Ministry of Information & Broadcasting: One Hundred Years of Indian Cinema (The Art and T...

Ministry of Information & Broadcasting:
One Hundred Years of Indian Cinema (The Art and T...: One Hundred Years of Indian Cinema (The Art and Technology) – H.N.Narahari Rao Tracing the history, birth and evolution of Indian cin...

YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE.......!!!

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Let it reach the 110 Crores Indians and the remaining if any.
Kindly, share this valuable information wherever possible**.
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**1. If you see children Begging anywhere in INDIA , please contact:
"RED SOCIETY" at 9940217816. They will help the children for their studies.*
* *
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2. Where you can search for any BLOOD GROUP, you will get thousand's of
donor address. **www.friendstosupport.org** *
*
3. Engineering Students can register in **www.campuscouncil.com** to attend
Off Campus for 40 Companies. *
*
4. Free Education and Free hostel for Handicapped/Physically Challenged
children.
Contact:- 9842062501 & 9894067506.*
*
5. If anyone met with fire accident or people born with problems in their
ear, nose and mouth can get free PLASTIC SURGERY done by Kodaikanal PASAM
Hospital . From 23rd March to 4th April by German Doctors.
Everything is free. Contact : 045420-240668,245732
"Helping Hands are Better than Praying Lips" *
*
6. If you find any important documents like Driving license, Ration card,
Passport, Bank Pass Book, etc., missed by someone, simply put them into any
near by Post Boxes. They will automatically reach the owner and Fine will be
collected from them. *
*
7. By the next 10 months, our earth will become 4 degrees hotter than what
it is now. Our Himalayan glaciers are melting at rapid rate. So let all of
us lend our hands to fight GLOBAL WARMING.
-Plant more Trees.
-Don't waste Water & Electricity.
-Don't use or burn Plastics *
*
8. It costs 38 Trillion dollars to create OXYGEN for 6 months for all Human
beings on earth.
"TREES DO IT FOR FREE"
"Respect them and Save them" *
* *
*9. Special phone number for Eye bank and Eye donation: 04428281919 and
04428271616 (Sankara Nethralaya Eye Bank). For More information about how to
donate eyes plz visit these sites. **http://ruraleye.org/** *

*10. Heart Surgery free of cost for children (0-10 yr) Sri Valli Baba
Institute Banglore. 10.
Contact : 9916737471 *
*
11. Medicine for Blood Cancer!!!!
'Imitinef Mercilet' is a medicine which cures blood cancer. Its available
free of cost at "Adyar Cancer Institute in Chennai". Create Awareness. It
might help someone.
Cancer Institute in Adyar, Chennai
Category: Cancer
Address:
East Canal Bank Road , Gandhi Nagar
Adyar
Chennai -600020
Landmark: Near Michael School
Phone: 044-24910754 044-24910754 , 044-24911526 044-24911526 ,
044-22350241 044-22350241 *
*
12. Please CHECK WASTAGE OF FOOD
If you have a function/party at your home in India and food gets wasted,
don't hesitate to call 1098 (only in India ) - Its not a Joke, This is the
number of Child helpline.
They will come and collect the food. Please circulate this message which can
help feed many children.
AND LETS TRY TO HELP INDIA BE A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE IN
Please Save Our Mother Nature for
"OUR FUTURE GENERATIONS"
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Let it reach the 110 Crores Indians and the remaining if any. *

