the shopkeeper !!

As I entered in the shop. Mr Ramesh patel owner of “riddhi siddhi” general stores in vashi sector 16 gave a blank look and asked “ boliye madam kya chahiye”.. dat was quite boring expression but then

Wen I told him about the assignment that was given  to us from college to know how he manages his shop.. a great smile appeared on his face and he offered me a chair to sit. Then he told me that I was the only person who had asked him about the management and working of his shop in his last 34 years… I started off with the questionnaire I had made to ask him so the  conversation carried on with the following question and answer. I started wid basic questions such as, how does the final goods come in your hand???Mr Patel ( explaining with a flowchart)the finished goods are dispatched from the company that is the manufacturer then it goes to the dealer and the dealer distributes it to the wholesaler and the retailer, we have a retail shop here we don’t sell goods in wholesale, who pays the transportation costs of goods?.Mr Patel answers “ the transportation costs is paid by the company. That’s the only benefit we have in this business”. when  asked about the discounts that they get on the product he answered that only 15 to 20% discounts are offered to them which is not enough to maintain the shop in the sense of infrastructure and the payments of the other workers in the shop. The profit margin is very less but the customers think that they get great amount of discounts and the shopkeepers are looting them  and saving large amount of profits which if practically calculated and looked upon is not the fact. But still to maintain  good relations with the customers they have to offer some amount of discount to them just for the goodwill purpose. When asked about the most popular product it was undoubtedly ‘maggi products’. Maggi products are the most popular and largely sold most of the profit is earned from these products. Another  would be shampoo sachets and other such small daily use items and mostly the fast food products. When I asked Mr. Patel that how he chooses which items are to be sold in his shop he answers  with a weird expression on his face saying ‘’ it all depends on the advertising of the product, more attractive the advertisement more is the demand so accordingly we choose the items’’ this is when I realized that even a small retailer is indirectly related to media. The quality of the goods depend upon the demand and the price  ( which we have learned in our basic economics)demand and supply goes hand in hand.. Mr. patel also added that sometimes customers come up with great arrogance and taunt me on being a gujrati and  looting them. this is very insulting but we have to take it with a smile on our face just to maintain the relation with the customers. At the end mr patel  also said that  food bazaar. Hypercity and such food markets have emerged because of which we are loosing customers and facing great losses , nowadays people have become brand conscious and think that buying from a mall will prove them elite and create a standard in the society but it’s the same material that we sell in our shops.great amount of discounts are offered there so it’s a major loss for us now to run our shops and manage it in the limited amount of profit.  After this conversation even my set of mind towards the retailers was changes as I personally got to know how they manage their shop and industrialization has affected the traditional ways of buying and selling of goods…

Highlights of Union -Budget 2011-12

A main budget speech by finance minister in assembly.

• Corporate tax surcharge reduced from 7.5% to 5%. Minimum alternate tax rate up from 18% to 18.5%.

• IT exemption for taxpayers rose from Rs 1.6 lakh to Rs 1.8 lakh. Tax relief is about Rs 2,000 across-the-board.

• Senior citizens to get higher IT deduction limit of Rs 2.5 lakh. Entitlement age reduced to 60 from current 65.

• New category of senior citizens above 80 years to get higher IT deduction limit of Rs 5 lakh from this year.

• Service tax levels and excise stay at 10%; Peak rate of customs duty remains unchanged.

• Excise exemptions withdrawn on 130 items; to pay minimum excise of 1% from next year.

• Foreign individual investors allowed to invest directly in mutual funds subject to KYC requirements.

• Govt to allow issue of Rs 30,000 crore worth of tax-free bonds by infrastructure companies in 2011-12.

• Tax deduction for investment in infrastructure bonds of Rs 20,000 extended for one more year.

• Investment in fertilizer plants and machinery to be treated as infrastructure investment.

• Fiscal deficit for 2010-11 seen at 5.1% against 5.5% budgeted; deficit for 2011-12 projected at 4.6% of GDP.

• Government to introduce direct cash payments for those entitled to subsidies in kerosene, cooking gas and fertilizer by March, 2012.

• Government considering extension of nutrient-based subsidy for urea, the largest chunk of fertilizers used in agriculture.

• National mission for electric and hybrid vehicles to be set up to create environment-friendly automobiles.

• Priority sector home loans limit raised to Rs 25 lakh from Rs 20 lakh.

• Interest subvention on home loans up to Rs 15 lakh. Mortgage risk guarantee corporation to insure loans to the poor.

• Public sector disinvestment target for 2011-12 is raised to Rs 40,000 crore

• Centre's net borrowing figure for 2011-12 fixed at Rs 3,43,000 crore; fiscal deficit figure at Rs 4,12,000 crore

• Cement excise duties will be shifted to valorem basis from specific duty now.

