Vikram Pinto's Blog
May 14, 2015
Art as Experience
(excerpted from the essay Art as Experience by John Dewey)
Science states meanings; art expresses them. Matisse said that the camera was a great boon to painters, since it relieved them from any appartent necessity of copying objects. Every work of art has a particular medium by which, among other things, the qualitative pervasive whole is carried. In every experience we touch, the world through some particular tentacle; we carry on our intercourse with it, it comes thome to us, through as specialized organ. The entire organism with all it´s charge of the past and varied resources operates through a particular medium, that of eye, as it interacts with the eye, ear, and touch. The fine arts lay hold of this fact and push it to its maximum of significance. Photographs to primitive folk have, so it is said, a fearful magical quality. It is uncanny that solid and living things should be thus presented. To one who is not rendered callous by common contact with pictorial representations there is still something miraculous in the power of a contracted, flat, uniform thing to depict the wide and diversified universe of animate and inanimate things. ´Medium´in fine art denotes the fact that this specialization and individualization of a particular organ of experience is carried to the point wherein all its possibilities are exploited. Medium first of all signifies an intermediary. They are the middle, the intervening, things though which something now remote is brought to pass. Sensitivity to a medium as a medium is the very heart of all artistic creation and esthetic perception. When, for example, paintings are looked at as illustrations of historical scenes, of literature, of familiar scenes, they are not perceived in terms of their media. Analysis of the former becomes a substitute for enjoyment of the latter.
Physcially, a brush and the movement of the hand in applying color to canvas are external to painting. Not so artistically. The difference between external and intrinsic operations runs through all the affairs of life. One student studies to pass an examination, to get a promotion. To another, the means, the activity of learning, is completely one with what results from it. The consequence, instruction, illumination, is one with the process. Sometimes we journey to get somewhere else because we have business at the latter point and would gladly, were it possible, cut out the travelling. At other times we journey for the delight of moving about and securing what we see. Means and end coalesce.
The artist embodies in himself the attitude of the perceiver while he works. To say that a work of art is or is not representative is meaningless. It is absurd to ask what an artist really meant by his product; he himself would find different meanings in it at different days and hours and in different stages of his own development. If he could articulate, he would say Í meant just that, and that means whatever you or any one can honestly, that is in virtue of your own vital experience, get our of it.´ Craftsmanship to be artisitc in the final sense must be ´loving.´It must care deeply for the subject matter upon which skill is exercised
By one of the ironic perversities that often attend the couse of affairs, the existence of the works of art upon which formation of an esthetic theorry depends has become an obstruction to theory about them. For one reason, these works are products that exist externally and physically. In common conception, the work of art is often indentified with the building, booking, painting, or statue in its existence apart from the human experience. When an art product once attains classic status, it somehow becomes isolated from the human conditions under which it was brought into being and from the human consequences it engenders in actual life-experience. When artistic objects are separated from both conditions of origin and operation in experience, a wall is built around them that renders almost opaque their general significance, with which esthetic theory deals. In all ranges of experience, externality of means defines the mechanical. A large part of popular revulsion against utilitarianism in moral theory is because of its exaggeration of sheer calculation.
Under conditions of resistance and conflict, aspects and elements of the self and the world that are implicated in this interaction qualify experience with emotions and ideas so that conscious intent emerges. An actual poem is a succession of experiences - sounds, images, thought - through which we pass when we read a poem. And it is also true that it exists in unnumerale qualities or kinds, no two readers having exactly the same experience.
Art denotes a process of doing or making. This is as true of fine as of technological art. Art involves a molding of clay, chipping of marble, casting of bronze, laying on of pigments, construction of buildings, singing of songs, playing of instruments, enacting roles on the stage, going through rhythmic movements in the dance. Every art does something with some physical material, the body or something outside the body, with or without the use of intervening tools, and with a view to productions of something visible, audible, or tangible. So marked is the active or ´doing´ phase of art, that the dictionaries usually define it in terms of skilled action, ability in execution.
.
To have form marks a way of envisaging, of feeling, and of presenting experienced matter so that it most readily and effectively becomes material for the construction of adequate experience on the part of those less gifted than the original creator.
When past and present fit exactly into one another, when there is only recurrence, complete uniformity, the resulting experience is routine and mechanical; it does not come to consciousness in perception. The inertia of habit overrised adaption of the meaningt of the here and now with that of experiences, without which there is no consciousness, the imaginative phase of experience. Unless the sense were immediate, we would have no guide to our reflection. The sense of an extensive and underlying whole is the context of every experience and it is the essence of sanity. For the mad, the insane, thing to us is that which is torn from the common context and which stands alone and isolated, as anything must which occurs in a world totally different from ours. Without an indeterminate and undetermined setting, the material of any experience is incoherent. Steam did the physical work and produced the consequences that attend any expanding gas under definite physical conditions. The sole difference is that the conditions under which it operates have been arranged by human contrivance.The work of art however, unlike the machine, is not only the outcome of imagination, but operates imaginatively rather than in the realm of physical existences.
The uniqueness of esthetic experience is a challenge to thought, in particular the systematic thought called philosophy, for esthetic experience is experience in it´s integrity - experience freed from the forces that impede and confuse it´s development as experience; freed from factors that subordinate an experience as it is directly had to something beyond itself. But it is shown that the system in question has superimposed some preconceived idea upon experience instead of encouraging or even allowing estheic experience to tell its own tale.
Science states meanings; art expresses them. Matisse said that the camera was a great boon to painters, since it relieved them from any appartent necessity of copying objects. Every work of art has a particular medium by which, among other things, the qualitative pervasive whole is carried. In every experience we touch, the world through some particular tentacle; we carry on our intercourse with it, it comes thome to us, through as specialized organ. The entire organism with all it´s charge of the past and varied resources operates through a particular medium, that of eye, as it interacts with the eye, ear, and touch. The fine arts lay hold of this fact and push it to its maximum of significance. Photographs to primitive folk have, so it is said, a fearful magical quality. It is uncanny that solid and living things should be thus presented. To one who is not rendered callous by common contact with pictorial representations there is still something miraculous in the power of a contracted, flat, uniform thing to depict the wide and diversified universe of animate and inanimate things. ´Medium´in fine art denotes the fact that this specialization and individualization of a particular organ of experience is carried to the point wherein all its possibilities are exploited. Medium first of all signifies an intermediary. They are the middle, the intervening, things though which something now remote is brought to pass. Sensitivity to a medium as a medium is the very heart of all artistic creation and esthetic perception. When, for example, paintings are looked at as illustrations of historical scenes, of literature, of familiar scenes, they are not perceived in terms of their media. Analysis of the former becomes a substitute for enjoyment of the latter.
Physcially, a brush and the movement of the hand in applying color to canvas are external to painting. Not so artistically. The difference between external and intrinsic operations runs through all the affairs of life. One student studies to pass an examination, to get a promotion. To another, the means, the activity of learning, is completely one with what results from it. The consequence, instruction, illumination, is one with the process. Sometimes we journey to get somewhere else because we have business at the latter point and would gladly, were it possible, cut out the travelling. At other times we journey for the delight of moving about and securing what we see. Means and end coalesce.
