How Feasible Is Long Term Sustainability Environmental Sciences Essay

It seems improbable that it will of all time be possible to build a fixed set of societal and economic agreements that would be for good sustainable in environmental and other footings, given that the universe itself alterations and evolves. Speciess develop, flourish and perish, the composing of the ambiance alterations, and the dynamically-interrelated web of relationships that constitutes the planetary ecology bit by bit transforms over clip, thereby altering the ecological parametric quantities within which the homo species has to run. The development of biological and ecological systems on this planet was and is a contingent and heuristic procedure. Literature Review The Earth is about four and a half billion old ages old, someplace between one one-fourth and one half of the age of the existence. It is the lone planet in the universe presently known to back up life. Life began on this planet about four billion old ages ago, so the narrative of life on Earth is merely a small shorter than that of the planet itself. ( Silvertown, 1990 ) The human species is of comparatively recent beginning. Worlds have existed for some 0.005 per cent of the clip during which there has been biological activity on the planet, a ratio about tantamount to one twenty-four hours in a 55 twelvemonth lifetime. The initial divergency from other apes occurred some 7 million old ages ago. The precursor Australopithecus lived from 7 to 2 million old ages ago. Homo Erectus evolved, via Homo Habilis, some 1.7 million old ages ago. Our immediate ascendants, Homo Sapiens, evolved from Homo Erectus perchance every bit small as 200,000 old ages ago. From about 100,000 old ages ago Homo Sapiens occupied parts of Africa, and the heater parts of Europe and Asia. It is non clear at what phase we became a cultural species. It has been suggested that there is grounds for cultural behavior from as far back as 60,000 or even 100,000 old ages ago. However, the earliest unambiguous grounds for sophisticated cultural behavior, including a engineering of tools and arms, entombment of the dead, birthrate worship, pictures, sculptures and so on day of the months from some 40,000 old ages ago, as modern adult male, Homo Sapiens Sapiens, spread across Europe and replaced Neanderthal Man ( now by and large considered to be a member of the species Homo Sapiens ) . Humans reached Australia some 35,000 old ages ago, North America possibly 20,000 old ages ago, and had spread across most of the ice-free universe by the terminal of the last ice age, some 15,000 to 12,000 old ages ago. The first domestication of workss and animate beings happened some 12,000 old ages ago, and there were farming communities in assorted parts of the universe by some 8,000 old ages ago ( Moore, 1992 ) . Some of these small towns grew into the first little metropoliss some 6,000 old ages ago. In comparing to the continuance of life on Earth, hence, modern-day human civilization is of really recent beginning. Human existences are destructing the biological diverseness of the planet with the heedlessly expansive moving ridges of a sovereign or a lunatic. The current extinction crisis is determining up as the worst in 65 million old ages. Unless ecological sustainability is valued along with economic development, the effects will be ruinous. More than 99 per cent of all species that of all time lived are nonextant. Speciess have really varied lifetimes, and while the bluish green algae have been here for approximately 3 billion old ages, the typical lifetime is really much shorter. The possible lifetime of the human species is unknown, but non infinite. However, premature extinction would be too bad. The alterations in the planetary ecology indicate that we need to go more cognizant of the effects of our actions, and to get down to pull off our personal businesss more consciously than has by and large been the instance in the yesteryear. This may intend that it will be necessary to germinate new political and economic constructions and decision-making mechanisms in order to react to these emerging planetary environmental demands. However, as indicated earlier, we may hold to make so from a place of comparative political and economic instability. This is likely to be a ambitious procedure. Many bing organizational, political, and economic constructs and constructions are likely now inappropriate and unhelpful. It is improbable that the necessary constructions for international coordination, for illustration, will be evolved without some grade of organizational and political transmutation. This in bend is improbable to go on without a parallel development of the cultural and psychological constructs on which political and economic constructions are finally based. This is why any analysis, to be equal, must include the relevant environmental, political, economic and socio-cultural factors. The sustainability of the human species can merely be defined, finally, at the degree of the interaction between the full composite of human systems and all straight implicated environmental systems. To understand sustainability therefore requires some apprehension of the behavior of systems in general and of homo and environmental systems in peculiar. There are a figure of definitions of sustainability presently in usage. There is some consensus that a passage to a sustainable manner of life agencies taking stairss to seek to cut down the hazard that environmental and related jobs will earnestly impact or endanger the human species at some future clip, and thereby to guarantee that future coevalss have a sensible chance of a worthwhile being. The inquiry of sustainability is, hence, one of enlightened opportunism. It requires happening ways in which the human species can populate on this planet indefinitely, without compromising its hereafter. All species interact, alteration, and co-evolve with their environment. The human species is no exclusion. We are sole, nevertheless, in our ability to modify consciously some elements of the form of our interaction with the environment. It is no longer possible, given the current extent of human activity, to avoid doing these direction determinations as to how we wish to interact with the planet. For illustration, a determination non to cull the Scots ruddy cervid, given that of import natural marauders no longer be, is now a direction determination, merely every bit much as a determination to cull the cervid. Every substitution of all determinations of this type has ecological effects. Similarly, a determination to ignore information on current planetary ecological tendencies is a direction determination, every bit much as is the determination to try to accomplish some peculiar human-ecological balance. While many would now hold that there is a demand to happen ways of life that are sustainable, the treatment to day of the month has yet to bring forth a cardinal account that spans the issues and provides a consistent ground and way for societal alteration. The writers believe that the best chance for an effectual response to the planetary crisis lies in developing an analysis that can offer both ; one that can both warrant and inform a long-run, incorporate and consistent scheme for alteration. Such an attack is somewhat unfamiliar in the UK. This is because Britain has a general philosophical ethos that is more empirical and musician than the mainland European rational tradition. Pragmatism and practicality are valued, abstract analysis is distrusted. This ethos underlies a state of affairs in which specific and concrete responses to jobs are valued ( as bespeaking pragmatism and practicality ) while more abstract assessments ( which might take to more cardinal and comprehensive solutions ) are frequently seen as being less utile. ( Spash and Clayton, 1995 ) The interaction between worlds and their environment can be thought of as traveling the planetal system along assorted axes at the same time. If this happens at a rate that exceeds the rate at which other systems can accommodate, that is, at a rate that exceeds the hold factor with which the stage infinite part that defines sustainability can travel to follow the point at which the planet is positioned in stage infinite, so these other systems will go nonextant. The species extinction rate therefore provides a partial step of the rate of motion through stage infinite. Global heating is likely to supply a figure of illustrations of this consequence. Vegetation distribution typically shifts some 200 kilometers towards the poles with each 1 & A ; deg ; C rise in temperature. The forest migration rates at the terminal of the last glacial period were some 20 to 100 kilometers per century. However, the jutting rate of planetary heating will be possibly 100 times faster than the rate of warming at that clip. Many tree species will be unable to migrate at the necessary velocity, which will in bend affect a big figure of dependent species. Multi-dimensionality is present in the construct of ‘primary environmental attention ‘ ( PEC ) , which is obviously related to sustainable enlargement and has become far and broad bing among development administrations in their attempts to set sustainable development into public presentation. PEC is classified as ‘the diversified for development promotions in the synergistic part between economic, environmental and societal systems ‘ ( Holmberg and Sandbrook 1992:31 ) . Its ‘essential components ‘ are: Associating and fulfilling of indispensable needs-the economic end ; Safety and best usage of the environment-the environmental end ; And authorizing of groups and communities-the societal end. Environmental sustainability needs the saving of imperative maps. Each of these rules has related with it a sustainability theoretical account ( e.g. stable clime, sustainable crop, critical burden of pollution for an ecosystem, criterions of air or H2O quality to support human wellness ) and a figure of likely markers of environmental force per unit area ( e.g. discharges ) or environmental province ( e.g. concentration of pollutant ) to demo whether the criterion is at present being acted in conformity with with. Economic sustainability depends on the care of the capital stock. ( Daly, 1990, 1-6 ) Decision It seems improbable that it will of all time be possible to build a fixed set of societal and economic agreements that would be for good sustainable in environmental and other footings, given that the universe itself alterations and evolves. Speciess develop, flourish and perish, the composing of the ambiance alterations, and the dynamically-interrelated web of relationships that constitutes the planetary ecology bit by bit transforms over clip, thereby altering the ecological parametric quantities within which the homo species has to run. The development of biological and ecological systems on this planet was and is a contingent and heuristic procedure. It is improbable that the visual aspect of the human species, for illustration, was an inevitable result of the procedure of development, merely as the continued endurance of the human species is in no sense guaranteed. There have been a figure of points in the history of this planet at which events could likely hold taken a differen t bend, and at that place will likely be many more such points in future. It is impossible to extinguish all hazard in such a contingent procedure. It is likely more accurate, hence, to believe in footings of cut downing instead than extinguishing the overall hazard to which the human species might be exposed, and of cut downing the figure and impact of activities agreed to be unsustainable instead than taking for a definable province called sustainability. In order to make this, it will likely be necessary to command peculiar activities, by curtailing actions, for illustration, that place undue force per unit area on peculiarly sensitive or critical ecological maps. The key to accomplishing sustainable development, hence, is to understand and determine the interaction between complex adaptative natural systems and soft socio-economic systems in order to guarantee that we ever remain within our survival part at the intersection of the survival parts of all the systems on which we are dependent ( Bergstrom, 1990, 215-228 ) . Of class, the nature of this interaction between natural and socio-economic systems is itself invariably germinating, as species regenerate or become nonextant, resources are exhausted or new militias discovered, societal and economic systems expand and prostration and new engineerings are developed, disseminated and superseded. Thus both jobs and solutions are dynamic.

Indentured servitude Essay

Indentured servitude was considered a fine replacement for slavery, rising as slavery fell out of favor in many of the European countries. However, despite the rules that were out in place, they were often changed and didn’t follow the what could be considered the lowest form of humanity. Indentured servitude was used instead of slavery, but in the end, it was almost the same affliction. David Northup’s Doc 4 compares directly with Doc 3, 6, and 9. They show almost just the sheer amount of indentured servants that were shipped for the purpose of hard labor. All three documents are purely data and can be considered un-bias, trustworthy sources. In Doc 3 it is hugely visible that a massive amount of servants are sent to the Caribbean such as Trinidad and plantations in Suriname from India, a British colony. Doc 4 backs up this information as well as provide a huge number of455,000 people bent sent from India to the ‘Spice Islands’, Mauritius. Doc 6 shows tha t many of these indentured servants were previous slaves, or Asian Indians, whom the British considered below their station. Doc 9 also shows this huge number of indentured servants in Mauritius, showing that 71% of the population was Asian Indian, as well as the population of Trinidad being 33% Asian Indian. This information may not seem prevalent, but when compared to the stark contrast of Doc 7 and Doc 8. Doc 7 is an official document from the British Guiana Indenture Agreement from 1895. The document itself is a sign-up sheet that the servant would sign to agree to conditions that he trusted were to be followed until the end of his term, which lasted 5 years. This agreement states that work is every day except Sundays and Holidays and work will be 7 hours in the field or 10 in the buildings. However in Doc 8 an indentured servant complains about the conditions of his work. He works from 5:30 to 8:30, which is 15 hours total, and must work on Sundays till 2:00, which is 8 hours and 30 minutes. This amount of work is double the promised 7 hours, and even more than the normal hours on a day in which they weren’t to work at all. This was a gross abuse of rights and scholars even knew it, but people still didn’t see them as ‘people’ but workers. Doc 1 and 2 shows this. At first it was drafted just as the necessity of importation of foreign labor, but grew into a huge problem. The natives couldn’t keep up with the work and more and more immigrants were needed to keep up a study supply of sugar. However, it wasn’t as what one could call, nice, as it sounded. They were machines.  Indentured servant were not voluntary immigrants, but they weren’t slaves. They were raised, with pain, much like recruits for military service. Indentured servitude was indeed not a slavery of people, but it was the outcome of slavery and led to something very similar. People were worked to the bone and foreigners were pulled in to tiny islands just to maintain a steady flow of sugar and other rich resources. I believe Doc 5 was completely unnecessary and would have preferred another document with another account of mistreatment, or a change of time graph of indentured servants, or a change over time graph of slaves to indentured servants.

