Evaluate Sainsbury plc's financial strategy Essay - 2

Evaluate Sainsbury plc's financial strategy - Essay Example Sainsbury's is headquartered in Holborn Circus. To ensure that its products are effectively distributed in the local and neighboring markets, the supermarket has established a number of subsidiaries in the UK market. Under the leadership of David Tyler and Justin King the company chairman and chief executive respectively, Sainsbury’s has more than 150,000 employees. This has resulted to a significant increment on the company revenue that stood at ?21.102Â  billion in 2011. This paper, evaluate Sainsbury plc’s financial strategy by analyzing its financial performance in the last few years. To expand its customer’s base and generate more revenue that is needed to undertake its operations, Sainsbury's has opened a number of stores, supermarkets and a significant number of hypermarkets. To ensure that the supermarket is financial strong to cater for its short-term and long-term liabilities, Sainsbury's operates Sainsbury's Bank whose key objectives is to sell financ ial products. One of the major factors that Sainsbury's has adopted to enhance its financial performance was the formation of a joint venture with Lloyds Banking Company among other firms. Major strategies that Sainsbury's has adopted to strengthen its financial position is merger and acquisitions (Adizes 35). As depicted earlier, the supermarket generated total revenue of ?21.102Â  billion in 2011. ... ncial Statement 2012 indicate that as a result of the increase in the investment, the net debt of the company increased from ?1,814 million in 2011 to ?1,980 million in 2012. This was however, offset by reasonable cash that was generated from leasebacks and sales. Table indicating cash generated from operations and net cash from operating activities by Sainsbury’s in 2011 and in 2012 financial years. Figures are in ? million. Cash generated from operations 1291 1388 Interest paid (142) (126) Corporation tax paid (82) (158) Net cash from operating activities 1067 854 Net cash used in investing activities (883) (902) Issue of shares proceeds 14 17 New debt 391 45 Borrowings repayments (65) (79) Dividends paid (285) (269) Source- Sainsbury’s Annual Report and Financial Statement 2012 Financing of Sainsbury operations According to the board of the directors, Sainsbury’s is focused at effectively managing its finances by maintaining appropriate stand-by liquidity, red ucing the risks of refinancing and diversifying the sources of funds. Two of the major long-term loans that are vital in the operations of Sainsbury’s include loans of ?1,036 million and ?843 million that are due on 2018 and 2031 respectively. The company has provided its property assets as the security for the loans. Other key sources of funds includes unsecured loans of ?499 million, finances leases of ?143 million, and convertible bonds issued to the public amounting to ?190 million. Based on the profitability of the company, the board is focused at repaying the loans in the next five years. In order to have adequate cash to cater for short term and urgent liabilities, Sainsbury’s maintains a revolving credit facility amounting to ?690 millions (Modigliani and Miller 263). According to the 2012

The Republican Presidential Candidate's Stand on Stem Cell Research Paper

The Republican Presidential Candidate's Stand on Stem Cell - Research Paper Example This topic was once again brought to center stage because of Newt Gingrich's declaration as published in The Washington Post that he would ban embryonic stem cell research and also question the IVF practices (Tumulty, Karen, Gingrich Wows to Ban Embryonic Stem-Cell Research, Questions In Vitro Practices). His statement then led me to wonder about what the stand of the other 2 leading Republican presidential candidates would be on the issue. The answers I found were quite troubling. It would appear that save for Mitt Romney's limited knowledge of stem cell research, none of the GOP candidates actually understand the reasons behind the need to federally fund any stem cell research and as far as any of these candidates are concerned, scientific and medical advancements directly tied to stem cell research are a work of the devil and will not bring anything to our society. They believe that stem cell research is actually a method by which a child can legally be murdered by those around hi m. It saddens me to think that these candidates are so lost in their own world that they cannot see how stem cell research is actually a gift from science, not a tool of death. Through the years, the stem cell research debate has become one of the divisive arguments within the GOP. One which has their presidential candidates taking opposing sides, all with the intention of keeping their private and religious supporters happy and their campaign funds at a steady amount. However, the time has come for the Republican party to decide whether they are going to have candidates who represent the will of the people and the needs of many, or the religious aspect which is fast losing ground and support in an era when religious beliefs no longer hold as much power over the people as it did in the past decades. Of the three current frontrunners of the Republican party presidential race, two of them hold true and dear to their party standards while only one has chosen to be his own man and repre sent the actual will of the people on the issue. The two who stand for the traditional Republicans are Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, while the modernist who sees the whole picture and not just party guidelines is Mitt Romney. With Newt Gingrich, the current 2nd placer in the GOP primaries declaring that he shall continue to prevent the further growth of stem cell research due to his misguided belief that stem cell research destroys an unborn child's life, he has shown the public the kind of traditional candidate that he is. One who does not see into the future and only lives in the past. A remnant of a political era long gone. This is a statement to be held as true since he declared to the flock of followers at the Baptist Church in Winterpark, Florida that: ... embryonic stem-cell research amounts to â€Å"the use of science to desensitize society over the killing of babies.† (Tumulty, Karen, Gingrich Vows to Ban Embryonic Stem-Cell Research, Questions In Vitro Practices) By making such a declaration, the public may be led to believe that should Mr. Gingrich be elected to the White House, the scientific and medical community will suffer a significant setback in the research and development of disease prevention and cure. It is easy to see why he would make such a declaration, he is after all a Catholic convert and is a staunch pro-life supporter as well. Mr. Gingrich's sentiment is one which is familiarly echoed by the 3rd ranked GOP presidential cand

Bedford Health Show Project Management

Bedford Health Show Project Management EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:- This is a business report submission of the project plan for the exhibition at Bedford health show for Optimum healthcare solutions organisation. INTRODUCTION My aim for this project plan assignment is for me to attempt to explain the rationale behind the exhibition and plan a project towards this with the project milestone, potential return on investment, the budget, Gantt chart and work breakdown structure illustrated. OVERVIEW OF OPTIMUM HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS Optimum Healthcare Solution is an organisation that provides physiotherapy products and services to local community, other hospitals and healthcare personnel . They provide a treatment pathway for their patient and have specialist in physiotherapy that assist in the rehabilitation and recovery for patients that has suffered injuries. They offer services and products such as Pilates, sports massage, watt bike testing, ultrasonography, shockwave therapy, acupuncture, myofascial taping, customised orthotics. They are specialised in the treatment of Back pain, Musculosketal, Acupuncture, Paediatric ,sports injury e.t.c The organisation does not just only provide physiotherapy, they also provide services in the area of Neurotherapy, fitness and elite fitness which enables the organisation to provide rehabilitation assessment and treatment for all their patients They have a training programme that helps in improving performance and preventing injuries. RATIONALE/BENEFITS FOR EXHIBITING AT THE BEDFORD HEALTH SHORE Exhibiting at a trade show is a way for one to market its products and services It will enable the organisation(OHS) to advertise their healthcare products and services to 5,750 visitors at the exhibition, at least majority of these visitors wouldnt have heard about the organisation. It will create more awareness about (OHS) products and services which might lead to global recognition because the visitors will be diverse from different countries . Its an opportunity to network on a larger scale with other healthcare service provider at the exhibition. Its an opportunity to get more clients/patients to patronise the products and services offered which will eventually lead to the creation of a customer database. It will help to improve the brand image of (OHS) and help to know what other healthcare provider competitors are up to. Its a good marketing strategy to start off sales of (OHS) products and services It leaves an impression on potential clients/patients It will ultimately end up increasing sales for the organisation and to promote (OHS) RETURN ON INVESTMENT As the project planner we are estimating a profit of  £5000 after investing  £5000 which is a 100% returns on investment which is of benefit to the organisation. Return on investment = ROI =net profit/investment*100 ROI=5000/5000*100=100% We are estimating 1800 new clients will be recruited at the exhibition out of the 5,750 that will attend the exhibition. There is also the possibility of more clients patronising the services and products. From this estimate , we are assuming well break even after the exhibition. The desired result of getting more sales will be realised and the project stakeholders will ultimately be satisfied. PROJECT PLAN MILESTONES Cost or suggested Budget( £5,000) Time Resources e.g. equipment, machinery, Stationeries Training of staff Project start and end date COST/BUDGET PLAN FOR THE BEDFORD EXHIBITION SHOW VENUE RENT(SHELL SCHEME STAND)  £900 TRANSPORT TO FRO OF EQUIPMENTS  £250 HIRING FURNISHING LOCALLY (DESK,CHAIR TABLE AT BEDFORD)  £200 ADVERTISEMENT FOR SHOW  £200 PRINTING POSTERS/LEAFLET  £200 GIFT MUGS/PEN/T-SHIRT WITH (OHS)LOGO  £200 INTERNET CONNECTION AT EXHIBITION CENTRE  £30 STAFF WAGES FOR THE DAY  £800 STAFF TRAINING  £250 HOTEL BOOKING FOR 10 STAFF MEMBERS  £750 HOSPITALITY FOR POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS E.G DRINKS, TEA, COFFEE  £100 CLEAN UP SERVICES  £120 MISCELLANOUS  £1000 TOTAL EXHIBITION COST  £5000 OBJECTIVES OF THE EXHIBITION The Objectives of exhibiting at the Bedford health show is basically to make sales for(Optimum Healthcare Solutions) products and services at the exhibition event by recruiting at least 1,800 clients . Motivate the team by the seminars and training they will be attending to gain insight into how to engage the potential customers of optimum healthcare solutions. Contact potential patients or customers after the exhibition event with telephone calls, email, text messages, arranging interviews, letters through the post to serve as reminders and social media networking. To ensure that within 24 hours of collating data and creating a database ,all new potential customers would have been communicated with and arrange an assessment with them as soon as possible. PROJECT STAKEHOLDERS   Ã‚   PROJECT MANAGER :- is a stakeholder in the sense that he or she has the responsibility of ensuring that the project is prepared, planned properly, manages risks and executed accordingly. CLIENTS/PATIENTS:- Are stakeholders in that the OHS has a care of duty to provide and cant afford to fail them because they pay for the products and services. LOCAL COMMUNITY:-Are stakeholders as well because whatever decision is been made by the healthcare providers management(OHS) and their activities, the community will be impacted and affected by these. STAFF:-Are stakeholders because they are impacted by either the success or failure of the organisation and the management decisions. GOVERNMENT:- Are stakeholders because they expect the healthcare providers to provide quality healthcare services to patients and to pay income tax (which is a revenue for them). BOARD OF DIRECTORS:- They as a service provider needs to be financially sustainable . GANTT CHART OF PROJECT PLAN FOR OPTIMUM HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS EXHIBITION AT THE BEDFOR HEALTH SHOW (Owadokun, K. et al, 2017) The project plan has a time frame or duration of a start date from 1st of April 2017 and an end date of 22nd of April 2017 with the activities involved in achieving the project plan and this is clearly represented on the Gantt chart. PROJECT LIFE CYCLE FOR THE (OHS) EXHIBITION PROJECT INITIATION:- A team was put up to brainstorm how the project plan should go and set aims and objectives for the project, a feasibility study was done about the Bedford health show PROJECT PLANNING:-The plan of how to get the project working was put in place by the team after brainstorming and coming to a conclusion, and as well the budget breakdown estimate for the exhibition was concluded after analysing what it will cost to effect the project, a communication plan was also put in place so the team can effectively communicate .e.g. a new email account was created and a mobile and landline line was given to all team members PROJECT EXECUTION:-A time management was put in place that is represented on the Gantt chart on how to monitor the progress of the project. PROJECT CLOSURE:- A review and assessment of the project executed is put in place and also to communicate with potential clients 24 hours immediately after the exhibition by ensuring they are communicated with through letters, phone calls, email, social media, text message reminders e.t.c and also communicate back to the stakeholders about the success of the exhibition and the lessons learned are documented. 4Ds OF THE PROJECT DISCOVER:-When the staff at the exhibition where engaging the customers or potential patients, they tried to get information off the customers about the use of the products and services during demonstrations with the equipment at the venue . DESIGN: The staff will be encouraged to put themselves in the shoes of the potential clients for (OHS) using the products and services and encourage questions from the customers and the time and duration needed to actualise the project plan was calculated which was between the first of April to the twenty second of April 2017 . DEVELOP:-Several meetings and Training of staff will be done on how to communicate sales processes of (OHS)products and services and the activities highlighted in our Gantt chart was done, we also got appropriate data from the customers. DELIVER:-Appropriate feedback will be collected from the customers at the exhibition and well evaluate this feedback with our objectives if its been realised CONCLUSION I have learnt from undertaking this research that it is realistic to break even after investing  £5000 and get a return of 100% on what is invested through strategic marketing, social networking and engaging clients one on one such as exhibiting on a larger scale to a wide audience that is more diverse than in the local community and hospitals REFERENCE http://www.optimum-hcs.com Owadokun, K. Begum, N. Mostafa, M. Costa,Ginario. and Chowdury, Dilruba(2017) OHS Gantt chart

