Britannica has opened up its online subscription-based access to the blogosphere. In a move aimed at attracting greater traffic and also to counter the increasing influence of user-generated content sites like wikipedia, Britannica is offering free one year subscription to a set of people it terms as ‘web publishers’.
The notice posted on the site reads - “A special program for web publishers, including bloggers, webmasters, and anyone who writes for the Internet. You get complimentary access to the Encyclopaedia Britannica online and, if you like, an easy way to give your readers background of the topics you write about with links to complete Britannica articles”.
If you are a blogger and you have been writing for a significant period of time, click on the link below and get your free access. Britannica takes some time to revert back, as they manually check all blogs to verify and evaluate the acceptability criteria, but if you are eligible, you will get a reply. I got mine in three days.
Britannica Webshare
The global value of private equity buyouts has grown manifold from the start of this decade to the present. As the private equity environment becomes more challenging amidst rising interest rates, the volume of deals that took place in the first quarter of 2008 has plunged, compared to the same quarter last year.
A key takeaway, however, has been the way private equity firms significantly increase the value of their investments, thereby fueling growth. Harvard Business Review lists a number of factors that contribute to the high returns:
- growth incentives for portfolio managers, as well as the operations teams of portfolio businesses
- extremely determined focus on cash flow and margins
- use of debt for financing and getting tax advantages
As Indian companies start looking at global acquisitions, private equity arms of large Indian conglomerates are starting to show on the horizon. How well does the PE story pan out for these Indian firms will be an interesting study. Over the last one year, cross-border deals and incoming PE funding has seen good growth. In the current tide of events, how well can international and local PE firms flex their muscles remains to be seen. Watch this space.
The sale of Bear Stearns at $2 per share to JPMorgan Chase has created headlines globally. The swift end of Bears Stearns is being used as a case example to highlight the laissez-faire philosophy that allowed financial services to spread almost unchecked. I am seeing a lot of debate online on how Fed bailed out the ailing and illiquid Bear Stearns. Separating fact from fiction, Jim Hamilton has done an excellent postmortem of the supposed “bail out” by Fed through JPMorgan Chase.
How the downturn in the US economy affects India is also being debated. Financial experts and economists believe that with liquidity drying up in troubled international Markets, Indian banks are turning to the domestic markets to raise funds for their corporate clients. International banks operating in India have also started to look at ramping up their domestic activities, rather than raise funds at cheaper interest rates from international markets. These are the best of times … These are the worst of times!
This weekend would have been just like any other one - sleep late and get up even later. I was slightly miffed with the sudden thought of breaking this (ir)regular schedule by being one of the members of our CSR group that was planning to visit a homeless kids shelter at Mira Road. And of course, given the number of activities that I have participated in the recent past, there were bets in office on whether I will be able to make it ;-). But in the end, I knew that I will go, and so I was awake at 6am, getting ready to be there with the kids. We were scheduled to leave at 8.30am.
Vision in Social Arena (VISA), established in 1997 by Mr. John Abraham, is a charitable trust that looks after nearly 43 homeless children. This is not the popular John Abraham (actor) that we know of and who is covered by our dailies every now and then. Mr. John Abraham of VISA, however, is an icon in his own right. His vision of taking homeless children under his wing and taking care of their basic needs sets him apart from the lot, who are often too tied up with their own individualistic desires. It is heartening to see so much good in the world.
Netscribes, as a part of its corporate social responsibility activities, held a drawing competition for these kids and also treated them with gifts and food. The whole set of activities were not only fun but also fulfilling in their own way for each one of us. It was very different from what I thought it would be. And the kids were amazing - full of energy and fun. There were song and dance performances; and our cheerful gang of Netscribians indulged as well. Needless to say, this was a very humbling experience. It will be very satisfying to see these kids grow up and hold their own in the society. And I am sure, under the able guidance of Mr. Abraham, THEY WILL !!
Continue reading ‘A Humbling Experience - VISA’
Check out the views of our analysts on Budget.
Netscribes Budget Analysis
I am off to Delhi tomorrow for Mukesh’s wedding. Finally, the second one in our trio has got hitched. Here is looking forward to a lot of fun and festivities. Congratulations mate.
Stock markets globally have taken a sharp U-turn and are plunging southwards. The trend was imminent with the emergence of subprime crisis in the US, even though there were desperate measures in the form of rescue packages and plans to write-off debt, in some cases. As a fallout of the tumbling US economy, the global investors had started looking at Asian markets, hoping to find the much needed growth economies.
The Indian market had been performing exceptionally well, backed by strong fundamentals and a booming economy. Over the last two weeks, share prices have fallen so fast that an attempt at a rally seems challenging. The market seems to be taking cues from the global exchanges, which are going into the red. Today has been another day when markets hit rock bottom.
For me, this is the perfect buying opportunity!
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