REAL (Investments) ESTATE:Time to make a move? Until a few years ago, the real estate market was abuzz with activity and investors were interested in every project — old or new. Prices, although unnatural, were at agonizing highs. Today, however, present market dynamics sings a different tune. Prices have at least stabilized across the region, if not reduced. For an investor with surplus money, this could very well be a much awaited cue. But, is it really the right time? If yes, then which areas should people invest in and can good returns be expected from the short term? Or should investors wait a little longer till the market hits a new low? Wire money online to India with Xoom.com for as low as $4.99. The majority of market experts believe that the time is ripe for real estate investment. Some experts have termed the present situation as the ‘best’ time to invest. People who make money in the market are those who buy property when the market is down, and sell when the market is lively again. It is a great time for purchasing for people who are looking for a space for self-occupation, and for those investors who can be in the market for a long period. For those looking at self occupation, this is also the right time to strike a good bargain with the sellers. Developers and builders are facing a demand crunch, and the longer this stagnation continues, the greater: the desperation will be and as a consequence builders will be willing to sell their products (even at lowered rates). It is unlikely that the market will see a price appreciation in the short term. The best returns will come in the long run as the economy grows, and the demand from the expanding IT sector materializes. If the buyer does not invest now, then when will he do so? The recent reduction in home loan rates also makes this an opportune moment for investments in real estate. Though some experts believes that home loan rates do not make such a dent in the demand for housing as loans form a relatively small part of the total cost of a property. It is not wise to invest blindly. All said and done, not everyone is in favor of investment at the moment. There are dissenting voices which are cautioning the investor to wait a little [...]
Archive for December, 2007
Posted in 
Cheers! Welcome a New Year!
December 31st, 2007 
Tejinder We are approaching that time of the year again, when its time to ring out the old, and ring in the new. The New Year is probably the oldest holiday of all time, and has been celebrated for almost 4000 years. The tradition of celebrating the New Year is believed to have originated in Babylon. The New Year celebrations lasted for eleven days, and it was a time of grand feasting. It was celebrated with the first visible crescent of the New Moon, after the Vernal Equinox – which is the first day of spring. (This usually falls around the 21st of March.) Logically; choosing the first day of spring as the New Year makes a lot of sense, as spring signifies the beginning of life, the beginning of a new season and the end of the winter – which is the last season. Plants are being ‘Planted, flowers have just started to blossom, and everything seems to be slowly coming back to life. The Romans too celebrated the New Year sometime around the last week of March. However, Roman emperors constantly changed the calendar around, with the result that the calendar became completely out of sync with the sun – so while March would be spring in one year, it could be winter in the next!Finally; 1st of January was officially declared to be the first day of the New Year by the Roman senate. The day is bang in the middle of the winter, and doesn’t really have any astrological or agricultural significance. It was just a date picked arbitrarily. However, this didn’t stop the Roman emperors from changing around the calendar again and again. They didn’t tamper with the New Year date though. Finally Julius Caesar set down the calendar as we know it. According to tradition, the first day of the year signifies what the rest of the year is going to be like. Thus, if you are working on the first day of the year, you are likely to be working for the rest of the year. Thus it is customary to celebrate this day in the company of friends and family. The Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Year’s Day brings luck. This is because it is ring shaped, and any food in the shape of a ring shows that you have come full circle. In some villages in Scotland, barrels of tar [...]
