Global Internet body to unleash domain names

The regulatory body that oversees Internet domain names voted on Monday to revamp the domain naming system for websites, allowing them to end with words like "apple" and "orange" instead of suffixes such as ".com" or ".gov."

"ICANN has opened the Internet's naming system to unleash the global human imagination. Today's decision respects the rights of groups to create new top level domains in any language or script," the regulatory body said after a board meeting in Singapore.

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Learning curve

A learning curve is a graphical representation of the changing rate of learning (in the average person) for a given activity or tool. Typically, the increase in retention of information is sharpest after the initial attempts, and then gradually evens out, meaning that less and less new information is retained after each repetition.

The learning curve can also represent at a glance the initial difficulty of learning something and, to an extent, how much there is to learn after initial familiarity.

In economics, learning curve is a curve showing how a firm's costs of producing at a given rate of output fall as the total amount produced increases over time as a result of accumulated learning of how to make the product efficiently using given equipment.

The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System

The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) of tariff nomenclature is an internationally standardized system of names and numbers for classifying traded products developed and maintained by the World Customs Organization (WCO) (formerly the Customs Co-operation Council), an independent intergovernmental organization with over 170 member countries based in Brussels, Belgium.

Under the HS Convention, the contracting parties are obliged to base their tariff schedules on the HS nomenclature, although parties set their own rates of duty. The system begins by assigning goods to categories of crude and natural products, and from there proceeds to categories with increasing complexity. The codes with the broadest coverage are the first four digits, and are referred to as the heading. The HTS therefore sets forth all the international nomenclature through the 6-digit level and, where needed, contains added subdivisions assigned 2 more digits, for a total of 8 at the tariff-rate line (legal) level. Two final (non-legal) digits are assigned as statistical reporting numbers if warranted, for a total of 10 digits to be listed on entries.

To ensure harmonization, the contracting parties must employ all 4- and 6-digit provisions and the international rules and notes without deviation, but are free to adopt additional subcategories and notes.

Clearing House Interbank Payments System (CHIPS)

The Clearing House Interbank Payments System (CHIPS) is the main privately held clearing house for large-value transactions in the United States, settling well over US$1 trillion a day in around 250,000 interbank payments. Together with the Fedwire Funds Service CHIPS forms the primary U.S. network for large-value domestic and international USD payments (where it has a market share of around 96%).

CHIPS is owned by financial institutions. According to the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), an interagency office of the United States government, "any banking organization with a regulated U.S. presence may become an owner and participate in the network." CHIPS participants may be commercial banks, Edge Act corporations or investment companies.

Banks typically prefer to make payments of higher value and of a less time-sensitive nature by CHIPS instead of Fedwire, as CHIPS is less expensive (both by charges and by funds required).

CHIPS differ from the Fedwire payment system in three key ways. First, it is privately owned, whereas the Fed is part of a regulatory body. Second, it has 47 member participants (with some merged banks constituting separate participants), compared with 9,289 banking institutions (as of March 19, 2009) eligible to make and receive funds via Fedwire. Third, it is a netting engine (and hence, not real-time).

A netting engine consolidates all of the pending payments into fewer single transactions. For example, if Bank of America is to pay American Express US$1.2 million, and American Express is to pay Bank of America $800,000, the CHIPS system aggregates this to a single payment of $400,000 from Bank of America to American Express — only 20% of the $2 million to be transferred actually changes hands. The Fedwire system would require two separate payments for the full amounts ($1.2 million to American Express and $800,000 to Bank of America).

Only the largest banks dealing in U.S. dollars participate in CHIPS; about 70% of these are non-U.S. banks. Smaller banks have not found it cost effective to participate in CHIPS but many have accounts at CHIPS-participating banks to send and receive payments.

Kaizen

Kaizen is a system of continuous improvement in quality, technology, processes, company, culture, productivity, safety and leadership.

Kaizen is Japanese term for "improvement" or "change for the better". It comes from the Japanese words 改 ("kai") which means "change" or "to correct" and 善 ("zen") which means "good". Kaizen was created in Japan following World War II.

It refers to philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, supporting business processes, and management. It has been applied in healthcare, psychotherapy, life-coaching, government, banking, and many other industries. When used in the business sense and applied to the workplace, kaizen refers to activities that continually improve all functions, and involves all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. It also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics that cross organizational boundaries into the supply chain.