Reoccurring Themes and Symbols in Different Works by Nathaniel Hawthorne :: The Minister’s Black Veil

It is no secret that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† is a parable. Hawthorne intended it as such and even gave the story the subtitle â€Å"a parable.† â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil,† however, was not Hawthorne’s only parable. Hawthorne often used symbols and figurative language to give added meaning to the literal interpretations of his work. His Puritan ancestry also influenced much of Hawthorne’s work. Instead of agreeing with Puritanism however, Hawthorne would criticize it through the symbols and themes in his stories and parables. Several of these symbols and themes reoccur in Hawthorne’s â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil,† â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†, and The Scarlet Letter. One particularly noticeable theme in Hawthorne’s work is that of secret sin (Newman 338). In the â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†, this theme is evident when young Mr. Brown dreams that he is led by the devil to a witching party. There he sees all of the honorable and pious members of society, including his minister and the woman who taught him his catechisms, communing with the prince of darkness. Upon awakening, the hypocritical nature of his once admired neighbors and the realization of his own secret sin causes him to become terribly disillusioned (Colacurcio 396). The same thing happens in â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil,† except the reader does not know exactly what secret sin makes Reverend Hooper begin to don the black veil. Many scholars believe that this has something to do with the funeral of the young lady at the beginning of the story. The opinions range from believing that Reverend Hooper loved the girl in secret, to Poe’s believe that Reverend Hooper may have actually been the cause of the girl’s death (Newman 204). Whatever the reason, the minister’s wearing of the veil taints his view of everyone else around him, making all of them look like they are wearing veils as well (Hawthorne 107). Dimmesdale’s secret sin with Hester Prynne is admitted at the end of the story, but the theme of secret sin is not as used as strongly in this novel as it was in Hawthorne’s stories (Dryden 147). However, two of the main themes in The Scarlet Letter are visible in both of the other stories. The first is the corruption of the clergy. In The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Dimmesdale is a good pastor.

Jose de San Martin Essay

In Argentina war of independence was fought from 1810 to 1818 by Argentine forces under Jose de San Martin against royalist forces loyal to the Spanish crown. On July 9, 1816, an assembly met in San Miguel de Tucuman, declared full independence with provisions for a national constitution. Chile This war of independence was an armed conflict between the people of Chile and Spanish colonial authorities, which started on September 10, 1810 and extended until 1821. A declaration of independence was officially issued by Chile on February 12,1818 and formally recognized by Spain in 1840, when full diplomatic relations ( conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states) were established. Peru The Napoleonic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula should have led to a degradation of royal power, but since nearby Upper Peru was under the attack of armies from Buenos Aires, the Peruvian oligarchs supported the royalist cause. Fear of indigenous rebellion also remained from the 1780-1781 revolt that was headed by Jose Gabriel â€Å"Tupac Amaru† Condorcanqui. Finally, the viceroys of Peru traditionally had the support of the Lima oligarchs because of their opposition to the commercial interests of Buenos Aires and Chile. Therefore, the Viceroyalty of Peru became the last redoubt of the Spanish Monarchy in South America. Nevertheless, a Creole rebellion arose in 1812 in Huanuco and another in Cusco between 1814 and 1816. Both were suppressed. These rebellions were supported by the armies of Buenos Aires. Peru finally succumbed after the decisive continental campaigns of Jose de San Martin (1820–1823) and Simon Bolivar (1824). While San Martin was in charge of the land campaign, a newly built Chilean Navy led by Lord Cochrane transported the fighting troops and launched a sea campaign against the Spanish fleet in the Pacific. San Martin, who had displaced the royalists of Chile after the Battle of Maipu, and who had disembarked in Paracas in 1820, proclaimed the independence of Peru in Lima on July 28, 1821. Four years later, the Spanish Monarchy was defeated definitively at the Battle of Ayacucho. After independence, the conflicts of interests that faced different sectors of Creole Peruvian society and the particular ambitions of the caudillos, made the organization of the country excessively difficult. Only three civilians—Manuel Pardo, Nicolas de Pierola and Francisco Garcia Calderon—acceded to the presidency in the first seventy-five years of Peru’s independence. The Republic of Bolivia was created from Upper Peru. In 1837 a Peru-Bolivian Confederation was also created but was dissolved two years later due to Chilean military intervention

Rizal as a role-model for students

Rizal Submitted by: Jose Marcko Durano Submitted to: Sir Parawan Rizal, American sponsored Hero |Rizal was an American-sponsored hero | Rector’s Bill |Claro M. Recto Foundation | Why is Rizal the National hero? |Jose Rizal | Discovery in Binyan Jose Rizal |Jose Rizal | Blumentritt’s role in the propaganda war |Ferdinand Blumentritt | Rizal’s stinginess |Rizal’s stinginess |Rizal as a role-model for students |Liability | What did Rizal read? |He grew up in a home with a large | |library. | ———————– He became the national hero only because of the Americans who sponsored and encouraged the Rizal cult. Andres Bonifacio made Rizal the honorary president of KKK. KKK First Asians to rebel against a Western colonial power and establish a republic. A traitor to the revolution. The greatest Malay who ever lived. Aguinaldo declared this day to be an annual â€Å"Day of National Mourning. †December 1898 Th e Rizal course is coded as PI 100; Putang Ina 100. Made the Rizal bill. Student’s feel it’s useless studying this. Students today don’t appreciate much studying Rizal’s life. He was one man who was willing to risk losing votes because of his principles. Catholics schools threatened to close shop if the Rizal bill passed. Recto’s bill passed the law on 1956. Hero of all heroes. Spirit of Revolution â€Å"My dreams have always guided my actions. † He was a quiet, peaceful man who wilfully and calmly walked to his death former convictions. Unconscious hero. † Jose Potracio Rizal Mercado Y Realonda – Alonzo Teodora Alonzo Realonda Francis Mercado June 19, 1861 Regina Ursua Manuel de Qunito Brigada de Quintos Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo Domingo Lamco Ines Dela Rosa Cirila Bernacha Francisco Mercado Good friend and correspondent of Rizal. He attacked anti-Filipino writers. First European scholars o specialized in Phils. Studies. He was wal king around, peeking and salivating. He goes back to the apartment as if he had eaten already. His allowance was delayed. Pride and seriousnessThrifty Rizal did not like the idea of supplying the drinks for the party. Going in to Rizal’s school, they would be left with no â€Å"free† time. Because we had to give up fun and games to read and study. Most students today doubt Rizal’s accomplishments. He saves his allowance to buy books. Honore de Balzac, Alexandre Dumas, and Count of Monte Cristo. He read a lot of French literature. Rizal owned a valuable collection of over 2,000 books. He owned dictionaries and three different versions of the bible. Rizal also owned a lot of picture books.

In Breaking the Chain Harrison Essay Example

In Breaking the Chain Harrison Essay Example In Breaking the Chain Harrison Essay In Breaking the Chain Harrison Essay I had a very loving upbringing; without question, a very loving, rooted upbringing. Education and poetry came in to disrupt that loving group and Ive been trying to create new wholes out of that disruption ever since. (Tony Harrison) Considering in detail one poem, or a passage from a poem, discuss the poetic methods Harrison uses to explore these conflicts. In the course of your answer: * Look closely at the effects of language, imagery and verse form. * Comment on how the poem you have chosen relates to other poems by Harrison that you have studied. In Breaking the Chain Harrison portrays how, although his parents wanted him to succeed, they only wished him to go up a rung or two but settle near. He had a loving upbringing where his mum, like the others, pushed him as bright. The mothers passed round a box of tools which is shown in the simile like a medal case to have been treasured. Yet, Harrison broke the convention and the chain something which he attempts to battle with in the cause, his literature. In the line, The gap his gift acknowledged then s as wide as /eternity enjambment creates a gap in sentence emphasising the gap between his family forced by education. There is also a lack of alternate personas and voices which diverges with his usual style when portraying guilt. This suggests that the guilt he feels here is purely his own for destroying the loving group, rather than influenced by others. This is also implied in the line still breaks my heart! where an exclamation mark is used to attempt to make light of the emotion and lessen the burden of guilt. In contrast, in the poem Bringing up, Harrison uses his mothers voice: you werent brought up to write such mucky books! to demonstrate her attitude towards his lifestyle. This implies that it was her voice in his head reminding him of his flaws. This effect is used in most of Harrisons poems concerning his parents. In Long Distance, when his father phones, despite the inevitable dismal course, Harrison listens to his father s sorrows: Them sweets you bought me. Albeit their new Long Distance relationship, Harrison cannot escape the voice of his father because of his need to create new wholes and return them to the closeness once demonstrated in the sacrifice of a whole weeks wage and drink. Another technique used in Breaking the Chain is the repetition of dad to stress their unity and relational bond shown in My dad bought it, from the last dad who still owed the dad before. It could also display the expectations which fathers at the time shared of their sons having the same place of work, but not blue-collar white, something from which Harrison dispersed. It is books, books, books repeated in Book Ends articulating the separation language caused and also, perhaps, how tiresome it was to Harrison that the only thing separating them was language. By applying the same technique to display two conflicting ideas Harrison suggests that their bond and separation are intertwined; the love will always be underlying the disturbance created by education. A pun used in Breaking the Chain in the line never passed on never used dividers. Here the dividers could simply be speaking of the tools from his dad. They could also symbolise the division made between them as a result of Harrisons differentiating culture and view on life; his interest in literature rather than sport. In Confessional Poetry the paronomasia lies in there were words between us where the words could be interpreted as the words said amidst conflict. On the other hand those words could be the many thousands written in Harrisons poetry which pushed his father further away in their inaccessibility. Harrison also makes use of puns with his imagery in Breaking the Chain such as in the line- polished box wrapped in the Sporting Pink. The Sporting Pink could signify the working class life which Harrison has turned his back on by moving up more than a rung or two. The tools of his dads trade are encased in the words of Harrisons however, unlike Harrisons words, those envelopin g the box are ones which his father might relate to. The imagery could be the literal gift of the tools and newspaper or the metaphorical suffocation of his fathers legacy by the new language. The fact that this memory is written about fondly suggests that Harrison wishes to sustain this legacy and he does this by dedicating so much of his poetry to him. This technique is used in Blocks also, blocks with letters, Lettered block of stone./ I had to move the blocks to say farewell. The alphabet cubes which he played with so innocently as a child become the block of stone which, although literally is the gravestone, metaphorically is his education and poetry blocking him from his mother. In both Breaking the Chain and Blocks the weaving of two images creates a complex analysis of his relationship with each parent. Another aspect of unifying two images by Harrison is his working class Leeds voice with his upper class one. In Breaking the Chain his dialect is portrayed in The mams pig-sick of oilstains whilst simultaneously displaying his new upper class voice in I was brought down out of bed to have bestowed. The battle of his two voices implies an inner conflict to find his identity. The conflict comes to a head in the line The gap his gift acknowledged then s as wide as/eternity where both accents are joined giving the effect that Harrison is both his fathers son and a poet who is breaking the chain. He desires his fathers pride and it still breaks (his) heart that instead he has his disappointment. This effect of contrasting two identities to emphasise the divide of his class is used in the poem Turns as well as if a bit of chequered cloth could bridge that gap. Here the gap, as in Breaking the Chain stands between him and working class. He attempts to close it by wearing his fathers hat. Th e imagery of the chequered cloth illustrates Harrisons relationship with his father as the squares are akin yet varying in small details. The fact that Harrison still cant bear to part with the tools shows that he dislikes the gap between them and wants it removed. Perhaps less obvious is Harrisons enjoyment of the sonnet form which is found in Breaking the Chain, Marked with D, and Book Ends I II. The use of such a traditional style might delineate his continuing love and respect for his family. Whilst the content, which appears to conflict with the form, could depict how Harrisons education and poems conflict with his familys traditional life. In Breaking the Chain unlike in Book ends Harrison maintains an alternate rhyming scheme throughout and does not break away into another pattern at the end as he does in Ive got to find the right words on my own/Ive got the envelope that hed been scrawling/mis-spelt, mawkish, stylistically appalling/but I cant squeeze more love into their stone. where the rhyming pattern adapts. His continuance of the alternate rhyme until the end suggests a desire to return to the traditional and not to break away or cause any further disruption Ultimately, Harrisons education and love of literature combined to cause destruction in what was once a loving, rooted family. Breaking the Chain is much softer than other Harrison poems using alliteration of w in whole weeks wage. In contrast Bringing up is brimming with plosives and harsh sounds suggesting anger and irritation. Breaking the Chain however, offers Harrisons remorse that he has not made his parents proud and he still cant bear to part with the idea that he might yet be able to make a whole once again. Harrisons frequent use of complex imagery and puns depicts a multi-layered relationship where emotions are jumbled under the strain of balancing poetry and love of family.

