Integer programming

An integer programming problem is a mathematical optimization or feasibility program in which some or all of the variables are restricted to be integers. In many settings the term refers to integer linear programming, which is also known as mixed integer programming when some but not all the variables are restricted to be integers.

What is zero based costing?

Costing without assumptions is known as zero based costing.In zero based costing each and every parameter of cost is derived either through Experiments or through formula.

Accounting rate of return

Accounting rate of return, also known as the Average rate of return, or ARR is a financial ratio used in capital budgeting. The ratio does not take into account the concept of time value of money. ARR calculates the return, generated from net income of the proposed capital investment. The ARR is a percentage return. Say, if ARR = 7%, then it means that the project is expected to earn seven cents out of each dollar invested. If the ARR is equal to or greater than the required rate of return, the project is acceptable. If it is less than the desired rate, it should be rejected. When comparing investments, the higher the ARR, the more attractive the investment.

Efficient Market Hypothesis - EMH'

An investment theory that states it is impossible to "beat the market" because stock market efficiency causes existing share prices to always incorporate and reflect all relevant information. According to the EMH, stocks always trade at their fair value on stock exchanges, making it impossible for investors to either purchase undervalued stocks or sell stocks for inflated prices. As such, it should be impossible to outperform the overall market through expert stock selection or market timing, and that the only way an investor can possibly obtain higher returns is by purchasing riskier investments. Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/efficientmarkethypothesis.asp#ixzz1ymBwiTw3

What Is a Statistical Hypothesis?

"A hypothesis is a statement of a relationship between two or more variables." A statistical hypothesis is simply a particular kind of hypothesis.A statistical hypothesis is either (1) a statement about the value of a population parameter (e.g., mean, median, mode, variance, standard deviation, proportion, total), or (2) a statement about the kind of probability distribution that a certain variable obeys.

Ecotourism

Ecotourism" a has proven to be a difficult task given all the different players attempting to define it. People tend to define things in terms that are beneficial to themselves, hence the variety of definitions. There are however several workable definitions currently in wide use.The International Ecotourism Society defines Ecotourism as: "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the welfare of local people".

Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO)

Legal Process Outsourcing in India achieves its current share of 3-4 percent to 6-7 percent in the USD 250 billion global market by 2010. According the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM), more than 200 top US companies are looking for offshore locations towards achieving saving of 30-70 percent. Key Areas of Expertise: - Para legal services - Intellectual property right services. - Contract review, amendments and proofing. - Litigation support, discovery and document processing; preparation of case law bibles; compilation of client / witness attendance and interview documents. - General research and review. - Corporate law. - Real estate law. - Family law. - Litigation law

Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO)

KPO is the outsourcing of specialized domain based skills and high-end knowledge. It is increasingly considered a crucial process for companies of all sizes to remain competitive in a rapidly changing business environment.

Accounting KPI (key performance indicators)