The artist embodies in himself the attitude of the perceiver while he works. To say that a work of art is or is not representative is meaningless. It is absurd to ask what an artist really meant by his product; he himself would find different meanings in it at different days and hours and in different stages of his own development. If he could articulate, he would say Í meant just that, and that means whatever you or any one can honestly, that is in virtue of your own vital experience, get our of it.´ Craftsmanship to be artisitc in the final sense must be ´loving.´It must care deeply for the subject matter upon which skill is exercised
By one of the ironic perversities that often attend the couse of affairs, the existence of the works of art upon which formation of an esthetic theorry depends has become an obstruction to theory about them. For one reason, these works are products that exist externally and physically. In common conception, the work of art is often indentified with the building, booking, painting, or statue in its existence apart from the human experience. When an art product once attains classic status, it somehow becomes isolated from the human conditions under which it was brought into being and from the human consequences it engenders in actual life-experience. When artistic objects are separated from both conditions of origin and operation in experience, a wall is built around them that renders almost opaque their general significance, with which esthetic theory deals. In all ranges of experience, externality of means defines the mechanical. A large part of popular revulsion against utilitarianism in moral theory is because of its exaggeration of sheer calculation.
Under conditions of resistance and conflict, aspects and elements of the self and the world that are implicated in this interaction qualify experience with emotions and ideas so that conscious intent emerges. An actual poem is a succession of experiences - sounds, images, thought - through which we pass when we read a poem. And it is also true that it exists in unnumerale qualities or kinds, no two readers having exactly the same experience.
Art denotes a process of doing or making. This is as true of fine as of technological art. Art involves a molding of clay, chipping of marble, casting of bronze, laying on of pigments, construction of buildings, singing of songs, playing of instruments, enacting roles on the stage, going through rhythmic movements in the dance. Every art does something with some physical material, the body or something outside the body, with or without the use of intervening tools, and with a view to productions of something visible, audible, or tangible. So marked is the active or ´doing´ phase of art, that the dictionaries usually define it in terms of skilled action, ability in execution.
.
To have form marks a way of envisaging, of feeling, and of presenting experienced matter so that it most readily and effectively becomes material for the construction of adequate experience on the part of those less gifted than the original creator.
When past and present fit exactly into one another, when there is only recurrence, complete uniformity, the resulting experience is routine and mechanical; it does not come to consciousness in perception. The inertia of habit overrised adaption of the meaningt of the here and now with that of experiences, without which there is no consciousness, the imaginative phase of experience. Unless the sense were immediate, we would have no guide to our reflection. The sense of an extensive and underlying whole is the context of every experience and it is the essence of sanity. For the mad, the insane, thing to us is that which is torn from the common context and which stands alone and isolated, as anything must which occurs in a world totally different from ours. Without an indeterminate and undetermined setting, the material of any experience is incoherent. Steam did the physical work and produced the consequences that attend any expanding gas under definite physical conditions. The sole difference is that the conditions under which it operates have been arranged by human contrivance.The work of art however, unlike the machine, is not only the outcome of imagination, but operates imaginatively rather than in the realm of physical existences.
The uniqueness of esthetic experience is a challenge to thought, in particular the systematic thought called philosophy, for esthetic experience is experience in it´s integrity - experience freed from the forces that impede and confuse it´s development as experience; freed from factors that subordinate an experience as it is directly had to something beyond itself. But it is shown that the system in question has superimposed some preconceived idea upon experience instead of encouraging or even allowing estheic experience to tell its own tale.
April 1, 2015
Online Auctions
Firms that host auction sites perform several functions. They must communicate supply and demand orders, transform these orders into transactions and provide sufficient liquidity for the market. These intermediaries provide the infrastructure for auctions to be conducted over the Internet, provide various value added services, and serve a trusted third party who will not manipulate the auctions to anyone's advantage. The internet allows sellers and bidders to track progress in real time to search for products at a relatively low cost using software tools such as BIDXS.com (www.bidxc.xom), Auction Patrol.com www.auctionpatrol.com) and BidSpotter.com (www.bidspotter.com) With a bigger pool of bidders, online auctions make items in some sense "rarer."
The internet's computational power and flexibility have made auctions a widespread and integral part of both consumer and business markets. Auction based electronic markets best represent the changes to business inherent in e-commerce. Consumer to consumer (C2C) auctions exemplify the democratization of the internet: Anyone with an Internet connection can become a merchant, and self-regulating trust mechanisms like buyer and seller rating systems allow transactions between geographically separated strangers. The internet has expanded the space of goods for which auctions are appropriate. The larger the scale of the transaction in terms of cost and complexity, the more likely the transaction will be conducted via a negotiation process between the buyer and the seller, or via an auction.
One way to determine whether a good should be sold using an auction is to ask whether there is much to be gained through price discrimination for that good. If demand for that good is relatively inelastic, there is more to be gained from price discrimination that if demand is elastic. Inelastic demand means when price goes up or down, consumer's buying habits remain unchanged. When capacity exceeds demand, a single price scheme is optimal. For larger dispersions in the customer reservation values for the good relative to the mean valuation, auctions are more appropriate - for rare goods especially.
Priceline. com finds a taker for a price and the buyer is committed to purchasing at that price. Originally priceline.com instituted a seven-day update delay and 24 hour commitment on bids to place a significant cost on trying to collect this information. A "buy now" price is set by the seller and is a form of maximum bid. In case of products with a rapid depreciation like consumer electronics and computer equipment, long auctions can reduce the value of the product and reduce the seller's revenue.
The internet's computational power and flexibility have made auctions a widespread and integral part of both consumer and business markets. Auction based electronic markets best represent the changes to business inherent in e-commerce. Consumer to consumer (C2C) auctions exemplify the democratization of the internet: Anyone with an Internet connection can become a merchant, and self-regulating trust mechanisms like buyer and seller rating systems allow transactions between geographically separated strangers. The internet has expanded the space of goods for which auctions are appropriate. The larger the scale of the transaction in terms of cost and complexity, the more likely the transaction will be conducted via a negotiation process between the buyer and the seller, or via an auction.
One way to determine whether a good should be sold using an auction is to ask whether there is much to be gained through price discrimination for that good. If demand for that good is relatively inelastic, there is more to be gained from price discrimination that if demand is elastic. Inelastic demand means when price goes up or down, consumer's buying habits remain unchanged. When capacity exceeds demand, a single price scheme is optimal. For larger dispersions in the customer reservation values for the good relative to the mean valuation, auctions are more appropriate - for rare goods especially.
Priceline. com finds a taker for a price and the buyer is committed to purchasing at that price. Originally priceline.com instituted a seven-day update delay and 24 hour commitment on bids to place a significant cost on trying to collect this information. A "buy now" price is set by the seller and is a form of maximum bid. In case of products with a rapid depreciation like consumer electronics and computer equipment, long auctions can reduce the value of the product and reduce the seller's revenue.
