HOW TO RECRUIT THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THE JOB?

Put about 100 bricks in some particular order in a closed room with an Open window.

Then send 2 or 3 candidates in the room and close the door.

Leave them alone and come back after 6 hours and then analyze the situation.

- If they are counting the bricks, put them in the accounts department

- If they are recounting them, put them in auditing

- If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks, put them in engineering

- If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order, put them in planning

- If they are throwing the bricks at each other, put them in operations

- If they are sleeping, put them in security

- If they have broken the bricks into pieces, put them in information technology

- If they are sitting idle, put them in human resources

- If they say they have tried different combinations but yet not a brick has been moved, put them in sales

- If they have already left for the day, put them in marketing

- If they are staring out of the window, put them on strategic planning

- And then last but not least, If they are talking to each other and not a single brick has been moved, “Congratulate and put them in top management”

Strange mail from Axis Bank !!

I received the following mail from Axis Bank saying someone has tried to access my Axis personal account and that's why I'm alerted. The mail looks original but the point is that I'm no way connected to Axis Bank.....


"Security Alert!: Transaction Activity in Your Account!

Attention! Your Axis Online Banking Account has been violated!

Someone with IP Address 81.102.72.19 tried to access your personal account!

In accordance with Axis Online Banking User Agreement and to ensure that
your account has not been compromised, access to your account was limited.

Your account access will remain limited until this issue has been resolved."

Provident Fund - Procedures, Problems and Solutions

During my tenure as an HR person all these years, I have been approached by many people to clarify their queries on Provident Fund. Invariably, everyone has something to be clarified in this topic, but all are must-ask queries and significant. Many people are not even aware that they contribute some amount every month through their salary and it can be withdrawn / be transferred after they quit their services.

In order to explain what is Provident Fund, it's applicability, percentage to be deducted, the procedures, the problems faced by people while withdrawing / transferring and how to overcome those problems, I have come up with an article and I'm sure it would be useful for the readers.

Click here to read the article

Launch of Cogzidel Templates

We are glad to announce the launch of Cogzidel Templates (www.cogzideltemplates.com) - a bank for ready-made templates, themes and skins at unbelievable low costs.

Undoubtedly, it can be adopted;

- for famous open source scripts like Oscommerce, Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal etc and
- for social networking like Twitter, Orkut, Myspace etc

We offer our products at lesser prices, in order to convert every viewer as our customer, and at the same time, to make our products affordable for the interested mass.

We thank Major Karthik, the person behind this concept and Senthil Guru & Balasubramanian who help to convert the concept into reality.

Products are qualitative and prices are very reasonable, so what are you waiting for ? It’s time to download,,,,, go on and enjoy !!

Pls check: www.cogzideltemplates.com

Minimum Authorised Share Capital required for Companies in India

There are many important points to be noted before fixing up the authorised share capital of the companies in India. Here is my article that discusses this topic in detail.

click here to read.....it's interesting, don't skip

Rules about investments in trading companies in India

A trading company incorporated in India may issue shares or convertible debentures to the extent of 51% of its capital under the Automatic route to non-residents subject to the condition that remittance of dividend to the shareholders outside India is made only after the company has secured registration as an export / trading / star trading / super trading house from the Director General of Foreign Trade in the Ministry of Commerce.

click here for more.....

Foreign Direct Investments in India

Investment under sector specific guidelines

Investments by a person resident outside India can be made under the Automatic route if the investment falls within the sector specific investment guidelines. FIPB permission is required for investments beyond the sector specific investment guidelines, or where specific approval is required.

click here to know more.....

Foreign Investments in India

The Central Government’s liberalization and economic reforms programme aims at rapid and substantial growth and integration with the global economy in a harmonised manner. Industrial policy reforms have reduced industrial licensing requirements, removed restrictions on investments and expansion and facilitated easy access to foreign technology and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

click here to read more.....

India - An Attractive Investment Location

There are several good reasons for investing in India:

- One of the largest economies in the world with a stable democratic environment throughout 60 years of independence

- Large market size with middle class population of 250-350 million, along with increasing purchasing power reflected by remarkable increase in purchase of consumer durables in recent years

read more....

Business and Investment Climate in India

ECONOMIC FACTORS

The Indian economy rapidly integrates with the world economy. A foreign investor who is interested to undertake business in India will find tremendous opportunities. The Industrial Policy of India offers a great deal of freedom to business houses and entrepreneurs to make their own investment decisions.

India has seriously gone through more than a decade of economic reforms. Continuity in the economic / global liberalisation process and the political consensus that economic change necessitates has placed India on a growth path.....

read more....

Business Incubation and Bootstrapping Services - a solution for Startup Challenges

A nice article by my dear friend - Anand Nataraj. A must-read content...