Building accounting KPIs system plays an important role in evaluating job performance of individual parts, divisions and the company’s objectives and performance management system in general. The development of accounting KPI metrics help to create measurement systems, information systems throughout the organization. I. Steps to create KPIs of Accounting examples • Setting up job purpose of Accounting department. • Setting up key responsibilities/key KRAs of this department. • Setting up elements that how to measure each KRA. • Setting up KPI of each KRA. • Summarize all KPIs of each department. II. KPI sampls for Accounting field 1. Total Liabilities: Total liabilities represent the sum of all monetary obligations of a business and all claims creditors have on its assets. 2. Cumulative Annual Growth Rate (CAGR): 3. Cash Flow Return on Investments (CFROI): This is similar to ROI, but the only difference is CASH is used inplace of Profit. 4. SG&A expenses: Selling, General, and Administrative Expenses include all salaries, indirect production, marketing, and general corporate expenses. 5. Net profit margin: Net Profit Margin equals the Total Net Income divided by Revenue, expressed as a percentage. 6. Shares Outstanding: Shares Outstanding is the outstanding number of shares of the class of common stock that is most actively traded. 7. Total Equity: Total Equity equals Preferred Stock Equity + Common Stock Equity. 8. Total Current Assets: Total Current Assets equals Cash and Equivalents + Receivables + Inventories + Other Current Assets. 9. Other Current Assets: Other Current Assets includes prepayments, deferred charges, and amounts (other than trade accounts) due from parents and subsidiaries. 10. Inventories: Inventories is merchandise bought for resale or supplies and raw materials purchased for use in revenue producing operations. 11. Net Receivables: Net Receivables are amounts owed to the company, net of any provisions for bad debts. 12. Operating income: Operating Income equals Gross Profit minus SG&A Expenses. It is the income from current operations. 13. Gross profit: Gross Profit equals Revenue minus Cost of Goods Sold. It identifies the amount available to cover other operating expenses. 14. Gross profit margin: Gross Profit Margin equals Gross Profit divided by Revenue, expressed as a percentage. 15. Cost of goods sold (COGS): Cost of Goods Sold includes all expenses directly associated with the production of goods or services the company sells (such as material, labor, overhead, and depreciation). It does not include SG&A. 16. Operating margin: Operating Margin equals Operating Income divided by Revenue, expressed as a percentage. 17. Goodwill: Goodwill is an accounting term used to reflect the portion of the book value of a business entity not directly attributable to its assets and liabilities. 18. Total Assets: Total Assets are everything of value that is owned by a company. 19. Accounts Payable: Money owed (payable) to suppliers for goods or services purchased on credit that must be paid within a year. 20. Long-Term Debt: Long-Term Debt represents the amount of borrowings due more than one year from the date of the balance sheet. III. KPIs of each position of Accounting field • Accounting assistant • Accounting coordinator • Accounting consultant • Accounting chairman • Accounting manager • Accounting officer • Accounting producer • Accounting president • Accounting recruiter • Accounting receptionist • Accounting secretary • Accounting team leader • Accounting VP

SWAP

A swap can be defined as barter or an exchange. A swap is contract whereby parties agree to exchange obligations that each of them have under their respective underlying contracts or we can say a swap is an agreement between two or more parties to exchange sequence of cash flows over a period in future . The parties that agree to swap are known as counterparties. Swap is an agreement between two counterparties to exchange two streams of cash flows—the parties "swap" the cash flow streams. Those cash flow streams can be defined in almost any manner. In other words: In a swap, two counterparties agree to a contractual arrangement wherein they agree to exchange cash flows at periodic intervals

Options

option is purchasing right but not the obligation, to buy or sell a specified underlying item at an agreed upon price, known as exercise price or strike price. In other words Options are contracts that give the buyers the right (but not the obligation) to buy or sell a specified quantity of certain underlying assets at a specified price on or before a specified date. On the other hand, the seller is under obligation to perform the contract (buy or sell). The underlying asset can be a share, index, interest rate, bond, rupee-dollar exchange rate, sugar, crude oil, Soya bean, cotton, coffee etc. An option contract is a unilateral agreement in which one party, the option writer, is obligated to perform under the contract if the option holder exercises his or her option. (The option holder pays a fee or "premium" to the writer for this option.) The option holder, however, is not under any obligation and will require performance only when the exercise price is favorable relative to current market prices. If, on the one hand, prices move unfavorably to the option holder, the holder loses only the premium. If, on the other hand, prices move favorably for the option holder, the holder has theoretically unlimited gain at the expense of the option writer. In an option contract the exercise price (strike price), delivery date (maturity date or expiry), and quantity and quality of the commodity are fixed. There are two basic types of options-call and put. A call option gives an investor right to buy underlying item during specified period of time at an agreed upon price while put option confers the right to sell it. Before going into Call and Put Options it is necessary to understand • American options can be exercised at any time between the date of purchase and the expiration date. Most exchange-traded options are of this type. . • European options are different from American options in that they can only be exercised at the end of their lives. The options on the Nifty and Sensex are European style options--meaning that the buyer of these options can exercise his options only on the expiry day. He cannot exercise them before the expiry of the contracts as in case with options on stocks. As such the buyer of index options needs to square up his positions to get out of the market. In India all stock options are American style options and index options are European style options. The significant difference between a future and an option is that the option provides the contracting parties only an option, not an obligation, to buy or sell a financial instrument or security at a pre-fixed price, called the strike price. Obviously, the option buyer will exercise the option only when he is in the money, that is, he gains by exercising the option

