Inflation has led to payment pressure which in turn has increased debt burden. People have to now cut their expenditures in different areas rather in some instances, to manage their position with the available funds; some have changed lifestyles as well. Credit counseling, thought not very popular is the need of hour to handle situation in a profitable manner. Wire money online to India with Xoom.com for as low as $4.99. If an individual has taken or is planning to take a debt burden, the process of explaining the impact of this burden is called Credit counseling. An individual is also explained the ways to address the debt burden and is showed a path to come out of it. Regular interaction to understand an individual’s position and to gain his confidence to assure the required steps are taken is the key to the success of credit counseling. Debt, asking for regular service, is always a problem if it is unmanageable. In tough financial state, it often becomes hard to cope with the interest and repayments. Restructuring or changing of debt is required in such situations, to ensure the funds being placed and employed effectively. It also means starting a new debt to close the existing one. Spending everything what is earned often makes financial state extremely tight as there is no margin for error if budget is planned in such a way. There is no backup in case something goes wrong. This results into postponing or sacrificing planned requirements to meet the contingency need. It is always wise to keep a margin in the budget for any immediate requirements. The position varies from individual to individual according to the circumstances that affect him/her, thus every case in credit counseling is unique and is seen in different light altogether. Proper understanding of the situation, helps in extending a helping hand to an individual to set things right and to get back on the track of financial adequacy.
Archive for April, 2008
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Realty India -Challenges Ahead
April 20th, 2008 
Tejinder Listing of real estate companies has brought a turnaround in the business and towards the perception about the sector. It has, for the first time highlighted the challenges the sector is facing. The urban planning is one of the major concerns this sector has to deal with. Economic growth forcing infrastructural development is an imperative. Reforms are required in Land acquisition because of saturation of good land bank in metros. Wire money online to India with Xoom.com for as low as $4.99. Real estate finance growth is for sure in terms of public and private equity and debt. High net worth individuals, mutual funds, close ended and PE funds, leads the markets currently in private equity space. Entry of global players in collaboration with national players in the industry may result in landscape change. Success in the emerging market bet on emerging trends and defining strategies accordingly.Urbanization today is driven by educated, professional workforce joined by rise in the middle class with higher disposable income, which is favouring the Indian developers. This would be the prime factor for a boom in the sector in year 2008. With nearly double digit growth in its GDP, India has an edge over other developing countries. All we need now is flexible government policies and reforms in the sector to offer an affordable housing in the country. With a growth of over 8% in the last two years and an anticipated growth of over 7% in the coming 5 years, India being world’s fourth largest economy promises the demand of real estate outdistance the supply of real estate in all the major economic hubs of the country. There is a paradigm shift in terms of growth in real estate in metro cities. This boom would continue to gallop the Tier II and Tier III cities also, which would make them first preference of the realty players. Over 150 million sq. ft space would be required by IT & ITeS by the end of 2010. With retail industry getting organized an additional 220 million sq. ft space would be required by then. Looking at the promising opportunities in the sectors international players and foreign direct investments inflow has been estimated over US $6 billion. Developers are no more local players now, rather called as Pan India players, they have operations in all infrastructure verticals which has made Indian real estate sector one of the [...]
KNOW THE GAME-IPL_T20
April 19th, 2008 Tejinder It was fast batting this time coupled with bowling which helped KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS defeat BANGALORE ROYAL CHALLANGERS……easily. This opening match of cricket’s richest tournament ever played ($2bn) got a breathtaking start with fireworks and lasers in the sky; acrobats, rockers, dancers and cheerleaders on the ground. One thing which I think everyone forget to look at is the rule book which I am sure would surprise the players and the viewers equally since this new format of the game has some strange rules clubbed with it. Have a look: 8-MINUTE RULE: If the player is absent from the field for longer than 8 minutes, he shall not be permitted to bowl in that innings after his return until he has been on the field for at least that length of playing time for which he was absent. He shall also not be permitted to bat unless or until, he has returned to the field and/or his side’s innings has been in progress for at least that length of playing time for which he has been absent or, if earlier, when his side has lost five wickets. There are some exceptions to this rule. LIMITED OVERS: No bowler shall bowl more than 4 overs in an innings. PRE MATURE MATCHES: If the innings of the side batting second is suspended (with at least 5 overs bowled) and it is not possible for the match to be resumed, the match will be decided by the Duckworth-Lewis method “Par Score” determined at the instant of the suspension by the Duckworth-Lewis method. If the score is equal to the par score, the match is a Tie. Otherwise the result is a victory or defeat, by the margin of runs by which the score exceeds, or falls short of the Par Score. NO BALL-FREE HIT: The delivery following a no ball called for a foot fault shall be a free hit for whichever batsman is facing it. For any free hit, the striker can be dismissed only under the circumstances that apply for a no ball (run out) even if the delivery for the free hit is called wide ball. Field changes are not permitted for free hit deliveries unless there is a change of striker. TIMED OUT: If the incoming batsman has not taken guard to receive the next ball within 1 minute 30 seconds of the fall of the previous wicket, [...]