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*“JA**I HIND”*

Provisional Population Totals for Census 2011

India's population rose to 1.21 billion people over the last 10 years - an increase by 181 million, according to the new census released today, but significantly the growth is slower for the first time in nine decades.
The population, which accounts for world's 17.5 per cent population, comprises 623.7 million males and 586.5 million females, said a provisional 2011 Census report. China is the most populous nation accounting for 19.4 per cent of the global population.
The country's headcount is almost equal to the combined population of the United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Japan put together, it said.The population has increased by more than 181 million during the decade 2001-2011, the report said.
The growth rate in 2011 is 17.64 per cent in comparison to 21.15 per cent in 2001.The 2001-2011 period is the first decade - with exception of 1911-1921 - which has actually added lesser population compared to the previous decade, Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner of India C Chandramauli said in presence of Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai.Among the states and Union territories, Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state with 199 million people and Lakshadweep the least populated at 64,429.
The combined population of UP and Maharashtra is bigger than that of the US.The highest population density is in Delhi's north-east district (37,346 per sq km) while the lowest is in Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh (just one per sq km).The Census indicated a continuing preference for male children over female children. The latest child sex ratio in is 914 female against 1,000 male - the lowest since Independence."This is a matter of grave concern," Chandramauli said.According to the data, literates constitute 74 per cent of the total population aged seven and above and illiterates form 26 per cent.
The literacy rate has gone up from 64.83 per cent in 2001 to 74.04 per cent in 2011 showing an increase of 9.21 per cent.Interestingly, the addition of 181 million population during 2001-2011 is slightly lower than the total population of Brazil, the fifth most populous country in the world.While China has 19.4 per cent of the world's total population, India has 17.5 per cent of the world population.However, the percentage decadal growth during 2001-2011 has registered the sharpest decline since independence - a decrease of 3.90 percentage points from 21.54 to 17.64 per cent.Apart from UP, other most populous states are - Maharashtra (112.3 million), Bihar (103.8 million), West Bengal (91.3 million) and Andhra Pradesh (84.6 million).Besides Lakshadweep, smallest UTs and states are - Daman and Diu (2,42,911), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (3,42,853), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (7,79,944) and Sikkim (6,07,688).
The percentage decadal growth rates of the six most populous states have declined during 2001-2011 compared to 1991-2001. Uttar Pradesh (25.85 per cent to 20.09 per cent), Maharashtra (22.73 per cent to 15.99 per cent), Bihar (28.62 per cent to 25.07 per cent), West Bengal (17.77 per cent to 13.93 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (14.59 per cent to 11.10 per cent and Madhya Pradesh (24.26 per cent to 20.23 per cent)."For the first time, there is a significant fall in the growth rate of population in the Empowered Action Group states after decades of stagnation," Chandramouli said.
The EAG states are: UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh Chhattisgarh and Orissa.

FIGURES AT A GLANCE - INDIA
POPULATION Persons 1,21,01,93,422
Males 62,37,24,248
Females 58,64,69,174
DECADAL POPULATION GROWTH 2001-2011
Absolute Percentage
Persons 18,14,55,986 17.64
Males 9,15,01,158 17.19
Females 8,99,54,828 18.12

DENSITY OF POPULATION:- 382 (per sq. km.)

SEX RATIO:-940 (females per 1000 males)

POPULATION IN
THE AGE GROUP 0-6 Absolute Percentage to
total
population
Persons 15,87,89,287 13.12
Males 8,29,52,135 13.30
Females 7,58,37,152 12.93

LITERATES Absolute Literacy rate
Persons 77,84,54,120 74.04
Males 44,42,03,762 82.14
Females 33,42,50,358 65.46

What is cloud computing bring out its essential features and list advantages and limitations

Cloud computing and its essential features

Cloud Computing is a general term used for computing that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. The name cloud derived from cloud symbol that we use in flowcharts to represent Internet. Cloud Computing provides three types of services are

1. SaaS (Software as a Service) - Here the service providers host applications like spreadsheets, Documents etc. over a network i.e. Internet and are available to their customers at any time.

2. PaaS (Platform as a Service) - The service provider rents the platform/software such as operating system , virtualized servers , Hardware to their customers and Paas allows customers to upgrade their platforms according to their wish.

3. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service or Hardware as a service) - An organization or service provider outsources Hardware, networking devices, servers, storage etc. to their client or customer and charged as pay per minute or hour for using their services. ex. Amazon web services.

