26.07.2008

• Volkswagen Group’s plan for India
• The Volkswagen Group is reportedly entering the Rs 43,000-crore Indian commercial vehicle (CV) market.
• It plans to sell business vans, buses and trucks in India, the world’s fourth-largest CV market, in a phased manner from early next year.
• The way to brand building for smaller companies
• For small businesses branding is a big challenge. A host of small advertising agencies are helping these companies with their communication needs and brand building. In return, what these agencies get apart from retainer fees is a percentage of the profit as the companies grow, and this is usually around 5-20%.
• Learn on the Go
• Companies like EnableM, Tata Interactive, 24x7 Learning, Airtel, IMS and NIIT are coming up with offering lessons in maths, English and science on mobile and PDAs. And what is more, you can also take your preparatory tests, such as CAT and IIT-JEE, on your handset.
• How does MLearning (Mobile Learning) hold promise?
• One, it offers an interactive learning experience.
• Two, accessibility of mobile devices in remote areas. The platform can be used anywhere, anytime, including schools, home or when in transit.
• Last but not least, it is far cheaper than computers.
• Olympian failures?
• We all know how poorly we fare at Olympics. Our non-performance has spurred our previous President to think out loud at a public function, whether the Indian Army can do something about it. That is how the idea that if our army decides to use one brigade only for sports, we will have arrived in the international sports scene, is born.
• Take a look at three issues about India’s Olympic discourse over the past four years:
• Olympics is clearly seen as a barometer of national pride and therefore viewed through a nationalist gaze;
• Olympic failures are blamed on sports management bodies which are seen as parochial and only interested in politics;
• The Indian Army, perceived as an apolitical edifice of the nation, is now seen by many as the last resort, capable of salvaging India’s dream of winning Olympic medals.
• With corporates also making a beeline for encouraging sports (remember the efforts of Vijay Mallya, Sunil Mittal etc.?) in a big way, let us hope by 2020, we will have our place of pride in the international sports scene.
• What a punch? The commentary on the state of our politics in today’s piece by Raghunathan is worth an excerpt. If you write a critique like this in your essay paper, you will surely walk away with excellent marks. Gulp err… chew it:
• Now that the monkey is off the government’s left shoulder, everybody can get back to work — especially make up for lost time on the nuclear deal. If a sulking Karat sacks Somnath from the party to assuage his badly bruised ego, well, one merely wonders what a sensible Somnath was doing in the CPM all this time anyway.
• Today, when the distinction between political allies, opposition, blackmailers and posture-mongers, and in some cases even crooks, is rapidly beginning to blur, politics has been reduced to nothing beyond the votes of illiterate masses for the next election by hook and more often by crook.
• How are Karat & Co, with their blinkered, dated and absurd allegiance to some effete ideology and views like “no employment is better than partial employment” more qualified than the PM to tell us what is good for India? What have Karat & Co ever administered anything beyond their little party offices to contest what a Manmohan or a Kalam thinks is good for the country? Somnath or Budhadeb speak a different language precisely because they have administered either a Loksabha (no joke in this country) or a state.
• I can’t agree with him more.
• Remember the name of our CAG – Comptroller and Auditor General?
• Vinod Rai. He was a former Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.
• Some banking terms related to payment systems
• EFT: Electronic Funds Transfer. It is a system whereby anyone who wants to make payment to another person / company etc. can approach his bank and make cash payment or give instructions / authorisation to transfer funds directly from his own account to the bank account of the receiver / beneficiary. Complete details such as the receiver’s name, bank account number, account type (savings or current account), bank name, city, branch name etc should be furnished to the bank at the time of requesting for such transfers so that the amount reaches the beneficiaries’ account correctly and faster. RBI is the service provider for EFT. As of now, EFT facility is available for transfer of funds between bank branches in about 15 major cities and towns across the country.
• Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system, introduced in India since March 2004, is a system through which electronic instructions can be given by banks to transfer funds from their account to the account of another bank. The RTGS system is maintained and operated by the RBI and provides a means of efficient and faster funds transfer among banks facilitating their financial operations. As the name suggests, funds transfer between banks takes place on a ‘real time’ basis. Therefore, money can reach the beneficiary instantaneously and the beneficiary’s bank has the responsibility to credit the beneficiary’s account within two hours.
• NEFT: National Electronic Fund Transfer. National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system is a nation wide funds transfer system to facilitate transfer of funds from any bank branch to any other bank branch.
• Electronic Clearing Service (ECS) is a retail payment system that can be used to make bulk payments / receipts of a similar nature especially where each individual payment is of a repetitive nature and of relatively smaller amount. This facility is meant for companies and government departments to make/receive large volumes of payments rather than for funds transfers by individuals. The ECS facility is available in 47 centres across India operated by RBI at places where it manages the clearing houses and by SBI and its associates in other centres. The ECS is further divided into two types – ECS (Credit) to make bulk payments to individuals/vendors and ECS (Debit) to receive bulk utility payments from individuals.
• CTS: Cheque Truncation Systems. It is a system of cheque clearing and settlement between banks based on electronic data/images or both without physical exchange of instrument. As straight through processing and automated payment processing are enabled by CTS faster realisation is accompanied by a reduction in costs for the customers and the banks. The banks have additional advantage of reduced reconciliation and clearing frauds.
• While reading today’s ET, I came across the phrase ‘cheque truncation’ and decided it is time to recap some of these important payment systems that exist in the country. For more detailed information, you can look at RBI’s FAQ on the subject here.
• Internet penetration figures of US and China
• Overtaking the US, China’s internet-user population has reached 253 million by the end of June. The US is estimated to be having about 230 mn users. In contrast India has about 42 mn internet users.
• China also had the largest number of broadband subscribers at 214 million, more than 80% of the total domestic internet population.