gd topics

							An investment bank is a financial institution that raises capital, trades in
securities and manages corporate mergers and acquisitions. Investment banks
profit from companies and governments by raising money through issuing and
selling securities in capital markets (both equity, debt) and insuring bonds (e.g.
selling credit default swaps), as well as providing advice on transactions such as
mergers and acquisitions. A majority of investment banks offer strategic advisory
services for mergers, acquisitions, divestiture or other financial services for
clients, such as the trading of derivatives, fixed income, foreign exchange,
commodity, and equity securities.

In terms of regulatory qualification, to perform these services in the United States,
an adviser must be a licensed broker-dealer, and is subject to Securities &
Exchange Commission (SEC) (FINRA) regulation[1]. Until the late 1980s, the
United States maintained a separation between investment banking and
commercial banks. Other industrialized countries (including G7 countries) have
not maintained this separation historically. Trading securities for cash or
securities (i.e., facilitating transactions, market-making), or the promotion of
securities (i.e., underwriting, research, etc.) was referred to as the "sell side".
Dealing with the pension funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, and the investing
public who consumed the products and services of the sell-side in order to
maximize their return on investment constitutes the "buy side". Many firms have
buy and sell side components.



Organizational structure of an investment bank
Main activities and units
An investment bank is split into the so-called front office, middle office, and back
office. While large full-service investment banks offer all of the lines of businesses,
both sell side and buy side, smaller sell side investment firms such as boutique
investment banks and small broker-dealers will focus on investment banking and
sales/trading/research, respectively.
Investment banks offer security to both corporations issuing securities and
investors buying securities. For corporations investment bankers offer information
on when and how to place their securities in the market. The corporations do not
have to spend on resources with which it is not equipped. To the investor, the
responsible investment banker offers protection against unsafe securities. The
offering of a few bad issues can cause serious loss to its reputation, and hence
loss of business. Therefore, investment bankers play a very important role in
issuing new security offerings



Core investment banking activities
      Investment banking is the traditional aspect of the investment banks
       which also involves helping customers raise funds in the capital markets
       and advise on mergers and acquisitions. Investment banking may involve
       subscribing investors to a security issuance, coordinating with bidders, or
       negotiating with a merger target. Another term for the investment banking
       division is corporate finance, and its advisory group is often termed
       mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The investment banking division (IBD) is
       generally divided into industry coverage and product coverage groups.
       Industry coverage groups focus on a specific industry such as healthcare,
       industrials, or technology, and maintain relationships with corporations
      within the industry to bring in business for a bank. Product coverage
      groups focus on financial products, such as mergers and acquisitions,
      leveraged finance, equity, and high-grade debt and generally work and
      collaborate with industry groups in the more intricate and specialized
      needs of a client.

     Sales and trading: On behalf of the bank and its clients, the primary
      function of a large investment bank is buying and selling products. In
      market making, traders will buy and sell financial products with the goal of
      making an incremental amount of money on each trade. Sales is the term
      for the investment banks sales force, whose primary job is to call on
      institutional and high-net-worth investors to suggest trading ideas (on
      caveat emptor basis) and take orders. Sales desks then communicate their
      clients' orders to the appropriate trading desks, who can price and execute
      trades, or structure new products that fit a specific need. Structuring has
      been a relatively recent activity as derivatives have come into play, with
      highly technical and numerate employees working on creating complex
      structured products which typically offer much greater margins and
      returns than underlying cash securities. Strategists advise external as well
      as internal clients on the strategies that can be adopted in various markets.
      Ranging from derivatives to specific industries, strategists place companies
      and industries in a quantitative framework with full consideration of the
      macroeconomic scene. This strategy often affects the way the firm will
      operate in the market, the direction it would like to take in terms of its
      proprietary and flow positions, the suggestions salespersons give to clients,
      as well as the way structurers create new products. Banks also undertake
      risk through proprietary trading, done by a special set of traders who do
      not interface with clients and through "principal risk", risk undertaken by a
      trader after he buys or sells a product to a client and does not hedge his
      total exposure. Banks seek to maximize profitability for a given amount of
      risk on their balance sheet. The necessity for numerical ability in sales and
      trading has created jobs for physics and math Ph.D.s who act as
      quantitative analysts.