Advantages of cloud computing

• Reduces overall cost and increase efficiencies, especially when replacing an organization’s locally operated on-premise servers.
• cloud computing has the potential to reduce a company's energy use and carbon emissions by at least 30% per user compared to an average on-premise installation of those applications.
• Dynamic Provisioning: over-provisioning of servers at the cloud's operational scale can be very expensive. Cloud operators can quickly matching server capacity to demand shifts.
• Multi-Tenancy: service providers are able to serve millions of users at thousands of companies simultaneously on one massive shared infrastructure.
• Server Utilization: Cloud computing can drive energy savings by improving server utilization, which is the measurement of the portion of a server's capacity that an application actively uses.
• Data center Efficiency: the way facilities are physically constructed, equipped with IT and supporting infrastructure, and managed has a major impact on the energy use for a given amount of computing power.
• Ease of operations: A marketing manager or sales manager can update their database from anywhere, immediately keep their database up to date.
Disadvantages of cloud computing

• The biggest challenge for cloud computing is security as every operations are carried out online there may be high risk of malicious programs, hackers, phishing attacks etc..
• It requires high speed internet/network connection as all the operations and transactions carried out over internet/internet.
• Confidentiality of data is not assured as it is maintained by third party service provider.

PALESTINE ISSUE...a detail story.......!!!!!!!!

UN General Assembly recommended partition of British Mandatory territory of palestine in 1947 into Arab and Jewish states. Conflict ensued, first within palestine and then, after state of Israel proclaimed territorial supremacy in May 1948, with Arab states. War ended in unstable truce. Hundreds of thousands of palestinians became refugess as result of 1948 war, primarily in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and west bank and Gaza strip.
Between 1948-1967, Gaza strip was ruled by Egypt, while West Bank was annexed by Jordan in 1950. Israeli military victory in june 1967 war ( Six-Day War ) resulted in to occupation of west Bank, Gaza Strip, Syrian Golan Heights, Egyptian Sinai Peninsula ans Israeli annexation of East jerusalem. UN Security Council resolution 242 ( 1967 ) laid basis for " Land of Peace" formula.
Palestine Liberation Organization was founded by Arab League 1964. After 1967 it was controlled by palestinian guerilla organizations. Yasser Arafat, founder and leader of Palestinian National Liberation Movement ( Fatah ) led PLO Executive Committee from 1969 until his death in 2004. Egypt and Syria launched 1973 October War. Initial successes subsequently reversed, but broke political stalemate in Middle East. Egyptian president Anwar Sadat initiated peace process with visit to jerusalem in 1977, resulting in U.S - sponsored Camp David accords 1978, and 1979 peace treaty leading to Israeli withdrawl from occupied Sinai in 1982.
Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 to expel PLO, counter Syrian Influence, strenghten Israeli's northern border, and establish pro-Israeli Lebanese government. PLO was forced to disperse to other Arab countries. Isreali troops remained in southern lebanon until unilateral withdrwal in 2000 after years of warfare with lebanese shiite Hezbollah movement.
Amid escalating settlement drive in West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinian uprising ( Intifada ) against Israeli occupation took place ( 1987 - 1993 ). Framework for negotiations between Israel and Arabs was established after 1991 Gulf War and led to unprecedented 1991 Madrid Middle East Peace Conference Palestinian track ws subsequently overtaken by secret Oslo negotiations and signing of Israeli Palestinian Declaration of Principles ( "Oslo Accords") at White House in September 1993. Labor party PM Yitzhak Rabin, Forign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat were awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.
Rabin was assasinated by Israeli extremists in November 1995. Likud party's Benjamin Netanyahu defeated Rabin's successor Shimon Peres in 1996. Oslo slowly began to unravel. Final status negotiations began after Netanyahu replaced by Labor's Ehud Barak in 1999elections but process ultimately broke down amid mutual recriminations after failed July 2000 Camp David summit sponsored by U.S president Clinton. New Palestinian uprising - dubbed as Al-Aqsa intifada - began in september 2000.
Ariel sharon was elected Israeli PM in 2001 and reelected in 2003. Israeli armored incursions in palestinian cities and palestinian suicide bombings in Israel produced unprecedented casuality levels on both sides. Attempts to revive peace process failed to produce necessary breakthrough. Amid escalating conflict Israel reoccupied West Bank cities in April 2002 and began construction of seaparation barrier largely within occupied west bank and enclosing East jerusalem. Barrier was condemned as Illegal by International Court of Justice in July 2004.
Sharon led Israeli " Unilateral Disengagement " from Gaza Strip in August 2005, including dismantlement of all Gaza settlements.Isael retained control over airspace, territorial waters, and all boundaries except border with Egypt, where flow of persons supervised by EU border assistance mission.
2005-06 brought seismic shifts in Israel and Palestinian politics with formation of new kadima party by Ariel Sharon, latter's removal from scene after massive stroke in January 2006 and Victory of Islamist group Hamas in palestinian parliamentary elections. Acting PM Ehud Olmert led kadima to narrow victory in March elections. Olmert proclaimed continuation of unilateral approach, rejecting negotiations with palestinians, setting "Permanent" eastern borders by 2010 and seeking international endorsement for this. Hamas refusal to recognise Israel, renounce violence and endorse existing agreements led donors to suspend aid as Palestine faced continued operational challenges and potential collapse.
By May 2006, mounting violence in Gaza, fuelled by power struggle between Fatah and Hamas Loyalists, raised fears of civil war.Israel arrested almost all Hamas cabinet members and Parliamentaries in west bank. South lebanon based Hizbollah launched cross-border raid on Israel in july 2006, capturing 2 and killing 8 soldiers. UN Security Council Resolution 1701 led to ceasefire and deployement of strengthened UN force to southern lebanon. The Annapolis conference also called as " Middle East Eace Conference" was, held in November, 2007 at United States. During conference for the first time, two states solution was articulated, as they mutually agreed upon outline for addressing the Israel-Palestine conflict.