March 28, 2015
Modernity
Man must constantly destroy himself in order to construct himself all over again.
Modernity is an exclusively western concept that has no equivalent in other civilizations. The reason for this lies in the view of time that is peculiar to the West, by which time is regarded as being linear, irreversible, and progressive. It refers to the typical features of modern times and to the way that these features are experienced by the individual: modernity stands for the attitude toward life that is associated with a continuous process of evolution and transformation, with an orientation toward a future that will be different from the past and from the present. It is characterized by an irreversible emergence of autonomy in the fields of science, art, and morality, which must then be developed “according to their inner logic.” On the other hand, however, modernity is also seen as a project: the final goal of the development of these various autonomous domains lies in their relevance for practice, their potential use “for the rational organization of everyday social life.”
Critical reason, by its very rigor, accentuates temporality. Nothing is permanent; reason becomes identified with change and otherness. We are ruled not by identity, with its enormous and monotonous tautologies, but by otherness and contradiction, the dizzying manifestations of criticism. In the past the goal of criticism was truth; in the modern age truth is criticism. Not an eternal truth, but the truth of change.
In the celebrated definition of Charles Baudelaire: “Modernity is the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art of which the other half is the eternal and the immutable.” Modernity provokes on all levels an aesthetics of rupture, of individual creativity and of innovation that is everywhere marked by the sociological phenomenon of the avant-garde . . . and by the increasingly more outspoken destruction of traditional forms. . . . Modernity is radicalized into momentaneous change, into a continuous traveling, and thus its meaning changes. It gradually loses each substantial value, each ethical and philosophical ideology of progress that sustained it at the outset, and it becomes an aesthetics of change for the sake of change. . . .
The counter-pastoral view is based on the idea that there is a fundamental discrepancy between economic and cultural modernity, and that neither can be achieved without conflicts and moments of fissure. It regards modernity as characterized by irreconcilable fissures and insoluble contradictions, by divisions and fragmentation, by the collapse of an integrated experience of life, and by the irreversible emergence of autonomy in various domains that are incapable of regaining their common foundation.
What makes modernity so fascinating is the relationship between all these divergent aspects - programmatic and transitory. Marshall Berman argues that for the individual the experience of modernity is characterized by a combination of programmatic and transitory elements, by an oscillation between the struggle for personal development and the nostalgia for what is irretrievably lost: “To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world and at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are.
Modernity has often been described as a condition of “homelessness.” The pluralistic structures of modern society have made the lives of more and more individuals migratory, ever-changing, mobile. In everyday life, the modern individual continuously alternates between highly discrepant and often contradictory social contexts. Not only are an increasing number of individuals in a modern society uprooted from their original social milieu, but, in addition, no succeeding milieu succeeds in becoming truly “home” either.
Modernity frees people from the limitations imposed on them by their family or clan or by their village community, offering them unheard-of options and often material improvements as well; there is, however, a price to pay. The renunciation of the traditional framework of reference for their lives means a loss of certainties and of meaning. For many people it is far from easy to learn to live with this.
Modernity is an exclusively western concept that has no equivalent in other civilizations. The reason for this lies in the view of time that is peculiar to the West, by which time is regarded as being linear, irreversible, and progressive. It refers to the typical features of modern times and to the way that these features are experienced by the individual: modernity stands for the attitude toward life that is associated with a continuous process of evolution and transformation, with an orientation toward a future that will be different from the past and from the present. It is characterized by an irreversible emergence of autonomy in the fields of science, art, and morality, which must then be developed “according to their inner logic.” On the other hand, however, modernity is also seen as a project: the final goal of the development of these various autonomous domains lies in their relevance for practice, their potential use “for the rational organization of everyday social life.”
Critical reason, by its very rigor, accentuates temporality. Nothing is permanent; reason becomes identified with change and otherness. We are ruled not by identity, with its enormous and monotonous tautologies, but by otherness and contradiction, the dizzying manifestations of criticism. In the past the goal of criticism was truth; in the modern age truth is criticism. Not an eternal truth, but the truth of change.
In the celebrated definition of Charles Baudelaire: “Modernity is the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art of which the other half is the eternal and the immutable.” Modernity provokes on all levels an aesthetics of rupture, of individual creativity and of innovation that is everywhere marked by the sociological phenomenon of the avant-garde . . . and by the increasingly more outspoken destruction of traditional forms. . . . Modernity is radicalized into momentaneous change, into a continuous traveling, and thus its meaning changes. It gradually loses each substantial value, each ethical and philosophical ideology of progress that sustained it at the outset, and it becomes an aesthetics of change for the sake of change. . . .
The counter-pastoral view is based on the idea that there is a fundamental discrepancy between economic and cultural modernity, and that neither can be achieved without conflicts and moments of fissure. It regards modernity as characterized by irreconcilable fissures and insoluble contradictions, by divisions and fragmentation, by the collapse of an integrated experience of life, and by the irreversible emergence of autonomy in various domains that are incapable of regaining their common foundation.
What makes modernity so fascinating is the relationship between all these divergent aspects - programmatic and transitory. Marshall Berman argues that for the individual the experience of modernity is characterized by a combination of programmatic and transitory elements, by an oscillation between the struggle for personal development and the nostalgia for what is irretrievably lost: “To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world and at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are.
Modernity has often been described as a condition of “homelessness.” The pluralistic structures of modern society have made the lives of more and more individuals migratory, ever-changing, mobile. In everyday life, the modern individual continuously alternates between highly discrepant and often contradictory social contexts. Not only are an increasing number of individuals in a modern society uprooted from their original social milieu, but, in addition, no succeeding milieu succeeds in becoming truly “home” either.
Modernity frees people from the limitations imposed on them by their family or clan or by their village community, offering them unheard-of options and often material improvements as well; there is, however, a price to pay. The renunciation of the traditional framework of reference for their lives means a loss of certainties and of meaning. For many people it is far from easy to learn to live with this.
March 24, 2015
India's Pharmaceutical Industry
India's long established position as a preferred manufacturing location for multinational drug manufacturers is quickly spreading into other areas of outsourcing activities. Soaring costs of R&D and administration are persuading drug manufacturers to move more of their discovery research and clinical trials activities to the subcontinent or to establish administrative centers there, capitalizing on India's high levels of scientific expertise as well as low wages. A large market will likely open up as the result of a projected boom in health insurance, an area in which the country is woefully underdeveloped. On the international front, the industry still has some catching up to do in terms of quality assurance while, on the local market, pricing remains a problem.
Developing an innovative new drug, from discovery to worldwide marketing, now involves investments of around $1 billion. Pharmaceutical production costs are almost 50% lower in India than in western nations, while overall R&D costs are about 1/8th and clinical trial expenses are around 1/10th of Western levels. India's long established manufacturing base also offers a large, well-educated, English speaking workforce, with 700,000 scientists and engineers graduating every year, including 122,000 chemists and chemical engineers with 1500 PhDs. The industry provides the highest intellectual capital per dollar worldwide. With 74 facilities, India has the largest number of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drug manufacturing facilities outside the U.S. The biotechnology industry is situated mainly in the state of Karnataka although there are operations in Andra Pradesh, Hyderabad, Kerela, Maharashtra and West Bengal. In April 2005, the government introduced value-added tax for the first time and abolished all other taxes derived from sales of goods. So far, 22 states have implemented VAT, which is set at 4% for medicines.