IPL-Will it Discourage Indian Cricket Fans?
April 17th, 2008 Tejinder Cricket has evolved from an all white five day game to one-day game. It then transformed a part of it to the day and night games giving huge relief to the viewers and the players of course. Time changed and the whites were replaced by different colors on the field. With changing pace of the human thought and belief and to bring more excitement in the game a new format was introduced in the form of T20. All this happened in just a few decades. It may be called as evolution or degeneration, according to the viewpoint you hold, there is no denying of the fact that the game gained popularity, excitement and of course money. Asian countries, particularly India & Pakistan have a huge population which considers Cricket as religion. This is the only factor that India Inc bank upon the crickets the most. It also has impacted the other sports in India though one may not agree largely on this. Here comes IPL with yet another form of the game- on the lines of English Premier League, though the idea was first materialized by Subhash Chandra led ZEE group when they introduced ICL last year. Was it successful or not that’s a different story. With imported (Hollywood style) cheerleaders, dancing to the tunes of Bollywood, Stars from Bollywood and India Inc joining in the crazy Indian cricket fans, Bangalore is all set to kick-off the IPL- an Indian version of T20 Cricket. In the next one and a half month approximately, IPL with a taste of Bollywood masala in it is going to present the most sought after gamble that would land the big tycoons from different industries, who have spent billions to have the teams and players of their choice, in sea. It may also have a positive outcome that may change the entire outlook of the game of cricket all over the world. In an attempt to make it a look alike of professional sports models of baseball, basketball and football, IPL would try to switch the loyalty of an Indian cricket fan. Tendulkar bowled out by Brett Lee is never enjoyed in India at large, which may not be the case this time. As it happened in PHL, a Pakistani player beating Indian goalkeeper would result into CHAK DE, which no longer is the case. . Has BCCI given birth to BHASMASURA, who may [...]
Its not easy to light Olympic Torch this time!
April 16th, 2008 Tejinder As the Olympic torch coming closer to complete its Indian leg, the series of protest, back-outs, unfoiling of plots to disrupt the relay as expected are coming true. As more than 100 activists supporting Tibet cause, under the leadership of TIBETIAN YOUTH CONGRESS, tried to intrude into the CHINESE embassy in New Delhi today. Shouting and holding banners reading messages like “Free Tibet”, “Stop cultural genocide”, and “No Olympics in China”, the protestors also shouted HU JINTAO MURDABAD ( down with Hu Jintao). A timely action from Delhi police though nipped it in the bud. Indian government has deployed more than 15000 policemen and personnel from Para Military forces to avoid any incident which disrupted the Olympic relay in London and Paris. The two-kilometer route of the relay has been turned into a highly protected area. In an effort to avoid leaving no stone unturned for the safe completion of the DELHI-LEG of the Olympic torch relay, the government has cancelled the participation of over 2200 school children, for security reason, which was planned otherwise. Security agencies are on high alert to arrest any attempt to disrupt the relay. In a significant development, THE INTELLIGENCE BUREAU has sent an alert about a few Chinese nationals who are in the capital to pose threat to the torch. More importantly, their names, hideouts, modus operandi and above all photographs have been identified and issued. They are suspected to have entered from Nepal to India. The Chinese government is equally worried about the relay and is in constant touch with its Indian counterpart. At home, after Bhaichung Bhutia- national football captain, Kiran Bedi- first female IPS offices, M. S. Gill- former election commissioner and sitting Sports Minister, Soha Ali Khan- Bollywood actress, it is Sachin Tendulkar who would be missing from the relay. Though his reason is fitness related, it is suspected that the Indian Olympic Association was not taken into confidence while taking this decision. Gill also advocated that only the athletes and sportspersons should run in the Olympic relay, giving birth to yet another controversy, though in mild tone. The torch, currently completing its Pakistan-leg would be in Delhi late tonight. Looking at what happened in London and Paris, it would be an acid test for the Indian authorities.