Reflecting journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reflecting journal - Essay Example This particular health services promotion and education philosophy is likely doomed to failure as it relates to achieving its intended outcomes, due to human behavioural characteristics inherent in some who are addicted to drugs, such as genetic factors in some addicted groups and psycho-social mechanisms related to those with addictive personalities. The informational portion of the study indicates potential effectiveness associated with informing the IDU population about the risks of heroin overdose and how to curb its cravings through halving methods. The campaign is, in many ways, modelled after a respected model in psychological reprogramming referred to as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). In this treatment philosophy, the addicted patient receives knowledge and interventions between patient and counsellor as a means of altering maladjusted ways of thinking and acting. CBT focuses on retraining the patient to develop better thought processes, remove self-defeating behaviours and better cognition through rational adjustment (Rachman, 1997). The promotional literature developed for use in this campaign provides similar rationalization and cognition changes, but does not address psychosomatic responses that lead to drug use (i.e. past trauma, relationship histories leading to stress, etc.). There are too many variables involved with why an individual seeks heroin use to discount complex emotionally-based catalysts to expect this particular campaign to be successful. Furthermore, this study does not identify a particular target audience, thus does not appeal to individualized program opportunities. Up until the age of 24, the frontal cortex of the brain used for judgment has not fully matured for more rationalized decision-making (National Institutes of Health, n.d.). What this potentially leaves is a vast segment of the population under age 24 that may not respond to these risk

The Structure of Biological Membrane Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Structure of Biological Membrane - Essay Example However, membranes are not only passive barriers. They include a set of proteins specialized for promoting or catalyzing various cellular processes (Nelson & Cox 2004, p.369). Molecular transportation is the most important function of membranes facilitated by carrier and channel proteins (McKee 2004, p.62). General questions of transportation and channeling across biologic membranes are well considered in the encompassing textbooks of Lodish (2003, p.245-300), Nelson & Cox (2004, p.369-420), Kuchel & Ralston (1997, p.171-184), McKee (2004, p.353-366), Garrett & Grisham (1999, p.259-326), etc., in special monographs, e.g. Keizer (2000) and also in a variety of articles. All cells acquire from its environs the raw materials for biosynthesis and for energy production, and also release to its environment the byproducts of metabolism. Only some nonpolar compounds can cross the membrane unassisted. However, for polar or charged compounds or ions, a membrane protein is essential for transmembrane movement. Membrane transport mechanisms are vital to living organisms. Ions and molecules constantly move across cell plasma membranes and across the membranes of organelles. This flux must be regulated to meet each cell's metabolic needs. For example, a cell's plasma membrane regulates the entrance of nutrient molecules and the exit of waste products. Additionally, it regulates intracellular ion concentrations. Because lipid bilayers of membranes are generally impenetrable to ions and polar substances, specific transport components must be inserted into cellular membranes (McKee 2004, p.372). In the simplest cases a membrane protein facilitates the diffusion of a solute down its concentration gradient. However, transportation often occurs against a gradient of concentration, electrical charge, or both. In such cases, solutes must be "pumped" that requires energy. The necessary energy may come from ATP hydrolysis (i.e. directly), or may be supplied indirectly, e.g. in the form of movement of another solute down its electrochemical gradient with enough energy to carry another solute up its gradient (Nelson & Cox 2004, p.389; Garrett & Grisham 1999, p.296). Ions may also move across membranes via ion channels formed by proteins, or they may be carried across by ionophores, small molecules that mask the charge of the ions and allow them to diffuse through the lipid bilayer of membrane. With very few exceptions, the traffic of small molecules across the plasma membrane is mediated by proteins such as transmembrane channels, carriers, or pumps (Nelson & Cox 2004, p.391). So, ions cannot pass freely through the cell's phospholipid membrane. Instead, most ions flow through special channels built from multiple protein subunits. These subunits together form a pore across the membrane. Some channels are gated, fitted with proteins that act "as hinged doors, blocking the opening until

The Age of Discovery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Age of Discovery - Essay Example Specifically, whether the phrase Age of Discovery appropriately describes this era as the most significant age of human discovery; the rampant rush to imperialistic tactics by the invading nations and the consequences including the subsequent escalating slave trade. The Age of Discovery refers to the time in history when Europeans discovered the Americas. Explorers following the ships of Christopher Columbus found, on their own planet, a new land mass inhabited by humans. Of all mankind’s explorations, this period of discovery had the most impact on the future of the world’s collective societies. It caused the questioning of Christian religious dogma which encouraged the further use of critical thought on a widespread scale thus allowing society to advance both in knowledge and in the concept of human thought (Kreis, 2002). Until it was proved differently, church officials deemed it heresy to suggest the Earth was round because the Bible refers to the ‘four corners of the world.’ In addition, if God flooded the world and only Noah’s family survived, where did these people come from? The scientific boom that began in the 1600’s and continues to this day owes much to the Age of Discovery that preceded it. T he church was no longer able to stifle scientific knowledge following the events of this era. Additionally, the economy of Portugal, then Spain, Europe, and Asia among others experienced a revival due to the increasing slave trade and the lifestyle and cultural traditions of the native people of the ‘new world’ were forever altered. The term ‘discovery’ would indeed accurately describe this ‘age’ more so than any other era in human history. Simply finding the new land mass populated by humans would itself qualify the definition (Kreis, 2002).

Urban Planning Perspectives Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Urban Planning Perspectives - Essay Example In addition, regardless of the answers of the political authorities or stakeholders to the foregoing, additional fundamental planning principles or perspectives can be included. For instance, one planning principle that can be added is that urbanizing areas must also anticipate the needs of the future. Thus, for example, road widths must anticipate the traffic volumes of tomorrow and car volumes rather than the traffic volumes of the present. The needs assumed for planning must assume the needs of the future or perhaps a generation ahead rather than assuming only the needs of the current generation. The assumption on the demand for water, for example, must also factor in the needs of future generations rather than merely assume the needs of today. Planning must anticipate possible problems that can emerge. Another planning principle that will have to decided upon by political authorities pertain to what planning principle should be adopted by planning authorities pertaining to sustenance. Shall the planning authority assume national and/or international interdependence or sustenance or should the planning authority assume or adopt the principle of self-sufficient or self-sustaining urban areas? In general, urban areas have generally assumed that regions and areas are interdependent and, thus, did not attempt that all the needs of the city are satisfied by the urban area or the city itself. However, it is conceivable that we can find civil society groups lobbying that the city or urbanizing area adopt a planning principle aiming at self-sufficient urban areas or self-sufficient cities. The â€Å"self-sufficient† cities or urbanizing areas are supposedly able to acquire its sustenance entirely or solely from the city or the urbanizing area itself. Another planning principle that will have to decide by the political authorities in the urbanizing area or city is on the weight of function versus aesthetics in planning. Should the urbanizing area or city

Accounting case s Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Accounting s - Case Study Example The request of baker to be involved in the scheduling of employees and the discussion over the costs of the labor force also indicates cases of fraud. According to him, he thinks that maybe there is more money given in order to fund more experienced labor but someone and most probably the departmental manager uses the allocated funds to recruit less qualified labor at a cheaper cost bearing in mind that the department would still record high profits. Through the complaint that the departmental statement includes charges that are not related to the bakery also indicates that the baker is concerned by the fact that the departmental manager may be using the high profits from the bakery department in order to account for losses made in other sectors of the department. According to reliable operating statements, it is prudent for all the sectors in a department to have their statement in order to help analyze the effectiveness and the progress of the sector As clearly observed from the baker’s complaint, it is clear that there may be cases of fraud and mismanagement of funds going pun from the management of the department. It is, therefore, recommendable that the baker must be involved in decisions to do with the choice of labor. Despite the fact that his sector records high profits, more experienced labor s required in order to help produce more. It is only through an increase in the profits from the preceding year that will mark development and growth of the company. It is also recommendable that the baker must be involved in the making of the general statements for the department. The fact that there happens to be charges in his sector that are not related means that resources from the bakery sector are used to source other sectors. In order for a company to grow, each sector and department has to be accountable for its expenses. This makes it easier to realize the weaknesses and be able

The Future of Nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Future of Nursing - Essay Example Among the key contents of the report are recommendations by IOM on the future of nursing education in America. The report recommended that nurses should adopt the culture of full implementation of what they acquire during their education and training. American nurses should be proficient in their duties through the pursuit of education up to higher levels of learning to promote perfection, consistency, and coherence in nursing care. Recommendations outline in the report advocate full collaborating among physicians and other health care professionals in redesigning the health sector. Similarly, the report outlines enhanced information base for nurses, efficient labor planning, and improved data collection. The second recommendation of the report emphasized the need to revolutionize nursing education sector by achieving higher levels of education and training for all professionals. Recommended reforms in education are imperative in providing consistent and coherent academic progression in nursing education. Over the past, American nursing sector underwent several reforms aimed at enhancing the value of education for professionals. Reforms in nursing education are imperative in improving competence among professionals. Most reforms in American nursing education had positive impacts on the minimum level of education required for professionals before accreditation. For instance, reforms in the nursing sector outlined provision for a minimum of as Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree. IOM report recommended that at least 80 percent of nurses in every federal health care facility should have a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (Aiken, 2011). Reforms shifted the focus towards employing only nu rses possessing Bachelor of Science in Nursing. The change of demand to Bachelor of Science in Nursing has prompted revision of curricula in the institutions of higher learning providing the course. Apparently, most nurses in

Why Culture is Everything for Remote Teams Essay Example for Free

Why Culture is Everything for Remote Teams Essay Earlier this year I participated in a group to plan the Long Service Awards for the NHS. I am going to look at the group dynamics through the Tuckman Guide to Group Dynamics. Each year our NHS trust gives out Long Service Awards to staff who have 20,30 or 40 years service with the NHS. The awards are given out at a celebration buffet by our Chairman and the Executive Directors are in attendance. In order to prepare for the event, the HR assistants come together as a group with the band 4 in charge of the project. This year as part of my development I was in charge of the project. I had to bring the groups together and got through all the tasks from receiving the staff lists, organizing the event to being there on the day to make sure everything runs smoothly. Forming The team met and I explained the process of the Long Service awards, the different stages, and time frames. As a lot of the HRAs where new to the role, a lot of support was needed The HRA’s where each gives the staff for the Divisional Business Unit and the first stage would be to check all the staff on the list for 20,30 40 years services and contact them. I explained that this needs to be completed by the end of January so that numbers could be calculated to order for us to book the Room, Food, Frames, and certificates. Storming The team went back to their relevant DBUs and started to check staff service history and then contact staff. I found that at this time the HRA’s where at different stages. Some of the DBU’s where larger than others and so some HRA’s had more work but when they asked for help from others with less staff, the others would not help which caused conflict and negativity. We met up again to discuss what was happening and to make sure team was working and to see what we could do about the team members who had more work and to talk about more collaboration within the team. Norming We started meeting more and the team members got more involved making suggestions. I delegated out parts of the project. To the team and they were more focused and knew what needed to be done. I delegated out parts of the projects (i.e. checking on the prices of frames, vouchers, rooms, and food to get the best value for money). Performing On the day of the event, we arrived early to set up and make sure that everything arrived on time ticking items of on the checklist as they arrived. The awards were a great success, 120 staff showed up, there were a few issues which we dealt with on the day, where staff at gotten the wrong amount of years but all the staff enjoyed themselves. Adjourning At the end of the event, the executive Director congratulated us saying how everyone had to enjoy themselves. We pack up and went back to the office to sort through the rest of the certificates and vouchers for the staff who had not been able to attend and to talk through what we did that worked and what needed improvement. The major thing that did come out was more communication and meetings at the beginning to make sure the team knew what was expected of them and so help us all work as a team. Whilst the team was working on the Long Service Awards we had a few conflicts with the team. The first was at the beginning when staff that had smaller staff lists would not help those that had the larger lists. I resolved this using the collaborating mode of the Thomas Kilman Instrument, bringing the group back together and talking through the issues. Asking staff who had the capacity to help others. The second was later when we were meeting more often, one of the team did not drive and so it was talking her 1 Â ½ hours each way for meetings. This was resolved by using the compromising mode of the Thomas Kilman instrument by moving the meetings around the footprint of the Trust in the separate DBUs not just at Trust HQ and checking to see if any staff could offer lifts when required.

Classic Literature Essay Example for Free

Classic Literature Essay Writers also use a foil character as well as irony of circumstances. A foil character is used to create suspense because the reader doesnt know how the foil character will react in his situation, or how the other characters will react to him. Another element writers use is foreshadowing. Writers reveal some details in the story to lull the reader into thinking something is going to happen a certain way. However, when the writer uses irony of circumstances, the reader is caught off guard because the story didnt end the way the expected it. rs use foreshadow and irony of circumstances to create suspense in their stories. Kate Chopin uses foreshadow in her story Desirees Baby. In The Story of an Hour, she uses irony of circumstances. Lets first look at Desirees Baby. She uses foreshadowing to create suspense. Writers reveal certain things about characters to prepare the reader for the outcome. This creates suspense because the readers want to continue reading when they catch a glimpse of a character or the characters actions. Through these revelations, readers anticipate how the story will end, so they continue reading to find out what does happen. Kate Chopin uses foreshadow in Desirees Baby. When Desiree notices something different about her baby, she talks to Armand. He tells her that the babys coloring indicates only one thinghe is part black. Armand accuses Desiree of deceiving him. Chopin uses a certain passage to foreshadow things about Desiree that may reveal what will happen to the characters in the end. Desiree told Armand, Look at my hair, it is brown; and my eyes are gray, Armand, you know they are gray. And my skin is fair, Look at my hand; whiter than yours, Armand. These details show the reader that Desiree is lighter than Armand. The reader becomes confused and wonders what is happening. A writer uses foreshadowing to reveal certain details that lulls the reader into thinking a certain way. Then, through the use of another technique called irony of circumstances, a writer wants to surprise the reader at the end of the story by making an  unusual turn of events. At the end of the story, Chopin finally reveals that Armand is the one who is half white and half black and not Desiree. Just like Desirees Baby, Chopin uses irony of circumstances in The Story of an Hour. Mrs. Mallard is waiting of news about her husband, whom she thought might have died since he had been gone so long. When Mrs. Mallard is told that her husbands name is on the list of those who were killed, Mrs. Mallard is devastated. However, her attitude changes quickly because she is free to do what she wants. The reader is still held in suspense because he or she doesnt know what Mrs. Mallard is going to do until the end of the story. The reader is surprised when Mrs. Mallards husband shows up alive, and when Mrs. Mallard dies after seeing her husband. Even though Chopin uses foreshadowing, she still catches the reader off guard by using irony of circumstances.

