Tips For Hosting A Foreign Exchange Student

Modern Agricultural Techniques In India
India is primarily an country dating back to more than ten thousand years. Today, India ranks the second largest in agricultural output worldwide. Agriculture contributes approximately 33 percent of the Gross Domestic Product and round about 70 percent of Indian population is engaged in agriculture sector. Most of the agricultural outputs including wheat, tea, coffee, cotton etc are exported to foreign countries contributing about 8.56 percent of India?s exports. About 43 per cent of geographical land is used for agricultural activity. India accounts world?s number one country in sugarcane and stood second rank in rice output.

Modern Agricultural Techniques:

With years of practice in agriculture, there have been new inventions and modern techniques adopted by farmers in agriculture. To spread and encourage knowledge of agriculture among the youth generation, government has even launched new programmes and courses with specialization in agriculture. Modern Agricultural comprises of improved farming techniques and the using of irrigation and high-yield grains resulting into increased production. The main drawback is being the inadequate monsoon, which accounts a crucial role in influencing agricultural production in India since most of the cropped area even now does not have any assured irrigation. Although measures are being undertaken by government authorities to eradicate the inadequacy of monsoon by introducing water dams and river project for effective irrigation.

In fact, India is facing the biggest challenge of producing enough food grains to cater the increasing population of India. Hence measures are been taken to expand farmland area and with quality grains the farmers are now able to produce double output in the same amount of land.

Farmers have adopted modern improved irrigation techniques that have the potential to increase agricultural production with improved farming techniques in areas that rely on monsoon also could improve yield. Moreover, improving the use of fertilizer, especially on rain fed land, also would help to increase the production. Government of India is trying a variety of plans and strategies with sophisticated water management techniques replacing the traditional farming practices.

URL: http://www.made-from-india.com/article/Modern-Agricultural-Techniques-In-India-611.html

Tips On Hosting A Foreign Exchange Student

Short Notes for Law Students taking Public International Law
LAW OF TREATIES

Art. 38(1) (a) ICJ Statute: In deciding disputes regarding international law, the court shall refer to international covenants [treaties]

Definition of treaty

Refer Art. 2 of VCLT

ELEMENTS TO MAKE A VALID TREATY (ART 2 OF VCLT):

1) Treaty must have international character

The treaty is to be concluded by an international legal person who has capacity to enter into treaty.

Who is an international legal person who can conclude treaties?

a) States (Art 6 VCLT), which includes Head of States, Head of Gov, and Minister of Foreign Affairs (refer to Art 7 VCLT)

b) International organization (in Anglo-Iranian Oil Company case, ICJ held that contract between the company and Iranian government was not a treaty because there is no privity of contract.

2) In written form

Oral form of agreement is also acceptable (Eastern Greenland case)

3) Governed by international law

International law governs all treaties whether or not they are within the scope of VCLT

4) Embodied in single or 2 instruments

Treaties may be several forms:

a) Conventions

b) Agreements

c) Protocols

d) Charter

e) Exchange of notes

There are less formal agreements such as exchange of notes (letters). States may send letters to each other and agree on certain things. If the letters intended to be a treaty, it is customary to expressly state that it shall constitute an agreement between our Governments.

In the case of Qatar and Bahrain, exchange of notes that was done by parties conferred jurisdiction to ICJ to hear the dispute.

5) There is an intention to create legal relation

This element is not expressly mentioned in Art 2 VCLT. But, it is very important because without intention, an instrument will not be a treaty.

What are the effects of Unilateral Statements (only 1 party enter into treaty)?

If the state made such declaration with intention to be bound, a state may be bound by such unilateral statement.

In Legal Status of Eastern Greenland case, Norway made unilateral statement that it won’t create difficulties in respect of Danish’s claim over Eastern Greenland. ICJ held that Norway is bound by this unilateral statement.

This was confirmed again by ICJ in Nuclear Test cases.

Once the text is adopted, THE NEGOTIATING PARTIES MUST GIVE CONSENT TO BE BOUND BY A TREATY

The methods of giving consent are provided under Art 11 16 VCLT

WHAT IF A STATE MAKES RESERVATION TO ONE OF TERMS IN THE TREATY?

Refer to Art 19 23 VCLT.

If the Treaty allows reservation, then can reserve. But, if do not allow, cannot.

Art 120 Rome Statute: No reservation may be made to the statute of ICC.

What if there are no provisions stating about reservation in that Treaty? Are states not allowed to make reservation?

ICJ in the case of Reservations to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide answered this question. If there are no provisions stating about reservation, it does not automatically mean that you cannot reserve. But, you need to look at the purpose of the Treaty. Your reservation cannot defeat the purpose and object of the Treaty, otherwise, you are not a party to the Treaty.

ENTRY INTO FORCE

A treaty does not enter into force until certain number of States ratified it. For example, Art 308 of UNCLOS provides:

“This convention shall enter into force 12 months after the date of deposit of the 16th ratification”

REGISTRATION AND PUBLICATION OF TREATY

Every treaty needs to be registered with UN, ~refer to Art 102 UN Charter & Art 80 VCLT

APPLICATION OF A TREATY

A) Upon its Parties

Art 26 VCLT: every treaty in force is binding upon its parties and must be performed in good faith

Art 27 VCLT: a party may not invoke the provision of internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty

B) Successive Treaties on the same subject matter

Art 30 VLCT: If there are 2 same treaties concluded on the same matter, the one concluded later will prevail.

However, if the provision of an ordinary treaty is in conflict with UN Charter, Art 30 VCLT & Art 103 UN Charter provides that UN Charter prevails.

C) Application of a Treaty upon 3rd States

Art 34 VCLT: 3rd party states are not bound by the Treaty without its consent.

However, Art 35-38 VCLT states that there are exceptions where 3rd party states may be bound.

INVALIDATION OF TREATIES

There are several grounds which a Treaty may be invalid:

a) Violation of fundamental domestic law (Art 46 VCLT)

A state may invoke Art 46 if:
the violated internal law was related to competence to conclude Treaty
(The person who ratified the Treaty was not capable of doing it.)
the violation was manifest and other party must be aware of it the violation concerned a rule of fundamental importance
b) Error (Art 48 VCLT)

That State may have erred in entering the Treaty due to some misunderstanding. However, error does not make the Treaty automatically void. The mistaken party may invoke the error as invalidating its consent.

c) Fraud Art 49 VCLT

d)Corruption Art 50 VCLT

e)Coercion Art 51 VCLT

f) Coercion by threat or use of force Art 52

Art 2 (4) UN Charter provides use of force is prohibited. Force means military force’.

g) Treaty conflicting with jus cogens, e.g.
A treaty allowing an unlawful use of force A treaty which allow parties to commit crimes under International law A treaty which allows genocide, piracy or slavery
TERMINATION OF TREATY

~refer to Art 54-60 VCLT

A Treaty may be terminated automatically by 3 ways:

a) Art 61 VCLT supervening impossibility of performance

b) Art 62 VCLT there is a fundamental change of circumstances

c) Art 64 VCLT emergence of a new jus cogens.

CONSEQUENCES OF INVALIDITY OR TERMINATION OF TREATY

Refer Art 69 71 VCLT

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STATE RESPONSIBILITY

A state may incur liability if it violate a rule of customary international law or ignore its obligation under a treaty.

However, to make a state responsible, Art 2 of Draft Articles (DA) put 2 requirements:

1) THE WRONGFUL CONDUCT IN QUESTION MUST BE ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE STATE

State cannot act on its own. State Organs shall represent the State in any matters.

Art 4 DA provides that the conduct of any state organ shall be considered an act of that state under international law whether the organ exercises legislative, executive or judiciary function. An organ includes any person or entity.

Conduct in Art 4 DA means action or omission. E.g.:

Diplomatic and Consular Staff case: Iran was responsible because of omission to act when it should have done so.

Corfu Channel case: Albanian was responsible because it should have known about presence of mines in its territorial waters and failed to inform the 3rd state about it.

a) Wrongful conduct of judiciary attributable to the state

Judicial organ can be the cause of state responsibility because of denial of justice’.

Janes Claim case: Mexico failed to arrest and punish an offender which caused death to an American citizen. ICJ held that this is a denial of justice’ and Mexico should be liable.

b) Wrongful conduct of the executive attributable to the state

e.g. conduct of police, army, gov officers

Massey claim case: a US citizen who was working in Mexico was killed. Mexican authority failed to punish the offender. Mexico is liable and should pay damages to US.

Does the state be responsible if wrongful conduct committed by its organ when off duty?

No. A state would only be attributable to such wrongful conduct when it is committed on duty. If committed off duty, it cannot be attributable to the State.

Mallen case: A consul has been attacked by American police officer 2 times. 1st attack was when he was off duty. 2nd attack he showed his badge to assert his official capacity. US was responsible for the 2nd attack.

