Railway Budget

Highlights

• Reduction in fare
• Discounts for non-suburban class trains
• Ticket booking on mobile phones and E-ticket for wait listed passengers
• and many more
  

The railway budget has attempted to address the transport requirement of the expanding Indian economy. The minister has introduced several new procedures which will facilitate private sector participation in the Railways, particularly in the design and development of new model of wagons. Hailing the cut in the passenger fares and freight rates, particularly on diesel and petrol by 5 per cent. This is a good and strong anti-inflatory measure. Ensuring that the Railways continue to play a crucial role in India's impressive growth story year-after-year, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Tuesday announced a slew of measures to improve infrastructure and initiatives to boost the freight business.
Be it the ambitious port-rail connectivity projects, construction of new iron-ore routes and dedicated freight corridors, procurement of additional rolling stocks, introduction of high-capacity wagons or announcement of industry-specific steps, Mr. Prasad's initiatives will continue to aid to the growth of the economy and industry.

Comments
Assocham president, Venugopal Dhoot, termed the budget as "pragmatic, progressive and futuristic" and said that proposals such as reduction on freight rates and rail fare would help the railways attract more traffic.
Welcoming the partnership with the private sector, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) president, Sunil Mittal, said it would open yet another avenue for the industry to participate in the spectacular growth of the Indian Railways. The reduction in freight rate for petrol and diesel by 5 per cent and on fly ash by 14 per cent wil help offset the impact of the hike in fuel prices.
PHDCCI Chief, L.K. Malhotra, complemented the Railway Minister for continuing with financial turnaround of the Railways and improvement in many parameters. He, however, felt that the Railway Budget had failed to take strategic measures to capture a substantially larger share of growing goods traffic.
The Federation of Indian Export Organisations President, Ganesh Gupta, termed the use of information technology for passenger convenience as the hallmark of the budget and the decision to import wagons to bridge the supply-demand gap was also a pragmatic step.

source: Newspapers

COMPANIES AND PUNCHLINES

1. Deccan Aviation : Choice is simple
2. Kingfisher Airlines : Fly With the Good Times
3. Philips : Sense and Simplicity
4. Sansui : Better than the best
5. LG : Life's good
6. Toyota : Moving forward
   
7. Honda Siel : Power of dreams
8. Bajaj Auto : Distinctly Ahead
   
9. Yamaha : Touching your heart
10. Mc.Donalds : I'm lovin it
11. KFC(Kentucky Fried Chicken ): Finger licking good
12. VISA : All it takes
13. Master card : There are some things that money cant buy, for everything else there's mastercard
14. BMW( Bavarian Motor Works) : The ultimate driving machine
15. Samsung : everyone's invited
16. ONIDA : Neighbours envy, owners pride
17. Hyundai : Drive your way
    
18. Metlife ( metropolitan Life Insurance company) : Have you met life today?
    
19. Allianz group : The power on your side
20. AIG (American International Group Insurance Company) : We know money
21. Max New York Life Insurance : Your Partner for life
22. Ford : Make everyday Exciting
    

STARTING EARLY

What are your future plans? This might be the question everyone gets to answer when they have graduated or if the person is on the blink of graduation. Not all people have got to answer this cliched question. There are some who stood on their legs( I mean capable of being independent) from a very young age and one such person is Mr.Suhas Gopinath who is the Youngest CEO in the world.

Suhas is now 21 years old, When he was just 14, this guy from Bangalore, India he founded a company called Globals Inc,in San Jose, California. The reason for trying his luck in the United States rather than his native country was because there are laws in India that prevented him — then as a minor — to start a company legally. Starting with only 4 employees, he now employs around 400 students between India and the U.S.A.

He says “I never chose to become an entrepreneur to earn big money or fame. It was the anger in me that made me change my ambition from a Veterinary Doctor to an Entrepreneur. This anger was that I was humiliated by my prospective clients and big shot IT companies when I approached them that I can offer them web development services, as I wanted to own a computer by free lancing. Since I was just 13 years, they under estimated my potential based on my age and that is where I made up my mind that I need to setup an enterprise that should offer employment to hundreds of eligible unemployed youth all over the world, without assessing them based on their age or just academic scores, but primarily based on their skill sets and their attitude to learn.

Entrepreneurship is an adventure, its takes lots of courage and guts. In my case, I did not think much about the failures before I started as I knew that the worst that could happen to me is I need to shut down the company and take employment. But my mindset slowly started to change; I started to realize the satisfaction of being an entrepreneur and the contentment of offering employment to eligible youth all over the world. I started to change my views, and made up my mind that if I need to shut down this company, I will again start one more company but will remain as an entrepreneur whatsoever! According to me, the assertiveness and clear focus is the most important factors for a successful entrepreneur.

It depends on the individual’s mindset, in my case I wanted to stick to one company as I always considered Globals as my baby and I did not want to sell it out at all. I did not want to be a serial entrepreneur by setting up companies and selling them as money is something that always motivated as I being from middle class family, I really enjoyed being humble and down to earth instead of showing off. I wanted to concentrate on the growth of one enterprise that can offer employment to talented youth across the globe and do our bit in reducing unemployment everywhere. Creating jobs is something that motivates me and my co-founders always, and we still feel it was worth the sacrifice of our student and fun life that we had to give up in our early teens.”

Looking ahead, he will now be starting an internet venture based on Web 2.0 technologies in Germany besides starting focusing on loyalty and retail services.

He is a role model and source of inspiration for many who wish to start their own enterprise

Source : www.linkingglobalknowledge.com

The Times of India