Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) :Apprentice Development Officers (ADO) Recruitment Year : 2009-10

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC)

Apprentice Development Officers (ADO) Recruitment Year : 2009-10

Online Applications are invited from eligible candidates who must be Indian Citizens for selection and appointment for 5578 posts of Apprentice Development Officers (ADO) in the jurisdiction of following 8 Zonal and various Divisional Offices.

1.Northern Zone, New Delhi covering Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan,Chandigarh and Delhi :- 727 Posts
(Gen-346, SC (Current 142, Backlog 14), ST (Current 49, Backlog 07), OBC (Current 136, Backlog 33))

2. North Central Zone, Kanpur covering Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand:- 718 Posts
(Gen-326, SC (Current 159), ST (Current 13), OBC (Current 220))

3. Central Zone, Bhopal covering Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh: 415 Posts.
(Gen-200, SC (Current 48, Backlog 04), ST (Current 93, Backlog 09), OBC (Current 55, Backlog 06))

4. East Central Zone, Patna covering Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa : 614 Posts.
(Gen-322, SC (Current 79), ST (Current 101), OBC (Current 112))

5. Eastern Zone, Kolkata covering West Bengal, Assam, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, North Eastern States : 713 Posts
(Gen-363, SC (Current 126, Backlog 06), ST (Current 64, Backlog 11), OBC (Current 135, Backlog 08))

6. South Central Zone, Hyderabad covering Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka : 685 Posts.
(Gen-338, SC (Current 100, Backlog 15), ST (Current 45, Backlog 07), OBC (Current 158, Backlog 22))

7. Southern Zone, Chennai covering Tamilnadu and Kerala : 634 Posts.
(Gen-365, SC (Current 88, Backlog 04), ST (Current 03, Backlog 01), OBC (Current 160, Backlog 13))

8. Western Zone, Mumbai covering Goa, Gujarat and Maharashtra : 1072 Posts
(Gen-574, SC (Current 98, Backlog 07), ST (Current 112, Backlog 24), OBC (Current 212, Backlog 45))

Qualification :
Bachelor's Degree of a University in India established under a statute or a foreign university approved for the purpose or the Fellowship of Insurance Institute of India, Mumbai. Preference may be given to those applicants who possess Masters Degree in Business Administration in Marketing or Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing from a University in India established under Statute or by an Institute approved by AICTE or a recognized Institution.

Age : 21-30 years as on 01/03/2010. Relaxation in age as per rules.

Selection Procedure :
Selection will be made on the basis of a Written Test on Sunday, 13/06/2010 followed by an Interview of candidates who qualify in the written test which will be of objective type, multiple choice of two hours duration comprising of the following two papers: 1. Test of Reasoning and Numerical Ability. 2. General Knowledge, Current Affairs and English Language with Special emphasis on Grammar and Vocabulary.

Application Fee :
Rs. 300/- (No fee for SC/ST) by Fees Payment Challan only at any LIC Office. The receipt should be kept with yourself and should be produced at the time of written test.

How to Apply :
Apply Online at LIC website only from 17/03/2010 to 17/04/2010 only.

Important Dates :

	Begins on	Ends on
Acceptance of application fee at Branch Offices of LIC.	17.03.2010	17.04.2010
On-line Registration.	17.03.2010	17.04.2010
Written Test on Sunday, 13th June, 2010

Details Here

To Download Fee Payment Challan - Format

Click Here to Apply Online

 

75 questions to ask yourself....

75 questions to ask yourself..!

An old proverb says, "He that cannot ask cannot live". If you want answers you have to ask questions. These are 75 questions you should ask yourself and try to answer. You can ask yourself these questions right now and over the course of your life.

1. Why not me?
2. Am I nice?
3. Am I doing what I really want to do?
4. What am I grateful for?
5. What's missing in my life?
6. Am I honest?
7. Do I listen to others?
8. Do I work hard?
9. Do I help others?
10. What do I need to change about myself?
11. Have I hurt others?
12. Do I complain?
13. What's next for me?
14. Do I have fun?
15. Have I seized opportunities?
16. Do I care about others?
17. Do I spend enough time with my family?
18. Am I open-minded?
19. Have I seen enough of the world?
20. Do I judge others?
21. Do I take risks?
22. What is my purpose?
23. What is my biggest fear?
24. How can I conquer that fear?
25. Do I thank people enough?
26. Am I successful?
27. What am I ashamed of?
28. Do I annoy others?
29. What are my dreams?
30. Am I positive?
31. Am I negative?
32. Is there an afterlife?
33. Does everything happen for a reason?
34. What can I do to change the world?
35. What is the most foolish thing I've ever done?
36. Am I cheap?
37. Am I greedy?
38. Who do I love?
39. Who do I want to meet?
40. Where do I want to go?
41. What am I most proud of?
42. Do I care what others think about me?
43. What are my talents?
44. Do I utilize those talents?
45. What makes me happy?
46. What makes me sad?
47. What makes me angry?
48. Am I satisfied with my appearance?
49. Am I healthy?
50. What was the toughest time in my life?
51. What was the easiest time in my life?
52. Am I selfish?
53. What was the craziest thing I did?
54. What is the craziest thing I want to do?
55. Do I procrastinate?
56. What is my greatest regret?
57. What has had the greatest impact on my life?
58. Who has had the greatest impact on my life?
59. Do I stand up for myself?
60. Have I settled for mediocrity?
61. Do I hold grudges?
62. Do I read enough?
63. Do I listen to my heart?
64. Do I donate enough to the less fortunate?
65. Do I pray only when I want something?
66. Do I constantly dwell on the past?
67. Do I let other people's negativity affect me?
68. Do I forgive myself?
69. When I help someone do I think "What's in it for me"?
70. Am I aware that someone always has it worse than me?
71. Do I smile more than I frown?
72. Do I surround myself with good people?
73. Do I take time out for myself?
74. Do I ask enough questions?
75. What other questions do I have?

How Profitable is an IPL Franchise

How Profitable is an IPL Franchise

While coming out of the IPL franchise auction held on January 24, 2008, the winner of the Chennai franchise, the MD of  India Cements  N.Srinivasan spoke to the Hindu. "This will be a good investment. We expect to build this into a viable and vibrant franchise", he said.

 

After agreeing to pay US $ 91 million (Rs 3.60 billion) for a ten year contract, it was hard to figure out how he would make profit. M.S.Dhoni alone is costing him for $ 1.5 million per year, in fact just for 45 days of service.

 

Now, that IPL is well under way and it has become hugely popular, it will be interesting to see the business model of an IPL franchise. Using Chennai Super Kings (CSK) as an example, we look at their revenue streams and expenditure heads.

 

The single biggest revenue stream for a franchisee in the initial years is the share of the television revenue. Not for nothing, is IPL being bandied as "Made for TV". CSK will receive $ 10 million in the first year and this will go down to $ 6 million every year from the sixth year onwards, when the number of teams increase and the share of the IPL (read BCCI) increases from 20% initially to 40 % from the sixth year onwards. Mr. Srinivasan in an interview to the Economic Times has said "If we had bid $90 million over a ten-year period, we'll get back $80-90 million as TV income itself."

 

The title sponsorship is another major revenue stream. AirCel and Coromandel Super King are the title sponsors of CSK. Although no information is available, it may be around $ 5 million every year and this should go up significantly if the team performs well in the IPL. Add to that a slew of local co-sponsors and this revenue stream gets shored up even further.