A state may also be liable for de facto State organs i.e. public corporations or private company performing element of governmental authority

SEDCO case: there was a seizure of vehicle. The claimant argued that a state owned company took it. However, argument was rejected because there was no proof to show that government directed it to be seized.

Foremost Tehran Inc v Iran case: Iranian company did not pay dividends to shareholders. The conduct was attributable to Iran because it had been influenced by Government representatives on the board of directors.

Ultra vires conduct cannot be a defense to exclude state responsibility

Refer Art 7 DA

US v Mexico: Mexican soldiers ignored their orders and attacked on a house where Americans was seeking refuge. It was held Mexico liable.

Conduct of private persons may be attributable to State in 2 circumstances if [Art 8 DA]:

a) It was carried out on instructions of the State

b) It was under direction or control of State

However, what is the degree of control that State need to exercise over the persons?

2 views:

i) According to Nicaragua case, Stateneeds to exercise effective control. Control by State is effective when, for example:
State finances the persons State coordinates the conduct of such persons State issued specific instruction to such persons
ii) According to Prosecutor v Tadic, State only need to exercise overall control. State does not necessarily need issue instructions concerning each specific action.

2) THE CONDUCT MUST CONSTITUTE A BREACH OF AN INTERNATIONAL LEGAL OBLIGATION

Art 12 DA: A State is in breach of its obligation when any act of the State does not conform to its obligation.

DEFENCES [Art 20-27 DA)

a) Consent [Art 20 DA]

b) self-defense [Art 21 DA]

c) countermeasures [Art 22 DA]

d) force majeure [Art 23 DA]

There must be unforeseen circumstances to perform the obligation.

Rainbow Warrior: New Zealand argued that French breached its obligation because French failed to seek consent of NZ before removing NZ’s soldiers from the island. French said that NZ soldiers were sick and need medical attention, so it was a force majeure. It was held that this situation does not suffice to amount to force majeure.

e) Distress [Art 24 DA]

f) Necessity [Art 25 DA]

NATIONALITY OF CLAIM

Every state has the right to protect its nationals. However, it is up to the state whether to take up the claim or not.

Nottebohm: a state’s right to extend diplomatic protection to its individual is not unlimited.

However, according to Art 1 of Hague Convention, there must be a genuine link between the State and the national.

Nottebohm case:

Mr. N was born in Germany & had German nationality until his naturalisation with Liechtenstein. Later he went to Guatemala and resided & conducts business there. L sued GU for unlawfully expelled and seized property of Mr N who had been neutralised by L. Court said that for the claim to succeed, a genuine link between L and Mr N must be proven.

Court said that for a genuine link to exist, there must be dominant nationality. Here, Mr. N’s link with L is not dominant.

EXHAUSTION OF LOCAL REMEDIES

Art 44 (b) DA: responsibility of a state cannot be invoked if local remedies still available.

This principle was confirmed in ELSI case and Interhandel Case.

However, there is no need to exhaust all local remedies in the following situations:
The remedies are ineffective in municipal law Remedies in municipal law are futile There are already judicial precedents, which will be followed in your case & does not favour you There has been an unreasonable delay Local processes are biased against the individual The injury is to the state itself The local remedies requirement has been waived
__________________________________________________________________

LAW OF THE SEA

General treaty for law of the sea is UNCLOS.

The sea consists of several zones:

a) TERRITORIAL SEA

It is an area of the sea that is near to coast.

Art 2 UNCLOS: Coastal state can exercise sovereignty over its territorial sea.

Art 3: The limit of territorial sea extends up to 12 nautical miles measured from baselines.

What is baseline?

It refers to the starting place to calculate the breadth of territorial waters and other zones.

There are 2 types of baselines:

a) Normal baseline [Art 5]

b) Straight baseline [Art 7]

Does the coastal State have rights over its territorial sea?

Yes. This was agreed by Art 2 and Nicaragua case. The rights of coastal State include:
Right to fish & exploit resources from seabed Right to enjoy air space above its territorial waters Right to transport goods and passengers Right to conduct marine research
Although coastal State have rights, it has to give right of innocent passage through its territorial sea.

Art 17: Ships of all states shall enjoy right of innocent passage.

Innocent passage means navigation through the territorial area for the purpose of proceeding to other internal waters.

Art 19: passage is not innocent if it causes prejudice to peace or security of coastal state.

When foreign ships pass territorial waters, it must abide by the coastal state’s municipal law. If municipal law is breached, it shall be tried under that municipal law.

PP v Narogne: Thai fishermen were on a vessel which was then at sea about 3 miles off the Malaysian coast. There were fishing equipment on board the vessel. They were arrested by Malaysian Naval Authority for breaching its national laws. It was held that the passage by fishermen was not innocent passage.

The coastal state has civil jurisdiction [Art 28] and criminal jurisdiction [Art 27] over ships in passage of its territorial waters.

However, warships, naval vessels and government operated for non-commercial purposes are immune from any interference from coastal state [Art 32]. If it causes damage to coastal state during its passage, the flag State (passer-by ship) shall bear international responsibility.

b) CONTIGUOUS ZONE

It is a sea zone which does not extend 24 nautical miles.

A coastal state may exercise the control over its contiguous zone. Refer Art 33

c) EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE (EEZ)

It is the ocean area beyond territorial sea and out to 200 nautical miles. EEZ is also defined in Art 55.

The coastal state can exercise its rights over its EEZ. Such rights are laid down in Art 56, 60, 61 and 62.

[Art 73]: Coastal state may enforce jurisdiction over foreign ships including arresting and bringing them to national courts to ensure compliance with its national laws.

Rights and Duties of other states in the EEZ of a Coastal state are stated under Art 58, 88 115, 246 of UNCLOS

[Art 246]: Scientific research cannot be carried out by other states in a coastal State’s EEZ. That right is reserved for that coastal state.

d) CONTINENTAL SHELF

Refer to Art 76-85 UNCLOS

e) THE HIGH SEAS

Art 86 defines high seas as all parts of sea except internal waters, territorial sea and EEZ.

It is open to all States and free for enjoyment of all. Refer to Art 87-97 UNCLOS for rights of States in the high seas.

According to Lotus case, vessels on high seas are subject to no authority except that of the flag state.

The crime of piracy is prohibited and now recognized as international crime. Refer to Art 100-110 UNCLOS for details.

The right of hot pursuit [Art 111 UNCLOS]

This right is designed to prevent a foreign ship that has violated laws of a coastal state to avoid arrest by escaping to high seas.

Hot pursuit can start in any sea zones in that coastal state & can extend to high seas.

Are there limitations for this right?

Yes. There are 2 limitations:

1. Hot pursuit is limited once the foreign ship entered territorial waters of a 3rd coastal state / other states.

2. Hot pursuit should not cause sinking of ships. According to Art 293 UNCLOS, use of force should be avoided. But if need to use force, it should be reasonable only to effect boarding, searching seizing and bringing the suspected ship into port.

In I’m Alone case, a British ship named I’m Alone smuggled prohibited liquor into US. When I’m Alone was chased, it fled to high seas. US pursued and fired at it. The I’m Alone ship sunk and caused loss of 1 crew. It was held that US coast guard may use reasonable force but intentional sinking is not allowed.

Red Crusader case also held that direct firing of solid shot to the Red crusader exceeded the legitimate use of armed force.

Art 111 (4) UNCLOS: jurisdiction of a coastal state may be extended. if boats from a mother ship acted illegally within a zone while mother ship is lying outside the zone, coastal state may exercise jurisdiction on that mother ship.

Make Money Hosting A Foreign Exchange Student

Female Business Leaders Becoming The Norm Anousheh Ansari, Abigail Johnson, Martha Stewart & Oprah. What does all these women have in common? They are successful entrepreneurs.

Leading the group of successful female entrepreneurs is Anousheh Ansari, founder of Telecom Technologies Inc and Prodea Systems. Anousheh has sold multiple companies, her first being TTI Inc she is now onto Sonus Network Inc. Anousheh Ansari is also an avid supporter of the sciences, not only having been to space herself but also setting up “the X Prize”, a contest which helps finance companies looking to perform private space exploration.

Many female entrepreneurs entered business through a husband or family member, but then rose to outshine their significant other. Abigail Johnson for example runs Fidelity investments, a company her father originally setup, but she grew to be worth over twelve Billion dollars. Similarly, Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler has grown her husbands business in Germany to over six billion dollars.

It is hard to discuss financial successful women without mentioning media icons like Oprah – the daytime talk show host whose media empire’s worth has exceeded a billion dollars.There is also Martha Stewart who (when she’s not in jail) also runs a home making tv show, magazine and book series which has a book value well over a billion dollars.

Examples of smaller businesses founded by female entrepreneurs include henderson bas , and online marketing firm founded by Dawna Henderson. Dawna also recently led her company to be partially acquired by multinational conglomerate MDC partners more information about the acquisition is available at the New York Times article: MDC Partners acquires stake in henderson bas.

