Arsenal 's future team!!!!!

A long due post……..

Hi all……

My post was long due….

The budget was a crucial event this year as key decisions had to be taken with regards to the fiscal stimulus and inflation without compromising on growth.

The fiscal deficit target for this year was pegged at 5.5 % which was disappointing as such a target would be largely achieved by disinvestment and auction of 3G spectrum. In order to achieve a good quality fiscal deficit, non planned expenditure needs to be reduced. Hence, a target of 5% would have displayed the FM’s resolve of reducing the non planned expenditure. Another key concern is that the FM should not compromise on CAPEX in a bid to reduce the fiscal deficit as CAPEX investments give returns in the long run.

My concern was partially alleviated with the amount of Infrastructure spending announced by the Finance Minister. This would encourage the infrastructure companies to increase their volumes. Moreover, increasing the refinancing limit of IIFCL would increase the availability of cheap funds. However, certain aspects were disappointing. The increase in MAT by 300 basis points would not only result in lowering of book profits, but an increase in cement and steel prices as well which would affect the profitability of this sector. I also have doubts on the success of infrastructure bonds as money would be locked for 5-10 years for a measly rate of 5-6% making them less attractive investment options.

The Finance Minister raised a lot of smiles by raising the IT slab. This seems an illusion to me as the income that an individual would save through direct taxes would be consumed by indirect taxes due to the increase in excise duties. The hike in food prices would create additional burden on the consumers.

The increased focus on clean energy impressed me the most. With the introduction of clean energy cess and the creation of a National Clean Energy Fund, the finance minister has not only paved way for the emergence of a new sector but has also sent a strong message to the international community about India’s commitment to solve the Climate change issues. The government’s intention of transitioning to GST in 2011 is another positive step as a simplified taxation system leads to increased revenues.

 After the recession, it was imperative to reflect optimism in the budget. Although, the budget did manage to setup certain trends, it reflected a certain degree of over cautiousness too.

Something on realty!!

Well, I apologize to my readers about the delay in the budget post. I am still in the process of analyzing it and expect my first part of analysis to be out within the next 3 days. However, I read something interesting on real estate which I intend to share.

There was an interesting article on foreign debt or ECBs into the sector. Now, real estate sector is not allowed to use ECBs by the Indian government. When I tried analyzing the reason, I observed that this happened in 2007 when the economy started overheating. It was felt that if ECBs are allowed a real estate bubble could open up. Now, a burst could cause the economy to come down. Hence, a timely intervention was done to avoid this burst. I intend to discuss the real estate burst phenomenon in one of the later posts.

But interestingly, ECBs are still flowing into the sector. The mechanism is an interesting one. The Real estate company issues the bonds which are bought by NBFCs. These bonds are then listed in the stock exchange. Hence, the local finance firms act like a storage place to such bonds, and when they get the right price, they sell it to a foreign fund. All transactions done and quite legally too.

Now, in my opinion, this becomes a cause of worry. Already, the FM has realized the overheating of the economy due to which the CRR rate has been hiked and fiscal stimulus being withdrawn. With such funds being infused, we run the risk of inflation and excess liquidity. Hence, the government needs to step in and plug this loophole. One possible way could be to prevent the listing of such bonds. FIIs can only invest as long as the bonds are listed in Stock Exchanges. If we could prevent them from being listed, we could actually control the ECBs into the sector.

Goodbyes hurt the most, when you don’t get to say them!!!!!

Before I start my entry, I must thank one of my closest friends, SJ, to reignite the pensieve as I had slowly started turning into an impulsive writer. Now, to my entry:

Today, I went to watch “Karthik calling Karthik” which, of course was a brilliant movie. However, one line struck me the most, the line I write in the title above. It put my deepest thoughts in plain words, something that I had failed to express all this time.

This has happened with me not once but twice. And each time, I felt deeply impacted. Luckily for me, the first one did not actually end in a goodbye and as fate would have had it, I once again came in touch and the camaraderie was again at the same levels.

It is the second one which has always pricked me like a thorn. This person became a great friend, a person I chilled out with and suddenly the communication channels got lost. I tried contacting the person, sent emails but to no avail.