Governance And Leadership Of Project Management Commerce Essay

Governance And Leadership Of Project Management Commerce Essay The purpose of this document is to describe and evaluate the governance structure and leadership approaches currently adopted by the LEGO Group; suggest new or additional governance structures and leadership approaches that could improve the companys performance; and a reflection on the propositions made in the latter half of this document. Table of Contents Background  [1]   The LEGO Group is a family owned toy manufacturing company founded by a Danish carpenter-turned-toymaker Ole Kirk Kristiansen during the great depression in 1932. The company manufactured wooden toys because of the declining demand for building houses and furniture. In 1934 Ole combined the Danish words leg godt meaning play well to form LEGO. Ole founded LEGO with the motto Only the best is good enough (he produced toys using high quality materials and workmanship) which is still used by the LEGO Group as a guiding principle. In 1947, after World War II, LEGO acquired a plastic mould injection machine, which allowed LEGO to expand its business operations to produce a relatively large volume of plastic and wooden toys, resulting in the production of the first LEGO bricks. In 1954, Godtfred Kirk Kristiansen (one of Oles sons), found an opportunity to create toy products that were able to connect with products in the toy manufacturing industry, resulting in the birth of LEGO play-sets. In 1958, LEGO patented the improved LEGO brick design, also the year when Godtfred took over the company due to the death of his father. Between the 1960s and 2000s LEGO continuously grew into one of the worlds top largest toy manufactures, by expanding; with international sales, new innovative play-sets, sports and media licence acquisitions (i.e. franchise films, basketball, hockey, soccer), LEGO magazine subscriptions, erecting a LEGOLAND theme-park, launching a LEGO website, and LEGO videogames. However, in the early 2000s, the company experienced a decline in sales and profit: in 2003 revenues dropped 30% and continued another 10% in 2004. To overcome this crisis LEGO underwent a governance change to resolve the problems in the pre-existing management. In 2004, Jà ¸rgen Vig Knudstrop (the director of strategic development) replaced the CEO at the time, and in his first action as CEO he arranged a team to analyse the companys supply chain operations, from product development to production and distribution. The team discovered that although the newer products represented a large portion of annual revenues, newer generation play-sets were more elaborately designed and generated less profit; product designers were creating products without total consideration for material and production costs; designers used their own vendors resulting in LEGO having to deal with over 11,000 suppliers; inefficiencies in the organisation of the plastic mould injection machines, since each machine was capable of producing every type of LEGO brick retooling was required, causing downtimes resulting production facilities operating at 70% capacity. To bring the company back on track the team: reduced their product line where necessary as well as reduce the selection of colours for designs by half; used production costs of each brick to reduce expensive products, in-turn reducing the amount of suppliers needed by 80%; designers were shown the impact of using existing bricks over creating new ones for future designs; certain plastic mould injection machines were assigned specific LEGO bricks on scheduled cycles to reduce downtimes and retooling costs. These changes to product development, production and distribution implemented by Knudstrops leadership resulted in the LEGO Group earning a profit of $72 million in 2005, with profits increasing by 240% in 2006. Introduction  [2]   The LEGO Group is a privately held company based in Denmark. The company is currently owned by the 3rd and 4th generations of the Kirk Kristiansen founding family: Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen (Oles grandson) and his three children. Ownership of the company is handled through KIRKBI (an investment company) and the LEGO Foundation: KIRKBI owns 75% while the remaining 25% is held by the LEGO Foundation. As of 2012, the LEGO Group manufactures toys in more than 130 countries, has approximately 10,000 employees and is the third largest manufacturer of toys in the world (in terms of sales) after Mattel and Hasbro. Governance  [3]   The LEGO Groups approach to governance is focused on combining the strengths and benefits of private ownership with the applicable elements from good corporate governance for listed companies (Jensen, 2012). The certain requirements from listed companies (from the Danish Stock Exchange) are not all compatible for a family-owned company (Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen is majority shareholder) while recommendations of corporate governance structure and board composition still apply. The LEGO Group maintains the importance of having a strong and competent board of directors, especially because of family-ownership. To support this, the company elects a chairman among independent board members to ensure professional board management. This process is regulated via: ensuring a diverse and complementary board composition; regular board self-assessments; competitive compensation; and clear specific rules mandated for each management body. Being a family owned company, the LEGO Group is exposed to risk through the handover of ownership across generations. The mediation strategy is to highly involve the next generation in company matters pertaining to ownership. Organisational Structure The LEGO Group uses a hierarchical top-down structure with five separate departments (see Appendix A, pp. 8), this structure centralises the companys management to a functional management structure which rests the authority with corporate management the corporate management consists of the CEO, the CFO and four Executive Vice Presidents (The LEGO Group, 2010, pp. 7). The centralised functional management structure ensures consistency in organisations, as a limited number of persons are in charge causing jobs to be simplified allowing employees to be highly specialised in their work since specialisation leads to operational efficiencies where employees become specialists within their own realm of expertise (BusinessMate, 2010). This form of governance however, can result in slow decision-making processes as decisions must pass through bureaucracy in order to get through to corporate management (Riley, 2012). A disadvantage of functional management structures is that it facilitates rigid communication between employees and corporate management: employees can feel unheard and excluded from decisions that directly affect them. This lack of involvement can be detrimental to the job satisfaction, motivation and productivity of the employees (Jones and George, 2006, pp. 53-54). Leadership The current CEO (Knudstorp) emphasises a decentralised and innovative-oriented approach in contrast to the existing structure. To implement this combined strategy Knudstorp uses a managing at eye level approach, which he defined as being able to talk to people on the factory floor, to the engineers, to marketers being at home with everyone (OConnell, 2009). Knudstorp achieves this through a relaxation of the top-down management style, allowing responsibility and decision making to be pushed as far down the hierarchy as possible (OConnell, 2009), much like McGregors (1960) Theory Y where collaboration within the company relies on leaders recognising the potential of their resources and how to realise that potential. Through the realisation of the Knudstorps leadership style the LEGO Group moved away from a hierarchical organisational structure to a flatter one with: cross-functional teamwork, employee involvement, more open communication lines and styles. With open communication whe re all the members of the company are in contact with each other in some way or another the company is able to have a stronger sense of community. The LEGO Group communicates its attitude to the responsibility of its employees through communication, health safety, people and culture policies and promises. Link between Project and Corporate Strategy  [4]   The LEGO Group uses an innovation matrix a tool developed within the company to help identify, allocate resources and coordinate different innovation activities (projects) for developing new products. The strategic coordination of innovation activities is led by a cross-cultural team: the Executive Innovation Governance Group (EIGG), they determine LEGOs innovation goals and strategy; define the new product portfolio; coordinate innovation activities ensuring they are mutually reinforcing; delegate authority; allocate resources; and evaluate results to ensure that all innovation activities support the corporate strategy. Using the innovation matrix allows LEGOs management to understand what; resources to allocate, risks to monitor; and selecting who is responsible for reviewing the innovation activities. The company divides its innovation activities into eight distinct types, and distributes the responsibility for them across four different areas of the company: functional groups; concept lab; product and marketing development; community, education, and direct. Overseen by the EIGG, the four areas work to achieve innovation activities (projects) that mutually reinforce each other while providing different degrees of innovativeness back to the company. Relationship with Stakeholders/Shareholders The LEGO Group emphasises a strong focus on ensuring the balance of the value created for the owners in comparison to the value creation for the remaining stakeholders such as: consumers, employees, customers and other partners. The company believes that creating value for the companys stakeholders will result in long term value creation for the owners. It is important for us to engage in respectful stakeholder dialogue by being transparent and ensuring an open and honest dialogue. It is fundamental to us that the relationship between our company and our host communities are based on trust, mutual respect, and a cooperative spirit. (Jensen, 2012). Shareholder Relationship The CEO is the head of the company, but it is a family-owned company controlled by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, the majority shareholder of KIRKBI: the investment company with 75% control of the LEGO Group (The LEGO Group, 2012). Due to this power structure, the central management does not have full control, meaning that final decision do not rest solely on the CEO, but with influence from the family shareholder. Internal Stakeholders Due to the organisational structure, employees have to report back to their respective managers. However, under Knudstorps leadership the looser control system provides employees more influence a factor which can work as a motivator. The employees in the LEGO Group are the building blocks of our success today. We strive to improve the well-being and job satisfaction of our employees. (Jensen, 2012). External Stakeholders In 2005, Knudstorp identified the significance of customer involvement in the product development process. Knudstorp found that the adult enthusiasts could articulate the product strengths and weaknesses that young children may sense but cant express (OConnell, 2009). The LEGO Group actively engages customers to participate in the design and creation of new products and ideas. Although they lose come control over its system, the company gains knowledge from its most valued consumers. Suggested Governance and Leadership In 2009, Knudstorp stated that the company was pursuing organic growth, and needed to change leadership style again to continue building sales volume. Knudstorp asserted that the change is necessary as the company had become risk averse while focusing on survival, and that they needed to become opportunity driven, which requires taking greater risks (OConnell, 2009). In 2011, Hasbro, one of the companys major competitors planned to launch a new product called the Kre-O, which was designed to be compatible with LEGO bricks (Anderson, 2011). This poses a significant threat to the company due to the size and brad power of Hasbro. To mitigate threats such as competition from new/existing sources, it is important for the LEGO Group to change its governance structure to help the company formulate a corporate strategy that allows the company to maintain market dominance and financial stability/success in the future. Governance Currently the LEGO Group has combined the behaviour and outcome oriented approach in the overall governance of the company: behaviour oriented organisations are indifferent to whether projects are managed in-house or externally so long as the process conforms with the companys policies; outcome oriented organisations manage projects internally through employees with a wider skillset (Mà ¼ller, 2009). The LEGO Group works with both internal and external designers as well as customers in product development (behaviour orientation) while having a board member or the EIGG overseeing the project management, and ensuring it fits in with the corporate strategy (outcome orientation). According to Mà ¼ller (2009) there are four governance paradigms, the: flexible economist, versatile artist, conformist and agile pragmatist. The LEGO Group currently falls under the versatile artist paradigm where the company prioritises the diverse user needs using project management methods to realise the requirements of a variety of stakeholders, as well as promoting high productivity. However, the company needs to migrate to a more behaviour oriented agile pragmatist paradigm, which also accounts for the needs of the diverse stakeholders, but allows for products to develop from core functionality; to include additional features; to enhance the flexibility and user-friendliness, especially when dealing with the gaming and computer entertainment products which include successful franchises such as LEGO Star Warsà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢, LEGO Batmanà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ and LEGO Harry Potterà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ (The LEGO Group, 2012). Leadership Although the current leadership style within the company is flatter with more open communication lines, the leadership is still quite bureaucratic, albeit the authority for decision making has been pushed down the hierarchy as much as possible, the structure remains top-down. The LEGO Group needs to be more flexible in their leadership approach, which according to Frame (2003) and Mà ¼ller (2009) bureaucratic leadership is the least flexible leadership style of the four: laissez-faire, democratic, autocratic and bureaucratic. The company may experience better performance if a democratic approach was adopted, as it allows for additional flexibility and builds on the existing flatter communication style. Reflection

tennis paper -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are several different aspects of playing and improving your tennis game. Different strokes, rules, boundaries and many other aspects make up the game of tennis. Over the next few pages, I will do my best to explain the forehand and backhand stroke, the serve and volley, the rules of tennis, and without a doubt the grandslam.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The forehand stroke is the most popular in tennis. Stand facing the net, knees slightly bent, weight evenly distributed and forward on the balls of your feet. The racket is held in front of your body, elbows in close and parallel to the ground. The racket is supported with your free hand. From the turn position, the racket goes back until it is parallel to the ground- the angle between forearm and racket still remaining the same. The butt of the racket is pointing toward the net and the racket is on edge. The ball is contacted opposite the left leg, approximately waist high; the arm is relatively straight and the wrist firm. The follow through is a long, continuous sweeping motion finishing high with the racket butt opposite the left eye, (for right handers). The backhand is for the most part very similar just reversed. Tilt the face of your racquet down more on your backswing. Your racquet face naturally opens up (tilts upward) as you swing forward. You need to start your swing with it facing somewhat downward in order for it to end up at vertical as it meets the ball. Hold your racquet face vertical at the point where you normally meet the ball, then, without turning your wrist(s), pull the racquet back to your normal backswing position. It should face somewhat downward, and that's the angle you want at the start of each swing. The serve is, to me, the best way to take advantage of your opponent. For players of average height, hard, flat serves have to just barely clear the net, or they will go long. Only very tall players can get hard, flat serves in consistently enough to make them pay off. Adding some topspin will increase your margin of clearance over the net to several times larger. The most preferred power serve among advanced players has a mix of topspin and slice. On the serve, the feet are flat, the ball is tossed slightly over the head and out in front of the body. The forehand motion is used only straight over the top of your head. The volley becomes most ... ...1988) are the only three women's tennis players to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in one year. Pete Sampras is tennis's all-time biggest money winner with over $40 million in career earnings. Helen Wills Moody, whose serious demeanor on the court earned her the nickname â€Å"Little Miss Poker Face†, finished the year as the no. 1 ranked women's tennis player nine times, including seven years straight from 1927 to 1933. In 1997, 16-year-old Martina Hingis became the youngest women's tennis player to be ranked no. 1 in the world since the rankings began in 1975. One of the most difficult accomplishments in professional tennis is winning all four of these tournaments. These tournaments are therefore known as the Grand Slam tournaments, and rank as the most important tennis tournaments of the year in the public mind as well as in terms of the ranking points and prizemoney awarded for performances in them. Though it may seem like tennis is entirely too complicated, it can be one of the most fun sports to play. Even if you’re not that good at the game, you still get great exercise, keeping you in shape. If you’ve never played tennis, start. And if you’ve played before, don’t ever stop.

