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Term of Week
In Focus
Opinion
Personality Tech World
Options | 6
Panono: New World of
Panoramic Photography |12
Shikha Sharma |11
Is America Complacent
about Currency War | 4
JANUARY 25, 2015 | A FINNICHE INITIATIVE
Obama visits India—A
Seminal Movement | 2
The finance club at IMT Ghaziabad is engaged in a constant endeavor to provide you with a practical exposure to the world of finance and the latest emerging trends in the related fields of Risk Management, Banking, Investments and non-finance topics.
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India would celebrate its 66th Republic Day on 26th January 2015. Republic Day in India
is celebrated every year with great honour on 26th of January to honour the Constitution
of India as it came to force on the same day in the year in 1950. This year US President
Barack Obama would be the Chief Guest on this occasion, becoming the first US
President to be invited.
Club FinNiche releases its weekly magazine FinXpress, with the In Focus talking about
the ‘Obama visits India– A Seminal Movement’. The Opinion gives an overview of ‘Is
America Complacent about Currency War?’ The term of the week describes “Options", a financial derivative that represents a contract sold by one party to another party. Do have a look at the market section, Tech world which brings to you about Panono: New World of Panoramic Photography and Personality of the week, Shikha Sharma.
Club FinNiche welcomes any comments, suggestions or criticism regarding the
magazine. Please do write to us and share your ideas.
Happy Reading!
Regards
The Editorial Team
Club FinNiche
January, 25 | 2015 | Volume 31
Obama visits India– A
Seminal Movement
Is America Complacent
about Currency War
Options
Shikha Sharma
Panono: New World of
Panoramic Photography
Defense - Minimizing the
restrictions for trade
Climate issue - Technology
transfer from US to India for
reduction in emission of green-
house gases
Relaxation in nuclear liability
law
- By Shreyans Dhariwal
US President Barack Obama will be visiting
India on 25th Jan for a three day tour mainly to
improve the bilateral relation between the two
countries and discuss on some of the key
areas like nuclear energy, economic
cooperation, defense and climate issue. The
visit is expected to be a landmark in pivoting
the relationship between the two countries to
a new level. Succeeding the Modi visit to US
last year, the initiative taken by US President
to visit India could deepen the chemistry
between the two veterans, and bring a myriad
of Investments and Technology advancements
to the Indian corridor.
As a token of honor, Mr. Obama will be the
first US President as chief guest for the 66th
Republic Day celebration at Rajpath New
Delhi. At the later hours of the day, he will be
meeting business leaders and CEOs for
interaction. On 27th Jan, Obama and Mr. Modi
will be aired on Radio in the show “Mann ki
Baat” to directly connect to two-thirds of the
Indian masses.
Some of the top issues that can be addressed
during the three day visit are:
Defense
India is one of the world’s biggest importer of
weapons and US became the biggest exporter
to India in recent times, both countries can
try to minimize the restrictions for trade
between them. Various initiatives can be
taken for joint production and co-
development of defense equipments and
platforms. Further they can look forward for
the renewal of the 10 year bilateral defense
partnership and increase the FDI cap in
defense.
Climate Change
India ranks third in emission of green house
gases, thus entering into use of renewable
sources of energy can cut down the emission
rate. This would require massive investment
and technology transfer from US to India.
After an agreement with China last year, US is
looking for an agreement with India too to
bring down the emission level at a particular
level.
Nuclear Energy
India has enacted the Nuclear liability law in
2010, according to which the vendor for the
nuclear supply will be liable for any kind of
accidents. This prevents private players like
G.E., Westinghouse from entering into the
Indian market and keeps the nuclear deal
between India and US partially inactive. India
needs to give provisions to this law and bring
in insurance companies that would give
guarantee to the nuclear suppliers and make
Nuclear power plants operational by
increment of nuclear energy capacity from US
companies.
Investments from US for
powering Make in India
concept
New Framework for advance
pricing model
Allow FDI in B2C market
Bilateral Agreement between
both countries to prevent
double payment of social secu-
rity contribution by immigrants
Investment
Within the wide spectrum of the India-U.S.
engagement, great opportunities lies in the
area of defense, energy and technology.