 

CSK also gets a share of the $50 million each year paid by DLF as the IPL sponsor. This is estimated to be $ 3.75 million every year during the first five years. After the first five years, the title sponsorship contract comes up for renewal. If IPL turns out to be a big success, expect this to double.

 

Gate collection from the home matches in Chennai is another source of income. CSK will be hosting seven matches this season. The M A Chidambaram stadium has a capacity of 50,000 spectators. CSK has priced the tickets ranging from Rs 200 to Rs 5000 for the AC pavilion. Assuming an average occupancy of 80% and price of Rs 400, the gate collections for CSK, after paying IPL its 20% share, is likely to be around $ 2 million. CSK will also be earning from in-stadium advertising. This may generate another $ 2 million in the first year.

 

CSK sells its merchandise like T-shirts and caps through its web-site and other channels. This revenue stream can be a big money spinner if the franchisee is able to build a huge fan following and city loyalty. From a small income of $1 million in the first year, it is estimated that this can go up to $ 15 million in the tenth year.

 

 The prize money for the winner of IPL is also not an amount to sneeze at. The winner of IPL will get US $ 2 Million. The teams placed lower also get significant cash awards. Let's assume that CSK will receive $ 1 million per year as prize money.

 

There is also a possibility of CSK making good amount of money  by judiciously trading players' contracts in the Year Two and Three. For example, Mumbai Indians or Rajasthan Royals may be interested in buying the contract of  Parthiv Patel as they are playing local wicket keepers whereas Mr. Dhoni will always be the first choice as wicket keeper for CSK.

 

Now we look at the expenditure side.

 

Apart from the USD 91 Million paid upfront as the franchisee fee for ten years, the major item of expenditure is definitely the players' contracts. In addition to Mr. Dhoni, CSK bought foreign players such as Mathew Hayden, Mike Hussey,Makhaya Ntini, Jacob Oram, Stephen Fleming, Muralidharan, Albie Morkel,  Kapugedera and Indian T20 stars like Suresh Raina, Joginder Sharma. These star players cost a total of $5.575 million per year. The rest of the 24 member team is made up of local Tamil Nadu players and under –19 players, these have all been signed up for US $ 30,000 each. CSK also has a team of four supporting the team with Kepler Wessels as the coach. The annual expenditure on account of players is estimated to be

$ 10.6 million. These contract fees are fixed for the first three years, after which there will be fresh round of auctions.

 

If IPL is the biggest festival this summer, certainly the hype created by the IPL organizers, media and the franchisees is responsible for it. This does not come free. The IPL franchisees would have a significant marketing and advertising spend. CSK has the Tamil actor Vijay as their ambassador and former captain  K.Srikkanth as the brand ambassador. CSK has created a video featuring all the players with music by A. R. Rahman. Sivamani, the ace drummer, is seen wearing the CSK yellows wherever CSK plays. CSK maintains a web-site for creating a community of fans and selling tickets and merchandise. Like all the IPL teams, CSK has its band of foreign cheergirls. The marketing and promotion spend could be of the order of $ 4 million per year.

 

The other expenditure would be related to paying the rentals to the local cricket association for the stadium. Running an office and organization which will work round the year, not just the 45 days of IPL season is also expensive. Add to that travel and hotel expenses. Perhaps airline and hospitality sponsors lessen the burden.

 

So will CSK make money?

 

If the initial franchising contract is treated as an investment, as per the estimates above, CSK is making an operating profit of over $ 8 million $ in the first year itself. If the $ 91 million is amortized equally in the ten years, then CSK would report a negligible loss of $ 0.7 million in the first year. Even, this could turn into a profit if CSK wins the IPL championship!

 

If not in the first year, CSK is most likely to break even in the second year. From the third year onwards, when the sponsorship, merchandising and gate collection revenues go up, CSK may start generating net profits of $ 2.5 million (Rs. 100 million) on a revenue of  $ 30 million  (Rs 1200 million) from the third year. If the IPL gains in even more popularity the revenues and profits will go up further.

 

Lalit Modi, the IPL Commissioner said "Each IPL franchise could be worth $ 5 billion." It is expected that many IPL franchisees will go public after the third year. I'll not be surprised if CSK has a market capitalization of $ 500 million (Rs 20 billion), five years from now.

 

When Mr. Srinivasan, who incidentally is also the treasurer of BCCI, said IPL franchise is a 'good investment', he certainly knew what he was talking about

IPL - Facts & Figures:How Profitable is an IPL Franchise

The original concept was from ICL but then BCCI modified it and added some ingredients and made a spicy and delicious food. In 2007, IPL had an auction for 8 teams.

A contract figure for 10 years was something like this.

I was very surprized by looking at this figure how exactly they will earn money out of it. But this is 10 year contract fee to buy franchise. And they don't need to pay this amount at beginning. Every year, they have pay 10% to BCCI.

Here in the profit sharing between BCCI and different teams for Broadcasting revenue, IPL Sponsorship Revenue and Ticket Revenue.

Apart from this, 87.5 % all merchandise revenue, 100% Individual Team Sponsorship revenue, 100% Hospitality Revenue are other source of income.

Here is the balance-sheet of IPL 2. (Figures below in Rs. Crore)

As far as BCCI is concerned, their main source of income is TV rights for 10 years. Before IPL2, it was Rs. 4200 Crore but post IPL2, contract was renegotiated to Rs. 8200 Crore. Sony will pay Rs 670 crore per year for first four years and Rs. 1,100 crore per year for next five years. Before renegotiation of contract, it was Rs. 280 crore/year for first five years and Rs 540 crore for next five years.

As far as Sony is concerned, IPL Advertisement tariff was Rs 4 lakh to 5 lakh / 10 seconds in 2009. (It was Rs 2 lakh to 3 lakh / 10 seconds in 2008).

2 IPL teams cost more than first 8

2 IPL teams cost more than first 8
The 2 New Teams Cost Rs 3,235 Cr; Existing 8 Teams Together Cost Rs 2,853 Cr
Rajesh Chandramouli, Dwaipayan Datta & K Shriniwas Rao | TNN