Heathcliff as Byronic Hero of Emily Brontes Wuthering Heights Essay

Heathcliff as Byronic Hero of Wuthering Heights      Ã‚   It is difficult if not impossible to find a character in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights that is 100% convincing as the hero -- until one applies the qualities of the Byronic hero.   Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When considering Wuthering Heights Heathcliff immediately jumps to mind as the villainous character.   Upon his return he wickedly orchestrates Hindley's economic demise and takes control of the Heights.   He attempts to win Catherine, now a married woman, back and when that fails takes in marriage Isabelle Linton, Edgar's sister, with the sole intention of torturing her as a way of avenging himself on Edgar for marrying the woman he loved.   When Hindley died Heathcliff took his son, Hareton, in order to treat him as cruelly as Hindley had treated Heathcliff, thus taking his revenge on Hindley.   To further punish Edgar, Heathcliff kidnaps Cathy, forces her to marry his son, Linton, and in so doing gains possession of Thruschcross Grange and has the authority to treat Cathy as he desires.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Heathcliff obviously has a nasty vengeful side but that makes his character perfect to bear the mantle of the Byronic hero.  Ã‚   He rebels against the social order in his world by attempting to defy Hindley and associate with Catherine and later in his attempt to woo her from Edgar's arms and home and make her his own.   He is very definitely self-destructive and cares for no one but himself and Catherine, which at times seem debatable.   His passion in life is not life but to avenge himself upon everyone that has ever slighted him.   He systematically destroys the lives of the people who hurt him but he refuses to stop there - insisting upon further punishing those individuals through... ...nder the earth until he can join her in death so that he need not endure a single day without the knowledge of her close by.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   All of Heathcliff's actions sprung from his desire to be with Catherine.   When he was denied this, primarily because of his social standing and background, he sets about to ruin the lives of those who assume they are better than he because of their position in society.   Heathcliff cannot be categorized a villain but rather is dubbed Byronic Hero and to some extent, the victim of a spoiled manipulative brat.    Works Cited Damrosch, David, et al., ed.   The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Vol. B.   Compact ed.   New York: Longman - Addison Wesley Longman, 2000. Bronte, Emily.   Wuthering Heights. Norton Critical ed.   3rd ed.   Ed. William M. Sale, Jr., and Richard J. Dunn.   New York:   W. W. Norton, 1990.   

Oz/Management Information Systems

Oz/Management Information Systems, 6th edition Part Case Projects Part 1, â€Å"The Information Age† 1. Review the Gardeners+ part- and chapter-opening cases. Make a list of the inputs, processing, and outputs the owners must do. Now, armed with your list, go online to research a computer system—computer, printer, and any peripheral equipment—that you think will meet Gardeners+’s needs. Place that information in a spreadsheet that could be attached to the â€Å"Financial† section of Gardeners+’s business plan.Remember, the banker will review the plan to determine the business’s funding needs. 2. Gardeners+ constantly needs to review its business to come up with new ideas to compete in the gardening business. Review Figure 2. 1 on page 43 of the book, which lists eight ways to gain a competitive advantage. You, Amanda, Mary, and Ed will be meeting to generate some strategic plans for maintaining Gardeners+’s existing business and expanding into new areas. Do some research online or in business magazines to see how technology is being used in the gardening industry.Brainstorm some new uses for technology, too. For example, restaurants could give customers electronic menus and allow them to check items off electronically on a tablet PC. Come up with two new ideas for Gardeners+ to remain competitive. 3. Chapter 3 focuses on the use of information technology in various business functions. Review the business functions that Gardeners+ needs to carry out and make a list. Go online to research an application that will support as many of Gardeners+’s functions as possible. Explain why you believe this application is a good choice.

A Brief Look at the Quality of a Translation Essay

Abstract The article is an evaluative work on a translation of Faulkner’s Sanctuary by Farhad Qebraii. To do so the standard norms are got from Blum Kulka’s article â€Å"shifts of cohesion and coherence in translation† and the level of accepted changes through the translation is considered. The translation by Qebraii is accepted as a qualified one based on the factors analyzed through the paper. Introduction Through the process of translation some changes occur within the form (Surface Structure) and the meaning components (Deep Structure) of the source text. These changes are considered to be inevitable in translation. Due to the differences in the grammatical structures and linguistic features of languages there seem a logical reason for such a phenomenon . In 1986, Shoshana Blum-Kulka in her article ‘Shifts of cohesion and coherence in translation’ went through the changes (shifts as she calls) in translation. She made a comparison between the structure of the source and that of the target language and elaborated on the logical shifts that may occur through the process of translation. Here, the aim of the evaluation is to assess the quality of the translated version of the work ‘Sanctuary’ by William Faulkner. To do so, the structural features of both English and Persian language (as SL&TL) should be investigated and based on that and the concept of Blum-Kulka’s article assess the quality of translation. According to what Blum-Kulka says in her article, the negotiation of meaning between different parts of a text is based on the assumption that subsequent turns are related to each other in Coherent ways. This is the covert relationship between the parts, but there is another unity, visible in the surface structure of the text, which is called Cohesion. These two elements change through the translation process to naturalize the target text. But sometimes the high level of changes brings about some mismatches between TT and ST which lower the quality of translation. The overall purpose of this paper would be detecting these aspects from BlumKulka’s view point. Whether the translation is qualified or not is somehow a subjective matter just because of the unique elements belonging to translation. From the very beginning, there have been conflicts among those who regard translation as a work of art and those with scientific approaches. There have been too many translations with high level of acceptability and, when checked, no signs of newly arrived norms for translation. These all indicate that in this field there seem not to exist a categorical law and what is taken as a qualified translation in artistic viewpoint may lack the quality of a good work in scientific scope. Methodology To evaluate the quality, there would be one by one comparison between the meaningful units of both ST and TT of the work. These all would be done with regard to linguistic features of both English and Persian. To do so, in discussion section of the paper there would be a brief explanation about the linguistic features ( specially grammatical points) of both languages to clarify some necessary points. To a further study and in a more precise way there would be several exemplifications and for each enough supporting ideas based on Blum-Kulka’s article. Finally, the conducted work would lead to an eventual conclusion to show the quality of the work based on the factors mentioned within the paper. Discussion Over a long period of time there have been too many discussions on the notion of translation. Whether it is an art or a science, or maybe a mixture of both has been the fundamental issue of majority of the cases. If the literature is reviewed, there seem to be no clear criterion to clarify the notion of translation. Here, I want to offer my own understanding of the matter. To the best of my knowledge due to the fact that when translating we deal with several subjects such as culture, history, scientific issues, linguistic features of languages, and semantic structures of both ST and TT, the translator should have general knowledge of both source and target language. This means that for sure translation is partly a science because the translator is supposed to have a complete knowledge of both languages. But there is a significant point here which deals with artistic aspect of the matter. Imagine there is a peace of poem or other sort of literary text which is to be translated. Here the translator is expected to consider both semantic and syntactic structures of the source text along with the unwritten sense and emotions of the poem which are to be instilled by the other elements in the structure of the work. If the translator loses the artistic sense of the work through the process of translation the final work would be regarded as an ordinary and not highly qualified work because no special attention has been paid to the extra linguistic features of the work. So to evaluate the translated work of a text some fundamental cornerstones should be regarded. First the translator must determine the text. By this he can choose the correct translation method regarding the text structural features. Then and with respect to the method the translator starts the work. Now the final work must observe some necessary cornerstones of a qualified translation if the steps and the notions are regarded. In this article the main purpose is to look at the translating elements of the work Sanctuary by William Faulkner with respect to Blum Kulka’s article and assess the quality of the translation. To do so first there is a brief look at the structural traits of both Persian and English as two ends of the work and then find some examples from the texts to clarify the notion. At the next step the level of the correctness is evaluated based on Blum Kulka’s article about cohesion and coherence. Finally the work is evaluated according to the factors mentioned through the paper. In English it is usual to find wide variety of complex sentences with highly descriptive adjectives within different sorts of texts, and specially novels. This is while in Persian due to grammatical structure of the sentences there seem not to be such a case and, except for some high literary texts, in majority of the cases there occur more clearly written sentences in a simple form. This significant difference brings about some mismatches through the process of translation. More often than not Persian translators try to break the complex structures of the long English sentences into more concise and highly clear sentences in their translation. In the work Sanctuary William Faulkner does not use complex sentences and transfers the intentioned sense by some crystal clear sentences but when checked we can get that Qebraii, the translator, has professionally transferred the original sense by making the most approximate sentence structures which are really like the source ones. Some examples are made here: 1. His face had a queer, bloodless color, as though seen by electric light; against the sunny silence, in his slanted straw hat and his slightly akimbo arms, he had that vicious depthless quality of stamped tin. ? . ? . In this part of the translation we can clearly find out that the translator has tried his best not to miss the original surface structure of the sentence by following the form of the English version in Persian structure. He has done this in a very precise and accurate way and there seem to be only a nuance of difference in the translation version of the work. But it seems that Mr Qebraii has devoted the sense for the surface structure of the work where he misses some pieces of messages in his translations. Look at the part â€Å"His face had a queer, bloodless color†¦Ã¢â‚¬  here the translator keeps the original structure remained in the translation but the sense is not transferred thoroughly. Bloodless is translated as â€Å"? † which seems not to be an accurate equivalence. It was better to use more artistic phrase instead of this emotionless correspondence. Here Mr Qebraii has paid too much attention to the structure rather than the message and the sense. Or â€Å"sunny silence â€Å" is rendered as â€Å"? † the same story happens here. 2. The other man’s coat was still across his ar. He lifted his other hand toward the coat, out of one pocket of which protruded a crushed felt hat, from the other a book. ? . . ? The grammatical structure of the source text is remained untouched through the process of translation. We have the most approximate structure in the translated version along with clear understanding of the sentence in which there is the same message as the original. This indicates that the translator has been successful in transferring both the structure and the sense of the source text. At the last part of the sentence we see the phrase â€Å"a book† which appropriately is transferred into Persian with the exact surface structure and sense and also the form of the sentence is kept untouched. In above mentioned examples we can draw the conclusion that with regard to the structural differences between Persian and English and the form of the sentences in these two languages the translator has been so successful in keeping the form of the sentences identical in both versions, the original and the Persian translation of the work. Now we refer to Blum Kulka’s article. According to what she suggests in her article, in a text there are two significant notions; cohesion and coherence by name. Cohesion is an overt relationship holding between parts of the text, expressed by language specific markers. Coherence, on the other hand, means a covert potential meaning relationship among parts of a text, made overt by listener or reader through the process of interpretation. On the both levels there exist differences between the languages. When a text is translated from one language into another the level of text coherence or cohesion is changed based on the structural features of the target language. These changes are considered to be logical to some extent. But if the level of shifts are too much the translation would be classified as an under  standard translation and the quality would be in a low level. Through the following part the shift in Cohesion and the Coherence of the texts will be detected. Coherence: As pointed out by Hallyday and Hasan (1976) cohesion ties do much more than provide continuity and thus create the semantic unity of the text. Particularly in literature, the choice of cohesive markers can serve several functions in the text. Accordingly the translator is supposed to observe the accepted level of shifts through his translation which is due to language differences. To some extent the shifts in cohesion is acceptable but if the changes are too much the translation would be of low quality. In this point of the paper we want to take a look at the coherence of the sentences of the work Sanctuary and that of its translation â€Å"? † by Farhad Qebraii. As mentioned earlier, coherence is not a clear notion and does not have a visible marker in the text. Any audience or reader will get the semantic relationship between the text components through some sorts of interpretations. We all know that any component in the text has a relationship with the other components and they all get together to transfer a unified message. Now if the subcategorized elements in the texts are changed due to translation process there may emerge a mismatch between the source and the target text. These changes may occur due to cultural, historic, or lingual differences in languages. In sanctuary there seem to be no cultural factors which cannot be translated into Persian and Qebraii has transferred somehow the all message completely into Persian. So we can say that this translation is highly qualified from the coherence point of view. Cohesion: On the level of cohesion, shifts will occur through the translation in a way that the translation seems to be more explicit than the original work and this is common in almost all the cases. But for a translation to be of high level of quality the translator should try his best to keep the unwritten messages and covert factors untouched and do not use too much terminology to express the meaning explicitly. In the work Sanctuary the author has made concise sentences to bring about succinctness and beauty in his text. We see that the translator has kept this factor remained in the target text. As an example, Qebraii has translated the part â€Å"The other man stopped his hand. †it’s a book† to â€Å"?. ) . ( Here we see that Qebraii has not made the translation more explicit rather he has shorten the length of the Persian sentence with regard to the message not be lost through the translation process. Of course in the above example there is a shift in the form of the sentence from active to passive which has exacerbate the quality of the translation because the meaning is not transferred appropriately. But altogether the sentences are formed in a way that they are similar to the original one. The crux of the matter is that no one can certainly put the label of good or bad translation to any work and it goes without saying that evaluation of translations is a subjective act. But based on the detections it seems that most of the translation criteria are observed in this case and farhad Qebraii has kept the structure and the message along with each other almost through the whole part of the work. Thus his work is ranked among the highly qualified translations even if there are some translation mismatches in his translation. Implications and Applications The crux of the matter is that, no progression is made when no evaluative research is conducted. Any developed phenomenon has its progressive background through which there has occurred variety of investigations. When checked and have a spectrum of works under control through the time, the deficiencies will be singled out and reformed. No one can claim that his work has been in its recent high position from the very beginning. Hence, there is a none written role of thumb necessitating us to discuss any work and come up with constructive comments on it . To cover what is said the translation of the ‘Sanctuary’ will be worked on and any weak and strong point will be mentioned through the main paper. It is hoped that such an assessment would influence the translators and make them try their best to create highly acceptable works and we see a developmental process in this field. References Khazaeefar, A. (1388). A textbook of literary Translation. Tehran: Samt Publication Newmark, P. (1988). A Textbook of Translation. Prentice Hall Blum-Kulka, Sh. Shifts of Cohesion and Coherence in Translation.