     Research is the division which reviews companies and writes reports about
      their prospects, often with "buy" or "sell" ratings. While the research
      division generates no revenue, its resources are used to assist traders in
      trading, the sales force in suggesting ideas to customers, and investment
      bankers by covering their clients. There is a potential conflict of interest
      between the investment bank and its analysis in that published analysis
      can affect the profits of the bank. Therefore in recent years the
      relationship between investment banking and research has become highly
      regulated requiring a Chinese wall between public and private functions.

Other businesses that an investment bank may be involved in

     Global Transaction Banking is the division which provide cash management,
      custody services, lending, and securities brokerage services to institutions.
      Prime brokerage with hedge funds has been an especially profitable
      business, as well as risky, as seen in the "run on the bank" with Bear
      Stearns in 2008.

     Investment management is the professional management of various
      securities (shares, bonds, etc.) and other assets (e.g. real estate), to meet
      specified investment goals for the benefit of the investors. Investors may
      be institutions (insurance companies, pension funds, corporations etc.) or
       private investors (both directly via investment contracts and more
       commonly via collective investment schemes eg. mutual funds). The
       investment management division of an investment bank is generally
       divided into separate groups, often known as Private Wealth Management
       and Private Client Services.

      Merchant banking is a private equity activity of investment banks.[2]
       Current examples include Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and JPMorgan's
       One Equity Partners. (Originally, "merchant bank" was the British English
       term for an investment bank.)

      Commercial banking see article commercial bank. Examples being
       Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley growing into the commercial banking
       businesses even before the financial crises of 2008.

Middle office

      Risk management involves analyzing the market and credit risk that
       traders are taking onto the balance sheet in conducting their daily trades,
       and setting limits on the amount of capital that they are able to trade in
       order to prevent 'bad' trades having a detrimental effect to a desk overall.
       Another key Middle Office role is to ensure that the above mentioned
       economic risks are captured accurately (as per agreement of commercial
       terms with the counterparty), correctly (as per standardized booking
       models in the most appropriate systems) and on time (typically within 30
       minutes of trade execution). In recent years the risk of errors has become
       known as "operational risk" and the assurance Middle Offices provide now
       includes measures to address this risk. When this assurance is not in place,
       market and credit risk analysis can be unreliable and open to deliberate
       manipulation.

      Corporate treasury is responsible for an investment bank's funding, capital
       structure management, and liquidity risk monitoring.

      Financial control tracks and analyzes the capital flows of the firm, the
       Finance division is the principal adviser to senior management on essential
       areas such as controlling the firm's global risk exposure and the
       profitability and structure of the firm's various businesses. In the United
       States and United Kingdom, a Financial Controller is a senior position,
       often reporting to the Chief Financial Officer.

      Corporate strategy, along with risk, treasury, and controllers, often falls
       under the finance division as well.

      Compliance areas are responsible for an investment bank's daily
       operations' compliance with government regulations and internal
       regulations. Often also considered a back-office division.

Back office

      Operations involves data-checking trades that have been conducted,
       ensuring that they are not erroneous, and transacting the required
       transfers. While some believe that operations provides the greatest job
       security and the bleakest career prospects of any division within an
       investment bank[3], many banks have outsourced operations. It is,
       however, a critical part of the bank. Due to increased competition in
       finance related careers, college degrees are now mandatory at most Tier 1
       investment banks.[citation needed] A finance degree has proved
       significant in understanding the depth of the deals and transactions that
       occur across all the divisions of the bank.