Everyone is encouraged to come up with small improvement suggestions on a regular basis. This is not a once a month or once a year activity. It is continuous. In Japanese companies, a total of 60 to 70 suggestions per employee per year are written down, shared and implemented. Suggestions are not limited to a specific area such as production or marketing. Kaizen is based on making changes anywhere that improvements can be made.

Kaizen involves setting standards and then continually improving those standards. To support the higher standards Kaizen also involves providing the training, materials and supervision that is needed for employees to achieve the higher standards and maintain their ability to meet those standards on an on-going basis.

Random Sampling

Random sampling is a sampling technique where we select a group of subjects (a sample) for study from a larger group (a population). Each individual is chosen entirely by chance and each member of the population has a known chance of being included in the sample.

In random sampling, each item or element of the population has an equal chance of being chosen at each draw. A sample is random if the method for obtaining the sample meets the criterion of randomness (each element having an equal chance at each draw). The actual composition of the sample itself does not determine whether or not it was a random sample.

Australia allows stock exchange competition from late 2011

Takeover target ASX Group Ltd is set to lose its two-decade monopoly later this year after
Australia's securities regulator on Thursday opened the door to competition
from Nomura's Chi-X. 

Competition from electronic trading platforms like Chi-X has spurred a string of global exchange mergers, including Deutsche Boerse's bid for NYSE Euronext , London Stock Exchange's bid for Toronto Stock Exchange parent TMX Group Inc and Singapore Exchange's $7.7 billion bid for ASX. 
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Most Optimistic Economy

The results of the annual Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) showed that Filipino business leaders were now ranked third in the world in terms of optimism with 87 percent of businessmen saying they were more confident about business prospects for 2011.

Local businessmen came in just behind their peers from Chile (95-percent optimism) and India (93 percent), and ahead of those in Brazil (78 percent).

The IBR—conducted locally by the group’s affiliate Punongbayan & Araullo—is an international survey of the opinions of medium to large privately held businesses.

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India : Need Regulations that Facilitate Overseas Acquisitions

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has submitted a memorandum to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Government of India listing various factors that restrict the framework for overseas acquisitions by Indian companies. 

CII believes that the future growth of Indian companies will be influenced by the share that they can garner in the world market. Not only do the country’s productive capacities need to be boosted, Indian companies also need to enhance their competitive strength and upgrade their global outreach.

In a memorandum to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, CII has submitted that the growth of the Indian multinational is severely restricted by the regulatory framework for cross border transactions,

CII has highlighted that the process of mergers and acquisitions under the existing Companies Act is a long court-driven process. It does not allow for contractual mergers (i.e., without court intervention) or merger of an Indian company into a foreign company.

A provision is proposed in the Companies Bill 2009 that would restrict the number of step down subsidiaries. This would be a major impediment towards overseas acquisitions by Indian companies. Very often the foreign company to be acquired already has more than one level of subsidiaries and for effecting the acquisition, the Indian company may need to create a SPV which could be a subsidiary of a subsidiary. However, if the Companies Bill is enacted with this restriction, it would prove to be a major hurdle for aspiring Indian companies, which are planning overseas acquisitions.

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BHP Billiton buys US Shale Gas Assets

BHP Billiton has made its first move into the US shale gas business with the acquisition of producing assets from Chesapeake Energy Corp for $US4.75 billion cash, in its first deal since a series of failed major deals.

In a relatively small acquisition for the world’s biggest diversified miner, BHP today said its Petroleum division would buy 487,000 net acres of leasehold and producing natural gas properties in the Fayetteville Shale play in central Arkansas.

BHP also said it would immediately commence the off-market portion of its increased $US10bn share buyback program, unveiled last week when the miner reported a record first-half net profit of $US10.7bn.

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U.S. : Proposal For Entry Fee On Canadians

President Barack Obama's proposal to charge an entry fee from Canadians entering the US has infuriated political and business leaders in this country.

In his proposal in the 2012 draft budget submitted to the US Congress Monday, Obama has proposed a 'passenger inspection fee' of $5.50 for Canadian entering the US to raise millions of dollars annually. An estimated 16 million Canadians flew to the US in 2009. If each was levied the $5.50 entry tax, the US exchequer would make well over $90 million, according to the Canadian Press.

