rompQuaker

Aruna, a young CA student, twenty-something, (it might well be twenty-nothing) gets top marks for initiative.
A Chartered Accountancy PE 2 student, Aruna, took some advise adversely and came up with an innovative idea. Her Accountancy Professor had advised students that, in the run up to their examinations, they had better avoid cell phones as their normal use cause distraction. Fair enough. While one is desperately attempting to ‘tally’ the balance sheet, arrives the double beep. ”Roses are red, violets are blue, my friendship for you is definitely true.” The balance sheet goes out through the window.

That sparked off an idea. Aruna thought up something to make productive use of the ubiquitous mobile phone. She decided to deliver CA syllabus oriented content, everyday, through SMS. 6 subjects form the CA PE-2 (professional examination 2) examination and hence 6 messages originate from her mobile and are sent to over 170 members across Chennai.

But Aruna is quick to be modest. She says she works with the help of friends. She works with a team of 5 ‘contributors’ and 15 distributors. The Contributors formulate the content –no more that 450 characters per subject. She has about 15 ‘distributors’. These distributors receive the message from Aruna and forward it to members on their assigned distribution list.

rompQuaker , as her service is called, is about 6 months old. The service is on 7 days a week except for a scheduled suspension for the examination. This free service while, directly serving only Chennaiites is indirectly reaching all over India, claims Aruna.

Each member forwards it to as many people as he wants to and so it pans all across the close-knit CA student community. A small handheld initiative began impacting her fellow-students.

What Next ? She doesnot know. I suggest she look for a business model to generate a revenue stream. She is not interested. That’s a pity. For entrepreneurship commences where initiative concludes.

Ps. If you want to subscribe to rompQuaker's free service , message to +91 98413 88852

This blog will, at all times, celebrate initiative and entrepreneurship.

A dissertation on Comparative Analysis of patterns in Humans choosing their mate and investors’ behaviour towards stocks.

A doctoral thesis

It is an uncanny similarity. Which came first ? Relationships or Investing ? There is a weird resemblance between the pattern in which man (including woman *) invests on the stock market and the pattern in which he (including she*) chooses his mate or shall we say- to be politically correct and inclusive- his significant other.

Some investors hold on to stocks because their grandfathers had bought them and had passed it down the generations. (Fair enough. Correspondingly, some men marry within the same family that their father married from. South Indian Mama or Athai’s daughter)

Some investors buy a stock and hold on to it for life. Fair enough, some marriages last a lifetime.
Some other investors invest for the long term. At an opportune moment (when the going is good), they sell-out booking long-term capital gain, now Tax-free. (alimony, did some one say…)

Some investors buy shares for the short term (less than 12 months) ! exit the investment once they see a more promising stock( booking short-term CG, tax only @ 10 %) ! (Pick up- Drop- Escape..)

Some investors are actually speculators. They Buy today sell tomorrow. They don’t even take delivery!!! (One night stand, anybody)…
And some do intra-day trading. That is, buying and selling within the day.
They even sell first and then buy!! (Oh oh !!!...

But every young man better know, that historically it is proven, that long term investments in carefully chosen equities create maximum, enduring value. Short-term gains are just that –short term and are taxed at higher rates. Constant speculation can lead to losses. Even if they don’t, the brokerage shelled out is likely to exceed the gains.

* Intrepretation to the General Clauses Act.

Sania-Kamal Affair: 1 crore involved

Sania’s one crore affair with Kamal

G. Kamal Vardhana Rao is the Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP).Over the last 5 years SAAP has spent nearly a crore of rupees in directly supporting Sania Mirza. Today, Sania Mirza is World No. 34 vindicating SAAP’s support her. What does SAAP, a Government of Andhra Pradesh outfit get in return ? “Acknowledgement of its support by displaying SAAP’s logo on its attire”, say Kamal Vardhana Rao.

Celebrity management firm Globosport which manages Sania’s off-court career has restricted Sania’s endorsements to six, each fetching 1.5 crore rupees (per annum presumably) according to sources. Clearly, Sania no longer needs monetary support from SAAP.

Talent spotting and supporting—which is what SAAP has done to Sania amongst others—is not far from Venture Capital. Venture Capitalists spot budding entrepreneurs with visionary ideas and a burning desire to succeed. They take the risk and put their money on the idea, put their money on the entrepreneur and wait patiently sinking more money for the cause if need be. VCs do the same with many promising entrepreneurs, diversifying their risk. Eventually, one of them strikes it big and the VC makes enough money to cover for those who did not.

For every Sania Mirza that a SAAP creates there are others who did not make it so big. It is a risk that SAAP takes and it is its job to promote talent. But when Sania does strike it big should the Government department be satisfied with an acknowledgement.

Not, in my opinion. The VC does not just seek an acknowledgement. He needs a reward, a reward for risk. SAAP need not profiteer, but they can build up their coffers to support the next set of sportspersons who may do India proud. SAAP should have ideally, negotiated a percentage of her earnings; It can do it even now, if the corporate managers of Sania are magnanimous enough.

SAAP can even monetise the acknowledgement on Sania’s attire and sell it to the highest bidder, well, atleast negotiate a reasonable price for it.

G. Kamal Vardhana Rao, please wake up, it is not enough to back the right horse; One must also collect the moolah !

http://www.hindu.com/2005/09/28/stories/2005092809142100.htm