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NMAT 2015 Narsee Monjee Institute Of Management Studies

NMIMS Management Aptitude Test (NMAT-2015)

The official entrance exam to enter SVKM's Narsee Monjee Institute Of Management Studies (School Of Business Management) - Rated CRISIL A***, 4th Best B-School by The Economic Times and 7th Best by Businessworld.

NMIMS Offers a wide range of MBA programs, both general management and specialised areas, to suit industry requirements and make a student future ready.

1	Registration Start Date	Wednesday, 2nd July, 2014
2	Registration End Date	Wednesday, 24th September, 2014

FOR FULL DETAILS VISIT: http://www.nmat.org.in/management/
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INDIAN ECONOMY : ONE OF THE MOST ATTRACTIVE ECONOMIES

 Indian economy is one of the most attractive destinations for the business investments which look for large manpower base and diversified availability of resources and macroeconomic factors. With the Indian economy growing at a good pace and holding a strong position it has acted as one of the most attractive economies in the world. India’s economy is among one of the largest economy in the world with respect to purchasing power parity (PPP). If we look in the past India has attracted foreign direct investment worth 30.82 billion US $ while the FDI equity inflows during January 2013 stood at US $ 2.16 BILLION according to the data released by the department of Industrial Policy and Promotion(DIPP).

If we compare India with other countries, India has stood as the third most attractive destination for FDI in the world. India has a significant potential and a favorable business environment for foreign investors according to the reports of World Investment Prospects Survey 2012-2014 by UNCTAD.

SOME FACTS ABOUT INDIAN ECONOMY

• According to Mr. Ben Bernanke, Chairman, US Federal Reserve it is very necessary to exchange ideas and build the basis for future collaboration. India is a growing economy and is becoming an important player on the world stage in terms of its role in global economy.
• According to Grant Thornton Global Dynamism Index India is the fifth best country in the world for dynamic growing businesses. The index shows a reflection of a suitable environment India offers for dynamic businesses.
• According to the ‘Ipsos Economic Pulse of the World’ survey India’s economic confidence registered a growth of 8 points, and reached 68 per cent making it fourth most economically confident country in the world.
• As per Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd (Deloitte) India is also expected to be the second largest manufacturing country in the world in the coming next three years, followed by Brazil as the third ranked country.

RECENT GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES

• India’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy has been gradually relaxed to attract more foreign investors. The results showed up a positive change. Today, the country is consistently ranked among the top three global investment destinations by almost all international bodies, including the World Bank, according to a United Nations (UN) report.
• India and UAE has recently signed an agreement to promote collaboration in renewable energy, focusing in the areas of wind power and solar energy. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Dr Farooq Abdullah, Minister of New and Renewable Energy of India and Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of State of UAE in Abu Dhabi on January 18, 2014.

 

KEY SECTORS IN INDIA WHERE FOREIGN INVESTORS CAN INVEST

India a trillion dollar economy with a self sufficient agricultural sector, a varied industrial base and a strong and well established financial sector with a continuously developing services sector has numerous sectors that can provide lucrative business opportunities to the foreign investors.

India is continuously talking on policies to attract foreign investors, initiated by high profile visits in order to initiate and build a long and lucrative means of economic cooperation with the developed countries.

The list of sectors that can be seen as good opportunities by the foreign investors:

1. SOFTWARE

India’s software and service sector is continuously seeing a positive growth with a large no. of engineer minds continuously entering into this sector. India software and service exports are likely to increase with projected export revenue at 13-15%. With one of the largest pool of engineers available in India investors have high targets in hardware and software development.

2. TOURISM

One of the booming industries in India is Tourism. India is noticing a rising number of domestic and international tourists every year. Tourism can be one of the sectors that can attract the foreign investors and is really hot nowadays. India with its diverse culture, rich heritage has been a tourist attracted destination since a long time.

3. AUTOMOBILE

A growing hotspot for automobile industry is what India is looked as. India can also acts as a cost effective hub for auto components sourcing for global market. With a pool of cheap and easily available labor and growing technology the automotive sector is potential business in India for foreign investors.

4. TEXTILES

India having known for textile since centuries because of its unique style of apparels in each state has huge potential for business investments. India can act as a preferred location looking upon the growing demand of garments. Many states of India such as Tripura and Ludhiana are now export hubs for textile. Although some sort of better understanding of the market and customers is still needed and can boost growth in this sector and attract direct investment.

5. EDUCATION AND TRAINING

A good demand in this sector can be a reason for the interest of the foreign players. With a large percentage of population lacking good education is being counted under unskilled workers. A need for education and training can be clearly identified. Providing education and training would convert this unskilled labor into skilled and can be used in a better manner.Besides this with good facilities at competitive rates, unique method of teaching and betterment in some aspects of the education system in India can attract a large student population from abroad.