Currently, visitors from Canada, Mexico and some Caribbean countries are exempted from paying entry fee to the US authorities.

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US Job Growth, Inflation Still Too Low

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have suggested US economic conditions are still too weak for the central bank to pull back on its vast monetary stimulus, despite a welcome drop in the jobless rate.

The Fed chief, also warned about the dangers of record US budget deficits. But he indicated sharp spending cuts in the short term could cripple the recovery.

Acknowledging a recent pick-up in the economy, Bernanke said a drop in the jobless rate to 9 per cent in January from 9.8 per cent in November,  was "grounds for optimism."

However, he said hiring is still anemic and noted that the economy has made up just over one million of the more than eight million jobs lost during the recession.

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Facebook and Google size up takeover of Twitter

Google Inc and Facebook Inc, plus others, have held low level takeover talks with Twitter that give the Internet sensation a value as high as $10 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In December, Twitter raised $200 million in financing in a deal that valued it at $3.7 billion. The company, which allows users to broadcast 140-character messages to groups of followers, had 175 million users as of September.

The Wall Street Journal reported on its website that executives at Twitter have held "low level" talks with executives at Facebook and Google in recent months about a possible takeover of Twitter.

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Toronto, London Stock Markets Merger

The Canadian TMX group, which owns the Toronto bourse, is in advanced talks with the London Stock Exchange over a possible merger.

TMX said in a statement that it was discussing "a possible merger of equals to create an international exchange leader.

"The merged Group would be co-headquartered in London and Toronto and continue to be overseen by its existing regulatory authorities," the statement added.

The company added the proposal included that "the executive management and senior leadership of the Merged Group will be drawn from a balance of leaders from both organizations."

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AOL to buy Huffington Post

US Internet provider AOL will buy The Huffington Post, a rapidly growing news website with nearly 25 million monthly visitors, for $315 million.

Approximately $300 million will be paid in cash, it said.

The Huffington Post is privately owned, but the proposed transaction is subject to government approvals.

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Hackers Penetrate Nasdaq Computers .

Hackers have repeatedly penetrated the computer network of the company that runs the Nasdaq Stock Market during the past year, and federal investigators are trying to identify the perpetrators and their purpose, according to people familiar with the matter.

The exchange's trading platform—the part of the system that executes trades—wasn't compromised, these people said. However, it couldn't be determined which other parts of Nasdaq's computer network were accessed.

Investigators are considering a range of possible motives, including unlawful financial gain, theft of trade secrets and a national-security threat designed to damage the exchange.
The Nasdaq situation has set off alarms within the government because of the exchange's critical role, which officials put right up with power companies and air-traffic-control operations, all part of the nation's basic infrastructure. Other infrastructure components have been compromised in the past, including a case in which hackers planted potentially disruptive software programs in the U.S. electrical grid, according to current and former national-security officials.

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China did not manipulate currency in 2010: US

CHINA did not manipulate its currency to gain an unfair trade advantage in 2010, but progress toward allowing it to appreciate was 'insufficient', the US Treasury said on Friday.

The Treasury said that China, eight other countries and the euro zone were all cleared of accusations that they manipulated exchange rates to their own benefit.

'Based on the resumption of exchange rate flexibility last June and the acceleration of the pace of real bilateral appreciation over the past few months,' China's behaviour did not qualify under the official definition of manipulation, it said in a long-delayed report to Congress.

'Treasury's view, however, is that progress thus far is insufficient and that more rapid progress is needed,' it added, pledging to 'continue to closely monitor the pace of appreciation' of the yuan by China. In addition to China, the Treasury looked at the policies of the euro zone and eight other economies: Brazil, Britain, Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Switzerland and Taiwan.

'Treasury has concluded that no major trading partner of the United States met the standards' identified by the law 'during the period covered in this report,' it said.

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USA: Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Report

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission has published its report into the causes of the financial crisis in the USA.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission was created to “examine the causes of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States.” In this report, the Commission presents to the President, the Congress, and the American people the results of its examination and its conclusions as to the causes of the crisis.

The Commission's identified, amongst other things, "widespread failures in financial regulation" and "dramatic failures of corporate governance and risk management at many systemically important financial institutions were a key cause of this crisis".

Complete report.

Happy New Year

Wishing You All A Very Happy New Year

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas