Tuesday 28 April 2015

Smart money Tips for Moves For Comfortable Retirement


You worked hard, saved regularly and invested intelligently to build a sizeable nest egg. So when you finally retire, one would think it is time to relax and enjoy the fruits of your labour. But don't take your foot off the pedal just yet. You still need to do one crucial task: deploy your retirement corpus in a way it can sustain your expenses for the rest of your life. 

Smart money Tips for Moves For Comfortable Retirement

Higher withdrawals can be sustained if you allocate some portion of the corpus to equities to earn a higher return. Even a 10-15% allocation to equities can push up the overall return of the portfolio by 100-150 basis points. The MIP funds from mutual fund houses, which invest only 10-20% in equities have given average returns of 9.4% in the past 10 years. The best performing MIP fund has given 13.5%. In the table, we have assumed 9.5% returns for such an allocation.

But the income from fixed deposits is fully taxable at the marginal tax rate applicable to the investor. Those earning more than Rs 25,000 a month (Rs 3 lakh a year) will have to pay tax. If you are in the high tax bracket, you can go for debt funds to avoid the 30% tax on your retirement income. The income from debt fund investments is treated as capital gains. If you withdraw before three years, the short-term capital gains get the same treatment as .. 

The good part is that you get a tax deduction when you buy health insurance. The premium is eligible for deduction under Section 80D. From this year, the government has provided for enhanced deduction to senior citizens of up to Rs 30,000 a year.

AVOID BUYING ANNUITIES  - One way to ensure lifelong income is to invest in an annuity. While this does away with the risk of running out of money (the pension is given out till death), the annuity is not a great option.  .. 

RPAY OFF YOUR DEBTS  - It is best not to carry loans when you have retired. If you have outstanding loans that charge you more than what your investments are earning, you will be better off if you prepay them. The quicker you clear your debts, the lower is the interest outgo. Also, avoid taking fresh loans at this stage. It may seem tempting, but resist the urge to invest in real estate at this stage, unless you want to shift to a smaller accommodation in the suburbs. "It's .. 

With every loan instalment, the bank increases its ownership of the house. After the death of the last surviving owner, the legal heirs have the option to either repay the loan or allow the bank to sell the house and give them the difference. But there are some conditions to be met. The scheme is open only to senior citizens, monthly payments cannot exceed Rs 50,000 and the property must be self-acquired, not inherited or gifted.

MAKE A WILL - While you do all this, don't forget your estate planning. For many, the task of writing a will is best left for the later years, something they can do after retirement. Well, now that you have reached the destination, there is no reason to put it off further. A will is not something that only the super-rich need to write.

Sunday 12 April 2015

Thursday 9 April 2015

Inbound marketing tips to improve Inbound Marketing Results



#1. Have a WHOLE inbound marketing plan -  Inbound marketing includes blogging, articles, whitepapers, social networks engagement, social selling, lead generation, traffic and social media conversations. Which of these tactics can be improved?

#2. Implement all inbound marketing tactics -  A business should never rely on one or two tactics even if you are getting good results from current inbound marketing tactics, implementing all tactics will drastically improve desired results.

Ultimate Inbound Marketing Guide for Improve Business ROI


Inbound Marketing Guide

What does the term “inbound marketing” mean to a small business?  What is the difference between inbound marketing and outbound marketing strategies?  Experts say all marketing tactics revolve around wanting to increase web traffic, visitors, leads, conversions, buyers, fans and customers.

Inbound marketing wants the same things as now traditional outbound marketing; the difference is not what a business wants from marketing but how it goes about wanting it. Inbound marketing is about getting permission to contribute to the “awareness” and “consideration” steps in a buyers funnels while outbound marketing is focused on interrupting  (via ads, CPC, direct mail, sales calls) these same steps.

Monday 6 April 2015

How to Win in the Next Stage of the Cloud Data


Two types of fear, or how to win in the next stage of the cloud

As companies look to move their core business applications to the cloud, smaller, more specialized industry cloud providers have a chance to be the new heroes of business tech.

"The real opportunity is moving mission critical systems in the cloud. [Industries] are the biggest hold out. We see that as the biggest opportunity." That's how Stephan Scholl, co-president of Infor--an enterprise software company that specializes in solutions for specific industries--explains what he sees when he looks at the cloud market.

