CafeTalks

Today i saw the ad of a leading financial co. making their (false/cheating)commitments. The ad reiterated the importance of security of your money. For the last 4-5 years, there had been a bandwagon trend of investments in India in which the money of general-public was being blindly invested/risked in so called 'growth' or 'acclerator' funds, and those funds which talked about being conservative & cautious were thought to be a fool's choice. But today while the whole world is reeling under 'acute' recession, funds cos. are trying hard to convince the investors with some 'back to basics' choices by making a conservative and cautious investments. Today banks are very cautious in lending various types of loans or issuing credit cards.
But just an year ago these very cos. were making fun of public-money by playing very risky games with the investor's hard-earned money. Many financial/marketing cos. were upselling 'ULIP' schemes or Mutual Funds by explaining such risky & sophisticated investment-schemes merely over the telephone to ordinary laymen who had little idea of NAVs or even the Objective of the Funds in which their money was being invested/risked. They rushed their marketing execs. across to the customer's place; defying all the ethics these execs themselves not only just filled-up the forms but also selected the critical/material details like the Percentage of his investment going into Equity & Debt without even asking to that person whom it mattered the most! These malpractises kept on going and the companies kept on doing monopolies in the name of providing 'personalised' services (of robbing money) and our govt. kept on sleeping over it. And it's not a hidden fact that most of the so-called 'Baap of Funds' today are giving negative returns to the tunes of anywhere between -20 to -55%. So where in this world has gone such huge amount of money which the public had invested by relying on the promises made by these Cos. the BSE, the SEBI, the RBI and last but not the least the Federal Govt itself? This money flowed into the 'black holes' of bad debts, into the losses incurred by numerous failed enterprises, into the huge salaries of the loss-making organisations, into the risky 'sub-prime' type loans which were never paid back or the most recent scandal which has been dubbed as the 'Enron of India' the Satyam Debacle. It's evident that during the economic-boom (at least on BSE) in india, the financial Cos. as well as the Federal Govt. became a little bit overambitious (or greedy) and in order to push the limits, they perhaps crossed it. The fall-out is infront of us which the general-public is suffering. Its an ironical fact to digest that these Cos. steer clear of any regulatory/punitive actions just by mentioning- 'investments are subject to market risks'!! Today the ordinary investor feels cheated and has lost confidence in the economic system itself, it will certainly take much longer time to regain that.

Zimbabwe will introduce a 100 trillion dollar note, in its latest attempt to keep pace with hyperinflation that has left its once-vibrant economy in tatters, state media said today.

The new 100,000,000,000,000 Zim-dollar bill would have been worth about USD 300 (225 euros) at Thursday's exchange rate on the informal market, where most currency trading now takes place, but the value of the local currency erodes dramatically every day.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is introducing three other notes in trillion-dollar denominations of 10, 20 and 50, the government mouthpiece Herald newspaper said.

"In a move meant to ensure that the public has access to their money from banks, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has introduced a new family of banknotes which will gradually come into circulation, starting with the 10 trillion Zimbabwe-dollar," the bank said in a statement quoted by the Herald.

Just last week, the bank had introduced billion-dollar bills in denominations of 10, 20 and 50 with the same goal, but those notes are no longer large enough to keep up with hyperinflation.

The last official estimate put inflation at 231 million per cent in July, but outside experts now believe it is many times higher.

When Zimbabwe's leader Robert Mugabe first took power in 1980, following independence from Britain, the local unit was worth about the same as the British pound.
(Disclaimer: Article taken from The Times of India, NewDelhi edition, dated 16th Jan. 2009,copyright of the publisher acknowledged.)

Recently, a very interesting incidence took place in the avenue of marketing & advertising in India. A leading coffee manufacturing co. (name not tobe disclosed) actually toyed with the idea of making the consumers fool by masking the deterioration in the quality of their product to call it an innovation.
The leading coffee brand was being sold throughout the country by the varient name- 'Classic' since many decades. But as we know, the coffee industry is not in a very good condition these days, or whatever might the reason be, the quality has also suffered drastically. so the 'coffee barons' toyed with the idea of masking their shortcomings by making the Indian consumers a fool. They advertised and marketed this low-quality product as the 'Mild' varient. They tried very hard to 'shove' the product into the consumers preference by bolstering it with many intellectual ads on TV (based on 'mild' relationships of mankind), but it proved tobe futile. Coz, the consumers were not ready to accept the coffee in 'mild' form. They always preferred a strong and refreshing cup of coffee. So the ad proved tobe counter-productive and finally after a 5-6 months trial-period, the ad barons returned back to the same age-old 'classic' varient. Though, the quality has not improved, still the consumers have welcomed the reversal because at least they don't feel to be cheated for what they have paid..

Airline cos. in India are cheaters, they ask the govt. to reduce fuel surcharge but themselves incease the fare. When the civil aviation ministry appeals them to reduce the fare, they ask the govt. to decrease the price of Aviation Turbine Fuel. When due to abrupt increase in fare, passangers are turning away, they decrease the salaries of their crew members and ground staff to make-up the loss. Though it looks attractive to see the increase in numbers of airline services operating in the country, but actually they have joined the bandwagon to 'suck' the domestic air-travellers in the country. One can't imagine, howmuch they can fall when it comes to providing the quality of their services and commitments. They make a trade-off with just every one- the passangers, their own staff members, the government, every one. Actually, why they raise somuch hell if they can not provide good services..?

Recently, the whole world is watching what's going on in Gaza.. I don't want to discuss who is right, who is wrong.. what's justified.. what's the solution.. etc. Presently, what's going on in Sri-Lanka between the armed forces and the LTTE..? A few months back, the world also saw what did the Russian forces do in South Ossetia and Georgia. Before that we all knew what happened in Iraq, Afghanistan..and how the US dealt with the Taliban, so on and so forth. But one significant event/disaster which is missing here is similar in nature but far different in handling approaches- the Mumbai terror attacks. So let's discuss how the Govt. of India has dealt with it so far. While the response of the whole world has been 'zero-tolerance' against terrorism, the approach of the Indian Govt. is 'compromise'. Should not the Indian Govt. identify the groups/organisations behind it and order the Armed Forces to selectively/precisely destroy the terrorist camps operating in various parts of Pakistan and POK..?
While every other sovereign country has the right to take remedial actions against terrorism, why India always chooses the path of compromising its people's safety..? My messege to the Govt will be that its true that we are the second most populous Nation in the World but still, human resources is not that a cheap thing tobe wasted and fed to these barbarians!!

(Disclaimer: 1). all the opinions described above is purely personal, it has nothing to do with actual facts or relevance. 2). The above content is just for public viewing and is purely non-commercial. 3). Before using the above contents any person or organisation is advised to cross-check its authenticity from relevant sources, the writer does not vouch for its correctness)

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