Under the Make in India concept which is
focused on sectors like power, electronics and
communica t ions, high technology
engineering, India would like to manufacture
products and services that are consumed not
only in Indian market but also in the global
market. To fast pace this endeavor we would
like to partner with US and bring in their
world best technology and huge investing
capabilities to build India into global power.
Intellectual Property rights and Bilateral
Investment Treaty will be some of the other
key issues for discussion.
Tax Issues
Both the countries will be looking forward to
resolve the transfer pricing issue which acts as
a barrier between various multinational
companies. The major concern lies in the
markup and tax dues on the cost of services
provided by Companies like IBM, Nokia,
Cairn India, and Vodafone. India and US are
planning to come up with new framework in
the form of advance pricing agreement
wherein dynamic mark-up will be levied on
companies based on the activities performed
instead of the fixed mark-up model. The new
agreement will resolve software development,
IT and litigation issues.
FDI Issue
US Senators have pleaded to the President for
encouraging the Indian Government to allow
FDI in the Business to Consumer (B2C)
market for the e-commerce sector, wherein
foreign players will be allowed to sell their
products directly to the consumers. Currently
FDI is existing only in the Business to
Business (B2B) market, wherein foreign
players can sell their products via middleman
to the consumers. This would help in
doubling the US exports and entry into new
markets.
Benefits to Immigrants in US
India is also looking forward for linking up a
totalisation pact with the US government, that
would prevent the double payment of social
security contributions by temporary
immigrants, first at home and second in the
country where they are deployed. This would
come as a boon for Indian IT Professions
working in US for short assignments.
Currently US provides these social security
benefits to person who has stayed for more
than 10 years or atleast 40 quarters.
-by Mohana Krishna Kummara
The depreciation increases the
cost of imports and boosts
exporters’ competitiveness,
aiding the effort to revive
inflation that data tomorrow will
probably show is the weakest
since 2009
Every time value of Indian currency is
devalued against dollar many of us think that
RBI is worried about its devaluation and want
to increase its value. Well, the fact is RBI is
more worried for the stability of rupee than its
increase or decrease of its value against dollar.
Sometimes countries even try to deliberately
devalue their currency against a reference
currency or a basket of currencies. This is
manly to increase their exports and drive their
economies towards higher growth.
Driving down exchange rates are no more “a
polite conversation to have”. Majority of the
leaders among the world today are
comfortable in openly talking about their
plans to drive down exchange rates. The
phrase “currency war” is already a part of
mainstream disclosure. In Davos, which is a
host to World Economic Forum, Goldman
Sachs President Gary Cohn said that currency
war has begun two years ago when japan
Prime minster Shinzo Abe’s policies started
pushing down Yen’s rate. It did not take long
for the Europeans to feel the pinch and they
also started devaluating their euro. Now ball
is again in Japan’s court. US is just sitting and
watching their currencies rally as everyone is
trying to devalue their currency.
Here is the graph showing the Japanese
exports (Shown in billions of yen) which
slumped in 2011 and 2012, then rallied since
Abe’s devaluation of their Yen:
RBI has slashed the Repo rate
by 25 bps from 8% to 7.75%
on Thursday. As the As ECB hesitated to introduce more
stimulus euro area exports have stagnated :
According to the Bloomberg’s correlation-
weighted indices, a gain of 2.83 percent has
been recorded by U.S. dollar against a basket
of other developed nation currencies, and the
yen has gained 4.77 percent. Even before the
ECB’s quantitative easing program has started
euro is down 4.88 percent. Just the talk of
quantitative easing has made European
exporters much more competitive.
According to The Economist's Big Mac index,
January 2015 edition, which uses the price of
the McDonalds staple in various countries as
a measure of purchasing power parity, U.S. is
already overvalued against euro. The index
showed it was undervalued just in July. That
standard is not definitive, of course, but it is
the reason to wonder whether the ECB's plans
for additional might be on the overaggressive
side. Even at the expense of inflation Europe
is planning to increase its economy.
Even as Europe is making its competitive
move by devaluing its currency, the U.S.
government is acing relaxed. To prevent
currency wars it is not making any
threatening references to gentleman’s
agreements among the world leaders. Even
treasury raised no red flags about any
countries that might be devaluing their
currencies competitively in its latest version of
the report, which came out last October. It
may be because U.S. have called on many
countries in the world to take decisive action
to get their economies to grow.