Click here to read

Post-incorporation Procedures

What are the procedures to be followed after incorporating / floating / registering a company ?

Click Here for knowing the procedures

How to form a company in India?

It's been a dream for most of us to be an entrepreneur. Those who want to incorporate a company in India can go through my article to have a clear understanding of the procedures.

Click here to read the article

Tax Structure in India


1) Qus. : What are you doing?
Ans.: Business.
Tax: PAY PROFESSION TAX!

2) Qus. : What are you doing in Business?
Ans.: Selling the Goods.
Tax: PAY SALES TAX!!

3) Qus. : From where are you getting Goods?
Ans.: From other State/Abroad
Tax: PAY CENTRAL SALES TAX, CUSTOM DUTY & OCTROI!

4) Qus. : What are you getting in Selling Goods?
Ans.: Profit.
Tax: PAY INCOME TAX!

5) Qus. : Where are you Manufacturing the Goods?
Ans.: Factory.
Tax: PAY EXCISE DUTY!

6) Qus. : Do you have Office / Warehouse/ Factory?
Ans.: Yes
Tax: PAY MUNICIPAL TAX!

7) Qus. : Do you have Staff?
Ans.: Yes
Tax: PAY STAFF PROFESSION TAX!

8) Qus. : Doing business in Millions?
Ans.: Yes
Tax: PAY TURNOVER TAX!

9) Qus. : Are you taking out over 25,000 Cash from Bank?
Ans.: Yes, for Salary.
Tax: PAY CASH HANDLING TAX!

10) Qus. : Where are you taking your client for Lunch & Dinner?
Ans.: Hotel
Tax: PAY FOOD & ENTERTAINMENT TAX!

11) Qus. : Are you going Out of Station for Business?
Ans.: Yes
Tax: PAY FRINGE BENEFIT TAX!

12) Qus. : Have you taken or given any Service/s?
Ans.: Yes
Tax : PAY SERVICE TAX!

13) Qus. : How come you got such a Big Amount?
Ans.: Gift on birthday.
Tax: PAY GIFT TAX!

14) Qus. : Do you have any Wealth?
Ans.: Yes
Tax: PAY WEALTH TAX!

15) Qus. : To reduce Tension, for entertainment, where are you going?
Ans.: Cinema or Resort.
Tax: PAY ENTERTAINMENT TAX!

16) Qus. : Have you purchased House?
Ans.: Yes
Tax : PAY STAMP DUTY & REGISTRATION FEE !

17) Qus. : How you Travel?
Ans.: Bus
Tax: PAY SURCHARGE!

18) Qus. : Any Additional Tax?
Ans.: Yes
Tax: PAY EDUCATIONAL, ADDITIONAL EDUCATIONAL & SURCHARGE ON ALL THE CENTRAL GOVT.'s TAX !!!

19) Qus. : Delayed any time Paying Any Tax?
Ans.: Yes
Tax: PAY INTEREST & PENALTY

Nice One !!

Received a forwarded funny message from one of my colleagues and thought I could share it with you !!

If you have difficulty in understanding the current world financial situation, the following should help...

Once upon a time in a village in India, a man announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10.

The villagers seeing there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at $10, but, as the supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their efforts. The man further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now act as buyer, on his behalf.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: 'Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when he returns from the city, you can sell them back to him for $50.'

The villagers squeezed together their savings and bought all the monkeys.

Then they never saw the man or his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!

"Welcome to WALL STREET"

Rain is a Pain ??

Yesterday, the 24th day of October 2008, I had a terrific experience while returning back to home in the evening. I got a call from home saying that it was still raining, the area where I reside is completely flooded with waters and no vehicle can enter the road. Though I imagined the situation, I thought I could manage.

Scene 1: Raining heavily

Scene 2: With heavy laptop on hand, I was standing inside a crowd where everyone was looking to catch an auto.

Scene 3: No auto-driver was ready to carry us because of rains, water stagnation and traffic jam.

Scene 4: I won at my tenth attempt, a driver came for rescue, but said he would charge 100 bucks (you know, normally it takes 30, but they know that when demand increases, prices also increase).

Scene 5: Thought problem solved, but not really.

Scene 6: Water peeped inside the auto and struck off at one place midway through. He did some magic and got it ready.

Scene 7: Again stopped in few minutes for lack of fuel. Long queue on the nearby petrol bunk, waited for 25 minutes to get the filling.

Scene 8: Since we couldn’t take the direct route considering the road conditions, he showed me the city for 100 bucks and finally reached North Boag Road from where my home is about few minutes drive.

Scene 9: Held up in traffic and couldn’t move a little bit….it was still raining, vehicles were completely mess-up, two staff buses were facing each other blocking the entire road…

Scene 10: After waiting for 20 minutes in auto, paid him the cash and needed to walk down.