2008 Capgemini Placement Paper

Hi Capgemini Aspirants,

I think you should know the following about Capgemini:
1. Capgemini is a Europe MNC (unlike indian borne MNCs like Infosys, Wipro and all), spread in 38
countries around the globe.
2. Its a 13.8 billion $ company. Companies like infosys,satyam,wipro are not even half of Capgemini.(TCS
being 7.4bn$)
3. Its called the gurus of consulting .
4. It stands 5th the Indian IT company rankings 2008.
5. It stands 4th in the best IT consulting services company in the recent world rankings by Forbes.
6. Capgemini is a very good company for the freshers, unlike other IT firms ,Capgemini stands the last
when it comes to irregular firings.

this is the real experince from my good friend.......continue reading and learn........
now my friend's story begins.......

Capgemini came for a Campus recruitment drive on Jul 30th, 2008.

The criteria was: For BE: 60% in BE till date & no active backlogs.

We were asked to report at 8:30am and to our surprise, the recruiters appeared sharp at 8:30 am
(unlike other company people who are generally 3 or more hrs late).The most punctual comany to add..
Then started the selection procedure.

1) Presentation: All the appearing students were called in a hall to see a power point presentation about
the company. It was really interesting. We were formally introduced to the HR and her team. Its always
better to note important points form the presentation since it may be asked in the interview. We were
told about the package that we were going to get. It was 3 lakh CTC per annum. After the presentation,
we were asked to move in rooms for aptitude test.

2) Aptitude Test: Aptitude test was on paper and an objective type. The paper was divided into two
sections:
(i) Quantitative 25 questions.
(ii) Analytical 25 questions.

We were given 1hr to solve the paper. There was a sectional cut-off of 10 marks (it was told in advance)
and there was a provision of negative marking (0.25 marks deducted for every incorrect answer). I went
for around 15 questions from both the sections and managed to clear the aptitude test. Please note that
there were 3 sets of question papers and they contained very few common questions. But a lot of
questions (around 8-10) in each set were repeated questions (questions that had been asked in earlier campus interviews by Capgemini). So do refer to the previous years papers...So, I will suggest you togo
through all the questions by heart that I am giving with their answers.