Chennai/Mumbai: Barely two years ago, when Mukesh Ambani's Reliance
Industries Ltd made the highest bid for an Indian Premier League
franchise (Rs 441 crore for Mumbai), many termed it as a massive
gamble on a risky concept. The IPL sure has come a long way in a short
time, with the Sahara group on Sunday bidding Rs 1,702 crore for Pune
and Rendezvous Sports forking out Rs 1,533 crore for Kochi.
These two bids, worth a total of about Rs 3,235 crore, add up to
more than the Rs 2,853 crore collectively paid by the existing eight
franchise owners in the first auction, on January 24, 2008.
Favourites Adani Group and VC Digital (Videocon Group) were pipped
by the Sahara group and a consortium of real estate players and
businessmen brought together by Union minister Shashi Tharoor under
the banner of Rendezvous Sports. The two new teams will become part of
IPL in 2011, which will see 94 games being played as against 60 now.
The franchises will be valid for 10 years.
The bidding behind closed doors lasted less than an hour. The base
price for each team was $225 million, more than four times the rate at
which the original IPL auction began in 2008. IPL commissioner Lalit
Modi said five eligible bids were received in all, which included
Rendezvous Sports, Sahara, Aman Vohra, Adani and VC Digital. There was
a dash of glamour too with Salman Khan and Saif Ali Khan dropping in
to represent
some groups. Sahara Group
emerged the top contender with
a $370-million (Rs 1,702 crore)
bid for a clutch of cities which
included Ahmedabad, Nagpur or Pune. Eventually, the Subrata
Roycontrolled group opted for Pune. "It's close to Aamby Valley. We
have our business reasons for choosing Pune,'' Abhijit Sarkar,
corporate communications head at Sahara, told TOI. No recession in
IPL, says Modi TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Chennai/Mumbai: Rendezvous Sports, who opted for Kochi as their base
camp, were the second highest bidders with $333.33 million (Rs 1,533
crore). "It would suffice at this point of time to let you know that
we are a group of investors passionate about cricket. Some are from
Kerala, some from other parts of India and some from abroad. I would
not like to reveal too many details at this point of time," said Vivek
Venugopal, a builder from Kerala and one of the investors in the
state. However, it is learnt that the group also includes Anchor
Switches, Rosy Blue Diamond, Mukesh Patel, and Ravi and Sanjay
Gaikwad.
Anchor Switches is a company from Gujarat and is owned by Mehul
Shah. Rosy Blue Diamond is one of the world's largest diamond
manufacturing companies. Dilip Mehta is the CEO of this company, which
owns jewellery brand 'Orra'.
Ravi and Sanjay Gaikwad are Mumbai-based businessmen. Sanjay
Gaikwad is the CEO of UFO Moviez. Mukesh Patel is an education baron
who runs technology, management and engineering institutions.
The size of the bids surprised one and all, including Modi
himself. "I was expecting something in the range of $320m, but this
does come as a surprise to me. You talk about recession, but all I can
say is that there's no recession in IPL,'' exulted a beaming Modi.
Among the losers, Aman Vohra placed a bid of $261.3 million, Adani
Group bid $315 million for Ahmedabad and VC Digital bid $319.9 million
for Pune.
"Kochi does not have a cricket stadium as yet. The Kerala Cricket
Association is in the process of building a world class cricket
stadium. Till the ground becomes ready, IPL will provide alternative
venues to Rendezvous," Modi added. Pune, on the other hand, has a
stadium under construction 30km from the city.
Sources close to Tharoor were, however, categorical that they
would insist on some of the matches being held in Kochi. "We've a
stadium there. If we have an IPL team, it's for hosting matches in
Kerala," they said.

Syllabus for Engineering Stream and Medical Stream of eamcet

Syllabus for  Engineering:

Engineering%20Syllabus.pdf View  Download

Syllabus for Medical Stream:

AM%20Syllabus.pdf View  Download

English is our 2nd language

English is our 2nd language

courtesy  :TIMES INSIGHT GROUP

   More Indians speak English than any language, with the sole exception of Hindi. What's more, English speakers in India outnumber those in all of Europe, barring the United Kingdom. Not just that, India's legion of the English-speaking is also more than twice as large as the population of the UK.
   These facts emerge from an analysis of census 2001 data on bilingualism and trilingualism in India that has been released recently. The data also revealed Indians' prowess for speaking many languages. As many as 255 million Indians speak at least two languages and 87.5 million speak three or more languages. In other words, about a quarter of the population speaks more than one language. While English was the primary language for barely 2.3 lakh Indians at the time of the census, more than 86 million listed it as their second language and another 39 million as their third language, taking the total number of English speakers in India at the time to over 125 million.
   The only language that had a larger number of speakers was Hindi with 551.4 million, consisting of 422 million for whom it was the primary tongue, 98.2 million for whom Hindi was the second language and 31.2 million who listed it as their third language. Bengali, which was the second largest Indian language in terms of primary speakers, falls to a distant third. Including those who spoke Bengali as their first, second or third language gives a number of 91.1 million, comfortably behind English. Telugu with 85 million speakers and Marathi with 84.2 million retain their position behind Bengali as does Tamil with 66.7 million and Urdu with 59 million.

14 cr rural Indians are bilingual


   Gujarati language now falls behind Kannada though in terms of primary speakers of the language it had a sizeable lead with 46.1 million compared to Kannada's 37.9 million.
   The linguistic variety of Karnataka means that there are many who have other languages as their first language, but Kannada as a second language. This adds 11.5 million to the ranks of Kannada speakers and another 1.4 million use it as a third language. In total, therefore, Kannada had 50.8 million speaking the tongue in 2001 compared to Gujarati's 50.3 million.
   These facts emerge from an analysis of census 2001 data on bilingualism and trilingualism in India. The data also revealed Indians' prowess for speaking many languages. As many as 255 million Indians speak at least two languages and 87.5 million speak three or more languages. In other words, about a quarter of the population speaks more than one language.
   Similarly, Oriya overtakes Malayalam, thanks to the 3.3 million people who listed it as their second language and 3.2 lakh who said it was their third language. Thus the total number of Oriya speakers was 36.6 million against 33.8 million Malayalam speakers. Punjabi with 31.4 million speakers and Assamese with 18.9 million are also among the most spoken languages in India. Unfortunately, the census asked people to list only up to three languages, so the numbers of those who speak more than three languages are not known.
   As you would expect, urban Indians are much more likely to be multi-lingual than those in the rural areas. But that's not to say village folk are completely unilingual. As many as 136.7 million rural Indians speak at least two languages and 40.4 million speak at least three, meaning about onefifth speak more than one language. In urban India, 118.4 million speak at least two languages and 47.1 million speak three. That means about 45% of those who live in cities can speak more than one language.