Digging Into Minimum Wage Data For Seattle


THIS month marks the beginning of Seattle’s multiyear transition to a $15 minimum wage. Depending on whom you are inclined to believe, higher wages might reduce inequality and make low-wage workers better off, or drive businesses and jobs out of the city.

Although proponents and opponents have argued forcibly for their positions, the simple truth is that we don’t know what will happen. As members of the nine-person team charged by the City of Seattle to study the effects of the minimum wage, we aim to find out.

Hedge Fund RadioShack Make a New Plan for Funding


RadioShack’s Blueprint for a Rebirth, Planned by a Hedge Fund

A day after RadioShack’s narrow escape from liquidation in bankruptcy court, Soohyung Kim, the financier who led the contentious rescue, retreated to a back office to make a conference call with the chain’s almost 2,700 workers, vendors and landlords.

For many of those listening, it was their first direct real introduction to the chief architect of the retailer’s unlikely reincarnation.

“It’s time for a new day,” Mr. Kim said, his voice tense yet steady. “We’re here today because we know this can work.”

Minutes later, relieved and exhausted, Mr. Kim sat down with his small team at Standard General, his New York hedge fund, and pondered their feat.

“The fact that we actually pulled this off is. ...” he trailed off.

“Gratifying?” Robert Lavan, a team member, suggested.

RadioShack is a shadow of its former self, an afterthought in a world dominated by Amazon and Best Buy that has little need for scrappy stores that peddle cables and connectors.

But Standard General, whose lender takeover of about 1,700 of RadioShack’s 4,000 stores won court approval last Tuesday, does not see it that way.

“We always believed that when you stripped away its relatively heavy cost structure, and some of the legacy ways they did business, there actually was a core here that was worth saving,” Mr. Kim said.

Many in the industry are skeptical.

“In the consumer’s mind, RadioShack is a name that has come and gone,” said Craig R. Johnson, founder of the retail consultant Customer Growth Partners in New Canaan, Conn. “What’s its reason for being? What consumer problem are they solving?”

That is a question that RadioShack, the 94-year-old electronics chain, has tried to answer for years as the digital revolution sapped demand for its staples and its stores tracked a slow decline. In February, it filed for bankruptcy protection, buckling in the face of bigger rivals and online competition.

RadioShack’s biggest creditor, Salus Capital Partners, pushed a plan that would probably have liquidated the retailer, prompting a showdown in bankruptcy court. But Standard General’s bid, and its promise to save some 7,500 jobs, prevailed.

Now, the new RadioShack is pushing a revised raison d’être.

RadioShack will slim down to become an electronics convenience store of sorts, focusing on things like Bluetooth headsets, chargers and other accessories that shoppers may need immediately rather than waiting a day or two for shipment of a web order. One of the most profitable RadioShack stores is a Bridgehampton, N.Y., outlet that is frequented by weekend vacationers who have forgotten their smartphone chargers or earphones. And one of RadioShack’s top-selling products is hearing aid batteries.

Tablets, laptops and digital cameras will disappear from RadioShack stores, and mobile phone sales and services will be handled by its new partner, Sprint, all of which affects just 7 percent of RadioShack’s sales. Remaining product lines will also shrink, to 60 headphones from about 180, for example, and to just one fitness wristband from 34.

In an interview, Ron Garriques, a former Dell and Motorola executive chosen last week to lead the new RadioShack, said the chain would also focus on small cities with populations of 5,000 to 100,000, where demand still exists for a neighborhood electronics store.

When he and the Standard General team studied the old RadioShack’s 4,200 stores by profitability, they found that the best-performing stores were not in big cities or fancy malls, where the rents are high and competitors also sell electronics. Most of those stores will close. The number of stores in Manhattan, for instance, will fall to just three from more than 30.

But in many smaller communities, Mr. Garriques said: “RadioShack is part of the neighborhood. We are the ‘go to’ store for electronics.”

Then, there is the partnership with Sprint.

RadioShack long profited from selling mobile phones, but in recent years, as the market matured, the retailer suffered under increasingly unfavorable contracts with the mobile carriers. To make matters worse, RadioShack did not have its own credit underwriting system for cellphone customers, and when any customers defaulted on monthly payments, RadioShack was required to make up the difference. So as competition among the networks intensified, RadioShack found that its associates struggled to properly explain the ever-changing payment plans.