Relationship between Inflation and Interest Rate Essay

Interest and inflation are key to investing decisions, since they have a direct impact on the investment yield. When prices rise, the same unit of a currency is able to buy less. A sustained deterioration in the purchasing power of money is called inflation. Investors aim to preserve the value of their money by opting for investments that generate yields higher than the rate of inflation. In most developed economies, banks try to keep the interest rates on savings accounts equal to the inflation rate. However, when the inflation rate rises, companies or governments issuing debt instruments would need to lure investors with a higher interest rate. The Relationship between Interest and Inflation Inflation is an autonomous occurrence that is impacted by money supply in an economy. Central governments use the interest rate to control money supply and, consequently, the inflation rate. When interest rates are high, it becomes more expensive to borrow money and savings become attractive. When interest rates are low, banks are able to lend more, resulting in an increased supply of money. Alteration in the rate of interest can be used to control inflation by controlling the supply of money in the following ways: †¢A high interest rate influences spending patterns and shifts consumers and businesses from borrowing to saving mode. This influences money supply. †¢A rise in interest rates boosts the return on savings in building societies and banks. Low interest rates encourage investments in shares. Thus, the rate of interest can impact the holding of particular assets. †¢A rise in the interest rate in a particular country fuels the inflow of funds. Investors with funds in other countries now see investment in this country as a more profitable option than before. Inflation and Interest Rates: Effect on the Time Value of Money Inflation has a significant impact on the time value of money (TVM). Changes in the inflation rate (whether anticipated or actual) result in changes in the rates of interest. Banks and companies anticipate the erosion of the value of money due to inflation over the term of the debt instruments they offer. To compensate for this loss, they increase the interest rates. The central bank of a country alters interest rates with the broader purpose of stabilizing the national economy.  Investors need to keep a close watch on interest and inflation to ensure that the value of their money increases over tim e.