The Best ACT Score Predictor

The Best ACT Score Predictor SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Taking the ACT is stressful- some test you’ve never seen before will affect where you go to college. As a high school student, I felt anxious taking the ACT because I hadn’t done any practice and had no idea whether I’d reach my target score. One way to mitigate nerves surrounding the ACT is to try to predict your ACT score. If you find out your estimate is close to your target score, you’ll feel relieved. If it’s low, at least you’ll know you need to do more preparation before taking the test. What is the best ACT score predictor? What should you do with your estimated ACT score? In this guide, I’ll walk you through the different ways to predict your ACT score and explain the pros and cons of each. I’ll also let you know how to use your estimated score to your advantage. What’s the Best Way to Predict Your ACT Score? The most accurate ACT score predictoris taking a full-length ACT practice test under realistic testing conditions. It's the closest thing tothe real ACT- your using an official ACT practice test from the ACT makers and taking it under similar testing conditions. This process is very time-consuming - it’ll take about four hours - but it’s worth it. Afterward, you have an ACT score from a real ACT test, whichyou can use to checkyourpreparedness to take the actual test, but I'll dive into that later. Where Can You Find a Practice Test? There are five free official ACT practice test PDFs available online, or if you own The Real ACT 3rd Edition, you could use one of those tests. If you’re using one of the free online tests, to give yourself the most realistic testing experience (and to avoid the distractions on the internet), I’d recommend that you print out a copy of the test. Key Tips fora Realistic Testing Experience Your goal is to try to accurately predict your ACT score. To do so, you need to mirror the circumstances of the actual ACT. Clear your desk.You should not have your phone, computer, dictionary or any other outside help.Note: Your phone should be off during the entire practice test.Only put some pencils, an eraser, a pencil sharpener, a calculator and extra batteries on your desk. Keep time on a watch, and stick to the exact timing for each section.Note: the time permitted is printed at the start of the section.Don’t allow yourself extra time; if you allow even an extra minute, you could end up with an inaccurate estimate.Also, you’re only allowed to work on one section during the allotted time. Don’t work on the next section if you finish early, and don’t do work on a previous section. How Do You Score Your Practice Test? Each practice test comes with scoring instructions, which are locatednear the end of the PDFs (typically in the last tenpages). You’ll start by calculating your raw score or the number of questions you answered correctly.Then, you use that raw score and a chart to find your scaled score for each section.You average the foursection scores to find your composite score. Note: This is only a baseline score- you can do dedicated ACT prep and raise your score. Start by creating a study schedule, and if you need a launching off point for your prep, read our free ACT study guides for Reading, Math, English, and Science. Create a schedule for test prep success! What Are Other Less Time Consuming Predictors? Did you take the PreACT* or SAT? If so, you can use that score to predict your ACT score. These test scores make good estimates because they’re taken under the same conditions as an ACT test (in the morning, with other students, etc.).I’ll give an overview of the pros and cons of using these tests as ACT score predictors. *Note:The PreACT is a brand new test that's debuting in the 2016-2017 school year. No one has taken it yet- the firsttest dates will be in Fall 2016. PreACT The PreACT is the next best option to taking an official ACT practice test.The PreACT was created by ACT, Inc., the same company that makes the ACT, to help predict your ACT score.It covers the same content as the ACT.Its difficulty level is similar to the ACT since it uses old ACT questions. The PreACT is graded on the same 1-36 scale.However, it’s much shorter than the actual ACT; it’s only 1 hour and 55 minutes (compared to almost 4 hours for the ACT plus Writing), so it doesnt' require the same level of endurance as the full test. Pros The PreACT was created by the same company as the ACT. It covers the same content as the ACT. The difficulty level is on par with the ACT. It is specificallyintended to predict your ACT score. Cons It’s much shorter than the actual ACT. SAT Score There are easy-to-use conversion tables that will convert your 400-1600 SAT score to a 1-36 score, but this isn’t as reliable as using a PreACT score.While the SAT is similar to the ACT and PreACT, the SAT was made by the College Board, not ACT, Inc. Though there is some matching content on the SAT and ACT, the material is not the same.For instance, while the ACT has a science section, the SAT doesn’t, and while the SAT has a no-calculator math section, the ACT doesn’t. If you use an SAT score to estimate your ACT score, the prediction could be off by up to 4 points.As an example, I got a 1420 on my SAT. Using this score and the conversion table, I found out my ACT score prediction would be 31, but I got a 34, 3 points more than the estimate.Some people do better on the ACT than the SAT (and vice versa). Pros Like the ACT, the SAT is designed to show college preparedness. Like the ACT, the SAT covers Math, Reading, and Writing topics. Cons The SAT was not created by ACT, Inc. The SAT doesn’t cover all of the material on the ACT. Estimates may not be exact (could be off by up to 4 points). Also, comparisons between the two tests are difficult to make since the SAT just underwent major changes. Some students simply performbetter on the ACT than SAT (and vice versa). Now that you know the good predictors let's examine the bad: What Won’t Be Good Predictors? I’d recommend avoiding any estimation method not mentioned above. However, here are some of the more commonly used ACT score predictors that I wouldn’t recommend. Non-Official Practice Tests Online you might find some non-official ACT practice tests (ones not created by ACT, Inc.).These will not give you a reliable ACT score prediction because they’re too dissimilar to the ACT.They don’t cover the same topics and don’t accurately copy the test format. While some students end up with scores close to the non-official prediction, the majority end up with scores 5-10 points higher or lower than the estimate. GPA Some students assume ACT scores correlate to GPA.If you have straight A’s, then you’ll get a 36; if you have a low GPA, then you’ll get a low ACT score.However, that’s not necessarily true. Some test-takers with low GPAs can get high ACT scores while others with high GPAs can end up with low scores.Don’t rely on your GPA to estimate your ACT score. AP/IB Tests Other students think that AP and IB exam score will be good ACT predictors since they cover college level material. However, these tests cover very specific, high-level subject matter such as Biology, Calculus, Economics, and History.These tests surpass the level of content covered by the ACT.Excelling or failing AP and IB exams has no correlation with ACT success. Use your predictor to see if you meet your target score. What Should You Do With Your Prediction? Are you unhappy with your predicted score? If so, you need to create an ACT prep schedule to help raise your score.Here is a rough estimate of how many hours you need to study to achieve certain score improvements: 0-1 ACT Composite Point Improvement: 10 hours 1-2 Point Improvement: 20 hours 2-4 Point Improvement: 40 hours 4-6 Point Improvement: 80 hours 6-9 Point Improvement: 150 hours+ Check out our ACT study guide for the Reading, Math, English, Science, and Writingsections to help you get started with your preparation. Are you happy with your estimated score? If so, you should still do a little ACT prep.Study for at least 10 hours.Take two practice tests with in-depth review. This way you’ll get more comfortable with the ACT test format, and you’ll be able to double check that your practice test scores match the original prediction. The ACT plusWriting has five sections:English,Math,Reading,Science, and Writing- they always appear in that order.Below is a breakdown of the timing and number of questions per section: English - 45 minutes - 75 questions Math - 60 minutes - 60 questions Reading- 35 minutes - 40 questions Science - 35 minutes - 40 questions Writing - 40 minutes - 1 essay Disclaimer: Remember that no estimate is 100% accurate, not even taking an official ACT practice test.Therefore, you should plan to take the real ACT more than once. That way, if you don’t reach your target score the first time, you have another chance. What’s Next? Now that you found your estimated ACT score how does it compare to your target score? Not sure where you’d like to go to college? Read our guide to finding your target school. Need help with your college application? Learn how to write about extracurriculars on your college application; get advice on the Common App essays. Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically.