The day I was disembarking for a new phase in my life, I wanted to say a final goodbye to this person. I wanted to ask what had gone wrong, I was ready to shed my ego, just to relive those fun moments that I had with the person one last time. I wanted to say that I might have been a bit ridiculous, stupid at times, but all this was just to lighten things up. I wanted to say that I always considered the person to be a part of my special group of friends for whom I was willing to go out of the way. I wanted to say all this and much more……. But I could not.

Recently, I got a linkedin invitation. I thought that probably the temper had died down. But, as things later turned out , I was wrong.

I know that my entry may never reach the person eyes, but I’d like to say that I did whatever I could with utmost sincerity and honesty. I had made numerous attempts and had compromised with my ego to the limit. However, I was made to swallow this bitter pill. And the bitterness now stays……………

On a lighter note, I also visited Archie’s where I saw this interesting board which said “ Women are more talented than men….While men succeed after numerous attempts, they require a single attempt” I leave the interpretations open….

My next entry: II’ll analyze the budget 2010-2011.

Till then, cheerio

devzz

The land of dhoklas,khandwis and of course dandia

As I started off from Delhi, I felt strangely excited and sad. Sad because I would be leaving my family and it almost broke my heart bidding them goodbye. Excited because I was going to a place which is the least known amongst Punjabis.

My knowledge about Gujarat, I must confess is frightfully limited. For me, it meant a state where there is a lot of sweet food, lot of dhoklas and dandia with colourful clothes. Hence, I was strangely curious about this state.

As I landed, I was surprised to see such a silent airport. Being a Delhiite , this was a strange contrast. As I moved towards my destination, I was equally astonished to see the advancement that Gujarat has made. Compare this with a state such as UP, this state is progressing by leaps and bounds.

My entry won’t be complete without a mention on Gujarati folks. In the northern side, one is more used to language that may be a bid strong at time. But the folks, their hospitality and politeness has left me impressed.

I’ll close my entry here. I’ll write about my visit to Sabarmati Ashram in the next post. Till then cya…

devzz

Virtualization

I explored this concept recently. The term virtualization was coined in 1960s and this refers to a virtual machine. Recently, you will more often see it being referred as platform virtualization.
In this particular thing, the host operating system shares its physical resources such as RAM, HDD with its guest operating system. The environment that is then created appears as if the guest operating system is independent of the host system.Thus, what you get in the end are two personal computers sharing common physical resources but very different from one another.
You may be wondering why I brought this topic up. It has been a common concern these days about the compatibility of vista with several programmes. To get rid of these problems, one can either use the compatibility wizard which may not have 100% success rate or reinstall xp. Reinstalling xp can be a bit of a problem as certain systems may not have the drivers readily available. Besides, even if the drivers are available, it would take ages to reinstall and often result in unforeseen issues. Virtualization is thus the answer.

The image that you see above shows you the real life implementation of virtualization. I had vista installed and using a virtual machine I could install xp without disturbing my vista. More importantly, I did not have to reinstall any of the drivers or fiddle with any bios settings. Sony Vaios could be a bit of doubt here as they do not have virtualization settings available.
This aspect is very useful for developers or students who face compatibility issues and don’t wish to do anything extreme to run their legacy applications.

Recommended software for windows: Microsoft Windows Virtual PC
Recommended software in general : VMWare, VMBox etc

Love AajKal and other things

Well, this movie seems to have been a lot in the news. I recently had a chance to see it and much to the annoyance of others, I would give it a 2. Well, the movie started off at a lovely note, such as a break up party, which triggered off expectations. But, as it unfolded it had a sense of deja vu as it summarized old and new love stories. I feel lucky in a way. I saved 200+ bucks on a movie that I was about to spend on.

My Advice: Guys watch Luck instead. That is an underhyped movie butt deserves more respect, atleast more than love aajkal. Girls plz have a second thought. There is nothing in the movie to die for (quoting one of my friends).

Some new music has come up: For headbangers like me, there is this : Dhan Te Nan from the movie Kaminey. The wordings are something like this

Aaja Aaja dil nichode

raat ki matki tode

Koi good luck nikaale

Aaj Gullack tode……

Dhan Te Nan Te Nan

The music rocks

 

Being a Salman Khan Fan , I would also advice listening to this song : Love Me Love Me from the film Wanted