TIPS ON WRITING CURRICULUM VITAE

A Curriculum Vitae (CV) is quite simply an advertisement to sell yourself to an employer. The main purpose of your CV is to make you attractive, interesting, worth considering to the company and so receive a job interview. An employer may have several hundred enquiries about a single job. Therefore, your CV must be as good as you can make it.  The terms 'Curriculum Vitae' and 'Resume' are generally interchangeable. But, they do differ in many ways. While both are lists of the most relevant information of a person seeking a job, there are a few basic differences. While the CV represents in-depth and structured information about the professional experience and qualification of a person, the resume usually is the same thing in a short form.  CV is the most accepted form for job applications all over the world. The resume, on the other hand, is the most accepted form for job applications in USA. The CV is used in USA exclusively for jobs in academics. A CV should be well laid-out and printed on a good quality printer. You should use bold and/or underline print for headlines. Do not use lots of different fonts and sizes.  Before submitting your CV do not forget to spell-check/proof-read. This is important.  Also, make sure you include all the information about yourself that will help the recruiter to consider you as a potential candidate. Remember the principle: "If they did not hear it, you did not say it". Picture yourself to be a busy manager in the employer's office who has to read through hundred of CVs in half an hour and select the best from them. Thus, your CV must be precise, easy to read and attractive. After you have written your CV get someone else to look at it. What you have written may seem simple and obvious to you, but not to other person (and ultimately an employer). Go through it again and again and refine it to make it short, easy to read, attractive and error-free.  Preparing to write your CV Sit down with a piece of paper. Look at the job that you are applying for. Consider how your skills, education and experience compare with the skills that the job requires. How much information do you have about the job description?  Sometimes employers do not give enough information. Ask for more detail if needed. Spend time researching detail about the job that interests you and information about the employer—their structure, products, successes, and approach from their own publicity, reports and publications, as well as newspapers and internet. Information to include in your CV Personal details: Name, home address, college address, phone number, email address. Do you have your own web homepage? Include it if it's good!).  Education: Give places of education where you have studied. Most recent education should be listed first. Include subject options taken in each year of your course. Include any special project, thesis, or work.  Pre-college courses should then be included, with grades. Subjects taken and passed just before college or during college will be of most interest. Earlier courses, taken at say age 15-16, may not need much detail.  Work experience: List your most recent experience first. Give the name of your employer, job title, and very important, what you actually did and achieved in that job. Part-time work should also be included in your CV.  Interests: Employers will be particularly interested in activities where you have undertook leadership role or a responsibility, or which involved you in relating to others in a team. A hobby such as coin-collecting may be of less interest to them, unless it connects with the work you wish to do.  Give only enough detail to explain. (If you were captain of a sports team, they do not want to know the exact date you started, how many games you played, and how many wins you had! They will ask this in the interview, if they are interested.) If you have published any articles, jointly or by yourself, give details.  If you have been involved in any type of volunteer work, do include the details.  Skills: Ability in other languages, computing experience, or possession of a driving licence should be included in your CV.  References: Usually give two names—one from your place of study, and one from any work place. Or, if this does not apply, then an older family friend who has known you for some time should be given as a reference. Make sure that referees are willing to give you a reference. Give their day and evening phone numbers if possible.  Length: Maybe all you need to say will fit onto one sheet of A4. But do not crowd it and layout your CV with reasonable line-spacing and white spaces around. No harm if your CV takes two A4 sheets. Do not normally go longer than this. Put page numbers at the bottom of the pages—a little detail that may impress.  Style: There are two main styles of CV, with variations within them.  Chronological: Information is included under general headings— education, work experience, etc., with the most recent events first.  Skills based: You think through the necessary skills needed for the job you are applying for. Then you list all your personal details under these skill headings. This is called 'targeting your CV', and is becoming more common. Do take advice on how to do it best.  Covering letter: When sending in a CV or job application form, you must include a covering letter. The purpose of the letter is:  To make sure that the CV arrives on the desk of the correct person. Take the trouble to telephone, and find the name of the person who will be dealing with applications or CVs, and address your letter, and envelope, to that person by name. (In a small company, it may be the managing director. In a medium size company, it may be the head of section/department. Only in a large company will there be a Personnel or Human Resource Department.) Clearly say what job you are interested in. If you are sending in a 'speculative' CV hoping that they may have work for you, explain what sort of work you are interested in. Do not say, 'I would be interested in working for ABC Ltd', but say 'I believe my skills equip me to work in the product development department/accounts office/etc'.  Start your letter with an underline heading giving the job title you are interested in. (If you saw the job advertised, say where you saw it.)  Application forms To apply for some jobs, the employer will send you an application form. You should still use a covering letter, and send your CV also unless told not to. Application forms need as much care to write as CVs.  Other points Keep copies of all letters, applications forms, and CVs sent, and records of telephone calls and names of those you spoke to. The main features of the CV, in brief, are: CV is a list of all your achievements until the date you are submitting it, presented in reverse chronological order (i.e. the latest achievements first). A CV is ideally two pages in length, though it can sometimes go up to three to five pages. CV should include everything that you have done and can be classified as work outside the home—whether paid or unpaid; hence, it is okay if the Curriculum Vitae contains voluntary and honorary positions and work done in such positions. The CV structure should be very systematic and is generally drawn in a specific order. A CV is normally accompanied by a cover letter, which summarizes what it contains and points out the match of the applicant with the job. The Resume A resume is a precise and very brief document representing at-a-glance your key skills and main achievements. A resume should not be longer than one page, unless in rare exceptions. A resume would contain of only what is strictly relevant to the job applied and nothing else—it is more important to have all the information contained within one page. A resume should highlight your skills and achievements above all other things. A resume is usually presented without a cover letter because the main reason you are submitting the resume is fast processing; a cover letter would defeat the purpose. A resume usually can be written in three very different styles - (i) Chronological resume—whereby your skills and main achievements are listed by date starting with the most recent ones first, (ii) Functional resume—whereby your skills and experience are more highlighted than anything else and (iii) a combination of both—whereby both skill and achievements are presented hand-in-hand. IMPORTANT NOTE:  Do not ever falsify information, or give any misleading information to an employer under any circumstances whatever. It's illegal, it's self destructive, and it's just plain stupid. Do not put yourself in a position where your statements can't be trusted. Only give verifiable information, and do not exaggerate. Quality of information is what really matters on any CV. Keep it real, at all times

DETAILS OF RRB WEBSITES TO DOWNLOAD APPLICATION FORM AND

DETAILS OF RRB WEBSITES TO DOWNLOAD APPLICATION FORM AND
ADVERTISING
Ahmedabad                    http://www.rrbadi.org/
Ajmer                             http://www.rrbajmer.org/
Allahabad                       http://www.rrbald.nic.in/
Bangalore                       http://www.rrbbnc.gov.in/
Bilaspur                          http://www.rrbbilaspur.gov.in/
Bhopal                           http://www.rrbbpl.nic.in/
Bhubaneswar                 http://www.rrbbbs.org/
Chandigarh                    http://www.rrbcdg.org/
Chennai                         http://www.rrbchennai.net/
Gorakhpur                     http://www.rrbgkp.gov.in/
Guwahati                      http://www.rrbghy.org/
Jammu & Srinagar         http://www.rrbjammu.nic.in/
Kolkata                        http://www.rrbkolkata.org/
Malda                          http://www.rrbmalda.gov.in/
Mumbai                       http://www.rrbmumbai.gov.in/
Muzaffarpur                  http://www.rrbpatna.org/
Patna                           http://www.rrbpatna.org/
Ranchi                        http://www.rrbranchi.org/
Secunderabad                    http://www.rrbsec.org/
Thiruvanantha-puram           http://www.thiruvananthapuram.net/ &
http://www.rrbtrivandrum.net/

Financial Balance of Terror and the G20,Financial Balance of Terror and the G20

Financial Balance of Terror and the G20

 

The Group of 20 (G20) continued its focus on the global economic crisis at its second meeting in Pittsburgh in 2009. At the Summit, the G20 leaders reviewed the progress made since the Washington and London Summits and discussed further actions to be taken to assure a sound and sustainable recovery from the recent global financial and economic crisis. The leaders agreed on coordinated actions to revive the global economy, reform the financial sector, create early warning systems, restructure the big international financial institutions, improve accountability and help the developing countries.

The only way to find the limits of the possible is by going beyond them to the impossible.

- Wright Brothers

 

The Group of Twenty (G20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was established in 1999. The main objective of the formation was to tackle the ill health of the global economies; to bring together the developed and emerging economies to discuss key issues related to the global economies. The inaugural meeting of the G20 took place in Berlin, on December 15 and 16, 1999. It was hosted by the German and Canadian Finance Ministers. G20 is an informal forum that promotes open and constructive discussion between developed and emerging economies on key issues related to global economic stability. G20 helps to support growth and development across the globe by contributing to strengthen the international financial architecture and providing opportunities for dialogue on national policies, international cooperation and international financial institutions.

The G20 was formed as a response both to the financial crises of the late 1990s and to a growing recognition that key emerging economies were not possibly included in the core of global economic discussion and governance.

The G20 comprises of the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the following 19 countries

And the 20^th member of the G20 is the European Union, which is represented by the rotating Council presidency and the European Central Bank. In addition to these members, to ensure that global economic fora and institutions work together, the following members also participate in the G20 meetings on an ex-officio basis:

• International Monetary Fund (IMF),
• World Bank,
• International Monetary and Financial Committee,
• Development Committee of the IMF and World Bank.

Thus, the G20 brings together a platform for developed and emerging economies across the globe to combat the tough times. According to sources, together, member countries represent around 90% of the global gross national product, 80% of world trade (including EU intra-trade) , as well as two-thirds of the world's population (Refer Exhibit 1).