Assessment of the Progression of the Withdrawal of Weapons and Military Forces in the World

Assessment of the Progression of the Withdrawal of Weapons and Military Forces in the World This is my research paper on disarmament. It contains breifly all the important steps taken in the feild of disarmament till recently. Introduction Prof. Lincoln P. Bloomfield aptly remarked that, A visitor from another, more advanced planet would find many paradoxes on earth, but surely the most extraordinary would be the fantastic destructive potential of nuclear weapons which contrasts starkly with the primitive and near impotent institutions of global peacekeeping. He might marvel that a breed capable of producing the wealth for a 185 billion armory of lethal devices let alone the technology for killing several hundred in a single exchange of weapons had not produced a workable international order capable of regulating such apocalyptic man-made power. . Also no such International Order exists today and the prospects are not encouraging that it will exist within the foreseeable future. Dr. Hambro has also rightly remarked The armament race comes as close to collective insanity as anything in the history of mankind and it is, to my mind, surprising that public opinion is willing to take it. Disarmament has become a more urgent and complicated issue with the rapid development of nuclear weapons capable of mass destruction. Since the explosion of the first atomic bombs in 1945, the previous contention that armaments races were economically inexpedient and led inevitably to war was replaced by the argument that the future use of nuclear weapons in quantity threatened the continued existence of civilization itself. It was understood that war was unnecessary and nations of the world also understood the urgent need to part with these deadly weapons. The League of Nations writes Philip Noel Baker, is the first attempt in history to furnish the international society of nations with the permanent and organic system of international political institutions. This attempt was an outcome of the world war. In the post-World War II period, there were discussions at several levels with a view to the limitation and control of armaments. Efforts ranged from continuous talks at the United Nations to such discussions among nuclear powers from the SALT era to the START era and it still continues What is Disarmament? Disarmament is defined as the act of laying down arms, especially reduction or abolition of a nations military forces and armaments. It is not a new concept. It has been discussed for several centuries even before the formation of League of Nations. The idea of disarmament can be traced from the writings of Sully, William Penn, Rousseau and Kant. But plans for its implementation have failed because no State was willing to pay the price that was required (i.e. to reduce there armaments and military force). The proposal of Russian Czar to Lord Castlereagh of Great Britain in 1816, however, was the first practical attempt to achieve quantitative disarmament. French monarch also made similar proposals in 1831 and on several other occasions, but with no success. The International Peace Conference at Hague in 1899 is the first great landmark in the field of disarmament because it invoked for the specific purpose of limiting armaments by national agreement. Yet another landmark was the treaty of Versailles, which drastically reduced the German armaments. Thus during 19th century and down to the time of the First World War, numerous efforts were made to achieve the limitation and reduction of national armaments by international agreements. Although there had been a great number of discussions, conventions and proposals for disarmament, the ones that claimed success were few. It had been rightly observed by an eminent author: Disarmament efforts have been many, the successive few and limited. There has never been an approach to what Cohen calls effective disarmament. Disarmament and The League of Nations The Covenant of League of Nations was adopted as a part of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. It came into existence on January 10 1920 with 18 member states. According to Philip Noel Baker, the League of Nations is the first attempt in history to furnish the international society of nations with the permanent and organic system of international political institutions. This attempt was an outcome of the world war. As the League was adopted just after the world war, the framers selected achievement of widespread disarmament as its fundamental goal. Finally, the Disarmament Conference met on February 2, 1932, in Geneva. The representatives of 61 States, who participated, agreed on necessity of arms limitation, of international supervision of the arms business and of publicity of arms budget. Though the Conference failed in reconciling the French demand for security and German demand for status of equality with other European nations, it proved to be useful in solving some technical problems of the disarmament. It also became evident that the concept of security was of greater than the concept of limiting arms i.e. to say disarmament must follow rather than precede security. However the League of Nations was considered unsuccessful in achieving the concept of widespread disarmament. The efforts of the League failed on multifarious grounds. Some of the reasons of the failure of League in achieving widespread disarmament are as follows: League of Nations was not universal. It was limited to a few nations. It didnt have any effective enforcement body. The Conference for disarmament was held too late under very hostile conditions. The major reason however was that there was no unity between the nations which were members of the League. They were hostile towards each other. The rise of Hitler and the efforts of Germany in re-arming proved that League was a failure in achieving Disarmament and peace. Finally, the League of Nations was dissolved in 1946. Disarmament and The United Nations Inefficiency of the League of Nations led to the Second World War in 1939, which was the most destructive among the two. The result of the Second World War compelled the nations to establish an international organization so that mutual disputes could be resolved peacefully and peace be restored in the world. This lead to the establishment of United Nations Organization in 1945. United Nations was far more effective and efficient in promoting widespread disarmament as compared to League. It also had a greater number of member nations and a better enforcement body. The Charter of the UN provides for the regulation of armaments. The provisions of disarmament in the UN Charter are as follows: The Charter empowers the General Assembly to consider the general principles of co-operation in the maintenance of the peace and security, including the principles governing disarmament and the regulation of armaments. The Assembly can also make recommendation with regard to such principles to the Members of the Security Council. Secondly, it is further provided that in order to promote the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security with the least diversion to armaments, the Security Council with the assistance of the Military Staff Committee (referred to in Article 47) can formulate plans for regulation of armaments. Thus the Charter aims to provide security along with the regulation of armaments by granting military powers to the U.N under Article 43. However it has to be noted that the special agreements in the Article 43 have not materialized till today. The Military Staff Committee has ceased to function and hence it never dealt in regulation of armaments. Thirdly, in order to enable the U.N. to take urgent military measures, the Charter enjoins the members to hold immediately available national air force contingents, for combined international enforcement action. However the first important step of the U.N in the field of Disarmament was of adopting a resolution on January 24, 1946, which established the U.N. Atomic Energy Commission. The function of this Commission was to regulate and reduce nuclear weapons. On June 24, 1946, United States presented a plan known as the Baruch Plan to the U.N. Atomic Energy Commission. This plan envisaged the establishment by treaty an International Atomic Development Authority which was to own, operate, manage and license all facilities for the production of atomic energy. The aim of the United States by this plan was to establish a control system independent of the Charter and the Atomic Energy Commission, which included inspection and verification of weapons especially nuclear weapons before taking major steps towards Disarmament. But this was opposed by the Soviet Union, which stuck firmly to the original Charter. The Soviet Union insisted for prior outlawing of atomic weapons and reduction of all weapons without effective international control by means of inspection. Consequently, a compromise was made by laying down certain principles, which governed the general regulation and reduction of armam ents. However when the US monopoly of nuclear weapons ended in 1949, Baruch Plan lost its importance. So a need was felt to form a body for regulation of weapons that too mainly nuclear weapons. This need led to the establishment of Disarmament Commission by the 6th General Assembly in 1952. This consolidated the U.N. Atomic Energy Commission and the U.N. Commission for Conventional Armaments. Soviet Union and the Western Allies constituted the five-power sub-committee of Disarmament Commission. Also in October 1956, another body namely International Atomic Energy Agency was established. The Agency aims to seek to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world. It comprises of three organs namely General Conference, A Board of Governors and Staff headed by the Director General. The most important and difficult task faced by it is inspection and safeguarding of fissionable materials. The Agency is neither related to U.N. nor is an independent inter-governmental organisation. It has a special status under the aegis of the U.N. Disarmament Efforts from 1960 to 1970 Though 15 years had passed after the establishment of the United Nations, there were no significant or important steps taken for the purpose of Disarmament till 1960. The year 1960 witnessed a turning point in the disarmament debates when there was a thaw in the relation between the two super powers namely United States of America and The Soviet Union. The consequence of this thaw was the signing of four important treaties, which dealt with Disarmament. These treaties were as follows: Partial Test Ban Treaty (1963) On 5th of August 1963, The Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT), also known as Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT) was signed in Moscow by the United States, United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. Finally 113 Countries became part to it, which included India, Italy etc. However, France and China did not sign this treaty. The treaty required the Parties to prohibit, prevent, and abstaining from carrying out nuclear weapons tests or any other nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, in outer space, under water, or in any other environment, if such explosions cause radioactive debris to be present outside the territorial limits of the State that conducts an explosion. However this treaty does not provide for international verification and it is understood that each party may do so by its own national technical means. Outer Space Treaty (1967) The Legal Subcommittee considered the Outer Space Treaty in 1966 and agreement was reached in the General Assembly in the same year. The Treaty was opened for signature by the three depository Governments (the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States of America) in January 1967, and it entered into force in October 1967. The Outer Space Treaty provides the basic framework on international space law, including the following disarmament principles: States shall not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner. The Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used exclusively for peaceful purposes; States shall avoid harmful contamination of space and celestial bodies. 98 States have ratified, and an additional 27 have signed the Outer Space Treaty The Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (1967) The Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (also known as the Treaty of Tlatelolco) obligates Latin American parties not to acquire or possess nuclear weapons, nor to permit the storage or deployment of nuclear weapons on their territories by other countries. This Treaty was signed on February 14 1967, at a regional meeting of Latin American countries at Tlatelolco, a section of Mexico City. Non Proliferation Treaty (1968) The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also referred to as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), obligates the five acknowledged nuclear-weapon states (the United States, Russian Federation, United Kingdom, France, and China) not to transfer nuclear weapons, other nuclear explosive devices, or their technology to any non-nuclear-weapon state. Non-nuclear-weapon States Parties undertake not to acquire or produce nuclear weapons or nuclear explosive devices. They are required also to accept safeguards to detect diversions of nuclear materials from peaceful activities, such as power generation, to the production of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. This must be done in accordance with an individual safeguards agreement, concluded between each non-nuclear-weapon State Party and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Under these agreements, all nuclear materials in peaceful civil facilities under the jurisdiction of the state must be declar ed to the IAEA, whose inspectors have routine access to the facilities for periodic monitoring and inspections. If information from routine inspections is not sufficient to fulfill its responsibilities, the IAEA may consult with the state regarding special inspections within or outside declared facilities. The Treaty was opened for signature on 01 July 1968, and signed on that date by the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and 59 other countries. However, India refused to sign this treaty on the ground that it was discriminatory and unequal. Disarmament Decade (1970 -1980) The decade of 1970 was declared by the United Nations as the Disarmament Decade. The U.N. Agency that has been mostly involved with the goal of Disarmament was the 26 Nations U.N. Conference on the Committee on Disarmament. It celebrated its 10th anniversary in March 1970. It was very heartening to note that the U.Ns Disarmament Decade began auspiciously with the coming into force on 5th March 1970 of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The decade also witnessed the signing of a number of treaties. They are as follows: Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Sea-Bed and the Ocean Floor and in the Subsoil Thereof. This treaty was opened for signature at London, Moscow and Washington from 11 February 1971 and it came into force on 18 May 1972. The Treaty read as follows The States Parties to this Treaty undertake not to implant or emplace on the seabed and the ocean floor and in the subsoil thereof beyond the outer limit of a sea-bed zone, any nuclear weapons or any other types of weapons of mass destruction as well as structures, launching installations or any other facilities specifically designed for storing, testing or using such weapons. However it has to be noted that the treaty prohibited only the placement and fixation of weapons on the seabed and is silent about mobile launchers and submarines, which are likely to remain a principle means of nuclear warfare. Thus it is evident that treaties dealing with nuclear disarmament that were made by U.S.A and Russia had the aim of preventing the non-nuclear countries from acquiring atomic weapons, rather than to regulating and giving up of their own armaments. Hence India did not sign this treaty, which was one-sided. In-spite of all this limitations, this treaty succeeded from barring nuclear weapons from 70% of the earths surface, which was a significant contribution towards disarmament efforts. Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) Strategic Arms Limitation Talks took place between U.S.A and the Soviet Union on May 1972. The aim of these talks was to find a way for both sides to agree on plans that would limit and perhaps some day reduce their vast nuclear arsenals. However this agreement permitted both the countries to replace existing offensive nuclear missiles with more sophisticated weapons as technological advance permits. Hence it was said by the Chinese Chief Mr. Chiao Kua Hua that Soviet American agreement to limit Strategic Arms be in no way regarded as a step towards nuclear disarmament. On the contrary, it marks the beginning of a new chapter in the Soviet American arms race. Convention on the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological and Toxin Weapon and on their Destruction. This convention was drafted by the conference of the committee on Disarmament and was commenced by the General Assembly on December 16 1971. On April 10 1972, it was opened for signature with a special request of the then Secretary General Kurt Waldheim that the convention may be signed and ratified as early as possible. The aim of the treaty was to promote general disarmament and for that purpose, it prohibited development, production and stockpiling of chemical and bacteriological (biological) weapons. Geneva Disarmament Conference (1974) It began on 17 April 1974 with 25 nations participating. The aim of this conference was to prohibit the use of nuclear weapons under the ground. It also dealt in making an agreement regarding Chemical Weapons. Special Session of General Assembly on Disarmament (1978) The Special Session on Disarmament was held by the General Assembly from 23rd May to 1st July 1978 at United Nations Headquarters. Before the end of the session, a Final Document consisting of an Introduction, a Declaration, a Programme of Action, and Recommendations concerning the international machinery for disarmament negotiations. Under the Programme of Action, the Assembly set out a series of suggestions for negotiation and in Declaration, which is the part of the Final Document, it urged that the resources released through disarmament be used to promote the well being of all peoples and to improve the economic conditions of developing countries. The main aim of this Session was to strengthen the international disarmament negotiating machinery. Disarmament Efforts after 1980 After 1980, there was a revolution of technology. It affected almost all the fields including the field of armaments. With the development of technology, new types of weapons with immense destructive capacities were invented. Hence it was necessary to promote disarmament and regulate the creation of these armaments. Following are the important developments in the field of disarmament, which took place after 1980. Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons that may be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (1981) It dealt with the prohibition of very harmful conventional weapons. These included prohibition of weapons that emitted radiation harmful to human body, prohibition and regulation of mines, booby traps, incendiary weapons (weapons that cause fire when used) and blinding laser weapons. Rarotonga Treaty (1985) In 1983, 16 years after the Treaty of Tlatelolco was opened for signature, Australia proposed to establish a nuclear weapon free zone in the South Pacific. As a result of the negotiations between the concerned States, a treaty was signed on August 6, 1985, in the city of Rarotonga, capital of the Cook Islands, establishing the proposed zone. Treaty on Open Skies (1992) The Treaty on Open Skies entered opened for signature on 24 March 1992, currently has 34 States Parties. The Treaty established a regime of unarmed aerial observation flights over the entire territory of its participants. The Treaty was designed to enhance mutual understanding and confidence by giving all participants, regardless of size, a direct role in gathering information about military forces and activities of concern to them. Treaty on Open Skies is one of the most wide-ranging international efforts to date to promote openness and transparency of military forces and activities. Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (1995) Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was adopted as a result of the Geneva Conference, which took place in June 1995. This treaty was adopted with the view of removing the shortcomings of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. It contained a comprehensive plan to prohibit nuclear tests. However, it was silent on the question regarding the destruction of already existing nuclear stockpiles. However this treaty was flouted by America by developing a super nuclear weapon capable of destroying targets placed under the ground. On the one hand, America has been pressurizing other countries to sign the treaty and on the other hand, it has been developing destructive nuclear weapons. These types of stand taken by America were severely criticized by many countries including India. Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (1997) This treaty is also known as Ottawa Treaty and was proposed by Canada. The main aim of the treaty was to destroy all types of Anti Personnel mines. The treaty also required that besides stopping the production and development of mines, a party to the treaty must destroy all the mines in its possession within 4 years. Just a small number of mines are allowed to remain for training (mine-clearance, detection, etc.). India and Disarmament Since Independence, India has consistently pursued the objective of global disarmament based on the principles of universality, non-discrimination and effective compliance. Given the horrific destructive capacity of nuclear weapons, India has always believed that a world free of nuclear weapons would enhance both global security and Indias own national security. Thus India has always advocated that the highest priority be given to nuclear disarmament as a first step towards general and complete disarmament. In 1978, India proposed negotiations for an international convention that would prohibit the use of threat of use of nuclear weapons. This was followed by another initiative in 1982 calling for a nuclear freeze i.e. prohibition on the production of fissile material for weapons, on production of nuclear weapons, and related delivery systems. At the special sessions of the United Nations General Assembly on disarmament, India put forward a number of serious proposals including the 1988 Comprehensive Plan for total elimination of weapons of mass destruction in a phased manner. It was a matter of regret that the proposals made by India along with several other countries did not receive a positive responsive and instead, a limited and distorted non-proliferation agenda, meant above all to perpetuate nuclear weapons was shaped. India didnt sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty because India considered these treaties as discriminatory and unequal. Both of these treaties were put forward by the nuclear power U.S.A, which later flouted these treaties. Thus according to India, these treaties were the ways designed by the nuclear powers to keep away nuclear know-how from non-nuclear states. However India has signed and ratified other treaties and conventions like Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention etc. This shows that India is an active country, which supports and takes actions for the promotion of disarmament. Conclusion Thus to conclude, it can be said that disarmament process is a very difficult one, but is very important in promoting international peace and security. However, complete disarmament can be obtained only if there is no threat to security of a nation or an individual and to achieve this task, there should be a strict and organized international order and absence of terrorist organizations. Unless this is achieved, the concept of disarmament will remain as the monopoly of the powerful nation to suppress other nations. The U.S attack on Iraq is a fresh example of this.

