General Awareness: Policy's of Navaratna, Miniratna and Maharatnas in India for UPSC, SSC Exams

Policy's of Navaratna, Miniratna and Maharatnas 

1) Policy of Navartnas:
Navaratna was the title given originally to nine Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs), identified by the Government of India in 1997, as its most prestigious, which allowed them greater autonomy to compete in the global market. Navaratna status empowers the PSUs to invest up to Rs. 1000 crore or 15% of their net worth on a single project without seeking government approval. The overall ceiling on such investments in all projects put together is 30%, of the net worth of the company.

Criteria for Navaratna Status for PSUs:

• It should have a composite score of 60 out of 100 marks based on these six criterias-Net Profit to Net Worth, manpower cost to cost of production or services, gross margin as capital employed, gross profit as turnover, earnings per share, inter-sectoral comparison based on Net Profit to Net Worth.
• The company should also have four independent directors on its board. Navaratna companies, subjects to certain guidelines have extra power to incur capital expenditure and decide upon joint ventures.It should have a schedule "A" and Miniratna category-1 status. 
• Set-Up subsidiaries/offices abroad.Enter into technological and strategic alliances.
• It should have at least three "excellent" or 'very good' Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) ratings during the last five years.
• Raise funds from capital markets (international and domestic) enjoy substantial operational and managerial autonomy.

2) Policy of Miniratnas:
The government has also accorded the status of Miniratna to some profit making Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs). There are two categories of Miniratnas.

1) Category I:
These are companies, which have made a profit in each of last three years and earned a profit of Rs. 30 crore in atleast one of the three years. They are allowed to incur capital expenditure without government approval upto 500 crore or equal to their net worth whichever is lower. There are 54 Miniratnas of this category at present.

2) Category II:
These are companies, which have made profits for the last three years continuously and have a positive Net Worth. They can incur capital expenditure upto Rs. 300 crore or 50% of their Net Worth whichever is lower. There are presently 18 such Category-II Miniratnas.

3) Policy of Maharatnas:
Maharatnas Scheme was introduced for Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), with effect from 19th May, 2010, in order to empower mega CPSEs to expand their operations and emerge as global giants. The objective of the scheme is to delegate enhanced powers to the boards of identified large-sized Navaratna CPSEs, so as to facilitate expansion of their operations, both in domestic as well as global markets. The coveted status empowers the hoards of these firms to lake investment decisions up to Rs.5,000 crore as against the present Rs. 1,000 crore limits for Navaratna without seeking government approval. The Maharatna firms would now be free to decide oil investments up to 15% of their Net Worth in a project, limited to an absolute ceiling of Rs. 50,000 crore.

Computer Knowledge: Types of Internet Connections in Communication for IBPS and SBI Exams

Types of Internet Connections

1) Dial-Up Connection:
A Dial-up is a method of connecting to the Internet using an existing telephone. Dial-up connection uses the telephone lines to connect to the Internet. The modem connects the computer through the standard phone lines, which serve as the data transfer medium. A modem changes the digital data from your computer into analog data, a format that can be carried by telephone lines. Modem stands for Modulator and Demodulator. ISP refers to the company that provides internet connections to the users. Some popular ISP's, are Airtel, MTNL etc. When a user initiates a dial-up connection, the modem dials a phone number of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that is designated to receive dial-up calls. The ISP then establishes the connection, which usually takes about ten seconds and is accompanied by several beeping and buzzing sounds.

2) Broadband Connection:
The term broadband commonly refers to high speed Internet access that is always on and faster than the traditional dial-up access. It uses a telephone line to connect to the Internet. Broadband access allows users to connect to the Internet at greater speed than a standard 256 KB  modem or dial-up access. Digital Subscriber Line (DSL): Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is a popular broadband connection. It provides Internet access by transmitting digital data over the wires of a local telephone network. DSL is the most common type of broadband service. DSL uses the existing copper telephone lines. A special modem is necessary in order to be able to use a DSL service over a standard telephone line.