The G20 has no permanent team of its own, unlike other international institutions, such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), IMF or World Bank. The G20 chair revolves between the members, and is selected from different regional grouping of countries each year. In 2009, the G20 chair was held by the UK, and in 2010, it will be South Korea (Refer Table 1). The chair is part of a revolving 3-member management. This is referred to as the three member management-Troika of past, present and future chairs. The role of the Troika is to ensure continuity in the G20's work and management across host years.

Economic Crisis 2008 and the Stimulus Packages

The year 2008-09 has been a testing time for the global financial markets against the backdrop of one of the worst global financial crisis witnessed so far. It was almost a year ago when the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered a chain reaction of financial, economic, and psychological crises. Markets across the globe reacted in a `harsh' manner to the global misbalance that entangled the entire globe. Rescue measures were undertaken globally, recognizing that the refurbishment of the financial markets was the need of the hour. Corrective steps with regard to the monetary policies were taken immediately as the first line of defense. However, the conventional measures to manage the crisis appear to have reached their limits. Furthermore, the collapse of financial systems across the economies rendered most of the monetary programs inadequate. Thereafter, corrective fiscal policies became crucial to initiate economic resurgence across the globe.

G20 Economic Stimulus Packages

In the wake of the financial crisis and a step towards balancing the financial terror, almost all the G20 countries have announced fiscal stimulus packages. The objective of the packages was to avert the reemergence of the panic that gripped millions of investors. The total size of the stimulus for G20 economies stood about $1644 bn. However, for 2009, the figure stood at $692 bn, which is about 1.4% of their combined GDP and a little over 1.1% of global GDP. According to an economist at Illinois University, "without the government's massive stimulus package, the US economy could have spiraled into an epic collapse, rivaling the Great Depression."

For the year 2009, the cumulative stimulus packages of four major economies- the US, China, Germany and Japan - account for about $480 bn of the overall stimulus spending in 2009. The cumulative stimulus package share of US, China, Germany and Japan stood at around 70% of the overall stimulus for 2009 with their respective shares accounting to 39%, 13%, 8% and 10%. The total size of the stimulus, as a percentage of GDP (2008), for the above four economies comes out to 5.9%, 4.8%, 3.4% and 2.2% respectively. Also, the total size of the stimulus plan for Saudi Arabia's economy stood at 9.4% of its GDP (2008).

For the year 2010, the four economies of US, China, Germany and Japan account for over 84% of planned stimulus spending in 2010, wherein the respective share stand at 60%, 12%, 7.8% and 4% respectively. The detailed analysis of the same is given in Table 2.

The Pittsburgh Summit 2009

UK, which held the presidency of the Group of 20 major developed and developing countries (G20) in 2009, hosted the second ever G20 leaders' Summit in London in April 2009, following the first leaders' summit in Washington, DC (November 2008). G20 leaders met for the third time in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania on September 24 and 25, 2009 to assess the progress of the relief measures introduced by the economies to combat the crisis. The meeting was chaired by President Barack Obama, wherein the leaders reviewed the performance and the progress made since the Washington and London Summits. At the meeting, the leaders also discussed further action plans to assure a sound and sustainable recovery path from the current wave of the global financial and economic catastrophe. At the earlier summits, held at Washington and London, the focus was majorly on the deterrence of the economic disaster. However, at Pittsburgh, the focal point was to take corrective steps towards the economic resurgence and to build a strong, sustainable and balanced economic growth model so as to prevent such debacles from recurring.

The Pittsburgh Summit - Key Accomplishments

The Pittsburgh G20 Summit marked a critical transition from crisis to recovery. In Pittsburgh, President Obama forged an agreement with G20 Leaders to continue to implement aggressive policies to restore economic growth and create jobs; enact a new framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth and to reform financial regulation and supervision to avoid a return to the risky practices that led to the crisis - policies that will be supported and implemented by a redesigned global economic architecture.

One of the first major proclamations of the meeting was that the group would now be a new permanent council for international economic cooperation. It is only the growing relevance of emerging economies that the G20 nations would supplant the G-8 as the guardian of the world economy. This means that the much larger G20 meeting will essentially replace the G-8, which will continue to meet on major security issues but will carry reduced influence. This decision will help to include major developing nations - such as China, India, Brazil, and Indonesia - which were originally not included in the G-8. The key accomplishments of the Pittsburgh Summit are as follows:

• Strengthen recovery.
• Launch framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth.
• Advance tough new financial market regulations.
• Phase out insufficient fossil fuel subsidies and increase energy market transparency.
• Modernize the infrastructure of global economic cooperation.
• Support the world's most vulnerable citizens.
• Deliver on previous commitments.

Apart from the reformation of the global architecture to meet the requirements of the 21^st century; G20 also discussed the issue of climate change- the issue that probably requires the utmost attention in today's scenario.

Leaders at the G20 summit vowed to grant the emerging countries a greater say at the IMF and the World Bank, recognizing their growing influence. Policy makers approved to increase the clout at the IMF for China and other underrepresented emerging markets through a transfer of at least 5% of the so called quotas that determine voting shares and access to IMF loans, from countries with disproportionate influence. It was also decided to boost emerging nations' share at the World Bank by at least 3 percentage points. According to the policy statement, "The distribution of quotas should reflect the relative weights of its members in the world economy, which have changed substantially in view of the strong growth in dynamic emerging markets and developing countries."

Policy makers also agreed to overhaul the oil derivatives markets. This reflected the international recognition of the disruptions that these trades could cause. G20, at its Pittsburgh summit, agreed to adopt changes to oil futures markets that have been suggested by an international securities oversight committee.

Leaders at G20 pledged to avoid protectionism. Policy makers agreed to re-double their efforts to reach a new agreement at the earliest to cut tariffs and subsidies in the World Trade Organization as part of the so-called Doha Round. With minimum impact of fiscal policies on trade and investments, policy makers agreed to combat the turmoil by supporting the financial markets across the economies. Leaders agreed that continuing revival of world trade and investments is essential to restore global growth.

Furthermore, G20 has crafted a plan to force banks to tie bonuses to their long-term performance and to increase their capital base. G20, in its policy statement, affirmed that excessive compensation in the financial sector has reflected and encouraged excessive risk-taking. Therefore, reforming compensation policies and practices is an essential element to increase financial stability.

Conclusion

G20 is playing a vital role in rebuilding the global economies so that they can combat the situation. In a broader sense, G20 is the primary source of help for the global economies in times of such debacles. The role of G20, in such scenarios, is one of utmost important. The path which has been guided by these policy gurus is yet to yield results. However, it is believed, that fiscal expansion that is being undertaken now will go a long way in reversing the impact of the economic slowdown although some tentative signs of stabilization have begun to emerge. The decisions and proclamations that have been taken at the summit to restore the global economies to their full health would definitely require some more time to resolve the key issues. However, the significance of such organizations lies in the fact that the financial balance of terror requires cooperation at the global level to combat situations like the one we are facing now.

Deflation Can It Be Prevented?

Deflation Can It Be Prevented?

 

Josef Sima:Deflation is a term used to denote situations of a general decline in prices, a falling price level. For most of the history, such deflation coincided with prosperous times. However, 20^th century changed that perception. Prices have been systematically on the rise-inflation has become a part of our life, (e.g., prices in the US multiplied between the years 1900 and 2000 approximately 25 times, as opposed to 50% decrease between, 1800 and 1900.) Rather than a sign of prosperity, deflation is today often - though mistakenly -taken to be the cause of crises and economic breakdowns. In the following text, I will explain what economic forces can cause prices to fall and bring some light to the consequences of `anti-deflationary policies'.