Business (Decision Making) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business (Decision Making) - Essay Example This implies that the sum of all the cells will be equal to the sum of subjects. Another assumption is that chi square is applied to a large sample of data. Usage of small sample is expected to mislead the user to come up with wrong results. Every observation of chi square is expected to have the same distribution. The assumption regarding cell sizes is that in a 2 by 2 table there should be five or more cells. The observations must be properly grouped. The different categories should be based on the nature of the distribution. The hypotheses between the relationships of two values are studied by using chi square. Since the distribution is already planned by the hypothesis, the distributions that are to be made in the cell can be expressed even without doing any calculation. Chi square test is actually used to compare different data which are considered useful for various purposes. The comparison is made between the data that are already available with the one that will be gathered on the basis of the hypothesis. Chi square tests whether a collected sample of data belong to a population with specific distribution. Degrees of freedom or 'df' is one of the most important parameters of Chi square distribution. Chi square distribution tends to approach a normal distribution with an increase in the degrees of freedom. "As the df increase, the chi square distribution approaches a normal distribution." (Hyperstat online contents). There are three possible tests in chi square. They are test for independence, goodness of fit and test for homogeneity. In the first case, that is the test for independence, it is examined whether the value of a particular variable can be assessed with the help of any other variable. Under goodness of fit analysis the efficiency of a statistical expression to fit to a given situation or observation is examined. In the third case, that is the test for homogeneity, it is examined as to whether there are similar observations for common population in a given data. Though the formula in both the cases is the same, the values are differently interpreted for arriving at a conclusion in a given scenario. F-ratio is another statistical tool used in the interpretation of data. F-ratio is mainly used to test variances. This tests whether the variances are equal for the given independent variables. "The F-ratio is used to determine whether the variances in two independent samples are equal." (Applied statistics handbook, 2007). Therefore, f-ratio calculates the existence of any difference between the variables. It does not analyze the difference to know the reasons. That is in order to know the reason for the existence of difference certain other methods are to be applied. In the given situation the company W sells its new software products through the sales force they assigned for different regions. Usually the demand for different regions varies due to different factors. But without considering this variation the sales persons are expected to achieve same sales target. In the present situation the sales that have been achieved by the sales persons must be compared with those of the exp ected sales figures. Thus, the company will be able to make a clear forecast of the sales that it can possibly achieve and the sales persons can be given that as their target. When the employees are aware of the expected

Legalizing marijuana can help economy and people with their illness Research Paper

Legalizing marijuana can help economy and people with their illness like cance ,hiv, multiple sclerosis or chronic pain - Research Paper Example And, since users do not fear prosecution and are not stigmatized, they are more likely to seek treatment, which is an added bonus. Plus, criminalizing marijuana causes many problems - a drain of resources and manpower used to fight the war on the drug; the drain of not realizing tax revenue from the drug; and the loss of revenue that can be used to do research on the medicinal properties of the drug. Because of these problems, coupled with the fact that Portugal shows that our country does not need to fear that legalizing drugs will result in a substantial increase in drug use, legalization is the best idea for marijuana. The body of this paper will describe the problems with prohibition, then show the Portugal example, show the benefits of legalization, then come to a conclusion. The Controlled Substances Act has classified marijuana as a Schedule I substance, which makes it subject to the highest level of governmental control (Duncan, 2009, p. 1703). One of the reasons for this restriction is that marijuana is commonly thought of as a â€Å"gateway drug† – in other words, users of marijuana often get involved with harder drugs (Duncan, 2009, p. 1705). Other reasons are that prohibition allegedly â€Å"reduces marijuana trafficking and use, thereby discouraging crime, improving productivity and increasing health† (Miron, 2003, p. 1). Current drug policy punishes users and distributors alike. The reason why users are punished are because they ostensibly inflict harm on others; inflict harm on himself; that marijuana makes users â€Å"unproductive members of society† and that marijuana use is immoral (Blumenson & Nilsen, 2009, p. 6). According to Duncan (2009), billions of federal budgetary dollars have been committed to combatting marijuana distribution and usage, with this budget growing every year. In 2009, the budget for combatting all drugs was $14.1

Your thoughts concerning an intranet where employees can learn and Essay

Your thoughts concerning an intranet where employees can learn and mutually inspire each other - Essay Example Intranets just as any other computer networks including the internet use computer’s internet protocols to facilitate the haring of such resources as information, computing services and operating systems among many others within a single organization. This implies that an organization can customize the features of its intranet thereby making it unique and accessible to particular group of people who have specific interest in the organization. The size and type of an intranet to install in an organization depends on the size of the organization and the nature of the database used in such organizations. Debenhams plc. Is a multinational retail chain operating as department stores in Denmark, the United Kingdom and Ireland. As an organization requires an integrated database with appropriate intranet to link its franchises t a central database, thus enabling consolidate communication among the employees of the company. An intranet is a composition of different communication devices including a computer, routers, switches, data cables and telephones among many other features. To uyse an intranet effectively, employees require appropriate training and skills. Furthermore, the employees can train and support each other on the use of either each of the myriad component of the intranet or the entire network. Besides the above elements, an intranet may include other features such as fax machines, telephones and printers among others. The incorporation of these in an intranets permits sharing of the resources. The placement of such fractures should be strategic in order to facilitate access and efficient service delivery. Sharing of the resources constitute a major advantage of intranets since it makes management of organizations such as Debenhams plc. easier. By including a printer and a fax machine in an intranet, the organization consolidates the information processing mechanism thus permitting every station to access and print information without the need to buy several printers for every department. Additionally, the intranet maintains the integrity of the data printed by the centrally placed printer since it eliminates the use of secondary data storage facilities such as flash drives most of which transfer computer viruses thus impairing the functionality of the machines. An intranet is a fundamental feature of the Debenhams plc. It improves the level of professionalism in the organization besides its role in the operations of the firm. Through the intranet, Debenhams’ employees learn and inspire each other a feature that don not only improve the level of professionalism in the organization but also motivate employees thus improving profitability. Just as with any other technology, it will compel the employees to learn the ways of operation and handling in order to use efficiently. This way, the installation of an intranet in organization will motivate employees to learn and those with adequate knowledge on the operation of the di fferent machines to help enlighten others. Additionally, subsequent upgrade of the intranet will require progressive training of the staff in order to improve their ability to operate the equipment better. The use of computers is elaborate and requires professional technical knowhow depending on the roles of an employee in an organization. Managers for example use detailed programs in managing the organization’s operations and finance, the roles and duties of the employees differ depending on their positions within the organization. This implies that their use of the intranet will equally differ thus compelling the installation of different features of the intranet depending on the use