FUTURES

A Future contract is an agreement between two parties to buy or sell an asset at a certain time in future at a certain price. Future contracts are special type of forward contracts in the sense that the former are standardized exchange-traded contracts. In other words A future contract is one in which one party agrees to buy from/ sell to the other party a specified asset at price agreed at the time of contract and payable on future date. The agreed price is known as strike price. The underlying asset can be commodity, currency debt, or equity. The Futures are usually performed by payment of difference between strike price and market price on fixed future date and not by the physical delivery and payment in full on that date. Features Of Future Contract • An organized exchange. • Unlike the Forwards, the Future contracts are standardized contracts and are traded on stock exchange • It is standardized contract with standard underlying instruments, a standard quantity and quality of the underlying instrument that can be delivered and standard time for such settlement transactions. • Existence of a regulatory authority. • Margin requirements and daily settlement to act as a safeguard. • Leveraged positions--only margin required. • Trading in either direction--short/long • Index trading. • Hedging/Arbitrage opportunity.

Forward Contract

There are no sure things in global markets. Deals that looked good six months ago can quickly turn sour if unforeseen economic and political developments trigger fluctuations in exchange rates or commodity prices Over the years traders have developed tools to cope with these uncertainties. One of this tool is the forward agreements “A contract that commits one party to buy and other to sell a given quantity of an asset for fixed price on specified future date”. In Forward Contracts one of the parties assumes a long position and agrees to buy the underlying asset at a certain future date for a certain price. The specified price is called the delivery price. The contract terms like delivery price, quantity are mutually agreed upon by the parties to contract. No margins are generally payable by any of the parties to the other. Features of Forward Contract • It is negotiated contract between two parties i.e. Forward contract being a bilateral contracts, hence exposed to counterparty risk. • Each Contract is custom designed and hence unique in terms of contract size, expiration date, asset quality, asset type etc. • A contract has to be settled in delivery or cash on expiration date • In case one of two parties wishes to reverse a contract, he has to compulsorily go to the other party. The counter party being in a monopoly situation can command at the price he wants.

Derivative

Derivatives are financial contracts whose value/price is dependent on the behavior of the price of one or more basic underlying asset (often simply known as underlying).These contracts are legally binding agreements, made on trading screen of stock exchange, to buy or sell an asset in future. The asset can be share, index, interest rate, bond ,rupee dollar exchange rate ,sugar , crude oil, soya been, coffee etc. Everybody wants to know about them, everybody wants to talk about them. Derivatives however remain a type of financial instrument that few of us understand and fewer still fully appreciate, although many of us have invested indirectly in derivatives by purchasing mutual funds or participating in a pension plan whose underlying assets include derivative products A simple example of derivative is curd, which is derivative of milk. The price of curd depends upon price of milk which in turn depends upon the demand and supply of milk. Section 2(aa) of Securities Contract (Regulation) Act 1956 defines Derivative as: "Derivative" includes - • “a security derived from a debt instrument, share, loan whether secured or unsecured, risk instrument or contract for differences or any other form of security; • a contract which derives its value from the prices, or index or prices, of underlying securities ”. A working definition of derivative which will help to lay foundation. “A derivative can be defined as a financial instrument whose value depends on (or derives from) the values of other, more basic underlying variables.” ---John C. Hull Derivatives are compared to insurance. Just as you pay an insurance company a premium in order to obtain some protection against a specific event, there are derivative products that have a payoff contingent upon the occurrence of some event for which you must pay a premium in advance. Example Suppose you have a home of Rs. 50, 00,000. You insure this house for premium of Rs 15000 (It is a very risky house!) Now you think about policy (ignoring the house) as an investment. • Suppose the house is fine after 1 year. You have lost the premium of Rs 15000. • Suppose your house is fully damaged and broken in one year . You receive Rs 50,00,0000 on just paying premium of Rs 15,000.If you have bought insurance of any sort you have bought an option. Option is one type of a derivative.