It might be useful to start tackling the issues of deflation by noting that deflation (and inflation) originally meant a great decrease (increase) in the supply of money, rather than its inexorable consequence - the general tendency towards a fall (rise) in prices- which is what it means today. This shift in meaning may easily cause confusion: e.g., in a rapidly growing economy with an increasing money supply but decreasing price level, our predecessors would - using the original definition - speak of inflation, whereas, today, we would describe it as deflation. Let us see now, in what situations prices typically fall.

 

Deflation as a Result of Economic Growth

This kind of deflation is a natural state of a dynamically developing economy. As a result of growing productivity, more and more goods are produced in the economy and, consequently, producers have to compete over existing money units, against which they supply their products. Assuming a given quantity of money, it follows that the value of money will go up, which means that more goods can be bought for a unit of money. Prices will have a tendency to fall. Money will keep acting as the medium of exchange and the resulting prices will precisely mirror market participants' preferences and underlying resource scarcity patterns. Therefore, the economy will not waste resources, which is a precondition for further growth. As rational economic calculation is possible under these conditions (prices correctly reflect the relevant market `data'), there is no reason to expect any obstacles for successful economic development. Such a development is a typical one for periods between several inflationary episodes in history generally initiated by states for the sake of waging wars. In the US, between 1880 and 1896, we can, for example, see a decline of wholesale prices by some 30% (which amounts to an annual fall of 1.75%), whereas real income went up by some 85% (which is 5% annually). Even today, despite the continual inflation orchestrated by central banks, there are sectors experiencing a boom within a `deflationary' environment (decline of their products' prices)- the most flagrant example being the electronics industry (computers, video and DVD-players, TV-sets, cell-phones, etc.). What is of interest to producers is the spread between buying and selling prices, i.e., input-output spreads that give rise to profits. Changes in some `price index', which captures the changes of overall prices, are of no real importance to them.

 

Deflation As a Result of Hoarding

 

For many people, hoarding embodies a veritable bogey as it causes money to `disappear' from the economy. What hoarding means, however, is that some people for certain reasons, (such as uncertainty about their pensions) decide to increase their cash holdings. In this situation, it is only natural that selling the existing stock of goods for less money units will be possible only if the purchasing power of the money unit increases - the higher demand for money units pushes their price, in terms of goods, up. This adjustment is, strictly speaking, a productive activity - some people decided voluntarily not to exchange their money for so many goods offered as before, because they value holding cash more than the goods they could obtain for that amount of cash. The result is deflation, i.e., a new structure of prices corresponding to the new market situation that emerges in the same way as any new price pattern accommodating any change in people's behavior, (e.g., a change in fashion).

 

Bank Credit Deflation

 

We will now explore the third situation causing prices to fall. In modern history, we can find several instances in which people, typically as a result of previous inflation and subsequent financial crises, started to withdraw their demand deposits from banksen masse. As they withdraw their money (or in the past redeemed gold), banks are driven into liquidity problems that may ultimately lead to their bankruptcy. This intensifies the crises, as more and more clients lose confidence in the overall health of the banking sector and therefore come to their banks and demand that the deposits on their accounts be paid off. Banks attempt to accumulate their reserves in order to become able to fulfill their obligations. The accumulation of reserves (historically gold) leads towards a decrease in money supply, resulting in an increase in the value of money - prices fall, deflation is underway. Before World War I, central banks themselves several times initiated such a deflation to prevent the breakdown of the banking system. Deflationary periods of that kind were typically very short and swift, and so was the elimination of unavoidable results of previous inflations.

 

Confiscatory deflation

 

Whereas the previous kinds of deflations were market-driven, now confiscatory deflation is orchestrated by the state authorities by preventing people from using their cash in an attempt to solve the `imbalance' in the money market created by a preceding inflation. The case of Argentina from the first years of the 21^st century can be listed as an example. Supply of money shrank and prices went down.

As we have seen, deflation can be one of the result of economic problems, such as banking sector collapse. Under normal circumstances, however, if new money is not pumped into the economy it is a reflection of economic growth - a certain quantity of money chases more goods-and allocation of resources is guided by consumers' preferences. The pattern of income corresponds to the productivity of market participants, rather then being influenced by politically induced monetary shocks. On the other hand, the attempts to increase the money supply to fight deflation often lead to redistribution (as it equals taxing the cash-holdings) , discoordination and hence waste of resources (as price signals get wrong).

Shobha Ahuja:From 2003 to early 2008, the world witnessed the most marked commodity price boom of the past century. The prices of oil, metals, food grains, and other commodities rose sharply, and over a sustained period. But the global economic crisis has reversed the commodity price boom in the late 2008 with commodity prices, notably the oil prices, falling sharply in the last six months. Besides, there is a sharp decline in metal and food prices as most countries have started experiencing excess (supply) capacity and a contraction in demand. These price declines have dampened growth prospects for a number of commodity-exporting economies. According to IMF projections, headline inflation is expected to decline from 3.5% in 2008 to a record low 0.25% in 2009 in the advanced economies, before edging up to 0.75% in 2010.

India, too, is facing the prospect of negative inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI). However, the paradox is that the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation at the retail level, is still at double digit level. And there are a range of products within the WPI which are still rising. High food prices are still a cause for concern. Hence, at present, the fall in WPI is seen as a corrective mechanism from the high prices ruling in 2007-08 and the specter of falling prices is not so much a threat to our growth prospect.

Indeed, our growth story is intact, even though it is weaker than last year, there is demand in the economy and investments are still taking place. However, if prices continue to fall, a prospect which we do not anticipate to hold for long , then it could be a setback to growth

Caught in Deflationary Spiral?

With the deterioration taking place in the global economy, the prospect of outright deflation - and all the risks that it entails - is a clear and present danger. The prospect of deflation in countries like US, Europe and Japan is very much real, given the recession in their economy. The prospect of falling demand and possibly falling prices is something that is catching the attention of policy makers the world over. Hence, the phenomena should not be dismissed as a statistical quirk.

In the current scenario, prices are falling, not because of improved productivity, but because of fall in demand. The fall in demand and prices is adversely affecting the bottom line of companies and the manufacturing sector is not finding any incentive to increase production. If deflation sustains for a long period of time, it will lead to lower production and investment as industry would not invest in capacity addition. A fall in demand would result in lower wages and unemployment, which, in turn, would lead to further decreases in prices, causing a deflationary spiral. However, in India, the southward drift of inflation, which is now closer to zero, is more as a result of high base effect apart from falling oil and commodity prices. No wonder, policy makers have termed the phenomenon as disinflation, rather than deflation. Hence, near zero inflation is temporary and is anticipated to again show an upward trend once the statistical bias accruing from the high base effect, which compares present inflation levels from that prevailing during the same period last year, wears off.

WPI vs. CPI

The phenomenon of measuring inflation on the basis of WPI is unique to India. All major countries across the world measure inflation on the basis of CPI or the Producer Price Index (PPI). Hence, this question pertains more to India than to the rest of the world.