Outsourcing: India's status as an information technology superpower, with access to specialist skills and 24/7 work hours, is a huge advantage as it strengthens its position as the destination choice for contract research, including drug discovery. IT companies like Accenture, Intel, Satyam, Cognizant, IBM, Oracle and TCS are expanding their activities in India to new business segments such as bioinformatics and life sciences. India is considered a highly promising outsourcing IT and clinical data management destination because of its rich talent pool, technological innovation, credible quality, operational flexibility, cost-effectiveness, time-to-market and competitive advantage.
Developing an innovative new drug, from discovery to worldwide marketing, now involves investments of around $1 billion. Pharmaceutical production costs are almost 50% lower in India than in western nations, while overall R&D costs are about 1/8th and clinical trial expenses are around 1/10th of Western levels. India's long established manufacturing base also offers a large, well-educated, English speaking workforce, with 700,000 scientists and engineers graduating every year, including 122,000 chemists and chemical engineers with 1500 PhDs. The industry provides the highest intellectual capital per dollar worldwide. With 74 facilities, India has the largest number of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drug manufacturing facilities outside the U.S. The biotechnology industry is situated mainly in the state of Karnataka although there are operations in Andra Pradesh, Hyderabad, Kerela, Maharashtra and West Bengal. In April 2005, the government introduced value-added tax for the first time and abolished all other taxes derived from sales of goods. So far, 22 states have implemented VAT, which is set at 4% for medicines.
Outsourcing: India's status as an information technology superpower, with access to specialist skills and 24/7 work hours, is a huge advantage as it strengthens its position as the destination choice for contract research, including drug discovery. IT companies like Accenture, Intel, Satyam, Cognizant, IBM, Oracle and TCS are expanding their activities in India to new business segments such as bioinformatics and life sciences. India is considered a highly promising outsourcing IT and clinical data management destination because of its rich talent pool, technological innovation, credible quality, operational flexibility, cost-effectiveness, time-to-market and competitive advantage.
March 22, 2015
History of Indian Industrial Policy
Policies are framed to provide direction to obtain an end. During the colonial period, industrial policies and economic policies were shaped by the British Government in favor of British interests. The tariff policy pursued by British rulers in India was based on the principal of one way free trade while the Indian interest for industrialization in India remained deliberately neglected. England was principal supplier of manufactured goods and raw materials in the world. In return, England imported food stuffs and raw material from mainly its colonies. Interestingly, imports were tariff free whereas the exports were not duty free.
India was keen to become independent and adopt industrialization as its policy. This is evident from the fact that prominent industrialists of India prepared the Bombay Plan in 1944 emphasizing the importance of industrialization of the country. With the Bombay plan the leading Indian industrialists had sided with Jawaharlal Nehru (India's first Prime Minister) and his preferences for planning, with emphasis on large scale industry for an extensive control over the private sector.
The Industrial Policy of 1948 broadly divided industries into four categories:-(a) arms and ammunitions (b) production and control of atomic energy(c) the ownership and management of rail transport. These three were the exclusive monopoly of the Central government.The second category included six basic industries and all new undertakings in these industries were reserved for the State except where, in the national interest, the State itself found it necessary to secure the co-operation of private enterprises. Iron and Steel, Aircraft manufacture, Ship building, Manufacture of telephone, telegraph and wireless apparatus and Mineral oils.
Eighteen industries under the third category were left to the private sector though their operation by the private sector was subject to Central regulation and control. These were:- (a) Salt(b) Automobiles and tractors(c) Prime movers(d) Electric engineering(e) Other heavy machinery(f) Machine tools(g) Heavy chemicals, fertilizers and pharmaceuticals and drugs(h) Electro- chemical industries(i) Non- ferrous metals(j) Rubber manufactures(k) Power and industrial alcohol(l) Cotton and woolen textiles(i) Cement(j) Sugar(k) Paper and Newsprint(l) Minerals(m) Air and Sea transport(n) Industries related to defense.
The Industrial Policy approach turned full circle with the advent of the Narsimha Rao government in 1991 in the form of New Industrial Policy of 1991. The country decided to follow the lines of capitalism. The watchword for the New Industrial Policy thus became liberalization, globalization and privatization and towards this end, the Government introduced three sets of reforms:- first, deregulation, delicencing, decontrol and debureaucratisation of industrial licensing system; two, liberalization of foreign trade and currency transactions and third, institute several measures to facilitate foreign direct investment inflows. All these measures were launched in the year 1991 and since then, further liberalizations have been introduced every year with each new budget.
On May 9, 2001, the government announced a number of concessions and incentives to foreign direct investment (FDI). The main incentives given by the government are as follows:In the pharmaceutical sector, 100 percent Foreign Direct Investment has been allowed through the automatic route (earlier on, the limit was 74 percent); 100 percent Foreign Direct Investment has been allowed in airports against the prevailing 74 percent; For the hotels and tourism industry the Foreign Direct Investment limit has been raised to 100 percent through the automatic route from the prevailing 51 percent; 100 percent Foreign Direct Investment has also been allowed in two fresh areas- Courier services and Mass Rapid Transport System (MRTS); 100 percent Foreign Direct Investment has been allowed in township development; In the telecom sector, Foreign Direct Investment limit has been raised to 74 percent from the existing 49 percent for Internal Service Providers (ISPs); Subject to Reserve Bank guidelines, the foreign investment limit in the banking sector has been hiked from 20 percent to 49 percent; and Foreign Direct Investment up to 267 percent has been allowed in defense production.
India was keen to become independent and adopt industrialization as its policy. This is evident from the fact that prominent industrialists of India prepared the Bombay Plan in 1944 emphasizing the importance of industrialization of the country. With the Bombay plan the leading Indian industrialists had sided with Jawaharlal Nehru (India's first Prime Minister) and his preferences for planning, with emphasis on large scale industry for an extensive control over the private sector.
The Industrial Policy of 1948 broadly divided industries into four categories:-(a) arms and ammunitions (b) production and control of atomic energy(c) the ownership and management of rail transport. These three were the exclusive monopoly of the Central government.The second category included six basic industries and all new undertakings in these industries were reserved for the State except where, in the national interest, the State itself found it necessary to secure the co-operation of private enterprises. Iron and Steel, Aircraft manufacture, Ship building, Manufacture of telephone, telegraph and wireless apparatus and Mineral oils.