RATIO ANALYSIS

A ratio is used as a yard stick for evaluating the financial position and performance of a firm. Ratio analysis is the process of establishing liquidity, solvency and profitability of a concern. Ratio analysis can be used by the management as a means of checking up on the efficiency with which working capital is being managed in the enterprise. This is the most important tool available to financial analysts for their work. An accounting ratio shows the relationship in mathematical terms between two inter related accounting figures. Ratio analysis simplifies the comprehension of financial statements. Ratio calculated here on the following ways: a) Assessing the liquidity. b) Assessing the solvency position. c) Assessing the efficiency in resource utilization. d) Assessing the profitability of the firm.

MANAGEMENT OF WORKING CAPITAL

Guided by the above criteria, management will use a combination of policies and techniques for the management of working capital. These policies aim at managing the current assets (generally cash and cash equivalents, inventories and debtors) and the short term financing such that cash flows and returns are acceptable.  Cash Management: Identify the cash balance which allows for the business to meet day-to-day expenses, but reduces cash holding costs.  Inventory Management: Identify the level of inventory which allows for uninterrupted production but reduces the investment in raw materials and minimizes re ordering cost and hence increases cash flow ;  Debtors Management :Identify the appropriate credit policy ie credit terms which will attract customers , such that any impact on cash flows and cash conversion cycle will be offset by increased receive and hence return on capital.  Short Financing: Identify the appropriate source of financing; given the cash conversion cycle, the inventory is ideally financed by credit granted by the supplier: however it may be necessary to utilize a bank loan, or to convert “debtors to cash”.  These items are also referred to as circulating capital.

FACTORS DETERMINING WORKING CAPITAL

Working Capital refers to that part of the firm’s capital, which is required for financing short-term or current assets such a cash marketable securities, debtors and inventories. Funds thus, invested in current assets keep revolving fast and are constantly converted into cash and this cash flow out again in exchange for other current assets. Working Capital is also known as revolving or circulating capital or short-term capital.The following factors determine the working capital requirements of a firm --- 1.     Nature of the Industry 2.     Demand of Industry 3.     Cash requirements 4.     Nature of the Business 5.     Manufacturing time 6.     Volume of Sales 7.     Terms of Purchase and Sales 8.     Inventory Turnover 9.     Business Turnover 10. Business Cycle 11. Current Assets requirements 12. Production Cycle 13.     Credit control 14.     Inflation or Price level changes 15.     Profit planning and control 16.     Repayment ability 17.     Cash reserves 18.     Operation efficiency 19.     Change in Technology 20.     Firm’s finance and dividend policy 21.     Attitude towards Risk

Health Tourism in Kerala/Medical tourism in kerala

Kerala, the "God's own country" is ornamental with emerald backwaters, serene beaches and lush green coconut groves. Each year 1000's of travelers from around the world visit here to explore the tranquil beauty of kerala. Recently Kerala, the south Indian state has attained a pride of place in the field of medicine. For many years kerala has been offering ayurvedic treatments and now a days medical tourism is added as another facet of Kerala's tourism industry. With a medical tourism package a medical tourist will get a product where apart from travel package, he / she will be provided medical treatment at the best hospitals. The medical treatment for various ailments are packaged with leisure packages at the best tourist resorts. Kerala state tourism department, in collaboration with the various tour operators, travel agents, hoteliers and with the people who are in the medical field is trying to develop kerala as a world class destination for medical tourism. Presently, kerala tourism is marketing several Ayurveda & health packages and has got tremendous potential to boom in the medical tourism arena. Kerala is famous across the globe for its alternative medical therapies such as Ayurveda. In all the 14 district of kerala one can find quality ayurveda centers. Ayurveda is an ancient form of treatment which enables the patient to rejuvenate and revitalize the mind, body and soul and it has abundant of well trained people who deals in this special form of treatment. Besides Ayurveda, Kerala has got experienced allopathic medical professionals and well equipped hospitals that offer treatments of western standards at an affordable price. Recent years has witnessed that patients of western countries has started choosing Kerala as a destination for treatment of various diseases due to high quality services and lower treatment costs. Kerala is well connected to several Middle East European and Southeast countries by air. Even it has good number of hospitals and renowned specialized doctors in most of the disciplines. Moreover the above said features, the wonderful climate in kerala and the ability of natives to speak English helps Kerala to be the most sought after destination for medical treatment in the entire nation. Patients from around the globe settled for Kerala as because the charges of major surgical procedures like cardiac surgery, dentistry, and cosmetic surgery is very low in compare to develop western countries. Even in Kerala, patients get the countries. The medical professionals of Kerala provides good pre and post-operative care to their patients so that they can have a positive experience. After medical treatments the medical tourists can spend time in high quality resorts or houseboats in kerala.