Many women still face discrimination in the workforce and business though. Women statistically earn less than men; this decreases their ability to walk away from a job to start their own company. Many people still maintain age old stereotypes that women are inferior to men in performing specific tasks, making it difficult for women to start businesses in male dominated fields. Nevertheless, there is no question female leadership in businesses is growing: Women are now 2x as likely to start a new business than men are. In other words, women are becoming the powerhouses of new economies, creating money and jobs all over the world.

Hosting A Foreign Exchange Student Taxes

Philosophy of Expatriate Pay
The remuneration of expatriates often tends to be a rushed last minute decision due to urgent operational requirements. The resulting implications often only arise after the expatriate arrives in the host country, and when the assignment comes to an end. For example, the post assignment position back in the home country pays less than the expatriate earned on assignment.

Inconsistent treatment of expatriates quickly leads to unhappy expatriates. Once an organisation has more than 1 or 2 expatriates in the field it becomes vital to have a defendable expatriate pay philosophy in place. This philosophy should clearly convey the organisation’s remuneration principles regarding expatriate assignments. An expatriate assignment pay philosophy is intended to provide guidance in the consistent and equitable treatment of all expatriates and forms the basis of the organisation’s expatriate pay policy.

Most large global organisations have over time established a clear policy for remunerating expatriates. This is often a legacy policy, where past practice has become policy. However expatriate pay is a complex area of remuneration with complex issues such as volatile exchange rates, weak and strong currencies, constantly changing differences in cost of living between countries, different tax regimes, as well as the reality that there are attractive and not so attractive countries to work and live in. This is an area where a clear philosophy and an aligned practical policy are required to ensure attraction, fairness, equity, motivation and retention.

Firstly let’s deal with what makes an employee an expatriate. In my view an expatriate is a person working in a foreign country, where they are not permanently resident, on an assignment of typically not more than 3-5 years but is a citizen from another country. There are as many different expatriate pay practices as there are organisations employing expatriates. However we can identify at least four broad approaches to expatriate pay that has emerged as the dominant philosophies underlying expatriate pay.

Salary Build-Up (SBU)
The Salary Build-Up approach uses the current market related home salary as the base for calculating the expatriate package. Home in this case is the country where the employee permanently resides or is a citizen. The purpose of the build-up approach is to maintain internal equity between countries and to equalise the impact of differences between country tax rates. This ensures that expatriates neither lose nor gain as a result of tax treatment in the host country.

The Salary Build-Up approach typically involves deducting hypothetical tax in the home country, and builds on top of the home salary with an international premium (to compensate for hardship experienced), cost living index and the exchange rate to calculate a total net (i.e. after tax) assignment package.
The net assignment package is then “grossed up” in the host country for local tax and other statutory and non-statutory deductions to ensure the net pay assignment package is paid to the expatriate.

Salary Purchasing Power Parity (SPPP)
The Salary Purchasing Power Parity approach uses the principle of putting all expatriates within the organisation on an equal footing regardless of nationality and geographical location. The purpose of the SPPP approach is to ensure parity in the level of the purchasing power of the salary of expatriates doing the same job at the same level in different parts of the world, taking hardship, cost of living, and exchange rate differences into account.

This approach is typically used by global organisations that have a large number of expatriates, who move from one international assignment to another and compete globally for skills. Organisations using the SPPP approach typically establish a single global pay scale which is often by default that of the global headquarters country. The expatriate’s salary is calculated by adding calculated additional amounts for the hardship, cost of living, and exchange rate differential between the global headquarters (home) and the host country.

The assignment package is then taxed in the host country and other statutory and non-statutory deductions made to arrive at the net pay assignment package paid to the expatriate.

Cost of Living Allowance (COLA)
The Cost of Living Allowance approach uses the principle of retaining the expatriate’s home salary and paying an additional separate allowance, primarily for cost of living, but also for hardship based on the differences between the home location and the host location. The purpose of the COLA is to ensure parity in the level of the purchasing power of expatriates doing the same job at the same level in different parts of the world, taking hardship, cost of living, and exchange rate differences into account by paying a cost of allowance to compensate for the differences. At the end of the assignment the COLA falls away.

This approach is typically used by global international organisations that have a large number of expatriates, who move from one international assignment to another and compete globally for skills. Organisations using the COLA approach typically have country level pay scales. The expatriate’s COLA is calculated by adding calculated additional amounts for the hardship, cost of living, and exchange rate differential between the home country and the host country.

The assignment package is then taxed in the host country and other statutory and non-statutory deductions made to arrive at the net pay assignment package paid to the expatriate.

Local Market (LM)
The Local Market approach uses the principle of applying the local (i.e. host country) expatriate market pay rates. In many organisations the policy is to use the better of the Build-Up or the Local Market approaches, to ensure that the assignment package is equitable and competitive in the host market.

Due to the need for market data, the Local Market approach is typically only used where a strong local and / or expatriate market exists in the host country, and reliable salary surveys exist that accurately report the level of market salary for different positions. For example, take an organisation sending an expatriate from an economically poor, relatively low salary market country, to a city such as New York. It is likely that having used the home base salary as the basis of the calculation, that the resulting total assignment package will be significantly lower than the New York Salary Market. This would occur even after adding an international premium (to compensate for hardship experienced), and a cost living amount (to compensate for the higher cost of living in New York) as well as applying the exchange rate. The reason is that the market level of home base salary in an economically poor country is so much lower than the equivalent market salary in New York.

The Local Market approach is typically used in high economic growth and high cost of living countries where demand for skills is high and there are a large number of expatriates comprising many nationalities such as the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong or Singapore.

In conclusion it is important to ask questions about your current expatriate pay philosophy. Does your current expatriate pay philosophy drive the desired behaviour? Is the current policy and practice aligned to organisational objectives? Does the current policy work for or against the organisation achieving its global objectives?

I recommend a regular review of organisational expatriate pay philosophy in light of what the organisation seeks to achieve and where it operates geographically, whilst ensuring integration with the other pay related strategies of the organisation.

Hosting A Foreign Exchange Student Tips

Corporate Social Responsibility (Csr) And Ethics In Marketing
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) AND

ETHICS IN MARKETING

Miss. P. PIRAKATHEESWARI, Lecturer in Commerce,

Sri Sarada College for Women (Autonomous), Salem 16.

Introduction

Kotler and Levy, in their book, Corporate Social Responsibility define corporate social responsibility as “a commitment to improve community well-being through discretionary business practices and contributions of corporate resources”. Some of the benefits of being socially responsible include (a) enhanced company and brand image (b) easier to attract and retain employees (c) increased market share (d) lower operating costs and (e) easier to attract investors. A socially responsible firm will care about customers, employees, suppliers, the local community, society, and the environment. CSR can be described as an approach by which a company (a) recognizes that its activities have a wide impact on the society and that development in society in turn supports the company to pursue its business successfully and (b) actively manages the economic, social, environmental and human rights. This approach is derived from the principles of sustainable development and good corporate governance. Marketing managers within different firms will see some social issues as more relevant than others. The relevance of a given social issue is determined by the company’s products, promotional efforts, and pricing and distribution policies but also by its philosophy of social responsibility.
Focus entirely in profits (and profitable firms typically serve society well) Explicitly incorporate social responsibility into its day-today marketing decisions to minimize negative effects on society and enhance positive effects Go even further and engage in social projects that are unrelated to the corporate mission and even detrimental to profits ( which could net out to be socially undesirable) The Success strategies of a Business formed out of abundance and grounded in ethics and cooperation are powerful and long-lasting and they help you feel good about yourself even while bringing in profits ( Shel Horowitz) Management must decide which of these three levels of social responsibility to adopt and which social issues are relevant to its business.
Ethical Conflict faced by the Marketers

Marketers must be aware of ethical standards and acceptable behavior. This awareness means that marketers must recognize the viewpoints of three key players: the company, the industry, and society. Since these three groups almost always have different needs and wants, ethical conflicts are likely to arise. Ethical conflicts in marketing arise in two contexts : First, when there is a difference between the needs of the three aforementioned groups ( the company, the industry, and society) a conflict may arise. Second and ethical conflict may arise when one’s personal values conflict with the organization. In either case, a conflict of interest is a possible outcome.

Ethical dilemmas facing marketing professionals today fall into one of three categories: tobacco and alcohol promoting, consumer privacy, and green marketing. Standards for ethical marketing guide business in efforts to do the right thing. Such standards have four functions: to help identify acceptable practices, foster internal control, avoid confusion, and facilitate a basis for discussion.

Consumerism

Consumerism is concerned with broadening the rights of consumers. The concepts of social responsibility and consumerism go hand-in-hand. If every organization practiced a high level of social responsibility the consumer movement might never have begun. Consumerism is a struggle for power between buyers and sellers; specifically, it is a social movement seeking to increase the rights and powers of buyers in relation to sellers.