3) Wireless Connection:
Wireless broadband can be mobile or fixed. Unlike DSL and cable, wireless broadband requires neither a modem nor cable and as a result it can be easily established in areas, where it is not feasible to deploy DSL or Cable. It is a universal wireless networking technology that utilises radio frequencies to transfer data.Wireless broadband connects a two or more devices likes home's or business to the Internet using a radio link between the customer's location and the service provider's facility. Wi-Fi allows high speed Internet connections without the use of cables or wires. Wi-Fi networks can be designed for private access within a home or business or be used for public Internet access at "hot spot" such as restaurants, coffee shops, hotels, airports, convention centres and city parks.

4) Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN):
It is a digital telephone service that can transmit voice, data and control information over an existing single telephone line. It was the first high speed alternative to regular analysis phone modems. It is widely used for business purpose.

Marketing Knowledge: New Industry Policy for IBPS and SBI Interviews

Marketing Knowledge: Industries and Industrial Policy

Definition of Industry:
Industry refers to an economic activity concerned with the processing of raw materials and manufacture of goods in factories are often classified based on their principal product Ex:- steel industry, auto-mobile industry, textile industry etc. The product of industries can be consumer goods (Goods, which finally consumed by consumers) like textiles, cosmetics etc or producer goods (Goods used by manufacturers for producing some other goods) like machinery, tools, equipment etc.

Importance of Industry's:
The industry sector of the economy is important for a country for many reason like. Rapid growth of national income is possible only through industrialisation as growth in agriculture is limited by factors including natural factors. Industries can provide better quality and more employment than the agriculture sector. Value addition in the industrial sector can earn more foreign exchange than simply exporting raw materials. The industrial sector provides goods for the development of basic infrastructure of the country like power, telecom etc, which then provides the basis for the growth of other sectors like agriculture and services. National security requires that products for defence and other strategic sectors be produced within the country itself, so as to guard against adverse eventualities like sanctions, wars etc.

The concept of "Industrial Policy" is comprehensive and it covers all those producers, principles, policies rules and regulations which control the industrial undertakings of a country and shape the pattern of industrialisation. It incorporate fiscal and monetary policies, the tariff policy, Labour policy and Government's attitude not only towards external assistance, but the public and private sectors also.


New Industrial Policy (NIP), 1991

The Government of India announced the New Industrial Policy on 24th July, 1991. The main objective of this policy is to unshackle the Indian industrial economy from administrative and legal controls. Its main aim is to raise industrial efficiency to the international level through substantial deregulation of the industrial sector of the country. An industrial policy provides guidelines for the effective co-ordination of the activities of various sectors of the economy. When India achieved independence in 1947, the national consensus was in favour of rapid industrialisation of the economy, which was seen not only as the key to economic development, but also economic sovereignty. The industrial licensing was abolished irrespective of the level of investment, except for 18 specified industries like defence, atomic energy etc. Since then, most of these industries were de-licensed and now only three industries fall under the purview of industrial licensing.

In the subsequent years, India's Industrial Policy evolved through successive Industrial Policy Resolutions and Industrial Policy Statements. Specialise priorities for industrial development were also laid down in the successive five year plans.

Banking Awareness: Expected Interview Topics Insurance and Banking for IBPS and SBI Interviews

Corporate Governance Guidelines for Insurance Companies

Corporate Government guidelines have been rolled out for insurance companies which are effective from 1st April, 2010.The guidelines broadly cover major structural elements of Corporate Governance in insurance companies. According to the same, a minimum lock-in period of 5 years from the date of certificate of commencement of business of an insurer is laid down on the promoters of the insurance company and no transfer of shares of the promoters would be permitted within this period. Guidelines further stipulates that the Board of the insurer should have practices in place for succession planning for the key senior functionaries through a process of proper identification and nurturing of individuals for taking over senior management positions.

Insurance are required to have a minimum of two independent directors on their Board as long as they are unlisted. Where the Chairmen of the Board is non-executive, the Chief Executive Officer should be a whole time director of the Board. Not more than one member of a family or a close relative as defined in the Companies Act or an associate (partner, director etc.,) should be on the Board of an Insurer. Directors of insurance companies have to meet the "fit and proper" criteria. Guidelines further stipulates formation of the following committees mandatory: Audit, investment, Risk Management, Asset Liability Management (in case of Life Insurance companies), Policyholder Protection, Optional committees to be formed are Remuneration, Nomination and Ethics.

