Corporate Bond Market in India Essay

Foreword In the rush to produce urgent policy documents and briefing notes that any government has to do, it is easy to let matters that may not be quite as urgent to go unattended. However, the not-so-urgent often includes matters of great importance for the long-run well-being of the nation and its citizenry. Research papers on topics of strategic economic policy fall in this category. The Economic Division in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, has initiated this Working Paper series to make available to the Indian policymaker, as well as the academic and research community interested in the Indian economy, papers that are based on research done in the Ministry of Finance and address matters that may or may not be of immediate concern but address topics of importance for India’s sustained and inclusive development. It is hoped that this series will serve as a forum that gives shape to new ideas and provides space to discuss, debate and disseminate them. Executive Summary: In this paper, we examine the factors behind underdevelopment of corporate bond market in India. We assess that one of the major bottlenecks to the development of this market lies in relatively larger costs of financing which dissuade the firms to raise finance from this avenue. We argue that the lack of transparency, inefficient market making and illiquidity of the instrument not only lead to such extra costs of financing that hampers investment in the real sector but can trap the bond market in a low level equilibrium. To alleviate such problems, we prescribe policies that ensure better production of information and increased volume of transactions that will lessen both liquidity and transparency problems and ensure efficient market making. A combination of such policies include mandatory disclosure of ratings by firms and assignment of multiple agencies for rating an issue at different points of time, minimum size of placements of (infrastructure) bonds, establishing stop loss thr eshold, among others will help breaking the trap and improve quality of issues and would eventually lead to a vibrant bond market with reduced costs of financing investment. Structure of the paper: The paper is structured in three parts. The first part, section 3 and 4 analyse how corporations finance themselves and how does the corporate bond market contribute in this process. Section 3 delves into how large Indian firms evolved in their financing pattern over the past decade. We further analyse what are some of the key drivers of such financing pattern when it comes to corporate bond markets in section 4. In section 5, we offer an analytical construct and mode that shows how liquidity, transparency and informational problems contribute not only to higher costs of financing but may create low level equilibrium trap in the bond market where few issuers, investors and market makers participate. In section 6, we summarise the policy implications of our findings and analyse what it would take for the corporate bond market to move from the current state (of low level equilibrium) to a higher level equilibrium. We examine where the policy maker might have a role to play and where th e market will respond to address its concerns spontaneously. 2. A review of how large firms in India finance themselves Our analysis about the debt market in India begins with a review about how firms in India finance themselves. Our information is necessarily restricted to the largest firms of India, those that are observed in the CMIE database. We focus on non-financial firms, so as to avoid the measurement problems of accounting data for financial firms. The `sources and uses of funds’ statement, which is the first difference of the balance sheet, yields important insights into the financing structure. Table 1: Structure of sources and uses of funds Ended 2000-01 35.2 5.7 29.5 64.6 17.2 14.4 3.5 0.5 25.5 Ended 2010-11 30.8 21.1 9.7 67.5 13.8 17.8 3.9 3.2 24.2 Component Internal Retained Earnings Depreciation External New equity Banks Bonds Foreign Current liabilities Table 1 shows the structure of the sources of funds, comparing the latest available year (2010-11) against one decade ago (2000-01). The first feature of interest is internal financing. We see a substantial reliance on internal financing: from 35.2% a decade ago to 30.8% today. To the extent that internal financing is important, it acts as a barrier against new firms who do not have pre-existing cash-flow. The hallmark of a sophisticated financial system is a substantial extent of external financing. From a normative point of view, to the extent that external financing is greater, this is likely to induce superior resource allocation and competitiveness. Turning to external financing, one important component – equity financing which was at 17.2% in 2000-01 and 13.8% in 2010-11 – is in relatively sound shape. The Indian equity market was the focus of policy makers from 1992 onwards, and substantial progress has been made. One key element – stock lending – i s as yet absent. Barring this, all sophisticated features of the worlds top equity markets are now found in India. The two Indian exchanges, NSE and BSE, rank 3rd and 5th in the global ranking by number of transactions, that is produced by the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE). The problems in India today lie in debt. Banks accounted for 14.4% of the financing of large firms in 2000-01, which went up to 17.8% in 2010-11. The bond market stagnated, with 3.5% in 2000-01 and 3.9% a decade later. Despite considerable interest in bond market development, the corporate bond market accounted for only 3.9% of the sources of funds of large Indian companies. Finally, foreign borrowing rose sharply, from roughly nothing in 2000-01 to 3.2% in 2010-11. To some extent, borrowing abroad has served as a way for Indian firms to overcome the difficulties of obtaining debt financing domestically. From a normative perspective, the picture that we see in the sources of funds is one of an excessive reliance on internal financing, a surprisingly large role for banks, and a miniscule and stagnant bond market. The next issue that we turn to is the role of secured versus unsecured borrowing. The hallmark of a sophisticated debt market is the presence of unsecured borrowing. Secured borrowing is the mainstay of a simple-minded financial system: The lender does not have to analyse the prospects of the borrower for he lends only against collateral. In contrast, unsecured borrowing requires that the lender has to understand the prospective cashflow of the borrower, which determines the extent to which the promises about future repayment may be upheld. We analyse secured versus unsecured borrowing by size quintiles, once again amongst all the non-financial firms seen in the CMIE database. In the smallest quintile, in 2001, secured borrowings were at 76.7%. A decade later, there was a small decline, to 65.37%. This shows the stubborn domination of secured borrowing, when it comes to the smallest firms. Similar patterns are found in other size quintiles also. In the fourth quintile – from the 60th percentile to the 80th percentile – secured borrowing was 84.7% in 2001 and had dropped slightly to 80% in 2011. This domination of secured borrowing suggests a debt market that has a highly limited ability (or incentive) to actually understand borrowers. Even in the top quintile of firms – roughly the 680 biggest companies of India – we do not see a meaningful extent of unsecured borrowing. In 2001, secured borrowing was 65.8%, and this dropped to 60.7% in 2011. In other words, even for the biggest firms of India, only 39% of borrowing was unsecured. The debt market was not able to analyse the prospects and give debt, based on assessment about the future, to a substantial extent to even the biggest firms in the country. This evidence shows a highly malformed debt market. The bond market is practically nonexistent in corporate financing. Forward-looking assessment is weak; even the biggest firms tend to rely on secured borrowing. 3. Key issues with Indian corporate bond market functioning The presence of corporate bond market in India is barely perceptible as compared to other economies. Despite of multiple endeavours by the government in the recent past, to revive the market, neither investors nor issuers showed any tangible interest. As a result, at least 80% of corporate bonds comprise of privately placed debt by public financial institutions. The following graph confirms inadequate growth of the bond market in India relative to the countries like US, Japan and China. Illustration – Share of Corporate Bonds in Total Debt (Source: BIS) Bond markets as well as equity market owe their difference to inherent characteristics of the instrument that underlies respective markets. The following summarise how the markets are different – Intermediaries – Market intermediaries in both bond and equity markets ensure liquidity. However the intermediaries in the bond market at present need to hold a larger amount of capital than their counterparts in the equity markets because of the larger volume of trade in each transaction. Subsequently the need to hold large inventory position is more for bond market intermediaries as compared to equity market intermediaries who have the option to do electronic limit order matching. Hence, intermediaries in the bond market are exposed to greater risks due to liquidity partly due to the absence of a secondary market where retail investors can participate along with large players. Investors – Bonds’ payoff are attractive to those who prefer predictable returns for known time horizons. As a result, bond market attracts institutional investors cautious of protecting their principal e.g. pension funds, insurers, banks, etc. This also results in relatively risk averse retail investors willing to invest in the bond market. However, casual empirical observations suggest that the share of retail investors in corporate bond market is very small. Lack of liquidity and transparency are the key reasons driving lack of investor participation in corporate bond market including retail investors. Another reason why the market for corporate bonds did not take off earlier was large scale default that undermined the system and safeguards in place. While this paper addresses how to alleviate problems of liquidity and transparency, other measures must also be adopted to reduce probability of default and increase the amount as well as speed of recovery in the event of bankruptcy. For example, it is well known that firms have a tendency to adopt excessive risky projects financed by debt due to limited liabilities. While banks can prevent such activities by placing covenants, public debt holders are powerless to do it because each owns an insignificant amount of the total debt. Many a times, the seniority of debt is debatable. On the other hand, the magnitude of the recoveries also depends on bankruptcy law which in India is very weak. Hence, strong legal systems that prevent excessively risky activities and also ensure faster resolution of bankruptcy are also preconditions for the emergence of a strong bond market. Though there might be a combination of factors that impede the growth of a vibrant corporate bond market in India, we will argue below that the lack of transparency, less liquidity and inefficient intermediation in the process of market making contribute to the current state of the market. The bullet points below succinctly summarize the impact of these three factors on the development of bond market in India. Efficiency in bond market is driven by transparency that allows bonds to be priced for all available information. Transparency in the bond market refers to the dissemination of information conveyed to all market participants 1regarding pre and post trade issues ranging from order interests to price and volume after trade is executed. Liquidity in bond market is driven by volume of bonds offered by issuers in the primary market on an on-going basis as well as the circulation of bonds in the secondary market with active investor participation. A greater the participation of investors reduces search costs of both buyers and sellers and ease liquidity problems leading to a lower discount of the bond. Liquidity problems here refer to the ease of selling the bond in a secondary market. ï‚ · Intermediaries quote both buy and sell side prices and hold inventory to enable market making. Any inefficiency in this process will be automatically reflected in the pricing of bonds and thus will adversely affect costs of borrowing of the issuers. 3.1 Transparency The Indian corporate bond market lacks both pre-trade as well as post-trade transparency. Factors limiting transparency of both primary and secondary corporate bond market are: (a) Systemic flaws in the credit rating process by the Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) enhance risk and also reduce transparency due to a constellation of a number of factors articulated below: ï‚ §Ã¯â‚¬  Right to rate the issuers of bond is not confined to entities registered as CRAs (Credit rating agencies) and currently ratings are being done by entities not registered as CRAs. These unregistered agencies rate in a manner that is not calibrated to CRA rating standards and offer rating to not just instruments but also issuing organisations. This infuses additional noise in the production of information which may force retail investors to shy away from the bond market. For example, the SMERA which rate instruments as well as organisations for small and medium industries in a manner that very often do not mee t criteria of proper rating standards.

