Cola and Pepsi

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time" quote from Abraham Lincoln is the most suitable for Pepsi and Coca Cola which are multinational companies and market their cold drinks in India. The cold drinks are of no nutritional value and have harmful pesticides. They hide this fact while advertising their products. Film stars and cricketers are used in the advertisements to misguide the youth of India.

This fact was put in public by Delhi based Center for Science and Environment (the report). They had experiment on the cold drinks and proved that they contain pesticides more than allowed quantity. This report and Swami Ramdev's aggressive propaganda against these drinks helped to reduce the sell figures of these companies. Foods and Drugs department of Maharashtra have banned sell of these drinks in schools and colleges. Now Sports department of Center has started advising sportsperson not to act in advertisements for cold drinks. Due to this, these companies have to introduce fruit juices.

Sell figures of Coca Cola is reducing since 3 years after the reports. Since the report, sell of Cola drinks reduced about 60%. Even during summers, when generally the sell goes up, did not improve any sell during these three years. Aggressive advertisements also did not work.

During 1977, the ruling party then, had kicked Coca Cola from India. During 1991 Government of Narsimha Rao allowed Pepsi to market its products in India. Thereafter NDA Government gave permission to Coca Cola to sell its products in India. In absence of Coco Cola, Thums UP had covered major market share. But Coca Cola took over the Thums Up. Aggeregate sell of both the companies is about Rs. 6,000 Crore. But Coca Cola has achieved break-even but Pepsi is yet not making any profit mainly due to advertisements and other overhead expenses.

Sharad Pawar and committee accepted that the report is right and drinks contain pesticides. But as usual, as the companies donate huge funds to all parties, the drinks are not yet banned in India. Rajasthan Court had ordered to print on the bottle the quantity of pesticides. Even the Supreme Court ordered the same, but the companies didn't obey the court and do not print the same as on today.

Increase in sell of fruit juices and Chhaas proves that Indians are now more awareness towards health. Sell of fruit juices in bottles and tetrapack has crossed Rs. 1,800 Crore and is increasing 30% per year. And more interestingly, Indian companies are leaders in the field and Pepsi and Coca Cola are behind them. "Real" a brand of Dabur has captured 57% of market share. "Tropocana" of Pepsi could not capture even half of the share captured by "Real". Amul sells curd, Chhaas and Lassi under the brand name "Masti" and the sell is increasing rapidly. Amul sell flavoured milk under the brand name "Cool". "Energy" milk of Aarey is quite popular in Mumbai. When a glass of juice of sugarcane is available in Rs. Rs. 4-5, only idiots get ready to pay Rs. 10 for drinks with poisonous ingredients.

But these companies are multinational and have plenty of money. Now they are introducing foreign drinks as "health drinks".

The fall of America

French demographer Emmanuel Todd's "After the Empire" is best seller in Europe and is now available in English.

Who is Emmanuel Todd ?

He is one of the few who predicted the collapse of the Soviet Empire in his book published in 1976.

Now in his book "After the Empire", he has predicted collapse of USA. And he has reason to explain why he thinks so.

Read what he says.............

After World War II, Japan and Europe accepted USA leadership as a safeguard, with the military power of USA , against Soviet Union. But now the circumstances are changed. Soviet union is no more strong. Europe is now industrial more powerful than the USA. USA administration policies pushed Europeans closed to resource rich Russia.

The USA entered the 20th Century with plenty of resources of natural resources, powerful industrial production, and imports were less than the exports which made USA the most powerful and self-reliant economy of the world. It began exporting its manufacturing and technology base in the 1980s and has since run up a skyrocketing trade deficit - and a foreign debt of nearly one and a half billion dollars a day.

Companies like Wall-Mart, now produce their products in poor countries, out of America, like China and Bangladesh. This not only increased unemployment in USA, but widen the import-export gap. In 1990s , the import-export gap was 10,000 Crore US $, which now has grown to 7,63,000 Crore US $. America has become a sort of black hole - absorbing merchandise and capital but incapable of furnishing the same goods in return.

During 1940s, half of the goods, produced in the world, were produced in USA. Now most of the goods are produced by China and Japan.

Because of idea of USA being rich, European and Asian countries sell products on credit. If these countries stop selling their goods on credit to USA, then collapse of USA will be the only result. Now-a-days European countries are trying the best to promote their Euro against US $. The day Euro replaces US $ in international business, America will follow the footprint of Russia.

CEOs

Did you ever think, why any product or service is so costly ? In all the expenses companies try to find cheaper alternatives even at compromise in qualities of products or services (to some extent) except expenses for advertisement and salary to CEOs.

Advertisement expenses are useful to make public aware of the products or services but not to the extent corporates are doing it. For many products, advertisement is just a trap for consumers, which encourages them to buy the products or services which they do not need or not at least at the price company offers. Do you know new use of bike ? It is used to impress girls. (advertisement says so).

But, here I will like to talk about salary that is paid to CEO of a corporate. After getting huge amount of salary, one's duty will be to get more and more and more business for the company at any cost and they do it honestly, too. That means they also try to trap the consumers. They actually think and manage to get more business, but in my opinion, the persons actually working in field to get the business as per plan of CEOs, should also get sufficient salary.