Here comes the catch,,,

- water levels on the ground were above my knee levels,
- no space to move here or there
- grounds were already in digged condition for some piping work, hence not sure which way to walk
- Few electrical wires were hanging from transformer boxes
- Many cars were struck on the roads, and couldn’t move back

Though it looks silly, the situation made me to feel whether some thing wrong will happen.

After confirming that my insurance policies are alive currently, I walked in the middle of the road on the drainage-mixed rain waters. Finally, reached home safely though my Franco Leone shoes (worth 2k INR) have lost its life.

Fixed Maturity Plan : Favour of the Season

We have many FMPs from different Asset Management Companies from time to time. It is a very good instrument and offers few benefits which are unique if compared to other debt instruments. I’m pleased to share a detailed product note on this subject to refresh the memory of all.

About FMPs:

FMPs are closed ended funds with a fixed maturity period which could be as little as 15 days or as long as five years. Objective of this investment is to protect the investors against market volatility and generate steady returns.

Working of FMPs:

FMPs are managed as a passive scheme and the fund manager looks to invest money in instruments with maturities corresponding to the maturity of the plan. For example – a 90 day FMP will invest in instruments that mature within this period. The fund manager locks the investments at a certain yield at the time of inception itself which protects the principal and fights against volatility.

They invest primarily in fixed return investments like Government bonds and money market instruments (very short-term fixed return investments) which are almost risk-free investments.

Investment Pattern:

FMP predominantly invests in debt instruments or some high quality corporate papers with a rating, Government Securities, bonds etc.

Advantages of investment in FMP are

a) Fights interest rate risk
b) Fights market volatility
c) Capital Protection

Tax Calculation:

Returns generated by FMPs come under the purview of Capital Gains.

For Short-term: less than a year

If an investor puts money in a FMP of less than one year tenure, then the entire capital gains is combined with the income and is taxed according to the tax bracket the investor falls into. If the investor falls in the tax bracket of 30%, then the returns are taxed at 33.99% (including surcharge and education cess).

For Long-term: One year or more than one year

If an investor invests in a 12 months or more than 12 months series, then he would be taxed at :

10% without indexation
20% with indexation

Who should invest in ?

For investors who are risk-averse and do not want to play with their savings, this is the option. Even those investors who have some money and want to invest for a very short period of time then this is the best option. Investors can also avail tax benefits by investing in a one year plus FMPs which offers indexation benefits, especially in the month of March.

E-mail communications can be considered as vaild evidence:

The new company law which is being drafted by the government is likely to recognise e-mails as a valid piece of evidence. With corporates relying on e-mails for bulk of their communication, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs is planning to recognise electronic communication by corporates as evidence during company law prosecutions.

Regulatory changes in this regard would clear the air on the evidentiary value of electronic communication including emails. With the present law on the subject yet to gain clarity, it is felt that the move would tighten the noose around companies, who often bank upon regulatory loopholes to save themselves.

Officials say that the new company law, expected to be placed in Parliament soon, would provide for necessary changes to this effect. The changes are likely to provide prosecuting agencies a strong hand in their crackdown on matters of infringement of company law provisions.

Under the present law, there is no specific recognition of e-mails as evidence. Officials point out that this lack of clarity has often been exploited by companies facing prosecution. The officials also point out that the basic ground work towards the move is almost ready with the inception of the ministry's e-governance project. The project named MCA-21 has enabled computerisation of documents and records filed by companies.

The new company law has laid substantial importance to both means to check corporate frauds as well as ways to crack them. The government feels that companies should not be let off due to lack of evidence.

It is also learnt that the government at various levels is trying to harmonise related legislation's like Information Technology Act and Evidence Act on the subject, so as to avoid regulatory overlaps.

Even as the company law awaits amendments to this effect, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) feels corporate e-mails could be crucial evidence in cartel investigations. The CCI recommends enterprises to maintain a check on electronic correspondence of its marketing personnel and distributing agents to ensure that they do not engage themselves in anti-competitive activities.

Great Methods of Marketing:


1. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to

her and say: "I am very rich, Marry me!"

- That's Direct Marketing... "
________________________________________


2. You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see

a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her

and pointing at you says: "He's very rich, Marry him."

-That's Advertising. .."
________________________________________


3. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her

and get her telephone number. The next day, you call and

say: "Hi, I'm very rich, Marry me

- That's Telemarketing. .."
________________________________________


4. You're at a party and see gorgeous girl. You get up

and straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour

her a drink, you open the door (of the car)"Marry Me?"

- That's Public Relations... "
________________________________________


5. You're at a party and see gorgeous girl. She walks

up to you and says: "You are very rich!

"Can you marry ! me?"

- That's Brand Recognition. .."
________________________________________


6. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to

her and say: "I am very rich. Marry me!" She gives you

a nice hard slap on your face.