Now, Sprint will take over the selling of mobile phones, paying RadioShack to take up 60 percent of the floor space plus a sales commission and freeing RadioShack from what had weighed heavily on its bottom line. RadioShack hopes that the Sprint shops-inside-shops, which will appear on Sprint’s store locaters, will also drive more traffic to its stores. (Sprint will increase its store count by almost 50 percent.)

“The parts of the business that you think are unsexy are the ones that are doing great,” Mr. Kim said. “And the parts that you’d think are cool, the smartphones and the prime locations — horrendous.”

Standard General is now looking for more partners to set up displays or shops-inside-shops at RadioShack. Those partners, from start-ups in the United States to overseas suppliers, could sell anything, Mr. Garriques said: consumer electronics, home security systems, solar panels, wireless chargers.

One immediate uncertainty is the RadioShack brand. Salus, the largest creditor, still owns the rights to the RadioShack name. Without a deal, the retailer has only six months left to use the often-mocked yet highly recognized moniker. Standard General said that it would try to buy the name, but that it was also open to calling the stores something new.

Salus also owns vast amounts of RadioShack’s customer data, though Standard General contends that much of that data is outdated, and privacy agreements probably prevent Salus from selling it.

The RadioShack deal has thrust Standard General — until recently a little-known player in several television broadcasting transactions — into one of the most visible corporate turnaround efforts this year. The hedge fund is also leading a turnaround at another troubled retailer, American Apparel.

Mr. Kim said his fund’s work with highly indebted companies meant that he sometimes encountered bankruptcies. But RadioShack’s difficult bankruptcy — which, unlike many recent cases, was not an accelerated, “prepackaged” process — appeared to have taxed him and his team.

Still, he said, that is what he does. “We do our best to make lemonade out of lemons.”


By HIROKO TABUCHI, The New York Times - {{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B, Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

Stock Market Focus Will Shift From Macro to Micro with Offset Weak Economic Data


Market focus will shift from macro to micro next week, and investors betting on gains in stocks will hope coming earnings reports will be somewhat stronger than recent disappointing economic figures.

Earnings expectations have been falling sharply in the past weeks, with the most recent estimate showing a 2.8 percent decline in earnings growth, squeezed by dwindling expectations for the energy sector. The concern about economic growth will increase following Friday's weaker-than-expected data on jobs growth.

Energy companies' earnings are now expected to fall nearly 64 percent year-on-year. Investors saw the sector drop 3.6 percent in the first quarter, bringing the nine-month decline to 22 percent.

Market bulls say softening economic data, including U.S. private sector jobs, factory activity and consumer spending, have weighed on stocks lately. While weak figures keep the Federal Reserve from raising rates - a positive for markets - the negative factors are a concern, said Daniel Morris, global investment strategist at TIAA-CREF in New York.

"We view this payroll number as more negative than positive for U.S. equities," he said.

The effect of the strong U.S. dollar on offshore operations and creeping inflation, in the form of higher labor costs, have also taken a toll, one that some strategists think is too pronounced. In Friday's abbreviated trading session, equity futures fell about 1 percent.

"My guess is we've overdone it in terms of concern," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York. "We always price in the bad news first."

He said that both energy companies pummeled by concern about the sharp drop in oil prices and multinationals suffering from the impact of a stronger dollar might actually be set for positive surprises.

"In terms of knee-jerk reaction, surprises are going to come from where we slashed estimates the most."

STOCKS HOLD AMID SOUR MOOD

Despite the rising concern about the earnings season and the weaker data, stocks showed resilience to start the year. This past week the S&P 500 closed its ninth consecutive quarterly gain, even if it was a meager 0.4 percent rise.

"Estimates are down and the market has already absorbed that," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey.

"All you need is some positive surprises for shorts to have to cover," she said, speaking of investors who borrow a stock to sell it, betting on a price decline. "Positive guidance can change the tone of the market quite rapidly."

Chipmaker Micron set a negative early tone on Wednesday, forecasting lower revenue for the current quarter on waning customer demand.

More than 80 percent of the earnings pre-announcements this season were negative, according to Thomson Reuters data, setting the bar lower than is usually the case toward the start of earnings season.