Insurance and Banking:

The insurance companies in India are constantly collaborating with the banking institutions on the pattern of foreign countries to impart more efficiency in the entire venture insurance sector. More and more insurance companies are signing MoUs with the Indian banks in order to carry on their marketing activities through the branches of the banks, the prominent Indian banks that have already signed such Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) include the Vysya Bank, the State Bank of India and the Jammu and Kashmir Bank.

In 2008, its wholly owned subsidiary was opened in Singapore. It also extends assistance for development of infrastructure facilities like housing, rural electrification, water supply, sewerage etc. In addition, it extends resource support to other " financial institutions through subscription to their shares and bonds" etc. In making investments, the major consideration is the protection of the interests of policy holders and the aim is to secure the highest possible yield consistent with the safety of capital. It is the single largest investor in the country. It subscribes to and underwrites the shares, bonds and debentures of various financial corporations and companies and provides term loans.

Banking Awareness: Agricultural Insurance Company of India Limited (AICIL) and Its Schemes for IBPS Interviews

Agricultural Insurance Company of India Limited (AICIL)

Agricultural Insurance Company of India Limited (AICIL) was established on 20th December, 2002 to promote crop insurance in order to protect the farmers against the crop losses suffers due to natural calamities. The GIC, NABARD and four public sector general insurance companies have contributed Rs. 200 crore towards the paid-up share capital out of the authorized capital of Rs. 1500 crore. The AICIL having received approval from IRDA commenced its business operations w.e.f 1st April, 2003. The total number of employees as on date is 198 all over the country. It has its Head Office in New Delhi and 17 Regional Offices in various State Capitals.

The AICIL is implementing National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS), a central sector crop insurance programme of Government of India and also implementing the Pilot Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS) throughout the country along with its other commercial crop insurance products. A Pilot on Modified NAIS has also been started by AICL initially covering 50 districts.

The objectives of MNAIS are as under:

• Actual rate-marketing, with district level crop insurance premium rates.
• Probable yield based on moving average of last 7 years.
• Reduction of the insurance unit to the Gram Panchayat level, where feasible.
• Partial on-account settlement of claims during cropping season.
• Up-front partial premium subsidies based on commercial premium rate slabs for both food and commercial crop paid by the centre and respective State Government.

1) AICIL's own Commercial Insurance Products:

Beside the above Government supported crop insurance schemes, AIC has designed and is implementing a few crop specific products to cater to the needs of diverse farming community of India to meet their diversified risks. These products are supplementing the coverage already available for the crops covered under NAIS and WBCIS. These are Varsa Bima, Rainfall Insurance, Wheat Insurance, Rabi Weather Insurance, Mango Weather Insurance, Rainfall Insurance Scheme-Coffee (RISC), Bio-Fuel Insurance, Potato Contract Farming Insurance, Cardamom Insurance etc.

2) National Agricultural Insurance Scheme(NAIS):

The Government of India introduced the scheme from 1999-2000 seasons to protect the farmers against  to crop failure losses on account of all natural calamities so as to restore the credit worthiness of loaned farmers. The scheme is available to non-loaned farmers as well. The scheme, at present covers 73 different crops during the year which includes food crops cereals, millets and pulses and oilseed etc.

3) Pilot Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS): 

WBCIS aims to mitigate the hardship of the insured farmers against the likelihood of financial loss on account of anticipated crop loss resulting from incidence of adverse conditions of weather parameters like rainfall, temperature, forest, humidity etc. It is started form 2007-2008 Union Budget. While NAIS specifically indemnifies the cultivator against shortfall in crop yield, WBCIS is built upon the fact that weather conditions affect crop production even when a cultivator has taken all the care to ensure good harvest.

Marketing Knowledge: Branding and Packaging for IBPS, SBI and Other Bank Tests

Marketing Topics: Branding and Packaging

Branding:

Branding is the management process by which a product is branded. It is a general term covering various activities like giving a brand name to a product, designing a brand mark and enforcing it. Brand is a perceptual entity rooted in reality which ultimately resides in the minds of consumers. Branding is all about creating difference between products.