QUANTITATIVE:
1. Find min value of fn: |-5-x| + |2-x|+|6-x|+10-x|; where x is an integer
0 17 23 19

2. units digit in expansion os 2 raised to 51 is:
2 4 6 8

3. 2 men at same tym start walking towards each other from A n B 72 kms apart. sp of A is 4kmph.Sp of
B is 2 kmph in 1st hr,2.5 in 2nd, 3 in rd. n so on…when will they meet i in 7 hrs ii at 35 kms from A iii in
10 hrs iv midway

4. (8*76+19*?-60) / (?*7*12+3-52)=1
5 2 1 3

5. 45 grinders brought @ 2215/-.transpot expense 2190/-.2760/- on octroi . Find SP/piece to make profit
of 20%
2585 2225 2670 3325

6. in a 2 digit no unit’s place is halved and tens place is doubled.diff bet the nos is 37.digit in unit’s place
is 2 more than tens place.
24 46 42 none

7. if x-y + z = 19 , y + z =20 , x-z=3 , find d value of x+4y-5z
22 38 17 none

8. Find approx value of 39.987/0.8102+1.987*18.02
72 56 86 44

9. If the ratio of prod of 3 diff comp’s A B & C is 4:7:5 and of overall prod last yr was 4lac tones and if
each comp had an increase of 20% in prod level this yr what is the prod of Comp B this yr?
2.1L 22.1L 4.1L none

10. If 70% of a no. is subtracted from itself it reduces to 81.what is two fifth of that no.?
108/54/210/none

11. If a certain sum of money at SI doubles itself in 5 yrs then what is d rate?
5% 20% 25% 14.8%

12. If radius of cylinder and sphere r same and vol of sphere and cylinder r same what is d ratio betn the
radius and height of the cylinder
i. R= H
ii. R= (3/4)H
iii. R = (4/3)H
iv. R=2/3H
13. Which one of the foll fractions is arranged in ascending order
i. 9/11,7/9,11/13,13/14
ii 7/8,9/11,11/13,13/14
iii 9/11,11/13,7/8,13/14
iv none

14. A is 4 yrs old and B is thrice A>when A is 12 yrs, how old will B be?
16 20 24 28

15. Boat goes downstream from P to Q in 2hrs, upstream in 6hrs and if speed of stream was ½ of boat in
still water. Find dist PQ
6 4 10 none

16. Fresh Grapes contain 90% water by wt. Dried grapes contain 20% water by %age. What will b wt of
dried grapes when we begin with 20 kg fresh grapes? 2kg 2.4kg 2.5kg none

17. How many 5 digit no. can b formed wit digits 1, 2, 3,4,5,6 which r divisible by 4 and digits not
repeated
144 168 192 none

18. Asish was given Rs. 158 in denominations of Rs 1 each. He distributes these in diff bags, such that ne
sum of money of denomination betn 1 and 158 can be given in bags. The min no. of such bags reqd :
10 17 15 none

19.There is a rectangular Garden whose length and width are 60m X 20m.There is a walkway of uniform
width around garden. Area of walkway is 516m^2. Find width of walkway:
1 2 3 4

20. In a race from pt. X to pt Y and back, Jack averages 0 miles/hr to pt Y and 10 miles/hr back to pr
X.Sandy averages 20 miles/hr in both directions. If Jack and Sandy start race at same tym, who’ll finish:
i. 1st Jack ii.Sandy iii.they tie iv.Impossible to tell

21. A man engaged a servant on a condn that he’ll pay Rs 90 and also give him a bag at the end of the yr.
He served for 9 months and was given a turban and Rs 65. So the price of turban is i. Rs :
10 19 0 55

22. Three wheels make 36, 24, 60 rev/min. Each has a black mark on it. It is aligned at the start of the qn.
When does it align again for the first tym?
14 20 22 5sec

23. If 1= (3/4)(1+ (y/x) ) then
i. x=3y ii. x=y/3 iii. x=(2/3)y iv. none

24. The sum of six consecutive odd nos. is 888. What is the average of the nos.? i. 147 ii. 148 iii. 149 iv.
146

25. 1010/104*102=10?
i. 8 ii. 6 iii. 4 iv. none

HOW TO WRITE THE IMPESSIVE ESSAY

Over the past couple of years, various b-schools have included ‘essay-writing’ in their post-entrance exam selection process.