Funadamental and Technical Analysis of Nifty

Fundamental and Technical Analysis of Equity Market| Name :- Dhwani Shah Enrollment No :- 0901202144| Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can’t buy what is popular and do well. – Warren Buffett| A REPORT ON FUNDAMENTAL AND TECHNICAL ANALYSIS OF EQUITY MARKET BY SHAH DHWANI JITENDRA (0901202144) SUBMITTED TO:- Company Guide Mr. Bhavik Shah Advisory Head (Angel Broking Ltd) Faculty Guide Prof. Mayank Patel IBS Ahmedabad A Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement of the MBA Program of The ICFAI University, Dehradun DATE OF SUBMISSION: 15th May, 2010 Authorization The making of this project report is authorized by Mr Bhavik Shah ( Advisory Head) Angel Broking Ltd, Ahmedabad (India). I also express my honest confirmation in support of the fact that the said â€Å"Report† has neither been used before to fulfill any other purpose nor it will be submitted to any other person or authority in future. The report is submitted only as partial fulfillment of the requirement of the MBA Program of ICFAI University, Dehradun. Acknowledgements This research project has been a very enlightening and rewarding experience for me in an area that is of great personal interest. I would like to acknowledge and express my gratitude to three groups of people who provided generous amounts of support and cooperation during this scholarly endeavour. First, I have benefited greatly from the never-ending patience, guidance, and encouragement from my company guide Mr. Bhavik Shah. He gave me the support and knowledge required to complete this project in a successful manner. Thank you Bhavik sir for your never-ending encouragement and support for my scholarly pursuits. I would also like to thank Mr. Sachin Rajveer for his constant support and help. Second, I would like to thank Prof. Mayank Patel my faculty in-charge for providing me all required support from his side in terms of knowledge and encouragement, for being there whenever I have a question of doubt and to solve the same. Lastly, a Special vote of thanks to Prof. Saji Kumar, Prof. Prashant Saxena and My Parents for solving all the problems I faced in terms of sources required and for giving a constant encouragement and aspire me to go ahead and fulfil my goals. â€Å"Success in investing doesn't correlate with I. Q. once you're above the level of 25†¦ Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing. † – Warren Buffet Table of Contents Authorization3 Acknowledgements4 Abstract7 Introduction8 Purpose of the Study:8 Limitations of the Study:8 Method of Collecting Data:8 What Is Fundamental Analysis? 9 The Indian Economy:10 The Industries in the Economy:13 Financial Ratios:23 What Is Technical Analysis? 25 ABB. LTD34 ACC LTD. 35 AMBUJA CEMENT36 AXIS BANK LTD. 37 BHARAT HEAVY ELECTRICALS LTD.. 38 BHARAT PETROLEUM CORPORATION LTD. 39 BHARTI AIRTEL LTD. 40 CAIRN LTD. 41 CIPLA LTD. 42 DLF LTD. 3 GAIL (INDIA) LTD. 44 GRASIM INDUSTRIES LTD45 HCL TECHNOLOGIES LTD. 46 HDFC BANK LTD47 HERO HONDA MOTORS LTD. 48 HINDALCO INDUSTRIES LTD. 49 HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD. 50 HOUSING DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORPORATION LTD. 51 ITC LTD. 52 ICICI BANK LTD53 IDEA CELLULAR LTD. 54 INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES LTD55 INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CO. LTD. 56 JAIPRAK ASH ASSOCIATES LTD. 57 JINDAL STEEL & POWER LTD. 58 LARSEN & TURBO LTD. 59 MAHINDRA & MAHINDRA LTD. 60 MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA LTD. 61 NTPC LTD. 62 OIL & NATURAL GAS CORPORATION LTD. 63 POWERGRID CORPORATION OF INDIA LTD. 64 PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK65 RANBAXY LABORATORIES LTD. 6 RELIANCE CAPITAL LTD. 67 RELIANCE COMMUNICATION LTD68 RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LTD. 69 RELIANCE INFRASTRUCTURE LTD. 70 RELIANCE POWER LTD. 71 SIEMENS LTD. 72 STATE BANK OF INDIA73 STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA LTD74 STERLITE INDUSTRIES (INDIA) LTD. 75 SUN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES LTD. 76 SUZLON ENERGY LTD. 77 TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LTD. 78 TATA MOTORS LTD. 79 TATA POWER CO. LTD. 80 TATA STEEL LTD. 81 UNITECH LTD. 82 WIPRO LTD. 83 Recommendations84 Glossary85 References86 Abstract Stock Market the word itself is enough to speak about itself. It works on two emotions carried by individuals in the market greed and fear. Both emotions either lead to profits or losses. Majority of the participants deal into the market in a speculative manner, buying and selling based on, following the herd or market hear say. But remain an aware about the key reason why a particular stock moved up or fell down. If a stock moves suddenly these individuals say â€Å"Operator must have done that† but forget to find out the real reason. The reasons behind the screen for a company’s share prices going up or falling down, which are hidden in its financial performances and past movement history. These facts can be known by the Fundamental and Technical analysis. Therefore, this report is intended to guide these new entrants and the current market movers about Technical and Fundamental Analysis. To show how the same can lead to profit earning investments and not speculative losses. In this report the basics of Fundamental Analysis have been discussed and all the financial key ratios have been given for the Nifty50 for the 10 years time span from fiscal year 2000 to 2009. A brief idea about Industry and the over all economy is also given. On the bases of these Fundamental tools we can get to know the financial position of a company to back this Technical analysis is also been shown. Initially a few patterns of technical analysis have been explained with an example and later how the use of the same can be done to predicts the future price moves and further a few patterns existing in charts for the current time period have been given. Introduction Purpose of the Study: Is the Stock Market a safe option to invest my savings? For how much time horizon should I invest? What amount of returns should I expect? What are the ideal stocks for investment? This report consists of answers to all these questions which rise in an investors mind before entering into the stock market or when an existing investor buys a stock. For this purpose, Fundamental Analysis of Nifty50 is done for which the economic analysis of the Indian economy is done based on the Inflation Rate, GDPFC, Growth Rate and year on year returns of Nifty. Then a brief Industry analysis is done based on the Industrial Ratios and reason behind them. Finally, Company Analysis is done by analysing the Quality of Management, Product Range of the Company; Financial Strength based certain ratios like Price to Earnings Ratio, Dividend Yield, Price to Book Value, Earnings per Share, Market Capitalization and Market Returns. Following it, Japanese Candle Stick charts showing the chart patters of the market price for each of the 50 scrips are given based on the technical analysis tools and techniques. As Fundamental Analysis is only about identifying undervalued stocks or the booming sectors or companies, but it does not say anything about the timings of the unlocking of that undervaluation but its combination with Technical Analysis will give a better picture to the Investor. As the combination of both enables an investor in taking decisions based on Techno-Funda Analysis and find out the right entry and exit points. This project will even help in knowing the economy as Nifty is the barometer for the Indian Economy, through which the growth patterns and cyclical patterns of the various sectors can also be known, through which scrips of midcap and small can also tracked for the same sector. Limitations of the Study: * . Lesser importance is been given to Economic and Industry Analysis. * Views for investment have been given for short term. Method of Collecting Data: Secondary Data is been used in this project report. This Secondary Data is been collected from reliable sources like the Company Sites and the NSE Site for the Company Data and Indian Bullion, Reserve Bank Of India, and Fimmda Sites for the Industry and Economic Data and for Technical Charts i. charts is been used. Detailed information about the sources is been given in referencing. What Is Fundamental Analysis? Fundamental analysis is a method of evaluating  a security  that entails  attempting to measure  its intrinsic value by examining related economic, financial and other qualitative and quantitative factors. Fundamental analysis is an attempt to study everything that can affect the  security's value; including macroeconomic factors (like the overall economy and industry conditions)  and  company-specific factors (like financial condition and management). There are two approaches to Fundamental Analysis Top-Down Approach and a Bottom-Up Approach. * Top-down approach: In this approach, an analyst investigates both international and national economic indicators, such as GDP growth rates, energy prices, inflation and interest rates. The search for the best security then trickles down to the analysis of total sales, price levels and foreign competition in a sector in order to identify the best business in the sector. * Bottom-up approach: In this approach, an analyst starts the search with specific businesses, irrespective of their industry/region. The end  goal of performing fundamental analysis  is to produce a value that an investor  can compare  with the security's current price, with the aim of figuring out what sort of position to take with that security (underpriced=buy, overpriced=  sell or short). Benefits of Fundamental Analysis: * Identifying the intrinsic value of a security. * Identifying long term investment opportunity, as it involves real time data. Drawbacks of Fundamental Analysis: * Too many economic indicators and extensive macroeconomic data can confuse novice investors. * The same set of information on macroeconomic indicators can have varied effects on the same currencies at different times. * It is beneficial only for long term investments. Steps involved in Fundamental Analysis: * Macroeconomic analysis, which involves considering currencies, commodities and indices. Industry sector analysis, which involves the analysis of companies that are a part of the sector. * Financial analysis of the company. Valuation of any security is done through the discounted cash flow (DCF) model, which takes into consideration: * Dividends received by investors. * Earnings or cash flows of a company. * Debt, which is calculated by using the debt to equity ratio and the current ra tio (current assets/current liabilities). The Indian Economy: To understand the Indian Economy firstly we need to understand a few macroeconomic indicators, as macro economy is the environment in which all the firms operate. These indicators suggest the growth and development prospects of an economy as a whole. Given below are the indicators along with a brief description about them and even figures suggesting where the Indian Economy stands as per these indicators. Gross Domestic Product (GDP): The India GDP statistics is a summarization of all the differential factors that forms the basic foundation of the Indian economy. The India GDP statistics is a cumulative report of the performance of all the major parameters of the Indian economy. The statistics of the India GDP clearly reveals that the rise of the India GDP after the 1990s was due to the open economy phenomenon. The paradigm shift of Indian economy from that of a closed-market to open market was during the balance-of-payments crisis in the late ‘80s. The Government of India remained flexible – it opened up the Indian markets such that private investments could easily find an entry. GDP calculated at purchaser’s price is the total value calculated by all the domestic producers, adding any product taxes and deducting the subsidies, if any (these elements are excluded from the value of the products). Due to the change in the economic policy of India, more foreign direct investments (FDIs) and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) came into the country. This, in a way, strengthened the foundation the Indian economy the confidence index of overseas investors was at a high. With the stupendous growth of Indian Information Technology sector, Indian service industry and the Indian BPO sector, the Indian GDP shot up to 6% during the period from 1988 to 2003. It was after 2004, that the growth of the gross domestic product of India showed considerable improvements, mainly geared by the growth in the Indian service and manufacturing industry. The Indian GDP figure stood at an extraordinary 8. 5% during the period thereafter. But thereafter, what hit us was the global meltdown and it’s after impacts. India got swayed off; the immediate repercussion fell on the growth pattern of the India economy. The GDP growth rate started getting a setback and from then on it had only experienced a downward pattern. A dramatic improvement might not be expected, but a slow and steady growth path is surely desirable. Inflation: Inflation means a persistent rise in the price levels of commodities and services, leading to a fall in the currency’s purchasing power. Inflation Rate is the measure of inflation over a period of time. Inflation rate is calculated for any time period weekly, monthly or annual. The rising figures show us an increase in the rate of goods and services and a fall in the purchasing power of the consumer with the same level of incomes. Therefore an individual must invest keeping in mind the future rise in prices. Increasing inflation is really bad for retirement planning because the target keeps on getting higher and higher to pay for the same quality of life. In other words, your savings will buy less. As a result, you will need to save more today to pay for higher priced goods and services in the future. Since everything you buy today costs more, so you have less left-over income available to save. Inflation has another effect too, once people start to expect inflation, they will spend now rather than later. That's because they know things will only cost more lately. This consumer spending heats up the economy even more, leading to further inflation. This situation is known as spiraling inflation because it spirals out of control. Inflation is important if you are holding bonds or Treasury notes. These fixed price assets only give a fixed return each year. As inflation spirals faster than the return on these assets, they become less valuable. Price Inflation greatly effects time value of money (TVM). It is a major component of interest rates which are at the heart of all TVM calculations. Actual or anticipated changes in the inflation rate cause corresponding changes in interest rates. Lenders know that inflation will erode the value of their money over the term of the loan so they increase the interest rate to compensate for that loss. Nifty: India is a land of many cultures and languages. Its vibrancy and quest for growth throws up as many questions as it throws up new answers. With globalization people are constantly seeking broader horizon of knowledge and information. How much has the country prospered? How well is the economy doing? Nifty is the platform on which India finds these answers. The Nifty Index is a composite of the top 50 stocks listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). It is a simplified tool that helps investors and ordinary people alike, to understand what is happening in the stock market and by extension, the economy. If the Nifty Index performs well, it is a signal that companies in India are performing well and consequently that the country is doing well. An upbeat economy is usually reflected in a strong performance of the Nifty Index. A rising index is also indicative that the investors are positive about the future. The Nifty Index is based upon solid economic research. It is internationally respected and recognized as a pioneering effort in providing simpler understanding of stock market complexities. Nifty is the flagship index of NSE, the 3rd largest stock exchange in the world in terms of number of transactions (Stock Futures). Nifty has been used to represent S;P CNX Nifty, owned and managed by India Index Services and Products Ltd. (IISL), a joint venture between NSE and CRISIL. * Nifty index can be used by individuals to track market movements and compare performance of individual companies’ vis-a-vis market performance. * Shareholders evaluation of management decisions – performance of a company vis-a-vis the market generally reflects the perception of the investor. * Assist traders and market intermediaries to evaluate performance and sentiments across the market. Index funds can replicate Nifty indices to earn market returns. * Derivative trading – Investors can use Nifty indices for hedging their exposures in the equity markets. Benchmarking NAV performances – Nifty is the benchmark for performance of open ended and close ended funds. Given above, are the annual returns of S;P CNX Nifty. In the fiscal year ‘03-‘04 and ‘05-’06 Nifty has given annual returns of 81. 29% and 67. 13%. In the year ’08-’09 the time of Global Meltdown Nifty showed strength as compared to the global markets(NASDAQ) and showed instant recovery and rose up to 73. 9% in the fiscal year ’09-’10. The Industries in the Economy: IT Industry: The Indian information technology (IT) industry has played a major role in placing India on the international map. The industry is mainly governed by IT software and facilities for instance System Integration, Software experiments, Custom Application Development and Maintenance (CADM), network services and IT Solutions. According to Nasscom's findings Indian IT-BPO industry expanded by 12% during the Fiscal year 2009 and attained aggregate returns of US$ 71. 6 billion. Out of the derived revenue US$ 59. billion was solely earned by the software and services division. Moreover, the industry witnessed an increase of around US$ 7 million in FY 2008-09 i. e. US$ 47. 3 billion against US$ 40. 9 bil lion accrued in FY 2008-09 | IT Outsourcing in India: As per NASSCOM, IT exports in business process outsourcing (BPO) services attained revenues of US$ 48 billion in FY 2008-09 and accounted for more than 77% of the entire software and services income. Over the years India has been the most favorable outsourcing hub for firm on a lookout to offshore their IT operations. The factors behind India being a preferred destination are its reasonably priced labor, favorable business ambiance and availability of expert workforce. Considering its escalating growth, IBM has plans to increase its business process outsourcing (BPO) functions in India besides employing 5,000 workforces to assist its growth. In the next few years, the industry is all set to witness some multi-million dollar agreements namely: * A 5 year agreement between HCL Technologies and News Corp for administering its information centers and IT services in UK. As per the industry analysts, the pact is estimated to be in the range of US$ 200-US$ 250 million * US$ 50 million agreement between HCL Technologies and Meggitt, UK-based security apparatus manufacturer, for offering engineering facilities. * Global giant Wal-Mart has short listed there Indian IT dealers namely Cognizant Technology Solutions, UST Global and Infosys Technologies for a contract worth US$ 600 million. India's domestic IT Market: India's domestic IT Market over the years has become one of the major driving forces of the industry. The domestic IT infrastructure is developing contexts of technology and intensity of penetration. In the FY 2008-09, the domestic IT sector attained revenues worth US$ 24. 3 billion as compared to US$ 23. 1 billion in FY 2007-08, registering a growth of 5. 4%. Moreover, the increasing demand for IT services and goods by India Inc has strengthened the expansion of the domestic market with agreements worth rising up extraordinarily to US$ 100 million. By the FY 2012, the domestic sector is estimated to expand to US$ 1. 7 billion against the existing from US$ 1 billion. Government initiative in India's domestic IT Market: The Indian government has established a National Taskforce on IT with an aim of formatting a durable National IT Policy for India * Endorsement of the IT Act, which offers an authorized structure to assist electronic trade and electronic operations. Major investments in India's domestic IT Market: * According to Andhra Pradesh Government the state's SEZs and Software T echnology Parks of India (STPI) will witness an investment of US$ 3. 