How Safe are Credit Cards?  If your credit card is stolen the first thing that comes to your mind is to report the matter to the telephone number,. printed in newspapers. In principle, the best and safest thing to do is to call the authorization centre of the bank that issued your card (the issuer bank). Calling the number published in the media is second best because it connects the cardholder...

Coke: A Long Journey   One-man affair to begin with Coca Cola is now a 50-billion-dollar business. Dr. John Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist, invented Coca-Cola. He concocted the formula in a three-legged brass kettle in his backyard on May 8, 1886. He mixed a combination of lime, cinnamon, coca leaves, and the seeds of a Brazilian shrub to make the fabulous beverage. Coca-Cola debuted in Atlanta’s largest pharmacy, Jacob’s Pharmacy, as...

Determination of Share Values   Financial theories use the concept of return in investment to evaluate the value of shares blithely ignoring the fact that most firms pay little or no dividend. The assumptions are: (a) That the (fundamental) “value” of a share is closely correlated (or even equal to) its market (stock exchange or transaction) price (b) That price movements (and volatility) are mostly random, though correlated to the (fundamental)...

Monopolistic Microsoft   Microsoft, one of the biggest concerns in the world, has been accused of monopolistic practices, the company was dragged to court on this issue Microsoft’s antitrust problems began for them in the early months of 1990, when the Federal Trade Commission began investigating them for possible violations of the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts, which are designed to stop the formation and Clayton  Antitrust Acts, which are designed...

Modern – Day Advertisement   Modern advertisement is about selling images not products. The advertiser links the image of a woman or successful star to his product and blinds the people. The environment plays a very important role in advertising. In an advertisement, situated in the forest, there is a girl who has a baseball glove on and the caption says, “This girl can catch”. The product is for clothes. But...

Kashmir Problem – An Unending Three times  India and Pakistan have gone to war over Kashmir, now that both of them have acquired nuclear capabilities the possibility of a nuclear war in the sub-continent is a distinct possibility. Kashmir is famous for its natural beauty and has often been referred to as the “Switzerland of the East”. “ The population according to latest data exceeds that fourteen million inhabitants”. The heart...

India: An Introduction   India is a land of varied and rich cultural heritage though it social practices are not always admirable. Though a number of religions flourish in India’s tolerant social climate, four- fifths of the people  are Hindus. The social groups with which Hindus identity most strongly are their ‘jatis’, or castes. A caste is a hereditary group whose members inter- marry only among them. Each has its own...

The Science of Politics   Do the forms of government affect administration is a question of interest to many. It is true; those who maintain , that the goodness of all government consists in the goodness of the administration , may cite many particular instances in history, where the very same government, in different hands, has varied suddenly into the two opposite extremes of good  and bad. Compare the French under...