You could be presented with essay tasks to be carried out in periods ranging from 10 to 30 minutes. As such, the number of words in a typical essay could be in the range of 300-700 words (one side to two sides of an A4 sheet).

This note is designed to provide you with essential inputs on writing an effective essay. It deals with how to: (a) generate relevant content, (b) come up with the right structure, and (c) write effectively.

Remember the basic elements of communication that have relevance here, namely, clarity of thought, empathy, and effective expression. Also keep in mind that a step-by-step method, with a check list, would ensure efficient use of time spent on an essay.

We would suggest steps, and a check list, such as represented by the acronym CODER.

C - Collect ideas
O – Organise them
D – Develop them
E – Express them
R – Review

C – Collect ideas
Content – the topic itself – What are the key words? What is it about? What information does one have? How does one gather further information? What ideas or views does one have (or what views does one develop) on the basis of this information?

You would recall the ‘approaches’ we’ve suggested for idea-generation in GDs - such as the Key Word Approach (KWA), Viewpoint of Affected Parties (VAP), and SPELT. These could be used when you are writing an essay too, to generate ideas on the basis of information that you have. Remember to make quick, concise notes (just words and phrases) as you brainstorm, to ensure that you recall important ideas.

O – Organise them
Organisation of ideas - put random thoughts and ideas into coherent groups. What would be the purpose or theme of the essay? What would be the appropriate ideas to start with (or to use for introductory statement)? What are the further ideas that one could continue with, and what would these ideas lead to? What ideas would be the right ones to end with?

Effective notes and careful thought on these aspects would help you put together properly organised content.

D – Develop them
Explanation and elaboration – What sort of readership is the essay intended for (education, age, gender, knowledge of the topic, attitude to the topic)? What sort of information would hold their attention best? What sort of examples would they relate to? What pieces of information, what sort of explanation, and / or what examples, would support the ideas, the theme and the purpose? How long should the essay be?

In an essay intended to be informative only – you should be careful about the selection of content to ensure that it is significant and relevant to the topic. Facts and examples used should be of interest, but should not seem out of place.

In an essay intended to explain – you should have explanations that are clear and concise.

In an essay intended to express and opinion – you should sequence the ideas and viewpoints, with supporting information and examples, in a manner that leads to the overall opinion that the essay seeks to provide.

In an essay intended to analyse – you should present ideas and information with respect to different aspects of the topic, so as to point to the relative strengths (or weaknesses) of these aspects. The essay should be one that brings out questions on the topic and finds, or seeks to find, answers.

E - Express them
Structure of an essay – A typical essay would start with an introduction, using statements and information of general nature that provide some background to the topic and point to the nature of the specific ideas that follow. The body of the essay would contain the specific ideas, presented in a clear and coherent manner. Each broad idea or idea set would form a paragraph. The flow, or sequence of paragraphs would lead to the conclusion which would sum up the purpose of the presentation.

Effective expression – requires logical coherence and flow (as already discussed). Also requires effective use of language. You must stay with sentence structure, vocabulary and idiom that you are familiar with. Individual sentences should not include more than one idea. This way, you have better control over grammatical construction, punctuation, etc. This works even for a complex idea set, where continuity and flow can be established through the use of simple and appropriate connectives and sentence starters (also called Discourse Markers – a few of which are provided further on in this note).

R – Review
You must devote the last few minutes to reading through the essay to satisfy yourself that there is logical flow and coherence, and that the language is error free. Correction, replacement or repositioning, if any, should be carried out in a manner that ensures that the flow remains or is improved.

We would suggest that, of the steps outlined above, you devote about 30 per cent of the allotted time to steps C O and D, about 60 per cent to the actual writing, i.e. E, and about 10 per cent to R.