It creates mental structure that help consumers to organise their knowledge about products and services in a way that clarifies their decision making which also provides value to the firm. Marketers can apply branding virtually anywhere a consumer has a choice. It is possible to brand a physical good (Maggi noodles, Lux soap) a service, (ICICI's banking service) a stores like Bigbazar, West side an organisation (UNICEF) or an Idea (Family Planing). Brand often relate to attributes or benefits of the product itself.


Functions of Branding

• Branding helps in product identification and gives distinctiveness to a product.
• It indirectly, it denotes the quality or standard of a product.
• It eliminates imitation of products.
• Branding helps in legal right on the product.
• It helps in advertising and packaging activities.
• It is also helps to create and sustain brand loyalty to particular products.
• Branding helps in price differentiation of products.

Advantages of Branding:

The advantages of using brand names could be easily recognised for each group of participants in the marketing via manufacturers, consumers, distributors as follows.

1) To the Manufacturer: It identifies the product and distinguishes it from other competing products. Thus, it protects the interests of the manufacturers. It saves advertising cost if the brand name is popular. If properly promoted, brand name creates confidence and goodwill for the products.

2) To the Consumers: It provides an easy way for purchase by easy identification of a product. The branding name indirectly assures certain quality by identifying the manufacturer with the product.

3) To the Distributors: Widely popular brands ease the selling process and lead to large sales. It helps in advertising and sales promotion programmes. The distributor can easily find out quick moving products. Branding reduces price flexibility. Thus, in turn, reduces the risk in business. Special selling efforts need not be undertaken. This reduces the cost of distribution and thus, the final price.

Packaging

Packaging is the technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale and use. It means putting the products in suitable containers or packets such as tin, plastic jar or card board box etc. Packaging should be such that product is protected and can be easily handled. It should be attractive and eye-catching and as far as a eco-friendly.

Functions of Packaging: First, packaging must protect the product it also has a promotional role which has become more important. It helps to identify the contents, the brand and the maker. To facilitate transporting, storing and warehouse handling. It helps to encourage repurchase. Packaging helps to assemble and arrange the contents in the desired form.

Geography Topic: Important Points about Earthquakes for Competitive Exams

Geography-Earthquakes

It refers to the vibration of the Earth's surface caused by the endogenetic forces of Earth. The magnitude or intensity of energy released by an earthquake is measured by the Richter Scale, whereas the damage caused is measured by modified Mercalli Intensity Scale. The place of origin of earthquake is called focus. The place on the ground surface, which is perpendicular to the focus or hypocentre is called epicentre. Seismology is the special branch of geology that deals with the study of earthquake.

The waves generated by earthquake are called seismic waves and they are classified into three types such as

• Primary Waves( P Waves): These are the waves of short wavelength and high frequency. They are longitudinal waves and can travel through solid liquid and gases.
• Secondary Wave( S Waves): These are the waves of short wave length and high frequency. They are transverse waves, which travel through all solid particles.
• Surface Waves or Long Waves ( L Waves): They are the waves of long wavelength, confined to the skin of the Earth's crust. It causes most of the earthquake's structural damage.

The Earthquake Zones, in India:

The Indian plate is moving from South to North at the speed of 5 cm/year and the Eurasian Plate is static on its own position, so there is a collision between Indian Plate and Eurasian Plates. Due to this collision, the earthquakes occurs in the Himalayan regions of India. The collision also results in the increase of the height of Himalayas at the speed of 1 cm/year. The second most important earthquake zone is Parallel to Punjab and Rann of Kutch. It occurs due to the movement between the transform boundaries of Eurasian and Indian Plates. Earthquakes occur in Asom, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir, the North-Western region of Uttar Pradesh and the Northern region of Bihar etc.

Distribution of Earthquakes:

Most of the world earthquake occur in

• The zones of young fold mountain
• The zones of folding and faulting
• The zones of junction of continental and oceanic margin
• The zone of active volcanoes
• Along different plate boundaries

The Traditional Zones of Earthquakes

• Circum Pacific belt
• Mid Continental belt
• Mid Atlantic belt

Computer Knowledge: Importance of Internet and Its Services for IBPS, SBI and Other Competitive Exams

Importance of Internet and Its Services

The Internet has gained popularity and emerged as an important and efficient means of communication. The idea of introducing the internet was to allow millions of people to share information and ideas, sound, video clips using their computers across the world. The internet is a world wide network of networked computers those are able to exchange information with each other. It consists of thousands of separately administered network of various sizes and type.

