GaneshSrinivasan’s blog

Source: Silicon India

New Delhi: India is set to earn Rs.80 billion ($1.87 billion) a year in foreign exchange from medical tourism by 2012, according to a study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).

With easy visa facilities to overseas patients coupled with best emerging medical infrastructure facilities, India's medical tourism can become a lead foreign exchange earner and the earnings will grow from the existing Rs.35 billion annually to Rs.80 billion a year by 2012, Assocham president Venugopal N. Dhoot said.

The study on Prospects of Medical Tourism for Higher Forex Earning was done under the supervision of the health committee of Assocham, headed by Sir Ganga Ram Hospital chairman B.K. Rao.

"The primary reasons as to why medical tourism would flourish in India include much lower medical treatment costs for various ailments, such as bone narrow transparent, bye-pass surgery, knee surgery and liver transplant as compared to western countries," Dhoot said in a statement Monday.

"The cost of medical treatment is very high in the western countries, forcing patients from Africa, the Gulf and various other Asian countries to explore medical treatment in India," he said.

He noted that the medical infrastructure in the country has geared up to provide them non-subsidized medical treatment at far lower costs.

Other factors boosting medical tourism include India's strength in traditional treatment in homeopathy, naturopathy, ayurvedic and unani systems which are becoming very popular because they do not have side effects, said Dhoot.

He called for more allocation for the health sector which would lead to proliferation of new health facilities and centres of medical excellence, which in turn will finally be able to service overseas patients.

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Source: Times of India

Namrata Singh | TNN

Mumbai: With Dublin firm AgCert becoming the first carbon credits company to go into examinership, the signal to Indian companies pursuing clean development mechanism (CDM) projects is loud and clear: Understand project risks and manage them well. AgCert ran into financial problems as it could not meet its carbon credit delivery commitments to polluting companies.

As a result, its debts mounted to E90 million.

With the UN methodology to register emission reduction projects getting tougher, Indian industry is worried about similar outcomes, if risks are not entirely covered.

JSW Steel deputy GM Suresh Iyer said, “Companies need to do proper due diligence for CDM projects to assess the quantum of carbon credits expected to be generated. Factors like operational efficiencies, plant availability, etc, need to be taken into account before contracting part of the volume based on conservative estimates.’’

Risks across the carbon asset monetisation cycle are varied. According to CantorCO2e India MD Ram Babu, “Price risk can be mitigated by entering into at least part forward contracts or options. But project, technology and regulatory risks are to be managed by project developer/advisors. CDM revenue,as expected,will not accrue if companies don’t understand and manage the risks involved in the CDM process and project.’’

Issuance of CDM projects are falling short of registration by at least 30%.This is due to a shortfall in project performance, changes/clarification in the methodology.

There are times when companies, in a bid to get a better price for future credits, enter into contracts giving delivery guarantees even though their project type are known to have huge fluctuation in annual carbon credit generation.

Enam Holdings emerging business head Vishal Kedia said: “In some hydro projects, for example, there will be considerable annual fluctuations, as it is a ‘spill-over’ dam that only comes into play when there is enough water to fill the main dam and sufficient surplus to fill the second. In such a scenario, companies take unnecessary risks of fulfilling delivery guarantees by buying carbon credits from the open market.’’

Hence, though the contracted rate for delivered carbon credits is high in the agreement, in reality, the company’s realisation is much lower or even negative (after account for the loss they incur by buying credits in open market at higher rates). “In case the buyer of delivery-guaranteed credits gets into a financial mess, there is a risk of the buyer initiating litigation to enforce delivery guarantees offered by Indian company,’’ said Kedia.

According to JSW’s Iyer, companies can mitigate the risks by building in suitable “condition precedent’’ clauses/automatic termination clauses and non-guarantee clauses in the emission reduction purchase agreement (ERPA).

Note: Contents from other well known sources are for Knowledge Exchange and Not for Any Commercial Gains. Also they provide Authenticity - Ganesh Srinivasan

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By: Brian Tracy

Clarity accounts for probably 80% of success and happiness. Lack of clarity is probably more responsible for frustration and underachievement than any other single factor. That's why we say that "Success is goals, and all else is commentary." People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine. This is true everywhere and under all circumstances.