MNS IN WNS
April 12th, 2008 Tejinder For the first time, labour strife could be creeping into parts of India’s outsourcing industry. WNS Global Services, one of India’s biggest BPO experienced this first hand at its Nasik unit when a section of workers protested over pay earlier this week and approached local politicians to help them. Till now, attempts to unionize employees in the BPO industry have not been notably successful. While the Nasik matter has now been resolved, independent local sources in Nasik said the employees stayed away from work for two days and returned to work after repeated assurances from the management. Yearly earning from the BPO industry is estimated at $11 billion for 07-08. A WNS spokesperson denied there was a strike at the Nasik centre, but admitted some workers were asking for payment of additional bonus and that it was in talks with them. “In October 2007the Government of India passed a notification which required the industry to retrospectively change its bonus payout for employees from April 1 2006. We have complied with this notification and paid bonuses accordingly. On account of additional payment of statutory bonus payouts, for that period, among certain high performing and average performing employees of WNS has reduced. As a result, some of our employees were asking for payment of additional bonus over and above statutory/ performance incentive bonus for the year 2006-07, we are in active discussion with these employees and hope to resolve the issue soon”, said a spokesperson of WNS. The local unit of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena appears to have played a minor role in the matter. The MNS says some workers sought its help to resolve a bonus pay dispute with WNS management, while the company maintains its employees were just holding talks with it for more money. `The disgruntled employees did approach our two local corporators citing problems with the company’s management. But before we could come into the picture, the problem was resolved, Ashok Chandak, general secretary for the Nasik unit of MNS. However, in contrast to recent agitations by the party headed by Raj Thackeray, the worker strife at WNS did not have a “Marathi” angle and was only about bonus payment.
THE OLYMPIC TORCH ROUTE CURTAILED
April 10th, 2008 krishna Giving in to Chinese concerns regarding the security of the Olympic torch during its relay here, the Union home ministry and the Indian Olympics Association (IOA) have agreed to curtail the relay route to the high-security stretch of Rajpath. The torch relay – which is slated to have 80 participants in all- may start from Vijay Chowk on April 17, the scheduled day for the Delhi leg of the torch relay that would span 135 destinations world-wide, and conclude at India Gate: a run of 2-3 km. A torch-bearing ceremony is likely to be held at India Gate, for which the entire C-hexagon may be cordoned off. In other words, traffic from all the arterial roads leading to India Gate will be barred: in all possibility, from the night before April 17. The security concerns relating to the Olympic torch relay here were discussed at a review meeting chaired on Monday by Union home secretary Madhukar Gupta and attended by senior officials of the Delhi government, IOA, intelligence agencies and the Delhi Police commissioner. The participants agreed that Rajpath was a better choice as regards security and traffic management as compared to the IOA-proposed Red Fort-India Gate route, and the arrangements could be on the lines of those made for the Republic Day and Beating Retreat. Earlier, at a press conference in February to announce Delhi’s selection for hosting the India leg of the Beijing torch relay – Mumbai lost out due to logistical and security considerations IOA chairman Suresh Kalmadi had unveiled plans for a much longer route from Red Fort to India Gate. However, with Beijing expressing its concerns regarding the security of the torch in the wake of a few Tibetan protesters scaling the wall of the Chinese embassy – it even threatened to call off the Delhi leg if the Tibetan protests got uglier – the MHA felt that Rajpath was a better route in terms of security management as well as traffic management. “The torch relay is a major occasion: like any other international event, we must ensure that it passes off smoothly…that is why I held this review meeting….the finer details will be worked out between the Delhi government and the IOA,” Mr. Gupta told. He also hinted that once the details are worked out, “I might hold another review meeting.” The review of the logistical details for the Olympic torch relay – which [...]
SIXTH PAY COMMISSION: RIGHT OR WRONG?
April 10th, 2008 krishna People at the top of government get paid two or three times less than they should and people at the bottom of government get paid three or four times more than they should. There is no real system to reward or punish a good or bad job, we have too many people in government, and about 75% of compensation is not salary. Unfortunately most of this will be true even after the sixth pay commission is implemented. Wire money online to India with Xoom.com for as low as $4.99. Any vibrant organisation (private, public or non-profit) knows that the sure path to mediocrity is a performance management system that does not create differentiation or what Alexis de Tocqueville called the “fear of falling and hope of rising”. The lack of a credible system to punish and reward performance means that year of joining is the primary metric for promotions. This may be objective but has lower predictive efficacy than palm reacting. I often fought with my “1964″ civil servant father when he identified people by their joining year; one argued that decades of service must throw up more relevant information. I gave up fighting when he explained that, within a batch, the criteria for getting the plum posts dose to retirement was your rank in the entry test over thirty years ago! The weak incentive pay attempt is no substitute for robust evaluations that accelerate performers and must precede private benchmarking. The labour market distortion by high wages at lower levels (Group C & D that are 88% of employees) will get more acute. A friend and former consultant to the ministry of finance recently ran into his old driver and asked him how things were. The driver said not good because he had been assigned to a joint Secretary who was not nice. So he had outsourced his job; the government pays a driver perhaps four times higher than the public market price of a driver. My friend’s ex-driver recruited a driver from the public market, sent him in to work every day in his place, and pocketed a neat profit off the wage differential (even after the money paid to the payroll department to keep quiet). This applies equally to government teachers, nurses, peons, stenos, etc. We needed salary rationalisation but got a minimum government salary including benefits that is about five times minimum wages. Recognising the [...]