Seller’s rights and powers are presented in the following list:
To introduce any product in any size and style they wish into the marketplace, so long as it is not hazardous to personal health or safety or if it is hazardous, to introduce it with the proper warnings and controls To price the product at any level they wish, provided there is no discrimination among similar classes of buyers To spend any amount of money they wish to promote the product, so long as the promotion is not defined as unfair competition To formulate any message they wish about the product provided that it is misleading or dishonest in content or execution To introduce any buying incentive schemes they wish
In contrast, here are buyers’ rights and power:
To refuse to buy a product that is offered to them To except the product to be safe To expect the product to essentially match how the seller represented it To receive adequate information about the product
It is in the best interest of marketers to understand the level of consumer standards and the nature of consumer perceptions, as well as what is required to foster realism and accuracy among consumers.

Marketing and the Natural Environment

Another significant area of social concern is the environment. Marketing is ultimately dependent on the use of scarce resources to fulfill human needs, without harming or unnecessarily using scare resources. Marketing managers should help to determine which products are produced, and which products are indirectly affecting the environment:
The natural resources and materials used The amount of energy required in the production process The residuals (e.g., waste water) that result from production The consumption of resources and energy that is required to use products ( cars, air conditioners) The generation of pollutants (e.g., exhaust fumes) in using products The amount of packaging material that may have to be discarded. (packaging comprises less than 14 percent of collectible solid waste, but consumers often estimate its share of that waste at 40 to 80 percent)
Relationship Marketing and Ethics

Nowadays, most ethicists believe that Relationship Marketing is a reasonable practice leading to positive relationships between buyers and sellers. Relationship marketing requires that rules are not necessarily contractual..

Relationship marketing allows buyers and sellers to work together. However, there are disadvantages to this approach- relationship marketing requires time to develop a list of expected conduct or “rules of behavior.” According to a recently published book on this subject, a shift in emphasis in marketing ethics towards buyers interests and away from seller’s interests characterizes the new country.

If this is true, new challenges are presented for marketing ethics and professionals in the field of marketing who want to conduct business in an ethical way.

Green Marketing and Ethical Issues

The next important area the marketer needs to know about what is the relevance of Social

Marketing in order to protect the environment and to improve the quality of life and are concerned with issues that include conservation of natural resources, reducing environmental pollution, protecting endangered species, and control of land use. The three Rs of environmentalism are Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Many companies are finding that consumers are willing to pay more for a green product. Toyota has become quite successful with their hybrid cars.

Green marketing refers to the development and distribution of ecologically-safe products. It refers to products and packages that have one or more of the following characteristics: (1) are less toxic, (2) are more durable, (3) contain reusable materials, or (4) are made of recyclable material. In short, these are products considered “environmentally responsible”.

To sight an example One Canadian Executive stated that “Any marketing executive who does not put a green’ filter on their strategies is looking at losing market share. The whole idea of disposal is going to become unacceptable”. In West Germany and Canada, Procter & Gamble has found high consumer acceptance of pouches of liquid detergents and fabric softeners so consumers can refill rather than discard large plastic bottles.

Cause Related Marketing and Ethics

Cause-related marketing should not be confused with social marketing. A key difference is that a major purpose of cause-related marketing is to help a business. It might be used to improve the image of the firm or to increase market share. The technique involves associating a business with a cause. Social marketing, on the other hand, is generally not associated with any company and issued solely to help society by dealing with a social problem. Cause-related marketing has to be done correctly or it can hurt a company. A firm may look like it is exploiting a charity. It is important for the firm to be transparent and honest about what it is doing. There should also be a fit between the company and the cause. A good fit would be, for example, might be a bottled water company and a cause, it deals with providing clean water for poor people in Asia and Africa.

Social Marketing and Ethics

Social Marketing is defined as the use of marketing principles and techniques to influence a target audience to voluntarily accept, reject, modify, or abandon a behaviour for the benefit of individuals, groups or society as a whole. Social marketing is usually done by a non-profit organization, government, or quasi-government agency. The goal is either to steer the public away from products that are harmful to them and / or society (e.g., illegal drugs, tobacco, alcohol, etc.) or to direct them towards behaviors or products that are helpful to them and / or society (e.g., having family meals, praying together, etc.).

Ethnic Marketing and Ethics

Another aspect the marketer has to know about Ethnic Issues while going for global marketing and still take care of Ethics. Culture plays an important role in defining ethical standards because dissimilar cultures socialize their people differently, according to what is acceptable behavior.

The potential significance of ethnic groups for marketing justifies inquiry into the moral judgments, standards, and rules of conduct exercised in marketing decisions and situations arising from decisions whether or not to focus on individual ethnic groups within an economy. Identifying and targeting ethnic groups for marketing purposes are tasks fraught with many ethical difficulties. In a multicultural society consisting of a dominant group and many diverse, minority groups defined by ethnicity, these problems can be expected to increase substantially. Consequently, marketers may include minority ethnic consumers in their mainstream marketing programs. In itself, this has ethical consequences. Alternatively, if marketers seek to target individual minority ethnic groups within the same economy a further set of ethical consequences needs to be considered.

The international environment is recognized as attracting more difficulties for marketers because their “ethics” parameters may not match the notion of “good” in the foreign country where they wish to operate. This is a problem because it may compromise successful international market penetration, that is, a firm’s ability to compete in the international market. To the extent that international operations are part of an overall competitive strategy (either because of a firm’s need to have a presence where its main customers operate, or because the firm must/needs to follow its competitors) this also can influence a firm’s ultimate survival in its domestic market. Ethical concerns are thus clearly important both in the parent country and also in the host country..

One possible approach to ethnic marketing ethics within one country, understood as ethics applied to marketing practice targeting minority ethnic groups, is to apply the same procedures that firms use to deal with ethics problems in the international context. Ethnic minority consumers, particularly in their first time of settlement in a new country, may be inexperienced in relation to what is available, where, and for how much, as well as being unaware of market dos and don’ts. This justifies their possible reliance on referral or recommendation by others they trust, eventually their minority ethnic group of affiliation, particularly when communication difficulties limit the number and range of accessible secondary sources. Within such a scenario, ethnic minority consumers may be perceived as disadvantaged because they are arguably more vulnerable to be taken advantage of through deceptive practices.

Targeting of minority ethnic consumers with ethically unsound strategies may lead to alienation of the ethnic markets. Careful consideration needs to be exercised before ethnic marketing strategies are developed and implemented.

Ethical Norms and Values for Marketers

Professional associations and accrediting bodies have identified guidelines for ethics in marketing. According to one of those associations, the American Marketing Association, the following rules guide marketing behavior. The American Marketing Association commits itself to promoting the highest standard of professional ethical norms and values for its members. Norms are established standards of conduct that are expected and maintained by society and / or professional organizations. Values represent the collective conception of what people find desirable, important and morally proper. Values serve as the criteria for evaluating the actions of others. Marketing practitioners must recognize that they not only serve their enterprises but also act as stewards of society in creating, facilitating and executing the efficient and effective transactions that are part of the greater economy. In this role Marketers should embrace the highest ethical norms of practicing professionals and the ethical values implied by their responsibility toward stakeholders (e.g., customers, employees, investors, channel members, regulators and the host community).
Responsibility of the marketer. Marketers must accept responsibility for the consequences of their activities and make every effort to ensure that their decisions, recommendations, and actions function to identify, serve, and satisfy all relevant publics: customers, organizations and society Honesty, Integrity and Quality are far more important than quick profits Rights and duties in the marketing exchange process: – Participants should be able to expect that products and services are safe and fit for intended uses; that communications about offered products and services are not deceptive; that all parties intend to discharge their obligations, financial and otherwise, in good faith; and that appropriate internal methods exist for equitable adjustment and / or redress of grievances concerning purchases Organizational relationships: – Marketers should be aware of how their behavior influences the behavior of others in organizational relationships. They should not demand, encourage, or apply coercion to encourage unethical behavior in their relationships with others. Conduct your business so as to build long term loyalty. When you get a customer, you want to keep that customer and build a sales relationship that can not only last years, but also create a stream of referral business. Marketers must do no harm. This means doing work for which they are appropriately trained or experienced so that they can actively add value to their organizations and customers. It also means adhering to all applicable laws and regulations and embodying high ethical standards in the choices they make. Marketers must foster trust in the marketing system. This means that products are appropriate for their intended and promoted uses. It requires that marketing communications about goods and services are not intentionally deceptive or misleading. It suggests building relationships that provide for the equitable adjustment and / or redress of customer grievances. It implies striving for good faith and fair dealing so as to contribute toward the efficacy of the exchange process. Marketers must embrace, communicate and practice the fundamental ethical values that will improve consumer confidence in the integrity of the marketing exchange system. These basic values are intentionally aspiration and include honesty, responsibility, fairness, respect, openness and citizenship.
Education and Ethics

Ethics and values become an important concern in the US in the 80′s. In US there are about 500 courses offered in the field of Ethics by various universities. Hayward Business School earmarked USD 30 Million in 1987 to focus on teaching Business ethics to MBAs. In India AICTE (The All India Council for Technical Education) recommended the inclusion of Business ethics as a course in MBA curriculum in 1995. The aim of teaching Ethics or Ethics in marketing particular is to provide the budding marketing managers / managers to

a) Share knowledge, build skills and develop minds of the young entrepreneurial managers of tomorrow

b) To provide and clarify and insights into concepts of business so that young managers avoid business misconduct, when they really go and conduct the business.

c) To create High level of integrity moral and social awareness so that they can decide when faced with business dilemma.