In a typical quarter, about 63 percent of companies beat estimates and just above 20 percent miss.

But the negativity has set the bar so low, it may have set the stage for a bounceback.

"The market has been trying to price in what has been a lot of bad news in the economic data stream and (expected) bad news in the earnings season," Wunderlich's Hogan said.

"We may well have underestimated the positives." (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; additional reporting by Daniel Bases; Editing by Christian Plumb and Dan Grebler)

Rodrigo Campos, Reuters {{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B, Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

Bosses, Social Media, Jobs - Can't Get Even When Staffers Gripe


NEW YORK — Bosses can get mad when staffers vent on social media about their jobs, but they may not be able to get even.

When one of Bert Martinez' employees posted gripes about her job and the boss on Facebook last year, the publicist consulted his lawyer, who said the staffer couldn't be fired.

"The first lesson I learned is, employees are allowed to vent," says Martinez, owner of Bert Martinez Communications in Phoenix. "If they're saying, hey, it's hard working here and I find this environment unpleasant, you can't fire them for that."

The employee quit a week after Martinez learned about the post.

The government protects workers' rights to say what they want about where they work, even if it's in a vitriolic and insulting tweet or post. It's illegal for an employee to be fired for a post about working conditions, whether it's pay, hours, assignments, difficult supervisors, dress code, or any other issue. So employers shouldn't try to restrict workers' freedom of speech or retaliate if there's a post they don't like.

It's an issue that companies of all sizes have to deal with, but it's often more challenging for smaller companies because they typically don't have large human resources departments or lawyers on staff to advise them.

WHAT'S PROTECTED

Workers who complain about employers on social media can't be fired if they're involved in what's called concerted activity, or joining with fellow staffers to improve working conditions, according to the National Labor Relations Board, the government agency responsible for upholding workers' rights.

"The NLRB is effectively taking the position that commentary about working conditions on social media is completely protected," says Henry Perlowski, an employment law attorney with Arnall Golden Gregory in Atlanta.

A 2014 NLRB decision shows how broadly the agency views employees' rights to make such critical posts, Perlowski says. The NLRB said a restaurant illegally fired two workers for taking part in a Facebook discussion of problems in how income tax was withheld from paychecks. The discussion mentioned a meeting about the issue. One employee was fired for a comment that contained an expletive describing one owner, and the other was dismissed for "liking" a post.

Because the posts were related to working conditions, and the employees were discussing concerted activity, or jointly seeking a resolution of their problems, the posts were protected. The NLRB reversed the firings.

Owners also can't resort to other disciplinary measures, Perlowski says. That rules out suspensions, reprimands, pay cuts and promotion denials.

... AND WHAT'S NOT

The NLRB will uphold firings based on posts that damage a company, disparage its products or services or reveal trade secrets or financial information, says Paula Lopez, an employment law attorney with Allyn & Fortuna in New York. But there can be gray area, for example, when a post is critical of a company's or services but is also related to working conditions.

Posts encouraging insubordination aren't protected, Lopez says, citing a 2014 case that upheld an employers' decision not to rehire workers who had posted plans to show up at the job and not do work.

Employees can also be fired for posting information about clients or customers. And if their posts are racist, homophobic, sexist or discriminate against a religion, companies should fire workers rather than be seen as tolerating or condoning the employees' views.

The NLRB has also said griping or insults by one employee and that have no connection to working conditions are not protected. For example, one that ridicules the way the boss looks, dresses or speaks.

WHAT TO DO

—Companies should have a written social media policy spelling out what employees can post. It should be specific, with examples of what's acceptable.

— Review the policy with a lawyer or HR specialist to be sure it wouldn't violate federal, state or local laws.

—If a staffer has made a negative post about the company, get advice from an employment law attorney or human resources provider before taking disciplinary action.

_____

By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG, AP Business Writer - {{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B, Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

Wednesday 18 March 2015

How to write a Digital marketing resume



Digital marketers although very talented in creating social media marketing campaigns, catchy ads and branding messages, still find it difficult to market themselves. This is the story of numerous digital marketers who are missing out on great job opportunities just because they lack a killer resume to get them noticed and hired. You can also see online resumesamples for freshers related to digital marketing and that will help you to write a resume.