Besides these sectors other sectors such as real estate, Retail, Power and biotechnology can also be the sectors of foreign investors’ interest.

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GLOBALIZATION AND ITS IMPACT ON INDIAN ECONOMY

Introduction to globalization 

India noticing the need of the time had been coming up with significant changes in its economic policy in the past, mainly noticed during early 1990s. The year 1990 noticed a new economic reform model, popularly known as LPG model (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization). The model had its major focus at giving a push to the Indian economy and making it as a fastest growing economy that can stand with its head high giving a neck to neck competition to other globally competitive economies. Industrial sectors, trade, as well as the financial sectors were taken into consideration and reforms were designed that could help in increasing the overall efficiency of the Indian economy.

Globalization describes the process of integration of many different regional economies, cultures and societies at a global level through a network of communication, transportation and trade. The term is sometimes used significantly for the economic globalization i.e. the national economies integrated into the world economy through aspects such as foreign direct investment, trade, capital flows, the spread of technology and migration.

With the introduction of reforms through the LPG model in early stages of 1990’s, a new chapter was initiated giving a ray of hope for a better India to its billion plus population. With this major step towards India’s growth and a dream to make India noticeable at a global level this economic transition made its impact on almost all major sectors of the Indian economy be it agricultural sector, bank sector, IT sector or any other. It created an important milestone in India’s growth and development and its real integration into the global economy.

A remarkable change in the Indian mindset that relies on self reliance and socialistic policies of economic development since independence was ushered, as it deviates from the traditional values. The Indian economy had seen an inward looking and consolidated form of governance, which had resulted in isolation, giving birth to inefficiency and absence of India on world level giving rise to many other problems as well. There is no doubt in the potential we carry with our economy as not only us but many other investors see Indian economy as one of the most attractive economy and a land with opportunities.

 

India noticed the need for restructuring its economy and with aspirations of elevating itself from its present desolate position in the world; it thought and gave hand to the concepts of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization in order to speed up its economic development. India had witnessed the positive role of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and has clearly noticed the role that it had played in the rapid economic growth of most of the Southeast Asian countries and most notably China. Noticing the same, India decided to put up an ambitious plan to move on the footsteps of its neighbors to the east and is tried to present itself as a safe and profit making destination for investments.

Though globalization having different meanings in different contexts. In context to India, globalization implies to opening up the doors of Indian economy for foreign direct investment by providing facilities to foreign companies. FDI calls in the foreign investors to invest in the diversified fields of economic activities running in India. Opening the doors to welcome these foreign investors and removing all the constraints and obstacles in between not only allows but also supports foreign investors for a flawless business in India. On the other hand,  validation of Indian companies to enter into foreign markets and at the same time encouraging them to set up joint ventures abroad is what globalization policies reforms have been noticed for in 1991 in India.

 Advent of New Economic Policy

Having suffered from a huge financial and economic crisis several set of measures was taken to overcome the ongoing crisis. The economy was noticing a roaring inflation at an annual rate of 17%, the fiscal deficit were moving high and had became unsustainable. Indian economy was losing faith of foreign investors and an immediate need for a set of strong policies was clearly visible. It was then when India introduced LPG Policy (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization Policy). The policies were also known as New Economic Policy, 1991.

The measures taken under these policies were to liberalize and globalize the Indian economy:

Devaluation: The first step taken towards globalization and to solve the balance of payment problem and hence, announced devaluation of Indian currency by 18-19 % against major currencies in the international foreign exchange market.

Disinvestment: With globalization, a parallel track was being laid for privatization and liberalization policies as well.  A large no. of public sector undertakings was being sold to private sector under the privatization scheme.

Allowing FDI (Foreign Direct Investment): A wide range of sectors such as Insurance, defense industries etc. were opened for foreign direct investments.

NRI Scheme: The facilities previously given only to the foreign investors were now open for NRI's as well.

Consequences of Globalization:

Having introduced this trio of policies, an important question coming up was the consequences of these implications. Globalization supports interdependence and competition of different economies in the world market. This is reflected as Interdependence in terms of movement of capital and trading in goods and services. Thus, domestic economic developments are not merely determined by domestic policies and market conditions but by also taking into consideration the international policies and economic conditions. The policies and developments in the rest of the world cannot be ignored while evaluating our own domestic policies and economic conditions.

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BASICS OF MARKETING

 Marketing, we all have heard a lot this term. So what is marketing? Who is a marketer? Also, what is a market? First let us understand the market.  A “Market” is defined as any place where an actual or potential buyer and seller interact with each other and involves in the activities of purchase or sale of a product or service.

