Word of the Day - Heed

Heed means giving careful attention to; Observation

EG: Thanks for heeding to the request

Cricket - India vs Pakistan in Finland

Summer is fun in Finland and cricket during summer keeps our spirit high whether the temperature is high or low. As the summer starts, we start off playing friendly cricket and then prepare for the tournaments (intra company teams)

Today we are playing against the Pakistanis from the Helsinki University. I wonder how each one of us show same level of commitment and energy when it comes to game against pakistan and put all our efforts to win while it is mostly not the case when we play among ourselves. I just love this spirit!

Last time we won them even though we were short of 3 players and this time we are hoping to win them again!

Last but not the least - the urge to win them is purely from the game point of view only and no personal rage against the country, and we would have the same urge playing against Aussie or the English in Finland.

Word of the Day - Repose

Repose has few meanings such as calmness, posing again etc but from the usability perspective it is related to the trust or confidence bestowed on someone.

For Example:

We are the custodians of confidence and trust, the customers have reposed on us.

Air Crash in Managalore

Air India express from Dubai overshot the runway and ploughed into the forest while landing at the Manglore airport. The flight carried 173 passengers out of which at least 160 have been reported death, plight of the rest is unknown.

On a whole it could be another incident or news for many of us, but for the families who lost their loved ones, it is an extreme affliction which cannot be controlled by the 2L relief fund from PM or any kind of compromises.

More and more I hear on such untoward incidents killing 100's and 1000's, more convincingly I try to figure out the perspectives in life, the perspectives leading to unlimited thoughts - After all, it is a wonderful world!

My revenue target for the Half Year

I am in a state of extreme confusion after seeing a whopping figure of € 1.8 Million as a target revenue for me to achieve during this half year!! I am currently working on 3 to 4 small projects in a month that generates a revenue of 30 to 40 K Euros plus few proposals that has so far generated 300 K Euros. So for me to achieve the rest of the target I need to work/win at least 20 projects a month and a couple of big proposals!!

I don't this so I can even make it in my dream!! I need to be a super human or a kind of person which I cannot describe in the framework of words to achieve this target!!

I will keep you updated how far I reach!!

Bi-lateral Trade proposal between India and Pakistan

I came across an interesting article on agenda to boost trade between India and Pakistan. This is very interesting because it has the potential to curb or lessen terrorists activities to some extent. Before jumping into the impact of trade relations on non social activities, let me first present the sectors identified to boost the trade:

Textiles: The largest employer in both countries - potential exists for the export of home textiles from Pakistan to India while a huge market exists in Pakistan for India's polyester textiles.

Information Technology: the fastest growing sector in both countries and the easiest area to cooperate in, given its virtual nature. India can collaborate with Pakistan, which can provide skilled resources at competitive rates.

Agriculture: Considerable potential exists for trade through streamlining logistics and storage facilities. India and Pakistan can also collaborate on research for improved yields in, and greater export for, both countries.

Healthcare: Poor health infrastructure is a common problem. Opportunity for collaboration exists in research and combating the three major diseases in both countries -- heart, diabetes and cancer.

Energy: India and Pakistan have huge untapped reserves of energy. Collaboration can lend impetus to accelerated growth and development in both countries, which have a huge appetite for energy.

Education: Given the low average age in both countries (18.2 years in Pakistan and 22.5 years in India), education and skill development is an area of immediate concern and potential. Cooperation and sharing of strategies in education is the best investment that both countries can make.

Well, if the initiative goes successful, it will, according to me have an impact on the terrorist activities. First of all, there will be a lot of protests from cockroaches from both the countries that may lead to untoward situations, but if the government could overcome this difficulty, then it would be a grand success. Trade relations will definitely enhance the economic conditions in both the countries, it will generate jobs, improve the quality of life thereby leading to a situation where people at-least the vulnerable next generation would slowly move into the greener areas than be a scape goat of terrorism. This means people who suffer from extreme poverty who are basically the target for the terrorist organization to pull them in the name of "Martyr" will no longer be available for such activities as they would move up with the aspiration to lead a better quality of life!!

I hope this initiative goes successful and save millions of poor and innocent people who are usually the victims of terror activities. Can both the countries find a capable leader to take this initiative forward with support mainly from the two Countries as well us the developed nations that are looking forward to a peaceful world - After all world is wonderful!!

Hyundai to launch one new car model every year in India

This seems to be an interesting strategy that Hyundai is following to introduce new models in the market every year in India.. Its a welcome move, as long as we get new models to choose from while buying a car, but hold on, why would a car manufacturer introduce new models and variants every year? Are they seeing India as a potential re-purchase market? Just like how mobile phone companies introduce new models frequently so that people with fat wallets and gadget freaks can pour in their money to change their mobile phones? Well, the issue with car comes on how to dump/dispose the old one - preference would be to sell it.. It would be a wait and watch situation to understand how well the company's new strategy works in Indian market..After all Hyundai is a great company with exceptional market penetration strategy that pulled Maruthi out of its monopoly status in small car market!!