Thursday 12 March 2015

Use Competitive Intelligence Database to Gain More Business


How to Use Competitive Intelligence to Gain an Advantage
In a world in which knowledge is power, what you don't know can hurt you. The good news: It's not so hard to find out what your rivals are up to. Some savvy (and perfectly legal) snooping—otherwise known as competitive intelligence—can drive your strategy, soothe your fears about the future, and give your company a competitive edge. In the pages that follow, we will show you how to mount an operation and wring key data points from reluctant sources. We will also explore the often murky line between what's ethical and what isn't.

Benchmarks add gains Infra, Power lead


Benchmarks add gains Infra, Power lead
Indian equity markets added gains and continued trading in green in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. The sentiments were on positive note from the early trade after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its annual assessment report for the country raised its growth forecast for the current fiscal to 7.2%. Investors have however adopted cautious approach ahead of the release of February CPI and January IIP data, which is scheduled to be released later in the day. Traders were seen piling positions in Infra, Power and Auto stocks. In scrip specific development, Jindal Stainless was trading firm after India’s trade ministry recommended anti-dumping duty on hot rolled flat products of stainless steel imports. ITC was trading in green as the company effected 10 to 25 percent price hikes across cigarettes of various lengths.

Wednesday 11 March 2015

M&M gains as its arm enters into partnership with Yahoo Sports Radio - Hot Stock 11 March 2015


Mahindra Group Logo
Stock price: M&M (NSE) Rs.1,256.05, Mar 11, 3:29 PM.
Mahindra & Mahindra is currently trading at Rs. 1263.00, up by 35.95 points or 2.93 % from its previous closing of Rs. 1227.05 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 1227.50 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 1263.40 and Rs. 1219.35 respectively. So far 39518 shares were traded on the counter. The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 5 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 1421.00 on 04-Sep-2014 and a 52 week low of Rs. 952.30 on 26-Mar-2014. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 1265.00 and Rs. 1201.10 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 77891.20 crore. The promoters holding in the company stood at 25.74 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 56.26 % and 12.58 % respectively. 

Benchmarks continue firm trade, TECK, Infra lead FOR 11 March Indian Market


English: Logo of Airtel
           Indian equity markets continued their firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters taking cues from European counterparts. Investors have started taking cautious approach ahead of the release of February CPI and January IIP data, which is scheduled to be released on Thursday. Traders were seen piling positions in TECK, Infra and Power stocks while selling was witnessed in Metal, Realty and Consumer Durables sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Jubilant Life Sciences was trading in green after a foreign brokerage firm retained a buy rating on the stock stating that the valuations of the stock are attractive, given expectations of improvement in EBITDA margins and free cash flows.  

Thursday 19 February 2015

Teradata Talks Apps, But Don't Think AppExchange - Iweek


Teradata Aster App Center is a collection of app templates, not a platform-as-a-service developer community. Here's the lowdown on 29 apps for six industries.

What if big data could be app easy? Teradata thinks it can be, as it announced with the launch of the Teradata Aster Apps Center this week, but be sure you understand the kind of apps it's describing.

As you might suspect, Teradata's not talking about apps you can download onto a smartphone. Big data can't be that easy. The Aster Apps Center is also not a Force.com-like app-development platform-as-a-service (PaaS) or a Salesforce AppExchange-like community where companies can offer their own apps built on a PaaS platform.

The Teradata Aster App Center is a place where you can get templates for analytic applications designed to run specifically on Teradata's Aster database management system. The center is launching with 29 app frameworks in six industries: retail, telco and cable, healthcare, travel and hospitality, entertainment and gaming, and consumer financials.


Teradata has custom-built these sorts of apps in the past, so it decided to turn them into repeatable templates, including pre-built application logic, data visualizations, and configurable user interfaces, according to Chris Twogood, Teradata's vice president of product and services marketing.

"Think of it as pre-built services," Twogood told InformationWeek in a phone interview. "Instead of writing multiple authentication services for each individual app, for example, we wrote one service that all of the apps use."

Each app template gets you about 80% of the way to a finished application ready for production use. The remaining 20% of the work entails configuration and custom integration work that's handled through Teradata consulting services.

"We want to get more adoption of Aster, and we think scaling out apps faster is the way to do it," said Twogood. "In the future we may get to a point where customers could configure these app templates themselves, but we're not there yet."