Eighteen industries under the third category were left to the private sector though their operation by the private sector was subject to Central regulation and control. These were:- (a) Salt(b) Automobiles and tractors(c) Prime movers(d) Electric engineering(e) Other heavy machinery(f) Machine tools(g) Heavy chemicals, fertilizers and pharmaceuticals and drugs(h) Electro- chemical industries(i) Non- ferrous metals(j) Rubber manufactures(k) Power and industrial alcohol(l) Cotton and woolen textiles(i) Cement(j) Sugar(k) Paper and Newsprint(l) Minerals(m) Air and Sea transport(n) Industries related to defense.
The Industrial Policy approach turned full circle with the advent of the Narsimha Rao government in 1991 in the form of New Industrial Policy of 1991. The country decided to follow the lines of capitalism. The watchword for the New Industrial Policy thus became liberalization, globalization and privatization and towards this end, the Government introduced three sets of reforms:- first, deregulation, delicencing, decontrol and debureaucratisation of industrial licensing system; two, liberalization of foreign trade and currency transactions and third, institute several measures to facilitate foreign direct investment inflows. All these measures were launched in the year 1991 and since then, further liberalizations have been introduced every year with each new budget.
On May 9, 2001, the government announced a number of concessions and incentives to foreign direct investment (FDI). The main incentives given by the government are as follows:In the pharmaceutical sector, 100 percent Foreign Direct Investment has been allowed through the automatic route (earlier on, the limit was 74 percent); 100 percent Foreign Direct Investment has been allowed in airports against the prevailing 74 percent; For the hotels and tourism industry the Foreign Direct Investment limit has been raised to 100 percent through the automatic route from the prevailing 51 percent; 100 percent Foreign Direct Investment has also been allowed in two fresh areas- Courier services and Mass Rapid Transport System (MRTS); 100 percent Foreign Direct Investment has been allowed in township development; In the telecom sector, Foreign Direct Investment limit has been raised to 74 percent from the existing 49 percent for Internal Service Providers (ISPs); Subject to Reserve Bank guidelines, the foreign investment limit in the banking sector has been hiked from 20 percent to 49 percent; and Foreign Direct Investment up to 267 percent has been allowed in defense production.
March 19, 2015
Cocaine
Criminal groups involved in international cocaine trafficking are engaged in fluid co-operation structures and employ variable key members and specialists. The scale, spread and fragmented nature of the drug trade allows a large number organized criminals, and also those at a lower level, to operate successfully and make considerable profits. Time spent in prison presents criminals with opportunities to form associations, including with those who provide access to overseas supplier networks.
Cocaine is supplied to groups engaged in Trafficking of Human Beings (THB) for sexual exploitation to ensure victim compliance, while stolen vehicles are used to transport and distribute cannabis. Enhanced cooperation levels have also given rise to a barter market, in which consignments of drugs and their precursors are exchanged for stolen property, firearms and, indeed other drugs, intensifying an informal economy which makes organized crime even less visible. The prominence of cash couriers as a means of remitting proceeds is likely to reflect attempts at evading digital surveillance and financial transfer thresholds.
Columbian, Peruvian and Bolivian organized crime groups and paramilitary terrorist groups, control the production and trade of cocaine. Members of Latin America crime groups have established permanent residency in the EU, for instance in Spain and Portugal, where they run commercial enterprises such as bars, discotheques, real estate agencies and car rental agencies. OC (organized crime) groups are observed to have responsibility for logistics, concealment activities and the provision of legitimate employment to divert the attention of law enforcement from activities concerned with cocaine trafficking and the trafficking of human beings. The majority of OC groups operating in Spain have a life cycle of less than three years, before police intervention seriously disrupts or puts and end to their activities.
Most of the laboratories in Venezuela are used in the final stage of cocaine hydrochloride production. Cocaine is transported from the drug producing countries in Latin America to the EU by sea and by air. West Africa has become a major trans-shipment platform because of its strategic location between Latin America and markets in the E.U, it's fertile economic and political environment for managing trafficking activities and the absence of government effectiveness and the rule of law.
Mexico's drug cartels may have found a new route through the English port city of Liverpool for smuggling South American cocaine in Britain and the rest of Europe, working closely with local gangs to distribute the drug. Mexico's Sinaloa and Los Zetas cartels dominate cocaine smuggling from South America into Europe via ports in Venezuela. With a kilogram of cocaine estimated at over $63,000 in Italy, compared to the average price of between $28,000 and $38,000 in New York, the cartels see Europe as a lucrative and untapped market. The Balkan crime groups are believed to supply cocaine to Turkish crime groups in exchange for heroin. British traffickers are increasingly traveling to meet Columbian groups in their home country to source cheaper cocaine, giving them greater control of shipments and profits, albeit with higher transportation costs and greater risk of detection.
Cocaine is supplied to groups engaged in Trafficking of Human Beings (THB) for sexual exploitation to ensure victim compliance, while stolen vehicles are used to transport and distribute cannabis. Enhanced cooperation levels have also given rise to a barter market, in which consignments of drugs and their precursors are exchanged for stolen property, firearms and, indeed other drugs, intensifying an informal economy which makes organized crime even less visible. The prominence of cash couriers as a means of remitting proceeds is likely to reflect attempts at evading digital surveillance and financial transfer thresholds.
Columbian, Peruvian and Bolivian organized crime groups and paramilitary terrorist groups, control the production and trade of cocaine. Members of Latin America crime groups have established permanent residency in the EU, for instance in Spain and Portugal, where they run commercial enterprises such as bars, discotheques, real estate agencies and car rental agencies. OC (organized crime) groups are observed to have responsibility for logistics, concealment activities and the provision of legitimate employment to divert the attention of law enforcement from activities concerned with cocaine trafficking and the trafficking of human beings. The majority of OC groups operating in Spain have a life cycle of less than three years, before police intervention seriously disrupts or puts and end to their activities.
Most of the laboratories in Venezuela are used in the final stage of cocaine hydrochloride production. Cocaine is transported from the drug producing countries in Latin America to the EU by sea and by air. West Africa has become a major trans-shipment platform because of its strategic location between Latin America and markets in the E.U, it's fertile economic and political environment for managing trafficking activities and the absence of government effectiveness and the rule of law.
Mexico's drug cartels may have found a new route through the English port city of Liverpool for smuggling South American cocaine in Britain and the rest of Europe, working closely with local gangs to distribute the drug. Mexico's Sinaloa and Los Zetas cartels dominate cocaine smuggling from South America into Europe via ports in Venezuela. With a kilogram of cocaine estimated at over $63,000 in Italy, compared to the average price of between $28,000 and $38,000 in New York, the cartels see Europe as a lucrative and untapped market. The Balkan crime groups are believed to supply cocaine to Turkish crime groups in exchange for heroin. British traffickers are increasingly traveling to meet Columbian groups in their home country to source cheaper cocaine, giving them greater control of shipments and profits, albeit with higher transportation costs and greater risk of detection.
March 17, 2015
Human Capital
The use of leisure time to improve skills and knowledge for the most part, goes unrecorded. But in this way, the quality of human effort can be greatly improved and its productivity enhanced. Such investment in human capital accounts for the most impressive rise in real earnings per worker. By investing in themselves, people can enlarge the range of choice available to them.