The Three Keys to High Achievement

You could even say that the three keys to high achievement are, "Clarity, Clarity, Clarity," with regard to your goals. Your success in life will be largely determined by how clear you are about what it is you really, really want.

Write and Rewrite Your Goals

The more you write and rewrite your goals and the more you think about them, the clearer you will become about them. The clearer you are about what you want, the more likely you are to do more and more of the things that are consistent with achieving them. Meanwhile, you will do fewer and fewer of the things that don't help to get the things you really want.

The Seven Step Process for Achieving Goals

Here, once more, is the simple, seven-step process that you can use to achieve your goals faster and easier than ever before.

• First, decide exactly what you want in each area of your life. Be specific!
• Second, write it down, clearly and in detail;
• Third, set a specific deadline. If it is a large goal, break it down into sub-deadlines and write them down in order;
• Fourth, make a list of everything you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal. As you think of new items, add them to your list;
• Fifth, organize the items on your list into a plan by placing them in the proper sequence and priority;
• Sixth, take action immediately on the most important thing you can do on your plan. This is very important!
• Seventh, do something every day that moves you toward the attainment of one or more of your important goals. Maintain the momentum!

Join the Top 3%

Fewer than three percent of adults have written goals and plans that they work on every single day. When you sit down and write out your goals, you move yourself into the top 3% of people in our society. And you will soon start to get the same results that they do.

Review Your Goals Daily

Study and review your goals every day to be sure they are still your most important goals. You will find yourself adding goals to your list as time passes. You will also find yourself deleting goals that are no longer as important as you once thought. Whatever your goals are, plan them out thoroughly, on paper, and work on them every single day. This is the key to peak performance and maximum achievement.

Action Exercises

Here is how you can apply this law immediately:

• First, make a list of ten goals that you would like to achieve in the coming year. Write them down in the present tense, as though a year has passed and you have already accomplished them.
• Second, from your list of ten goals, ask yourself, "What one goal, if I were to accomplish it, would have the greatest positive impact on my life?" Whatever it is, put a circle around this goal and move it to a separate sheet of paper.
• Third, practice the seven-step method described above on this goal. Set a deadline, make a plan, and put it into action and work on it every day. Make this goal your major definite purpose for the weeks and months ahead.

Get ready for some amazing changes in your life.

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By: Brian Tracy

Organize Your Life Around Your Family, Your Career and Your Personal Goals

You need to stand back on a regular basis and analyze yourself, your life and your time usage. You need to become a master of your time rather than a slave to continuing time pressures.

Your Most Precious Resource

Time is your most precious resource. It is the most valuable thing you have. It is perishable, it is irreplaceable, and it cannot be saved. It can only be reallocated from activities of lower value to activities of higher value. All work requires time. And time is absolutely essential for the important relationships in your life. The very act of taking a moment to think about your time before you spend it will begin to improve your personal time management immediately.

The Starting Point

Personal time management begins with you. It begins with your thinking through what is really important to you in life. And it only makes sense if you organize it around specific things that you want to accomplish. You need to set goals in three major areas of your life. First, you need family and personal goals. These are the real reasons why you get up in the morning, why you work hard and upgrade your skills, why you worry about money and sometimes feel frustrated by the demands on your time.

Decide Upon Your Goals

What are your personal and family goals, both tangible and intangible? A tangible family goal could be a bigger house, a better car, a larger television set, a vacation, or anything else that costs money. An intangible goal would be to build a higher quality relationship with your spouse and children, to spend more time with your family going for walks or reading books. Achieving these family and personal goals are the real essence of time management, and its major purpose.

How to Achieve Your Goals

The second area of goals is your business and career goals. These are the "how" goals, the means by which you achieve your personal, "why" goals. How can you achieve the level of income that will enable you to fulfill your family goals? How can you develop the skills and abilities to stay ahead of the curve in your career? Business and career goals are absolutely essential, especially when balanced with family and personal goals.