Divergent Suggested Essays Essay

Suggested Essay Questions 1.In what ways does Tris’s identity develop over the course of the novel? Tris began the novel timid and unsure of herself and her desires, which was characteristic of her Abnegation upbringing: she was never allowed to focus on herself, so she never knew exactly what she wanted. Upon choosing Dauntless her bravery obviously begins to blossom, but she experiences some other changes as well. She forges friendships and relationships central to her identity, with people who bring out the best in her. And she learns that though she has chosen another faction, she can still be selfless; and indeed she is, time and time again. By the end of the novel, she is fully aware of herself as Divergent – someone who does not fit in, but who cannot be controlled. The events of the end of the novel reinforce who she has been – selfless – and who she wants to become – brave. There are many significant experiences to discuss, both good and bad, that shaped Tris as a person throughout her time in Dauntless. 2.Compare and contrast this rigidly structured society with our own. What are the pros and cons of each? Does one provide a more effective lifestyle than the other? The distinctions between Tris’s society and our own are very apparent; their idea of becoming a good person involves selecting one virtue to cultivate their entire lives, while for us, being good and morally sound involves a mixture of all of their faction virtues and more. Socially, we have much more freedom of choice, but is that freedom always a good thing? Studying any of the five virtues of Tris’s world can indeed have positive effects on one’s life. It all depends on perspective; either could be seen as the more effective lifestyle, depending on how you look at it, but the faction system certainly makes some significant missteps in trying to control and direct a person’s identity and humanity. 3.Discuss the soundness of a government run only by a single faction. Is Jeanine Matthews truly wrong for calling for greater representation, or is it better to keep administration in the hands of the selfless? This is certainly a far cry from our system of democracy. While having the innately selfless run the government seems like a respectable idea in theory, in practice it may fall short. Abnegation do not have the same goals in life as Erudite, Candor, Amity, or Dauntless, so therefore it is natural that their administration is called into question. Perhaps a system with equal representation from every faction would be a better strategy; though policy would not consist of extremely selfless acts, sometimes representatives do have to be selfish advocates for their people. And with everyone having a say, there would be much less chance of a rebellion the size of Erudite’s. Jeanine wasn’t entirely wrong in what she preached, but she certainly went about it the wrong way, and Abnegation wasn’t to blame for a system that had been flawed from the start. 4.What are the benefits of sorting people into social groups the way the factions are sorted? What are the drawbacks? We tend to subconsciously sort ourselves into groups regardless; we gravitate towards people with similar interests as us, people with similar backgrounds, people who look like us. With a society organized into groups, citizens are always surrounded by like-minded people, and there is a much greater chance of getting along with those who think like you. On the other hand, though, that separation can promote intolerance and prejudice, which is obviously apparent in the novel; all the factions shunned the values of their competitors, promoting a far too separated way of life. 5.There are only five factions; are there any other human virtues missing from the list? Why would these be necessary in well-rounded citizens? Valuing only honesty, selflessness, peacefulness, bravery, and intelligence seems like a very small slice of the vast majority of honorable human virtues. Another faction could exist based on loyalty; many of the problems  in Tris’s world (and our own) are caused by betrayal and distrust. A faction based on diligence could ensure that all its citizens are hardworking and productive. And there could also be a faction based on creativity, which shapes the mind in many ways the other factions do not. 6.Discuss Tris Prior as our protagonist. Is she a reliable narrator? Does she always tell the truth? Are we constrained by her point of view? Tris is typically a very straightforward narrator, though perhaps her point of view is often clouded by her own personal prejudices. We do not get a good sense of Peter’s character, for instance, because she is always so determined to hate him; perhaps there is more to him than meets the eye. We’re certainly constrained by her perspective, only knowing what she knows at any given time. We solve the mysteries of Four, her mother, and the Erudite-Abnegation feud only as soon as she does, because the story is told only from her first person perspective. The limits of this perspective does allow for some mystery and tension, though, as well as the strong impression of Tris as a hero. 7.What significance do Tris’s relationships have in her life? Various relationships begin to blossom for Tris only after she’s left Abnegation. Her family is broken apart, but at a distance she seems to get even closer to her mother, learning more about her past than she ever knew before. In Abnegation, Tris never had true friendships, but in Dauntless she becomes close to Will, Christina, Al, Uriah, and some of the other initiates. Without them, she wouldn’t have had the support she needed to get through initiation. And finally, her relationship with Four has changed her in many ways; she’s been given someone to open up to, who in turn opens up to her, and for a person with as much to deal with as Tris, this is absolutely essential. 8.Compare and contrast Peter and Jeanine Matthews as antagonists. Who would be considered the central antagonist? Both Peter and Jeanine serve as Tris’s enemies, but in very different ways. Peter is more present throughout the novel, causing trouble for Tris during initiation, her most immediate concern. But Jeanine is an antagonist on a larger scale; though she doesn’t make an actual appearance until late in the novel, we know she’s been behind the growing rebellion of the Erudite and the hunt for Divergent. Jeanine’s aims and the reach of her grasp lead to something much, much larger than a struggle for ranking during initiation. For this reason, only Jeanine can be considered the central antagonist. 9.In what ways is the brewing war between Abnegation and Erudite reminiscent of our societal power struggles? Though the battle at the culmination of the novel is fought with high-tech innovations like simulations, the circumstances that caused it can be easily compared to the power struggles in our own society. It starts with a group of people believing they’ve been treated unjustly, with an unfairly small amount of say in government, and ends with a bloody battle to determine who stays and who goes. Revolutions and major modern-day wars begin in much the same way. Jeanine Matthews is representative of the persuasive, charismatic, and intelligent leader who is able to convince her people to rally against another group; in this case, Abnegation. Jeanine’s method of manipulation through propaganda (false claims about Abnegation) and disrespect for others based on a perceived difference or lack mirrors fascist leaders from history. 10.Which theme in the novel would you consider the most significant, and why? Though many major themes in Divergent are prevalent, the one that constantly comes into play is the theme of identity and how one’s choices determine self. Tris is constantly making choices that define who she is, starting with the major one on Choosing Day and continuing throughout initiation, ending with her decision not to shoot Tobias in the control room in order to stop the simulation. Her identity develops further with every decision, and eventually she learns that she can truly be brave and selfless at the same time. This theme applies to other characters as well; Caleb, for instance, chose to switch to Erudite in order to stay true to his own identity, but  eventually returns to Abnegation because he decides that Erudite’s plans were wrong, and he could not be a part of it. Each and every character in the novel makes at least one choice that aids in determining their identity; therefore, this theme is extremely significant.

Instant Replay Would Ruin the World’s Most Popular Sport Essay

The quarterback gets the snap, lobs it to the corner of the end zone, the wide receiver jumps up†¦.. it’s a catch! But did he get his feet in? Let’s look at the replay. Over 25 years ago on March 11th, 1986, the National Football League (NFL) introduced â€Å"instant replay† into the sports world (Wired, 2009, p.1). This recording technology has slowly worked its way into professional basketball, tennis, baseball & many other sports around the world. Soccer, often called Football outside of the United States, is one of the few sports that have resisted the temptation to introduce technology to the officiating of its games. Although the implementation may make the game more precise, this resistance has kept soccer â€Å"pure,† embracing its imperfections and old tradition. To put it in the most basic of terms, instant replay is â€Å"a recording of an action in a sports event that can be shown on television immediately after the original play happens† (Merriam-Webster, 2013, p.1). Instant replay may appear to be nothing but a tool to help officials make the right call, but with benefits comes consequences. One of the consequences of instant replay is an intense slowdown of the time it takes a sporting match to be completed. For example, in the NFL, a 2010 study breaking down a four-game playoff marathon (around 12 hours of broadcast time) resulted in fans watching on average for each of the four games: 67 mins of players standing around, 17 mins of instant replays, 11 mins of actual playing time, and 3 seconds of cheerleaders (The Wall Street Journal, 2010). When replays take up more time then the â€Å"live game,† our priorities, as players, announcers, and fans clearly need to be adjusted. Focusing on these replays often takes the attention away from what is currently going on in the game, which in my opinion takes away from the joy and passion that comes with sport. NFL football, although hugely popular, can’t compete with the fluidity and beauty of Soccer football. The word â€Å"beauty† is often thrown around loosely in describing soccer because of the games continuous ability to surprise. With soccer, the fans have two 45-minute halves sandwiching a 15-minute break. The clock never stops and in many respects, the players and ball never stops. This elegance of 11 players on each side keeping continuous play of one round ball for minutes on end, making passes and runs, and connecting 45-yard balls is where the â€Å"beauty† of the game is established. The simplicity of the game is what makes it so special. This simplicity can’t be compromised by technology, which in turn would cloud the games purity. â€Å"The beauty of sport is its humanity and the sense that it is peopled with people and not automatons.† (The New York Times, 1989, p.2). Berkow in his New York Times editorial puts this idea in the simplest of terms, stating that people play and officiate sports, and to take just a little part of that away is when sport loses its integrity. The technological advances in sport and society in the last 30 years have been unimaginable and the biggest challenge society has had is to know when to use these technologies. The first official rules of soccer were drawn-up by the English Football Association in 1863. Nothing much has changed since then. (Livestrong, 2010, p.3). There is a great source of pride and passion knowing that rules have been roughly the same since this time. The requirement of the players and referees to have the stamina to run for 45 uninterrupted minutes is truly demanding. It requires a dedication not only physical but spiritually, knowing the game has been virtually the same for over a 120 years. The biggest promoters of instant replay technology has been media companies in every sport that instant replays exist. But why? One of the key reasons is the opportunity to stop games and therefore play more commercials, which results in more profits for the networks. The New York Times commented in 2010 that its important to â€Å"never stop the game (of soccer), because that leads to television sticking its grubby commercials where they do not belong.† In fact, purists actually spit up at the thought of â€Å"The Beautiful Game† being interrupted by referees peering at replay video screens (NBC Sports, 2010, p.3). Also from a purely technical approach, there is absolutely no time periods long enough to review any calls. Referees often have 3-5 seconds to make a call. This constant demand to make a call and keep the game flowing is not only what makes soccer beautiful but is how the game needs to be officiated. â€Å"Test cricket, for instance, is made up of 540 separate moments of play — balls — each day; tennis is a series of points; rugby has regular breakdowns† (Sports Illustrated, 2010, p.1). Other sports have this segmented structured to them, which give them these constant opportunities to review or questions calls. All else aside, soccer can’t have instant replays implemented because that would mean the entire structure and rules would have to change along with them. Many soccer fanatics, particularly in the 2010 World Cup, which there were multiply questionable calls, are fed up with referees missing/making bad calls. Certainly, an argument can be made that instant replay may help change a bad officiating decision. But â€Å"indisputable visual evidence† to overturn a goal or call by a referee on the field could result in a 5 minute pause, which results in the referee returning to announce that there is no conclusive evidence, so the call on the field remains. How satisfying is that to any spectator or competitor? The â€Å"human error† element of game is sometimes an issue but also is a beautiful part of the game. If we had technology run every call, the element of surprise within the game would be lost. There is nothing better than teams fighting back from a few bad calls to come out on top; this ability of athletes to overcome obstacles (bad referees) makes watching soccer all the more worth it. Yet the controversy remains and the fans will continue to be mad at the referees. In the modern age technology is viewed as a solution to almost anything. If you have a hot room, buy an air conditioner to cool it down. But is soccer’s problem that black and white? Can we implement instant replay and we will fix the underlying issue? â€Å"The main difficulty underlying the use of technology to solve social problems is that these problems are fundamentally different from technical problems† (Society and Technological Change, 2014, pg. 31). Now many may argue that officiating mistakes aren’t a social problem, but something like soccer so ingrained into society and culture makes for a different situation. People world-wide have a loyalty and in their mind an obligation to the sport even though many never even step on a field. The implementation of instant replays could cause an absolute outcry world wide because we would be trying to â€Å"fix,† (missed/wrong calls) something that doesn’t need fixing to begin with. In many respects, Soccer is and has become a universal language. Spanning across the globe with over a thousand professional leagues, most ever country has at least one professional league for people to view. Other sports are also played worldwide but not nearly at the magnitude that soccer is at a professional level. Instant replay, if implemented in soccer, would completely change the playing field and spectator’s view of the game. Tarnishing the 100 years of soccer world-wide may cause a loss in the universal language that has been cherished and appreciated for so long. An even playing field for every professional team is just another beautiful part of the game that cannot be tampered with. Finally, I believe soccer allows fans and announcers to get lost in the game. Almost removing themselves from all external forces such as social media, texting, and technology in general and putting focus on the simple game of â€Å"football.† Other sports give you the ability to stay distanced from the game because the most critical points will always be showed over and over again between plays, sets, & points. With no stops or ability to look away, real soccer fans stay true to their selves when their team is on because otherwise they may miss something spectacular. The absence of technology in soccer is just another reason why the game is so simple, yet so beautiful. So risking an occasional bad call to retain the fluidity of the sport is something I embrace. â€Å"If one picture is worth a thousand words, moving pictures can speak volumes.† (American Journal Sports Medicine, 2007, pg. 358). The real world has mistakes and the real world doesn’t stop for a 60-second commercial. I vote yes for the real world and all its warts, particularly when it results in allowing myself and the rest of the world to watch and play in the world’s most popular and beautiful game! Bibliography Berkow, Ira. â€Å"SPORTS OF THE TIMES; Bloodless Instant Replays.† The New York Times. The New York Times, 14 Nov. 1989. 26 Sept. 2013. . Biderman, David. â€Å"11 Minutes of Action.† The Wall Street Journal 10 Jan. 2010: Print. â€Å"FIFA Shows It’s Still Leery of Instant Replay.† Yahoo Sports. N.p., n.d. 26 Sept. 2013. . â€Å"FIFA’s Plan To Quash Bad Call Controversy: Censor In-Stadium Replays.† SportsGrid RSS. N.p., n.d. 26 Sept. 2013. . â€Å"Instant Replay Controversy in Baseball Rears Its Ugly Head Again.† Bob Long Sports. N.p., n.d. 26 Sept. 2013. . â€Å"Instant Replay.† Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. 26 Sept. 2013. . â€Å"Length of a Regulation Soccer Game.† LIVESTRONG.COM. N.p., n.d. 26 Sept. 2013. . â€Å"March 11, 1986: NFL Adopts Instant Replay.† Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, n.d. 26 Sept. 2013. . â€Å"Off the Bench.† Off the Bench. N.p., n.d. 26 Sept. 2013. . â€Å"Soccer Could Use Instant Replay, but Not at Expense of the Sport’s Flow.† Soccer Could Use Instant Replay, but Not at Expense of Flow. N.p., n.d. 26 Sept. 2013. . â€Å"Soccer Resists Instant Replay Despite Criticism.† Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 30 Nov. 2009. 26 Sept. 2013.. â€Å"World Football.† Bleacher Report. N.p., n.d. 26 Sept. 2013. .