It is true that in order to keep its growth at
rapid pace, the U.S. needs a global boost. But
its complacency about the scale of planned
ECB action may nonetheless be misguided.
European manufacturers can take advantage
of U.S. market but Americans are the ones
that will become uncompetitive in Europe.
Other central banks -- those in India and
Canada, among others – to weaken their
currencies, have been cutting rates. Dalio
predicted that like in 1980’s this may lead to a
“short squeeze” on US dollar, which required
concerted action from central banks to curb
the dollar's rise and prevent the U.S. economy
from tanking. This time, because countries
such as Italy see QE as their big chance to
restore growth, such action is far less likely.
Rather than to raise production closer to U.S.
level it is much easier to print money.
- By Gayatri Pandit
Options is a contract which gives the buyer
the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell
an underlying asset or instrument at a
specified strike price on or before specified
date. If the buyer exercises the option i.e. the
buyer want to conduct the transaction then
the seller has obligation to complete the
transaction by buying or selling the security.
For this right of fulfilling transaction, buyer
pays premium to seller.
There are two types of options:
1. Call option: In this the owner i.e. the buyer
has right to buy something at specified
price, so that the buyer would want the
stock to go up.
2. Put option: In this, the owner has right to
sell something at a specified price, sot hat
the buyer would want the stock to go
down.
Call option is more frequently traded in
market.
The value of option have two parts:
1. Intrinsic value: It is a difference between
strike price of the option and market value
of security.
2. Time value: It is value of option which is
discounted to the present value.
The basic trades in stock option are as follows:
Long Call: If it is expected that the stock price
will go up, the trader may bay a call option at
fixed price. The buyer has no obligation to
buy the option, until expiration. If the stock
price at expiration is above the exercise price
plus premium the buyer is at profit. However,
if at expiration the stock price is less than the
exercise price, then the buyer will let the
contract to expire and will only lose the price
of premium.
Short Call: If the stock price is going down,
the trader will short the call. The seller will
have no obligation to sell. If the stock price
goes down the exercise price, the seller will
make a profit equal to premium. On contrary,
the loss will be unlimited.
Long Put: If the stock price is decreasing, the
trader can buy the right to sell the stock at
fixed price. The buyer of put option have no
obligation to sell until expiration. If the stock
price decreases more than the exercised price
plus premium then the buyer of put is profit.
However, on a contrary side the buyer of put
will lose the amount of premium paid.
Short Put: If the price of stock is increasing as
per trader, then he can sell a put. The trader
selling the put option have no obligation to
buy the stock if said by buyer. If the stock
price is above the exercised price, the trader
will make profit equal to premium. However,
if the stock price is below the exercised price
plus premium then trader will be in loss and
the loss is equal to full value of stock.
Options are used in different ways. They can
be used to speculate which is relatively risky
and this is generally used by traders. Options
can also be used to reduce the risk of holding
an asset which is generally used by hedgers.
Options is a contract which
gives the buyer the right, but
not the obligation, to buy or sell
an underlying asset or
instrument at a specified strike
price on or before specified
date.
In this the owner i.e. the buyer
has right to buy something at
specified price, so that the
buyer would want the stock to
go up.
n this, the owner has right to
sell something at a specified
price, sot hat the buyer would
want the stock to go down.
INDIAN MARKETS
Indian shares ended higher, hitting record highs for the fourth straight day, led by blue-
chip stocks, tracking a global rally after the European Central Bank launched a
landmark bond-buying stimulus programme that buoyed investors' risk appetite. The
benchmark BSE index rose 0.94 percent to 29,278.84 after marking a record high of
29,408.73. The index gained 4.1 percent for the week. The broader NSE index closed up
0.85 percent at 8,835.60 after hitting an all-time high of 8,866.40 earlier in the session. It
closed 3.8 percent for the week. Both the indexes gained for the seventh consecutive
session.