IIM Lucknow has started a course that seeks to provide students with an understanding of changing relationship between business and environmental management. The budding managers should be imparted with the knowledge of social responsibility and ethics. IIM-C is already having a Management centre for Human Values, and they are publishing a journal on Human values. They are also offering a course on Ethics and Values in Business.

Role of Social Responsibility in Indian companies

In a global CSR study undertaken in 7 countries (viz. India, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, The Philippines and Indonesia) by the U.K. based International Centre for CSR in 2003, India has been ranked second in the list. This ideally shows the value that is important to customers in India. Bharat Petroleum and Maruthi Udyog have been ranked as the best companies in the country. The next comes in the list are Tata Motors and Hero Honda. Canara Bank, Indal, Gujarat Ambuja and Wipro are involved in community development work of building roads, running schools and hospitals. ACC has been rendering social service for over Five decades. They are setting up schools, health centers, agro-based industries and improving the quality of rural life. BHEL is actively involved in the Welfare of the surrounding communities is helping the organization to earn good will of the local people BHEL is also providing drinking water facilities, construction of roads and culverts, provision of health facilities, educational facilities, and so on companies like ONGCs are encouraging sports by placing good players on their pay rolls. TISCO, TELCO and HINDALCO won the award for excelling in CSR, jointly given by FICCI and Business world for the 2003.

ONGC has also committed resources by adopting a few villages to implement President Dr. Abdul Kalam’s idea of PURA (Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas). NTPC has established a trust to work for the cause of the physically challenged people. Similarly in the private sectors like Infosys, Wipro and Reliance are believed to be most socially responsible corporations.

In 1999 Kofi Annan of the United Nations invited corporate leaders for a Global Compact to promote nine principles covering three areas: human rights, labor rights, and sustainable development. Today, India can be legitimately proud to have had the second largest number of companies from any country subscribing to the Global Compact. Several public sector companies have joined together to form the Global Compact Society of India.

Conclusion

Several forces are driving companies to practice a higher level of corporate social responsibility: rising customer expectations, changing employee expectations, government legislation and pressure, the inclusion of social criteria by investors, and changing business procurement practices. Companies need to evaluate whether they are truly practicing ethical and socially responsible marketing. Business success and continually satisfying the customer and other stakeholders are closely tied to adoption and implementation of high standards of business and marketing conduct. The most admired companies in the world abide by a code of serving people’s interests, not only their own. The following are the suggestions that the society must use the law to define, as clearly as possible, those practices that are illegal, anti-social, or anticompetitive. Next, companies must adopt and disseminate a written code of ethics, build a company tradition of ethical behavior, and hold its people fully responsible for observing ethical and legal guidelines. And, individual marketers must practice a “social conscience” in their specific dealings with customers and various stakeholders.

Hosting A Foreign Exchange Student Story

Improve your Skills in English by Reading
How to improve your English reading skills by Louisa Walsh

To improve your English, we recommend you practice all the key skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening in English. In this article we will focus on improving your reading skills in English.

Practicing reading in English will help improve your understanding of English,knowledge of English vocabulary/phrases and understanding of English grammar.

Reading does not need to be boring. Below we look at ways of improving your reading skills in English – and we link to some top websites so you have instant access to authentic and interesting English reading material.

If your English is already a good level, try newspapers. Popular ‘quality’ UK newspapers have online sites:

The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
The independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/
The Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/uk/

Newspaper articles are sometime difficult because they often use slang, idiom or specific cultural expressions which will be difficult for a low level learner to understand. For example, a couple of recent newspaper stories began: ‘How Leonardo DiCaprio scored big with Scorsese’(was immediately popular with) and ‘Iraq policy has lead to Blair’s downfall’ (decline in power, popularity or status.)
If modern short stories are more ‘your bag’ (your preference)I like this site: http://talesetc.com/copyrights.htm The stories are short so they are suitable for reading on the Internet and easy to understand. You should find a theme to interest you.

Are you interested in English culture/traditions/food? Then visit http://www.woodlandsjunior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/index.html. I love this site. It is written for children and so the language is very simple but it is very comprehensive, covering all aspects of daily life in England. There is a great section on typical English food. If you are feeling very brave, why not try one of the recipe ideas following the instructions in English

http://www.woodlandsjunior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/food/index.htm

But what if you don’t like reading stories, are not interested in English culture or you find English newspapers on the Internet boring or too difficult? Then don’t read them! You will learn more if you read about something that interests you. Whether you like sports, film reviews or gardening, there will be a site on the Internet for you, so read about your particular pastime on the Internet in English, rather than in your own language.

Top tips to improve your English reading skills:

As mentioned, choose a theme/website/book that interests you.

Practice reading in English regularly; at least once or twice a week.

Be confident! You don’t have to understand every word to understand the general meaning. Try reading a text once through first to get a ‘sense’ of the meaning. This can be more important than understanding every single word.

Keep a dictionary with you while you read. Advanced learners, try this online dictionary: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ Get into the habit of looking up phrases that are difficult while you are reading. Doing it afterwards might mean you forget the context.

Are you having to look in your dictionary for every second word? Then the text you have chosen is too difficult for you. Choose something else – not too easy, though. It is good to have a bit of a challenge.

Happy reading! Visit www.phone-english.net for more information on how you can improve your spoken English with 1-1 lessons by phone.

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Microsoft Dynamics Gp Internationalization Notes If you have Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly known as Microsoft Great Plains, Great Plains Dynamics/eEnteprise/Dynamics C/S+ or earlier predecessor – Great Plains Accounting for DOS, Windows and Macintosh) in your US, Canadian, UK, Australian, New Zealand or South African Headquarters and you are expanding internationally, we would like to review Great Plains internalization options. You should be aware, that Corporate ERP often requires so-called localization, which includes two aspects: local language support and country tax and government financial reporting compliance (plus often for large countries, such as Brazil, China, India, Russia it is often subject to strict government enforced industry legislation)

1.Accounting Application localization for Foreign country. As we already mentioned it is not only the local language support, it is also compliance to legislation. Microsoft Dynamics GP is localized in most of English speaking countries, plus in Spanish speaking Mexico, Central, South America and Caribbean islands. It is also available in French Canadian in Quebec. In South America it is not localized in Brazil (it is not localized in Continental Portugal, so you cannot expect Great Plains screen to be already translated into Portuguese). If you foreign subsidiary is located in small country (where tax compliance is not very complex and probably close to international GAAP) – you can try the route of translating restricted set of Dynamics GP screens (such as Sales Order Processing Transaction Entry, AP Payment, GL Entry) and modifying several reports to cover compliance to local legislation. However for large countries, such as Brazil, China, Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Ukraine we do not recommend this simplification and rather have you choose different Corporate ERP, localized for your targeted country

2.Translating Microsoft Dynamics GP screens and reports technology. Assuming that your target language is supported in ASCII table (8 bits per character – most of Latin and Cyrillic based alphabets, also Arabic, Persian, Farsi, Dari and other Arabic alphabet based languages) – you can open Dynamics.dic dictionary in Microsoft Dexterity and translate string resources from English to your foreign subsidiary country language. This is only part of the story – you also have to install Dynamics GP on the SQL Server with local language and respective collation support (usually, if you install Microsoft Windows 2008 or 2003 Server for your local country, SQL installs itself with appropriate locals and your Dynamics GP installation will be tuned automatically). If you install SQL with local language and collation support and if you have your local user Windows workstations installed with locals for the country – Microsoft Dexterity Dynamics GP user interface should be able to accept and record local characters into MS SQL Server DB correct

3.Limited support for Chinese customers. Microsoft Dexterity doesn’t support Unicode (16 bits per character – typically hieroglyph based languages: Chinese, Korean, Japanese), however you can review such product as NJ Star, which offers limited support for hieroglyphs in Dynamics GP and older versions of Great Plains Dynamics. You can also consider combining Chinese or other hieroglyphs with English based Dynamics GP records in Crystal Reports

4.International Corporate ERP alternatives to Dynamics GP. Microsoft Business Solutions promotes Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly known as Axapta) internationally, and it is supporting Unicode and most of the markets: China, Japan, Brazil, Russia, Europe. Normally Dynamics AX is considered as being a bit higher in price range, comparing to Dynamics GP Great Plains. If you are deploying GP as Corporate ERP in USA, there might be high chances that your largest operation is in US and internationally you have smaller facilities, and respectively the budget for international Accounting application is relatively modest. If this is your case, consider SAP Business One. SAP B1 is also available in most of the large Corporate ERP international markets, including China, Korea, Japan, Brazil, Russia – and its price is very competitive in lower and mid-market