      Technology refers to the information technology department. Every major
       investment bank has considerable amounts of in-house software, created
       by the technology team, who are also responsible for technical support.
       Technology has changed considerably in the last few years as more sales
       and trading desks are using electronic trading. Some trades are initiated
       by complex algorithms for hedging purposes.




JOB opportunities high in India or foriegn. Why?

      Yes job opportunities are more in India, which is developing now. Many
       foreign companies are Opening their branches in India in the name of
       BPO's and CALL CENTERS.
        The main reason why these foreign companies are opting India is due to
       the simple fact that India has many graduates and unemployed youth who
       are ready to accept a job with less pay then their foreign counter parts.
       Due to which they will gain more profits.
      As India is a developing country, the Job opportunities in India are more.
      India has large number of graduates and postgraduates in each and every
       field such as science and technology, IT sector, arts, etc.
      As the graduates and postgraduates in India are ready to expose
       themselves to the world of competition, they are ready to work for less
       pay. The main reason for that is, the people want experience and
       exposure to different environment where the chance of learning several
       things is more.
      Money matters less for people who have the capacity to prove themselves.
       The foreign companies in the present that's openings their branches in
       India because they knew that Indians are hardworking and they have the
       zeal to accept and work for the upliftment of their country


” Effect Of Western Culture On Indian Youth "

How there is head and tail for a coin, there is both positive and negative impact
of western culture on India and especially on Indian youth. In past in India men
were our traditional dresses, but now it is entirely changed, now the Indian youth
moving with jeans, t-shirts, minis, micros, etc., here we can proud of that
western culture, it bringing us with the fast moving world. But when we consider
the pubs, it is the thing to be strictly punished. In pubs both men and women are
in drastic stage, by taking drugs, it should be punished. And we need to felt sorry
for that. And there r many things to be taken from the western culture.

  On one side we enjoy our so-called rich culture and really admire it but on the
other side we find discotheques full of young guys and girls. Secondly, Joint
family tradition; one of the biggest assets of India is now vanishing under the
shadow of the so-called western culture. Nuclear families are taking place of
many years' old values. Youth of today is more interested in their privacy rather
than enjoying their lives with others. Individualization has broken up the joint
family system, paving way for the youth to fall prey to drug addiction. This stage
is the most vulnerable period of life where the youth need guidance, counseling,
education and care by parents.

Should the public sector be privatized?

Yes of course privatization of public sectors leads to some healthy changes in an
org. b's when you take public sectors u can find some slackness (or a little bit)
delay in their services. But in case of private since service is there first and
foremost duty they act rapidly.

  Privatization of public sector. Lot depends of which sector we are talking about.
Let me clarify few doubts in the primary stage. Can we expect all private
hospitals in our cities in our town which do not have an entry for poor people, can
we have only private sector telephone companies, can we have private companies
have complete control on oil reserves, can we have all transport be provided by
private sector and RTC vanishes, can we expect an private sector to take care of
our defense. In the same way we cant expect the government to set up an IT
industry on its own, we cant expect them to handle all the load of flight transport.
My point over here is both are not mutually exclusive. We need to accept the fact
that both are here to stay and we cannot make it without one. They do have their
importance and we need to deal this issue according to the context.

There are some strategic sectors, which need to be under control of Indian
government like oil/gas sector. The subsidy we enjoy will be never provided by a
private sector. The government in this case helps its citizens to a great extent
and making them available to its citizens. The ration card system is a great boon
to the poor. Coming to some sectors like steel and mobile where both are present
and a healthy competition among them always benefits the customers. It is also a
point to be noted that Government itself cannot take the complete load just like it
cant take the load of all flight customers where private sector is playing its
helping role. Then there is education sector, which also has good competition with
CBSE matching with any education system of either state syllabus or the schools
coming up with their own syllabus. The public transport sector too is a mix of
public and private and here you can see a striking difference. You can easily
differentiate the profit motive of private personal whose salaries depend on the
profit to their owner. In autos you can see some 6-8 people are dumped then
starts the engine. I do accept that some services are best in private sector as
they fear their job loss and their owners do get the best out of them by making
them to work more no. Of hours.The lazy mindset of some public sector could be
taken into account to convert it to a private sector. I would like to suggest that
counseling sessions for these to have a better future by working for the
organization would help it to grow better and be under the public sector umbrella.
We can take some examples by some of our previous strategies, which helped us
to renovate dull companies, which lacked in performance. If a private individual is
going to buy the company and could change its fortunes, why can't the public
government do it? It can. Running away from a trouble is not a solution. Facing it
head-on will produce better results.