BSE SENSEX
CNX NIFTY
Open High Low Close
SENSEX 28,249.84 29,408.73 28,197.36 29,278.84
NIFTY 8,550.05 8,866.40 8,531.50 8,835.60
COMMODITIES
EXCHANGE RATES
INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
Commodity Unit Rs / Unit % Change
Gold 10 grams 26800.00 0.26
Silver 1 kg 36833.00 1.65
Crude Oil 1 bbl 2983.00 -12.00
INR/ 1 USD 61.4988
INR /1 EURO 69.6166
INR/ 100 JAPAN YEN 51.9500
INR / 1 POUND STERLING 92.1621
Open High Low Close
NYSE Comp 10,682.00 10,869.00 10,589.46 10,788.33
NASDAQ 4,655.84 4,771.18 4,601.10 4,757.88
S&P 500 2,020.76 2,064.62 2,004.49 2,051.82
FTSE 100 6,550.30 6,841.70 6,548.00 6,832.80
CAC 4,388.67 4,673.30 4,367.24 4,640.69
DAX 10,231.58 10,704.32 10,149.77 10,649.58
NIKKEI 225 17,000.78 17,532.06 16,911.58 17,511.75
Hang Seng 23,971.23 24,896.22 23,590.05 24,850.45
Twitter acquired missed call marketing platform ZipDial for $35 million
Twitter acquired India-based missed call marketing platform ZipDial for $35 million and
this gave a ray f light on the compact but budding expat start-up community in India. This
will also help Twitter to operate as there are substantial hurdles to operate in such an
emerging market. This acquisition basically targets India’s growing domestic consumption
market as in India a company can build something with a long-term value proposition. This
will also help other start-ups to emerge. According to many analysts, this deal will do well
for India’s burgeoning entrepreneurial ecosystem. The clients of ZipDial are Unilever,
Amazon, Facebook, Disney, Gillette and Twitter. These clients have used the missed call
platform for placing orders, receiving coupons or entering contests. Twitter acquired
ZipDial with an aim to make great content more accessible to everyone through the ZipDial
platform. On the other hand, Twitter can now use the platform to reach developing markets
users with meager data plans or patchy internet connectivity. Additionally, this acquisition
will help India to stand as the fastest growing country.
Amazon India may emerge as the fastest E- tailer to touch $2 Billion turnover
Amazon India has forecasted to sell goods worth $2 billion by the end of this fiscal year.
Thus if done, it will become the fastest e-tailer in the country to cross this mark. Delhi-based
Snapdeal took more than four years to cross this mark while India’s largest e-tailer Flipkart
took almost seven years to reach $2 billion sales. Amazon started its operations in India in
June 2013, it already crossed the $1 billion mark in September last year. Thus it will take less
than 2 years for Amazon India to reach $2 billion sales becoming the fastest e-tailer in the
country. Experts believe that the reason behind the speedy growth of Amazon is its
positioning to offer an array of goods from books to adult diapers across various cities. They
come up with one new category every 14-15 days. E-commerce is a very growing sector.
E-tailers are betting on more Indians switching to shopping online with a projection of 200
million new consumers by the year 2017. Under Amit Agarwal, the country head of
Amazon India, the company has been to increase the seller base from 100 in the year 2013 to
more than 18,000 in 2014. In just 19 months, the company has built eight warehouses across
seven states. Flipkart has 13 warehouses connecting 4000 sellers in 300 cities.
Nokia has signed a $200 mil-
lion contract with Bharti Airtel to
build the country’s first 4G
Network in the 1800 MHz band
in six telecom circles.
Home-bred Lava International to sell new brand on its own online platform
Lava International will soon launch a sub brand of its popular Xolo brand of smartphones
exclusively on an e-commerce platform it is developing. It wants to replicate the success of
foreign rivals Xiaomi and online-only strategy of Motorola. But Lava International has yet
not disclosed the name of the sub brand. After the launch of its own website, Lava will
become the second Indian smartphone maker after Micromax to follow in the footsteps of
the global majors which witnessed success through online platforms. Another motive to
launch own website is to bring price stability for Lava products in the country.
Zomato, the online restaurant listing guide, is likely to raise fresh funding
Fast growing Zomato is likely to raise fresh funding of up to $80 million as it is currently
aiming to recruit more people and expand business in two continents including US. Zomato
bought a total of six companies last year. Now presently it is not thinking for going any
acquisition, rather it wants to expand its reach in US, Canada and Australia. The fresh
funding can help the company to get valued about $750 million. The company was valued
at $660 million in its last round of funding in November. For making new markets to be
profitable, Zomato has to work on its structure and people.