Some Discourse Markers:

Introduction of a viewpoint – It is my opinion that..., My own view is..., As I see it..., I believe..., and so on.

Structuring or classifying – To begin with..., First of all..., For one thing..., and so on.

Adding – Further..., Moreover..., Likewise..., In addition..., Besides,..., Equally,..., Another point to be..., Apart from this..., and so on.

Giving examples – For example,..., For instance,..., A good example of this..., An appropriate illustration of this..., and so on.

Generalising – On the whole..., In general..., Broadly speaking..., In most cases..., To a large extent..., and so on.

Giving details, making things clear – In fact..., This is clear from..., This can be seen from..., Considering this in greater detail…, and so on.

Analysing a point – What this means is..., In other words..., Translated into real terms,..., and so on.

Concluding – In conclusion..., To sum up..., In short..., and so on.

Have a look at the two samples provided below, to see what a step-wise approach can result in.

Sample 1

Topic: The true measure of national development would be the reduction in economic disparities, not the growth in national income.

Essay:

The term ‘economic disparity’ would literally translate to the differences in incomes and wealth between different economic strata in society. In any economy, therefore, disparities are bound to exist, since levels of skills, contribution, ownership and wealth do vary. This is as true of fully developed economies as it is of developing and underdeveloped ones. In India, however, we use the term very specifically, to point to the yawning gap that exists between the rich and the poor. We acknowledge, with occasional embarrassment, (and opposition parties with ostensible anguish), the fact that, even six decades after independence, this gross disparity still exists. To us, it is a reminder that we have not yet been able to eradicate poverty – the state in which more than a third of our population exists, without the minimum in food, clothing, shelter and dignity.

There is no doubt that, as the economy develops, various economic determiners will show increase at the national (or gross) levels – investments, assets, production, incomes, and so on. This, in turn will progress to growth in national wealth to a point where, as a nation we are as well off or 'developed' as any other. However, it must be remembered that a nation is but a sum of the different strata of the society within it, just as a body is the sum of its parts. Looked at in this manner, it can understood that only when all the parts have the minimum required development (or 'health'), that the whole can be considered developed or healthy.

At first sight, it would seem as if there's a difficult choice to be made – that investing in economic growth would mean the inability to devote national effort and finances towards lifting the poor out of their morass. However, when we take a broader view, we understand that it is through the first that the second objective can be achieved – while the benefits of economic growth must first fuel further economic growth and then be shared by all economic strata, the greater share must find its way to those at the very bottom of the pyramid, the economically disadvantaged, till we achieve the banishment of poverty. This seems altruistic, and may be so. However, it makes good economic sense too. Those lifted out of poverty would be freed from the need to devote every moment to sheer existence and subsistence, and would therefore be able to make positive contributions to social and economic productivity, to economic growth. Both objectives - economic growth and poverty alleviation, are therefore related and should be targeted together, for national development.

Clearly, then, it is only when we have eradicated poverty, that we should consider ourselves developed in the true sense. This is why sociologists, and an increasing number of economists, are of the view that true development is reflected not in cold economic indices such as GDP, GNP or GNI, but in the HDI (Human Development Index) which takes into account three critical ‘human’ parameters – life expectancy (that reflects nutrition and health), literacy (that reflects employability) and standard of living (that reflects dignity). (518 words)

Sample 2

Topic: It is utopian to expect ethics in business. This is why business environments need laws.

Essay:

When we consider society, we normally think of it as a composite of human beings. In fact, the word has much larger meaning. Society is a composite of ‘persons’ and here we mean not only humans but all bodies that have presence in society, by virtue of their functions.

Businesses serve society and, in doing so, interact with other persons. Thus they are also a part of society and their interactive behaviour, just like that of humans, is governed by entitlements and responsibilities. When these entitlements and responsibilities are recognised and understood by persons on their own and given effect to, through voluntary behaviour, we say the persons are guided by ethics. However, there are times when persons may not be guided by ethics, or where, ethics notwithstanding, rights and duties are to be determined. For such times, when entitlements and responsibilities are to be laid down and enforced by authority, we have laws.