Economic Crisis - Recession

There is a contraction in the business cycle and a general slowdown in the economic activity at various parts of the world specifically in Europe spreading at a higher speed!! There is a panic, drop in spending, few taking advantage of the situation and play around with spread betting in the money & stock markets leading to higher volatility in the currency and stock prices, Euro hitting low everyday that impacts the FII's from the European region to invest in the developing world because they get less conversion for more Euros, corporates re-defining their IT spends and so on- Is this what we call it a recession??

Well, to me it appears as a gradual change in the behavioral patterns of the human beings who are otherwise called as Consumers! Technological advancement in the communications field could be one of the reasons which enables consumers in all corners of the world to know about the problem in other region and they start panicking and stop spending (Panic and Drop spending are the two important behavioral change). After a brief period of time, there comes a recovery because the leaders of the world along with the leading economists take the so called corrective actions that mitigates the panic among the general public thereby increase the spending.

There is no conclusion or solution to such problems, economy will continue to contract and expand which is very healthy change that will enable people to be more pro-active, otherwise we will all be affected by the complacency factor!! It's a wonderful world after all and we should experience every facets of life to make our journey really exciting!!

Oasis to Mirage - Ideas loaned from my wife!!

I would like to express my transition from real freedom to assumed freedom. I am here talking about my transition from my college to the booming IT industry. I would like to pour my experience of the so called glamorous and fun filled IT industry.

We used to wander those spacious heat filled open grounds and closed class rooms with just 50 rupees in pocket and plan the whole week’s budget with that. But now we wander along the well cleaned, fully air-conditioned corridors with about five to six credit cards in our pocket thinking where to swipe the cards with credit cards eagerly waiting to eat next month’s salary. I can’t believe that it was just few years before that the 50 rupees seemed to be thousands, but now, thousand seems to be nothing.

College canteen, Tea shops were the favorite hot spots where we spent hours together, having a hearty chat with our buddies forgetting the whole world. But now Cafe coffee Day, Quickies, Baristas have taken those places. The money of approx 3 rupess we had spent for coffee has now gone up to 50 rupees.

Those precious days where we used to laugh for nothing, while chatting or while playing or even when you fail in your paper because you have got 30 marks for an empty paper, rarely comes into picture in our so called serious corporate world

Hatred and Ego were the words you haven’t heard in those days. You smash or hit your friend for some reason and the next moment you walk along him with hands on his shoulders. But now you don’t like the guy sitting beside you because he’s getting a salary 10k greater that you or he’s always being appreciated by your PM. True friends are hardly found here!!

Those days, should somebody speak badly about your college, you can find your blood boiling inside even though you don’t like your principal. But here loyalty is the lost word; whenever someone is talking badly about your company you join them to criticize your own company. You join the company with the resignation day in the mind because you’re looking much more for you than you deserve , Don’t mind – Along with us, Tom, Dick & Harry are also planning for the same!!

You have seen the late nights only on the eve of the exam, where you rely on your friend to wake him/ her at night 1 or 2. And how can we forget those last minute tensions in exam, you remember that only just before entering the exam you find that you have forgotten to revise an important question that your friend suggested that it will surely appear on this exam. You rush back and flip those pages with tension.

But today you work at least 2 days a week till 1 or 2 in the night to deliver something to your unknown client who is at US or UK. You are aimlessly typing at the useless word document that your supervisor asked you to finish with his tailor made smile. Loads of tension with calls from home, with your eye lids eager to kiss each other and you promise them to allow it a little later, cursing Bill Gates for inventing MSWord.

We are all in the same desert where I have realized that we are moving from the warmth ness of the Oasis to chase a mirage. A mirage that promises a lot of thing, but still it’s just a mirage. When I turn back I can find thousands chasing that mirage with a ID card around their neck. I wish all the best for them.

Indian Stock Markets May 2010 - Where are they headed!! Nice article from ET

The latest decline in the Indian stock market coupled with the unraveling of the Greek sovereign debt crisis have raised the spectre of a double dip recession.

And investors are running around for answers as only a few weeks ago Nifty looked poised for a fresh high. However, the optimism was affected by a poor show by the Euro zone and its contagious impact on global investors.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have suddenly turned net sellers on Indian bourses while domestic mutual funds (MFs) continue to sit on the fence. Meanwhile, corporate earnings have been patchy so far with no certainty about the year ahead.