Chi square test

A chi-squared test, also referred to as chi-square test or test, is any statistical hypothesis test in which the sampling distribution of the test statistic is a chi-squared distribution when the null hypothesis is true, or any in which this is asymptotically true, meaning that the sampling distribution (if the null hypothesis is true) can be made to approximate a chi-squared distribution as closely as desired by making the sample size large enough. The chi-square test is used to determine whether there is a significant difference between the expected frequencies and the observed frequencies in one or more categories. Do the number of individuals or objects that fall in each category differ significantly from the number you would expect? Is this difference between the expected and observed due to sampling error, or is it a real difference?

Non banking finance companies

Non-bank financial companies (NBFCs) are financial institutions that provide banking services without meeting the legal definition of a bank, i.e. one that does not hold a banking license. These institutions are not allowed to take deposits from the public. Nonetheless, all operations of these institutions are still exercised under bank regulation

Cultural Tourism

Cultural Tourism satisfies cultural and intellectual curiosity and involves visit to ancient monuments,places of historical and religious importance.eg:India is a prominent cultural destination.

Pop-Culture Tourism

Pop-culture tourism, unlike some types of travel, is by definition, harmless fun. Simply put, it involves destinations with indelible connections to popular books, films, television shows, music, major events or a particular celebrity.

Slum Tourism

One of the most controversial types of travel involves tours of vast urban slums in places like Rio de Janeiro, Soweto, Mumbai, Manila, Cairo and Mexico City. “Shanty tourism” or “poverty tourism” is certifiably questionable and on the ethical borderline when the experience is utterly passive. If however, visitors engage in some kind of community outreach or volunteer program, the collective positive impact falls beyond the realm of mere “slum tourism”.

Ghost Tourism

A fascination with the supernatural drives some people to travel in search of the paranormal. Behind many a famous landmark is a great ghost story and indeed, popular tours in places like Dublin, St. Augustine, Florida, Quebec City and Brisbane explore historic, “haunted” city quarters.

Dark tourism

Dark tourism (also black tourism or grief tourism) is tourism involving travel to sites associated with death and tragedy. Thanatourism,derived from the Ancient Greek word thanatos for the personification of death, is associated with dark tourism but refers more specifically to violent death; it is used in fewer contexts than the terms dark tourism and grief tourism. The main draw however to these locations is mostly due to their historical value rather than their associations with death and sufferingThe name is self-explanatory but to expound further, dark tourism is travel to some of the most somber and grim historical points of interest on the planet. Think sites of unspeakable horror, like the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps in Poland, Khmer Rouge “Killing Fields” of Cambodia and Robben Island off the Cape Town coast.

Disaster Tourism

“Disaster Tourism” is somewhat of a paradox. In the name of self-preservation after all, most people flee from natural disasters. Disaster tourism is the act of traveling to a disaster area as a matter of curiosity. The behavior can be a nuisance if it hinders rescue, relief, and recovery operation A slim, intrepid minority however, prefer to fling themselves in the eye of the storm, as it were, or show up to observe the aftermath. Less aid workers and more storm chasers, these adrenaline fiends just like to watch.