The failure to treat human resources explicitly as a form of capital - as a produced means of production, as the product of investment, has fostered the retention of the classical notion of labor as a capacity to do manual work requiring little knowledge and skill a capacity with which, according to this notion, laborers are endowed about equally. Counting individuals who can and want to work and treating such a count as a measure of the quantity of an economic factor is no more meaningful than it would to count the number of all manner of machines to determine their economic importance either as a stock of capital or as a flow of productive services.
New capital from foreign countries can be put to good use, it is said, only when it is introduced slowly and gradually. But this experience is at variance with the widely held impression that countries are poor fundamentally because they are starved for capital and that additional capital is truly the key to their more rapid economic growth. The reconciliation is to be found in emphasis on particular forms of capital. The new capital from the outside that is going into the formation of structures, equipment and sometimes into inventories, is usually not available for additional investment in man. Consequently, human capabilities do not stay abreast of physical capital and they do become factors in economic growth. Human resources have both quantitative and qualitative dimensions. The number of people, the proportion who enter upon useful work, and hours worked are essentially quantitative characteristics.
How to distinguish between expenditures for consumption and for investment. This distinction bristles with both conceptual and practical difficulties. We can think of three classes of expenditures: expenditures that satisfy consumer preferences and in no way enhance the capabilities under discussion - these represent pure consumption; expenditures that enhance capabilities and do not satisfy any preferences underlying consumption - these represent pure investment; and expenditures that have both effects. Most relevant activities clearly are in the third class, partly consumption and party investment, which is why the task of identifying each component is so formidable and why the measurement of capital formation by expenditures is less useful for human investment than for investment in physical goods. In principle, there is an alternative method for estimating human investment, namely by its yield rather than its cost.
The failure to treat human resources explicitly as a form of capital - as a produced means of production, as the product of investment, has fostered the retention of the classical notion of labor as a capacity to do manual work requiring little knowledge and skill a capacity with which, according to this notion, laborers are endowed about equally. Counting individuals who can and want to work and treating such a count as a measure of the quantity of an economic factor is no more meaningful than it would to count the number of all manner of machines to determine their economic importance either as a stock of capital or as a flow of productive services.
New capital from foreign countries can be put to good use, it is said, only when it is introduced slowly and gradually. But this experience is at variance with the widely held impression that countries are poor fundamentally because they are starved for capital and that additional capital is truly the key to their more rapid economic growth. The reconciliation is to be found in emphasis on particular forms of capital. The new capital from the outside that is going into the formation of structures, equipment and sometimes into inventories, is usually not available for additional investment in man. Consequently, human capabilities do not stay abreast of physical capital and they do become factors in economic growth. Human resources have both quantitative and qualitative dimensions. The number of people, the proportion who enter upon useful work, and hours worked are essentially quantitative characteristics.
How to distinguish between expenditures for consumption and for investment. This distinction bristles with both conceptual and practical difficulties. We can think of three classes of expenditures: expenditures that satisfy consumer preferences and in no way enhance the capabilities under discussion - these represent pure consumption; expenditures that enhance capabilities and do not satisfy any preferences underlying consumption - these represent pure investment; and expenditures that have both effects. Most relevant activities clearly are in the third class, partly consumption and party investment, which is why the task of identifying each component is so formidable and why the measurement of capital formation by expenditures is less useful for human investment than for investment in physical goods. In principle, there is an alternative method for estimating human investment, namely by its yield rather than its cost.
March 12, 2015
Arts and Economics
Most of us appreciate the intrinsic benefits of the arts - their beauty and vision; how they inspire, soothe, provoke, and connect us. But there exists a common misconception that communities support arts and culture at the expense of economic development. The fact is that communities who support the arts are investing in an industry which is the cornerstone of tourism: an industry that supports jobs and generates government revenue. There is no better indicator of the spiritual health of a city, its neighborhoods, and the larger region than the state of art. The arts deepen our understanding of the human spirit, extend our capacity to comprehend the lives of others and allow us to imagine a more humane world through their diversity of feeling, their variety of form, their multiplicity of inspiration.
A common theory of community growth is that an area must export goods and services if it is to prosper economically. The theory is called economic base theory, and it depends on dividing the economy into two sectors: the export sector and the local sector. Exporters such as automobile manufacturers, hotels and department stores, obtain income from customers outside of the community. This "export income" then enters the local economy in the form of salaries, purchase of materials, dividends etc.
As communities compete for a tourist's dollar, arts and culture have proven to be magnets for travelers and their money. Local businesses are able to grow because travelers extend the length of their trips to attend cultural events. Nonprofit arts and culture organizations pay their employees, purchase supplies, contract for services, and acquire assets from within their communities. Arts and culture organizations - businesses in their own right, leverage additional event-related spending by their audiences that pump vital revenue into restaurants, hotels, retail stores, and other local businesses. When patrons attend a performing arts event, they may park their car in a toll garage and purchase dinner at a restaurant. Valuable commerce is generated for local merchants. Spending by nonprofit arts and culture organizations provides rewarding employment for more than just artists, curators and musicians. It also directly supports builders, plumbers, accountants, printers and an array of occupations spanning many industries.
A common theory of community growth is that an area must export goods and services if it is to prosper economically. The theory is called economic base theory, and it depends on dividing the economy into two sectors: the export sector and the local sector. Exporters such as automobile manufacturers, hotels and department stores, obtain income from customers outside of the community. This "export income" then enters the local economy in the form of salaries, purchase of materials, dividends etc.
As communities compete for a tourist's dollar, arts and culture have proven to be magnets for travelers and their money. Local businesses are able to grow because travelers extend the length of their trips to attend cultural events. Nonprofit arts and culture organizations pay their employees, purchase supplies, contract for services, and acquire assets from within their communities. Arts and culture organizations - businesses in their own right, leverage additional event-related spending by their audiences that pump vital revenue into restaurants, hotels, retail stores, and other local businesses. When patrons attend a performing arts event, they may park their car in a toll garage and purchase dinner at a restaurant. Valuable commerce is generated for local merchants. Spending by nonprofit arts and culture organizations provides rewarding employment for more than just artists, curators and musicians. It also directly supports builders, plumbers, accountants, printers and an array of occupations spanning many industries.
March 11, 2015
Insurance
Insurance is a financial service for collecting the savings of the public and providing them with risk coverage. The main function of insurance is to provide protection against the possible chances of generating losses. It eliminates worries and miseries of losses by destruction of property and death. It also provides capital to the society as the funds accumulated are invested in productive heads.
Insurance is a regulated Industry. Prices across the board are very similar. Agents do what is in their best interest, not the company they represent, and will sell what they believe is the easiest and personally most lucrative policies. Direct Agents work to build relationships with their customers and take those relationships with them when they move on to the next company they represent. Insurance companies have recognized these realities and have attempted to overcome them in a variety of ways, Insurance companies have gone direct to consumer, effectively eliminating the need for an agent as well as reducing cost. They have modified policies to be less expensive by removing options and increasing deductibles, and they are constantly telling consumers how stable they are. Thus the insurance companies are trying to change the trend by creating brand image for them.