The plunge in WPI was mainly driven by the fall in prices of industrial commodities and raw materials. The near zero inflation rate is largely the result of the dramatic decline in energy and commodity prices over the past year. For example, oil prices fell from the high $109 in September 2008 to a low of $37.4 in 2009. However, the WPI takes prices at ex factory level and is made up of a large number of primary, intermediate and manufactured items. Excise duty, marketing costs and rebates are not reflected in WPI. For that matter, much of items which form the household consumption basket have a low weight in WPI. CPI measures inflation experienced by consumers at retail outlets. The weights assigned to items taken for measuring inflation are different. CPI assigns higher weight for items which are consumed by households. For example, the weight attached to food and beverages, etc., account for nearly 48% in CPI, but around 28% in WPI. Likewise, fuel has a weight of 6% in CPI but over 14% in WPI. However, a decline in WPI would most likely be captured by CPI in times to come when the impact of price fall percolates down to the retail level.

To reconcile the WPI and CPI and to have a cogent measure of inflation, it is imperative that we move towards a new measure of inflation given by PPI. This is presently being contemplated by the government.

Options Before the Central Banks

• Sufficient injections of money will ultimately reverse deflation.
• Increased government spending in areas, such as infrastructure and housing.
• Global monetary and fiscal policies can provide substantial support.
• Fiscal policies and rationalization of taxes which would lower production costs of industry and spur demand.

Less than a year ago, inflation was a major concern for many of world's economies. Now its opposite, deflation, is emerging as the latest threat, which could make the global recession worse if it takes hold.

Prospects and Challenges of Retail Banking in India

Prospects and Challenges of Retail Banking in India

 

The retail banking industry in India has grown rapidly over the years due to the rapid advances in information technology, macroeconomic environment, financial market reforms, and several micro-level demand and supply side factors. The changes happening one after another have led to the retail segment becoming one of the most important divisions of the commercial banks. While retail banking offers phenomenal opportunities for growth, the challenges are equally daunting. This article analyzes these challenges.

Today, retail banking is being considered as one of the most innovative financial services provided by the various commercial Public Sector Banks (PSBs), private sector and foreign banks. Retail banking has a huge potential considering the growing demand for its products namely, term deposits, consumer durable loans, auto loans, debit card, credit cards, ATM facilities, insurance, online banking, etc. The growing sector of retail lending has contributed significantly to the development of the economy. Like other developed countries, India too, has a developed retail banking sector which accounts for one-fifth of all banks credit.

Retail lending across the globe has been a showcase of innovative services in the commercial banking sector. Countries, like China and India, have emerged as potential markets with changing investment opportunities. The higher growth of retail lending in emerging economies can be attributed to the rapid growth of personal wealth, favorable demographic profile, rapid development in information technology, the conducive macro economic environment, financial market reforms and small micro-level supply side factors. The retail banking strategies of banks are undergoing a major transformation, as banks are beginning to adopt a mix of strategies like organic growth acquisition and alliance formation. This has resulted in a paradigm shift in the marketing strategies of the banks. PSBs are adopting aggressive strategies, leveraging their branch network to garner a large share of the retail market. This article attempts to highlight the prospects and the future role of retail banking in India.

Retail banking is widely recognized as an important factor for the economic development of a country. Retail banking helps the Indian banking industry by providing a wide range of innovative services. Retail loan is estimated to have accounted for nearly one-fifth of all bank credit. Over the past few years housing sector is experiencing a boom in its availability of credit. The retail loan market has decisively got transformed from a seller's market to a buyer's market. The days are gone when getting a retail loan was difficult. All the above statements bring out the speed of development that retail banking is experiencing in India.

Economy in Recent Years

Retail banking is a very wide term that refers to the dealings of commercial banks with individual customers, both on liabilities and assets side. Mortgages, loans (e.g., personal/housing, auto and educational) on the asset side are the more important products offered by the banks. Related ancillary services include credit cards and depository services.

The term `retail banking' comprises various financial products, like deposit accounts, housing finances, auto finances, other types of loan accounts, demat facilities, insurance, mutual funds, credit and debit cards, ATM and other technology-based services, stock broking, payment of utility bills, reservation of railway tickets, etc. Retail banking thus, mainly deals with the diverse banking needs of retail customers. Retail banking sector is characterized by the following basic features:

• Multiple products (deposit, credit cards, insurance, investment and securities).
• Multiple channels of distribution (call centers, branch banking, and Internet).
• Multiple customer group (consumers, small businesses and corporates).

Performance of Retail Banking in India

In today's world, retail banking has created an important position for itself. Retail lending has turned out to be a key profit driver for banks, with retail portfolio constituting 21.5% of total outstanding, advances, as in March 2004. The overall retail loan portfolio worked out much less than the gross NPA ratio for the online loan portfolio in the same year. The products offered by the Indian retail banking Industry are: housing loans, personal loans for purchase of durable goods, auto loans, credit cards, and educational loans. These loans are usually marketed under attractive brand names in order to differentiate the products offered by different banks.

The "Report on Trends and Progress of India: 2003-04" has shown that the loan values of retail lending typically range between Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 100 lakh. The loans are generally for duration of five to seven years. However, housing loans are granted for a longer duration of 15 years. Credit card is another rapidly growing sub-segment of retail banking. (Refer Table 1)

According to RBI's Monetary Policy of 2005, out of the total credit flow between April and August, 2004, two-third was loans which constituted around 20% of the total portfolio. These loans are growing at a rate of 30 to 35% per annum. Housing loan constituted around 50% of the retail lending portfolio aid. This segment constituted about 42% of the total lending portfolio in 2003-04 as compared to 55% in the previous years. Private sector banks have been able to achieve commendable growth in this regard. PSBs have also aggressively forayed to garner a larger slice of the retail price. By International Standards, there is still a lot of scope for retail banking in India.

Retail loans constitute less than 7% of total GDP in India, as against about 35% in other Asian economies [South Korea (55%), Taiwan (52%), Malaysia (33%), and Thailand (8%)].

Usage of credit cards by customer of banks has been continuously increasing. The total number of such cards issued by 42 banks registered a 20% increase from December 2003 to December 2004.

The growth in retail credit by banks decelerated during 2007-08 to 17.1% from 29.1% in 2006-07 and 40.9% in 2005-06. It also remains lower than the growth in overall credit by the banking sector which was 23.2%. Also, the share of retail credit in total loans and advances declined to 24.5% at end March 2008 from 25.8% in March 2007. Deceleration in the retail portfolio of banks was due to the decline in credit for consumer durables and deceleration in the growth of auto loans, housing loans and personal loans. (Refer Table 2)

"Retail Banking in Scheduled Commercial Banks in India — A Study" in December 2007 (banking and finance) gives a detailed account of various types of retail bank deposits of schedule commercial banks in India for the period 2000-01 to 2007-08.

Except the current deposits, percentages of all other types of deposits declined during this period. Percentage of retail saving deposits to total savings deposits decreased from 76% in 2000-01 to 72% in 2007-08. On the other hand, percentage of retail term deposits declined by 13% during 2000-01 to 2007-08. Total deposits also declined by 7.8% during this period though absolute quantum of total deposits increased by Rs. 4,40,164 cr.

Prospects of Retail Banking

AT Kearney, a global management consulting firm recently identified India as the second most attractive retail destination of 30 emerging markets. The report also identified that the contribution of Indian middle class has been continuously increasing. By providing personal loan benefits to the younger generation, the banks are improving the consumer purchasing power. With the growth of various services and delivery channels, the areas of potential conflicts of interest tend to increase in universal banks.

The key policy issues relating to the retail banking sector include: financial inclusion, responsible lending, accurate finance, long-term savings, financial capability, consumer protection, regulation and financial crime prevention.