Foreign Television Channels are destroying our culture

Foreign Television channels are destroying our culture In my opinion as the coin
has too sides ... this topic is also having both advantages and disadvantages.
Coming to advantages some of the foreign channels like BBC, Discovery, National
Geography, Animal Planet, BSNC, Star sports, Ten sports... are very much useful
to us to update our knowledge. And the technology used by these channels is
excellent.
            But coming to the disadvantages of course there are some channels,
which destroys our Indian culture. All it depends on our mind set. If we use
those channels in right way they will be useful to us. If we use in wrong way it
creates bad impact on our culture.
  India is known and it is outstanding from other company’s bcoz of its culture.
Still it is known for its culture. Television is a form of media to create awareness
among people and to entertain people. According to me, nothing is affecting our
culture. Nobody is responsible for that. Each individual is responsible for his or
her success or failure. SO foreign channels r not affecting our culture. Not only
television, all the available sources will be a favor or against to us in the way of
utilization. If u looks at it in wrong manner, it is against and vice versa. There r
many channels such as BBC, DISCOVERY, STAR SPORTS, ESPN, STAR NEWS and
many channels which gives us a high standard and gives the information about
the nook and corner.But if we think that foreign channels are affecting our culture,
then not only foreign channels, Indian channels are also affecting our culture. And
it is wrong only if Indian channels affect our culture. Culture is not in the way of
dressing and culture is not fashion. It is the behavior, manner etc. So according
to me, all depends on the way in which we take. So if u watch the channel in a
wrong way, then surely it will destroy-not our culture, it will destroy u.




Advantages and Disadvantages of Globalization

Some Advantages                              Some Disadvantages
      Increased free trade between               Increased flow of skilled and
       nations                                     non-skilled jobs from developed
      Increased liquidity of capital              to developing nations as
       allowing investors in developed             corporations seek out the
       nations to invest in developing             cheapest labor
       nations                                    Increased likelihood of economic
      Corporations have greater                   disruptions in one nation
       flexibility to operate across               effecting all nations
       borders                                    Corporate influence of nation-
      Global mass media ties the world            states far exceeds that of civil
       together                                    society organizations and
      Increased flow of communications            average individuals
       allows vital information to be             Threat that control of world
       shared between individuals and              media by a handful of
       corporations around the world               corporations will limit cultural
      Greater ease and speed of                   expression
       transportation for goods and               Greater chance of reactions for
       people                                      globalization being violent in an
      Reduction of cultural barriers              attempt to preserve cultural
       increases the global village effect         heritage
      Spread of democratic ideals to             Greater risk of diseases being
       developed nations                           transported unintentionally
      Greater interdependence of                  between nations
    nation-states                        Spread of a materialistic lifestyle
   Reduction of likelihood of war        and attitude that sees
    between developed nations             consumption as the path to
   Increases in environmental            prosperity
    protection in developed nations      International bodies like the
                                          World Trade Organization
                                          infringe on national and
                                          individual sovereignty
                                         Increase in the chances of civil
                                          war within developing countries
                                          and open war between
                                          developing countries as they vie
                                          for resources
                                         Decreases in environmental
                                          integrity as polluting
                                          corporations take advantage of
                                          weak regulatory rules in
                                          developing countries