Engaged minds

While living and working in Singapore , I could borrow my funds from PF account for housing loans, family medical policies, and education for self and children. The borrowing from my PF account did not involve an additional financial outlay from my salary for housing loan down payments and installments. The disposal income allowed me to pay for my college and retrain myself, spend on qualitative benefits for my family and live a decent and fun filled life as I experienced financial security and happiness. I wonder why this is not possible to borrow from PF account in India for purchasing a home. I stumbled upon this situation while initiating plans for buying home in India;  it was indeed very sad to notice that on one hand my PF funds were idling with interest rate of 9.5%pa and that I was forced to borrow loans from banks for payment for a home at 11%pa. I wonder how many of my friends, family members and the general population would have had to endure such pain. In m...

Global Trade: The future of global trade, Experts views on ET Now View full story at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0DBpRzADH8&list=FL2q8XD3I1_hF0ZBZyqiWExw&index=1

Invest in Yourself Gopul Shah, AXP-3 , on a person's most important asset. Invest in Yourself “When I started the Executive MBA program, Asia was emerging from an economic crisis,” says  Gopul Shah, AXP-3 . “I had skills, knowledge, and experience but I was not at a branded corporation, and I knew that if I wanted further education, I was going to have to fund it myself.” Fortunately, Shah says, he had the support of his wife and young family. “In difficult economic times, all asset valuations look cheap and attractive, and there are many things you can buy - a house, bonds, and so on. But my wife and I decided we would invest in ourselves because the intangibles would last longer than some other asset.” Shah started the Executive MBA in 2002 in Singapore, and six months into the program, he happened to meet a headhunter for one of the largest, privately held multinational corporations in the world. “We had a chat, and a relationship began,” he says. Shortly...

Treasury Verdict:   http://www.eurofinance.com/sites/default/files/TreasuryVerdict_India_2012.pdf

Indian companies will have to build future models that are orchestrated for high performance where the multi-polar world and technology meets.  Companies adopt single or multiple strategies each of which are handled by a separate vertical viz. Go to market, Go for technology and assets, Go for talent, Go for infrastructure, Go to partner, Go for funding, Go to mitigate risks.    Companies also build world standard execution capability; strategy do not succeed without execution; execution delivers customer value and brings sustainable profits. Most companies drive its growth to leverage on infrastructure, capacities and technologies. As scale is achieved companies partner for innovation, technology, customer acquisition, and diversification of Emerging market risks.  Sourcing of capital equipments coupled with long term financing and sourcing investments from international markets helps deepen financial pockets. Companies also setup global hubs and office...

Africa,  the new frontier and a competitor in agricultural and resource space:   Africa has almost 60% of world’s source of uncultivated and arable land. Africa is rich in natural resources such as copper, coal, cobalt, and diamonds. It also has a large English speaking population with about 360million cell phone users.  Egypt , Morocco , South Africa and Tunisia have significant manufacturing and service industries. Algeria , Angola , Libya and Nigeria earned about US$1 trillion from petroleum exports from 2000-2008.  Along with rich dividends, Africa is a mixed bag and is often fraught with political, financial and economic volatility.  South American countries like Chile and Peru are also seeking increasing investments.    Investments are displacing aid: The China model of investing in Africa is gaining ground displacing developed markets aid! The African’s love it as it is helping develop skills, infrastructure and jobs – it’s...

Every company is playing to its strength or weakness in developing growth strategies in emerging markets. There are a few important strategies that are being played out daily. Acquisition strategy :  As GDP and population grows coupled with a better quality of life,  the demand and trade for energy, commodities and technology have been increasing partly to achieve energy, food and technology security.  Acquisition strategies have spurred demand of energy and resources from Indonesia , Australia , South Africa , Brazil and Middle East ; investment activities have also increased in these countries. Cross border trades between Iran-India , China - Russia - Mongolia has also increased. The resource acquisition strategy has increase trade and investments for crude oil from Africa and Canada, mining into Indonesia, Mauritania, South Africa and Australia, fertilizers from Middle East and North Africa, organic chemical processing in agricultural rich belts of India, Chi...

My early experience and curiosity on international trade was fuelled by purchase my granddad’s stories of his travel in pursuit of trade, his British passport with stamps of Aden, Kenya, Tanzania, and the spice and diamond trade in which my distant relatives were involved, and learning history and geography around the Silkroad route.  As I grew, I experienced trade around export of oil seal and auto parts to Africa, trading of export subsidies and license, diamond and jeweler exports from India to western countries, the export of toothbrush and plastic wares from India to Russia, Russia export of heavy equipments to India and the growth of state owned enterprises in India, the barter and escrow clearance mechanism between Russia and India, exports of garments and electronics from Thailand and Malaysia, and the migration of Indian doctors and engineers to developed markets.   Over the past 15 years, there has been a dramatic change in trade corridors and patterns. India...

India ’s problems are purely on account of its inertia, contentedness, and lack of self realization of what it could potentially achieve and how much it could grow! Before we discuss a few potential solutions, let us analyze a few key facts: Indian economy is about 60-70% dollarized and is interconnected and coupled with the global economy. There is material impact of import of oil and petroleum products (US$169b), gold (US$54b), coal (US$15.5b), telecom, electronics and transportation (US$87b) and defense equipments (US$20b), ferrous and non ferrous raw materials (US$37b); the co-relation between international and local commodity prices are strong as local commodity and foreign exchanges proliferate, corporate and banks heavily rely on equity and loan funding or NRI remittances, and India's exports are service oriented. Imports of raw materials such as coal, non ferrous ore, iron and steel and scrap especially driven by lack o...