I am not an anlyst , not a blogger , not an expert in stock markets. I am someone who has followed the bull run of indian stock markets and now have seen the worst of it in the last 10 months.

Carnage started in january when sensex surged 21000 mark and many analyst predicted 30000 at the end of 2008. who would have imagined in the worst of their dreams that we would see levels of 8000 odd on sensex and 2500 on nifty.

People call it a bear market where the bulls are hurt and murdered brutally and nobody knows when it will stop.

Market is taking cues from global markets like USA , UK which are in recession .

Steps like repo rate cut by 150bps which came after many many years lifted the sentiment for 15 minutes. it seems like a ugly story . No positive news is accepted by our markets.

Just think about this!!!!!!

when crude rose to 140 $/barrel we had a great fall in markets and when it came back to 64 $ nothing really changed .

when inflation jumped to 12% we took it as a bad news for the markes and now at 11% nobody seems to react on that . 

When sensex was at 21000 people took their money out of their home and invested in stock markets expecting it to go towards  30000 and now at 8000 levels volumes have dried out. where are these investors. 

Stocks are at 4 years low and some stocks are trading below their book value . Its hard to imagine stocks at these prices .

Unitech one of the giants in infrastructure industries is hammerd like anything . the stock is trading 6% of its all time high value. this is something hard to believe. This is a large cap stock which used to trade at Rs 530 in januray 2008 and as of today is trading at Rs 31 only. This stock has lost 70% in 2 days (23 oct and 24 oct 2008) from 76 to 31. 

Reliance industries which is the pillar of stock markes over the years has lost 50% of its value this month from 2000 to 1000 .

Dlf another infrastructure giant from 1500 to 200 in one year.

and the list is endless

You see decline of 20% everyday and i dont blame investors becase who would like to depriciate their money in few days its rather better safe at banks and home but if you had the courage and confidence to buy a particular stock at 1500 levels in january 2008 then why would you hesitate buying it at a price of dirt.

It is time to buy and people should come and invest 10% at every dip. stock markets are the pillars of every economy . it cannot go to zero levels.

I see an intermediate bottom for the markets now and people have overreacted on the global news. The great indian story is intact . It is not the time to panic and sell but to wait and buy .

“BULL MARKETS ARE BORN WHEN THERE IS EXTREME PESSIMISSSM”

Bad times is the indicdation of a good time near by and it seems like new year will bring happy ending to this so called BEAR MARKET.

I will write more if appriciated .

thank you

…….WISHING EVERYONE A VERY HAPPY DIWALI………..

Now the companies have started coming for recruiting students from our campus with them and this was the aim we all had in mind and with which we joined the course. So the time has come has for all of us to get what we were here for.

These days every second year student is keeping an eye over the placement activities going on in the college and is very alert to identify the opportunity for her/ him to start their career as an MBA. Any information regarding the placements, whether it is of a company coming to the campus, the process to be conducted by a company coming to campus or about the students selected or shortlisted by the companies is a topic for discussion among us i.e. PG- II students.

Till date 1 or 2 companies from almost every sector chosen by the students for final placements have visited the companies or students have been sent for off- campus placement by the college. The students were provided a training session from the college to face the interview process regarding GD and PI. A few good companies which have visited the campus include Videocon, HDFC, Matrix Communications, Kohinoor foods, HCL; those coming are Naukri.com, Barclays Bank, Vodafone, ITC Welcome Group: some good off- campuses are Nestle, Axis bank, and Baxter.

These days every one among us is busy doing preparation for the placements, whether it is collecting information about a company coming for placements, the sector they have chosen for themselves, consulting the faculty members, placement managers or the seniors for the placement. They are all busy in preparing themselves to put there best foot forward and give there best shot in this last mile of there mission and objective and make there mission a success achieving the objective they were here for.

The placement season has just started and will continue till December but the curiosity among students for the companies and placements is clearly visible. I am also busy with doing preparations for the interview and wish my batch mates best of luck for the placements and the future.

We all should not forget one thing, the results of an activity are decided in the last minute performance and its time for us to give our best in this high time, and my batch mates please remember for any opportunity,

‘It’s Now or Never’

I still remember the time, when my grandfather used to make me sit as a child with him and tell me about his days as a young man, and how everything was so cheap. His statements like “India strongly positioning itself as a low cost economy ” makes me wonder now- was that the real world then and if it was then it took few decades to change into a high cost economy. Gone are the days where India was a dream country for entrepreneurs for its cheap labour and land. And this time it took few months and the economy went haywire. According to the World Bank recent report on “ease of doing business” has ranked India 120th out of 178 countries. High cost are effecting Indian companies ability to compete against companies in china and other emerging economies such as Brazil, Mexico or even Malaysia and Indonesia.