NAINITAL – SCINTILLATING NATURAL BEAUTY
December 30th, 2007 Tejinder The Nainital tourist district is the pride of the Kumaon region in Uttaranchal. While there are many other places equally beautiful, Nainital is certainly the most popular tourist destination in Kumaon. It’s a pleasant hill station. For tourists looking for hustle and bustle the best time to go is the summer months when a lot of traffic ascends from Delhi and the plains. The town gets equally crowded during the September/ October season which coincides with the Diwali and Puja holidays. However, like most hill resorts, it has its quite periods too. During the winter, Nainital is quite another beautiful experience when it reverts back to the local population and the crowds are absent. Peaceful, open and invigorating. In Indian mythology, Nainital is regarded as one of the 64 “Shakti Peeths”. Legend has it that a grief stricken Lord Shiva was carrying Sati’s body and one of her eyes fell here. The Nainital Lake is shaped like an-eye and the town derived its name from the combination of Nain (eye) and Tal (lake). The Naina Devi temple is located at one end of the lake. The place lay undisturbed till an English businessman chanced upon the location while hunting. The businessman, Mr. Barron, a sugar trader got enamoured of the place and decided to start a settlement on the side of the pristine lake. The British had occupied the area in 1815 and the first recorded reference to the township can be found in a journal entry in 1841 in ‘Englishman Calcutta’ which mentions a lake being discovered in the area. The English settlement soon had lovely cottages on the hillsides around the lake. Sometime later, a number of wealthy Indian families from the old town of Almora shifted to Nainital and the town flourished. Nainital was, at one time, the summer capital of Uttar Pradesh. PLACES OF TOURIST INTEREST: LAKES: Nainital has several lakes close by- Bhimtal, Sattal, Naukuchiatal, Khurpatal, Malwatal, Harishtal and Lokhamtal. SAT TAL (seven lakes) is 22 km from Nainital. Bhimtal is close by, almost the same distance from Nainital. Close to Bhimtal, 4 kms away is NAUKUTCHIATAL. GUFA MAHADEV AND SEPOYDHARA: If you are not afraid of ascending and descending a hill you can enjoy Sepoydhara very well. Placed at an altitude of 6000 ft. one has to descend for 200 ft from the motor road. There is a natural spring pouring out [...]
STOCK MARKET: BEARS’ FEAR EXAGGERATED
December 30th, 2007 Deepak STOCK MARKET: BEARS’ FEAR EXAGGERATED Now that the markets have accepted the P-Note norms fairly positively and appear to have moved on, the question is what happens in the interim, till P-Note users and sub-accounts get registered. One view is that the market becomes extremely range bound and lacklustre as flows dry up. Some believe that volatility may rise as trading volumes dry up. However, here is an alternative picture. Wire money online to India with Xoom.com for as low as $4.99. The basic assumption has to be that fundamentals remain intact. Earnings remain fine, no mid-term elections are called in the next two months and no sharp global meltdown happens. In such a steady state, let us discuss a somewhat different technical picture. Yes, hedge funds will not buy much in this period till they get clarity on the ‘regulated’ clause. It is suspected that their freeze is on. But equally they are not likely to sell anything. They are not required to, just yet and why would they want to sell down their only holdings in a market where they cannot buy any more, at least for the moment. Generally speaking, there may not be much by way of selling in Indian stocks from FIIs now, as it is a scarce commodity which a lot of hungry people do not have access to. So we have a market which does not expect much selling and probably would see pent up buying in a bunched fashion when the registrations actually come through from SEBI. In such a scenario, domestic HNIs, operators and corporate investors may want to buy and hold, if only to front run this expected FII rush a couple of months down the line. Thus, despite a marked slowdown in hedge fund buying, the market technicals may not be so unsupportive, particularly if there are no fundamental setbacks. Over a period of time though, ‘overseas’ versions of stocks will gain currency. ADRs will see more appetite, their premiums would increase. Part of the futures action will shift to the Singapore-based SGX, the dollar denominated Nifty futures. Over time, many firms may find ADRs and GDRs even more attractive as any foreign investor can access them with ease. To that extent, a part of our capital market will be ‘exported’. To avoid this, the only way is to take entry procedures to the next level, which is to [...]