Personal Development Goals

The third type of goals is your personal development goals. Remember, you can't achieve much more on the outside than what you have achieved and become on the inside. Your outer life will be a reflection of your inner life. If you wish to achieve worthwhile things in your personal and your career life, you must become a worthwhile person in your own self-development. You must build yourself if you want to build your life. Perhaps the greatest secret of success is that you can become anything you really want to become to achieve any goal that you really want to achieve. But in order to do it, you must go to work on yourself and never stop.

Action Exercises

Here are three things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

• First, develop the habit of stopping on a regular basis and thinking about what is really important to you. The more often you stop and think, the better decisions you will make.
• Second, decide clearly upon your personal and family goals. Write them down. Discuss them with others. Be clear about why you are doing what you do.
• Third, take some time to think about your career goals and the steps you will have to take to achieve them. Do something every day that moves you forward in all three areas.

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By: Brian Tracy

All the top salespeople ask good questions and listen carefully to the answers. One of the most important skills of listening is simply to pause before replying. When the prospect finishes talking, rather than jumping in with the first thing that you can think of, take three to five seconds to pause quietly and wait.

Becoming a Master of the Pause

All excellent listeners are masters of the pause. They are comfortable with silences. When the other person finishes speaking, they take a breath, relax and smile before saying anything. They know that the pause is a key part of good communications.

Three Benefits of Pausing

Pausing before you speak has three specific benefits. The first is that you avoid the risk of interrupting the prospect if he or she has just stopped to gather his or her thoughts. Remember, your primary job in the sales conversation is to build and maintain a high level of trust, and listening builds trust. When you pause for a few seconds, you often find the prospect will continue speaking. He will give you more information and further opportunity to listen, enabling you to gather more of the information you need to make the sale.

Carefully Consider What You Just Heard

The second benefit of pausing is that your silence tells the prospect that you are giving careful consideration to what he or she has just said. By carefully considering the other person's words, you are paying him or her a compliment. You are implicitly saying that you consider what he or she has said to be important and worthy of quiet reflection. You make the prospect feel more valuable with your silence. You raise his self-esteem and make him feel better about himself.

Understanding With Greater Efficiency

The third benefit of pausing before replying is that you will actually hear and understand the prospect better if you give his or her words a few seconds to soak into your mind. The more time you take to reflect upon what has just been said, the more conscious you will be of the their real meaning. You will be more alert to how his words can connect with other things you know about the prospect in relation to your product or service.

The Message You Send

When you pause, not only do you become a more thoughtful person, but you convey this to the customer. By extension, you become a more valuable person to do business with. And you achieve this by simply pausing for a few seconds before you reply after your prospect or customer has spoken.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

• First, take time to carefully consider what the customer just said and what he might mean by it. Pausing allows you to read between the lines.
• Second, show the customer that you really value what he has said by reflecting for a few moments before you reply.

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Source: Times of India

Have Raised $263 Billion From Sovereign Wealth Funds, Governments And Public Investors To Shore Up Capital

New York: Banks and securities firms, reeling from record losses resulting from the collapse of the mortgage securities market, are failing to acknowledge in their income statements at least $35 billion of additional writedowns included in their balance sheets, regulatory filings show. 

Citigroup subtracted $2 billion from equity for the declining value of home-loan bonds in its quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 2 without mentioning the deduction in the earnings statement or conference call with investors that followed. ING Groep NV placed 3.6 billion euros ($5.6 billion) of negative valuations in its capital account, while disclosing only an 80 million-euro depletion to income. 

The balance-sheet adjustments are in addition to $344 billion of writedowns and credit losses already reported on the income statements of more than 100 banks. These companies have raised $263 billion from sovereign wealth funds, their own governments and public investors to shore up capital. The balance-sheet writedowns also reduce equity, which needs to be replenished. Adding the $35 billion leaves the banks with a $116 billion mountain of losses to climb. 

“The smart people are the ones who’ve identified the problems, put them out there in full transparency, and addressed them by raising more capital,’’ said Michael Holland, who oversees more than $4 billion as chairman of Holland & Co in New York. “There are still billions of dollars of crap out there that hasn’t worked itself through the system. Banks need more capital to work that all out.” 