Plant lay out

Plant lay out ideally involve the allocation of space and the arrangement of equipment in such a manner that over all operations cost can be minimized .Objectives of plant layout---Produce batter quality product ,Maximum utilization of floor area ,Reduce internal transport ,Less scrap and waste ,Few accidents,Minimum production delays ,Principles of plant layout-----Principle of overall integration ,Principle of minimum distance,Principle of flow,Principle of cubic space ,Principle of satisfaction and safety,Principle of flexibility Neatness .Symptoms of bad layout Excess work in progress ,Poor utilization of available space,Long material flow in line , long production cycle ,Difficult to supervise and control .types of plant lay out 1.Process or ‘Functional’ Plant Layout,2.Line or ‘Product’ Plant Layout,3.‘Fixed Position’ Layout ,4.‘Random’ Layout .Plant layout techniques Templates ,3 D models

PERT

PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) was developed in 1958 to help measure and control the progress of the Polaris Fleet Ballistic Missile program. The technique earned considerable respect for assisting in the management of thousands of different contractors and agencies, and is credited with helping to advance the completion date of the program by two years PERT is a technique for estimating and planning a large project. One of its most powerful concepts is that project management is the management of probabilities. PERT makes use of simple statistical mathematics in order to come up with a probability distribution for the completion dates of the project milestones.For example, in PERT tasks are estimated with three numbers: The best case, the nominal case, and the worst case. These three estimates are combined into an expected duration, and a standard deviation. Thus the duration of each task is presumed to be a random variable with a known distribution. The math is very simple. Consider a task whose best/nominal/worst estimate is 3/5/9. The expected completion time (µ) is assumed to be (4*nominal + best + worst)/6, or in our case (4*5+3+9)/6 or about 5.33. The standard deviation (s) is assumed to be (worst - best)/6 or (9-3)/6 or 1. Now consider a simple project consisting of three tasks. We represent this as a simple chart with circles and arrows. The circles denote events, and the arrows denote tasks

Great message About MY FATHER

A great man who spares his life Hides his feelings. Ignores his happines Accepts the pain. ... Forgets his comfort. Struggles at work. To make us live comfortable&be happy in our life witout struggle. So don't hurt that gentle DAD! Think of your DAD. "Share"it to all DAD lovers I'm proud of my DAD

Poem Of Love Accounting

Poem Of Love Accounting In the journal paper of my heart, I have written a journal entry. Debiting your love and your affection. Darling you write the narration, Your first love, I had already adjusted On the ledger-folio column, Any way our relations are true assets On double-entry system In addition, our love is true real and tangible You debit-what comes in, I credit-what goes out. Your beauty is the capital of business. My eyes are stock in trade. Let us enter into transaction, You secretly give me a trade discount, I openly give you a cash discount And thus my partner, Our trading and profit-loss account will show super profit My dear let us reconcile, all our errors and total the trial balance of our affairs arithmetically without maintaining any suspense account. In the balance sheet of our life Our children will be our true assets and liabilities! If they are boys, they will be our sundry debtors If they are girls, they will be our sundry creditors But if we have a boy and a girl, Our balance sheet will tally automatically! I am The Greatest Ever

Altman Z-score

The Altman Z-Score is a quantitative balance-sheet method of determining a company’s financial health. “Safe” companies, i.e. companies that have a low probability of bankruptcy, have an Altman Z-Score greater than 3.0.The Altman Z-Score is a measure of a company’s health and likelihood of bankruptcy. Several key ratios are used in the formulation of an Altman Z-Score Value.The Z-score formula for predicting bankruptcy was published in 1968 by Edward I. Altman, who was, at the time, an Assistant Professor of Finance at New York University. The formula may be used to predict the probability that a firm will go into bankruptcy within two years. Z-scores are used to predict corporate defaults and an easy-to-calculate control measure for the financial distress status of companies in academic studies. The Z-score uses multiple corporate income and balance sheet values to measure the financial health of a company.The Z-score is a linear combination of four or five common business ratios, weighted by coefficients. The coefficients were estimated by identifying a set of firms which had declared bankruptcy and then collecting a matched sample of firms which had survived, with matching by industry and approximate size (assets).Altman applied the statistical method of discriminant analysis to a dataset of publicly held manufacturers. The estimation was originally based on data from publicly held manufacturers, but has since been re-estimated based on other datasets for private manufacturing, non-manufacturing and service companies.Generally speaking, the lower the score, the higher the odds of bankruptcy. Companies with Z-Scores above 3 are considered to be healthy and, therefore, unlikely to enter bankruptcy. The Z-Score model is the 1960′s brainchild of Professor Edward Altman of NYU.For Public Companies, the Model is calculated as follows: Z = 1.2*X1 + 1.4*X2 + 3.3*X3 + 0.6*X4 + 1.0*X5.There are 5 variables: X1 = (Working Capital/Total Assets). X2 = (Retained Earnings/Total Assets). X3 = (EBITDA/Total Assets). X4 = (Market Value of Equity/Total Liabilities). X5 = (Net Sales/Total Assets).