Problems at Accounting for Small Business Coursework

Problems at Accounting for Small Business - Coursework Example A contract between employer and the employee has an â€Å"Inequality of bargaining power† since the employer holds more power to influence the position of the contract.3 The "inequality of bargaining power between the employer and the employee" necessitates the need for an employment contract to impose the terms of employment and where necessary use it in court to enforce the employment terms. This paper examines legal issues between employees and the employers in the case study of Accounting for Small Business (AFSB) Company. Raj had worked for the AFSB for three years and had an excellent work record during that period. He came into conflict with Sarah for attending his work late by twenty minutes. Just in the previous day Sarah had expressed her concern for employees’ lateness and issued warning against anyone who would be late for work. She had informed the workers that anyone would be late for the work would be given an extra task to perform even though she did not specify the nature of the task that would be given for lateness. When Raj arrived late one morning he apologized for lateness and explained his cause for lateness to Sarah but she was not ready to listen to any excuse. She informed Raj that he was to clean all the office desks that evening after his day job. However, Raj objected strongly using â€Å"offensive language† and asked Sarah to get the other cleaners to do the cleaning. He informed her that he could not take orders from her since she did not have authority over him. The conflict between Raj and Sarah led the managing director to convene a disciplinary meeting with Raj in which he informed Raj of his express dismissal for disobeying the lawful instructions and gross misconducts to the standard procedure. The employment act allows employers to vary the culture of the business in accordance with the changes in market requirement as long as the changes initiated  does not contravene the employment contract with the employees.

American History Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

American History - Research Paper Example would bring back to life their dead ancestors, return vanished buffalo herds, and restore the customs and traditions of the old ways, before the coming of the "white man"† (The Battle Of Wounded Knee). The government soldiers perceived as an attempt by the tribal to re-take their lost lands and revolt against their new government. However, tribal did not have any such plans even though the soldiers misunderstood them. The soldiers thought that the Lakota collecting arms to fight against the government and they tried to disarm the tribal. The battle of Wounded Knee happened on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota, USA. A simple incident resulted in a massacre at Wounded Knee Creek. On the morning of December 29, U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment troops tried to disarm the Lakota who fought against the American troops earlier. During the process of disarming the Lakota, a deaf tribesman was reluctant to give up his rifle which resulted in the 7th Cavalry opening firing indiscriminately from all sides, killing innocent people including men, women, and children, as well as some of their own fellow troopers. â€Å"It is believed that the accidental shot, fired while the deaf Native tried to maintain his hold on his weapon, caused others in the crowd (Native or white, there are counter claims as to which) to open fire† (The Battle Of Wounded Knee). â€Å"A single shot fueled the already charged atmosphere into a full-fledged eruption within a matter of seconds†(What Was The Battle Of Wounded Kn ee In 1890?). Even unarmed people were killed in this brutal incident. It is estimated that at least 150 men, women, and children of the Lakota Sioux had been killed and 51 wounded in this incident. Some people claim that more than 300 were killed in this incident. Along with the Lakota Sioux, twenty-five troopers were also died in this incident. The brutalities of the soldiers continued even after the completion of the disarmament process. Since some of the

UCC and the Sale of Products and Services Essay

UCC and the Sale of Products and Services - Essay Example The purpose of coming up with the act was to bring about substantial uniformity in trade laws and enhance flexibility within member states so as to meet local situations. The roles of the code relate to transactions involving movable or personal property, chief among them being modernizing the contract laws and creating exceptions from common law. However, the Uniform Commercial Code does not deal with real or immovable property. The code is a product of many private firms and consists of a recommendation of laws that need to be adopted by the states. A board has been enacted to oversee the enactment and has come up with various official comments. It does not have the power to act on the state but used the tool of courts to interpret the code and determine the effects of one or more provisions through harmonization with laws of other states that have adopted similar provisions. The code acts in general and governs the sale of goods by setting up provisions of uniformity of sales acro ss the various places of operation. Several states have come up with adjustments so as to conform to the local procedures such as the elimination of hyphens, use of different titles, changes in the structure and creation of sub-divisions. All these are enhanced to create flexibility and uniformity in application of the code among the regions. The guiding rules of the code are to allow people to contract freely and fill all missing requirements when the agreements are oral. The role is to implement uniform trade and streamline all necessary items like checks process, note and other currency. The law acts to differentiate the merchants who are well equipped with business information they are in and the customer who lack information on product quality. The code also seeks to eliminate the use of legal structures when contracts are made so as to ensure free trade where lawyers do no interrupt or where legal documents are not prepared elaborately. The Uniform Commercial Code is governed by the tender, acceptance, rejection and revocation guidelines (TAAR). In the process of purchase, a buyer and can tender goods during the initial process and thus is entitled to reject products that do not meet the requirements of the agreement set. The buyer at the rejection stage is however required by the code to reject the goods within a reasonable time if problems arise within the goods (Miller & Alvin 53). At the acceptance stage, the purchase is done with the belief that the manufacturer will undertake to repair the problems which are under warranty. Besides that, a buyer may revoke the good and fail to accept them at the revocation stage. Zabriskie Chevrolet, Inc. v. Smith, 240 A. 2d 195 (1968) The case has been brought forward in relation to rejection. Mr. Zabriskie has purchased a new car and 1966 Chevrolet Biscayne and has provided a check as payment. Later on in the day, he travels in the same car which develops some problems after a two and a half miles drive. Immediat ely after noticing the problem, he orders that the check payment be stopped, but the dealer refuses claiming that the buyer, Mr. Zabriskie cannot reject the car. His argument is that he had already taken a trial round a block to test whether the car is proper and was satisfied and that this was a reasonable time to inspect the vehicle. It is held by the New Jersey Court that the first opportunity to inspect the car by the buyer is to check whether what

Router and IP Addresses Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Router and IP Addresses - Assignment Example (Ramasamy 2007). An interface is a physical connector on the router (usually connected to multiple networks) used for receiving and forwarding packets (Ramasamy 2007). Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, and Token Ring to Serial and ISDN ports are some examples of interfaces in a router. Each interface has its own IP address different from the other interfaces in the same router. Summation of the number of all the IP addresses of the interfaces connected to the router gives the number of IP addresses a router has. Link-state and distance-vector routing algorithms Routing algorithms, also known as routing protocols are formulas used by routers in order to determine the best and appropriate path onto which packet are to be forwarded. Besides determining the appropriate path, routing protocols also specifies how changes in the network are reported by the router to other routers in the network in addition to information sharing among the routers. Generally routing protocols are used to dynamically communicate information about all the network paths travelled in order to reach a destination. It then uses the information to select the best path to reach a destination in the network. ... It requires minimal configuration and low memory overhead. On the other hand, the link state algorithm determines best routing path by calculating the state of each link in a path and selects the path that has the lowest total metric to reach destination. It requires a higher memory footprint. Link state algorithm knows whether a link is up or down, besides the speed of the link. This enables it to accurately calculate the cost to reach a specified destination within a network. It uses speed of the links in the path as the first priority over distance as compared to distance vector algorithm. Link state algorithm would choose to travel a path with more hops but of high speed than a few hops of low speed in order to reach its destination over a network unlike the distance vector algorithm which chooses the shortest possible distance to reach a destination irrespective of the speed of the links in the paths chosen. For this reason, a link state routing algorithm is much faster than the distance vector algorithm if all the links in the network have the same speed. Distance vector algorithm would be preferable in a case where the links in the network has different speed since it employs a more direct route with fewer hops unlike the link state algorithm. Ping Command Type in the command prompt window â€Å"ping www.google.com† My IP address 192.168.0.103 Google IP address 74.125.236.178 Approximate round trip time in milliseconds Minimum=446ms Maximum=664 ms Average=536ms Trace route (tracert) Command The average round trip delay= 461.0 ms. Maximum=429 ms. Minimum=418ms .It is different from that of ping (536ms) Hops=22, Routers= 22-2(source