Internet:
Internet stands for International Network, which began in 1950's by Vinit Curf known as the Father of the Internet. The term Internet is derived from two words-Interconnection and networks, also referred to as "Net". Internet is a "network of networks" that consists millions of private and public network of local to global scope. Basically, network is a group of two or more computer systems linked together.

Uses and Working of Internet:
Internet has been the most useful  technology of the modern time which helps us not only in our daily lives but also our personal and professional lives developments. Internet helps us in communication, information, business, social networking, shopping, entertainment, job searching and E-commerce.

The computers on the Internet are connected to each other through the small networks.These networks connected through the gateways to the Internet backbone. The data move around the Internet is controlled by protocols. Under TCP/IP protocol (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol), a file is broken into smaller parts by the file server called packets. All computers on the Internet, communicate with one another using TCP/IP, which is a basic protocol of the Internet.

History of Internet:
In 1969, the university of California at Los Angels. the University of Utah were connected as the beginning of the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) using 50 kbits circuits. It was the world's first operational packet switching network. The goal of this project was to connect computers at different universities and U.S defence.

In mid 80's another federal agency, the National Science Foundation, created a new high capacity network called NSF net, which was more capable than ARPNET. The only drawback of NSF net was that it allowed only academic research on its network and not any kind of private business on it. So, private organisations and people started working to build their own networks, which were later interconnected with ARPNET and NSF net to form the Internet.

Marketing Knowledge: Marketing Distribution Channel and Marketing Middlemen for Competitive Exams

Marketing Distribution Channel and Marketing Middlemen

Most producers do not sell their goods directly to the final users, between them stands a set of intermediaries performing a variety of functions. These intermediaries constitute a marketing channel. A channel of distribution is the path a product takes from the producer or manufacturer to the final user. So, marketing channels are a set of interdependent organisations (intermediaries) involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by the consumer or business user.

Importance of Distribution Channel:

• They act as communication agent which often guide the consumers in right direction to fulfil their wants.
• A distribution channel is important for understanding the logistics of the business.
• It helps in managing, planning, producing, transporting and storage of products.
• They help to reduce the storage cost.

Types of Marketing Middlemen

Middlemen are broadly classified into two groups

• 1) Merchant Middlemen
• 2) Agent Middlemen

1) Merchant Middlemen: Merchant middlemen normally take title to, and therefore own, the product they handle. The buy and sell for their own gain and derive their income from the margins arising from the sales. i.e., difference between buying price and selling price.There are two categories of merchant middlemen and they are:

i) Wholesalers: They deal with goods in bulk and reap the benefit of economies of sales. They provide goods in relatively small quantities to retailers and provide them with facility of credit purchase. Wholesalers may be defined as the middlemen who operates between the producers (from whom they purchase goods) and the retailers (to whom they sell goods).

ii) Retailers: Retailers are middlemen who procure goods from the wholesalers and sell the product to the end-users or the consumers. They cater to the demand of the customers by providing a variety of products of different companies at one place. They also offer pre and after sales services and communicate to consumers the feature, discount retailer, vending machine and super market are types of retailer.


2) Agent Middlemen: All Agent Middlemen of marketing don't own what they handle i.e., not take title to the goods. They derive their income from the fees they are paid by their client or commissions given. There are three categories of Agent Middlemen they are:

i) Broker: He brings the buyers and sellers together and negotiate between them. He generally specialises in a narrow range of products and posses in-depth knowledge of market condition in his area of specialisation. A broker does not receive payment until the product is sold and has to ensure the best deal for the customer.

ii) Commission Agent: They procure goods on consignment and transport them to bigger markets to sell them for the best price in the market. They deduct the commission and the transportation costs and pay the rest of the money earned to the producer. They generally deal with agricultural products, sea foods, etc.

iii) Auctioneer: An auctioneer is an agent who sells goods by auction i.e., to the highest bidder in public competition. He has no authority to hold the goods sold and can deliver the goods only on receipt of price. He is the agent of the vendor.