• Loss on direct tax reliefs at Rs 11,500 crore; gain on indirect tax changes at Rs 11,300 crore.

• FM says no need to remove stimulus package at this stage, but will withdraw excise exemptions.

• FIIs allowed to invest in MF schemes.• FII limit in corporate bonds has been raised by $20 billion.

• LPG, kerosene and fertilizers will be transferred directly to BPL beneficiaries.

• More banking licenses to be given.

• Subvention of 3per cent on farmers paying loans before time.

• Short term interest to farmers will continue to be at 7 per cent.

Our political parties – Money making machines quite literally [Earnings]

Money can buy you anything…

       Paisa bolta hai (Money speaks)…

             Money hai toh honey hai… (If you have money, then you will surely get your love)

You must have surely heard some of these phrases. Looks like our political parties truly believe in that.

Politics has always been a game of money especially in our country since the last 15-20 years or so. Gone are the years when ministers were there who really worked for the people, supported them and had good intentions of making some change.

Today all what they are worried about is what are the assets they have gained, how much money they have looted from people and what’s the future of this strategy. Before every election, one gets to know the wealth of the ministers which runs in crores. This is because they are supposed to declare their wealth. But who knows how much is really declared?

But a recently filed Right to Information (RTI) application on finding the incomes of the political parties has showed that Congress is by far the richest party around with an income of 497 crore in 2009-10. Some of the facts found were –

• Aggregate income of Congress has increased by 1,518 crores from 2002 to 2009 while the assets have gone up by 42%
• BJP and BSP have declared their incomes for 2009-10 as 220 crore and 182 crore respectively
• The maximum growth in total asset from 2002-03 – 2009-10 has been shown by BSP (59%). But here too Congress is leading the way…
• Congress has also shown the maximum bank borrowing of 49 crores followed by BJP of 13 crores

The interesting aspect of this study is the fact that regional parties like NCP, BSP etc have had an increase in their income and assets over the years. This is due to the fact of more industrialists funding politicians and also politicians making money through different means like various industrial projects (and we are talking about their 5-fold Salary increase).

Then there is also Mayawati who is increasingly worried about making her statues and spending tax payer’s money on that.

All the democracies of the world have transparent rules about declaring wealth, assets etc. There are specific laws for political parties as to what all they should declare. But we are a special democracy wherein such rules are sadly broken each and every day.

Urban Teens bags Pocket Money of over Rs.12000/month!

While searching for the story idea today, I came across an interesting survey on pocket money been given to the teenagers and young adults. For once, it struck me that this unique yet interesting subject has never been covered. So, let me take a dig at it.
The important predicament of pocket money must have certainly flashed your mind either during your childhood or as a parent . Of course, the dilemma is always much more grave if you are a parent. Parents extensively differ in their perspectives of upbringing children in a system of granting pocket money to take care of their petty expenses.
At first, the definite expenses that should be termed as ‘petty’ is pretty much subjective in nature and needs to be well-defined to start with. The second question you need to ask is – what is the extent to which a child be given freedom to spend money which is deemed as pocket money?

While lot of parent’s concerns revolves around promoting unhealthy competition amongst children on the amount of money they get and loss of control on a child’s spending habits, there are also some positive lessons for teenagers such as inculcating money management skills and making tough decision regarding spending desires that offer less value to their lifestyle.
The “Current Pocket Money Trends in Urban India” survey by ASSOCHAM has cited that metropolitan children in the 12-20 age group get as much as Rs.3600 to over Rs.12000 a month of pocket money to spend on apparels, physical appearance, cell phone and other lifestyle products.
Further, the monthly pocket money of teenagers and young adults, in cities like Delhi and Kolkata, have surged whopping 10-fold since 2005. In Ludhiana, 45% of surveyed teenagers get an allowance of Rs.2000 on weekly basis.
While the urban teens spend about 55% of their pocket money on electronic gadgets, almost a quarter of it goes towards watching movies and spending in malls. The remaining 20% of allowance goes towards eating out and food.
The surprising factor over here being that with rising cost of living and soaring inflation, the pocket of teenagers has also grown deeper. Rather than controlling the overall family budget, parents have shown generosity in ensuring that their children maintain their prevailing lifestyle and spending habits.
While giving pocket money to teens is not so bad a concept, you must also ensure that you allocate the right amount of money towards it which is more suitable to your family budget. At the same time, see to it that the sum granted by you is comparable and realistic to meet the day-to-day requirements of your child’s life.