Salaries and wages have risen 22.44%, the highest in the past 10 quarters, while power and fuel cost are growing at a fast clip of 14%. If wages would spare a business exorbitant realty certainly won’t. Retail rentals in central business district in India’s major metro’s are higher than those in downtown Shanghai and Manhattan, New York. If the service sector is hit by high rentals, the manufacturing sector is a victim of centre-state politics over land acquisition.

In such a scenario, it’s nearly impossible for a start up to take off. Several components of cost of doing business here such as spiraling wages, poor economies of scale, lack of infrastructure, high tax regimes and administrative corruption have become too exorbitant to keep India competitive. High cost economy is strong blow to business- rising inputs cost, especially that of labour and power, coupled with shifting political alliances have made India an expensive business destination.

Many elements such as wage costs are purely due to demand and supply imbalance, but companies can still take remedial measures like either controlling their wage cost or moving to high value added business. And the government can certainly take measures that are within the control- like removing regulatory hurdles, setting up power projects and streamlining the tax rates. At least then India could avoid unemployment and rundown factories. And my grandfather could relive his youth.

It’s a perfect world. We would like to go for dirt-biking to the deserts on weekends, we’d go to exotic countries for fun. Infact we wouldn’t mind being single for long. We are already very busy living life on our own terms, expressing our individuality confidently, indulging to our needs, wants and desires and fulfilling ourselves. We the Indian woman are entering a new age – One where our commitments to ourselves are as important as every facet of our life. We no longer just want to play the role of the mother, sister, girlfriend, wives, manager or designer. In this new era of “ME” culture the role we want to be most committed to is to ourselves.

I am not going to far history, but the woman in the nineties convinced that a woman could have it all- a family, career and a jet set go lifestyle. And this was simply by “multi-tasking”. We were all set to rule the house and the boardrooms with equal panache. We were ready to plan our life like they were our power point presentation. We were striving for a perfect balance- ambitious professionals who can be morphed into stunning wives/girlfriends and fabulous mother/daughter. But I guess we were slightly deluded. Somewhere along the way we did realize it that this wasn’t enough. To be honest I wouldn’t have been happy of myself hanging between two worlds. But thank god, we did realize that we were losing ourselves and we needed time and space for ourselves. The “ME” culture is not about thinking only about yourself or being selfish, rather it is the sense of a woman being complete in herself. It’s a pure feeling of identity or coming to know of the self.

The 21^st century saw much decline in “her” saving accounts and an increase in independent women buy designer bags, day long sessions in the spa. “ME” time is the mantra for the woman of today. I guess we have spent much of the nineties proving ourselves to the world that we are as capable as men. Now is the time to indulge ourselves and discover what else our life holds. The “ME” mantra is helping prioritizing what important is to us as on the same level of our family and work. We want to be successful managers/designers and wonderful wives/daughter/sister/mother/girlfriend. But we also want to focus on discovering and shaping our own identities.

Personally am all set to be bold and to represent just myself as to what I am. I don’t care!! People can think anything they want to if it makes their time at the check counter go a little quicker. Infact most of the woman I know are definitely finding their bolder side without caring what the world thinks. This somehow is not a passing phase of our lives nor are we deluding ourselves again. Infact we are much stronger this time. The “ME” culture is all set to thrive. We are already equal to men, but for now we are exploring ourselves that has nothing to do with the men in our lives or anybody.

Women are working up to the consciousness of themselves.

A blog is a reservoir of creativity. Creativity cannot be tapped within one diameter. So, I am taking a step forward to write a poetry and express my ideas. Hope,it will be a utility for the readers.

It’s been a long time that I have written something straight from the heart. Everyone is busy in pointing out and visualizing the social issues and untouched topics. Now that our MBA course has been over, its time to unveil the life after MBA, i.e. our real professional life.

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Every individual sees multiple horizons in life. At one stage he is a child, getting ready to learn the proximities of life, seeking love and tender of his/her parents. And at the very next stage he is a teenager, getting shaped by the influence of the societal values and ethics. At his last stage, but the most prominent one, he is an adult, an individual who is matured and intellectual. At his adulthood stage, a person is insatiable for knowledge and wealth. He’s fully determined towards achieving the goals of his life or more precisely “Life Goals”. An individual’s hunger for knowledge increases with the passage of time. Above all, its success that compels him to do anything, no matter whether it’s ethical or not.

Each one of us is walking on a path that is relatively innovative and new to follow. Its entirely different life as compared to what we have lived up till graduate and post-graduate level. The former life was intended towards learning and only learning. The prime agenda was to make our conceptual base comprehensible and solid. We were there to hone up our skills in our respective fields. What all we have inherited so far is all theoretical and useful, yet not practical.

