Budget Blues

 Every time a budget was being presented, salaried employees used to crowd around the radio/TV to check if income tax rates were being reduced. Maybe corporates for the same reason- corporate tax on income, in their case. 

Today, the middle class is probably much better off than 20 years ago. So maybe the I.T. rates are less of a concern. But maybe they still look for other sops, particularly for senior citizens. Interest rates being low, their savings are not going to earn much, and surviving with greater medical expenses may be a challenge for some.

Farmers have nothing much to worry about, at least from the budget. Their demands are taken care of through other channels. Small businesses or potential entrepreneurs may look for entrepreneurship-boosting initiatives. 

Post Script: Taxing the Provident Fund interest seems like a bad idea to me. By this logic, rich farmers ought to be taxed before any more tax is levied on the same segment- the salaried service class.

Quarterly Reports on Life

I was never interested in finance or accounting. But I have now decided to make quarterly reports to myself, on what I did and experienced, the tangibles and intangibles, each quarter. I may include the following-

the people I met

the laughter I generated

the twinkling eyes I saw

the food and drink I discovered or shared with the people I met

the new things I saw or experienced

the good stuff (puns, jokes, wisdom) I saw on facebook or blogs (and shared)

the books I read and enjoyed

the fun in the classroom

the memorable walks I took

the Golfing I managed, if any

the chats on phone (rare though they are for me)

expressions of people, fleeting though they might have been

children I played with

good films I saw

Whew, that is quite a list, and it's going to be great fun making it every quarter! If it turns out to be too taxing, I can always postpone the report to the next quarter!

Book Review-Jack Patel's Dubai Dreams

I saw something on the back of the book that called bankers 'bangers' (in Malluspeak) and that piqued my interest in this one. And it turned out to be a really good read. I suspect it is partly autobiographical, or sounds like it. The characters are all very real, the Indians, Americans and the rest.

 The story is narrated from the viewpoint of a private banker living in Dubai. I learnt a lot about the world of private banking/investment banking after reading it. Finance is not my forte, and I understand very little of what goes on in the big, bad world of multi-million dollar investments. Well, now I know a couple of percentage points more.

But this is a well-told story of the pre-2008 and post- 2008 world (and Kenya where Obama's family comes from), and it gave me the following insights-

• Kenyans call snacks 'bitings'.
• There isn't much difference between a lottery and investments that he are speculative, whatever may be the instrument or investment class.
• Dubai is a potential bubble like anyplace else.
• Grandmothers knew a thing or two about investing/saving.
• The U.S. survives on hype and marketing, because others can't match it on these.
• Any other country can catch up if it's serious about doing so.

I enjoyed reading it.

Data Analytics Seminar

There are lots of openings for MBAs in Data Analytics. This was the message that came out strongly in a seminar on the subject where I was the odd man out. Meaning, I was the academician among industry speakers. This was held at Narsee Monjee Institute's Hyderabad campus. I spoke about marketing analytics by virtue of my having written the marketing research book, and having taught the subject.

There was an interesting presentation on Banking and its uses for analytics, particular emphasis being fraud prevention by looking at patterns of spending or other behaviors. There was another on Big Data. That reminds me of a joke I read elsewhere that a person wanted to do a course on Analytics techniques, AND on Big Data, thinking that Big Data was a software package for analytics. Anyway,  what I gathered is that Big Data is all data, text or graphics or Facebook Likes or whatever, about an entity that you are tracking-like you and me. Gathering it is easier sometimes than figuring out how to use it. We frequently have this problem with all types of data.

Anyway, one sidelight was that a speaker likened the Data Analyst to a Sherlock Holmes on a murder trail, because you are trying to find meaning in it, by trying out various things, or trying to prove a hypothesis. There was some discussion about use of the cloud by small and large companies, and of applications for cricket players and teams, and techniques like Camera-based reviews.

All in all, an interesting 3 hours, compered and organised very well by the students.

Finance Conclave

Yesterday and today, there was a finance area conclave organised at IMT Nagpur. The student group called Finaholics was the organiser. Must say that they got together an impressive list of speakers, including some from Barclays, Marsh, Mirae Asset Management, Bharti- Axa and the like. The two day event consists of lectures, panel discussions, games, quizzes and the like, and prizes too.

Arth Vyuh is the name of the event. Starting with just an idea, creating an event- or rather, staging it successfully, is a tough thing to do, and our students have done it for the second time this year- first was a marketing area event two months ago. Faculty only helped in the background by providing the encouragement and moral support.

Placement season is upon us and we started off with 5 students getting offers from Asian Paints, one of India's most respected Indian companies.