer and end-user. See Marketing Channels.
One-Price Policy - a policy of offering the same price to every customer.
Open Bid - a system, common in the government market, of calling for bids from selected suppliers.
Open Dating - an aspect of labelling in which certain products are required, either by law or under voluntary
industry codes, to be marked with a "use-by" date to indicate their expected shelf life; also called Date
Stamping.
Open Promotion - a sales promotion which is advertised widely and available to all who wish to enter. See
Closed Promotion.
Open System - any system or enterprise (nation or business firm) that is affected by external forces.
Open-Ended Question - a question that allows the respondent the opportunity to express an opinion in his or
her own words.

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Open-to-Buy - the money that a reseller has available to spend on stock purchasing at any given time.
Operating Expenses - all the costs incurred by a firm in carrying out its day-to-day activities.
Operating Statement - a statement of the financial results of a company's operations during an accounting
period.
Opinion Leader - an individual who actively provides opinions about products to others or from whom views,
opinions and advice is sought. See Key Influence People.
Opportunity Cost - the value of the benefit forfeited by choosing one alternative over another.
Opportunity Matrix - a diagnostic marketing tool providing a means of appraising environmental attributes to
alert managers to the benefits associated with changing environmental conditions and to impending dangers.
Optimising - an approach to planning in which a firm expresses its intention to do things better (as opposed to
"better things") in the future.
Order Cycle Time - the time between placement of the order by the customer and the receipt of the
merchandise.
Order Filling Costs - costs associated with filling orders - warehousing, transportation, order processing,
billing and collection of payments.
Order Generation Costs - costs associated with obtaining orders - advertising, personal selling and sales
promotion.
Order Getter - a salesperson responsible for actively persuading customers to buy rather than simply
collecting orders that the customers wish to place.
Order Processing - all of the activities related to filling a customer's order - checking the order, prices, terms,
customer credit and stock levels; producing an invoice; picking the goods from the warehouse; packing and
shipping them, and collecting payment.
Order Taker - a salesperson who writes up orders but is not involved in persuading customers to buy.
Organisation Marketing - activity related to the marketing of an association, school, college, hospital, sporting
or social group, club, charitable body, etc.
Organisational Buyer - the individual responsible for the firm's purchasing.

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Specializer
For whom the CEOs of Corporate India poll
CEOs view things differently. They dont get carried away by hype and they seldom go for the flavour of the
month. When we asked them to rank their favourite politicians, they didnt pick the obvious ones in the
election limelight or the senior-most in New Delhis political hierarchy.
Instead, they chose the people whose ideas and conduct have made a difference to the way business is
done in this country. The result is a definitive list of very competent, very upright individuals; all of who have
played an important part in bringing the Indian economy to the great state its in today.
We find that CEOs have no regional biases. They cant afford to, since they all head pan-Indian
corporations.
CEOs based in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata obviously have cause to envy better-administered, business
friendly states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Which is why Chandrababu Naidu, SM Krishna, Sheila
Dixit and even Manohar Parrikar, the Chief Minister of Goa, are on the list.
CEOs also have a sense of context. Many of them built their careers in sync with the spread of economic
liberalisation in the 90s and they havent forgotten those who made it possible. Which is why old timers like
Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram and Sharad Pawar figure in the list, even though theyve been out of
power for some time now.
And CEOs like politicos they can identify with. Those on the list are all qualified, intelligent, tech-savvy,
articulate men and women who have brought a dash of professionalism to their jobs.
Finally, for those who are wondering why Atal Behari Vajpayee didnt make it to the list its only because
hes so far ahead of everyone else at this point that putting him at the No. 1 position would be a bit of a
clich.
More than 60 per cent of the respondents placed Vajpayee at the top of their rankings and rest placed him in
the second or third positions.
What may surprise some is the fact that Lal Krishna Advani, second in the government hierarchy, is not
second in the CEOs rankings. The Deputy Prime Ministers name seems to evoke extreme responses.
While 31 per cent put him in their top three rankings, an equal number didnt place him in their rankings at
all, pushing him down to fourth place.
Instead, for top honours after Vajpayee, our CEOs have chosen two past recipients of the Economic Times
Award for Corporate Excellence, Arun Shourie and Chandrababu Naidu. As deserving recipients of both
those honours, theyve emerged as the tried and tested models of excellence for the leading lights of
business as well as politics.

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Quiz!
DIRECTIONS: For the following questions, choose the correct option.
Q1.

Who is the chief Election Commissioner of India?

(1)
A.N. Jha
(2)
(3)
T.S. Krishnamurthy
(4)

Q2.

Which south Indian film Actress was killed recently in a helicopter crash while campaigning for BJP?
(1)
Soundarya
(2)
Vijayashanti
(3)
Jaya Prada
(4)
Simran

Q3.

Foreign Institutional Investment to India in the year 2003 was?

(1)
$ 5.2 Billion
(2)
$ 10.2 Billion
(3)
$ 7.6 Billion
(4)
$ 8.3 Billion

Q4.

The latest character added to Morse code recently is

(1)
# (Hash)
(2)
(3)
_ (underscore)
(4)

(Euro)
@ (at the rate of)

Q5.

Who is the new chairman of HLL?

(1)
S. Ravindranath
(3)
M.K. Sharma

Arun Adhikari
M.S. Banga

Q6.

Who/Which organization invented World Wide Web?

(1)
MIT, USA
(2)
(3)
Microsoft
(4)

Tim Bernes Lee

Rob Glaser

Q7.

Who is the editor of Business world?

(1)
Arun Puri
(3)
Vir Sanghvi

(2)
(4)

Prosenjit Datta
Bachi Karkaria

Q8.

Indias total export in the last fiscal year was.

(1)
$ 7 Billion
(3)
$ 55 Billion

(2)
(4)

$ 32 Billion
$ 45 Billion

Q9.

In which city recently a stampede claimed 20 lives in a Sari distribution function?

(1)
Lucknow
(2)
Kanpur
(3)
Patna
(4)
Patiala.

Q10.

Which ancient civilization used water clock to know time?

(1)
Greek
(2)
Roman
(3)
Egyptian
(4)
Yamato

Q11.

Which of the following when taken by pregnant women, is found to be the cause of deformed children?
(1)
Glycerol
(2)
Xylidine
(3)
Thalidomide
(4)
None of these

(2)
(4)

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T.N. Sheshan
None of these.

Q12.

Which of the following is used as an insecticide?

(1)
Organochlorine
(2)
(3)
Carbamate
(4)

Organophosphate
Pyrethrin

Q13.

Liquid is characterised by
(1)
fixed shape and volume
(3)
high compressibility

no fixed shape or volume

fixed volume and low compressibility

Q14.

The flame which has the highest temperature among the following is
(1)
hydrogen -nitrogen
(2)
oxy -acetylene
(3)
oxy -hydrogen
(4)
None of these

Q15.

Which of the following substances is a polymer of isoprene?

(1)
Bakelite
(2)
Natural rubber
(3)
Thiokol
(4)
Melamine

(2)
(4)

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Answers
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.

Ans.(3)
Ans.(1)
Ans.(3)
Ans.(4)
Ans.(3)
Ans.(2)
Ans.(2)
Ans.(3)
Ans.(1)
Ans.(3)
Ans.(3)
Ans.(4)
Ans.(4)
Ans.(2)
Ans.(2)

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