Lawrence Ellison Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Lawrence Ellison - Essay Example He was born in New York City, on August 17, 1944, to an unwed Jewish mother. He was then adopted by his mother's uncle and aunt, who raised him in Chicago. His adopted mother was kind to him, but he has quite a few contradictions with his adopted father. The financial condition of the family was alright, until the Great Depression robbed his adopted father of his job, after which he took up a small job as an auditor. Lawrence Ellison went to Eugene Field Elementary School in Chicago, and then went to Sullivan High School. Even as a child, he showed great aptitude for Science and Math. He attended the University of Illinois and left it at the end of the second year, since his mother had expired then. Later, he went to the University of Chicago, where he learnt computer designing, for just one term. Later, he took up a number of jobs that helped him earn a living. In the 1970s, Ellison took up a job with Ampex Corporation. Here, he worked on a project that basically dealt with creating a database for CIA. It was called Oracle. Eventually, he started a venture on his own, with his colleagues, Robert Miner and Ed Oates, after being inspires by a paper called, 'A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks' by Edgar F. ("Ted") Codd, describing a concept Codd had developed at IBM. It was initially called Software Development Laboratories.Soon enough, they won a contract to build a relational database management system for the CIA, and thus began his career as a software entrepreneur. By completing the project ahead of schedule and using the time to develop the company, Ellison and his partners started their stride into the million dollar mark. Ever since, the company's profits doubled year after year. It soon turned into a billion dollar company, from a million dollar comp any. This was when the company got its current name, Oracle. Oracle also experienced its share of difficulties, in the aftermath of going public in 1986. Employees of Oracle overstated the value of their company. This led to losses the next financial year around. The company was also on the brink of bankruptcy. This was when Ellison decided to step in and disburse managerial powers to professionals and solely concentrated on product design. After this overhaul, the company registered more profits than before. Even in the light of the financial meltdown, Oracle has been able to sustain itself. Lawrence Ellison, for his part, has been one among the world's richest men. In fact, at one point in time, he overtook Microsoft's Bill Gates, to become the World's Richest Man. He leads a very lavish life, with a special regard and passion for yachting and water-sports. ASSETS, PHILANTHROPY AND CONTRIBUTION Lawrence Ellison, in his position as the co-founder and CEO of Oracle, has been currently named as the fourth

Learning Style Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Learning Style - Essay Example There are, however, those that have admitted that if they want to be at time annoying they may stay in a mode that is different from the person that they are working with (Van, 2007). For example, when asking for evidence in an argument they might ask for written evidence clearly knowing that the other person often likes to use oral information. A multimodal learning preference can be described as a preferred way of learning new information or material that incorporates several different and diverse styles of learning. The different modes of learning that are combined in multimodal are visual and auditory. It is imperative to understand that one is a unique learner, and there is no one that learns exactly as another (PavicÃŒÅ'icÃŒ , 2008). However, there exist a lot of benefits in discovering one’s learning style. First all in academic matters, it often gives on a head start and maximizes one’s learning potential. Secondly, it helps one to succeed in college, or university as one is able to understand how he or she learns best. Further, one is allowed to learn more by overcoming the limitations of poor instructors as well as reduce the stress and frustration that is often accompanied by one not fully realizing his or her learning style. When it comes to teaching it is imperative for a tutor to understand the different learning styles of his or her student. The tutors must realize that all the students have different learning styles that are unique and for this reason they should be treated as such. If the tutor understands the different learning styles of the students, he or she might become an effective tutor because information will be released easily. Research often suggests that each person often tends to adopt a particular approach when studying (Van, 2007). My preferred learning style is multimodal; this is because this learning style is a combination of all the learning styles. It involves auditory, and visual.

How to acquire wisdom Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

How to acquire wisdom - Assignment Example The author takes the approach of love in a manner to suggest its influence is like a natural calamity and is beyond human intervention; more like fate. To King Lear, love was conditional and one needed to be submissive to his quests in order to get what she wants (Shakespeare, Raffel and Bloom 99). Though Cordelia was his most favorite among all his daughters, she refused express love to her father the way the other sisters did. King Lear wanted to receive love but never had the slightest idea about how to give out love contrary to his view on love Morrie believed love is unconditional and a give get idea (Bond and Mulligan 100). Morrie suggests that it is better to die rather than live a life without love. The episodes speak much about how people participating in a love activity should care, support and show concern for the members who need it. The imperativeness of love begets all other wants including leading a destructive path. Morrie emphasis on love and family was stirred up by his life set up (Bond and Mulligan 118), The book speaks of how he grew up having no affection and love. Both Morrie and King Lear learned virtue of love the hard way, Morrie lacked love in his early life while King Lear learned the value of unconditional love when her daughter Cordelia whom he had disowned returned and stayed with him since the other daughters disowned him though they claimed to love.

Business plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Business plan - Essay Example (Deitel, et al, 2004, 15) However, as mentioned earlier, the development in the eyes of the ones who are in charge of the enhancement of the operating systems is never ending. Hence, although there were already some great achievements in terms of the developed operating systems, things got better each time there are new innovations introduced (Warford, 2005, 41). Most of the sectors of the entire society actually depended on technology ever since the time it was first introduced to the human civilization. It could not be denied then that among the said sectors are business entities. In this particular discussion, an outlined plan as to how information technology could be successfully utilized to create an efficient IS operation to support an organization that has employees who are working home based established to work for at least three months time. The development of different operating systems that actually perform the tasks needed in business, from the most basic calculating procedures toward the complicated procedures of accounting and systematic planning of business transactions, the computer technology or most likely known as Information technology have actually been the main source of successful trade and exchange transactions in the business industry. Although the past have already placed a strong impact on how the people viewed business operations done through the Internet, several business enthusiasts never ceased finding ways by which they would be able to attain success within the said industry. Many among the business owners around the world still believe in the benefits that investing in online business ventures would naturally bring their organizations. As for a fact, the said situation is quickly becoming a trend both among organizations that are already established and the business and even those business entities that are just starting to join the said competitive industry. Most of the benefits that the said system of business