Banks that are more willing to acknowledge their balance-sheet writedowns, such as Amsterdam-based ING, say the valuations of assets will be reversed when markets recover. ING, the biggest Dutch financial-services company, said in its firstquarter earnings report last week that the drop in the value of bonds tied to home loans that are held to maturity is irrelevant as long as the underlying mortgages don’t default. 

With that logic, most of the writedowns on the income statements could be reversed if asset prices recover. While some declines in valuations may reverse, most of the losses are permanent impairments caused by surging defaults on US mortgages, said Janet Tavakoli, author of “Collateralized Debt Obligations & Structured Finance,’’ published in 2004 by John Wiley & Sons Inc. 

“Of course we can’t tell how much of a bank’s portfolio may actually be good stuff that will pay back at maturity,” Tavakoli said. “But there’s tremendous value loss that’s fundamental, not just due to credit market gyrations.” 

Keeping those markdowns off income statements just delays the realisation of the losses, according to Brad Hintz, a New York-based analyst at Sanford C Bernstein & Co. 

“The banks that have taken advantage of this accounting approach are going to have a price to pay later,” said Hintz, the third-highest ranked securities analyst in an Institutional Investor magazine survey. “You don’t avoid the price. Those that have taken it all in their income statements will come out with clean balance sheets and move on.” Ignoring bad debt and postponing inevitable losses was one of the main reasons behind Japan’s decade-long economic slump that began in the 1990s, said Boston University law professor Charles Whitehead. 

Faced with new capital requirements and a weakened ability to meet them, Japanese banks deferred the recognition of their losses, aided by regulators who refrained from implementing the rules, Whitehead wrote in a 2006 paper published in the Michigan Journal of International Law. 

“US regulators may be tempted to go soft on banks too,” said Whitehead, who teaches securities regulation, in an interview. A review of the balance sheets and regulatory filings of more than 50 banks showed that 20 of them chose to keep some subprime-related losses off their income statements. The marks were recorded instead on balance-sheet items labeled “other comprehensive income” or “revaluation reserves.” Seattlebased Washington Mutual, which has taken $217 million of subprime-related writedowns against profits, kept a bigger amount on the other-comprehensive-income line of its balance sheet. 

Merrill Lynch, which has booked $31.7 billion from market markdowns in its income statements, is keeping another $5.3b of losses on its balance sheet. Declines in asset prices have spread beyond subprime though, affecting other mortgage bonds, securitised car and student loans, leveraged lending that backs PE buyouts and credit derivatives. The writedowns aren’t finished yet. Fitch Ratings expects $110 b in additional losses. When all that is included, the IMF estimates that total losses from the US subprime debacle will reach $1 trillion, of which $510 billion will be born by banks. That means some $130 billion in losses remains to be taken. “The $100 billion hole between writedowns and capital raised so far needs to be filled,” said Michael Mayo, a New York-based analyst who tracks the financial-services industry at Deutsche Bank AG. “If you don’t fill that hole, with the 20-to-1 leverage existing on average out there, you need to de-lever $2 trillion of assets. You can do that or raise more capital.” One way to increase capital has been to halt or slow down the pace of share buybacks. AGENCIES

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Ganesh Srinivasan: This is a part of my Referral Service, no commercial interest

From Message posted in Plaxo Forum

Outside the box financing on commercial, construction, acquisition & development projects from $1M - $500M and Standby letters of Credit, direct to providers for Proof of Funds/Balance Sheet Enhancements from $250k-$500 Million.

Good for qualifying for a large project financing, bond financing, net worth requirements, blocked funds for investments. Proof of Funds program is a sub bank account or escrow account in the clients name for 30,60,90 days all the way up to 1 year.

-Standby Letter of Credit
-Proof of Funds
-Acquisition & Development Financing
-Hotels & Luxury Resort Financing
-Bond Financing
-Bridge Loans

Licensed with the DRE. Specializing in commercial and hard money loans. As a Financial Catalyst in the capital markets since 1990 specializing in corporate finance. Raised over a half of billion dollars. Access to public and private financing. Non-traditional money sources. Debt or equity financing strategies, real estate financing for construction and development projects. Stock loans on public securities for real estate investments.