With a view of influencing the target market or prospects, the formulation of pricing strategy becomes significant. The pricing in insurance is in the form of premium rates. The three main factors used for determining the premium rates under a life insurance plan are mortality, expense and interest. The premium rates are revised if there are any significant changes in any of these factors.
The insurance services depend on effective promotional measures. In a country like India, the rate of illiteracy is very high and the rural economy has dominance in the national economy. It is essential to have both personal and impersonal promotion strategies. In promoting insurance business, the agents and the rural career agents play an important role. Due attention should be given in selecting the promotional tools for agents and rural career agents and even for the branch managers and front line staff.
The process should be customer friendly in insurance industry. The speed and accuracy of payment is of great importance. The processing method should be easy and convenient to the customers. Installment schemes should be streamlined to cater to the ever growing demands of the customers. IT & Data Warehousing will smoothen the process flow. IT will help in servicing large no. of customers efficiently and bring down overheads. Technology can either complement or supplement the channels of distribution cost effectively. It can also help to improve customer service levels. The use of data warehousing management and mining will help to find out the profitability and potential of variouscustomers product segments.
Distribution is a key determinant of success for all insurance companies. Today, the nationalized insurers have a large reach and presence in India. Building a distribution network is very expensive and time consuming. Technology will not replace a distribution network though it will offer advantages like better customer service. Finance companies and banks can emerge as an attractive distribution channel for insurance in India. In Netherlands, financial services firms provide an entire range of products including bank accounts, motor, home and life insurance and pensions. In France, half of the life insurance sales are made through banks. In India also, banks hope to maximize expensive existing networks by selling a range of products.
The life and pensions sector has many reasons to be upbeat about its future. The number of people aged over 60 will more than triple to over 2 billion by 2050. The number of middle class people (earning more than $10/day) will grow from 430 million to 1.2 billion in 2030, with 2/3rds of this growth coming from India and China, creating much more wealth to protect and more demand for life cover. Over the next 30 years, some 1.8 billion people are expected to move into cities, most of them in Asia and Africa, increasing the world's urban population to 5.6 billion and reshaping the marketplace for insurers and other financial services businesses. The number of people connected to the internet will increase from 1.8 billion today to 5 billion by 2020, changing how customers interact with your business and their expectations over the speed and intuition of response.
A larger and longer living global population is increasing demand for retirement products. In turn, the increasing affluence of people within the high growth markets of South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle-East is creating a growth need for wealth protection. But as customers become accustomed to the ease, elegance and intuition of the Apple/ Amazon 'experience,' they want the same accessibility, transparency and responsiveness in their life insurance and pensions products.
Advances in processing capacity, customer profiling and risk analytics are now opening the way for a new generation of 'smart' policies. To stay in the game, your business needs to be thinking and acting at the same rate as technology and customer expectations are evolving.
Cloud computing is allowing businesses to turn fixed costs into variable costs. At the foundation of cloud computing is the broader concept of converged infrastructure and shared services. For example, a cloud computer facility that serves European users during European business hours with a specific application (e.g., email) may reallocate the same resources to serve North American users during North America's business hours with a different application (e.g., a web server). This approach should maximize the use of computing power thus reducing environmental damage as well since less power, air conditioning, rack space, etc. are required for a variety of functions. With cloud computing, multiple users can access a single server to retrieve and update their data without purchasing licenses for different applications. Proponents claim that cloud computing allows companies to avoid upfront infrastructure costs, and focus on projects that differentiate their businesses instead of on infrastructure. Proponents also claim that cloud computing allows enterprises to get their applications up and running faster, with improved manageability and less maintenance, and enables IT to more rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable business demand.
Digital distribution would allow your business to move into new markets without the need for expensive and difficult to establish branch or agency networks on the ground. The development of low cost and easy-to-understand and compare policies will be crucial in filling the gaps created by the withdrawal of social welfare and defined benefit plans
Hurdles:
Less public awareness A vast majority of people especially in rural& urban areas are left outside the insurance coverage. This mainly results from the unawareness among the people. People are not aware of the benefits from the health insurance policy and a great number of people believe that insurance business is nothing but cheating and assume that negative attitude from people. Centralization -Most of the insurance companies in our country are located in urban areas and there are few branches in rural areas.
Poor economic conditions - Most of the people in this country live under extreme poverty level in rural. All of these people fight to earn their livelihood and are marginal in relation to the expenditure with the income. It is quite impossible to save some money for future need. Therefore they are quite unable to give the amount to the insurer which is called as premium and regarded as safety or precautionary measures against any accident. Higher cost of business - Growing cost of business is another problem that insurance companies are facing now a day. They urge that government tax, house rent, utility, commission fee, stationeries are growing day by day. But the policy holders are not willing to pay too much premium with growing. So they are facing difficulties in running their business efficiently.
Insurance is a regulated Industry. Prices across the board are very similar. Agents do what is in their best interest, not the company they represent, and will sell what they believe is the easiest and personally most lucrative policies. Direct Agents work to build relationships with their customers and take those relationships with them when they move on to the next company they represent. Insurance companies have recognized these realities and have attempted to overcome them in a variety of ways, Insurance companies have gone direct to consumer, effectively eliminating the need for an agent as well as reducing cost. They have modified policies to be less expensive by removing options and increasing deductibles, and they are constantly telling consumers how stable they are. Thus the insurance companies are trying to change the trend by creating brand image for them.
With a view of influencing the target market or prospects, the formulation of pricing strategy becomes significant. The pricing in insurance is in the form of premium rates. The three main factors used for determining the premium rates under a life insurance plan are mortality, expense and interest. The premium rates are revised if there are any significant changes in any of these factors.
The insurance services depend on effective promotional measures. In a country like India, the rate of illiteracy is very high and the rural economy has dominance in the national economy. It is essential to have both personal and impersonal promotion strategies. In promoting insurance business, the agents and the rural career agents play an important role. Due attention should be given in selecting the promotional tools for agents and rural career agents and even for the branch managers and front line staff.
The process should be customer friendly in insurance industry. The speed and accuracy of payment is of great importance. The processing method should be easy and convenient to the customers. Installment schemes should be streamlined to cater to the ever growing demands of the customers. IT & Data Warehousing will smoothen the process flow. IT will help in servicing large no. of customers efficiently and bring down overheads. Technology can either complement or supplement the channels of distribution cost effectively. It can also help to improve customer service levels. The use of data warehousing management and mining will help to find out the profitability and potential of variouscustomers product segments.
Distribution is a key determinant of success for all insurance companies. Today, the nationalized insurers have a large reach and presence in India. Building a distribution network is very expensive and time consuming. Technology will not replace a distribution network though it will offer advantages like better customer service. Finance companies and banks can emerge as an attractive distribution channel for insurance in India. In Netherlands, financial services firms provide an entire range of products including bank accounts, motor, home and life insurance and pensions. In France, half of the life insurance sales are made through banks. In India also, banks hope to maximize expensive existing networks by selling a range of products.