27 billion in the next few years. * VMware Inc, San Francisco-based IT firm is looking forward to invest US$ 100 million by 2010 in India. EMC Corporation's total Indian assets is expected to reach US$ 2 billion by 2014 Future of Indian IT Industry: The Indian IT sector persists to be one of the flourishing sectors of Indian financial system indicating a speedy expansion in the coming years. As per NASSCOM, the Indian IT exports are anticipated to attain US$ 175 billion by 2020 out of which the domestic sector will account for US$ 50 billion in earnings. In total the export and domestic IT sector are expected to attain profits amounting to US$ 225 billion along with new prospects from BRIC nations and Japan for its outsourcing operations. Software Industry: It's the technological revolution that at times brings surprising opportunities for some nations. India, though not among the front runners in terms of economic growth, has successfully utilized such opportunities in the revolution to become an IT hotspot. For the past several years, India has been an increasingly favored destination for customized software development. As a result, a number of software companies in India have come up. Not only the number of players has increased in the Indian IT market, but at the same time, Indian software companies have done considerably well in the global market. Such huge success of software companies in India has given birth to a new speculation – whether other developing countries should imitate Indian example and whether the success of India would constitute a competitive challenge to the software industry of the developed world or not. The Software Industry in India: With the huge success of the software companies in India, the Indian software industry in turn has become successful in making a mark in the global arena. This industry has been instrumental in driving the economy of the nation on to a rapid growth curve. As per the study of NASSCOM-Deloitte, the contribution of IT/ITES industry to the GDP of the country has soared up to a share of 5% in 2007 from a mere 1. 2% in 1998. Besides, this industry has also recorded revenue of US$ 64 billion with a growth rate of 33% in the fiscal year ended in 2008. The export of software has also grown up, which has been instrumental in the huge success of the Indian software companies as well as the industry. In fact, software export from India accounts for more than 65% of the total software revenue. The domestic software market largely depends upon sale of software packages and products, which constitute major part of revenues. Products account for almost 40% of the domestic market. On the other hand, more than 80% of revenue from software exports comes from software services like custom software development and consultancy services etc. Reasons behind Success of Indian software companies: There are a number of reasons why the software companies in India have been so successful. Besides the Indian software companies, a number of multinational giants have also plunged into the India IT market. India is the hub of cheap and skilled software professionals, which are available in abundance. It helps the software companies to develop cost-effective business solutions for their clients. As a result, Indian software companies can place their products and services in the global market in the most competitive rate. This is the reason why India has been a favorite destination for outsourcing as well. Many multinational IT giants also have their offshore development centers in India. IT Business Sectors: Most of the software companies in India are into varied types of business. There can be several types of business in the IT sectors: * Infrastructure Software: These include OS, middleware and databases. * Enterprise Software: These automate business process in diverse verticals like finance, sales and marketing, production and logistics. * Security Software * Industry-specific Software * Contract Programming Top Companies in India: There are plenty of software companies in India which have been doing well. However, some of the top Indian software companies can be listed as: * Tata Consultancy Services * Wipro Limited * Infosys * HCL Technologies Tech Mahindra * Patni Computer Systems * i-flex Solutions * MphasiS * L;T Infotech * IBM India Banking Industry: The growth in the Indian Banking Industry has been more qualitative than quantitative and it is expected to remain the same in the coming years, based on the projections made in the â€Å"India Vision 2020† prepared by the Planning Commission and the Draft 10th Plan, the report forecasts that the pace of expansion in the balance-sheets of banks is likely to decelerate. The total assets of all scheduled commercial banks by end-March 2010 are estimated at Rs 40, 90,000 crores. That will comprise about 65 per cent of GDP at current market prices as compared to 67 per cent in 2002-03. Bank assets are expected to grow at an annual composite rate of 13. 4 per cent during the rest of the decade as against the growth rate of 16. 7 per cent that existed between 1994-95 and 2002-03. It is expected that there will be large additions to the capital base and reserves on the liability side. The Indian Banking Industry can be categorized into non-scheduled banks and scheduled banks. Scheduled banks constitute of commercial banks and co-operative banks. There are about 67,000 branches of Scheduled banks spread across India. As far as the present scenario is concerned the Banking Industry in India is going through a transitional phase. The Public Sector Banks (PSBs), which are the base of the Banking sector in India account for more than 78 per cent of the total banking industry assets. Unfortunately they are burdened with excessive Non Performing assets (NPAs), massive manpower and lack of modern technology. On the other hand the Private Sector Banks are making tremendous progress. They are leaders in Internet banking, mobile banking, phone banking, ATMs. As far as foreign banks are concerned they are likely to succeed in the Indian Banking Industry. In the Indian Banking Industry some of the Private Sector Banks operating are IDBI Bank, ING Vyasa Bank, SBI Commercial and International Bank Ltd, Bank of Rajasthan Ltd. and banks from the Public Sector include Punjab National bank, Vijaya Bank, UCO Bank, Oriental Bank, Allahabad Bank among others. ANZ Grind lays Bank, ABN-AMRO Bank, American Express Bank Ltd, Citibank are some of the foreign banks operating in the Indian Banking Industry. Cement Industry: The history of the cement industry in India dates back to the 1889 when a Kolkata-based company started manufacturing cement from Argillaceous. But the industry started getting the organized shape in the early 1900s. In 1914, India Cement Company Ltd was established in Porbandar with a capacity of 10,000 tons and production of 1000 installed. The World War I gave the first initial thrust to the cement industry in India and the industry started growing at a fast rate in terms of production, manufacturing units, and installed capacity. This stage was referred to as the Nascent Stage of Indian Cement Industry. In 1927, Concrete Association of India was set up to create public awareness on the utility of cement as well as to propagate cement consumption. The cement industry in India saw the price and distribution control system in the year 1956, established to ensure fair price model for consumers as well as manufacturers. Later in 1977, government authorized new manufacturing units (as well as existing units going for capacity enhancement) to put a higher price tag for their products. A couple of year’s later; government introduced a three-tier pricing system with different pricing on cement produced in high, medium and low cost plants. Cement industry, in any country, plays a major role in the growth of the nation. Cement industry in India was under full control and supervision of the government. However, it got relief at a large extent after the economic reform. But government interference, especially in the pricing, is still evident in India. In spite of being the second largest cement producer in the world, India falls in the list of lowest per capita consumption of cement with 125 kg. The reason behind this is the poor rural people who mostly live in mud huts and cannot afford to have the commodity. Despite the fact, the demand and supply of cement in India has grown up. In a fast developing economy like India, there is always large possibility of expansion of cement industry. Cement Production and Growth: Domestic demand plays a major role in the fast growth of cement industry in India. In fact the domestic demand of cement has surpassed the economic growth rate of India. The cement consumption is expected to rise more than 22% by 2009-10 from 2007-08. In cement consumption, the state of Maharashtra leads the table with 12. 18% consumption, followed by Uttar Pradesh. In terms of cement production, Andhra Pradesh leads the list with 14. 72% of production, while Rajasthan remains at second position. The production of cement in India grew at a rate of 9. 1% during 2006-07 against the total production of 147. 8 MT in the previous fiscal year. During April to October 2008-09, the production of cement in India was 101. 04 MT comparing to 95. 05 MT during the same period in the previous year. During October 2009, the total cement production in India was 12. 37 MT compared to a production of 11. 61 MT in the same month in the previous year. The cement companies are also increasing their productions due to the high market demand. The cement companies have seen a net profit growth rate of 85%. With this huge success, the cement industry in India has contributed almost 8% to India's economic development. Technology Up-gradation: Cement industry in India is currently going through a technological change as a lot of up-gradation and assimilation is taking place. Currently, almost 93% of the total capacity is based entirely on the modern dry process, which is considered as more environment-friendly. Only the rest 7% uses old wet and semi-dry process technology. There is also a huge scope of waste heat recovery in the cement plants, which lead to reduction in the emission level and hence improves the environment. Recent Investments in the Indian Cement Industry * In a recent announcement, the second largest cement company in South India, Dalmia Cement declared that it's going to invest more than US$ 652. 6 million in the next 2-3 years to add 10 MT capacities. * Anil Ambani-led Reliance Infrastructure is going to build up cement plants with a total capacity of yearly 20 MT in the next 5 years. For this, the company will invest US$ 2. 1 billion. * India Cements is going to set up 2 thermal power plants in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu at a cost of US$ 104 billion. * Anil Ambani-led Reliance Cementation is also going to set up a 5 MT integrated cement plant in Maharashtra. It will invest US$ 463. 2 million for that. * Jaiprakash Associates Ltd has signed a MoU with Assam Mineral Development Corporation Limited to set up a 2 MT cement plant. The estimated project cost is US$ 221. 36 million. * Rungta Mines (RML) is also planning to invest US$ 123 million for setting up a 1 MT cement plant in Orissa. Automobile Industry: Driving the most luxurious car has been made possible by the stiff competition in the automobile industry in India, with overseas players gathering the same momentum as the domestic participants. Every other day, we have been hearing about some new launches, some low cost cars – all customized in a manner such that the common man is not left behind. In 2009, the automobile industry is expected to see a growth rate of around 9%, with the disclaimer that the auto industry in India has been hit badly by the ongoing global financial crisis. The automobile industry in India happens to be the ninth largest in the world. Following Japan, South Korea and Thailand, in 2009, India emerged as the fourth largest exporter of automobiles. Several Indian automobile manufacturers have spread their operations globally as well, asking for more investments in the Indian automobile sector by the MNCs. The figures show that the automobile sector in India has been growing robustly. The market shares of the different types of vehicles will clearly depict the demand pattern in this sector. Aluminum Industry: Aluminum Industry in India is a highly concentrated industry with the top 5 companies constituting the majority of the country's production. With the growing demand of aluminum in India, the Indian aluminum industry is also growing at an enviable pace. In fact, the production of aluminum in India is currently outpacing the demand. Though India's per capita consumption of aluminum stands too low (under 1 kg) comparing to the per capita consumptions of other countries like US ; Europe (range from 25 to 30 kgs), Japan (15 kgs), Taiwan (10 kgs) and China (3 kgs), the demand is growing gradually. In India, the industries that require aluminum most include power (44%), consumer durables, transportation (10-12%), construction (17%) and packaging etc. The Background: Though the existence of Aluminum was first established in the year 1808, it took almost 46 years to make its production commercially viable. The research work of several years resulted in extracting the aluminum from the ore. Aluminum is third most available element in the earth constituting almost 7. 3% by mass. Currently it is also the second most used metal in the world after steel. Due to the consistent growth of Indian economy at a rate of 8%, the demand for metals, used for various sectors, is also on the higher side. As a result, the Indian aluminum industry is also growing consistently. In FY09, the aluminum industry in India saw a growth of about 9%. The production of aluminum started in India in 1938 when the Aluminum Corporation of India's plant was commissioned. The plant which was set up with a financial and technical collaboration with Alcan, Canada had a capacity of producing 2,500 ton per annum. Hindustan Aluminum Corporation (Hindalco) was set up in UP in the year 1959; it had a capacity of producing 20,000 ton per annum. In 1965, a public sector enterprise Malco which had a capacity of 10,000 ton per annum was commissioned; by 1987, National Aluminum Company (NALCO) was commissioned to produce aluminum. It had a capacity of producing 0. 218 million ton. During the 1970s, the government started regulating and controlling the Indian aluminum industry. Restrictions in entry and price distribution controls were quite common in the Indian aluminum sector. Aluminum Control Order was implemented where the aluminum producers had to sell 50% of their products for electrical usages. However, in 1989, the order was removed as the government decontrolling was revoked. With de-licensing of industry in 1991, the liberal import of technologies and capital goods was started. The liberalization resulted in a growth rate of 12% of the industry, comparing to the growth rate of 6% during the 1980. Aluminum Production in India: India is world's fifth largest aluminum producer with an aluminum production competence of around 2. 7 million tones, accounting almost 5% of the total aluminum production in the world. India is also a huge reservoir of Bauxite with a Bauxite reserve of 3 billion tones. The Production: India lies at the eighth position in the list of leading primary aluminum producers in the world. India saw a significant growth in aluminum production in the past five years. In 2006-07, the production target of aluminum in India laid by the Ministry of Mines, Government of India was 1,153 KT, which was augmented to 1,237 KT in the next year (2007-08). Due to the growing demand from the construction, electrical, automobiles and packaging industry, the production of aluminum also hiked up. In FY 09, the total aluminum production in India was around 1. 35 tones. The Consumption: After a stagnant consumption of primary aluminum in India from the end of 1990s to 2002 (when the consumptions were between 500 – 600 KT), it started rising sharply since 2002. The consumption reached at 1,080 KT in 2006. The consumption of aluminum in India is dominated by the industries like power, infrastructure, and transportation etc. The Major Players: The Indian aluminum industry is dominated by four or five companies that constitute the majority of India's aluminum production. Following are the major players in the Indian aluminum industry: * Hindustan Aluminum Company (HINDALCO): Hindalco is the biggest player in the aluminum industry in India with around 39% of market share. An Aditya Birla Group flagship company, Hindalco has its aluminum plant at Renukoot in Uttar Pradesh. It has various aluminum products with a market share of 42% in primary aluminum, 20% in extrusions 63% in rolled products, 31% in wheels and 44% in foils. * Sterlite Industries: The aluminum business of Sterlite Industries Limited comprises of two Indian aluminum giants – BALCO and MALCO. While BALCO is a partially integrated, MALCO is a fully integrated producer of aluminum. Sterlite has got a market share of around 32%. * National Aluminum Company (NALCO): It is also one of the leading aluminum producers in India. Government of India has a stake of 87. 15% in this company. Its aluminum refinery is located at Damanjodi. It also has a smelter located at Angul, Orissa. Currently, NALCO is concentrating on a capex programme to increase its production from 345,000 tones to 460,000 tones. * Bharat Aluminum Company (BALCO) * MALCO * JINDAL Telecommunications Industry: The Communication Industry in India is one of the rapidly emerging sectors in India and is estimated to surface as the second biggest international telecom market. As per the report carried out by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Indian communication industry has registered a 3. 5% increase in its total telecom subscribers in December 2009. The sector touched 562. 1 million in its total number of subscribers within a month, against 543. 20 million in November 2009. The growth in communication industry was triggered by an increase in the revenues generated from both landline and mobile facilities. On December 31, 2009 the sector earned the revenue of USD 8. 56 billion. As per the Business Monitor International report, the nation is all set to include 8 to 10 million cellular phone subscribers on monthly basis. At this pace the communication industry is expected to encompass more than half of India's population i. e. 612 million cellular phone subscribers by mid 2012. In addition, as per a research carried out by Nokia, the Telecommunications sector is estimated to surface as the biggest driving component in India's GDP with a contribution of about 15. 4% by the FY2014. India as an emerging Value-Added Services Market: As per a research conducted by Stanford University, Indian mobile value-added services (MVAS) are expected to reach USD 2. 74 bn by the FY2010. To benefit from the emerging MVAS market in India, Reliance Telecommunications and Bharti Airtel Limited are all set to introduce online cellular phone applications in Indian retail stores. While Bharti Airtel will offer around 1,250 applications, Reliance Telecommunications' applications will soon be accessible to its GSM customers by Feb 2010. India as an emerging telecom equipment manufacturing Market: The manufacturing of Cellular phone in India is predicted to expand at an annual rate of 28. 3% till the FY 2011 which can be translated as a production of 107 million mobile handsets by 2010. The production would automatically generate profits and is predicted to increase at an annual rate of 26. 6% till 2011, reaching the target of USD13. billion. Chief Investments in the Communication Industry in India: Over the past one decade, the flourishing Indian Communication industry has been successful in drawing the attention of conglomerates that have invested and are willing to invest more in the sector. With the influx of new telecom giants in Indian market, the investments are likely to gain immense momentum: * Investment of USD 6 bn by Vodafone Essar for the next 3 fis cal years in order to expand its list of cellular phone subscribers to 100 million against the existing 40 million. By 2010, Reliance Communications (RCom) is expecting to increase the total number of telecom towers by constructing 56,596 telecom towers and attaining the preset target of 100,000. * Telenor, Norway based telecom giant has purchased 7% of shares in Unitech Wireless and now possesses 67. 25% by bringing in an investment of USD 431. 70 million * Indian government owned telecom player, BSNL will invest USD1. 17 billion in its WiMax scheme * A proposal of foreign direct investment worth USD 660. million by Federal Agency for State Property Management of the Russian Federation has been recently approved by the Indian government. The Agency would be acquiring 20% stake in Sistema-Shyam after bringing in the investment. * A USD 1 billion investment will be brought in by Tata Teleservices in its newly introduced GSM facility Tata DoCoMo. Future of Communication Industry in In dia: Indian Communication Industry has a flourishing future in its value-added services market. The pre-set target of the 11th plan from FY 2007 – 12 is to provide 600 million cellular phone connectivity aided by an investment of USD 74 billion. Moreover, it is estimated that by the FY 2012 the profits generated by Indian Communication Industry will touch USD 55 billion against the current USD 31 billion. Pharma Industry: The pharmaceutical industry in India is among the most highly organized sectors. This industry plays an important role in promoting and sustaining development in the field of global medicine. Due to the presence of low cost manufacturing facilities, educated and skilled manpower and cheap labor force among others, the industry is set to scale new heights in the fields of production, development, manufacturing and research. In 2008, the domestic pharma market in India was expected to be US$ 10. 76 billion and this is likely to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 9. 9 per cent until 2010 and subsequently at 9. 5 per cent till the year 2015. Industry Trends: * The pharma industry generally grows at about 1. 5-1. 