You say you're not an Aster DBMS customer? Teradata offers the option of deploying Aster and related apps on its private cloud. That cloud runs in a third-party data center and offers elastic (spin-up, spin-down) deployment in monthly increments (though not by the hour or day).

Keep in mind these are analytic applications. If you want to actually deliver product recommendations in retail, prevent churn in a telco scenario, prevent fraud in a consumer financial services scenario, or execute on whatever the analytic insight might be, you'll have to connect these analytic apps to customer-facing transactional applications or to frontline human decision-makers.

In other news from Teradata this week, the company announced support for JSON objects, metadata partitions, and international currencies in the 2.4 release of Teradata Loom. Loom is the metadata-management, data-lineage, and big data-wrangling tool for Hadoop that Teradata acquired in last year's acquisition of Revelytix. Teradata says it's making Loom available as a free download on its Hortonworks Data Platform-based cloud sandboxes, but the software also works with Cloudera and MapR Hadoop distributions.

In yet another announcement, Taradata's Think Big big data-consulting unit, which was acquired last year, has launched an eight-week, fixed-cost Data Lake Optimization Service. Aimed at companies that have deployed Hadoop-based data lakes or that are contemplating doing so, the service is designed to improve data governance and establish best-practices for structuring metadata and other data-management processes for Hadoop.

Emerging with the last two years, data lakes (or data hubs, as Cloudera describes them) serve as catch-all repositories for long-term storage of all enterprise data. In practice, however, data lakes have yet to be designed or managed consistently, according to Twogood.

Teradata Aster App templates are available immediately. Teradata Loom 2.4 will be available in March. Teradata said pricing for Think Big's Data Lake Optimization service is still being finalized. No doubt the more data and data sources filling your lake, the more costly the fixed-cost, eight-week service is likely to be.

Just 30% of respondents to our new Big Data and Analytics Survey say their companies are very or extremely effective at identifying critical data and analyzing it to make decisions, down from 42% in 2013. What gives? Get the The Trouble With Big Data issue of InformationWeek Tech Digest today. (Free registration required.)

Doug Henschen is Executive Editor of InformationWeek

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B, Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

Monday 2 February 2015

India not expensive, to thrive if earnings deliver: Baring


Indian markets are on the path of improvement and if earnings growth are delivered as per expectations, then it will continue to remain buoyant, believes Ajay Argal, Head of Indian Equities at Baring Asset Management (Asia). Argal doesn’t feel that Indian markets are expensive from a 3-4 year horizon but says that one needs to take a stock-specific approach this year as many stocks still look fairly valued. He remains bullish on banks and expects a pick-up in growth in four-wheelers.

Below is the transcript of Ajay Argal's interview with Latha Venkatesh and Sonia Shenoy on CNBC-TV18. 

Latha: Let me first start with the global cues. We have seen a bit of a negative growth numbers or pessimistic growth numbers coming in from both the United States and China if you please, the purchasing manager’s index (PMI) numbers are not looking too hot. Do you think we are going to see a longish bit of risk aversion or is this going to be just a brief dip and equities will be back in fashion?

A: You have to separate the various markets. The Indian markets are on the path of improvement and the market is always looking for direction of improvement in the economy and the direction of improvement for India is definitely positive. So India might be in a different position compared to some of the other leading markets. When you talk about the US, the US markets have already done phenomenally well last year and as most of us know, most of the performance came from the rerating of the markets rather than the improvement in the earnings growth and somewhat similar things have happened in India in anticipation of the earnings growth this year. So if the earnings growth which is anticipated in India is delivered then the Indian markets will continue to remain buoyant.

Latha: Are you not worried about the current valuations of the Indian market considering that Q3 numbers are worse than expected especially when you looked at the bank earnings, ICICI Bank  and Bank of Baroda  two big banks reporting 14-15 percent rise in non-performing loans (NPLs) in just one quarter, not giving you a feeling that markets are running ahead of themselves?