The Indian Caste System Essay Example for Free

The Indian Caste System Essay The Indian word for caste is jati, which means a large kin-community or descent-group. The word caste comes from the Portuguese casta (breed or race). The Sanskrit word applied to these groupings is varna, which means several things but is often interpreted to signify color. In a verse from the first millennium epic, the Mahabharata, Brigu, the sage explains: The brahmans are fair, the ksatriyas are reddish, the vaisyas yellow and the sudras are black (Huttton). In this essay I look at how the caste system existed in ancient India and how it currently exists in modern India. I will also try and explain how the caste system has evolved from its ancient ways and how it currently functions in modern India: for example, what sort of role it plays in Indias politics and in government policies. I will also give my personal opinion on the Indian caste system. Of the many cultures that flourished in India the literary records of the Indo-Aryan culture are not only the earliest but contain the first mention of the components of the ancient Indian caste. The Indo-Aryan, when they entered India, considered themselves more advanced and more developed than the native aborigines of India. When they (Aryans) came they had mainly three well-defined classes amongst themselves, intermarriage between which must have been rather rare, though not forbidden. These three classes to a great extent worked and functioned the way the caste system functioned but the differences between the three classes was not all that rigidly marked. (Bashm). When the Aryans entered India their first task was to exclude the sudras, a class largely composed of the aborigines, from their (Aryan) religious worship. The lowest caste of the Indian society represented the sudras at that time. The sudras were not allowed to practice religious worship that was developed by the Aryans and they were not allowed to be present in the sacrificial halls of worship. The sudras were further divided into two groups pure or not-excluded (aniravasita) and excluded (niravasita). The latter were quite outside the pale of the Hindu society, and were virtually indistinguishable from the body of the people later to be known as the untouchables. According to the brahman cal textbooks the chief duty of the pure sudra was to wait on the other three classes. He was to eat the  remnants of his masters food, wear his cast-off clothing, and use his old furniture (Bashm). Below the sudras was a group of people called the untouchables. Sometimes they were called the fifth class (pancama), but most historians rejected this term, since they believed that this class of people were so low that they were excluded from the Aryan social order altogether. The untouchables were also known as the candala. According to the ancient Indian law the Candals were to be dressed in the garments of the corpse they had cremated (candals cremated the dead), should eat their food from broken vessels, and should wear only iron ornaments (Bashm). The other three classes at that time were that of the brahmans, ksatriya and the vaisya. There was a sharp distinction between the higher three classes and the sudras. The former were twice born (dvija), once at their natural birth and again at their initiation, when they were invested with the sacred thread and received into the Aryan society (Bashm). This distinction was made on the basis of their varna, or skin color. This type of distinction became even more rigid after the fairer Aryans came into contact with the darker aborigines of India. The brahman was a great divinity in human form. His spiritual power was such that he could destroy the king and his army, if they attempted to infringe on his rights. In law he claimed great privileges, and in every respect he demanded precedence, honor and worship. Often the brahman lived under the patronage of a king, and was provided for by grants of tax-free land, farmed by peasants, who would pay their taxes to the brahman instead of to the king. They performed all the religious sacrifices for the kings and other higher classes for which they were paid and given gifts. No other caste besides the Brahmans could perform religious sacrifices. The brahmans were also considered to be the people between the gods and the mortals. At all times the brahmans supposedly led a truly religious life praying to god and learning the scriptures (Bashm). The second class was the ruling one, the members of which were in the Vedic  period called rajana, and later ksatriya. The theoretical duty of the ksatriya was protection, which included fighting in war and governing in peace. In earlier times he often claimed precedence over the brahman. The kings were considered to be ksatriyas and they could check the power of the Brahman, as the brahmans were supposed to check the power of the ksatriya (Bashm). The third class was that of the vaisya, or the mercantile class, though entitled to the services of the priesthood and to the sacred thread of initiation, but this class was poorer than the brahmans and the ksatriya. The vaisya was sometimes also symbolized as the downtrodden cultivator or a petty merchant who was interested in nothing else but his profit. To understand the functioning of the Indian caste system effectively and simply it will be best if we divide the features of the Hindu society into six major groups: Division in society and how the various castes functioned Castes were groups with well developed lives of their own, and individuals membership to his or her own caste was determined by his birth in that particular caste. The status of a person depended not on his wealth but on the traditional importance of the caste that he had the luck of being born into. Each of the castes was supposed to perform a set of activities and follow a set of rules. Often the set of activities and rules that were assigned to different castes were very different from one another. Each caste had its own panchayat or a governing body. Some of the offences that it dealt with, were : (a) eating, or drinking; (b) seduction of or adultery with a married women; (c) refusal to fulfill the promise of marriage; (d) refusing to send a wife to her husband when old enough; (e) non-payments of debts; (f) petty assaults; (g) insulting a brahman; (h) defying customs. The panchayat was also responsible for sentencing punishments. They also looked after the well being of the individuals of their own caste. Thus, each caste was in a way its own ruler. Hence the members of a caste ceased to be members of the community as a whole. The citizens owned moral allegiance to their caste first, rather than to the community as a whole Dennis, Hutton). Hierarchy As I have earlier mentioned in my paper before hierarchy was a major part of the ancient Indian society. The brahmans were certainly at the top of this hierarchical order followed by the ksatriya, the vaisya and then the sudras. This system of hierarchy was common almost all over India except for a few areas in the south where the artisan caste maintained a struggle for a higher place in the social order and disputed the supremacy of the brahmans (Dennis). Restrictions of Feeding and Social Intercourse There were numerous rules as to what sort of food and drink could be accepted by a person and from what caste. All food was divided into two classes: Kachcha and Pakka. The former was any food in the cooking of which water had been used; and the latter was food cooked in ghi or oil without the addition of water. As a rule, a man would never eat Kachcha food unless it was prepared by a fellow caste man, who in actual practice meant a member of his own endogamous group, or else prepared by his brahmin guru. But a brahmin could accept Kachcha food at the hands of no other caste. As for the Pakka food, a brahmin might take it from the hands of some other castes only. A man of higher caste would not accept Kachcha food from one of the lower. The idea of impurity or pollution was also a very important concept in ancient Indian society. A member of the upper cast could become impure just by the shadow of an untouchable or by his approaching within a certain distance of that member of the upper caste. No Hindu of decent caste would touch a chamar or a dom both of whom were members of the untouchable class. The members of a higher class often restricted the untouchables from using the same wells or the same rivers as theirs since they (untouchables) might pollute the water in the well or the river stream if they accidentally touched it with their hands. In certain areas the untouchables were not allowed to come out of their houses during dawn because their bodies cast too long shadows, which might defile a member of a higher class if it fell on him (Hutton, Dennis). Civil and Religious disabilities and Privileges of the different sections   Different areas in India had different ways of distinguishing between people of different classes. In north India impure castes were segregated and made to live on the outskirts of villages. In some parts of east India the lower castes were given some parts of the cities where they were allowed to live. In other parts of southern India the lower castes were given certain streets on which they could live and they were forbidden to enter certain streets because member of the higher classes lived on those. For example a paraiyan (a caste which came under the shudras) would not be allowed to enter a land or a village that was owned by a brahmin and even a Brahmin would not be allowed to pass through their street. If he happened to enter he would be greeted with cow-dung and water. Also, some of the lower castes were made to drag thorny branches with them to wipe out their footprints and lie at a distance prostrate on the ground if a brahmin passed by, so that the foul shadow might not defile the holy brahmin. Even the schools that were maintained at public cost were practically closed to such impure castes as the chamars and mahars (both of which belonged to the untouchables). The shanars and the izhavas were not allowed to build two story houses because their height might cast a shadow on other houses, bringing bad luck. Under some emperors there were distinctions made between the punishments that were given to a brahmin and a member of the lower caste. The brahmin enjoyed certain privileges that were not enjoyed by any other caste. For example a brahmin could accept gifts and food from a clean sudra. No caste could employ any other priests than the brahmins to perform sacrifices any other religious ceremonies. A brahmin never bowed before any one else, but required others to salute him. A brahmin only could promote a person to a higher caste. A brahmin was considered so important in some kingdoms that he was given special protection by the king (Hutton, Dennis, Bashm). Lack Of Choice of Occupation Generally a caste or a group considered some activities as their hereditary occupation which they thought were right for them and suited their status. Thus a brahmin thought that it was right for him to be a priest and a chamar thought that it was right for him to prepare shoes. This was also true of other occupations such as trading, laboring in  the fields and military service. Also, no caste let a member from the other caste take up their work. Preaching was especially reserved for the brahmins. A person who not brahmin born could not preach and would not be allowed to become a priest. The effect of these rules was that the priestly profession was entirely monopolized by the brahmins, leaving aside the people from the other classes (Hutton). Restrictions on Marriage Most of the groups, whose features I have attempted to characterize had a number of sub-groups, every one of which forbade its members to marry persons from outside their own caste. Each of these groups, popularly known as sub-castes, is thus endogamous. In some parts of India, however, the endogamy system was not that strict and a man from a higher caste was allowed to marry a girl from a lower caste. Except for some exceptional cases like the one mentioned above, inter-caste marriage was extremely limited and each group was expected to marry within their own caste or community. However, if this rule was ever broken, then expulsion from the membership of the group was generally the penalty, which the offending parties had to suffer. Generally expulsion from ones own community was a very major thing since he would not get admission into a higher caste and would have to become a member of a lower caste (Hutton, Dennis). After much discussion about the caste system in ancient India, I feel that I will not do justice to the topic unless I look at its influence in modern India. In the following I will talk about how the caste system works in modern India and how it affects the politics and the policies of modern India. I will conclude by giving my personal opinion on the caste system. The caste system in modern India has been deeply influenced by the mobility that was brought under the British rule; the movement to the cities for higher education and for employment. Lower castes were promoted by certain grants and concessions. The caste system became much less rigid during this time, and the artificial barriers that were set by the brahmans between various castes fell. In addition, all the non-Hindus like the Jains, Christians and Muslims were treated equally. Even the ideas of pollution and  untouchability specially weakened in the cities; even the villages experienced a certain amount of liberalization (Srinivas). However, all this change has been accompanied by a large involvement of caste in administration and policies. Election candidates stand from their castes rather than their respective political parties and get elected on the basis of their caste. Numerically, large castes have become important pressure groups in politics at the District and the State levels. For example a candidate from Maharashtra cannot hope to win elections if he does not allot special deals and packages to the marathas, brahmins, and the mahars (all of these castes are the numerically dominant caste in Maharashtra). The same is true for a candidate standing from Gujrat who will have to promote the interests of the banias, patidars and the kolis; and a candidate from Bihar who would have to promote the bhumihar, kayasth and the rajputs (Srinivas). Modern rural India has been divided into villages and each village has a village leader, who normally is fairly rich and is from a high caste. These village leaders play a very important role in the politics of modern India. Political leaders who stand for elections from their area normally need the help of the village leaders to get the votes of the people of that village and to win elections. In return these village heads can ask the political leaders for loans and grants for their village, which are normally not distributed evenly among the people of that village. Since the village leaders often belong to higher classes, they give most of these loans and grants to the people of the higher class and the people from the lower class get very little of this share. Thus, this results in the higher classes becoming richer and the lower classes becoming poorer. Even the political leaders do not bother to improve their condition till they keep getting their votes and keep winning the elec tions (Srinivas). I will divide my conclusion into two parts. In my first conclusion I will judge the caste system according to all the knowledge I have gained from reading books of various foreign scholars. For my second conclusion, I will talk about the caste system based on my experience and cultural insights. In my first conclusion, I would describe the Indian caste system as a necessary  evil. While it was essential to keep the different parts of the Indian society interconnected and together, I think the way it was followed and implemented was wrong. Every stable and developing society has a hierarchy system with a group of people at the top, some in the middle and then some at the bottom. However, I do not believe it correct for the lowest group to be ill treated and abused, as in the case of the sudras and the untouchables. I believe this where the Indian caste system went wrong. For my second conclusion I would like to propose an argument. We really do not have a lot of information on the caste system to make a judgment about it. Most of the information that we have so far is from 19th century colonialist historians who saw only its surface rigidities and made sweeping generalizations, (condemnatory for the most part), based on too little knowledge and even less experience. They probably did not see this sort of division, as parallel to anything they had in Europe so they could have misunderstood the whole concept altogether. Therefore I dont exactly know what to say about the caste system based on their readings, since we really do not have a lot of information on the caste system to be judgmental about it. Could it be possible that the ancient Indians were not really racists and as I have mentioned did not divide society on the basis of their color. Could it be that they divided their people on the basis of their profession and deeds? The truth of the matter probably lays in the fact that varna, like a lot of Sanskrit words, changed its meaning according to the context it is used in and can denote form, quality, class, category, race, merit or virtue. Whatever be the reality the truth is that the caste system is probably not as apparent in modern India as apparent as it was in the ancient India but I think that the influence that it is now having on Indias politics is disturbing.