- "That's Customer Feedback..."
________________________________________


7. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to

her and say: "I am very rich. Marry me!" And she

introduces you to her husband.

- "That's demand and supply gap..."
________________________________________


8. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to

her and before you say anything, another person come

and tell her: "I'm rich. Will you marry me?" and she

goes with him

- "That's competition eating into your market share..."
________________________________________

9. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to

her and before you say: "I'm rich, Marry me!" your wife arrives.

- "That's restriction for entering new markets..."

The CFO’s first hundred days

McKinsey Global Survey about Chief financial officers around the world describes their first hundred days on the job as a time when most received guidance, but many had difficulty devoting enough time to their top priorities.

New chief financial officers may not be spending their time where it’s most needed, according to the survey.

Finance chiefs, globally and across industries, report spending most of the first hundred days on budgeting, management reporting, and financial reporting. By contrast, they think that the most crucial activities during that time are understanding the drivers of the business, providing input into corporate strategy, and building the finance team.

Why are there such differences between what they do and what they regard as important?

There is no simple answer to this. One cannot put the clock back. Every day the situation changes, and the responses and actions will have to be tuned to the situation. CFO must be able to assess the business needs and act.

Fortunately for new CFOs, as they respond to their fluid situations most have strong support from the CEO. More than three-quarters of the respondents say that they received explicit guidance from the CEO in the first hundred days on the job, and 46 percent say that the CEO was a mentor. CFOs also are more likely to name the CEO than anyone else as having been helpful in making big decisions early on.

Almost twice as many CFOs credit the CEO with playing that role as credit their finance staff. A majority of CEOs strongly support the CFO’s involvement in strategy; more than half of our CFOs say that the CEO expects them to challenge the company’s strategy, though CEOs see other activities as more important. Nearly 90 percent of CEOs encourage the CFO to be an active member of the senior-management team. This is good news for CFOs, given the ongoing evolution of their role, the increasing visibility of their statutory responsibilities, and their considerable interest in corporate-wide strategic initiatives.

Indeed, nearly three-quarters of the CFOs reported that they would like to be involved in strategy, and those who wished they had spent more time with the CEO say that they wanted to talk about strategy more than anything else.

Finally, relatively few CFOs say that the finance staff would explicitly articulate its expectations to a new CFO. However, when staff members did provide explicit guidance, the CFOs say, their priorities differed from those of CFOs and CEOs. This makes a CFO’s communications with the finance team all the more crucial. A CFO is likelier to communicate with the team ad hoc and in person than in any other way.

Alignment of expectations, nearly four-fifths of the CFOs report that the CEO provided explicit guidance about expectations of the new CFO; CFOs at private companies were significantly more likely to report getting such guidance than those at public ones.

CFOs overall say that the activities the CEO most often describes as important are being an active member of the senior-management team, contributing to the company’s performance, and ensuring that the finance organization is efficient.

Furthermore, more than two-thirds of CFOs say that the CEO expected them to improve the quality of the finance organization, and more than half that the CEO expected them to challenge the company’s strategy.

CFOs overall showed little propensity to make fundamental staffing changes during the first hundred days, though CFOs of private companies were more likely to do so than their counterparts at public ones.

CFOs who planned fundamental changes in financial accounting and reporting or financial planning, budgeting, and analysis (FP&A) were significantly more likely than not to have had formal plans to do so. Overall, FP&A and accounting are two out of the three areas that demand most of a new CFO’s time, as well as the areas where CFOs made the most fundamental changes.

CFOs hired during or after a turnaround are more likely to report that redesigning the finance organization was crucial. Building relationships, most CFOs tell us they communicated widely during the first hundred days, holding regular in-person meetings with the core finance team and the broader finance staff and (in many cases) making themselves available for ad hoc discussions as well.

Interestingly, CFOs who report being satisfied with their performance during the first hundred days are far more likely than those who are not satisfied to report having held in-person meetings with both the core finance team and the broader finance staff.

They also report having more communications overall. CFOs at large companies tend to report communicating across every channel (except broadcast e-mail) more than CFOs at smaller companies do.

CFOs hired at companies during or just after a turnaround are much more likely to report having used ad hoc communications - probably a result of the fast pace and high uncertainty common in such situations. These CFOs are also more likely to have held in-person meetings with the finance staff.

Relatively few CFOs—just over a quarter—report not having enough resources and support to make the transition a success. However, that figure rises to a third among CFOs of public companies.

CFOs who wanted more help most often said they would have liked three things:
- better access to internal information,
- more time with the CEO or the board, and
- the ability to bring new people into the finance organization.

Also, more than 60 percent of CFOs overall report that they would have liked to spend more time with business unit heads. Of the two-thirds of respondents who were external candidates for the CFO role, a majority report that the major challenges during the first hundred days were building credibility and understanding processes.