Now let's us check salary of top CEOs in India.

• Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Industries, 44.02 Crore annually.
• P R Ramsubrahmanaiya, Madras Cement, 24.00 Crore annually.
• Kalanidhi Maran, Sun TV, 23.62 Crore annually.
• Sunil Bharti Mittal, Bharti Airtel, 15.00 Crore annually.
• K Anji Reddy, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, 14.04 Crore annually.
• Brijmohan Munjal, Hero Honda, 13.99 Crore annually.
• Pawan Munjal, Hero Honda, 13.88 Crore annually.
• Naveen Jindal, Jindal Steel, 13.50 Crore annually.
• Pankaj Patel, Cadilla Health, 12.43 Crore annually.

Before few years salary of a CEO was not more than 3 Crore annually.

It surely counts towards cost of the product and this is why it is so costly. Why do not they go for cheaper alternatives.

But all CEOs must see if all the employees of the company are getting enough salary or not. Success of a CEO depends on the employees of the company.

Other articles :

• Angadia Services
• Gujarati Businessmen
• Karshanbhai Patel of Nirma

Industry, City, Country

Check the list, it may be useful for your business.

Format is Industry, City, Country

• Agricultural Implements, Chicago, USA
  
• Automobiles, Detroit, USA
• Carpets, Teheran, Iran
• Chocolate, Melbourne, Australia
• Cigars, Havana, Cuba
• Cork, Cadiz, Spain
• Cotton, New Orleans, England (UK)
• Cutlery, Sheffield, England (UK)
• Dairy Products, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Dairy Products, Wellington, New Zealand
• Diamond, Antwerp, Belgium
• Diamond, Tel Aviv, Israel
• Diamond, Mumbai, India
  
• Engineering Works, Essex, England (UK)
• Films, Hollywood, USA
• Films, Los Angeles, USA
• Glass, Venice, Italy
• Glass, Vienna, Austria
• Glass, Antwerp, Belgium
• Gold mines, Johannesburg, South Africa
• Gramophones, Chicago, USA
• Granite mining, Aberdeen, Scotland (UK)
• Iron & Steel, Pittsburgh, USA
• Jute, Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Jute, Dundee, Scotland (UK)
• Linen, Dundee, Scotland (UK)
• Oil fields, Yenang Yaung, Myanmar
• Oil mining, Los Angeles, USA
• Oil refineries, Abadan, Iran
• Optical and Photographic instruments, Dresden, Germany
• Paper, Oslo, Norway
• Paper, Ottawa, Canada
• Petroleum, Baku, Azerbaijan
• Rayon and Textiles, Tokyo, Japan,
  
• Ship - Building, Plymouth, England (UK)
  
• Ship - Building, Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Ship - Building, Belfast, Netherlands (Ulster)
• Ship - Breaking, Bhavnagar, India
  
• Shipping, Bangkok, Thailand
• Silk, Lyons, France
• Silk, Milan, Italy
• Sugar, Havana, Cuba
• Sugar, Port Louis, Mauritius
  
• Textile Machinery, Glassgow, Scotland (UK)
• Watches, Geneva, Switzerland
• Wine, Oporto, Portugal
  
• Woolen Garments, Leeds, England (UK)

If you know any city which is famous for an industry. Either write in comment or write to us, we will update this page.

Other Articles :

• Gujarati businessmen from rags to riches.
• Unfair bank charges
• Karshanbhai Patel of Nirma

Zimbabwe and Inflation

Inflation rate in India is between 7 and 8, the price hike in all the grains is more than 20 % compared to last year's figures at the same time. Suppose the inflation figure touches to 165000 % what will happen ?

Though this will not happen in India, it has happened in Zimbabwe. Yes, in Zimbabwe the inflation rate is world record high of 165000 %, and it is increasing 64320 % every month. When the inflation is more, the purchase power of that currency decreases. In Zimbabwe the currency is known as Zimbabwe Dollar and written as Z$. A person with Lacs of Z$s is living under poverty line. Because to buy one cigarette (and not packet), one needs 6 Lac Z$. One toilet paper costs 8 Lac Z$. A packet of bread costs 2.50 crore Z$.

In Zimbabwe earning of poor family may be 10 crore Z$, but with this money one can buy only bread-milk for 8 days. A shopkeeper doesn't give bill for the purchase as the same costs him 5 Lac Z$.

The buying power of Z$ is going down so sharply that in a week the value of Z$ gets reduced to half.

The Government used to print new notes whenever needed and result of which is that now Government has no money to buy grains, gas and petrol from the international market.

25 % of the total population of 120 Lac migrated to nearby countries. For 1 US $ you will get 2.50 crore Z$.

Other Articles :

• Speed Of Computer
• Maharashtra Government and Farmer
• India Is Net Exporter of Food, Mr Bush

Now get paid to hear an ad on your mobile

Chennai-based Airvoice Infocomm Pvt Ltd. has developed a software that enables a cell phone user to hear an advertisement and also may be paid to do so. The name given to the software is HapAd.

