Change the Guard

dimebag1968 asked:


While watching the recent Presidential debates, when the subjects are of foreign policy it seems to me that the only things talked about is what this or that country is doing and should we stick our nose in with a military presence. Maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t sound like foreign policy.

jim m asked:


When Clinton left office there was talk of the possibility of Russia joining NATO. After 7 1/2 years of failed Foreign Policy (isolationism and unilateralism) by the Bush administration Russia is giving us an ultimatum to pick side in their conflict with Georgia.

mrinmoy bhattacharjee asked:


During the last decade several new and innovative channels have evolved for marketing insurance products across the world apart from the usual practice of selling through insurance agents and India has also joined as a forerunner in the process.

As a matter of fact, there are three different channels through which the business of insurance happens namely, direct channels (Agents, telesales, advisors etc), indirect channels (bundled with products, bundled with other financial services) and partner channels (Bancassurance, postal, corporates etc.).

Selling through partner channels like Bancassurance is a very popular practice in Latin American and European countries where 70-80% of the total insurance business is being generated by these kinds of channels.

In India also there has been a good inclination towards the alternate channels of insurance selling adopted by other countries in the world which could bring a significant growth in the urban insurance market in the country.

Currently, the Indian insurance industry is flooded with multinational players with more and more tie ups happening between foreign insurance companies and Indian banks, financial institutions and telecom companies at large. The private insurance companies are giving a tough fight to the public sector insurance companies like LIC and GIC (with its four subsidiaries). Because of marketing innovativeness, the private sector companies are able to make their roots firmer in the market. They are developing more and more innovative channels to penetrate the market and achieve a dominant market share.

Though the public sector companies in non-life business are not lagging behind in terms of product innovativeness still, are finding it quite tough to hit the top.

The one and only public sector life insurance giant, LIC is able to maintain a good growth rate because of its past few decades of presence in the market and *********** level.

The problem is with the non-life companies (four subsidiaries of GIC) like Kolkata headquartered National Insurance Company, which was not even able to maintain the solvency margin of 1.5 as stipulated by IRDA. The picture becomes clearer if we put our eyes across the overall growth of insurance industry during the last half decade and comparative performance of the public sector non-life insurance companies.

A very much noticeable trend that has been seen among the non-life insurance companies is the promotion of family health policies which in turn is wiping away the market of individual health policies, especially in the urban market.

In such a situation, there is an urgent need for rejuvenation of the individual health policies. One of the way out could be a public-public joint venture i.e. a partnership between the public sector telecom companies like BSNL, MTNL etc. and the public sector non-life insurance companies to sell the low premium based non-life individual medi claim policies, because the premiums are low and can be clubbed with the rental of the phone bills.

An illustration is given below:

An individual mediclaim policy of Rs. 50,000 in National Insurance Company covers the following risks:

1) Reimbursement of hospitalization expenses which are reasonably and necessarily incurred, under the following heads:

a) Room, boarding expenses as provided by the hospital/nursing home.

b) Nursing fees.

c) Fees of surgeon, anesthetist, medical practitioner, consultant and specialist.

d) Expenses on account of anesthesia, blood, oxygen, operation theater charges, surgical appliances, medicines and drugs, diagnostic material, X-ray, dialysis, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, cost of pace makers, artificial limbs and costs of organs and similar expenses.

Cost of health check up and cumulative bonus- benefits will accrue if the policy is a renewal of ‘NATIONAL’.

In addition to these covers, there is an Income exemption under 80D of Income Tax Act.

In this policy, the minimum sum insured shall be Rs 50,000/- and can be increased in multiples of Rs 25,000/-.

The premium calculation for the same mediclaim policy:



Insured amount : Rs. 50,000/-.



Age of the insured : 35 years.

Premium amount : Rs. 710/-.

Service Tax : Rs. 87/-.

Total premium amount : Rs. 797/-.

Further, a customer who opts for a postpaid mobile rental scheme of BSNL like 325, 490, and 525 may have an average bill of 700, 1000 and 1500 respectively if he/she is a very judicious user also.