The future prospects of retail banking have been categorized into the following segments:

• Customer Focus
• Segment Focus
• Product Focus
• Technology Focus
• Employee Focus

Customer Focus

Customer are no longer being considered as customers of the branches but as the customers of the banks. The growth in technology and the advent of online banking, mobile banking and e-banking had led to anytime, anywhere, anyhow banking. More recently, the RBI has urged the banks to improve customer focus as a strategic initiative for effective management of profitability, risk and customer satisfaction.

Segment Focus

Banks generally target the High Networth Individuals (HNIs) and companies for greater profitability. Hence, they also adopt products that appeal to the targeted customers. Banks are required to cater to all segments, right from agricultural to HNIs and from corporate banking to international banking. An analysis of the current scenario indicates that, in future, each bank will cater only to selected segments, depending on their core competency, for instance, Deutsche Bank in India operates only in the corporate banking segment and is a market leader in this segment today.

Product Focus

Retail banking involves offering various asset products (loans) and liability products (deposit). Depending on the customer needs, banks offer fixed amount loans or running cash credit/overdraft account or fixed deposit as liability products. Banks now even create customer specific products.

Technology Focus

Due to technological advancements, banks face the mutually interdependent forces of competition, regulation, technology expansion and customer expectations. Technology affects the retail banks in the following ways:

• Increase in processing power
• Increase in networking
• Affects the modularity of software.

The future of the retail banking performance involves providing innovative financial services, like Internet banking, shared ATMs, outsourcing, insourcing, payment system, etc.

Employee Focus

For providing better banking facilities, the staff of the bank is usually categorized into supervisory, classical and subordinate levels to attend to various customer segments. The main emphasis in this sector has to be given to the awareness of the employees towards the concepts of productivity, customer focus and grievances/complain t redressal, in order to provide better banking services to the customers.

The retail banking sector faces numerous challenges like:

Retention of Customers

Retention of customers is going to be a major challenge for the retail sector. According to a research by Reichhold and Sasser, a 5% increase in customer retention can increase profitability by 35% in banking business, 50% in insurance and brokerage and 125% in the consumer credit card market. Hence, banks need to emphasize on retaining customers and increasing the market share.

Rising Indebtedness

Rising indebtedness could turn out to be a cause of concern in the future. India's household debt, as a proportion of disposable income, is much higher. Witnessing the growth in the consumer credit segment, RBI has introduced risk containment measures and increased the risk weight from 100% to 125% in the case of consumer credit including personal loans and credit cards (Mid-term Review of Annual Policy, 2004-05).

Information Technology

Information technology presents both opportunities and challenges. Despite the growth of ATM machines and Internet Banking, many consumers still prefer the personal touch of their neighborhood branch bank. With the help of technology, it is possible for banks to deliver services throughout their network, provide instant updates to check accounts and facilitate rapid movement of money for stock transfers. This dependency on the network has brought additional responsibilities and challenges for the banks to manage, maintain and optimize the performance of the retail banking network. These are challenges of network management, since a complex developed network of bank facilitates the application of operations.

Account Transaction

It is also a specific challenge for the bank to ensure that the account transaction applications run efficiently between the branch offices and data centers.

Know Your Customers (KYC) Issues

Retail lending was earlier considered as a low-risk business. But given the increase in the cases of money laundering, frauds, financial terrorism, etc., this no longer holds good. Banks must scrutinize the account opening documents and identification documents thoroughly before opening an account of a customer. In this regard, RBI has issued detailed guidelines on application of KYC norms, while opening the accounts.

Effects of Global Credit Crisis

The US subprime mortgage crisis has forced banks to enter 2008 in a reactive mode. TowerGroup, the world's leading research and consulting firm, focused on the global financial services industry, while examining the top retail banking trends for 2008, finds that the credit crisis will impact the banking growth on the following fronts:

• Impact on the credit portfolio of Retail banks
• Affect the competency level of Retail banks
• Impact on the information security of the customers
• Failure to start large-scale projects
• Challenge to sustain the organic growth of retail banking.

Suggestions

Improving Quality of Customer Services

The recommendations of the Committee on Produce and Performance Audit on Public seek to enhance the quality of customer service, to individual customers. These codes help to bring transparency and efficiency in the system and also tackle the issue of information flow and security. These codes establish the commitments and obligations of the banks towards the customers.

Sharing Credit Information

Banks have a traditional resistance to share credit information of the clients, not only with one another, but also across sectors. Globally, Credit Information Bureaus have been set up to function as a repository of credit information and contain both current and historical data on existing potential borrowers. Credit Information Bureaus have been established in both developed and less developed countries, such as Sri Lanka, Mexico and Bangladesh. The Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited, incorporated in 2000, aims at fulfilling the need of credit-granting institutions for comprehensive credit information by collecting and disseminating credit information pertaining to both commercial and consumer borrowers.

Outsourcing

With the increasing market orientation of the financial system and to cope with the competition and also benefit from the technological innovations such as e-banking, banks are making increasing use of "Outsourcing as a means of both reducing costs and achieving better efficiency." While outsourcing does have various cost advantages, it has the potential to transfer risk, management and compliance functions to third parties who may not be regulated. According to the recent BIS report on "Outsourcing in Financial Services", a basic requirement in this context is that a regulated entity seeking to outsource activities should have in place a comprehensive policy on outsourcing, including a Comprehensive Outsourcing Risk Management Program, to address the outsourced activities and the relationship with the service provider. Application of these principles in the Indian context is under consideration.

Financial Expansion

It means that retail banking does not refer to mere lending. The retail depositor plays a very important role. These depositors include everyone, ranging from shopkeepers, pensioners, self-employed and those employed in unorganized sectors. All these depositors must be able to access the banking services, The Annual Report of RBI for the year 2005-06 pointed out issues relating to financial exclusion and had announced that the regulator would implement policies to encourage banks which provide extensive services, while disincentivizing those which are not responsive to the banking needs of the community. The next step involves monitoring the nature, scope and cost of services to assess whether there is any denial, implicit or explicit, of basic banking services to the common person. In this regard, banks have been urged to review their existing practices to align themselves with the objective of financial inclusion.

Reallocation of Management

The credit crisis impact has undoubtedly resulted in the reallocation of management and technical resources. According to the findings of the TowerGroup, going forward banks will continue to focus efforts on a number of business drivers and technology investments that will provide long-term benefits.

For example, banks will continue their efforts around reengineering of payment processing, offering new products and pricing packages to targeted customers and developing a more flexible payment environment. Banks will focus on information technology initiatives which will reduce risks in consumer lending. The main findings of the survey are:

• Retail banks will remain in a reactive mode across this year as they reallocate resources from loan production to risk management and foreclosure processes.
• Retail banks sustaining organic growth, (i.e., growth not related to mergers and acquisitions) will continue to deal with the problem of subprime crisis.
• Concerns over disclosures of customer information will lead bank management to focus on creating enterprise centers of excellence for information security.
• As electronic payment volume continues to increase and banks introduce new delivery channels, this pressure will help drive a continued focus on streamlining payments processing.

Conclusion

It has been observed that retail banking has been a constant innovator. It has converted the financial system of banks by innovating new products and mechanisms. It has also changed the internal systems and processes of the banks. Retail banking has brought future opportunities for growth, by tackling the major challenges and making use of the opportunities. Retail banking faces many challenges, like retention of customers, rising indebtness, information technology, accounts transactions, KYC issues, etc. To overcome these challenges, retail banking in India has to improve the quality of customer services, sharing credit information, outsourcing, financial expansion, etc. Only then can retail banking move to greater heights in the country.