The life and pensions sector has many reasons to be upbeat about its future. The number of people aged over 60 will more than triple to over 2 billion by 2050. The number of middle class people (earning more than $10/day) will grow from 430 million to 1.2 billion in 2030, with 2/3rds of this growth coming from India and China, creating much more wealth to protect and more demand for life cover. Over the next 30 years, some 1.8 billion people are expected to move into cities, most of them in Asia and Africa, increasing the world's urban population to 5.6 billion and reshaping the marketplace for insurers and other financial services businesses. The number of people connected to the internet will increase from 1.8 billion today to 5 billion by 2020, changing how customers interact with your business and their expectations over the speed and intuition of response.
A larger and longer living global population is increasing demand for retirement products. In turn, the increasing affluence of people within the high growth markets of South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle-East is creating a growth need for wealth protection. But as customers become accustomed to the ease, elegance and intuition of the Apple/ Amazon 'experience,' they want the same accessibility, transparency and responsiveness in their life insurance and pensions products.
Advances in processing capacity, customer profiling and risk analytics are now opening the way for a new generation of 'smart' policies. To stay in the game, your business needs to be thinking and acting at the same rate as technology and customer expectations are evolving.
Cloud computing is allowing businesses to turn fixed costs into variable costs. At the foundation of cloud computing is the broader concept of converged infrastructure and shared services. For example, a cloud computer facility that serves European users during European business hours with a specific application (e.g., email) may reallocate the same resources to serve North American users during North America's business hours with a different application (e.g., a web server). This approach should maximize the use of computing power thus reducing environmental damage as well since less power, air conditioning, rack space, etc. are required for a variety of functions. With cloud computing, multiple users can access a single server to retrieve and update their data without purchasing licenses for different applications. Proponents claim that cloud computing allows companies to avoid upfront infrastructure costs, and focus on projects that differentiate their businesses instead of on infrastructure. Proponents also claim that cloud computing allows enterprises to get their applications up and running faster, with improved manageability and less maintenance, and enables IT to more rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable business demand.
Digital distribution would allow your business to move into new markets without the need for expensive and difficult to establish branch or agency networks on the ground. The development of low cost and easy-to-understand and compare policies will be crucial in filling the gaps created by the withdrawal of social welfare and defined benefit plans
Hurdles:
Less public awareness A vast majority of people especially in rural& urban areas are left outside the insurance coverage. This mainly results from the unawareness among the people. People are not aware of the benefits from the health insurance policy and a great number of people believe that insurance business is nothing but cheating and assume that negative attitude from people. Centralization -Most of the insurance companies in our country are located in urban areas and there are few branches in rural areas.
Poor economic conditions - Most of the people in this country live under extreme poverty level in rural. All of these people fight to earn their livelihood and are marginal in relation to the expenditure with the income. It is quite impossible to save some money for future need. Therefore they are quite unable to give the amount to the insurer which is called as premium and regarded as safety or precautionary measures against any accident. Higher cost of business - Growing cost of business is another problem that insurance companies are facing now a day. They urge that government tax, house rent, utility, commission fee, stationeries are growing day by day. But the policy holders are not willing to pay too much premium with growing. So they are facing difficulties in running their business efficiently.
Choose Life
The life and pensions sector has many reasons to be upbeat about its future. The number of people aged over 60 will more than triple to over 2 billion by 2050. The number of middle class people (earning more than $10/day) will grow from 430 million to 1.2 billion in 2030, with 2/3rds of this growth coming from India and China, creating much more wealth to protect and more demand for life cover. Over the next 30 years, some 1.8 billion people are expected to move into cities, most of them in Asia and Africa, increasing the world's urban population to 5.6 billion and reshaping the marketplace for insurers and other financial services businesses. The number of people connected to the internet will increase from 1.8 billion today to 5 billion by 2020, changing how customers interact with your business and their expectations over the speed and intuition of response.
A larger and longer living global population is increasing demand for retirement products. In turn, the increasing affluence of people within the high growth markets of South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle-East is creating a growth need for wealth protection. But as customers become accustomed to the ease, elegance and intuition of the Apple/ Amazon 'experience,' they want the same accessibility, transparency and responsiveness in their life insurance and pensions products.
Advances in processing capacity, customer profiling and risk analytics are now opening the way for a new generation of 'smart' policies. To stay in the game, your business needs to be thinking and acting at the same rate as technology and customer expectations are evolving.
Cloud computing is allowing businesses to turn fixed costs into variable costs. At the foundation of cloud computing is the broader concept of converged infrastructure and shared services. For example, a cloud computer facility that serves European users during European business hours with a specific application (e.g., email) may reallocate the same resources to serve North American users during North America's business hours with a different application (e.g., a web server). This approach should maximize the use of computing power thus reducing environmental damage as well since less power, air conditioning, rack space, etc. are required for a variety of functions. With cloud computing, multiple users can access a single server to retrieve and update their data without purchasing licenses for different applications. Proponents claim that cloud computing allows companies to avoid upfront infrastructure costs, and focus on projects that differentiate their businesses instead of on infrastructure. Proponents also claim that cloud computing allows enterprises to get their applications up and running faster, with improved manageability and less maintenance, and enables IT to more rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable business demand.
Digital distribution would allow your business to move into new markets without the need for expensive and difficult to establish branch or agency networks on the ground. The development of low cost and easy-to-understand and compare policies will be crucial in filling the gaps created by the withdrawal of social welfare and defined benefit plans
A larger and longer living global population is increasing demand for retirement products. In turn, the increasing affluence of people within the high growth markets of South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle-East is creating a growth need for wealth protection. But as customers become accustomed to the ease, elegance and intuition of the Apple/ Amazon 'experience,' they want the same accessibility, transparency and responsiveness in their life insurance and pensions products.
Advances in processing capacity, customer profiling and risk analytics are now opening the way for a new generation of 'smart' policies. To stay in the game, your business needs to be thinking and acting at the same rate as technology and customer expectations are evolving.
Cloud computing is allowing businesses to turn fixed costs into variable costs. At the foundation of cloud computing is the broader concept of converged infrastructure and shared services. For example, a cloud computer facility that serves European users during European business hours with a specific application (e.g., email) may reallocate the same resources to serve North American users during North America's business hours with a different application (e.g., a web server). This approach should maximize the use of computing power thus reducing environmental damage as well since less power, air conditioning, rack space, etc. are required for a variety of functions. With cloud computing, multiple users can access a single server to retrieve and update their data without purchasing licenses for different applications. Proponents claim that cloud computing allows companies to avoid upfront infrastructure costs, and focus on projects that differentiate their businesses instead of on infrastructure. Proponents also claim that cloud computing allows enterprises to get their applications up and running faster, with improved manageability and less maintenance, and enables IT to more rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable business demand.
Digital distribution would allow your business to move into new markets without the need for expensive and difficult to establish branch or agency networks on the ground. The development of low cost and easy-to-understand and compare policies will be crucial in filling the gaps created by the withdrawal of social welfare and defined benefit plans
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