Then, who is a marketer? A marketer is someone who seeks a response, attention, purchase from another party and party is called the “prospect”. This indicates that everyone markets something at some point in time (though not in the commercial sense of the term). Marketers are the persons who create demand for their offerings.

Now the question is what are the things which can be marketed? So the entities which can be marketed are classified into 9 categories. They are-

(1)    Goods

(2)    Services

(3)    Experiences

(4)    Events

(5)    Places

(6)    Persons

(7)    Properties

(8)    Ideas

(9)    Information

Now let us understand the term “marketing” and its concepts. Marketing means creating demand. Marketing is the process which links people’s needs, want and demands with those capable of fulfilling the same for mutual benefit and satisfaction. People have different needs, wants and desires of products and services. Marketing is process to fulfill those desires by creating value for customers at the same time making profit for the producer or company who is the manufacturer of that particular product. Marketing is very vast and involves various activities. Some people misunderstand marketing and consider it as sales only. But in reality marketing is very broad and sales are just a part of marketing. Marketing activities involve activities like.

(1)    Sales

(2)    Promotion

(3)    Branding

(4)    Advertising

(5)    Research and Development

(6)    Visual Merchandising

Marketing is mainly concerned with market or customer demand. Those demands are categorised in different states.

      (1)   Regular demand- Products like toothpaste, soap, shampoo, salt etc

      (2)    Irregular demand- e.g.  Holidays, destination, umbrella, raincoat.

      (3)    Full demand- under this highly perishable goods are covered which are highly demanded.  We            should try to maintain it by ensuring quality, keep offering fresh to prevent boredom.

      (4)    Overfull demand- Product demand is greater than its supply.

      (5)    Negative demand- under this those products come which are generally disliked by the                        customers but they are ready to pay for the product.

MARKETING CONCEPTS

Many important terms are related to the concepts of marketing and are introduced in the definition. Those are classified as

(1)   Needs, wants and demands

(2)   Target markets, Positioning and Segmentation

(3)   Offering and Brands

(4)   Value and satisfaction

(5)   Marketing Channels

(6)   Supply chain

(7)   Competition

(8)   Marketing Environment

NEEDS, WANTS AND DEMANDS -

Needs are basic human requirements such as food, clothing and shelter. Beside this human have several other needs like education, recreation, entertainment etc. Needs becomes wants when they are directed towards specific products. Ultimately, wants get converted into demands when the customer has ability to pay and buy the product.

TARGET MARKETS, POSITIONING AND SEGMENTATION - After the production of a particular good the next task is to decide which market the product has to address whether consumer market, business to business, non-profit organization, government or global. However customers taste differ with target market having different needs and wants. This demands market to be divided into segments. Segmentation is done by identifying different group of customers with similar needs and wants using identifiers such as demographics, psychographics, and behavioral differences among groups of buyers. After doing all the above activities the next and most important step is positioning the market to seek maximum number of customers like at a central location.

OFFERING AND BRANDS- Marketers satisfy customer nee by putting forth a set of benefit to satisfy a need called value proposition. The value of an offered product is the degree to which the product satisfies the need of a customer.

VALUE AND SATISFACTION- Value is the degree of satisfaction of needs derived from the product. Many products can satisfy a customer need but customer’s buying choice follows only on the perception on the product’s value. Alternatively, satisfaction refers to the fulfillment of need of a customer. 

MARKETING CHANNELS- Marketing channels are the path or set of processes or activities necessary to transfer the ownership of the produced goods from the producer to the end customer. It consists of all marketing activities necessary for marketing management.

SUPPLY CHAIN- A system of organization which involves system, information, activities or process required to move a product or service from its supplier to the customer. It is process through which raw materials get transformed into finished product.

COMPETITION- Competition is the most important part of any business. Competition in a market occurs when two or more parties strive for a common goal and which is desired individual and achieved without cooperation.

MARKETING ENVIRONMENT - Market is forced by some factors which affect a firm’s ability to form and make a successful relationship with their customers called marketing environment. In these two types of forces works i.e. internal force and external force. Marketing environment is a mix between these two forces. 

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5 REASONS BEHIND YOUR FREQUENT LAPTOPS AND COMPUTER SYSTEMS CRASH

 Are you fed up of frequent system crashes of your computer system of laptops? If yes then find  out the reason first and then a solution to it.

 Some of the common reasons behind computer system crash are listed below:

 5 reasons why PCs and laptops crash U must know:

1. Hardware conflicts

One of the most prominent reasons to why Windows crashes is hardware conflict. Each hardware device communicates to other devices through a unique interrupt request channel (IRQ).

For example, some usual connections are:

 A printer - connects internally on IRQ 7.

 Keyboard - usually uses IRQ 1

 Floppy disk drive - uses IRQ 6.