So, whether for individual humans, or for societal ‘persons’ in the larger sense, ethics and laws are actually similar in objective - they seek to bring about that proper application of rights and duties of persons that would enable society to function smoothly.

This holds just as true in the world of business which, as discussed earlier, is part of society. Therefore, when we consider ‘Ethics versus Law’ in the area of business we cannot mean that one opposes the other but that, depending on circumstances and situations, one is effective where the other is not (or that one is more effective than the other.)

The application of ethics in business would mean that the parties in a business relationship (whether the business itself, or customers, associates, authorities, employees or owners - anyone who could be called stakeholders) recognise and do what needs to be done to see that others get their entitlements, that their rights are not infringed, and that no harm or loss comes to them. This is what we have in mind when we speak of 'fair' or 'honest' dealings - delivering value for money whether in terms of price, quality, volume, time or support and ensuring that financial commitments are met. As long as those in business are guided by these principles, they are being ethical and this leads to comfortable, secure and long-standing relationships and goodwill. These, in turn, form the basis for holistic growth.

However, just as there is no utopia, the world of business cannot run on voluntary behaviour alone. There are situations where the focus on specific objectives, such as profit and monetary growth, often leads persons to subjective perceptions of entitlements and responsibilities and results in conflict of interest. This is where the various laws (commercial, revenue, and civil laws) play their roles - laying down what would cause one perception to gain preponderance or priority over another, thus determining the rights and duties appropriate to such situations. Right-thinking and ethical businesses recognise this need, and their ethics therefore extend to proper compliance with such laws. This is what earns them regard and reputation, also essential for proper growth.

Then there are businesses and business situations where, sometimes, no heed is paid to ethics, where persons seek to achieve objectives ‘at any cost’ or ‘no matter what it takes’, and the laws (including, sometimes, criminal laws) are necessitated to enforce appropriate business behaviour so as to protect the rights of stakeholders.

We have looked at three broad areas that indicate the relevance of ethics and law in business. However, it must be kept in mind that the boundaries between these areas are neither sharp nor immutable. Social behaviour is not the same all over the world or at all times. In the case of humans, perceptions of what is ethical and what is not may vary in some aspects, depending on culture, traditions and social attitudes prevalent in different societies. When it comes to businesses, this variance exists because of political and economic ideologies and objectives that have either gained social acceptance, or have been adopted through particular systems of government or through policies that have been implemented by government. For instance, what is considered unethical practice in a socialist environment may not be considered so in a capitalist framework. Similarly, business activities that may not require regulation in a free market situation may need regulation when they fall in the ambit of social responsibility or social welfare activity.

It can be seen, then, that Ethics and Law are not contradictory, either in meaning, or objective. They are both relevant to business, and have value and application in different situations and circumstances. It is clear, however, that business that is guided by ethics is more likely to enjoy harmonious existence and growth than business that is prodded by law. Businesses would do well, therefore, to adopt ethical approaches on their own and willingly accept the application of laws when in situations that present a conflict of interest. Such behaviour would make them valuable and well accepted components of the social fabric they are part of. (835 words)

Some of the essay topics given last year at IIM-A:
o The educational system is killing creativity in Indian children.
o Should Nehru’s temples of learning remain elitist?
o Indian women should take up their husbands’ surname after marriage.
o Should India’s youth imbibe the positive aspects of western culture?
o Both men and women need to undergo gender sensitivity courses.
o NGOs are yet to get their due from society.
o Studying pure science is a waste of time.
o Industrialisation should not happen at the cost of human rights.
o Indian politicians need training in communication skills.
o Globalisation has failed to live up to its promises.
o Pubs are anti-Indian.
o It should be made compulsory for Indian politicians to be fit.
o The resurgence of public sector companies in the current financial slowdown.
o Obama will bring change, but only to the USA.
o The Indian space programme is an ambition misplaced.