The importance was practicality in life has always been over looked. People always fall prey for “short cuts”. They want to achieve “everything” without losing “anything”. But the crux of life is “Gain with Pain”. There should be a proper parity between the efforts and skills. A task cannot be performed with proficiently, if any of the two has been absent. A child makes efforts to identify his mother gradually as soon as he grows older. His continuous effort compels the mind to develop a skill that enables him to identify people. Similarly, learning is an ongoing and never ending process. Practical approach in life makes a person more matured than any one in his peer group. He learns a lot in the form of experience.

In the current context, life revolves around two main objects:-

· Money or

· Knowledge

The former one is the basic necessity of life and the latter is confined to a group of individuals only. The life after every professional course should be full of zeal to explore new worlds, to uncover new facts. I don’t advocate that money should be neglected in the initial phase of our journey. But it should be consider as a secondary phenomenon. The life would be easier then, with due respect to the gradual process of learning.

I would like to end my thought process now. But what I have articulated above is not an over night idea. It took me long time to identify the real worth of the professional verve.

So I took a long hiatus … but I’m back in full glory – so get out the red carpets and the welcoming committee. Har Har. Jokes apart though its ‘summer time’ guys – the good ol’ summers  – with us poor souls sweating it out in the sun and trying to make the most out of our summer training. And lets be frank though, al right? We ALL hate it – we all hate the drudgery of working our a** off (sometimes even without getting paid for it). Well I can be all nice – nice and say ‘hey the stipends don’t matter – we are here to LEARN!!’ But hey – its always nice to be appreciated for doing some work – and by that I don’t mean a pat on the back from my head in charge – I mean something green

            So I’m again sorta feeling depressed as my ‘wish list’ keeps on growing longer and my wallet keeps on getting lighter – hell the rate at which I’m going all I’m gonna be left with soon is visiting cards and unpaid bills !!

            But on a different note let’s talk about the summer training itself. We all barge in with our best smiles and innocent faces and tell our bosses ‘Sir we would like to add some value to the organization. How can we work on a project which will be beneficial to the organization??’

            The funny part is both of us know everything’s crap – WE want our certificate and an easy project. The BOSS wants to see you out of the organization before you do any harm (literally or figuratively).  AND the best part is that we still play along. He’ll say something like ‘Sure lad, you do xyz project and we’ll make sure we use it’. Yeah right!! You’ll use it sure enough – make a good bonfire for yourself, I’m sure!!

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            So that’s life – some of us are gonna survive – some will succeed – some will just buckle up under the pressure. But its gonna be an eventful 2 months – sure!!

But on a serious note guys – these are important times. It’s not a life and death situation but it’s extremely important for us to take these 2 months seriously. I’m not sure how many of you have work – ex from before – but for those who don’t (I joined my M.B.A. straight after graduation) I cannot over emphasize the importance of these 2 months.

            So be optimistic – do some value addition to yourselves – don’t bicker around and feel cheated when you see others working in better and bigger companies. Give it your best – MAKE those guys sit up and realize what you have contributed to the organization!!  And if things are so bad that you are reduced to the job of a data entry operator and have to work on excel 9 hours a day entering data – HeY – THINK ABOUT IT!!  With all experience you get in the form of an increased typing speed – you’ll surely get an excellent job of a typist at the time of final placements   

KEEP ROCKING GUYS !! ALL THE BEST!!

Caste has played a very important role in the success of Indian Democracy by mobilizing India’s mass electorate to participate in the election process effectively. Targeting casteism for political purpose has begun long before the introduction of adult franchise. It has so deeply penetrated in the Indian Politics that it not only shapes the political parties; but also their manifestoes for elections. The illiterates who are unknown about the political moves are organized by appealing to their caste sentiments by the    self-centered politicians.

The various groups like the Nairs, Christians and Ezhavas in Kerala; the Khammas and Reddys in Andhra; the Marathas and Mahars in Maharashtra; the Jats, Rajputs, Meenas, Brahmins, Gujars etc in Rajasthan determine the political scenario in these states to a great extent.

Caste has polarized the national politics and caste politics breed caste parties. Not a single party avowedly opposes casteism and is free from the influence of it. Even the national parties whether Congress or BJP while allocating tickets to the candidates and portfolios to the ministers, do a proper analysis of caste factor .Caste tends to determine electoral nominations and voting behaviors               now-a-days.

A major conundrum that has cropped up owing to caste politics is that many castes have started making numerous demands. Some want themselves to be categorized as OBCs and some want reservations, violating the representative principles envisaged under the democratic pattern of our country. A very bilious example is the Gujar agitation currently confronting Rajasthan. It has taken a great toll of innocent lives and has caused enormous destruction and damage to the National property.        This vicious circle has started spreading its circumference to entire nation which can prove extremely dreadful to the interest of our nation and democracy, still our learned and experienced leaders both from state and central government are feeling helpless and pity.   