PLAY MORE TO SHARPEN YOUR MIND
December 29th, 2007 Tejinder A concerted effort is being made by Kreeda, an organisation in Chennai, to revive the traditional games of India so that they do not die out. Through such efforts, Kreeda also hopes to give children and adults an alternative to electronic entertainment and a means to bond, while also exploring ways to use such games to teach, impart life skills and facilitate corporate training. The Kreeda team is leaving no stone unturned in its initiative to research, document, revive and popularise traditional Indian games among today’s youngsters, which it sees as the ‘make or break generation’. “If the children and young adults of today do not become aware of these games and realise their manifold values, there is a real possibility that they will be lost forever,” says Vinita Siddhartha ( 40), the promoter and brain behind Kreeda (meaning ‘play’ in Sanskrit). Games that have got a new lease of life due to this initiative include Pallanguzhi (cup and shell); Paramapadam (steps to the highest place); and Adu Puli Attam (goat and tiger). While the first game involves moving shells or stones from one ‘cup’ to another in a wooden frame and improves motor skills, the second is a board game in which a dice is rolled and players progress to the higher numbers. This game has proved valuable in teaching mathematics. The third-Adu Puli Attam-is a strategy game, needing skill, concentration, analysis, anticipation and planning. In this game, the opponents’ strength has to be assessed and both defensive and offensive tactics have to be employed. It can be played by two people or two teams. According to the rules, the tigers have to kill the goats, while the goats have to encircle their predators. Interestingly, Adu Puli Attam is popular with corporate houses during training sessions. The Principal, Mahatma Gandhi School, Madurai, says that at her school they use Paramapadam and Pallanguzhi to teach mathematics to children between the first and the eighth grade. “Apart from simple arithmetic, complex concepts like fractions, integers and even probability can be picked up,” says Kreeda’s Vinita. In a bid to ensure that the games become a part of mainstream teaching, the school authorities recently organised a workshop for teachers. The workshop focused on using traditional games for making class work enjoyable. The school also held a carnival for children and grandparents with the theme, ‘Forgotten Games’, in order to help them bond. [...]
EKA: India’s Super Computer
December 29th, 2007 Deepak EKA: India’s Super Computer It is indeed a proud moment for India as Tata’s Eka supercomputer has made a spectacular entry as the most powerful computer in Asia. It has also been ranked as the fourth fastest in the world in the Top 500 ranking of supercomputers. What exactly is a supercomputer, you might well ask. Well, it is a computer that works at many times the speed of normal computer and has immense power compared to the normal computers that we see. The main use of supercomputers is to perform highly calculation-intensive tasks. They would include problems involving quantum physics, analysing data to forecast weather, research on climate and global warming, molecular modelling, etc. No wonder such computers are to be seen at top universities, or with the defence services, or at research laboratories. In fact, the Top500 list is released twice a year by the University of Tennessee, USA; Mannheim University, Germany, and at NERSC Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory which together rank supercomputers worldwide. The test is based on the well respected Linpack N*N Benchmark, which checks processor speed and scalability. The computer was built by Tata engineers at the Computational Research Laboratories (CRL) in Pune. It cost Rs 118.11 crore ($30million). The supercomputer was designed by Tata engineers and built with off-the-rack hardware sourced from Hewlett Packard that helped keep the cost of the supercomputer relatively low. Eka performs at 120 teraflops (trillion floating point calculations). The speed of floating point operations, or FLOPS, is of significance in scientific calculations, since it involves numbers with a floating or decimal point. The top supercomputer, IBM’s Blue Gene/L, which has been installed in the US, beat others by a tremendous margin; it was almost three times faster than any other machine and four times faster than Eka. It performed at 478.2 teraflops. While American supercomputers have dominated the world, now there is a change in the pecking order, and India’s entry into the elite list is a matter of considerable significance. Of course, a computer is only useful if it has applications that harness its power productively. It is here that Tata’s software muscle comes into play. CRL has said it is developing applications in as diverse areas as neural simulation, molecular simulation, computational fluid dynamics and crash simulation. S. Ramadorai, Chairman, CRL, highlighted the role of the system in earthquake and Tsunami modelling, as well as its usage [...]