Flow Phenomena Within a Compressor Cascade

Flow Phenomena Within a Compressor Cascade Paolo Mastellone section{Aim of the investigation} The scope of the assignment is to study and assess the flow phenomena within a compressor cascade employing controlled diffusion blades through a computational fluid dynamic simulation. The results of the simulation are subsequently compared to the experimental data obtained from the simulated cascade. The quality and the discrepancies are discussed in order to demonstrate the understanding of the theory and the application computational tools. section{Experimental data} The simulation is based on the experimental work done by Hobson et al.cite{rif1} that studied the effect of the Reynolds number on the performances of a second generation controlled-diffusion stator-blades in cascade. The three Reynolds numbers evaluated were 6.4E5, 3.8E5 and 2.1E5. This work was carried out in order to analyse a more representative Reynolds number of flight conditions and to create a test case for computational fluid dynamic models of turbulence and transition. The experimental cascade is made of 10 67B stator blades with an aspect ratio of 1.996 and the solidity of 0.835. The tecnique used for the experimental measurement is the laser Doler velocimetry (LDV) with a seed material of 1$mu $m oil mist particles. The experimental data and e cascade geometric parameters are shown in the figures below. The Reynolds number used for the simulation is 6.4E5, which gives an inlet velocity of: $$ where is the kinematic viscosity and $L$ is the blade chord. section{Mesh} The software used for the mesh generation is ANSYS ICEM. The mesh has a critical importance and consequences on simulation and results, a well-constructed mesh eliminates problem of instabilities, absence of convergence and increase the opportunity to achieve the right solution cite{rif4}. There are key aspects to take into account, the mesh must capture the geometric details and the physics of the problem.\ The discretization is made for one representative flow passage introducing periodic boundary conditions. The fluid domain thickness is half of the blade spacing in order to use properly the periodic boundary conditions: the fluid quantities at the top and the bottom of the domain will be the same, in order to represents the periodicity of the cascade. The inlet and the outlet distances from the blade are respectively 2.5 and 3 times the blade chord so that their position doesnt have an influence on the results and the flow is fully developed at this stations. In order to get low numerical diffusion the mesh must be aligned with the flow directioncite{rif2}, consequently to have the same geomety of the simulation the blade is staggered of $ang{16.3}$ and the inlet grid inclination is $ang{38}$ while the outlet one is $ang{5.5}$. The mesh is a structured type made of quadrilateral elements, because they can be fitted to flow direction and are quite tolerant of skew and stretchingcite{r if2}. To adapt the mesh at the profile an O-grid type made of 9 blocks is used. subsection{First node position} One major parameters for the mesh sizing is the non dimensional distance $y^+=frac{u^+y}{nu}$. This parameter must be chosen as a function of the type of boundary layer treatment. The use of a wall function consents to bridge the explicit resolution of the near wall region, which is described by the dimensionless parameters $u^+$ and $y^+$. The turbulent boundary layer is subdivided into the viscous sub-layer for $y^+RNG. For the k-$omega$ SST a near wall treatment has been chosen and hence a $y^+=1$, which resulted in first node distance of 0.004 mm. With the K-$epsilon$ RNG model a standard wall function has been adopted and choosing $y^+=25$ the first node distance is 0.1 mm. subsection{Grid independence study} The number of nodes required for a 2D simulation with resolved boundary layers is around 20000 while is around 10000 nodes if a wall function is used cite{rif2}. The grid adopted for the K-$omega$ SST has 20128 nodes. The mesh for the K-$varepsilon$ RNG model, which uses a wall function, has 14488 nodes. The two meshes have been chosen between three types with increasing resolution: a coarse, an intermediate and a finer one. The Cd and Cl values obtained from the three meshes are displayed in the table below for the two different turbulent models used for the simulation: k-$omega$ SST and k-$varepsilon$ RNG. A grid independence study and mesh quality analysis have been effectuated for both the meshes of the two different models, and satisfactory results were achieved. In the assignment just the mesh analysis of the K-$omega$ SST model with $y^+=1$ has been reported.\ The difference between the values of Cl and Cd of the intermediate and the fine mesh are negligible, hence the results dont rely upon the mesh resolution anymore and a further increase of the nodes is ineffective. Consequently the intermediate mesh has been adopted in both cases since the results are mesh-independent. The quality of the mesh can be analysed through specific tools available in the software. The overall quality level is acceptable, above 0.85 over 1, even if there are some parts that can be improved. Indeed the skewness at the top due to the curved flow profile and near the trailing edges should be reduced. The region not interested by the wake and the upper and lower parts have been left intentionally coarse since there is not presence of steep gradient in these regions (see figure 10). The quite high aspect ratio in the zones in front and behind the blade can be tolerated because it hasnt a great influence since the mesh is parallel to the flow. The outcomes are displayed below. section{Simulation} The software used for the simulation is ANSYS FLUENT with double precision and four processors enabled for the calculations. The problem has to be properly set up through subsequent steps. subsection{Solution setup} In this section the inputs for the simulation must be implemented. The mesh has to be scaled to the proper geometric dimensions (mm) and afterwards has to be checked to find eventual errors. The solver is a pressure-based type and the simulation is 2D planar. The turbulent model used and compared are the K-$varepsilon$ RNG with a standard wall function and the K-$omega$ Shear Stress Transport both with default model constants. The methods use two separate transport equations for the turbulent velocity and length scale which are independently determined cite{rif5}. The first model is characterised by robustness,economy and reasonable accuracy. The RNG formulation contains some refinements which make the model more accurate and reliable for a wider class of flows than the standard K-$varepsilon$ model cite{rif5}. It is semi-empirical and based on the transport equations for the turbulence kinetic energy ($K$) and its dissipation rate ($varepsilon$) cite{rif5}. The limit of this model is the assumption of complete turbulent flow, which is not the case in consideration.\ The second model is also empirical but is based on the specific dissipation rate ($omega$). The K-$omega$ SST is an improvement of the standard K-$omega$ and it is more reliable and accurate for adverse pressure gradient flows because it includes the transport effects for the eddy viscosity cite{rif5}. This model should capture more accurately the flow behaviour because of the adverse pressure gradient on the suction side of the blade. The fluid used is air, the specific heat and the thermal conductivity are kept constant as well as the density and the viscosity. Indeed the Reynolds and hence the velocity field are low and the problem can be considered incompressible, as a consequence the energy equation is not necessary.\ The boundary conditions for the blade profile, the outlet and the lateral edges have been set to wall, pressure outlet and periodic respectively.\ For the inlet boundary condition the velocity-inlet has been selected, through the magnitude and direction method, the main velocity from the Reynold number is 73.56 m/s and the components are $x=cos(38degree)=0.78801$ and $y=sin(38degree)=0.61566$. For the turbulence definition the intensity and length scale method is used since there are no informations about the value of $K$, $omega$ and $varepsilon$ but just about the inlet turbulence. The value of the turbulence intensity is determined by the formula: $$ The turbulent length scale, from the Fluent manual, is: $$ which is an approximate relationship based on the fact that in fully-developed duct flows, $ell$ is restricted by the size of the duct since the turbulent eddies cannot be larger than the duct cite{rif5}. subsection{Calculation parameters} In this step the parameters to achieve the solution are decided. The calculation has been split into two parts: in the first one the solution method has a simple scheme with a first order Upwind spatial discretization; the second one has a coupled scheme and is second order Upwind. In the first part a first-order accuracy result is achieved and is used as the input for second part of the calculation.\ The monitors are enabled to assess the convergence of the calculation. For the residuals the convergence criterion has been set to 1E-6 for continuity, x-velocity, y-velocity, energy, k and $omega$. Other two monitors for Cl and Cd have been added to appraise the convergence. For Cd the vector components are x = 0.78801 and y = 0.61566 although for Cl are x = -0.61566 and y = 0.78801. Their their value must be asymptotic when the solution converges. The last parameter used to check the convergence is the net value of mass flow flux inside the domain, which must be zero. To initialize the solution an hybrid method is used, afterwards the calculation can be run. section{Results} subsection{Convergence} The convergence has been reached after 479 iterations for the k-$omega$ SST and after 410 for the k-$varepsilon$ RNG. From the reports the mass flow flux can be evaluated, the difference between the inlet and the outlet is in the order of 1E-7 in both cases. According to this outcomes the convergence has been verified and the validation of the simulation results with the experimental study can be performed. subsection{Post processing} The post processing of the results is useful to understand the validity of the simulation.\ From the velocity contours the acceleration of the fluid on the suction side and the deceleration on the pressure side is captured. The pressure contours show the depression on the suction side and an overpressure on the pressure side. The stagnation point on the leading edge is highlighted by pressure and the velocity contours: the velocity is zero and the pressure reach the stagnation value. The separation of the fluid can be seen from the reverse velocity region on the rear part of the airfoil. The two methods made different predictions for the separation phenomenon. Indeed the velocity and the turbulence contours as well as the velocity pathlines show a less intense separation region and a smaller recirculation zone for the k-$varepsilon$ RNG model. subsubsection{K-$omega$ SST} subsubsection{Cp distribution} The Cp distribution is compared to the experimental one. The values from the paper have been extrapolated and inserted in a Matlab graph to give a better comparison. The Cp coefficient is defined by: $$ Cp = frac{p-p_{infty}}{1/2rho_{infty} V_{infty}^2}$$ where the value of $rho_{infty}$ and $p_{infty}$ are extracted from the Fluent reports in terms of mass-weighted average: The abscissa values from Fluent data has been normalised with the chord length in order to obtain the same type of graph. In the experiment for the low and the intermediate Reynold numbers there was a separation bubble between approximately 50 and 65% of the chord for Re=3.8E5 and between 45 and 70% for Re=2.1E5, while it was absent for the highest Reynolds number. The absence of the separation bubble is captures from both the models since the Cp coefficient rises continuously after the point of minimum pressure. The separation at about 80% of the chord is highlighted by flat trend of the Cp cite{rif6} by both models . On the pressure side the trends are very similar to the experiment. On the suction side a difference is observed after the 40% of the chord. Both the simulation results are shifted, a possible explanation could be the presence of 3D effects and secondary flows which are not captured by the 2D simulations. In the subsequent sections only one passage has been taken into account for the comparison with the results of Hobson et al.cite{rif1}. The stations 7,8,9 and 13 have been used for the observations (see figure 4). Station 7,8 and 9 have been taken perpendicular to the profile as showed in the paper. subsubsection{Wake profile} The wake profile presents the velocity distribution behind the blade leading edge, the measurement has been made at station 13 that is 20% of the chord downstream the leading edge. The data from the simulation were exported from Fluent and plotted on Matlab, the abscissa is normalised with the blade spacing S. Both the models highlight a profile similar to the experiment even if the wake wideness is underestimated. Anyway the obtained trends appear to be quite accurate. subsubsection{Turbulence intensity} The turbulence intensity profiles exhibit a trend similar to the paper. The figures has been divided by $sqrt{2}$ because of the different definition of turbulence intensity and the values on the abscissa have been normalised with the blade space S. The simulations captured the double-peaked distribution due to the boundary layer separation. The peaks are in correspondence of the maximum velocity gradient in the wake profile (see figure 27), likewise the experimental data. The outcomes ofÂÂ   K-$omega$ SST are more similar to the paper trend. The underestimation of the wake amplitude is consistent with the previous graph. subsubsection{Outlet flow angle} The velocity flow angle distribution has considerable differences compared to the paper data. A likely explanation could be the limitation of the simulation that can capture only the 2D flow characteristics, while the significant flow angle is primarily caused by the secondary flows in the cascade which are typical 3D effects. This is supported by the fact that the trends predicted by the two models are very similar hence both miss some flow characteristic that cannot be predicted by the 2D simulation. The mass-averaged exit flow angle in the experiment was $ang{9.25}$, the results from the fluent reports are showed below. subsubsection{Velocity profiles} The velocity profiles, normalised with the inlet velocity and the blade chord, at station 7,8 and 9 have are presented.\ At station 7 the curves are almost identical, the velocity evolves from zero in contact with the wall and then increases over the reference speed of 73.56 m/s. At station 8 and 9 both the experimental and the K-$omega$ SST present a reverse flow close to the wall, evidence of the separation. At station 8 and 9 the experimental reverse flow reaches 0.06 (7.6mm) and 0.1 (12.7 mm) of the blade chord that is in agreement with the results of the K-$omega$ SST model. The K-$varepsilon$ RNG fails to capture the reverse flow (only a negligible portion on at station 9). This is in accordance with the theory: the K-$omega$ SST model has better performance in-handling non equilibrium boundary layer regions, like those close to separation cite{rif4}. subsubsection{Loss coefficient} According to cite{rif3} the loss coefficient is defined by: $$ The table below presents the values calculated for the two different models. The figures have been taken from the Fluent reports in term of mass-weight average. The loss coefficient found in the experiments is 0.029. k-$omega$ SSTÂÂ   k-$varepsilon$ RNG Total pressure inlet $bar{p}_{01}$ [Pa] 2290 2209 Total pressure outlet $bar{p}_{02}$ [Pa] 2176 2103 Static pressure inlet $p_1$ [Pa] -1048 -1107 Loss coefficient $omega$ 0.034 0.031 The two coefficients are of the same order of magnitude to the one determined experimentally. The slightly difference could be explained by the different reference sections used for the mass-weight average in the experiment (upper and lower transverse slot for the experiment, see figure 1) since the inlet and the outlet have a different position. Moreover the lightly larger value obtained from the K-$omega$ SST compared to the K-$varepsilon$ RNG is consistent with the greater separation, hence more dissipation of energy, predicted by the model. section{Conclusions} In this assignment a CFD simulation using Icem and Fuent software has been carried out and the results have been analysed with engineering judgement, in order to demonstrate the understanding of the theory and the tools.\ The achievement of satisfying results is strictly related to successful implementation of every single steps of the simulation. The knowledge of the aerodynamics and the physics of the problem is paramount to set the mesh, the boundary conditions and the calculation.\ Great attention has been taken on the mesh generation and it resulted to be the most challenging part since a lot of experience is needed to have good results. The key aspects taken into account are the they grid domain extension, the grid type, the alignment with the flow, aspect ratio and skewness. The choice of the wall treatment influences the first node position. To make a comparison between two turbulence models, for the K-$omega$ SST has been used $y^+=1$ while for the K-$varepsilon$ RNG that uses a standard wall function $y^+=25$. When the mesh has an adequate quality is ready for the simulation. The choice of the turbulence model and the boundary conditions depend on the problem studied and should represent the physic of the problem as precise as possible. Once the simulation has been run the control of the convergence is the necessary but not the sufficient condition to obtain exact outcomes. Indeed the calculation can converge to wrong results if the problem is not well posed. Some modifications have been made to the mesh in order to attain more precision and the calculation has been repeated several times, lots of experience is requested to reduce the number of attempts.\ A qualitative and quantitative comparison with experimental results showed both accuracy and limitations of the simulation. Certainly the mesh can be improved, for example using more then nine blocks, to promote the skewness and the aspect ratio, particularly near the leading and the trailing edge. From the comparison between the K-$omega$ SST and the K-$varepsilon$ RNG the limitations of the latter in the unstable boundary layer treatment have been highlighted.\ The discrepancies observed can be addressed to the 3D effect not captured by the simulation and the limitations of the models adopted. The adoption on more sophisticated models such as the Transition SST (4 equations) and the Reynolds stress (5 equations) can improve the accuracy.