Domestic Airlines can save money due to fall in fuel prices
Because of sharp decline in fuel prices, Indian domestic airlines are expected to save $400
million in the current fiscal. This can also trigger the turnaround for the loss making
aviation sector. Fuel accounts for half of the operating costs of an airline in the country. Thus
24% fall in fuel prices can actually save 12% of the total operating costs. This sharp decline is
a major source of relief in the aviation sector.
Shikha Sharma was born to a soldier who
travelled all over India, before settling down
in Delhi. She graduated in economics from
the Lady Sreeram College, Delhi. She also
completed her Masters in Business
Administration from the Indian Institute of
Management in Ahmedabad.
Timeline
1980: She started her career with ICICI as a
project officer.
1992: Set up ICICI Securities which was a
joint venture of ICICI and J. P Morgan.
1995: Moved to ICICI Securities and was
deputed to J.P. Morgan.
1997: Rejoined ICICI as the General Manager
in charge of Strategic Planning and
Development.
1998: Became the Managing Director of ICICI
Personal Financial Services.
2009: Became the Chief Executive Officer,
Managing Director of Axis Bank Limited and
Chairperson and Associate Director of Axis
Asset Management Company Limited.
She made ICICI Prudential what it is today. It
is the organization she built from scratch; the
leading player in the life insurance business.
In her 28 year old association with the ICICI
Group, she was instrumental in setting the
foundation for the bank's personal financial
services business. Here, she also launched an
innovative micro insurance cover of 1 dollar a
month for poor people in India. In December
2008, under her leadership, ICICI Prudential
commanded a market share of 13 %.
Born to an Army officer, She maintained
discipline in her life and this disciplined
showed right through her career too. In a
male dominated financial world, she carved a
niche for herself. She is the kind of person
who considers every job that comes towards
her as a challenge.
She is one of the two women entrepreneurs
who are at the helm of a private bank in
India. In a male dominated banking and
insurance sector, she, with her exceptional
leadership qualities, made ICICI Prudential,
the largest private insurance company in the
country. She has left behind a legacy which is
followed by millions of women aspirants.
Awards and Accolades
'Woman Business Leader' by CNBC TV18,
2007
'Business Woman of the Year' by
Economic Times, 2009
Ranked 89th in the list of 'World's 100
Most Powerful Women' by Forbes
magazine, 2010.
Nov 19 , 1958
IIM Ahmedabad
Launched an innovative micro
insurance cover of 1 dollar a
month for poor people
Panono which has created a whole new world
of panoramic photography is not just a
panoramic camera. It captures 100 megapixel
panoramic shots with 360 degrees field of
view. It is integrated with 36 cameras and
captures every direction at once and you are
placed in the center of it.
How it works?
It is a bit different than the way we capture
pictures .We have to throw it straight up in
the air and cameras will automatically trigger
at their highest point giving perfect shots
without any blur effects. It can also be used
manually by helding it in the hand and
pressing the button. Camera should be
mounted on a tripod when capturing indoor
pictures or in low light situations, howerver
daylight conditions are better preferred for
capturing panoramic shots. It can be triggered
remotely by setting a timer or by using the
Panono app .For a quick shot hold the camera
in your hand and press the trigger button.
After the pictures are captured an instant
preview will be sent to mobile device via wifi.
On an average it can save upto 400 shots,
which can then be transferred to PC via wifi
or USB. Panono has a cloud which
automatically stitches the individual images
of your shot together to form a seamless
panorama. Panono cloud can be synchronized
with its panono app with which your android
device or smartphone will take you into the
middle of the panorama. You can spin the
device around and experience the moments
360° x 360°.
Exploring your panoramas in your web
browser is possible with the panono cloud
which offers everything you need to manage
your panoramic shots. You can zoom the 108
megapixel details as you move within the
picture. They can be shared easily through
social media channels, panono platform or
through emails. It provides you with privacy
settings which will let you define with whom
you want to share. Embedded codes can be
used to share selected panoramas on your
website.
- By J.Sindhuja
11 cm
Approximately 440 g
36 fixed-focus cameras
108 megapixels
iOS 7+ and Android 4+
via USB cable
Approximately 400 Panono
shots
WiFi, USB cable