 Who knows they actually capitalize on being one!!!

I always refer to newspapers as the ‘funny papers’: the articles nowadays are just so darn funny. Moreover these guys have a penchant for making even the bloodiest and gruesome of things seems hilarious – the way they print it. All these murders and stuff happening everyday – the way newspapers cover all that news is absolutely farcical – it’s amusing sometimes. 

And you know how ‘out of news’ the newspapers are when ‘firefighters getting cats out of trees’ are making headlines

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Right!! So I seem to be digressing (it’s a characteristic trait) – so let’s get back on track, shall we!! I was talking about the ‘funny papers’. I am always prompt to have a look at the papers early morning – it gives me my daily dose of laughter – and a few days back I wasn’t let down!! There was something I read which kept me chirpy the whole day. I won’t hold back any more; I know you are all dying with anticipation to know: so here is what it read like “California legalizes gay marriages”. Boy oh boy, I was gleeing with excitement. You might all say ‘Bah … big deal!!’ but it was a big deal!! And HOW!! At least to all the thousands and thousands of gays and lesbians (and these are just the ones we know – I am sure the actual figure is in millions ]out there who will now have public acceptance.

‘But will they really??’ is the question. Legalizing something is al right – MAKING society accept them is where the real REAL problem comes. And on a sensitive issue like this, you bet the society will have a hard time adjusting. It might change a few people’s opinion {emphasis on ‘might’} – but the society at large (my presumption) will not embrace it with open arms (and I can say this with conviction).

            Do remember that California became the second state after Massachusetts to legalize gay marriages – and it is legalized in countries like Belgium, South Africa (defies explanation) already. [and a few others who paid me not to mention their names]

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                            SO WHAT IS MY OPINION??

Aww… come on!! You were all waiting for this part, weren’t you?? So without further ado, let me quickly get on with what I feel!! I believe there is a pattern to life – there is a system to life!! We all are born; we live through childhood, adulthood, old age and eventually pass away into god’s abode. [hey I forgot ‘puberty' - my bad!!]  Anyhow, the point I am trying to make (very tentatively and cautiously) is that there is a pattern – nobody has defined it – but its how things are – and how it should always be – untouched!! Don’t go around defying conventions and breaking rules of life. I sincerely believe ‘to each his own’!! Hell it’s your life, you live once!! You wanna go marry the same gender (yuck) – al right!!  Go ahead (Ahem)!! But with the government legalizing it – it’s a tough one to digest – all I’ll say!!

So I won’t be taking names out here, but all you Darren Hayes and George Michael and Elton John fans out here – umm … I love them too – I DO!!

But remember – god made Adam and Eve – not Adam and Steve!!

Today we submitted the last group project of our MBA- I year course, with which formally our group work comes to an end. Although for all other groups, the group assignments are over but our group has one more assignment to be done for which we have volunteered on our own and it was me, who took it for the group with a trust on my group members for their cooperation and support in doing the assignment successfully.

In the starting of the course, we all were assigned groups and were asked to do various assignments with our designated group. My group members were Meenakshi Saluja, Ajay Verma, Deepak Khandelwal and Shivika Kapil. In the very beginning of our groupwork, I went through a problem because of which I don’t know how I behaved and went with my group members, so I will not make any comment on any of my group members or the kind of work they did.

However, gradually we all developed a sense of understanding among ourselves for group work and all of us took certain typical tasks related to group work for ourselves like making slides for presentation, data collection from the net, analyses of data, making reports of project work etc. I took the task of developing the procedure to carryout project work and telling others how to proceed for project work. Gradually my group members started looking up to me to start the project work.

Among my group members, Meenakshi was good at developing procedures to do assignments and used to give her views when we used to sit together for group work, although she was good at all kinds of work related to assigned task. Ajay was good at making slides and typing reports of the group work, doing the surveys and getting questionnaires filled for projects. Deepak was good at collecting secondary data from the internet for the information related to the project. My job was to analyze and compile the data they use to collect and make final reports and presentations for the work.

Like all typical groups, in our group also there were good and bad events and moments. Sometimes, we used to have conflict among us over different issues, but we shared the joy of good remarks for our work together. Whatever the scenario was, Ajay stayed chill throughout the work, Deepak always put in his share of work wholeheartedly but I don’t know whether he didn’t thought of or I couldn’t make him to move a step ahead in doing other activities of group work. During all the assignments, I found Meenakshi serious towards project work in the last moments giving her every possible contribution to project work.

I don’t know what kind of experiences my group members had with me and the group during the entire year but I had all sorts of experiences with them and I learned a lot from them and group work.

In the end, I will say that I am happy with the time I had with my group and suggest all the readers who are reading the article to just think about their experience with the groups with which they have worked or are working. I am sure they will find some great moments of happiness and learning for themselves.