Differences between the consumer market and business

Differences between the consumer market and business Some book authors define Market as a group of potential or actual buyers who are willing to buy certain product or service (Kolter Armstrong, 2006, p. 7; Kurtz Boone, 2006, p. G-7; Lau, 2007, p. 56). When we mentioned business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C), there are two groups of market: the first one is business market and the later one is consumer market. First, discussion will start with differences between consumer and business market. Then, the second part will be followed by the influences of key factors that differentiate business marketing and consumer marketing. Differences between consumer and business market Kolter Armstrong (2006, p.161) stated that consumer and business markets have similar characteristics in some ways. Meanwhile, many researchers also argued that business market is different from consumer market in many ways (Webster, 1978; Ames, 1970; Cooke, 1986; Lilien, 1987; Kolter Armstrong, 2006, p. 161). Kolter Armstrong (2006, p. 161) classified key difference between business and consumer markets into three broad groups, namely: market structure and demand, nature of the buying unit, type of decisions and decision process. Their classification is parallel with Lau (2007, p. 6), whom stated that both markets are different in terms of number and size of customers, buying expertise and process, decision making, geographical concentration, derived demand, and relationships. From the review, total of seven key differences are identified. Type of customers First of all, a very obvious difference is the type of customer on both markets served (Coviello Brodie, 2001). According to Lau (2007, p. 12), customers in the business market can be classified into commercial enterprises, government and public organizations, and institutional organizations. In contrast, customers in the consumer market are individuals or households (Sashi Kudpi, 2001). In consumer market, target market for a juice drink is working woman with 12 years old youth at home. Nevertheless, target market for industrial products such as steel or cement will be different from consumer market. For instance, customers for industrial products such as steel or cement will be a group of people or organization whom doing business. This two examples show that type of customer for consumer market is more concern on individuals or households whereas business market is more concern on a group of people. Number and size of customers Despite type of customer, business markets and consumer markets are different in terms of number and size of customers (Lau, 2007, p. 6). Unlike consumer market, business market has fewer customers. However, customers in the business market buy larger quantities than consumer market. As Kaplan (2000) and Olsen (2000) stated that the market size for consumer market is normally measured in millions whereas business market is measured in thousands. Thus, conclusion can be drawn where a company might have millions of customers where each customer buys in small quantity. On the other hand, a company might only have thousand of business customers whom each of the organization buy in large quantity. For example, consider an apple pie seller and an individual buyer that buy apples for different use. In this situation, the apple sellers might have several apple pie business buyers but many individual apple buyers. Meanwhile, apple pie business buyers will buy larger quantities than the indivi dual consumer because the business buyers demand more apples to make apple pies for sale. Buying knowledge and process Other than that, purchaser of business market has greater buying expertise than consumer market (Lau, 2007, p. 7). Hence, business decision process is different from consumer decision process when business buyer has greater knowledge (Kolter Armstrong, 2006, p. 170; Blackwell, Miniard Engel, 2006, p. 70). Blackwell et al. (2006) stated that consumer decision for goods and services including seven stages: need recognition, information searching, pre-purchase evaluation, purchase behavior, consumption, post-purchase evaluation and divestment (p. 70). Examples will be as followed: An individual found that he needs a new printer to replace the old one. After that, he searches printers information available in internet/ seek information from his friends. From the searching stage, three alternatives are found and he evaluate different printers brand in terms of quality, after sale services, prices and etc. He decided to buy Printer B after evaluation and bring it home / install and use it. During the usage, good or bad perception towards the new buying will determine his satisfaction which further determines his loyalty to the brand. That is, consumer decision process is that simple. In contrast, business buying process has eight stages: Problem recognition, need description, product specification, supplier searching, proposal solicitation, select supplier, order-routine specification, and performance review (Kolter Armstrong, 2006, p. 171). Example is as followed: New entrant, XYZ automobile Sdn Bhd need new business suppliers to supply aluminums for cars produced. Before searching for suppliers, they list down their need and product specification. Then, they start search number of suppliers which supplies what they want. The pool of suppliers then compete and bidding for the projects. Eventually, the company selects BIBI aluminums Sdn Bhd which they think BIBIs offer /services best suit their needs and product specification. After that, XYZ listed down the order-routine items and all the specification/order with BIBI. Once the supplies process has started, XYZ will review and evaluate the performance of BIBI in terms of deliver, product quality, services and others performance. The evaluation will determine whether XYZ want to continue the business relationship or terminate it in the future. From the example, conclusion can be drawn where business market has more complex and formalized buying decision process than consumer market because business buyer has to follow specific procedures or get approval before buying decision are made (Kolter Armstrong, 2006, p. 163; Lau, 2007, p. 7). Despite greater knowledge, business buyer is responsible to purchase with huge resources (Lau, 2007, p. 7). Hence, they tend to spend more effort and time to evaluate products and services offered before buying decision are made (Lau, 2007, p.7). For example, a consumer buyer might not go through the stage of pre-purchase evaluation and buy an inkjet printer just because he or she likes it. But when it comes to business buyer, they cannot skip the formal procedure or approval to buy inkjet printers for office use just because he or she likes to do so. Buying decision making Besides that, business market made decision differently from consumer market (Lau, 2007, p.7). In business market, salesperson has to deal with number of individuals. Buying decision making involved more than one person, whom possesses different roles either to build or maintain the relationship with the supplier (Homburg et al., 1997). Those persons involved in buying decision making are known as the members of buying center (Lau, 2007, p.47-48). In the buying center, those members include decider, purchaser, influencer, initiator, gatekeeper and user (Schellhase et al., 1999; Lau, 2007, p. 47 48). For instance, in an automobile manufacturing company, a production team might be initiator or user for a machine. Then, another team in purchase department will act as buyer for the machine. Meanwhile, finance team will act as gatekeeper in decision making process which functions as budget control role. Lastly, Chief executive officer might act as influencer and decider which he or she w ill decide whether to buy or not to buy at the end. Salesperson in business marketing deals with more than one person in, but salesperson commonly deals with an individual in consumer market. For instance, materials purchase decision (new task buying) for car manufactured will only be made when the agreement across different functional department and vertical management levels have reached. Purchase decision will not be made when conflict between different departments has not yet solved. However, a mother (purchaser) will buy a dress for her daughter (user) without the consent of other family members (e.g. son, father). Demand In addition, business and consumer market can be differentiated in the view of economic perspective. Demand in business and consumer market is different. Demand in business market is derived from demand of the products that business suppliers help produce (McConnell et al., 2009). This is known as derived demand. Derived demand can be referred as Association demand between resource and product in which demand for industrial product is linked with demand for goods and products that made from the resource (Kurtz and Boone, 2006). For example, demand for cotton is derived from consumer demand of shirt. According to the news, consumers will be paying high prices for shirt for the coming New Year since cotton prices has increased (The star, 2010). According to law of demand, demand for shirt will drop as price goes up due to elasticity (McConnell et al., 2009). From here, we can conclude that demand for shirt will be affected by consumers directly. However, demand for cotton at business m arket is inelastic (Lau, 2007, p. 8). Demand for cotton is depending on consumer demand for shirt. It is in contrast with law of demand where changes in prices will not increase or decrease demand for business products. On other words, it means that decrease in prices will not encourage sale for business products (Lau, 2007, p. 8). Nevertheless, demand for cotton is being affected by demand for shirt. For instance, although cotton price is escalating, demand for cotton is still remaining or increasing if demand for shirt is greater. Geographical concentration As business is moving towards globalize, customers are everywhere. Business products buyers with similar business tend to be geographical concentrated. According to McDonald et al. (2001), geographical concentration serves as one of the characteristics of the term Cluster. The term cluster can be defined as a group of producer whom produce similar products are located near to each other (Schmitz, 1992, p. 65). Cluster and industrial district are used interchangeably (McDonald et al., 2001). Marshall (1890) claimed that one of the reasons for being geographical concentration is to grab economies of scale. For instance, consider automobile business companies: Nissan, Ssangyong, BMW, Daihatsu and Proton edar. These automobile business companies set up their headquarters office in Selangor. These companies are in the same industry: automobile selling industry. Similarly, they need raw materials such as steel and aluminum etc. to produce automobile. In contrast, customers in consumer mark et can be found everywhere and they are not that geographical concentrated as compare to business markets customers. Relationship When talk about relationship, relationship development for consumer market and business market is both important. Thus, customer relationship management in consumer market plays an important role. However, when comes to business to business relationship, relationship will even play a more critical role to determine business success or failure. In business market, need of coordination between business supplier and business customers is greater (Lau, 2007, p.10). In business market, Cann (1998) stated that long term relationship between business suppliers and customers is vital for business to be succeeded. According to some researchers, there are several reasons for business suppliers and customers to maintain long term relationship. For example, Sheth (1994) stated that maintain long term relationship will gain more benefits and risk of doing business will decrease. Apart from that, maintain existing relationship is less costly than acquired a new one and existing business partner is easy to work with (Cann, 1998; Congram, 1991). For instance, when an automobile company decided to replace a new supplier instead of the existing one, cost will incurred. New supplier is much likely will perform slow and not that effective in the beginning. This is because they are new joined supplied which they are not familiar to their new customer as compare to old supplier. As a result, operation efficiency decrease and cost incurred. Put it as conclusion, sellers have to develop close relationship with customers in customer market. But, business suppliers have to develop much closer relationship with customers and coordinate well with business customers. Table 1: Summarize differences between business and consumer market Key differences Business market Consumer market Type of customers Commercial enterprises Government and public organizations Institutional organizations Individuals households Market structure and demand Number and size of customers fewer customers large buyer more customers small buyer Geographical concentration More Concentrated Customers are less geographical concentrated Demand Derived from the demand of other products Derived directly from consumer Nature of the buying / Type of decision / Decision process Buying expertise and process Greater buying expertise/knowledge Complex and formalized buying decision process more professional effort in purchasing less buying expertise Simple and less formal buying decision process Buying decision making Decision made by a group of people More complex buying decision Decision made by individual Less complex as compare to Business to business Relationship Closer relationship Long term Close relationship Short term Sources: adapted from Lau (2007); Kolter Armstrong (2006). In conclusion, business and consumer market is different in several key characteristics: type of customers, number and size of customers, geographical concentration, demand, buying expertise and process, buying decision making and relationship (Table 1 summarize the differences between business and consumer market). Next, we look at how these seven key differences have caused business marketing different from consumer marketing. Business marketing and Consumer marketing Business to business marketing can be defined as the process of sale or purchase of goods and services involve at least two parties in which the buyer will buy the products from supplier for operation, production or resale purpose (Kurtz and Boone, 2006, p.188). Consumer marketing can be referred as the process of sale or purchase of goods and services between sellers and individual buyer (Noori and Salimi, 2005). There are different arguments towards marketing approaches for business and consumer market. Some researchers argued that differences in consumer and business market did not constitute to different marketing approaches (Fern Browns, 1984; Jackson Cooper, 1988). However, it is widely discussed that different marketing approaches should be used for business and consumer market (Cooke, 1986; Webster 1978, p. 24). For example, due to the differences between consumer and business market, Lilien (1987, p.16) suggested that marketers should use different marketing strategies to approach consumer market and business market. Comparison between business to business marketing and consumer marketing When mentioned about marketing, we should not overlook marketing mix. Marketing mix refers to the blending of four P strategies (Kotler and Armstrong, 2006, p. 48). Kurtz and Boone (2006, p.189) compared business to business and consumer marketing based on marketing mix: First, Business to business