Overview of the iPhone Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Overview of the iPhone - Research Paper Example It was a GSM phone and had a button placement that is now consistent. (iMore) After that followed seven more generations of the iPhone each accompanied by a major release of the iOS. One year and a half later iPhone released its second generation of 3G and reviewed the hardware .the phone also added GPS capabilities. Some of the hardware improvements for iPhone 3GS that included a faster processor and a camera with a high resolution capable of recording 480p video. However, the phone had a few problems with its charger but overall it managed to make massive sales. (iMore) After that, it saw the release of other iPhone 4 models. iPhone 4 featured a front camera to enable video calling, a higher resolution of 960 x 640 and a rear camera of 5megapixels with 720p video capture. iPhone 4S upgraded its hardware to A5 dual-core processor and an upgrade of the camera to 8 megapixels with the ability to record a 1080p video. A voice control scheme by the name of Siri was employed. The next release was iPhone 5 which was an improvement of the iPhone 4.The iPhone 5 had an A6 dual-core processor, hosted LTE (Long-Term Evolution) support and increased the display size to 4 inches. An improvement to the iPhone 5 was released by the name of iPhone 5S. It had an A7 64-bit dual processor and an upgraded camera with two LED flashes. A fingerprint scanner with touch id incorporated to the home button. iPhone 5C features a casing made of polycarbonate and a rear well-lit camera. Apples latest iPhone release is the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus. The iPhone 6 has a screen size of 4.7inches while the iPhone 6 Plus has a screen of 5.5 inches. Both this models feature new A8 processor chip and motion coprocessors.

Compare themes and make connections in 3 stories Essay

Compare themes and make connections in 3 stories - Essay Example In Updike’s story, Sammy is an immature and romantic daredevil who can recklessly decides to quit his job in order to draw the attention of Quinee the leader of the girls in weird dress. Again though Steinbeck’s protagonist Elisa Allen is intelligent, enthusiastic and business-minded, she shows the signs of immature perception of the world through her romantic fascination for a hobo life. In a similar manner, Alice’s protagonist Dee’s self contradictory immaturity lies in the fact that though she shows significant awareness of her community culture and heritage, the way how she wants to preserve it will ultimately eradicate it. Therefore, it can be assumed that though all of the protagonists apparently seem to brilliant, smart and intelligent, they are romantically immature. In Updike’s story, because of his sarcastic remarks for the coworkers and his masterful narration, Sammy seems to be quite smart and intelligent. The ways how he behaves with th e girls and how he reacts to the manager’s pragmatic advice to them necessarily reveal that he is romantically immature. Being a teenager, Sammy can do anything to attract the girls in bikinis who come to his store. Indeed, a romantic and heroic attitude towards the opposite sex drives his behavior. When in response to the manager’s warning, Quinee says that her mother asks her â€Å"to pick up a jar of herring snacks† (Updike), Sammy can easily â€Å"slid right down her voice into her living room† (Updike). He conjures up an imaginary aristocratic world wheret her parents and others in â€Å"ice-cream coats and bow ties† are â€Å"picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big plate† and drinking the â€Å"color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them† (Updike). Sammy’s rich and figurative narration necessarily shows that he is quite intelligent. But it also reveals that he is hungry for such luxury. But Sammy canno t perceive the stern reality which lies beneath this luxurious facade of life. As a result, He, hungry for this luxurious life, loudly declares to quit his job in protest against the manager’s decision. So he hopes that Quinee will notice his heroism. But in contradiction to his expectations, they do not stop and â€Å"watch†¦.their unsuspected hero† (Updike). His limited experience fails him to perceive the reality that lies beyond romantic appearance of the world. Like Sammy’s hollow smartness, Dee Johnson seems to be quite smart. She has changed her name to â€Å"Wangaro† in order to protest against the culture and people who once oppressed her ancestors, as she says, â€Å"I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.† (Walker) Obviously, it is a wise decision on her part. It shows that she is aware of her ‘self’ and of her culture. Indeed, Mama also pursues the same of having a respectable identi ty in the white dominated which once has enslaved her ancestors mercilessly. She dreams of talking with the white man looking in his eye. This dream of Mama to look in the eye of a white man necessarily propounds that she is also aware of her African American cultural identity, as she says, â€Å"Who can even imagine me looking a strange white man in the eye?† (Walker) Even though both Mama’s and Dee’s goals are same, Dee vehemently opposes Mama. The way she wants to keep her cultural identity will eradicate the culture itself in the long run. She does not want to use the quilts in her

Your thoughts concerning an intranet where employees can learn and Essay

Your thoughts concerning an intranet where employees can learn and mutually inspire each other - Essay Example Intranets just as any other computer networks including the internet use computer’s internet protocols to facilitate the haring of such resources as information, computing services and operating systems among many others within a single organization. This implies that an organization can customize the features of its intranet thereby making it unique and accessible to particular group of people who have specific interest in the organization. The size and type of an intranet to install in an organization depends on the size of the organization and the nature of the database used in such organizations. Debenhams plc. Is a multinational retail chain operating as department stores in Denmark, the United Kingdom and Ireland. As an organization requires an integrated database with appropriate intranet to link its franchises t a central database, thus enabling consolidate communication among the employees of the company. An intranet is a composition of different communication devices including a computer, routers, switches, data cables and telephones among many other features. To uyse an intranet effectively, employees require appropriate training and skills. Furthermore, the employees can train and support each other on the use of either each of the myriad component of the intranet or the entire network. Besides the above elements, an intranet may include other features such as fax machines, telephones and printers among others. The incorporation of these in an intranets permits sharing of the resources. The placement of such fractures should be strategic in order to facilitate access and efficient service delivery. Sharing of the resources constitute a major advantage of intranets since it makes management of organizations such as Debenhams plc. easier. By including a printer and a fax machine in an intranet, the organization consolidates the information processing mechanism thus permitting every station to access and print information without the need to buy several printers for every department. Additionally, the intranet maintains the integrity of the data printed by the centrally placed printer since it eliminates the use of secondary data storage facilities such as flash drives most of which transfer computer viruses thus impairing the functionality of the machines. An intranet is a fundamental feature of the Debenhams plc. It improves the level of professionalism in the organization besides its role in the operations of the firm. Through the intranet, Debenhams’ employees learn and inspire each other a feature that don not only improve the level of professionalism in the organization but also motivate employees thus improving profitability. Just as with any other technology, it will compel the employees to learn the ways of operation and handling in order to use efficiently. This way, the installation of an intranet in organization will motivate employees to learn and those with adequate knowledge on the operation of the di fferent machines to help enlighten others. Additionally, subsequent upgrade of the intranet will require progressive training of the staff in order to improve their ability to operate the equipment better. The use of computers is elaborate and requires professional technical knowhow depending on the roles of an employee in an organization. Managers for example use detailed programs in managing the organization’s operations and finance, the roles and duties of the employees differ depending on their positions within the organization. This implies that their use of the intranet will equally differ thus compelling the installation of different features of the intranet depending on the use

Compare themes and make connections in 3 stories Essay

Compare themes and make connections in 3 stories - Essay Example In Updike’s story, Sammy is an immature and romantic daredevil who can recklessly decides to quit his job in order to draw the attention of Quinee the leader of the girls in weird dress. Again though Steinbeck’s protagonist Elisa Allen is intelligent, enthusiastic and business-minded, she shows the signs of immature perception of the world through her romantic fascination for a hobo life. In a similar manner, Alice’s protagonist Dee’s self contradictory immaturity lies in the fact that though she shows significant awareness of her community culture and heritage, the way how she wants to preserve it will ultimately eradicate it. Therefore, it can be assumed that though all of the protagonists apparently seem to brilliant, smart and intelligent, they are romantically immature. In Updike’s story, because of his sarcastic remarks for the coworkers and his masterful narration, Sammy seems to be quite smart and intelligent. The ways how he behaves with th e girls and how he reacts to the manager’s pragmatic advice to them necessarily reveal that he is romantically immature. Being a teenager, Sammy can do anything to attract the girls in bikinis who come to his store. Indeed, a romantic and heroic attitude towards the opposite sex drives his behavior. When in response to the manager’s warning, Quinee says that her mother asks her â€Å"to pick up a jar of herring snacks† (Updike), Sammy can easily â€Å"slid right down her voice into her living room† (Updike). He conjures up an imaginary aristocratic world wheret her parents and others in â€Å"ice-cream coats and bow ties† are â€Å"picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big plate† and drinking the â€Å"color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them† (Updike). Sammy’s rich and figurative narration necessarily shows that he is quite intelligent. But it also reveals that he is hungry for such luxury. But Sammy canno t perceive the stern reality which lies beneath this luxurious facade of life. As a result, He, hungry for this luxurious life, loudly declares to quit his job in protest against the manager’s decision. So he hopes that Quinee will notice his heroism. But in contradiction to his expectations, they do not stop and â€Å"watch†¦.their unsuspected hero† (Updike). His limited experience fails him to perceive the reality that lies beyond romantic appearance of the world. Like Sammy’s hollow smartness, Dee Johnson seems to be quite smart. She has changed her name to â€Å"Wangaro† in order to protest against the culture and people who once oppressed her ancestors, as she says, â€Å"I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.† (Walker) Obviously, it is a wise decision on her part. It shows that she is aware of her ‘self’ and of her culture. Indeed, Mama also pursues the same of having a respectable identi ty in the white dominated which once has enslaved her ancestors mercilessly. She dreams of talking with the white man looking in his eye. This dream of Mama to look in the eye of a white man necessarily propounds that she is also aware of her African American cultural identity, as she says, â€Å"Who can even imagine me looking a strange white man in the eye?† (Walker) Even though both Mama’s and Dee’s goals are same, Dee vehemently opposes Mama. The way she wants to keep her cultural identity will eradicate the culture itself in the long run. She does not want to use the quilts in her

Smart Grid Resolution, London Waste Dump Site and Maladroits Cosmetics Essay Example for Free