PICTURE THIS: KHUDA KE LIYE
April 10th, 2008 krishna If you were fond of movies and were there in 1965, you will probably remember the year as being an especially happy one. Vijay Anand’s Guide, starring Dev Anand, had been released to box-office and critical success. Satyajit Ray had been conferred the Silver Bear for Best Direction at the Berlin Film Festival for his 1964 film Charulata. On the more ‘popular’ side, Mehmood’s Bhut Bungla saw the legendary songwriter-singer duo of Rahul Dev Burman and Kishore Kumar team up for the first time. Perhaps less memorable, if you were a filmi fan, would be the fact that after September 6, 1965, when war between India and Pakistan broke out, an official ban was Imposed between the two neighbours on each other’s movies. So despite its runaway success in the Punjab, the M.J. Rana Pakistani-Punjabi blockbuster Jeedar would not be seen in Punjab on the other side of the border. The ban remained in place till Friday, when Khuda Kay Liye, directed by Shoaib Mansoor became the first Pakistani film to be shown in Indian cinemas in the last 43 years. ‘Soft diplomacy’ – through films or sports or any other form of entertainment – does not necessarily amount to two non-neighbourly neighbours to become jigri dosts. But it does not make sense either to impose an ‘artificial’ prohibition on cultural exchanges when a certain thaw between the people of the two countries is there for all to see. In 1987, ‘cricket diplomacy’ between India and Pakistan saw President Zia-ul-Haq never quite New Delhi’s favorite, come across to Jaipur to watch one of the matches in the India-Pakistan series. This was also a time when Pakistani TV soap operas were in demand for Indian VCR-owners and were readily available in unofficial ‘recorded’ tapes. The story of Indian ‘Bombay’ movies being all the rage in Pakistan is quite well known by dint of the country’s thriving pirated DVDs today. So in a way, it is a no-brainer that Khuda Kay Liye – starring Pakistani stars Shan and Iman Ali and India’s Naseeruddin Shah – should have (and would have) passed cross-border considerations – especially with Pakistan recently easing its earlier ban on Indian films played in Pakistani cinemas. The film itself, a tale of a struggle between moderate Muslims who ‘keep their faith’ and post-9/11 forces that see them with grave suspicion, has been a huge hit in Pakistan. With a [...]
BAISAKHI : culturally
April 10th, 2008 Tejinder In Punjab and some adjoining states, BAISAKHI is one of the most enthusiastically celebrated festivals. It falls on the first day of BAISAKH which is also the first day of the new year of the VIKRAM SAMVAT which makes it all the more auspicious. This day corresponds to 13th April. Wheat being a staple crop of Punjab, it is the wealth, the measure of economic prosperity, the life and soul of the Punjabi farmers, who regard it as a gift from benevolent Nature. Baisakhi is by when the wheat crop is ripened and harvested. This ends the day and night vigil of the fields. Now it’s time for fun and frolic. BHANRAS are danced by boys and young men and GIDDA and PHOOHI by girls and young brides. Baisakhi melas are held in villages and small towns. With the money in their pockets after reaping a bumper crop, a farmer goes for new clothes, utensils and other household goods are bought. But during all this jubilation our farmers do not forget benevolent Nature. Though not always well-read, they understand the vedantic concept of the tripod of existence: ATMA (soul), PARMATMA (god) and PRAKRITI (nature). They know that good crops are a gift from nature- rains, sunshine and other favourable weather conditions at different stages of growth are essential for a bumper crop. YAGNAS and special ARDAS are performed to please the weather gods. However, if they do not get the desired weather conditions they do not curse nature but attribute it to their KARMAS (deeds). Four grain- bearing stems of the auspicious wheat plants are brought to the house. Often a thread with wheat stalks is hung above the main door. This is the English rendering of a Punjabi song sung about Baisakhi: “The wheat crop has ripened Mango trees are laden with small flowers which will grow into juicy fruits then the branches bearing the fruits will not stand tall and haughty but will bend down in all humility to offer their juicy elixir to the people how gracious is Nature”.