The Downside of Focusing on Women and Girls

9^th March was International Women's Day and there were many articles and blog posts championing the idea that anti-poverty philanthropy should focus on women and girls Like many ideas in poverty alleviation before it, the "women first" approach has been increasingly captured by overly simplistic thinking about the poor and anti-poverty programs — with easily foreseeable, and already evident, negative consequences.

What could possibly be wrong with focusing aid programs on women and girls?

First, many of the arguments made in favor of a focus on women and girls — such as the idea that men spend money only on themselves while women spend money on their families — are rooted in the fallacy of essentialism. This fallacy attributes the results of context and culture to the core nature of people. There is a far better explanation for spending patterns of men and women, rooted in understanding how families everywhere negotiate over household income. In most societies men are the primary income earners; they distribute the income to their wives for particular purposes, usually including buying food and caring for children. Being human, the male income earners unsurprisingly feel that they should be able to enjoy some of the fruits of their labor.

When women become the primary income earners, we should expect to see the same spending patterns evolve over time. And that's exactly what we do see. In India and Cote D'Ivoire, researchers have seen that as women gain control of their income they do indeed spend more on themselves. The Indian study, one of the few high quality studies of microcredit extended to women, found no increase in household spending on clothing, food, or education

Second, the marketing pitch for focusing on women and girls increasingly is stereotyping men in the effort to combat the stereotyping of women. As Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo write in their forthcoming Poor Economics, if we want to make an impact on global poverty we have to stop painting the poor, women or men, as cartoon characters. The "women first" movement increasingly relies on caricatures of virtuous women and deadbeat dads. I'm especially concerned because the nature of global poverty today means that the men in these caricatures are black and brown, calling to mind racialist theories of the past even if that is by no means intended.

Consider the undeniable costs of a caricatured bias toward women. David McKenzie's research in Sri Lanka, Mexico, Brazil and Ghana has shown that urban male entrepreneurs typically earn far higher returns from microfinance than women do (in Sri Lanka average returns on capital for women were 0%, for men 10%). If we are trying to fight poverty, shouldn't we at leas

t consider what strategies are most likely to raise household income the most?

Does that mean that we should not focus on women and girls? Of course not. We should focus on women and girls. But we need to base the focus on the fact that women and girls are marginalized — and therefore empowering them can have significant benefits — not because they are women and girls. That may seem to be just a matter of semantics, but it is far from that. By defining programs in terms of the wrong criteria we create institutional inertia that will inevitably continue to pour resources into an area long after it is no longer appropriate. Just look at affirmative action programs in the United States that continue while a flood of research shows that the important distinction to deal with is class not race (though of course the two do overlap).

A focus on the marginalized, regardless of their sex, ethnicity, location, or other essential characteristics will do far more to combat poverty than a blind focus on women and girls.

12 Tips for Marketing New Blogs

Plenty of new B2C and B2B blogs are launched every day and the sheer volume of content makes standing out increasingly difficult. My personal experience as a B2B Marketing pro, is that blogs can be one of the most effective ways create connections with prospects and customers through useful content. However, that content will go unnoticed unless you promote it. To that end, here are 12 tips for marketing a new blog.

1. Add A Link  If it’s a company blog, or if it's attached to another site, add a link to the blog from the main navigation on the parent website.
2. Create A Badge On the main website, add a badge to the homepage, or sidebar, that promotes the blog. Images are a good way to catch a visitor's attention.
3. Email  Add a link to the blog in your email signature.
4. Newsletter “ Announce the blog in the company newsletter.
5. Network “ Announce the blog to your Twitter followers, Facebook fans, Linked in connections and any other social networks that you are apart of.
6. Press Release “ If you feel that the blog is important enough to support a press release, put one out.
7. Submit “ Submit the blog to blog & feed directories.
8. Share  “ Share your blog with co-workers, friends and others in your network. You never know when they might promote it for you.
9. Link  “ One way to get other bloggers to notice you is to link to them. Summarize someone else’s long blog post, expand upon someones shorter post, or just write your thoughts on a topic that someone else wrote about and link back to the original post.
10. Give Away  If it’s a product blog, run a promotion on the blog giving away one of your products. Sometimes the value that can come out of giving something away can be more beneficial than all the items above.
11. Guest Post  If there are other blogs in your industry, ask around and see if they'd allow you to guest post for them. In return, you’d get a link back to your blog in your profile, or post, on their site.
12. Ask “ Tap into the social networks within the industry you're trying to reach and ask them what they âre interested in. Here’s an example of a post that did just that on Twitter for this blog. Show interest in the interest of your audience and they pay more attention and share your content.

Of course, there’s no substitute for good content, so even the best blog marketing tactics will be fruitless unless those visitors find something useful AND the blog publisher has made it easy to share that content. This is a simple..
What tips and tactics have you found to be effective for promoting a new blog?