and consumer marketing is different in terms of product strategy. Business products are normally technical in nature whereas consumer products are in more standardized form (Kurtz and Boone, 2006). As a result, they claimed that accompanying services are more important in business products marketing as compare to consumer products marketing. Business customers have to be handled individually and personal selling is needed for business products marketing (Hakansson et al., 1967; Kaplan, 2000; Olsen, 2000). Second, Business to business and consumer marketing can be compared in terms of promotion strategy. Kurtz and Boone (2006) stated that business to business marketing should focus on personal selling whereas consumer marketing should focus on advertising. Other than that, Business to business marketing is different with consumer marketing in terms of distribution strategy. In business to business marketing, business marketer distribute business products direct channel which did not involve any intermediaries and the distribution channel is short whereas consumer products marketer utilize indirect channel to approach their customers (Kurtz and Boone, 2006). Lastly, Kurtz and Boone (2006) differentiated business to business marketing from consumer marketing in terms of price strategy. They stated that there will be competitive bidding in business to business despite list price whereas consumer products is more standardized thus using list price. From the review, example of consumer marketing is as followed: An instant noodle is standardized product. Despite sales promotion, business marketer for instant noodles will promote their products through advertising. The manufacturer uses list price to price their products. Then, pack and distribute their products by using indirect channel, which buyers can buy it from retailers. In contrast, example for business to business marketing is as followed: An electronic product is technically in nature, an accompanying service is needed. To convince business customer to buy electronic products, the company will send sales representative team to market their product to their customers due to the complexity of the marketed product. The sales representative will approach their customer directly rather than go through intermediaries. The supplies company might have to bid for the price because there are normally more than one companies are marketing similar products to the same customer. At the end, the project will goes to the best product quality and lowest price provider. However, Comparison between Business to business marketing and consumer marketing should look beyond marketing mix (Coviello and Brodie, 2001). Hence, we will discuss in depth regard the influence of key factors of business and consumer market in marketing practices. Differences between business and consumer marketing will be discussed based on each of the key factors listed in table 1. Mass marketing versus one-to-one marketing Since the number and size of customers are different, customer acquisition method for both markets also is different. Due to the differences, business organizations customers should be handled individually (Hakansson et al., 1967). Kaplan (2000) and Olsen (2000) stated that communication with business to consumer market is more relied on mass marketing. As mentioned, size of customers in consumer market is large. When size of customer is large and homogeneous, mass communication such as advertising will be used to approach the customers. In contrast, business market is more relied on one-to-one marketing. Customers in business market are fewer but large, they are more expert and making decision in group as a whole. Hence, business market customer should be handled individually (Hakansson et al., 1967). According to Kaplan (2000) and Olsen (2000), personal selling is normally used in business to business marketing. For example, salesperson engaged in business to business marketing wil l use direct selling rather than mass communication to approach their targeted customers. Argument of Kaplan (2000) and Olsen (2000) is parallel with Kurtz and Boone (2006, p. 189), which Kurtz and Boone also stated that promotion strategy in business marketing is more focus on advertising whereas consumer marketing is more focus on personal selling. Marketing strategy As seen in Table 1, type of customer for business and consumer market is different. Thus, marketing strategy for both markets will be different as well. In fact, type of customers might help business marketer to segment market group based on type of customers (Kurtz and Boone, 2006). Indeed, understanding customers needs and wants for both market is important as well. In consumer marketing, marketers market their products to individuals or household. Thus, marketer offered products to satisfy customers needs and wants or to make customer pleasure. Meanwhile, customers might buy the products which they do not really need, they buy just because for pleasure. However, types of customers for business supplier are a group of person whom doing a business. Product purchase is critical for their business operation. Unlike customer in consumer market, they are not purchase for pleasure. Hence, to convince business customers, business marketers have to understand and focus needs of business cu stomers but end user. Then, market their products by demonstrating how their products can help business customers in daily operation in long term period. Second, when demand for industrial products is driven from other products, customer demand for that particular product will determine the demand for industrial products as well. Since law of demand stated that any changes prices will stimulate consumer demand, marketer for consumer market might manipulate product price to stimulate the demand for consumer product. However, since demand for industrial products is inelastic, price manipulation would not increase the demand for industrial products unless demand for consumer demand is being stimulated. This explains why cooperative advertising is employed by manufacturer and channel members. Cooperative advertising is a manufacturer and channel members joint advertising (Cadeaux, 1997). When manufacturer and business customers agree to engaged in cooperative advertising, upstream channel partner such as manufacturer will bear certain percentage for product advertising (Kurtz and Boone, 2006, p. 423). Due to derived demand phenomenon, bus iness supplier such as manufacturer willing to spend money for cooperative advertising because they understand that increase in end user demand will eventually increase the demand for industrial products as well. From here, we know that price manipulation is not the solution for industrial products marketing. In contrast, cooperate with channel partners and develop relationship with channel partners and come out a comprehensive marketing strategy will help business suppliers business to growth further. Other that than, since business customers are geographical concentrated, business marketer has to identify where is the key district for their business customers to run operations. For example, as mentioned in first part, automobile business companies set up their head office in Selangor. From here, business marketers should able to identify that Selangor serve as key district for their business customers to run operations. When business customers are geographical concentrated, the distribution channels in business marketing is shorter than consumer marketing (Kurtz and Boone, 2006, p. 189). In conventional distribution channel, the channel involves numbers of intermediaries to distribute products to the market, this is known as indirect channel distribution (Peter and Donnelly, 2009, p. 145). In fact, business suppliers such as manufacturer will use short and direct channel to approach their business customers which means that distribution is shorter as compare to consumer products distribution (Peter and Donnelly, 2009, p.145; Pelton et al, 2001). In contrast, since consumer market is less geographical concentrated as compare to business market, distribution channel for consumer products normally involve participation of intermediaries to reach the dispersed consumer. Besides that, the distribution channel for consumer market is long (Kurtz and Boone, 2006, P. 189). This also explains why business marketing is relying more on personal selling whereas consumer marketing is relying on mass marketing. Besides, business expertise and buying process in business market also contribute to the different use of marketing strategy in both markets. Since business organization has trained expert to conduct purchase, they normally understand what the organization want. Most significant, they possess more knowledge on how to make purchase which best fulfill those requirements. (Lau, 2007, p. 7). Thus, when the trained person has skills and knowledge, this key factor differentiates business marketing from consumer marketing. In consumer market, customers tend to possess less knowledge about the products as compare to business customers. As a result, impulse purchase is likely to happen in customer market rather than business market (Lau, 2007, p. 7). For instance, a female customer might did not plan to buy body wash during shopping time. However, the customer encounters a salesperson for AAA brand body wash and bought the product eventually because she was told by the salesperson that the bo dy wash is good. From here, impulse purchase was happened in consumer market, and marketers can easily manipulate strategy to convince consumer to buy. Nevertheless, impulse purchase would not happen in business market since business customers would not buy business supplier products merely because business salespersons claimed that their supplies are good. For instance, an automobile would not purchase aluminum (raw material) to produce the car without proper evaluation of the products. Thus, to market industrial product to business customers, business marketer must possess greater product knowledge. Besides, fulfill business customers specific requirements and demonstrate how marketer products can solve their problems is a must in order for transaction to deal successfully. When comes to buying process, business customers have more formalized procedure to be followed (Lau, 2007, p.7) as compare to customers in consumer market. In such situation, understanding on business customers buying procedure is a must if business marketers hope to have a deal with them. Since there are no formalized procedure for individuals or households to purchase a product, marketers can freely approach customers in consumer market. But, if business marketers wish to approach business customers, marketers must understand clearly the formalized business buying procedure and adhere to their procedure (Lau, 2007). Business marketers must ensure any of their actions do not conflict with the specified procedure. In fact, decision making process of both markets advocated marketers to apply different marketing strategy in business and consumer market. In consumer marketing, marketers normally deal with individuals or household. Thus, marketer might only have to address and interact with individual if they wish to convince customer in consumer market to buy. However, different situation is in business marketing. Kurtz and Boone (2006, p. 202 203) identified four factors which will influence decision making process in business market: The four factors include environmental, organizational, interpersonal and buyer role. From these four factors, interpersonal factors do play greater influence in decision making process. According to Kotler and Pfoertsch (2007), customer in business market is much more rational. Hence, Sashi and Kudpi (2001) stated that organization will perform analysis of potential business suppliers in procurement decision. Unlike consumer market, they are more than one person involve in buying decision making. Thus, business marketer not only has to address buyer needs, marketer also has to address and interact with all parties involved in buying decision making (Kurtz and Boone, 2006). For example, initiator and buyers might want to buy material supplies from XYZ Company. However, Influencer and decider might not agree that; buy the supplies from XYZ Company will benefits their company. As Ghingold and Wilson (1998) claimed that different parties in buying center having different perspective or perceptions in regards to problem, needs of the organization. Hence, to convince business customers, business marketers have to make sure all the relevant parties involve in decision making and ensure all parties needs have been addressed. Some researchers even argued that brand plays an important role in business buying decision making (Bendixen et al., 2004; Michell et al., 2001). Webster and Keller (2004) stated that brands will help in gaining consensus of di fferent parties on buying decision. Relationship marketing Today, either consumer marketing or business marketing, relationship does play an important role for business successfulness; accordingly we have seen the emergence of customer relationship management (CRM), which this CRM system aid companies to interact with customers and response quickly to them (Nguyen et al., 2007; Anderson, 2006). Hence, buyer-seller relationship development in consumer marketing is important. Nevertheless, importance of relationship development is much greater in business marketing. Since business market is different with consumer market in terms of several factors, relationship marketing is commonly employed in service industry and industrial industry (Ahmad and Buttle, 2001). Relationship marketing can be defined as Achieving objectives of both sellers and customers by develop, maintain and enhance relationship (Gronroos, 1990). As mentioned earlier, seller-buyer relationship in business market is closer and long term relationship should be developed with th em (Ford, 2003). Hence, needs of coordination between business supplier and customer is greater in business market. As Simatupang et al. (2002) stated that greater coordination between distribution channels members will allow the entire distribution channel system become more flexible and allow them quickly response to the market changing. On other means, the way business supplier maintains relationship with their customer is vital to determine their long term sustainability and profitability. This emphasizes how development of business relationship or networking between business supplier and customer is vital in business marketing. In consumer marketing, marketers can utilize Customer relationship management system and gaining customer satisfaction and loyalty, hope that customers will stay loyal to the brand and buy it again. In business marketing, relationship development is much more complex. Cann (1998) suggested that there are eight steps for a business supplier develop busine ss relationship with customer; marketing goals, strategies, culture, customers orientation and socialization are critical in order for business supplier to develop business relationship. From these eight steps, it showed that business relationship development is much more complex in business to business world. Conclusion As a conclusion, there are seven key factors that differentiate business market from consumer market. The seven identified key factors include type of customers, demand, geographical concentration, buying expertise and process, buying decision making, seller and buyer relationship, number and size of customers. Structure in business market is much more complex than consumer market. Hence, handled business customer individually is more suitable. In fact, combi