5.Limited support for Great Plains Dynamics old versions in Poland, Germany, France, Belgium, and some other countries in continental Europe. Microsoft Business Solutions phased out support for continental Europe and to our information the last version available in German was Dynamics GP 9.0. Our company with offices in Germany and Eastern Europe traditionally supports Great Plains customers in Western, Eastern Europe and Russian Federation since 1995. Over the years we realized that the best support option is web session with phone or skype conference

6.Dynamics GP support and implementation in Central Asia and Afghanistan. Especially in Kabul, Afghanistan, Microsoft Dynamics GP has positive future for local state enterprises and international non-for-profit organizations, assuming that government reporting is close to international GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). We are happy to help local implementation consultants and CPA firms in Dynamics GP localization in Dari and training Dynamics GP users via remote support or if required with visit onsite from USA or Moscow offices

7.Microsoft Dynamics GP Great Plains Support in Oceania. We have successful old Great Plains Accounting version upgrade all the way to Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 for one of the customers in Palau. It is very convenient for our organization to expedite our Dynamics GP functional and technical consultants from our Manila, Philippines office to Pacific states, or from Los Angeles for large and more challenging projects

8.Microsoft Dynamics GP alternatives in Russian Federation. Our consultants speak Russian and we have local presence in Moscow, Russia. At this time, February 2010, we are inclined to recommend SAP Business One for your Russian subsidiary (regardless where it is located: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Volgograd, Siberia, Far East). We also have to admit strong competition from locally programmed and supported Corporate ERP systems, such as 1S Bukhgalteria – if you make that choice, we are happy to help you with 1C Accounting (1S Bukhgalteria in Russian) integration via FRx consolidated reporting to your Corporate ERP Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss and Cash Flow Statement in USA Headquarters

9.For Russian Owned Businesses in USA or Canada. Our Microsoft Dynamics GP consultants speak Russian and we are ready to walk you through USA or Canadian Corporate ERP legislation and help you with local Accounting system selection: Microsoft Dynamics GP Great Plains, Dynamics AX Axapta, Solomon, SAP Business One

10.Dynamics GP FRx International Consolidated Reporting. FRx Financial Reporting for Microsoft Dynamics GP supports multicurrency (you have to be on FRx Professional license or purchase FRx currency translation module) – Frx as an option to look directly into Dynamics GP multicurrency settings, including currency exchange rates. Please, note that for consolidated financial reporting in FRx (and mathematically following the rules of double entry) you have to exclude intercompany due to and due from accounts, as these are not representing real multinational corporation profit. If you are consolidating smaller international branches with SAP Business One – we recommend you the option to export SB1 GL trial balance to Excel and consolidate foreign subsidiary in FRx consolidated financial reporting as Excel worksheet

11.Dynamics GP Dexterity Customizations International support. In late 1990th Great Plains Software were expanding rapidly internationally including such regions and countries as Poland, Arabic Peninsula, Brazil, Eastern Europe and Russia, Africa, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy. And we still observe old versions based Great Plains customers with Dexterity customizations. We are committed to these orphan Great Plains customers support down to the versions of Great Plains Accounting for DOS, Windows and Mac

12.Great Plains Dexterity international user training offer. We are happy to train your Microsoft Dexterity programmers via web sessions and phone or skype conferences from our Great Plains Dexterity software development factory (Southern California and Philippines)

13.New hopes with just released SAP Business One version 8.8. Traditionally SAP Business One versions 2007 and 2005 were divided into so called A and B streams (A is for USA, Europe, Russia, most of the Latin America and B for China, Korea, Japan, Brazil). With the release of new SB1 8.8 version both A and B stream are merged in one installation. This means that from now on you can host all the SAP Business One international companies on the same server and provide remote connection and support via corporate VPN secured internet connection to your Headquarters based SAP Business One DB and user application server

14.Great Plains Dynamics GP support in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. We have Dynamics GP Great Plains customers in Poland who are active in Great Plains Dynamics version 8.0. We understand that SAP Business One is not available for Baltic Countries, so we are encouraging you to call us to be your agent in Corporate ERP selection cycle

15.Great Plains Dynamics GP for Uzbekistan Bukhara, Tashkent, Khiva, Urgench, Namangan, Mari. Microsoft Dynamics GP supports in its core architecture current Uzbek alphabet based in Latin. Our consultants visited Bukhara, Tashkent, Kokand, and we should be able to visit you place in Uzbekistan to train your Dynamics GP users or implement GP for our local Uzbek organization

16.Great Plains Accounting for DOS, Windows and Mac support internationally. Microsoft Business Solutions expired GPA support in the beginning of 21 century. We are supporting GPA in USA – all versions, GPA 9.5, 9.2, 9.1, 8.0 and others, if you are Great Plains Accounting customers in international environment, feel free to call us, we should be able to support you in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian, Latvian

17.Last flint. Microsoft Dynamics GP for Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. We should be able to give you Sales Cycle engineers from our Moscow or Chicago office, plus we should be able to send Russian speaking Great Plains Dynamics GP consultants onsite to Ashkhabad. We are also in program to support Kazakh government based enterprises in Gas and oil industries for Corporate ERP selection, implementation, integration and customization

18.Please, give us a call in USA or Canada: 1-866-528-0577, internationally 1-630-961-5918 and our receptionist will switch your call over to one of our regional offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Houston, Atlanta, Moscow (Russian Federation), Sao Paulo (Brazil). Preferred methods are email: help@albaspectrum.com or skype albaspectrum. Local and international Quotes are non obligatory and we will try to do our best to answer and help your (please refrain from emailing us with Dynamics GP support requests from public domain, such as hotmail, yahoo, gmail, etc)

Hosting A Foreign Exchange Student Minnesota

Requirements For Stock Broker License
Brokers know the complete understanding of the stock market and hold considerable experience in trading in stocks. Thus they are able to give advice and counsel their clients about their investments and carry out transactions at the stock market.

However, there are certain prerequisites for becoming a certified stock broker at the stock exchange and carry out transactions as well. You need to hold a stockbroker license in order to trade at the stock exchange. Unless you hold this full broker license, you are not authorized to trade at the stock exchange.

You do not need a degree for becoming a stock broker but most of the brokers do have a degree. But you need to pass the General Securities Registered Representatives Examination to obtain a stockbroker license. Initially you need to work with a firm for nearly four months or more to be eligible to give the exam. This minimum four months period is taken to be as an on-job training period for preparing for the exam. Apart from the General Securities Exam, certain states in United States may also require you to take an additional exam for Uniform Securities Agents State Law Examination.
These two examinations prepare you for getting into the stock market and understand things like terminology, trading, legal aspects, etc. After you pass the exam, you are considered as a trainee. You need to get trained further and take classes and courses for another two years to further enhance your skills and understanding of the stock market. If you wish to stay ahead in the trade, then even after you obtain your license, you need to keep on updating yourself with the latest industry trends and market changes. This would make you the most successful stock broker in the market.

It takes more than a simple stock broker license to become the best and reputable in the industry. You should necessarily possess the business acumen to stand out. You should have strong analytical skills, sharp memory and ability to interpret situations and circumstances. Moreover, it is not necessary that you need to essentially become a trader at the stock market after obtaining the license. You can also become business analyst, stock accountant, stock market analyst, etc. All you need to do is to find the best job for yourself that suits your personality. If you do not want to become a full service stock broker, you can also start your own online business and become a discount stock broker. There are many people who need stock brokers who can buy and sell stocks based on their instructions.

There are numerous opportunities in the stock market after obtaining a stock broker license. All you need to do is to find the best job and climb the success of ladder that suits your personality the most.

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Jobs in the Tourism Industry
A career in travel and tourism is one of the most desirable career options for youngsters these days. This field is the world’s largest foreign exchange generator and spins billions of dollars each year. In India too, with the upcoming Commonwealth Games in 2010, the scope of tourism jobs has increased manifold. New hotels are coming up, the whole tourism industry is being spruced up and the government is taking appropriate steps to ensure comfort for all international visitors during the Games. With so much happening in the tourism industry, it is not surprising that the demand for professionals in this field is going through the roof. Since it is a service industry, manpower is the main asset in this industry.

In career tourism, there are jobs pertaining to many fields. So, it provides employment to millions of professionals directly and indirectly. This industry has a very huge scope and is growing at a very rapid pace generating tourism job for qualified and trained jobseekers. In the tourism one can look to get jobs in the government tourism departments, airlines, hotel industry, immigration and customs services, start your own travel agencies, become a tour operator, hotels and become a part of many associated service industries. These include airline catering or laundry services, tourist guides, interpreters, professionals in tourism promotion and sales etc. Thus, this industry has something to offer to everybody and can absorb people with diverse skill sets.