Each device will try to hog a single IRQ for itself.

With a lot of devices connected to your system, not installed properly, any two of them may end up sharing the same IRQ number. Now when the user tries to use both devices at the same time, a crash can happen. In order to check if your system is suffering from a hardware conflict you need to follow the steps given below:

àGo to Start menu à Settings àControl Panel à System àDevice Manager

If the device is suffering from a problem a yellow '!' appears next to its description in the Device Manager. Highlight Computer (in the Device Manager) and press Properties to see the IRQ numbers used by your computer. If the IRQ number appears twice, two devices may be using it.

Sometimes a device might share an IRQ with something described as 'IRQ holder for PCI steering'. This can be ignored. The best way to fix this problem is to remove the problem device and reinstall it.

Sometimes you may have to find more recent drivers on the internet to make the device function properly. A good resource is www.driverguide.com. If the device is a soundcard, or a modem, it can be fixed by moving it to a different slot on the motherboard (be careful about opening your computer, as you may void the warranty).

Use proper precaution before doing it yourself.

 Initially, the computers come with only eight IRQs. Today, the systems come with just double the no. i.e. 16 IRQs.

2. Bad Ram

Ram (random-access memory) problems might bring you to the blue screen with a message saying Fatal Exception Error. This error message indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes, it may mean a part is damaged and needs replacement.

But the reason behind a fatal error caused by RAM might be a mismatch of chips. For example, mixing 70-nanosecond (70ns) RAM with 60ns RAM will usually force the computer to run all RAM’S at the slower speed. This will often crash the machine if the RAM is overworked.

A possible solution to this problem is to enter the BIOS settings and increase the wait state of the RAM. This can make it more stable. Another way to troubleshoot a suspected RAM problem is to rearrange the RAM chips on the motherboard, or take some of them out and put across a single high capacity RAM or RAM’s with same speed. While handling RAM’s to take care of the golden connections, as they are quite fragile.

Parity error messages also refer to RAM. Modern RAM chips are either parity (ECC) or non parity (non-ECC). It is best not to mix the two types, as this can be one of the reasons to your trouble.

3. Hard disk drives

After a few weeks, the information on a hard disk drive starts to become piecemeal or fragmented. It is a good idea to defragment the hard disk every week or so, to prevent the disk from causing a screen freeze. Go to

 Start àPrograms àAccessories àSystem Tools àDisk Defragmenter

This will start the procedure. You will be unable to write data to the hard drive (to save it) while the disk is defragmenting, so it is a good idea to schedule the procedure for a period of inactivity using the Task Scheduler.

Some lockups and screen freezes caused by hard disk problems can be solved by reducing the read-ahead optimization. This can be adjusted by going to

Go to Start àSettings àControl Panel àSystem Icon àPerformance àFile System àHard Disk.

Hard disks will slow down and crash if they are too full. Do some housekeeping on your hard drive every few months and free some space on it. Open the Windows folder on the C drive and find the Temporary Internet Files folder. Deleting the contents (not the folder) can free a lot of space.

Shortcut to temp folder: go to run à type %temp% àpress enter àselect all and delete.

Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space. Hard disk drives should be scanned every week for errors or bad sectors.

Otherwise you can also make use of task scheduler and assign the Task Scheduler to perform this operation at night when the computer is not in use.

4. Viruses

Virus attacks can be a most possible reason for your system crash if your system is not protected by some good antivirus software.

Often the first sign of a virus infection is instability. Some viruses erase the boot sector of a hard drive, making it impossible to start. This is why it is a good idea to create a Windows start-up disk.

A virus scanner requires a list of virus signatures in order to be able to identify viruses. These signatures are stored in a DAT file. DAT files should be updated weekly from the website of your antivirus software manufacturer. However now antivirus comes with auto update features. Many a times, we do switch off auto update options to prevent use of internet by applications to avoid our internet connection going slow. But antivirus updates are an important requirement to avoid system attack by viruses.

Keep updating your virus definition file regularly.

Some good antivirus programs are available such as:

        a)      McAfee VirusScan by Network Associates

        b)      Norton AntiVirus 2000, made by Symantec

        c)      Avast antivirus and many more….

5. Overheating

Central processing units (CPUs) are usually equipped with fans to keep them cool. If the fan fails to work properly or if the CPU gets old it may start to overheat and may generate a particular kind of error called a “kernel error”. This is a common problem in chips that have been overclocked to operate at higher speeds than they are supposed to.

Also it has been seen as a normal behavior that we do put our laptops on beds while working leaving no space between its base and bed and hence the laptop get heated up. And this overheating leads to frequent system crash.

External cooling fans are available in the market to make your work easy and comfortable do purchase them and enjoy….

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