A SUMPTUOUS NEW YEAR
December 28th, 2007 Tejinder Spanish Chicken Casserole INGREDIENTS: 900 gm diced, boneless chicken ¼ cup olive oil 2 medium onions, sliced 4 garlic cloves, crushed 1 tbsp ground cumin 1 ½ tbsp grated ginger 200 gm each, carrots and beans, chopped into chunks 2 cups, diced red and yellow peppers Salt and pepper to taste 2-3 tbsp dry white wine (optional) 2 ½ tbsp cornflour METHOD: Preheat the oven to 180°C. Using half the oil; fry the chicken in one or two batchestill sealed but not fully cooked. Drain and transfer to an ovenproof casserole. Add more oil to the pan and sauté the onion and garlic until softened. Add ginger and stir for a few le minutes, followed by the carrots and beans. After tossing briefly, add the peppers and fry for a further 2 minutes. Remove the vegetables and place over the chicken pieces in the casserole. Pour 2 cups of water and the wine (if using), into the pan. Season lightly and thicken with cornflour, already RICH FRUIT CAKE INGREDIENTS: 450 gm currants 175 gm each, raisins & sultanas 50 gm each, glace-cherries & mixed peel 3/4 cup brandy 225 gm maida 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg 1/2 tsp mixed spice 225 gm butter 225 gm sugar 1 tsp vanilla 4 eggs, beaten 50 gm chopped almonds 1 ½ -2 tbsp milk Grated rind of 1 lemon & 1 orange METHOD: Chop all the dried fruits and peel and soak in brandy for at least 12 hours.(A longer soak will not hurt). Remove onto a paper towel. Grease and line an 8-inch round cake tin with brown paper. Tie a band of brown paper round the outside of the cake-tin to protect the peripheral area of cake from getting scorched. Sift together the flour, salt, nutmeg, vanilla and· spices.’ Sprinkle a little of the flour into the drained and dried fruit and toss together till evenly coated. Beat the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy and add the eggs, a little at a time with the beater still on. Gently fold in the flour and spices. Stir in the dried fruit, peel and the grated rind, swirling in the milk, only to achieve a dropping consistency. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, spreading out evenly so that there are no air pockets. Bake in the lower shelf of a pre-heated oven at 140/275F for [...]
THE DOLLAR IN DECLINE
December 28th, 2007 Kareena THE DOLLAR IN DECLINE For a quarter-century after World War IT, money was based on a loose version of the gold standard. The U.S. dollar was pegged to gold; other currencies were pegged to the dollar; stable prices underpinned the prosperity and soaring trade of the 1950s and 1960s. Then in 1971 Richard Nixon balked at the high interest rates necessary to maintain the dollar’s link to gold. For the rest of the decade, inflation ripped. The cure, starting in 1979, involved two recessions in the United States and the Third World debt crisis. Wire money online to India with Xoom.com for as low as $4.99. Now we face another potential watershed in the world’s system of money. Since the breaking of the gold link, the dollar has become the world’s primary measure of value, so much so that bank deposits in Uruguay and bribes paid in Russia are mostly denominated in dollars. But the dollar, like the gold standard before it, is under pressure. Last week even Giselle Bundchen, the world’s top supermodel, was reported to be steering clear of greenbacks. Inflation was the cause of the gold standard’s collapse as well as its main consequence. As long as the dollar was convertible, investors could choose between owning one dollar and owning one-35th of an ounce of gold; when inflation eroded the greenback’s. Inflation was the cause of the gold standard’s collapse as well as its main consequence. As long as the dollar was convertible, investors could choose between owning one dollar and owning one-35th of an ounce of gold; when inflation eroded the greenback’s purchasing power, gold was the more attractive option. Foreigners traded in their dollars until U.S. gold stocks were close to exhaustion. Higher U.S. interest rates could have lured foreigners back into dollars. But Nixon wouldn’t tolerate high rates the year before an election. Today’s problem is different. The US Federal Reserve Bank has kept a lid on inflation, but the dollar’s vulnerability is caused by debt – the debt of the federal government and of American households. Year after year, foreigners have provided Americans with the savings that they refuse to generate themselves, and this stream of money has supported the U.S. currency. But if foreigners tire of handing over their savings, the unsupported dollar is almost bound to fall. That is what has happened recently. You can hardly blame the foreigners. They sent [...]