Smart Grid Resolution, London Waste Dump Site and Maladroits Cosmetics Essay One of the benefits of investing in this $100 million project includes rerouting power around bottlenecked lines. This allows Xcel Energy to deliver electricity to areas in Boulder that have a very high demand that the previous conventional electrical grid was unable to service effectively. This smart-grid system also enables Xcel Energy to detect and reduce power outages, identify false alarms more quickly and read customer meters remotely. This in return will lead to a reduction in the number of times the service crews are sent out to those locations, thus making the service crews more productive. Combining the efficiency of the smart-grid electrical system and the reduction of outages will allow Xcel Energy to capture cost-savings more appropriately. Additionally, this electrical smart-grid allows customers to monitor their individual power use reducing household usage by up to 30% in some cases, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction. Although this may lead to a decrease in revenue for Xcel Energy, the smart-grid system enables integration of renewable generation, an increase in overall system efficiency, a more robust electrical system and an ability to recover under-utilized and wasted energy. We can’t say for sure, but this may actually benefit Xcel Energy in the long-run as they will recover lost revenue through their decreased operational costs using the smart-grid electrical system. What conflicts do you suspect might have occurred between all the different stakeholders in this project? In any project there are four main stakeholders. This includes Client, Parent Organization, Project Team and the Public. In the case of Xcel Energy’s smart-grid project, both the client and public would be the population of Boulder, CO. The Parent Organization is Xcel Energy and the project team includes representatives from Accenture consulting for engineering, energy industry consultants, leading technologists, business leaders and IT experts. Accenture provides consulting solutions in many major industrial sectors. According to the text, Accenture consulting for engineering was hired. Additionally, IT experts were also brought onto the team. Accenture provides IT solutions as part of their consulting portfolio so there may be some conflict between the two parties due to their different backgrounds and methods of doing business. Also security and privacy were of utmost importance to protect intellectual property, so it is in the best interests of the project team and the parent organization to control how much information they gave to the public and local media. However, the latter of the two recipients may have wanted more information, specifically, how this affects their electricity costs and demands in the long run causing another source of conflict. Internally, members of the project team will experience conflict caused by belonging to two different teams – their project team and functional team. Often, the head of the teams are two different people with different motives and goals, and the members have the responsibility to report to both and are therefore pulled in two different directions. The members of the project team experience almost total conflict as they compete for project resources and leadership roles. This is caused in part by the different backgrounds, attitudes and biases of each member. This would be especially apparent in the Xcel project where members from many different companies and departments are brought together, each with a unique way of accomplishing the tasks and work packages of the project. Turning London’s Waste Dump into the 2012 Olympics Stadium Which of the â€Å"triple constraints† seems to be the uppermost here? Which constraints was Crockford trading between? The text says Crockford â€Å"quickly† assembled a project team of over 1000 individuals in order to meet the mid-2011 completion date. A constant referral to time is also observed. The start date of construction was noted as May 2008 and although there was a delay due to re-designing the roof, the text ends by stating that the project was still on track to be completed by mid-2011. Therefore, Schedule is the triple constraint uppermost here. The design team for the 2012 Olympics Stadium planned a highly-compact field of play requiring a steel-beamed roof and on discovering that the steel-beamed roof as designed would create turbulence on the compact field, a lighter, more flexible roof was redesigned, which was made in part from recycled materials. This roof required less steel and cost less than the initial steel-beamed roof designed. Thus, Crockford traded between the Scope (Required Deliverables) and the Cost (Budget limit). Was the life cycle for this project S-shaped, J-shaped, or something else? Considering just the purpose of the river dredging as a project itself, what was the shape of its life cycle? The completion of London’s 2012 Olympic Stadium consisted of selecting the project team (consisting of over 1000 members), cleaning up the chosen site, design of the stadium, construction, delays and finally construction until completion. Therefore, the project life-cycle most likely followed a stretched S-shape curve similar to housing construction projects. The S-shaped curve is categorized by a slow start, followed by a quick build-up and a slow finish. This is a result of the changing levels of resources used during the successive stages of the life-cycle. The slow start in this case would be the clearing of the site and design of the stadium. Construction would also begin slowly but would quickly ramp up once all the raw materials are shipped to the location and base infrastructure completed. There is a delay (not uncommon – almost expected) when the team realizes the steel-beamed roof would create turbulence on the compact field. Finally, construction will slow down as specialized parts are ordered for the final touches (luxury spectator rooms, confectionary stands etc). The river dredging project followed a J-shaped curve. This is characterized by a slow start followed by an exponential increase in project completion over time. Moreover, the expenditure of resources has little correlation with overall progress. The team removed 30,000 tons of silt, gravel and garbage from the river. Getting the cranes and other heavy machinery used to remove garbage from the river would take time, but once there, they can quickly and effectively remove the waste from the river. Were there any ancillary goals for this project? What might they have been? The Olympic Delivery Authority’s goal to use recycled materials in the building of the 2012 Olympic Stadium can be considered as an ancillary goal. The use of recycled materials to build a lighter, more flexible roof creates opportunities whereby a stadium can be completely built from recycled materials in the future. An ancillary goal of making 55,000 of the 80,000 seats temporary would create a profitable stadium in the future because the cost of maintaining the area containing the seats is grossly reduced. Furthermore, a successful stadium results in a successful 2012 Olympics and ultimately increases tourism in England. Finally, Ian Crockford has greatly increased his reputation and experience as a project manager (as well as his subordinates and parent company too) which drastically increases his chances of managing future projects on this scale and beyond. Which of the project-defining factors in Section 1. 1 were active here. The project was identified as important by the Olympic Delivery Authority composed of politicians and other high-ranking members of society. The scope was clearly defined from the beginning of the project and was divided into sub-tasks to achieve the project goals. The due date of the project is also clearly defined as Mid-2011. Many interdependencies were at play such as the recycled metal from the police department and dredging of the river. The project was unique in that it had a temporary seating design, a lighter more flexible roof and designed specifically for the 2012 London Olympics. The budget was limited to ? 32 million and not unlike the Xcel Energy case detailed above; conflicts existed between the different stakeholders of the project. Therefore, all 7 of the project defining factors were active in the construction of the 2012 Olympics stadium. Maladroit Cosmetics Company Which of the three choices do you recommend and why? The third choice, that is, the company that manufactures the machines can handle the installation project for a fee close to what the installation would cost Maladroit is recommended for a number of reasons. The first being hat Maladroit becomes the customer in this transaction, and the company installing the machines would be performing the job and would have to do it according Maladroit’s specifications including any unseen delays not identified in the scope. We are also unsure of the qualifications of the members of her staff and if they capable of undertaking such a high risk project worth $4 million. Finally, she cannot handle the project informally out of office because the project is very important and she would not be able to devote as much time to the project as well as her current duties. If the project was one small machine at a total cost of $4,000, would your answer be different? Yes, we would recommend that she assigns the project to a member of her staff that could potentially be suited for a managerial role in the future. This low risk project would be an excellent test to see how well he or she is able to complete the project deliverables in a cost-effective and timely manner. Discuss the relative importance of the capital investment required versus the role of the investment in machinery. Capital investment can be defined as a commitment of the owner’s money to land, buildings or machinery. In this example, it is the commitment of the owner’s money to the installation of 6 machines worth $4million (note: the plant manager does not necessarily own the machines, rather, the shareholders or owners of the actual company do). The role of the investment in machinery is to replace the filling machines that have become obsolete within 6 months so that the company can continue to produce cosmetic products and generate revenue.