Airtel will test the software in Tamilnadu circle in Jul-Aug 2008. Deployment in other circles will be decided on the basis of response in Tamilnadu.

The service is subscription-based. There will be several options for the subscriber like the type of the advertisement one will like to hear, duration of the advertisement and one may skip any of the advertisement too. How the subscriber will be rewarded will be decided by the service provider. They may opt for automatically adding the talk time of equivalent value, or cash refund or point system or the amount may be deducted from the bill.

The responsibility of procuring the advertisement lies with software provider, so the company can get more revenue it it has more advertisement.

The advertisement revenue will be shared by Airvoice for providing the software and procuring advertisements, mobile companies for providing their network, and the subscriber who subscribes to hear the advertisement when he dials a particular number provided.

With a mobile subscriber base of 250 million, and as an estimation, it will grow to 650 million in 4 years, the cell phone will become a big advertisement tool.

Other Articles :

• Vastu Shastra for Land
• Vastu Shastra for House
• Speed of computer

Investment in Froeign Share Market

Investing in foreign stock markets.

Before we proceed, let us clarify some points. Share market will not always move as per our assumption or study. To be precise, it may move exactly opposite what we have assumed or studied. But it is safer to invest in different options of investing, so that the risk in a particular option is minimized to some extent. In such a volatile market, you may have started thinking of different option as compared to domestic share market. Besides many other options, investing in share markets abroad is one.

How to invest in foreign stocks :

In recent years RBI has reduced and yet reducing restrictions on Indians investing abroad offering a range of new investments. ICICI Direct and Reliance Money has allowed investors the option to invest in foreign stock markets. Both ICICI Direcr and Reliance Money allows to invest in US stock exchanged thro' collaboration with US broker. In US exchanges many MNCs also get listed. Reliance Money allows to trade in UK stock exchanges in addition to US stock exchanges. Both these brokerages also provide research and information services so that investors can make better informed choices.
But check following points before investing in foreign markets.

• Foreign investments are taxed at a higher rate.
• Must take into consideration movements in foreign exchange rates.
• International transactions are costlier and complicated.
• Research in foreign markets is major point. It may not move as per our domestic market.

To get rid of all these, you may invest in Indian Mutual funds which are investing in different foreign markets. The risk will be lowered and you will get benefit of aggressive research done by the Mutual Fund Team. You may start investing in MFs and after you become comfortable and bit experienced may start investing in individual stocks.

Related Articles :

• Types of Life Insurance Policies
  
• Investment in Gold
• Diamonds
  

Is investment in Gold good ?

Gold price at its new high ? Will it sustain there ?

Gold has increased 15 % in last quarter. Gold has reached new high. But the main question is will it continue to grow to new heights or it's time for gold to decline ? For the answer we have to check the reasons for making gold so precious.

The reasons are :

It's now obvious that US is facing a recession, naturally US $ is weaker against other currencies. Globally share markets are very weak. So investors have turned to buy gold for investment. Crude prices are very high resulting in increase in price of gold. Till recession period in US is not over, global shar markets and US $ will remian weak, crude prices will be higher and that of gold, too.For domestic market, FM in his budget has risen the tax exemption limit. People will have more money which formerly they used to pay the tax. Now with this money most of people in India will go for savings. And gold is the best option of savings in India.So in my opinoin gold prices will hike more.

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Types of life insurance policies

Types of life insurance policies

Insurance is good option of savings and coverage of life. In this article, we will talk about Life Insurance. Before a person purchase any policy or even call the agent to understand different policies the company offers. It may happen that either the agent may not understand the requirement or he / she may not give enough time to explain different types of policies.

There are four types of Life Insurance Policies.

1. Whole life policy.

2. Endowment policy

3. Term policy

4. Unit linked policy

1. Whole life policy :

In this type of policy, life coverage is for the whole life and premium payment period may be life long or for a limited period. LIC, the giant life insurance company, has considered the life of a policy holder to be 80 years. So in this policy, one will get money back on maturity i.e. at the age of 80 (with accrued bonus), or death whichever is earlier. In this types of policies, the premium may be less as the period of payment is more.

2. Endowment policy :

In this type of policy, we can decide the term of life coverage and premium payment i.e. monthly, quarterly, half yearly, yearly or one time payment. In this type of policy you get the money back at an earlier age as compared to whole life policy.

3. Term policy :

In this type of policy, only the life is covered. One doesn't get bonus on the policy and hence the premium is the lowest in such policy. This is the cheapest policy.

4. Unit linked policy :

This policy is transparent. The money collected thro' such policies is invested in equity or other type of investment. One can decide where one's money should be invested, and one can check the portfolio every quarter.

One should buy policies in such a way that till his earnings, he can pay more premiums and on retirement one gets good fund from the interest of which one can live smoothly. In my opinion, the best ratio is 70 % of term policies, 20 % endowment policies, 10 % whole life policies and 10 % unit linked policies. The ratio may change as per individual needs.

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