These small sectors work in collaboration though each is an important part of the main industry and each has its own special characteristics. One could look at a plethora of jobs at the airports. Apart from being pilots and air-hostesses, this industry has a lot of other jobs to offer. For instance, engineers can join it as aircraft maintenance engineers. Then, there is a lot of staff required at the back-end. The are front office executives, back-office operators and customer care executives. Then, there is other ground staff too. One could also get tourism jobs in the Customs Department. In this department, special officers supervise the checking all luggage for illegal goods or items that may be liable for customs duty. Then, there is responsibility for lost and found and unclaimed luggage too.

Other than this, young graduates can look to become tourist guides. These could be government approved and work with the tourism industry or work with private tour operators. One could also work independently as a tourist guide. The ideal candidates would have on interest in history and languages. In this job, one gets to meet many new people. Also, one should have good research skills and keep oneself updated with the history and geography of a particular place and should be able to give the tourists interesting insights into the place. Tour guides get good salaries.

One could also start one’ sown travel company or get a job in one. Tourism industry caters to people who are away from home for various reasons. It could be personal, for work, for a pilgrimage or for adventure. Employees in a travel company are required to take care of these people who are traveling away from home. These professionals should be updated on the latest current rules and regulations and documentation required to travel in nay country. Also, they should be able to guide the tourists in areas like cargo, ticketing and passport, visas etc. tourists generally need advice on the paperwork. A travel company should be able to handle all this. A travel company devises the best package deals including travel and stay for its clients. Also, they act as the single point contact for a tourist in any new city and guide the tourists on the local area and how to get about and the rail and road connections in and out of that city. Thus, there are jobs at various levels in travel companies. No specific educational qualifications are required but a person should be pleasing and convincing to talk to and helpful in nature. A normal graduate can also aspire to join a travel company.

Apart from this, there are ample jobs in the hotel industry as well. From, chefs, to front office staff to room-keeping to managerial and executive posts, there is no dearth of jobs in this industry too. One can join and grow tremendously in the tourism industry. It is about getting the right job at the right place. One learns a lot on the jobs and gains useful experience that will help one grow.

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Convergence of Ifrs, US Gaap and Indian Gaap and Its Impact on Indian Companies Listing in U.s and American Companies Listing in India
Convergence of IFRS, US GAAP AND INDIAN GAAP and its impact on Indian companies listing in U.S and American companies listing in India

By SUNIL KEWALRAMANI

November 4, 2008

Consistent, comparable and understandable financial information is the lifeblood of commerce and investing. Presently, there are two sets of accounting standards that are accepted for international use–the U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) issued by the London-based International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). Foreign subsidiaries of U.S. multinationals use U.S. GAAP. Many foreign companies, attracted to listing in the U.S. have to confront various problems like compliance with U.S. GAAP and the onerous Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

In search of a new financial order: one global standard for financial reporting makes sense. Accounting Standards in India will undergo significant change from 1st April 2011, when the IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) come into force as per the recent proposal of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Countries of the European Union, Australia, New Zealand and Russia have already adopted IFRSs for listed enterprises. China has decided to adopt IFRS from 2008 and Canada from 2011.

If 2011 is the year when we would be totally aligning our standards with the IFRS, then what would happen in terms of inter-period comparisons because the numbers that would emerge after convergence to IFRS would be based on different accounting principles than those based on Indian GAAP ?. In order to breathe meaning in the numbers and enable inter-period comparison, it is essential that similar accounting principles should have been used from one period to another. Besides, you would need IFRS-trained professionals in India for which the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India would need to impart special training to its students and members alike.

In India, the accounting standards or accounting-related requirements are issued not only by the ICAI(Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) but also by various other regulatory bodies, such as SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India), RBI (Reserve Bank of India) and the IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority). They now not only need to be consistent with each other but also with the IFRS.

The Central Government in pursuance of Section 211 of the Companies Act 1956 has issued a notification prescribing accounting standards for companies, and these standards direct us to the Accounting Standards issued by the ICAI. Since ICAI is now leaning on implementing IFRS with effect from 1st April 2011, the Government would find it essential to treat complying with IFRS as satisfactory compliance with Section 211 of the Companies Act 1956.

Closing the GAAP

The demise of U.S. GAAP has accelerated this decade. While the SEC currently looks to FASB to set U.S. GAAP, it is the SEC that retains ultimate responsibility. U.S. GAAP has been extensively used since the 1930s, and until recently was widely used around the world. However, its shortcomings are also well known, including approximately 200 pieces of fragmented U.S. GAAP on revenue recognition, some of which are not based on consistent concepts.

U.S. GAAP has evolved over the years to become overly complex and onerous as evidenced by the large number of countries and companies abandoning it. One recent example is
NEC Corporation, the Japanese electronics giant. NEC announced on September 21, 2007, that it was not able to complete a U.S. GAAP-required analysis relating to software, maintenance, and service revenues. In essence, the company said it simply cannot figure out U.S. GAAP revenue recognition rules and will stop trying, resulting in suspended trading on the NASDAQ.

It is possible that companies listed in the U.S. could be allowed to report their financial results using standards set by IASB instead. Giving companies a choice of accounting standards might create an opportunity for forum shopping.

In India, one of the big impediments to implementation of IFRS in India is in the case of Mergers and Acquisitions where the High Court approval is required. The High Court has got the authority to stay application of accounting standards or to prescribe accounting requirements in the case of merger and amalgamation situations. All this would deter smooth transition to IFRS in India.

Besides, deferral of VRS cost or ESOP accounting being based on intrinsic method, though a departure from IFRS is essential bearing in mind the needs and requirements of the Indian economy.

In addition, Schedule VI of the Companies Act, 1956 is also not in complete compliance with the IFRS and they need to be reconciled as well.

The RBI also prescribes accounting requirements for banks, such as accounting for derivatives or provision for non-performing assets, and these requirements of the RBI are currently at variance with the IFRS.

Managements compensation, stock options, debt covenants, tax liability and distributable profits are all based on Indian GAAP and AS (Accounting Standards) at present. Now all the salary structure, compensation structure will have to be renegotiated by most senior employees who have variable methods of compensation. For example, the variable pay component of most TCS employees is about 30 % of the total compensation package and this variable pay being based on items of Profit/Loss Account which will be defined differently under IFRS, the entire compensation package will need to be revised.

Recently, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) of the US eliminated the GAAP reconciliation requirement as a part of Form 20-F for foreign issuers. Almost simultaneously, the Commission issued a Concept Release that would enable U.S. issuers to drop GAAP and use International Financial Reporting Standards.

Statements of financial position, comprehensive income and cash flows
Perhaps the biggest potential change is a different look to financial statements. Although nothing has been decided, the IASB and FASB are striving to create a cohesive presentation of financial information that will likely do away with a single net income number, or bottom-line. Instead, the working proposal would require three separate statements: a statement of financial position, a statement of comprehensive income, and a statement of cash flows.

Companies would need to breakout in each financial statement information for business activities (including operating and investing activities), discontinued operations, financing activities, income taxes, and equity. This would result in a company classifying its assets, liabilities, and equity items into one of the prescribed categories or sections in the statement of financial position and then similarly classifying changes in assets, liabilities, and equity items in the statement of comprehensive income and the statement of cash flows. It is anticipated that the resulting standard will apply to all business entities (public and nonpublic), but not to not-for-profit organizations or defined benefit plans.

There are substantial differences between IFRS and U.S. GAAP. U.S. GAAP is largely rules-based meaning long and complex standards attempting to deal with all scenarios. Financial Accounting Standard No. 133 on derivatives is a fine example with over 800 pages of the standard and implementation issues.

On the other hand, IFRS is a principles-based accounting system, meaning it is objective-oriented allowing for more presentation freedom. Financial Accounting Standard No. 123R on share-based payments and the SEC executive compensation disclosure requirements are attempts to move toward principles-based standards.

One of the obvious benefits of accounting standards and particularly those that are adopted globally is comparability. We are heading towards, what we, in common parlance, call apple-for-apple comparison, and not apple-for-oranges comparison. Presumably, users of financial statements are in a better position to assess the prospects of one company versus another provided both the companies use the same set of rules to report similar transactions and events. The comparability issue was the prime reason for requiring the foreign issuers in the US to reconcile their statements to US GAAP.

SECS REASONS FOR ELIMINATING GAAP : It is ironical that although the purpose of adopting IFRS is ensuring greater comparability, how does eliminating requirement of reconciliation help when most issuers in the US come there because of greater liquidity, visibility and marketing in the American capital markets. These foreign issuers would be competing with the US entities who adopt US GAAP and it would be unrealistic to expect that these foreign issuers would forego the US GAAP. In fact, they will continue to use the US GAAP because this way, they can compare their financials with the listed US entities and show how they can fetch similar market capitalization for their entities.