The Importance of Commodity Derivatives

The Importance of Commodity Derivatives Equity Commodity Investment â€Å"A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN EQUITY COMMODITY INVESTMENT OPTION† ABSTRACT India, a commodity based economy where two-third of the one billion population depends on agricultural commodities, surprisingly has an under developed commodity market. Unlike the physical market, futures markets trades in commodity are largely used as risk management (hedging) mechanism on either physical commodity itself or open positions in commodity stock. For instance, a jeweller can hedge his inventory against perceived short-term downturn in gold prices by going short in the future markets. The study aims to know how of the commodities market and how the commodities traded on the exchange. The idea is to understand the importance of commodity derivatives and learn about the market from Indian point of view. In fact it was one of the most vibrant markets till early 70s. Its development and growth was shunted due to numerous restrictions earlier. Now, with most of these restrictions being removed, there is tremendous potential for growth of this market in the country. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT SYNOPSIS FOR THESIS DESIRED AREA Investments Commodity Market in India TITLE OF THE THESIS Comparative Study between Equity Commodity Investment Options† PROBLEM DEFINITION / HYPOTHESIS / RESEARCH OBJECTIVE To have a comparative study between two major Investments options Equity Commodity on the basis of their returns. To study simple properties of commodity futures as an asset class and analyze the hedging properties To understand the possible returns by investing in Commodity Futures when the Commodity Spot Prices are falling and comparing them with those in Stocks and Bonds. INTRODUCTION / LITERATURE TO THE AREA OF RESEARCH In the Capital Markets of the world, preferably in India, Stock is considered as the first option of investment. But, as we all know that there are many other options available with the people to invest / park their hard earned in some of these options are Derivative Market, Mutual Funds, NSC, KVPS, Insurance, FD, Savings A/c’s obviously less considered is the Commodity Market. In the above mentioned options there are some options that do not have the risk factor in it thus they give less return, while others having risk gives more return to the investor. One does not know that the Investments in Commodities will also yield almost the same returns as compared with the Stock, having the same amount of risk involved. SCOPE This research would throw light on the mentioned objectives make people aware of Commodity Futures as an Investment option – which is at its growing stage. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Primary Data Collection Guidance from the External Guide. Guidance from the Internal Guide. Help from Faculties. Commodities Dealers. Commodities Players (Investors). Secondary Data Collection Web sites Journals Magazines (Financial) Newspapers Research Papers on the same topic Reports of Experts â€Å"Investment is a term with different closely-related meanings in business, finance and economics, related to saving or deferring consumption. An asset is usually purchased, or in a similar way a deposit is made in a bank, in hopes of getting a future return or interest from the same. Literally, investment means the action of putting something somewhere else In finance, investment can be referred to as buying securities or other monetary assets in the money markets or capital markets, or in fairly liquid real assets, such as gold, real estate etc. Valuation is the method for finding the true value of an asset. Different financial investments include shares, bonds and other equity investments. These financial assets are then expected to provide income/ positive future cash streams, and may increase or decrease in its value giving the investor capital gains or losses. Trading in contingent claims or derivative securities do not necessarily have future positive cash flows, and so are not considered assets, or securities or investments. Nevertheless, since their cash flows are closely related to or it is derived from cash flow of specific securities, they are often treated as investments. Banks, mutual funds, pension funds, insurance companies, collective investment schemes, and investment clubs can be used to make investments indirectly. An intermediary generally makes an investment using money from many individuals, each of whom receives a claim on the intermediary, though their legal and procedural details differ. LITERATURE REVIEW The capital market (securities markets) is the market for securities, where the companies and the government can raise funds for long term. Stock market and the bond market form part of capital market. Financial regulators, such as the RBI and SEBI, keep a watch on the capital markets in their respective countries to ensure that investors are protected against any fraud. The capital markets consist of the primary market, where the company floats new securities to investors, and the secondary market, where existing securities are traded. STRUCTURE OF CAPITAL MARKET Primary Market Secondary Market Derivative Market Commodity Market International Market IPO Public Issue) Right Issue Private Placement Sale purchase of existing share debenture Mutual fund Option Future Call Option Put Option Gold Silver Material Etc. NYSE Composite NASDAQ Composite Dow Jones I.A. S4P 500 NIKKEI – 225 NSE BSE Dealing in MCX dealing in STRUCTURE OF SECURITY MARKET Primary Market Secondary Market Derivative Market Commodity Market International Market IPO Public Issue) Right Issue Private Placement Sale purchase of existing share debenture Mutual fund Option Future Call Option Put Option Gold Silver Material Etc. NYSE Composite NASDAQ Composite Dow Jones I.A. S4P 500 NIKKEI – 225 NSE BSE Dealing in MCX dealing in A) Primary Market: It is that part of the capital markets that deals with the issuance of new securities. Companies, governments or public sector institutions can obtain funds through the issue of a new stock or bond which is called initial public offering (IPO). This is typically done through a syndication of securities dealers which in return earn a commission that is built into the price of the security offering. B) Secondary Market: The secondary market is the market for trading of securities that have already been issued in the market. Aftermarket is known as the market that exists in a new security just after the new issue. Investors and speculators can easily trade on the exchange once a newly issued stock is listed on a stock exchange, as market makers make bids and offers in the new stock. C) Derivative Market: Derivative Market Future Market Option Market Future Contract Say – One month – Two month – Three month Call Option Put Option Premium will change at the time of buying No Risk Premium will change at the time of sells No Risk Future Contracts: The future contracts are the future contracts or bids for some specific period like one month, two months and three months, accepted from investor in capital market which is put. Option Market :- The option market is the place where trading is for call and put or buy and sell and only the premium is charged for all call and put trading. D) Commodity Market: Commodity trading might sound like a strange term, but simply put, commodities are items like, wheat, corn, gold and silver, and Cattle and Pork Bellies, and Crude Oil and it has emerged as an important player in the way that people invest in and speculate. INVESTMENT ALTERNATIVES INVESTMENT Financial Assets Real Estate Marketable Financial Assets. Non-marketable Financial Assets Treasury Bills C.D. C.P. Repo Govt. Fixed Insurance bond Govt. Securities Debenture Shares Mutual Fund Equity Pref NSS Bank Deposit Post Office KVP NSC Company Deposit EPF/PPF LIC Gold Silver Previous objects Painting /Art Land / Building Machinery/Equipment etc MARKETABLE FINANCIAL ASSETS Equity or Preference shares Govt/PSU/Pvt/other bonds Mutual Funds Shares (Equity and Preference Share): If you have equity shares of a company, you have an ownership stake in that company. This essentially means that you have a residual interest in income and wealth of the company. Equity shares are classified into the following broad categories Blue chip shares Growth shares Income shares Cyclical shares Speculative shares Bonds: Bonds or debentures represent long-term debt instruments where issuer of a bond promises to pay a stipulated stream of cash flow. Bonds may be classified into the following categories Government securities. Savings bonds Government agency securities. PSU bonds Debentures of private sector companies Preference shares Money Market Instruments:- Money market instruments are debt instruments which have a maturity of less than one year at the time of issue. The important money market instruments are: Treasury bills Commercial paper Certificates of deposit Mutual Funds: A Mutual Fund is a trust that collects the savings of a number of investors, and invest in capital market instruments such as shares, debentures and other securities who share a common financial goal. Unit holders share the income earned through these investments and the capital appreciation in proportion to the number of units owned by them. Mutual Fund offers an opportunity to invest in a diversified, professionally managed basket of securities at a relatively low cost and thus is the most suitable investment for the common man. NON-MARKETABLE FINANCIAL ASSETS: A good portion of financial assets is represented by non-marketable financial assets. These can be classified into the following broad categories. Bank deposits Post office deposits Company deposits Provident fund deposits/EPF LIC NSC NSS KVP Life Insurance: Life insurance can also be considered as an investment as insurance premiums represent the sacrifice, and the assured sum represents the benefit. The important types of insurance policies in India are : Endowment assurance policy Money back policy Whole life policy Term assurance policy REAL ESTATES AND OTHERS Real Estate: Residential house is the most important asset in the portfolio for the bulk of the investors. More affluent investors are likely to be interested in the following types of real estate, in addition to a residential house Agricultural land Semi – urban land Commercial property Precious Object: Precious objects are items that are highly valuable in monetary terms. Some important precious objects are ; Gold and silver Precious stones Art objects Financial Derivatives: A financial derivative is an instrument whose value is derived, from the value of an underlying asset be it a real asset, such as gold wheat or oil, or a financial asset, such as a stock, stock index, bond or foreign currency. Forwards Contracts A forward contract, as it occurs in both forward and futures markets, always involves a contract initiated at one time; Performance in accordance with the terms of the contract occurs at one time; Performance in accordance with the terms of the contract occurs at a subsequent time. Further, the type of forward contracting to be considered here always involves an exchange of one asset for another and the price at which the exchange occurs is set at the time of the preliminary contracting. Actual payment and delivery of the good occur afterwards. Futures Contracts A futures contract is highly standardized forward contract with closely specified contract terms and it calls for the exchange of some good at a future date for cash, with the payment for the good to occur at that future date like all forward contracts. The buyer of a futures contract undertakes to receive delivery of the good and pay for it while the seller of a futures promises to deliver the good and take delivery of payment. The price of the good is determined at the initial time of contracting. Option Option contracts grant the right but not the compulsion to buy in the case of a call or sell, in the case of a put a specified quantity of an asset at a predetermined price on or before a specified future date option contract would expire if it is not in the best interest of the option owner to exercise. Swaps Swaps normally trade in the OTC market but there is monitoring of this market segment. Swaps are agreement between two parties to exchange cash flows in the future according to a approved formula and In case of popular interest rate swap, one party agrees to pay a series of set cash flows in exchange for a sequence of variable cost. When compared to global derivatives markets Indian derivative markets are still in the emerging stage. Indian derivatives markets share in the world derivatives market’s value and volumes are very small. But with the starting of trading in different financial and commodities segment, Indian markets are growing very fast. Indian markets are operating with high efficiency and on parity with international standards. The major exchanges and the derivative products traded in India: 1. Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 2. National Stock Exchange OF India Ltd (NSE) 3. National Commodity Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX) 4. Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) 5. National Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (NMCE) INVESTMENT ATTRIBUTES For evaluating an investment values, the following attributes are relevant. Rate of return Risk Safety Profitability Purchasing power risk Maturity Marketability Tax shelter Convenience Rate of Return: The rate of return on an investment for a period (which is usually a period of one year) is defined as follows: Rate of return = Annual income + (Ending price – Beginning price) Beginning price To illustrate, consider the following information about a certain equity share. Price at the beginning of the year: Rs. 80.00 Dividend paid in the year: Rs. 4.00 Price at the end of the year: Rs. 87.00 The rate of return of this share is calculated as follows: 4.00 + (87.0-80.00) = 13.75 percent 80.00 Yield In general, yield is  the yearly rate of return  for any investment and is expressed as a percentage, With stocks, yield can refer to the rate of income generated from  a stock in the form of regular dividends and is often represented in percentage form, calculated as the annual dividend payments divided by the stocks current share price. Investors can use yield to measure the performance of their investments and  compare it to the yield on other investments or securities. Generally, higher risk securities offer higher expected yields as compensation for the additional risk incurred through ownership of the security. Investors looking to make income or cash flow streams from equity investments commonly look for stocks  that shell out high dividend yields, in other words, stocks that give a relatively large amount of annual cash dividends for a relatively low share price. Annual income (interest or dividends) divided by the current price of the security. This measure looks at the current price of  a bond instead of its face value and represents the return an investor would expect if  he/ she  purchased the bond and held it for a year. This measure is not an accurate reflection of the actual return that  an investor  will receive in all cases  because bond and stock  prices are continuously changing due to market factors. Capital Appreciation: It’s the rise in the market price of an asset. Capital appreciation is one of two major ways for investors to profit from an investment in a company. The other is through dividend income. Risk The risk of investment may be classified in following ways Type of Risk Internal Rate of Return Risk Market risk Inflation Risk Default Risk Business Risk Financial Risk Management Risk Liquidity Risk The rate of return from investments like equity shares, real estate, and gold can vary rather widely. The risk of investment refers to the variability of its rate of return: How much do individual outcomes deviate form the expected value? A simple measure of dispersion is the range of values, which is simply the difference between the highest and the lowest values. Other measures commonly used in finance are as follows: Variance :This is the mean of the squares of deviations of individual returns around their average values Standard deviation:This is the square root of variance Beta :This reflects how volatile the return from an investment is, in response to market swings. Risk = Actual Return – Expected Returns Condition: If, Actual Return = Expected Return = Risk Free Investment If, Actual Return > or Low Variance (Low Risk) High Variance (High Risk) Expected Return Marketability: An investment is highly marketable or liquid if: (a) it can be transacted quickly: (b) the transaction cost is low; and (c) the price change between two successive transactions is negligible. The liquidity of a market may be judged in terms of its depth, breadth, and resilience. Depth refers to the existence of buy as well as sell orders around the current market price. Breadth implies the presence of such orders in substantial volume. Resilience means that new orders emerge in response to price changes. Generally, equity shares of large, well – established companies enjoy high marketability and equity shares of small companies in their formative years have low marketability. High marketability is a desirable characteristic and low marketability is an undesirable one. How does one evaluate the marketability of an investment like a provident fund deposit which is non-marketable by its very nature? In such a case, the relevant questions of ask is: can withdrawals be made or loans be taken against the deposit? Such as investment may be regarded as highly marketable if any of the following conditions are satisfied: A substantial portion of the accumulated balance can be withdrawn without significant penalty; A loan (representing a significant portion of the accumulated balance) can be raised at a rate of interest that is only slightly higher than the rate of interest earned on the investment itself. Tax Shelter: Some investments provide tax benefits; others do not. Tax benefits are of the following three kinds. Initial Tax Benefit; An initial tax benefit refers to the tax relief enjoyed at the time of making the investment. For example, when you make a deposit in a Public Provident Fund Account, you get a tax benefit under Section 80 C of the Income Tax Act. Continuing Tax Benefit: A continuing tax benefits represent the tax shield associated with the periodic returns form the investment. For example, dividend income and income from certain other sources are tax – exempts, upto a certain limit, in the hands of the recipient. Terminal Tax Benefits; A terminal tax benefit refers to relief from taxation when an investment is realized or liquidated. For example, a withdrawal from a Public Provident Fund Account is not subject to tax. Convenience: Convenience broadly refers to the ease with which the investment can be made and looked after. Put differently, the questions that we ask to judge convenience are: Can the investment be made readily? Can the investment be looked after easily? The degree of convenience associated with investments varies widely. At one end of the spectrum is the deposit in a savings bank account that can be made readily and that does not require any maintenance effort. At the other end of the spectrum is the purchase of a property that may involved a lot of procedural and legal hassles at the time of acquisitions and a great deal of maintenance effort subsequently. A COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF VARIOUS INVESTMENTS ALTERNATIVES A summary evaluation of these investment avenues in terms of key investment attributes is given in Exhibit below. It must be emphasized that within each investment category individual assets display some variations. Exhibit: Summary Evaluation of Various Investment Avenues Return Current yield Capital appreciation Risk Marketability / Liquidity Tax shelter Convenience Equity Shares Low High High Fairly high High High Non – convertible Debentures High Negligible Low Average Nil High Equity Schemes Low High High High High Very high Debt Schemes Moderate Low Low High No tax on dividends Very high Bank deposits Moderate Nil Negligible High Nil Very high Public provident fund Nil Moderate Nil Average Section 80 C benefit Very high Residential Moderate Moderate Negligible Low High Fair Gold and Silver Nil Moderate Average Average Nil Average INVESTMENT VERSUS SPECULATION While it is difficult to draw the line of distinction between investment and speculation, it is possible to broadly distinguish the characteristics of an investor from those of a speculator as follows. Investor Speculator Planning horizon An investor has a relatively longer planning horizon. His holding period is usually at least one year. A speculator has a very short planning horizon. His holding may be a few days to a few months. Risk disposition An investor is normally not willing to assume more than moderate risk. Rarely does he knowingly assume high risk. A speculator is ordinarily willing to assume high risk. Return expectation