6 times the Gross Domestic Product growth * Globally, India ranks third in terms of manufacturing pharma products by volume * The Indian pharmaceutical industry is expected to grow at a rate of 9. 9 % till 2010 and after that 9. 5 % till 2015 * In 2007-08, India exported drugs worth US$7. billion in to the US and Europe followed by Central and Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America * The Indian vaccine market which was worth US$665 million in 2007-08 is growing at a rate of more than 20% * The retail pharmaceutical market in India is expected to cross US$ 12-13 billion by 2012 * The Indian drug and pharmaceuticals segment received foreign direct investment to the tune of US$ 1. 43 billi on from April 2000 to December 2008 Challenges: Every industry has its own sets of advantages and disadvantages under which they have to work; the pharmaceutical industry is no exception to this. Some of the challenges the industry faces are: * Regulatory obstacles * Lack of proper infrastructure. * Lack of qualified professionals * Expensive research equipments * Lack of academic collaboration * Underdeveloped molecular discovery program * Divide between the industry and study curriculum Government Initiatives: The government of India has undertaken several including policy initiatives and tax breaks for the growth of the pharmaceutical business in India. Some of the measures adopted are: * Pharmaceutical units are eligible for weighted tax reduction at 150% for the research and development expenditure obtained. Two new schemes namely, New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative and the Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Research Program have been launched by the Government. * The Government is contemplating the creation of SRV or special purpose vehicles with an insurance cover to be used for funding new drug research * The Department of Pharmaceuticals is mulling the cre ation of drug research facilities which can be used by private companies for research work on rent Pharma Export: In the recent years, despite the slowdown witnessed in the global economy, exports from the pharmaceutical industry in India have shown ood buoyancy in growth. Export has become an important driving force for growth in this industry with more than 50 % revenue coming from the overseas markets. For the financial year 2008-09 the export of drugs is estimated to be $8. 25 billion as per the Pharmaceutical Export Council of India, which is an organization, set up by the Government of India. A survey undertaken by FICCI, the oldest industry chamber in India has predicted 16% growth in the export of India's pharmaceutical growth during 2009-2010. Key Players in the Industry: There are several national and international pharmaceutical companies that operate in India. Most of the country's requirements for pharmaceutical products are met by these companies. Some of them are briefly described below: * Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited is the biggest pharmaceutical manufacturing company in India. The company is ranked at the 8th position among the global generic pharmaceutical companies and has presence in 48 countries including world class manufacturing facilities in 10 countries and serves to customers from over 125 countries. Ranbaxy Laboratories 2009-2010 Q3 Net Profit Results showed a profit of Rs 116. 6 crores as compared to Rs 394. crores deficit, recorded during the corresponding period last fiscal. * Dr. Reddy's Laboratories manufactures and markets a wide range of pharmaceuticals both in India and abroad. The company has 60 active pharmaceutical ingredients to manufacture drugs, critical care products, diagnostic kits and biotechnology products. The company has 6 FDA plants that produce active pharma ingredients and 7 FDA inspected and ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified plants. Dr. Reddy's Q1 FY10 result shows the revenues of the company at Rs. 18,189 million which is up by 21%. During this quarter the company introduced 24 new generic products, applied for 22 new generic product registrations and filed 4 DMFs. * Cipla is an Indian pharmaceutical company renowned for the manufacture of low cost anti AIDS drugs. The company's product range comprises of anthelmintics, oncology, anti-bacterial, cardiovascular drugs, antibiotics, nutritional supplements, anti-ulcerants, anti-asthmatics and corticosteroids. Cipla also offers other services like quality control, engineering, project appraisal, plant supply, consulting, commissioning and know-how transfer, support. For the financial year 2008-09 the company registered an increase of 22% in sales and other income over the previous year. * Nicholas Piramal is the second largest pharmaceutical healthcare company in India. The brands manufactured by the company include Gardenal, Ismo, Stemetil, Rejoint, Supradyn, Phensedyl and Haemaccel. Nicholas Piramal has entered into join ventures and alliances with several international corporations like Cheissi, Italy; IVAX Corp; UK, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. , Allergan Inc. , USA etc. Glaxo Smithkline (GSK) is a United Kingdom based pharma company; it is the world's second largest pharmaceutical company. The company's portfolio of pharma products consist of central nervous system, respiratory, oncology, vaccines, anti-infectives and gastro-intestinal/metabolic products among others. On November 2009, the FDA had announced that the H1N1 vaccine manufactured by GSK would join the list of the four vaccines approved. * Zydus Cadila also known as Cadila Healthcar e is an Indian pharmaceutical company located in Gujarat. The company's 1QFY2010 results show the net sales at Rs880. cr which is higher than the estimated Rs773cr. The net profit was Rs124. 8cr which was increase of 39%; the increase was on account of higher sales and improvement in the OPM. Financial Ratios: Earnings per Share( EPS): The portion of a company's profit allocated to each outstanding share of common stock. Earnings per share   serves as an indicator of  a company's profitability. Calculated as : When calculating, it is more accurate to use a  weighted average number of shares outstanding over the reporting term, because the  number of shares outstanding can change over time. An important aspect of EPS that's often ignored is the capital that is required to generate the earnings (net income) in the calculation. Two companies could generate the same EPS number, but one could do so  with  less equity (investment) – that company would be more efficient at using its  capital to generate income and, all other things being equal, would be a â€Å"better† company. Investors also need to be aware of earnings manipulation that will affect the quality of the earnings number. It is important not to rely on any one financial measure, but to use it in conjunction with statement analysis and other measures. Price to Book Value (P/B): A ratio used to compare a stock's market value to its book value. It is calculated by dividing the current closing price of the stock by the latest quarter's book value per share. Also known as the â€Å"price-equity ratio†. Calculated as: A lower  P/B ratio could mean that the stock is undervalued. However, it could also mean that something is fundamentally wrong with the company. As with most ratios, be aware that  this varies   by industry. This ratio also gives some idea of whether you're paying too much for what would be left if the company went bankrupt immediately. Price to Earnings Ratio (P/E): A valuation ratio of a company's current share price compared to its per-share earnings. Calculated as: For example, if a company is currently trading at Rs. 43. 00 a share and earnings over the last 12 months were Rs 1. 95 per share, the P/E ratio for the stock would be 22. 05 (Rs43/Rs1. 95). In general, a high P/E  suggests that investors are expecting  higher earnings  growth  in the future compared to companies with a  lower P/E. However, the P/E ratio doesn't tell us the whole story by itself. It's usually  more useful to compare the P/E ratios of one  company to other companies in the same industry, to the market in general or against the company's own historical P/E. It would not be useful for investors  using the P/E ratio as a basis for their investment to compare the P/E of a technology company (high P/E) to a utility company (low P/E) as each industry has much different growth prospects. The P/E is sometimes  referred to as the â€Å"multiple†, because it shows how much investors are willing to pay per Re. of earnings. If a company were currently trading at a multiple  (P/E) of 20, the interpretation is that an investor is  willing to pay Rs. 20 for Re. 1 of   current earnings. It is important that investors note  an important  problem that arises with the P/E measure, and to avoid basing a decision on this measure alone. The denominator (earnings) is based on an accounting measure of earnings  that  is susceptible to forms of manipulation, making the  quality of the P/E  only as good as the quality of the underlying earnings number. Dividend Yeild (D. Y): A financial ratio that  shows how much a company pays out in dividends each year relative to its share price. In the absence of any capital gains, the dividend yield is the return on investment for a  stock. Dividend yield is calculated as follows: Dividend yield is  a way to measure how much cash flow you are getting for each dollar invested in an equity position. Investors who require a minimum stream of cash flow from their investment portfolio can secure this cash flow by investing in stocks paying relatively high, stable dividend yields. What Is Technical Analysis? Technical analysis is a method of evaluating securities by analyzing the statistics generated by market activity, such as past prices and volume. Technical analysts do not attempt to measure a security's intrinsic value, but instead use charts and other tools to identify  patterns that can suggest future activity. Just as there are many investment styles on the fundamental side, there are also many different types of technical traders. Some rely on chart patterns; others use technical indicators and oscillators, and most use some combination of the two. In any case, technical analysts' exclusive use of historical price and volume data is what separates them from their fundamental counterparts. Unlike fundamental analysts, technical analysts don't care whether a stock is undervalued – the only thing that matters is a security's past trading data and what information this data can provide about where the security might move in the future. The field of technical analysis is based on three assumptions: * The market discounts everything. * Price moves in trends. * History tends to repeat itself. The Market Discounts Everything: A major criticism of technical analysis is that it only considers price movement, ignoring the fundamental factors of the company. However, technical analysis assumes that, at any given time, a stock's price reflects everything that has or could affect the company – including fundamental factors. Technical analysts believe that the company's fundamentals, along with broader economic factors and market psychology, are all priced into the stock, removing the need to actually consider these factors separately. This only leaves the analysis of price movement, which technical theory views as a product of the supply and demand for a particular stock in the market. Price Moves in Trends: In technical nalysis, price movements are believed to follow trends. This means that after a trend has been established, the future price movement is more likely to be in the same direction as the trend than to be against it. Most technical trading strategies are based on this assumption. History Tends To Repeat Itself: Another important idea in technical analysis is that history tends to repeat itself, mainly in terms of price movement. The repetitive nature of price movements is attributed to market psychology; in other words, market participants tend to provide a consistent reaction to similar market stimuli over time. Technical analysis uses chart  patterns to analyze market movements and understand trends. Although many of these charts have been used for more than 100 years, they are still believed to be relevant because they illustrate patterns in price movements that often repeat themselves. Although technical analysis and fundamental analysis are seen by many as polar opposites – the oil and water of investing – many market participants have experienced great success by combining the two. For example, some fundamental analysts use technical analysis techniques to figure out the best time to enter into an undervalued security. Oftentimes, this situation occurs when the security is severely oversold. By timing entry into a security, the gains on the investment can be greatly improved. Alternatively, some technical traders might look at fundamentals to add strength to a technical signal. For example, if a sell signal is given through technical patterns and indicators, a technical trader might look to reaffirm his or her decision by looking at some key fundamental data. Oftentimes, having both the fundamentals and technical’s on your side can provide the best-case scenario for a trade. Not Just for Stocks: Technical analysis can be used on any security with historical trading data. This includes stocks, futures and commodities, fixed-income securities, forex, etc. In this tutorial, we'll usually analyze stocks in our examples, but keep in mind that these concepts can be applied to any type of security. In fact, technical analysis is more frequently associated with commodities and forex, where the participants are predominantly traders. Now that the philosophy behind technical analysis is understood, with the help of certain examples let’s see how it really works. Trend: One of the most important concepts in technical analysis is that of trend. The meaning in finance isn't all that different  from the general definition of the term – a trend is really nothing more than the general direction in which a security or market is headed. There are three types of trend: * Uptrends: Higher Highs and Higher Lows * Downtrends: Lower Highs and Lower Lows * Sideways/Horizontal Trends: Little movement up or down in the peaks and troughs Along with these three trend directions, there are three trend classifications. A trend of any direction can be classified as a long-term trend, intermediate trend or a short-term trend. In terms of the stock market, a major trend is generally categorized as one lasting longer than a year. An intermediate trend is considered to last between one and three months and a near-term trend is anything less than a month. A long-term trend is composed of several intermediate trends, which often move against the direction of the major trend. If the major trend is upward and there is a downward correction in price movement followed by a continuation of the uptrend, the correction is considered to be an intermediate trend. The short-term trends are components of both major and intermediate trends. It is important to be able to understand and identify trends so that you can trade with the trend rather than against them. Two important sayings in technical analysis are â€Å"the trend is your friend† and â€Å"don't buck the trend†. Trendline is the tool used to draw trends and even identify the support and resistance. Support and Resistance: Support: The price level through which a stock or market seldom falls. Resistance: The price level that a stock or market seldom surpasses. Once a resistance or support level is broken, its role is reversed. If the price falls below a support level, that level will become resistance. If the price rises above a resistance level, it will often become support. As the price moves past a level of support or resistance, it is thought that supply and demand has shifted, causing the breached level to  reverse its role. For a true reversal to occur, however, it is important that the price make a strong move through either the support or resistance. Support and resistance analysis is an important part of trends because it can be used to make trading decisions and identify when a trend is reversing. For example, if a rader identifies an important level of resistance that has been tested several times but never broken, he or she may decide to take profits as the security moves toward this point because it is unlikely that it will  move past this level. Support and resistance levels both test and confirm trends and need to be monitored by anyone who uses technical analysis. As long as the price o f the share remains between these levels of support and resistance, the trend is likely to continue. It is important to note, however, that a break beyond a level of support or resistance does not always have to be a reversal. For example, if a price moved above the resistance levels of an upward trending channel, the trend has accelerated, not reversed. This means that the price appreciation is expected to be faster than it was in the channel. Being aware of these important support and resistance points should affect the way that you trade a stock. Traders should avoid placing orders at these major points, as the area around them is usually marked by a lot of volatility. If you feel confident about making a trade near a support or resistance level, it is important that you follow this simple rule: do not place orders directly at the support or resistance level. This is because in many cases, the price never actually reaches the whole number, but flirts with it instead. So if you're bullish on a stock that is moving toward an important support level, do not place the trade at the support level. Instead, place it above the support level, but within a few points. On the other hand, if you are placing  stops or short selling, set up your trade price at or below the level of support. Volumes: Volume is simply the number of shares or contracts that trade over a given period of time, usually a day. The higher the volume, the more active the security. To determine the movement of the volume (up or down), chartists look at the volume bars that can usually be found at the bottom of any chart. Volume bars illustrate how many shares have traded per period and show trends in the same way that prices do. Volume is an important aspect of technical analysis because it is used to confirm trends and chart patterns. Any price movement up or down with relatively high volume is seen as a stronger, more relevant move than  a similar move with weak volume. Therefore, if you are looking at a large price movement, you should also examine the volume to see whether it tells the same story. The other use of volume is to confirm chart patterns. Patterns such as head and shoulders, triangles, flags and other price patterns can be confirmed with volume. In most chart patterns, there are several pivotal points that are vital to what the chart is able to convey. Basically, if the volume is not there to confirm the pivotal moments of a chart pattern, the quality of the signal formed by the pattern is weakened. Another important idea in technical analysis is that price is preceded by volume. Volume is closely monitored to form ideas on upcoming trend reversals. If volume is starting to decrease in an uptrend, it is usually a sign that the upward run is about to end. Now that some of the important factors of technical analysis are understood, we can move on to charts, which help to identify trading opportunities in prices movements. Charts: In technical analysis, charts are similar to the charts that you see in any business setting. A chart is simply a graphical representation of a series of prices over a set time frame. For example, a chart may show a stock's price movement over a one-year period, where each point on the graph represents the closing price for each day the stock is traded There are several things that you should be aware of when looking at a chart, as these factors can affect the information that is provided. They include the time scale, the price scale and the price point properties used. The Time Scale: The time scale refers to the range of dates at the bottom of the chart, which can vary from decades to seconds. The most frequently used time scales are intraday, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually. The shorter the time frame, the more detailed the chart. Each data point can represent the closing price of the period or show the open, the high, the low and the close depending on the chart used. The Price Scale and Price Point Properties: The price scale is on the right-hand side of the chart. It shows a stock's current price and compares it to past data points. This may seem like a simple concept in that the price scale goes from lower prices to higher prices as you move along the scale from the bottom to the top. The problem, however, is in the structure of the scale itself. A  scale can  either be constructed in a linear (arithmetic) or logarithmic way, and both of these options are  available on most charting services. Charts: There are four main types of charts that are used by investors and traders depending on the information that they are seeking and their individual skill levels. The chart types are: the line chart, the bar chart, the candlestick chart and the point and figure chart. Line Chart: The most basic of the four charts is the  line chart because it represents only the closing prices over a set period of time. The line is formed by connecting the clo