LISA GORDON
Mortgage Banker
Direct: 818/772-0675 Fax: 818-772-6043

Email: lisag@vertexpacifica.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/vertexpacifica

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Ganesh Srinivasan's Comment: This is one of the best practices, to be emulated by others in auto sector and even from other industry segments

Source: Times of India

Pankaj Doval | TNN

New Delhi: The recent rise in prices of key inputs like steel has led automobile companies go for placing major bulk orders by combining their requirements and that of their key vendors. 

While fighting the rising material costs, companies are increasingly focusing on new ways to keep purchasing costs low as part of efficiency measures to keep margins healthy. Community purchase, which involves adding the commodity requirements of vendors to the company’s own plans, is one such way. 

Major automobile companies like Hero Honda, Maruti and Ashok Leyland have been consolidating key purchasing requirements for more bargaining power and striking better and more cost-efficient deals. Ajay Seth, GM (finance) at Maruti Suzuki, said aggregation of purchasing is being done in the company for many key commodities.

“For steel, we have been doing this for many years and with rising commodity prices becoming a problem in various others markets, this programme is gradually going global.” 

Seth said the philosophy firming up within Suzuki is to aggregate requirements of various big markets and then buying in bulk for all of them. “For example, the requirements of Hungary, China, India or Japan can be aggregated and the sourcing can be done from anywhere in the world,” he said. 

Maruti not only sources its steel from India but also buys from abroad from companies like Posco. 

Pawan Munjal, Hero Honda MD, also said the recent spate in prices of commodities had prompted the company to go for such steps. “Consolidation is certainly going on in terms of purchasing and we are thinking of joint procurement for Hero Honda and some important vendors.” This, he said, was among the steps the company was taking to cut down manufacturing cost and maintain margins that have come under pressure due to the rising commodity prices. 

K Sridharan, chief financial officer at commercial vehicle manufacturer Ashok Leyland, agreed common procurement helped in keeping the purchasing costs under check. He said the company was aggregating requirements of the company along with 7-8 other vendors. Apart from this, the company was also sourcing fully-built components from other cheap locations, including China, to keep purchasing costs low. 

“Yes, China is one of the locations we buy components from and it offers us cost benefits. The procurement of components from China has been building up over the last few years and now is to the tune of a few million dollars,” he said. 

Surinder Kapoor, chairman of the Sona group that manufactures a variety of components, agreed that automobile companies had been engaging them for joint purchasing of commodities. “All OEMs have been working on this and this is something that helps in keeping purchasing costs under check.”

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Source: Times of India

Italian truck maker Iveco, a company owned by Fiat, has said it will resume talks with India’s Tata Motors for a commercial vehicle joint venture in Latin America, South Africa and southeast Asia.

“We are considering an agreement (with Tata) in Latin America, South Africa and southeast Asia for joint development of vans and trucks. From the Indian part there was a pause to allow closure of the acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover. Soon, however, dialogues will resume,” Iveco CEO Paolo Monferino told the Il Giornale daily.

Tata has a JV with Fiat to produce and market cars, engines and commercial vehicles, while Iveco has dissolved a relationship with Ashok Leyland.

A tie-up with India’s largest automobile company will help Iveco leverage on the technologies that Tata Motors bought from Daewoo. AGENCIES

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Source: Times of India

Udit Prasanna Mukherji | TNN

Kolkata: Singapore-based infrastructure and hospitality firm Universal Success Enterprises (USEL) is planning a major foray in India’s power sector. Universal Success Energy — the newly floated USEL subsidiary — is in the process of acquiring four coal blocks in Indonesia and China for the power venture in India. 

Discussions have already been initiated with a few state governments for the power plants. The group is on the lookout for coastal locations like Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal for the power plants. 

Promoted by NRI industrialist Prasoon Mukherjee, USEL has a strong presence in South-East Asia’s oil sector and is undertaking infrastructure projects in India through JV with Unitech group and Indonesia-based Salim group. Mukherjee said the group wants to become one of the top power entities in India within 5-7 years. “Lot of companies have acquired power trading licenses, but most of them do not have coal mines or coal linkages. But, we would soon have coal blocks with a capacity of 50-60 million tonne per year,” he said.

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