Amid all this, investors would do well to make stock specific calls rather than taking a market view. But before you open up your wallet to make fresh purchases, let’s pause and run a diagnostic check on the Indian equity market and the factors that drive it.

The stock prices are primarily driven by two factors, underlying earnings growth (of listed companies) and the liquidity flow or the amount of purchasing power of investors/traders.

While the former acts a push factor, the latter pulls the market up as cash-rich investors bid-up stock prices. So to get a handle on the current wobble on the Dalal Street, we need to get to the bottom of these two factors.

Let’s handle the liquidity factor first. The two sources of liquidity (or funds) for Indian equities are, domestic and foreign. The key domestic sources are retail investors, mutual funds (MFs) and insurance companies.

Of these, MFs and insurers play the most important role given their size and influence on the market. Foreign money primarily comes from institutions investors (FIIs) and they now collectively account for nearly a quarter of the fund flow on the Indian bourses.

The chart (Fully Loaded) shows the historical movement in the cumulative FIIs flow and MFs investments in the equities. As the chart shows, on a cumulative basis, the FIIs inflows into India remain strong despite the recent wobble on the Street.

In contrast, domestic MFs have been net sellers on the market since September last year. The corresponding data on insurance money is missing but, it is most likely to be positive or at worst stable since, insurance premiums are committed expenses and their flow doesn’t change much in the short-term.

On the balance, however, more money has flowed into the market in the past 12 months compared with the cash that has gone out.

This probably explains the continued positive bias on the Street despite the occasional bouts of sell-offs. In May so far, however, FIIs have been net sellers and this is the reason behind recent market correction. The future course of the market will be greatly influenced by liquidity flow on the Street in the coming weeks and months.

Domestic liquidity is greatly influenced by the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy. Right now, there is an uncertainty regarding monetary tightening.

The central bank has not been very aggressive in addressing high inflation. It hiked the key interest rates and cash reserve requirement moderately, leaving the systemic liquidity almost unaffected.

But, headline inflation is still hovering in the double-digit zone and there are no signs of easing up of inflationary pressures.

Despite new rabi crop arrivals, food prices continue to remain at higher levels. And now rising raw material costs have pushed up prices of manufactured products.

RBI has clearly hinted in its latest policy document that aggressive measures could not be ruled out if inflationary pressures continue to be high. And if that were to happen, domestic liquidity could be sucked out, adversely affecting equity markets.

Lack of domestic liquidity could be compensated by higher inflows of FIIs money. This, in turn, depends on global liquidity position.

Global liquidity is broadly defined as money supply (M2) growth in the G-4 countries, Japan, the euro zone, the UK and the US.

The bail out packages given by these countries during the financial crisis resulted in a surplus liquidity globally, which has spilled over to emerging markets. These countries have not yet started withdrawing cheap and easy money from the system. As a result, foreign capital inflow continues in emerging economies.

However, inflation is now rearing its head in most major economies and this may push their central banks to withdraw easy monetary policies soon.

In that case, emerging markets, such as India, could see a reversal in capital flows, hurting the domestic equity market.

According to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) study, a 10% decline in global liquidity growth is associated with a 2% decrease in equity returns of the liquidityreceiving economies, which are essentially emerging markets.

The other global factor is the potential loss to the global banking system from any possible sovereign default in Europe.

Most global banks and large asset managers, such as pension funds, have big exposure to the European sovereign and if they face a haircut in Europe, they will be forced to repair their balance sheet by selling in other markets.

And even if the default is averted through timely intervention, the global investment climate has been vitiated and investors would be risk-averse in the near term. This is not a great recipe to attract FIIs into the Indian market.

Liquidity becomes a minor issue if an asset shows the potential for higher future earnings. This is especially true in case of equities as it not only provides capital appreciation to investors but also offers the possibility of earning recurring dividend income.

So in the long-term, the equity prices should ideally track the growth in corporate earnings and other financial indicators.

This is shown in the adjoining chart where we have plotted the historical trend in Nifty value against its earning per share, book value and dividend per share.

All indicators are based to the value 100 on January 1, 1999, and thus show their relative movement over the years. The latter three indicators are derived by inverting the Nifty’s readily available valuations ratios such as P/E multiple, price to book value and dividend yield.

The chart shows that, even after the recent correction, Nifty is trading ahead of the underlying fundamentals. This would not have been a major issue if India Inc’s growth momentum had remained intact.

As the chart shows, there has been an absolute decline in Nifty’s EPS, book value and dividend per share in recent months. And there are no immediate signs of a trend reversal either.