Now, if this mediclaim policy of Rs. 50,000/- is clubbed with the yearly rental of the mobile phone and collected in four quarterly premiums, then in any four months of the year, the customer has to pay an excess bill of Rs. 200 (approx). The table below shows the illustration:

months

Rentals: 325 490 525

* January 700+200=900 1000+200=1200 1500+200=1700

February 700 1000 1500

March 700 1000 1500

* April 900 1200 1700

May 700 1000 1500

June 700 1000 1500

* July 900 1200 1700

August 700 1000 1500

September 700 1000 1500

* October 900 1200 1700

November 700 1000 1500

December 700 1000 1500

‘*’ represents the months where the premium is collected with the rentals.

If we put our eye balls across the trends of India insurance industry, it becomes quite transparent that most the companies are trying to leverage the equity of their already established businesses to the new insurance business, for example, Bharti-AXA, Bajaj-Allianz, TATA-AIG etc. are doing nothing but, trying to use their equity from respective parent business to the new insurance business.

Similarly, the banks like ICICI, HDFC and SBI are also trying to use their established credibility from banking into insurance.

Public sector telecom companies are having the largest customer base in the country, in both urban and rural market and also share long term trusted relationships with the customers because of their several decades of operation. So, routing of mediclaim policies through these public sector telecom operators would be comparatively easier and faster than other means.

Hence, a joint Venture would put both the parties in a win-win situation in business.

minolicola asked:

Frank Caliendo on Letterman as Bush

Graham Paul asked:


If the U.K. is expected to abide by E.C. Competition rules then why can other member states get away with bending the rules to meet their own national interests?

The U.K. has long been following EU Competition rules to the letter allowing fully open opportunities for foreign ownership of its utilities. So much so that there are only two major British owned gas and electricity suppliers left, namely Centrica and Scottish and Southern Energy both of which have not escaped recent rumours of foreign takeover.

However, it would appear that when Europe talks about fully open and integrated markets it really means open for some but closed for others. Neelie Kroes, the European Competition Commissioner, made it clear that she would not tolerate the lack of cross-border competition in mainland Europe yet when she proposed that the only real solution to this problem was a break-up of the giant European utilities she was forced to accept a watered down version under severe pressure from the German and French governments.

Others, such as the Spanish, have not been quite so keen as the British to take the competition rules literally. So it was perfectly O.K. for Spanish company Iberdrola to take over Scottish Power but when the German giant Eon began to make moves for Endesa the protectionist tendancy of the Spanish government began to rear its ugly head. Despite the Spanish government being found guilty by the European Commission of imposing totally unfair conditions on Eon’s takeover bid Spanish company Acciona along with Italy’s Enel were able to conjure up a deal that would send Eon off with its tail between its legs. But if Italy’s Enel thought that it would be able to take control of Endesa through the back door it must think again as Spain is busy putting together further nationalistic obstacles which will restrict its future business options.

Graham Paul of independent and British owned electricity4business Ltd, the specialist supplier of business electricity to small and mid-sized businesses, finds it difficult to comprehend why German, French and Spanish governments who could all be classed at least one notch above the U.K. on the Europhile scale still insist on protectionism whenever their national energy suppliers are threatened with foreign takeover or a foreign energy company is seeking to gain entry into their markets.

“All that we ask is for a level playing field.” says Graham “If European legislation prohibits protectionist policies then all member states should abide by the same rules. The additional benefits to be gained by full European co-operation massively outweigh any sacrifice at national level. By fully opening European energy markets, for example, the status quo of having the price of gas pegged to the price of oil, for decades an added burden on European industry, could be altered in an instance enabling Europeans to compete far more favourably in global economies.”

And Spain has been active in other sectors too with recent takeovers of Abbey National and BAA in the U.K.. Part of the reason for such acquisitive behaviour lies in the tax breaks that are available to Spanish companies who buy abroad but are unavailable to other E.C. companies.

The downside of all this concentration fever in mainland Europe is that those who lose out must look elsewhere to fulfil their expansionist plans and there’s no easier location than the U.K., even when only two major indigenous gas and electricity companies remain. It’s not surprising then, that some analysts are suggesting that after its failed attempts to take over Scottish Power and then Endesa Eon may now turn its attention to Scottish and Southern Energy - and then there was one?

AssociatedPress asked:

World leaders launched extraordinary summit talks Friday on the economic crisis gripping the globe, searching for ways to limit the current carnage and prevent future calamities. (Nov. 14)

AtGoogleTalks asked:

Illinois Senator and 2008 Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama visits Google’s Mountain View, CA, headquarters to deliver his innovation agenda, speak with Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and take questions from Google employees. This event took place on November 14, 2007, as part of the Candidates@Google series.