A: Definitely this year you need to focus more on the stock specifics. There would be differentiation in the stocks even within the same sectors, so the stocks which continue to deliver better growth which are more efficient when you are talking about the banks, the efficiency in terms of the asset quality and some of the banks are definitely growing faster even with better asset quality so even in the banks, there could be differentiation. So when you look at valuations, the valuations you have to look at it a bit longer-term. The valuations might look expensive on the near-term but that is because the earnings have been depressed in India over the last three-four years, we are just coming out of the huge downcycle. So when you need to look at valuations at a low point of the downcycle, you need to build in what the growth is possible, what the potential is over the next two-three-four years if not longer. From that perspective, the markets are not that expensive, they are definitely not as cheap as they were at the beginning of last year but definitely they are not on the very exorbitantly expensive zone.

Sonia: Automobile sector is one pocket that has delivered very good returns to shareholders in the last many years but now there is a big slowdown that we are seeing especially in the two-wheeler space, how would you approach this sector now?

A: If you look at the automobiles, even the four-wheelers, there should be a pick up in growth going forward. We have seen some of those things in the passenger car manufactures especially the market leader there is showing better growth numbers compared to the industry and gaining market share. Similarly, here, we have seen that some of the two-wheeler manufactures are gaining market share. Even if you look at a company like Bajaj Auto , you have to look at the entire business and in that business of Bajaj Auto for example there is predominance of exports. So the exports continue to do well but as far as the domestic two-wheelers are concerned, it is again part of the trend, which we have witnessed in lot of industries in India in the last three-four years that there has been a slowdown but if the economic growth picks up, which is what we are anticipating then definitely the two-wheeler industry as such will be showing healthy growth in times to come. So this is a sector definitely one should be present in as far as the portfolio is concerned.

Latha: What would be the other sectors that you are bullish on at this point? 

A: We are bullish on the banks and within the banks as I mentioned, the banks which are more efficiently run which are growing faster, which are gaining market share as a result and at the same time they are amply funded, they have good capital adequacy ratios and on top of that their current account/saving account (CASA) growth is pretty good and we have seen that over the last few months because the inflation has come down, the real rates are very healthy and that is why the deposit growth has also picked up. So funding would not be concerned for the efficient banks so we are very positive on these efficient banks and more of them are in the private sector space. 

We are also somewhat positive on industrials because going forward the order book of some of the industrials is going to pick up again you have to differentiate and you cannot put a broad brush and say the entire industrial sector would do well but we try to focus on the better companies there because as the economy picks up, there are already some signs of execution improving from the e-government side in terms of the bottlenecks, which were there but it will be slow and gradual process and that is why it is best to stick to quality and look at it from a three-five year perspective rather than try to time the stocks for the next one year only.

Sonia: I was looking at some of your stocks in the holding and you have from the IT space, Infosys  and TCS  that you hold but interestingly this time around it is HCL Technologies  and Tech Mahindra  that have performed well of course the others have as well but on the relative basis, what is your expectation of the IT sector and would you churn now to some of these stocks like HCL Technologies that have done so well this quarter? 


A: The individual stocks we keep on changing. So we held HCL Technologies for most of last year and that was the best performing stock within the IT sector for the first half of the year and we continue to participate in that. After that we shifted more our weight towards, Infosys, which we thought was discounting a lot of pessimistic projections and most of the bad news was there in the price and that is the reason we increased our position there. We also hold Tech Mahindra and in fact within the IT and that is the biggest overweight for us at the moment. If you look at the entire IT sector as a whole, again we are very positive on it but the thing is some of these companies have become so large that the growth rate will not be what it used to be in good times five-ten years ago when the US economy picks up. So because of the large size, the growth rate would come down and we think that the growth rate for the larger and better run companies will be between 13 and 16-17 percent but the opportunities are much better in some of the other sectors. That is why we are underweight in the IT sector.

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B, Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

Monday 12 January 2015

how Database Audit Can be Helpful for Maintaining Data Cleanliness


Believe it or not there is always a need of maintaining hygiene of your existing contact data, keeping your data well maintained is very essential for sales cycle. You or your sales teams surely don’t want to waste your time by cleaning and updating your database. 

Definitely you will need someone who can keep your data well maintained. Here, SMART can help you in keeping your contact database hygienic. We cover the entire gamut of marketing & sales data that is stored and managed through tools like emails marketing, marketing automation or CRM systems. 

Be it incoming leads data from website, landing pages, download forms, tradeshow data, etc. SMART technology and domain expertise to slice and dice your data and provide you meaningful insights and recommended approach for data cleansing and management. 

Approach for Data Audit:-
After your data is received which needs overhaul, the first thing we do is set up the critical criteria like your database marketing objectives, Ideal Prospect Profile (IPP) – both firmographic and contact level, segmentation factors, etc.
Then your database is analyzed and scrutinized to identify gaps, categorize as per your business relevancy and tabulate as Good Data, Filtered Data or Bad Data. 
After the above steps, according to your database we recommend the appropriate approach for data cleansing and enrichment. 

How is SMART Data Audit useful for you?
To understand current health of your contact database
To identify data to be refreshed, enriched, trashed, etc.
Plan out future data sourcing /Appending strategy as per your specific requirement
Pay only for clean-up of relevant data vis-à-vis entire current database


Tuesday 30 December 2014

Fund raising via NCDs dives 58% to Rs 7,300 cr in Apr-Dec


Fund raising by Indian companies through retail issuance of non-convertible debentures (NCDs) plunged by 58% to about Rs 7,300 crore in the first nine months of the current fiscal.


In comparison, firms had collectively raised Rs 17,426 crore via 14 issues in the April-December period of 2013-14.

Most of the funds have been raised to support the working capital requirements and for other general corporate purposes.

NCDs are loan-linked bonds issued by a company that cannot be converted into stock and usually offers higher interest rate than that of convertible debentures.

According to latest data from Securities and Exchange Board of India, firms including Shriram City Union Finance, Kosamattam Finance, SREI Infrastructure Finance, ECL Finance and Muthoot Finance collectively raised Rs 7,348 crore via NCDs in 2014-15 through 19 issuances.

This was more than the initial target of Rs 3,075 crore.

Market experts said that fund raising via NCDs has been less compared to the year-ago period as companies have preferred QIPs (Qualified Institutional Placement)and rights issues route to garner funds.

"Institutional investors were bullish on equity market and preferred to tap QIP route during the year instead of debt instrument, mainly on account of sustained rally in the stock market supported by change in government at Centre," Geojit BNP Paribas Research Head Alex Mathew said.

Individually, Shriram Transport Finance Company raised Rs 1,975 crore, as against a target of Rs 500 crore; IFCI mopped-up Rs 1,209 crore against a base size of Rs 250 crore

Muthoot Finance mopped up Rs 466 crore against a base size of Rs 250 crore and again Muthoot Finance garnered Rs 436 crore as against a target of Rs 200 crore.

Moreover, SREI Infrastructure Finance, Shriram Transport Finance Company, Kosamattam Finance, Muthoot Finance, Muthoot Fincorp and Muthoottu Mini Financiers tapped the NCD route more than once.

In the previous fiscal, about Rs 42,383 crore was generated through 35 issues of NCDs.


{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B, Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

Gold, silver Weaken on Low Demand, Global cues


Livemint - Gold prices eased by Rs60 to Rs27,150 per ten grams on Tuesday in Delhi bullion market owing to slackened demand from jewellers and retailers amid a weak global trend. Marketmen said besides low demand from jewellers and retailers at prevailing levels, a weak global trend as the dollar touched a five-year high, damping investor demand for the metal as a safe-haven, weighed on gold prices. Globally, gold in New York, which normally sets price trend on the domestic front, fell by 1.1% to $1,181.90 an ounce and silver by 2.3% to $15.77 an ounce in Monday’s trade. In Delhi, gold of 99.9 and 99.5% purity declined by Rs60 each to Rs27,150 and Rs26,950 per ten grams respectively. Sovereign, however, enquired at last level of Rs23,700 in limited deals. In line with weak trend, silver ready fell by a whopping Rs600 to Rs36,650 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs630 to Rs36,620 per kg. Silver coins also plunged by Rs1,000 to Rs59,000 for buying and Rs60,000 for selling of 100 pieces.  - DEC 30 2014. 03 41 PM IST



{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B, Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

Monday 29 December 2014

Bankers not expect Some Hard Questions from PM Namo in Next PSB Meeting


Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold discussions with public sector banks (PSBs) and financial institutions to draw up an action plan for banking reforms in "a top-level, two-day retreat for banks and financial institutions" branded "Gyan Sangam" in Pune on January 2-3.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan, the minister of state for finance, Jayant Sinha, and top officials of the finance ministry, including Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and Financial Services Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, will be there, too.