NEW YEAR BASH: WHERE & WHY?
December 27th, 2007 Tejinder There is something about new beginnings, something about ushering in the New Year with family and friends in one’s own special way. Shake a leg, throw a party, guzzle on a heady concoction, and turn a gourmet. Some make prior bookings for a cosy corner in a restaurant; some want it to be an action-packed affair with a celebrated singer performing or a DJ belting out the music for the night. Some sit at home, cook up a nice meal, have their share of entertainment while flipping TV channels.“ I have plans to spend a cosy New Year eve at home. I have been out on an educational tour for many days and now, I am looking forward to be with my daughter. We will be organizing a rocking party at our home with friends coming over, with bonfire, barbeque and music spicing things up”, a friend of mine said. “We have been blessed with a son, so we intend to stay home and we expect some friends come over and we plan to have a barbeque, drinks and later, cut a cake. Following which, we may go for a geri (stroll) of the town and may stop over at some cafe”, said Gurpreet, one of my colleagues. Rajesh Garg, an interior designer, is planning a cosy rendezvous with his wife: “This time, we plan to take off to an uphill destination. It will either be Timber Trail or Koti Resorts, as there are some interesting packages that the resorts have to make for three days and two nights. It’s inclusive of meals, accommodation and the NY party. Though it may sound unfair on our part to leave our kids with their grandparents, but once in a while it’s okay”. Being members, some always keep our date with their Clubs on New Year’s. “This time, its Gurdas Maan performing is performing here in Chandigarh club, so all the more reason to go! Also, if some friends invite us over, we’d definitely be honouring, the invitation. It’s a good idea to keep ourselves in an active mode. Come on, sitting at home on New Year’s Eve is the most boring thing to do”- this is how a party freak said “It is my husband’s B’day after all. So for us, it should be an eventful day. We would be taking some friends out for dinner we have yet to decide on [...]
RELIGIONS IN INDIA
December 27th, 2007 Deepak RELIGIONS IN INDIA The land of spirituality and philosophy, India is the birthplace of some religions, which even exist today in the world. Hinduism is the most dominant religion in India today. About 80% of Indians are Hindus. Hinduism is a colorful religion with a vast gallery of Gods and Goddesses. Hinduism is one of the ancient religions in the world. It is supposed to have developed about 5000 years ago. Later on in ancient period other religions developed in India. Buddhism and Jainism developed around 500 BC in India. Today only about 0.5% of Indians are Jains and about 0.7% are Buddhist. In ancient times Jainism and specially Buddhism were very popular in India. Indians who accepted Buddhist philosophy spread it not only within the Indian sub-continent but also to kingdoms east and south of India. These three ancient religions, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, are seen as the molders of the India philosophy. In ‘modern’ period new religions were also established in India. Sikhism is comparatively new religion in India. It was established in the 15th century. About 2% of Indians are Sikhs. There were other attempts to create new religions in India but they did not always succeed. For example, a Moghul emperor, Akbar, who reigned between 1556 – 1605, tried to establish a new religion, Din- E- Elahi, but it did not survive. There are other religious philosophies whose believers see themselves as a separate religion, but they do not always get this recognition. For example Lingayat of south India see themselves as a different religion, while others see them as a sect of Hinduism. There are also some tribal communities who demand to be recognized as separate religion from Hinduism. In the 19th century some Hindu reformers tried to remodel Hinduism to adjust it to modern period. Along with the religions that developed in India, there are followers of non- Indian religions. The largest non-Indian religion is Islam. They are about 12% of India’s population. Christians are more then 2% of India’s population. There are also Zoroastrians who even though make less then 0.01% of India’s population, are known around India. There are also a few thousand Jews in India. Judaism and Christianity might have arrived in India before they arrived in Europe. The Jews of India aren’t one singular community. Among themselves they are divided into different communities. Each community has its own different culture, [...]
