Indian Institute of Financial Planning

The IIFP (Indian Institute of Financial Planning) was established in 2007, and has become a formidable name in dispensation of education in a short span of time. IIFP is accredited to the Financial Planning Standards Board India for CFP Certification Education, and is credited with giving above 70 percent results in CFPCM Certification Education since inception. Our Courses include: • PGD in Advanced Financial Planning and Wealth Management • CFA • CFP. Visit: http://www.IIFP.in

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

INDIA 2020

As we may be wondering what’s this brouhaha everywhere about India toppling China by 2020, and even be a world-power by then. What exactly is this debate about India becoming the fastest growing economy by 2020?

Initially a document prepared by TIFAC (Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council) under the chairmanship of Dr.A.P.J.Abdul kalam, the concept of “India Vision 2020” was further given a shape by him in the book - “India 2020 : Vision for the new millennium“. Various research studies second this idea too.

As per the estimations, India’s workforce will be much more literate with even poorer states progressing expeditiously, and that will take India’s GDP growth to an astounding 10-12%. This will be further propelled by China’s dipping growth rate of 7-8% as its populace will start getting older and workforce will start declining drastically. In fact, it may even have to revalue Yen, and restructure its export-oriented model, as there may not be enough takers for Chinese export products.

India is already set to become the largest English-speaking country of the world by 2020, overtaking US and many others. It’s predicted that publishing corporations worldwide will set up a base in India. As India positions itself more firmly as nuclear equipment exporter, it will liberally impose nuclear sanctions on countries worldwide. It’s believed that power generation through coal is taking a huge toll on environment due to enhanced carbon emissions. India will harness the power of gas hydrates that is lying in its oceans to develop natural gas for power generation. This is expected to resolve the steadily-mounting power need issues for both rural and urban segments of our country.

Though terrorism may increase due to enhanced fundamentalist-activities from Afghanistan and Pakistan, it will never be able to outpace India’s robust growth. India’s high-caliber, longer-vision executives will drive India to the next level in entrepreneurship. By 2020 we are very well expected to bill around 10-12% of global economic growth. This will be the reason why more and more companies will come and carry-out their business activities here. Specifically companies from those developed countries that will have an increasingly ageing population contributing quite less to their economy. No wonder, they would look elsewhere for their growth, and what better place than India that would become a gigantic magnet for one and all.

However, the road ahead is not going to be that easy. We need to work on our core competencies, talented workforce and rich natural resources. Rural India’s economy is all set to get a big push owing to a thrust in Agro food processing industry. Solar power generation, improved healthcare facilities, ICT advancements, evolution in space and defense technologies… All these will chalk a new route for India to become a force to reckon with.

Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam has very accurately put this into words “The dawn of beautiful India is in our minds and then in our deeds”.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

WikiLeaks – A Boon or A Bane?

Whenever we think of WikiLeaks, the first question that comes to our mind is: why should the Government, legally-elected by public, have information that needs to be hidden from the very same public? Why is some information secretive? Maybe, our leaders and big corporate houses are engaged in some unethical or illegal activities… Or, the reason may be nobler. They might just wish to ensure citizens’ safety by hiding some sensitive information documents.

But the question still remains. Could something moral or fair ever jeopardize someone’s safety? If these high-brow organizations and even Government are fair in their actions, then being a democratic country, we have a right to see it. And that’s precisely what WikiLeaks aims at. It gives power to the public by letting us access the information that we wouldn’t have otherwise seen and create our own opinions regarding that. Such power has the ability to expose tyrannical regimes and scheming corporate houses.

Let’s take a quick look at what WikiLeaks led to in recent past… USA Government alleges that leaked diplomatic reports concerning positioning of American troops acted as a supper for terrorists. The information included discussions with European Nations about new American military bases, current action against Iran, situation in Iraq & Afghanistan, and several other documents pertaining to negotiations going on with several countries around the world. As per the estimate, the published cables have close to 500,000 documents. As predicted by US Govt, the leaks did erode the country’s relations with other nations. It severely damaged USA’s reputation as a diplomatic partner since the files allegedly included deprecating or inane comments about friendly foreign leaders.

In addition, Government officials of some other Western Nations expressed strong disapprovals and condemned WikiLeaks for having a free hand in putting global security and international relations at stake, only for the sake of some personal benefits. However, channels like WikiLeaks got a great response from media analysts, journalists and public in general who have now started voicing voraciously about the possible downfalls of secrecy on Government’s part. In fact, many surveys reveal that people across many countries have started spending more time on internet than watching TV, all thanks to Wiki revelations. All said & done, there is no doubt that WikiLeaks strengthens the age-old fact:

“The Governments should be afraid of People, rather than the other way round”.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Rise and Fall of Big Giants (Netscape & Orkut)

Why the big market players fall from grace? Is it plain destiny, or the company chooses to veil itself in so much of vanity that it loses focus on competition? Or maybe, some other factor?