To circumvent this problem, if the SEC allows US issuers to adopt IFRS, there will be little need for convergence, and the concept of comparability would be highlighted. The proposed move is said to be primarily intended to make it easier and cheaper for foreign companies to list on U.S. exchanges. There has been increasing concern that the competitiveness of the U.S. capital markets has been impaired by the onerous laws and additional compliance requirements put in place in the past five years with the logical example being the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and its Section 404 Internal Control Certification requirement. A popular example – regulators, lawmakers and other interested parties in the U.S. are concerned that domestic exchanges are losing market share in IPO listings to foreign exchanges that have less cumbersome listing requirements.

Is proposed elimination of U.S. GAAP reconciliation for foreign filers premature ? Due to a variety of reasons some of which have only gained broad attention in recent weeks it appears the proposed elimination of the U.S. GAAP reconciliation for foreign filers may be premature. One of the main reasons regularly cited despite the progress in recent years by the FASB and IASB on its convergence project there are still too many differences between the two sets of standards and still have considerable room to converge further. A classic example of this can be found with GlaxoSmithKline plc a foreign filer with the SEC which prepares its financial statements using IFRS. Note 41 from GSKs 2006 Form 20-F filing provides details on the companys reconciliation to U.S. GAAP. The footnote is a whopping 13 pages long and discloses a long list of differences in reconciling shareholders equity under IFRS (9.4 billion) to shareholders equity under U.S. GAAP (34.7 billion). Although GSK may be an extreme example, I believe the U.S. GAAP reconciliation provides important visibility to investors on the material differences in a foreign companys financial results between IFRS and U.S. GAAP. Eliminating the reconciliation would prevent investors from adequately assessing a companys performance and performing peer comparisons.

A paper titled Principles-based accounting standards was issued by some of the worlds largest accounting firms including Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, KPMG, Grand Thorton and BDO Seidman giving their overwhelming support for moving to single set of global accounting standards and specifically IFRS. They argued in the above paper that IFRS are more principles-based and in particular allow for reasonable judgment.

Many accounting experts argue that IFRS is of a lower quality and needs significant improvement. Certainly, the disclosures under IFRS are far less detailed than those required under US GAAP. Also, the moot point is does it make sense to allow companies to revalue property, plant and equipment considering that it is not for sale ? In addition, IFRS bans the use of LIFO flow of cost assumption as it relates to inventory. While the arguments for and against the various flow of cost assumptions are numerous, one has to submit that LIFO provides the users with information that is a better predictor of future results. Similarly, under IFRS 8, on Segment Reporting, a company can define a segment using its own discretion. Items such as segment revenue, segment asset, segment segment expense and current liabilities are left undefined. My question is how can differing definitions of what a segment is bring about comparable information for the users of financial statements. Or for that matter, useful information ? Even in India, as per AS 17, if the case of a vertically integrated segment meets the quantitative norms for being a reportable segment, the relevant disclosures are to be made. However, IAS 14 of IFRS encourages, but does not require, the reporting of vertically integrated activities as separate segments. According to the same IAS 14, a segment identified as a reportable segment in the immediately preceding period on satisfying the relevant 10 % threshold, shall be reportable segment in the current period also if the management judges it to be of continuing significance. (Note : The IASB has recently issued IFRS 8 on Operating Segments which would supersede IAS 14 with effect from January 2009).

Besides, the IASB has not yet addressed important issues such as revenue recognition and lease accounting. Should we presume that revenue recognition is to be left to the auditors reasonable judgment and to the best of his knowledge and belief ?

Just like conversion to US GAAP, gave different lists; so has conversion to IFRS. Under European Union Law, 2007 was the first year that many foreign firms listed on U.S. exchanges were required to begin using IFRS. They have experienced varied results. For example, Diamler Chrysler first report using IFRS increased the automakers tax earnings by $ 819 Million to $ 5.2 Billion, while EPS (Earnings Per Share) increased by 68 cents. Operating Profit, or Earnings before interest and taxes, dropped by $ 38 Million to $ 7.5 Billion under IFRS. The switch also reduced the loss suffered by the companys Chrysler divisionthe only unit to show a lossfrom $ 1.5 Billion to $ 682 Million. The company attributed most of the above variation to the way pension obligations are booked under the IFRS. For example, retroactive pension-plan adjustments are immediately entered into the income statement under IFRS; whereas, under US GAAP, the adjustments are distributed over the remaining service period.

Fair value accounting of IFRS

One common criticism about IFRS is that it is heavily loaded in favour of fair valuation principles and these principles are very subjective and would result in significant volatility in periodic results. IFRS is fair-value driven and this often produces unrealized gains and losses. How will income tax treat these unrealized gains and losses ? Besides, can unrealized gains be distributed as dividends within the contours of Companies Act 1956 is the debatable point.

China Construction Bank, The Bank of China and The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China have launched mega-IPOs in the last couple of years. But after decades of rapid loan growth; they, along with other Chinese banks, state investment companies, credit co-operatives, are now sitting on record Non-Performing Loans (NPLs). The Chinese NPL market is one of the largest in the world with, according to one estimate, a total outstanding principal balance of over a trillion dollars, which is about 40% of Chinas GDP. How are these NPLs to be reflected at fair value and at what point of time their diminution in value is to be recognized ?

In India, State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda (BOB) and Bank of India (BOI) are all set to book mark-to-market losses from 5 -10%. The exposure of these banks are $ 1 Billion, $ 1.5 Billion, $ 150 Million and $ 300 Million respectively to subprime loans. Here also, at what point of time these subprime losses are to be recorded as having crystallized ? Are we going to allow some time for these subprime losses to recover ? Or do we recognize them immediately on fair value principles as soon as it appears they are going sour ? And whos call is this finallythat of the auditor, that of the management, or of both ?

Markets in complex pieces of paper such as CDOs (Collateralized Debt Obligations) and CDSs (Credit Default Swaps) are in disarray. If assets can be priced realistically, trading can resume. Yet in practice, fair value accounting, appears not to be delivering on its promise to help mitigate systemic risk. The problem seems to be arising over illiquid assets.

The US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has introduced a three bucket taxonomy to categorize marks to market.

Bucket # 1 is for assets that have observable market prices.

Bucket # 2 is for less frequently traded securities that can be priced by reference to similar assets.

Bucket # 3 is for assets with unobservable inputs where value is based on management assumptions. This where the CDS (Credit Default Swaps), CDOs (Collateralized Debt Obligations) and other exotic credit market instruments would lie. There will always be scope for friction here because company auditors, worried about their professional liability and using conservative accounting principles, may coerce management into adopting valuations close to fire sale valuations.

This will lead to a vicious circle. Because, if you mark down assets excessively, the solvency of the financial system could be eroded.

An unusual situation could arise where although on a fair value basis or mark-to-market basis, there could be loss but if the loss is expected to reverse itself over the life of the insured credit derivatives, as happened in the case of the monoliner MBIA which although threw up a pre-tax loss of $ 3.5 Billion on mark-to-market basis, expected to actually incur loss of only $ 200 Million.

If my loan accounts are marked-to-market under fair value accounting, it runs a predatory risk because by means of an hostile takeover, the predator can launch an assault on my firm. During the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s, the worlds biggest banks would have been insolvent if their loan books had been valued realistically. But to stave off runs on banks by uninsured wholesale depositors in the protracted period needed to rebuild bank capital, the authorities allowed loans to remain at book value on the bank balance sheets. The ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) should make sure that it is neither behind of the curve nor ahead of the curve. In the days of the Latin American debt crisis, provisioning against loans was progressive, permitting capital ratios to be maintained. This policy of regulatory forbearance would theoretically be possible today. Illiquid assets that are now flowing into the accountants third bucket could be kept on bank balance sheets at book value until maturity. But forbearance carries the risk of moral hazard. Hard look needs to be given to all these issues. The ICAI has always been very conservative in its accounting policies and this has stood it in good stead, and should be careful in adopting fair value method of accounting across-the-board and in situations.

At the end of the day, in the interests of globalization, convergence to IFRS is essential for India to align itself with the rest of the world; however the transition will not be smooth and we as members of the Chartered Accountancy profession need to put our heads together to ensure that foreign investors in our country do not get deterred by inconsistent policies and rules and regulations, which may get even more apparent as we move into the IFRS era.

Reference :

Concept Paper entitled Convergence with IFRSs in India issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

Note : Mr Sunil Kewalramani is a WHARTON BUSINESS SCHOOL MBA and CEO, GLOBAL CAPITAL ADVISORS.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY :

A) THE CONVERGENCE AGREEMENT BETWEEN FASB (OF USA) AND IFSB, AND BETWEEN IAS (INDIAN ACCOUNTING STANDARDS) AND IFSB is significant and will have dramatic impact of Indian companies listing in US and American companies listing in India

B) THERE IS NO SINGLE PATH TO CONVERGENCE, but an open-minded pursuit of the highest quality guidance should result in standards that foster superior financial reporting

C) CONVERGENCE will require changes in US, Indian, International standards as well as those of countries who are trying to implement the convergence.

D) INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS may change to follow accounting standards in a particular country. For example, international accounting standards resemble U.S. standards in accounting for discontinued operations.

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