The complete picture would, however, emerge only after the current earning season that ends this month. So far, earning growth has been patchy and pockets of good growth such as shown by the auto sector have been undone by laggards like cement. And in many sectors, the growth has been aided by non-recurring factors such as low-base effect.

The silver lining, however, is the fact that that Nifty EPS has been highest in over two years, implying that most companies have recouped the losses they suffered in the late 2008 and early 2009. It is yet to be seen how the new fiscal pans out for India Inc amid global macroeconomic uncertainty.

Tandoori Chicken

It is very simple to prepare Tandoori chicken when you have a convection oven at home. All you have to do is to marinate the chicken for 60 minutes in curd, chilli powder, corriander powder, little garam masala, cumin powder, Tandoori powder (optional), salt and oil (added in the marination). Keep the marinated chicken along with few cut vegetables (Potato, Carrot, Tomato and Capsicum) inside the oven for 25 minutes at 250 degrees.

Sprinkle little chat masala over the chicken and serve hot!!

Ambassador - Revived

There is an article in economic times that says Hindustan Motors is bringing in a new CEO to execute the revival plan for Ambassador. This means we will soon have our great Indian made Ambassador revived and presented in the market with a different value proposition. I would be one of those car lovers interested in buying such a great car but before that I am interested to know what kind of revival plan the company is looking at?

HM cannot go for a retro brand in case of Ambassador because the Car itself is in its retro phase now when there are luxurious cars in the market. So unlike Volkswagen which branded (retro) for its New Beetle, Ambassador cannot follow this strategy.

If the company is looking at more advancement to fit the contemporary style which could change the complete look and feel, then we will have a altogether new product (like) - who knows? this could be a profitable option!

Facelift, modifying interiors, new head lights and so on are other options left but I am more interested to see something I have never thought of!

Waiting to see you Mr.Giant!!

Idhazhil Kadhai Ezhuthum from Unnal Mudiyum Thambi

Movie Name: Unnal Mudiyum Thambi (1988)
Singer: Balasubrahmanyam SP, Janaki S
Music Director: Ilayaraja
Lyrics: Muthulingam Pulamaipithan
Year: 1988
Producer: Rajam Balachander
Director: Balachander K
Actors: Gemini Ganesan, Kamal Hassan, Seetha

idhazhil kadhai ezhudhum naeramidhu
inbangal azhaikkudhu aaaa
manadhil sugam malarum maalaiyidhu
maanvizhi mayangudhu aaaa

ilamai azhagai alli anaippadharkae ()
irukaram thudikkudhu thanimaiyum nerungida inimaiyum pirakkudhu
(idhazhil)

kaadhal kiligal rendu jaadai paesakkandu
aedhaedhoa ennam en nenjil udhikkum
naanum neeyum saerndhu ragam paadumboadhu
neeroadai poala en nenjam inikkum
iniya paruvamulla ilanguyilae ()
aen inum thaamadham manmadhak kaaviyam ennudan ezhudha

naanum ezhudhida ilamaiyum thudikkudhu
naanam adhai vandhu idaiyinil thadukkudhu
aengith thavikkaiyil naanangal edharkadi
aekkam thanindhida oru murai thazhuvadi
kaalam varum varai poruththirundhaal
kanni ival malark karam thazhuvudamae
kaalam enraikkuk kanindhidumoa
kaalai manam adhuvarai poruththidumoa
maalai malar maalai idum vaelai thanil
dhaegam idhu virundhugal padaiththidum

thoagai poalae minnum poovai undhan koondhal
kaarmaegam enrae naan solvaen kannae
paavai endhan koondhal vaasam yaavum andha
maegam thanil aedhu nee solvaai kannaa
azhagaich chumandhu varum azhagarasi ()
aanandha poomugam andhiyil vandhidum sundhara nilavoa

naalum nilavadhu thaeyudhu maraiyudhu
nangai mugamena yaaradhaich chonnadhu
mangai un badhil manadhinaik kavarudhu
maaran kanai vandhu maarbinil paayudhu
kaaman kanaigalaith thaduththidavae
kaadhal mayil thunai ena varugiradhu
maiyal thandhidum vaarthaigalae
moagam enum neruppinaip pozhigiradhu
moagam neruppaaga adhaith theerkkumoru
jeeva nadhi aruginil irukkudhu

Long term winners !!

Hello

The following stocks are likely to perform well in the long term because of their robust business model and prospective future earnings. Accumulate these stocks in regular intervals and you are likely to reap more benefits in the future.

ITC

Godrej Industries

MRF

Larsen & Tuobro

IVRCL

TCS

Powergrid

Triveni Engineering

Bharti Airtel

There are many other blue chip stocks to concentrate your investments, but for the time being above list has good number of stocks to invest, but more to come in future.

Enjoy Trading