During late 90s, Netscape Navigator was considered to be the ‘real’ standard for Windows platform. As it was a united user interface to a lot of fundamental internet services (including ftp, hypertext, multimedia, etc.), its market was rapidly increasing. Moreover, it furnished quite a lot of complementary product along with its browser, while fuelling internet demand as a whole. In fact, its attractive licensing scheme ensured free-usage for non-commercial purposes. The main feature of Netscape was on-the-fly viewing of web-pages i.e. the user was not required to stare at a blank page until all the text and graphics had been loaded. These appeared bit-by-bit as the page got downloaded, so that the user could start reading the page text within moments of entering a URL. In consequence, the web got more tolerable for everyone. It also dabbled in agreements with OEM (original equipment manufacturer) companies and direct sales to large corporations.

However, it soon began feeling the heat as Microsoft initiated a full-scale attack on the browser market. It surpassed Netscape in both distribution and price factors. Microsoft bunched Internet Explorer with ISP software, Windows and new PCs acquired from OEMs. What’s more, it even gave away IE browser for free. With such an attractive pricing and ‘no installation’ requirements, it locked in a lot of new customers before they could even try out the Netscape browser.

Further, as AOL acquired Netscape in 1998, its credibility declined further. The company that was once synonymous with Web is now a mere arm of AOL’s multi-branded expansion plans. Chief engineers & executives also left the company seeing limited growth options. In order to topple Microsoft, it has now started giving away its browser and source code for free. But a huge damage has already been done by Microsoft and its now in pressure to quite likely leave the browser business and focus more on its other products including servers, e-commerce, etc. Collaboration with a larger company also seems possible.

Let’s talk about another sensation (particularly in India) i.e. Orkut. It spread almost dramatically with almost everyone’s friends and family members getting promptly addicted to it. So much so, that Orkut won “MTV Youth Icon” award for the year 2007, toppling the likes of Multimedia Cell phones, Abhishek Bachchan, etc. The prime reasons for its popularity included user-friendliness owing to less complicated features (the simplicity that Hi5 and MySpace lacked). For most of the Indians, Orkut was the first online social networking community & a photo-sharing hub experience, with options of privacy settings (the reason why Flickr failed here). Also, as Orkut was integrated with the popular emailing service, Gmail, Yahoo email never really took off as the ‘prime’ email address for Indians. It literally made contact management totally effortless. To add, scrapping and Orkut communities became the real in-thing in India. (In fact, Orkut still has around a million active forum members).

Cut to year 2009… As it didn’t innovate itself, Orkut got more and more monotonous with very less applications (that are no way comparable with Facebook’s apps) and a constant “no donuts for you!” every now and then. Instead of scrapping, people prefer ‘tweeting’ and updating status message every hour (Facebook). i.e. real-time sharing that Orkut didn’t facilitate. Orkut also doesn’t have personal vanity URLs, even though Facebook successfully dabbled in innovations like fan page, public profile, etc. It’s only now that Orkut has realized that people are done with making tons of friends, and could do nothing more with them till Orkut adds new functionalities in its system. Orkut has a makeover now, but it might be too late for people who’ve migrated to Facebook. It has already lost a huge share in India, and is losing steadily in Brazil (its highest market), even as the rest of the world has almost totally dumped it.

Monday, July 19, 2010

CFA from IIFP

What does it entail to become a CFA? What’s a CFA’s profile like? What are the kinds of opportunities available today for CFAs? Through this article, we aim to answer these questions. So, read on…

CFA – A brief description:

CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) is a highly sought-after certification that gives you a head start in financial sector. However, it is also popular among people who are looking for a career shift. This is due to the fact that CFA® designation has become a sort of standard for excellence in Finance profession. CFAs have a thoroughly global investment perspective and a profound understanding of the global marketplace. No wonder, CFAs are highly-praised by employers round the world.

CFA’s Profile

CFAs are primarily involved in providing investment counseling to the clients. They endeavor to make their clients earn highest-possible profits through transactions in stock market. For this, CFAs conduct a comprehensive research on stocks and bonds of companies in diverse sectors. Some CFAs later become specialists for a particular sector, like IT, biotechnology, metals, banking, etc. CFAs also keep track of the history of companies’ stock prices so that they can devise not only the correct buy/sell proposition for clients, but also let them know of the pros and cons of stock-market investment. They also make their clients aware about the expenditures in bonds that are in fact long-term loans given to corporate houses. Finally, a report is prepared that has all the points mentioned in a systematic manner. These points answer the concerns of clients as well as stock brokers, so that they acquire generous capital gains. Unlike MBA that offers an introduction to business and limited theoretical knowledge in finance, CFA provides the tools and skills to develop creative solutions to complex financial problems.

Eligibility and Opportunities

All the Graduates (in any stream) are eligible for becoming a Certified Financial Analyst. However, an understanding of Finance Management can hold you in good stead. Depending upon your experience, educational qualification, and your employer’s background/location, a CFA can expect decent salary at the very beginning of his/her career. Many CFAs also get to work as CFOs (Chief Financial Officers) of corporate houses, while many others work for prominent brokerage firms. Multinational companies provide regular bonuses and lofty incentives to their CFAs. Besides, CFAs frequently invest in stocks as a source of additional income.

Why should you consider IIFP for CFA?