Sinking fund

A fund into which a company sets aside money over time, in order to retire its preferred stock, bonds or debentures. A fund into which a company sets aside money over time, in order to retire its preferred stock, bonds or debentures. In the case of bonds, incremental payments into the sinking fund can soften the financial impact at maturity. Investors prefer bonds and debentures backed by sinking funds because there is less risk of a default.A sinking fund is a fund established by a government agency or business for the purpose of reducing debt by repaying or purchasing outstanding loans and securities held against the entity. It helps keep the borrower liquid so it can repay the bondholder.Rather than the issuer repaying the entire principal of a bond issue on the maturity date, another company buys back a portion of the issue annually and usually at a fixed par value or at the current market value of the bonds, whichever is less. Should interest rates decline following a bond issue, sinking-fund provisions allow a firm to lessen the interest rate risk of its bonds as it essentially replaces a portion of existing debt with lower-yielding bonds.From the investor's point of view, a sinking fund adds safety to a corporate bond issue: with it, the issuing company is less likely to default on the repayment of the remaining principal upon maturity since the amount of the final repayment is substantially less. This added safety affects the interest rate at which the company is able to offer bonds in the marketplace.

National Income Accounting

A term used in economics to refer to the bookkeeping system that a national government uses to measure the level of the country's economic activity in a given time period. National income accounting records the level of activity in accounts such as total revenues earned by domestic corporations, wages paid to foreign and domestic workers, and the amount spent on sales and income taxes by corporations and individuals residing in the country.National income accounting provides economists and statisticians with detailed information that can be used to track the health of an economy and to forecast future growth and development. Although national income accounting is not an exact science, it provides useful insight into how well an economy is functioning, and where monies are being generated and spent.Some of the metrics calculated by using national income accounting include gross domestic product (GDP), gross national product (GNP) and gross national income (GNI).

Zero Hedge

Zero Hedge is an American financial blog. It reports on Wall Street and the financial sector and is credited with bringing the controversial practice of flash trading to public attention in 2009 via a series of posts alleging that Goldman Sachs' access to flash order information allowed the firm to gain unfair profits. The blog is written by a group of people who write under the pseudonym "Tyler Durden". Though derided by the mainstream press as being fraught with conspiracy theories, the blog grew quickly and has been called a "blog sensation".

Johari Window model

The Johari Window model is a simple and useful tool for illustrating and improving self-awareness, and mutual understanding between individuals within a group. The Johari Window model can also be used to assess and improve a group's relationship with other groupsThe Johari window is a technique created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955 in the United States, used to help people better understand their mental instability. It is used primarily in self-help groups and corporate settings as a heuristic exercise.When performing the exercise, subjects are given a list of 56 adjectives and pick five or six that they feel describe their own personality. Peers of the subject are then given the same list, and each pick five or six adjectives that describe the subject. These adjectives are then mapped onto a grid.

Entrepreneur

One who creates a new business in the face of risk and uncertainty for the purpose of achieving profit and growth by identifying opportunities and assembling the necessary resources to capitalize on them. Main Characteristics of Entrepreneurs are Desire for responsibility,Preference for moderate risk,Confidence in their ability to succeed,Desire for immediate feedback,High level of energy,Future orientation,Skilled at organizing,Value achievement over money