Descriptive Essay On The Glass - 1637 Words

Glass rings The wallpaper glistens as the sun shines through, reflecting against the wall brightening the room. I can hear the leaves whisper, whispering to escape. I sit on my large, soft bed, where hidden under the blankets are a memorial of dark memories that call me in my sleep. I look at the vase, by the side of the window, it glares at me, and its menacing shadows allures my eyes to look at the details of sadness imprinted on itself. Flowers that arch downwards point towards the clutches as its stands by the door waiting for me. I crawl to the door handle to grab the clutches. My hearts starts to pound at each step as I limp my way to the living room. Just before I enter, I peek from behind the wall that is scarred from†¦show more content†¦Our house is directly above and next to the slums. We have a fence that split us apart, as the capitals fear the slums could steal our goods, as parents would tell children untruthful rumours about the slums. I see a boy rewinding the wire back from the fence; his hands were scratched with blood drawing lines down his arm. He looks at me, confused and scared, an Asian boy covered in oil stains comes over. He didn’t speak, but he looked skinny, he held a bunch of pears in his bag that he must have stolen. I didn’t care as much. As he didn’t care either. He looked at me awkwardly â€Å"Evan Lin, wanna pear†. Soon on, he became my first ever friend. *** It is morning once again, I get out of bed finally for once, not waking up to the sounds of my father’s frustration. I sit on the floor, looking at the same morning I see every day. I start hearing shuffling noises coming from under the bed. I look hesitantly for a weapon, but a face from under my bed strikes me in fear. Crawling back, ready to scream, just as I open my mouth and inhale. It jumps at me like a tiger, I shut my eyes. I wait a while; I take a peek, it’s Evan, how did he sneak into my room. I feel relief flush through me, I push him off, out of breath as I feel something uncomfortable hit my ankle. He takes out a large shoe box coated with oil stains. He places it on my stomach like a table, not realising the oil smearing on my dress. He lifts the box up instantly and gasps, we both look at theShow MoreRelatedRhinoceros Beetle788 Words   |  4 PagesWeek 2 Essay One Charles. Oryema Question: Worlds within texts often prompt us to question the worlds outside texts. Write an essay in response to this statement with reference to at least one short story you have studied. â€Å"Rhinoceros Beetle† by Susan Hawthorne is a story about a boy’s childhood obsession which becomes a reality when he grows into a man. The story presents ideas and assumptions which viewers can relate toRead MoreThe Representational View Of Consciousness1450 Words   |  6 Pagesyou agree with this view or not? Why? 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I believe this story was well written and will critique the symbolism, characters, and the setting.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Woolf uses symbolism in her essay when she speaks of the moth and its journey towardsRead MoreCinderella Themes835 Words   |  4 PagesIn the essay, â€Å"The Rise of Perrault’s Cinderella†, by Bonnie Cullen, and the â€Å"Cinderella: Not So Morally Superior†, by Elisabeth Panttaja both Illustrates similar ideas of the Cinderella fairy tale. In â€Å"The Rise of Perrault’s Cinderella†, Cullen touches base of the many different Cinderella themes throughout different countries. Panttaja alternatively addresses the backstory of the Cinderella theme in â€Å"Cinderella: Not So Morally Superior†. Although Cullen and Panttaja have similarities between theirRead More ?An Interpretation of Paul Laurence Dunbar?s Poem Sympathy and We Wear the Mask?1194 Words   |  5 Pagescondition of African Americans in America was Paul Laurence Dunbar. 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The Salem Witch Trials A Day By Day Chronicle Of A...

The book I have chosen to write about is â€Å"The Salem Witch Trials: A Day by Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege† written by Marilynne K. Roach and published in 2002. Marilynne K. Roach is the president of the Historical Society of Watertown and a member of the Watertown Historical Commission board, she also is an active board member and a curator of the Salem Witch Museum. She has multiple books that have been published about the Salem and the trials that occurred in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. She also holds a fine arts degree from the Massachusetts College of Art. Roach spent 20 years researching archival collections, and discovered that many recent books on the subject are either inaccurate or unsubstantiated about the trials. A lot of the information found in other books relating the trials from different authors use quotes from her works and they also use her as a reference/ source because of her profound studies on the subject along with her active r ole in the community and with the museum. Emerson W. Baker explained how important Roach’s book was to his research for his own book, â€Å"A Storm of Witchcraft†, stating: â€Å"I am in awe of her work, and as I have told her – I never could have written my book without her day by day chronicle.† â€Å"All lives are stories, and history is made of stories†-MKR, this quote makes you think that you of what you’ve done in and with your life and if it will have an impact alongside our history books. The events andShow MoreRelatedSix Women Of Salem Book Review1124 Words   |  5 PagesYasmin Valdez 11/23/15 History 1302 Book Review â€Å"Six Women of Salem† Book Review, By Marilyne K. Roach Marilynne K. Roach is a resident of Watertown, Massachusetts. She went on to graduate with a BFA from MCA (Massachusetts College of Art) but she uniquely gives credit to the public library systems for the rest of her education. This is very interesting to me because she says that libraries are what she owes to her education to. Because of all the books she reads she later turns out to be a greatRead MoreSalem Witch Trials : A Series Of Events That Occurred3696 Words   |  15 PagesThe Salem Witch Trials were a series of events that occurred within the 1690 s in a puritan society called Salem Village. It started with people acting out due to unknown causes and sources. Citizens within Salem started to accuse the men and women who acted out as witches, increasing mistrust and hysteria within Salem. The numerous allegations lead to hearings and prosecutions of the people who were accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts. The trials resulted in the executions of twenty

Best Online Trading Account- Width and Cost Analysis Free Essays

| | |[pic] | | |BEST ONLINE TRADING ACCOUNT | | | |WIDTH AND COST ANALYSIS | | WEALTH AND INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT : (MGT-216) Submitted to: Dr. Shweta Anand By: HukumSingh Devendar Gautam Naveen Kumar Vijay Singh Vikash Chaudhary Yashpal SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT GAUTAM BUDDHA UNIVERSITY GREATER NOIDA CONTENTS TOPIC 1. Executive Summary 2. We will write a custom essay sample on Best Online Trading Account- Width and Cost Analysis or any similar topic only for you Order Now Introduction Background of Stock Exchange in India 3. Theory of Share Market 4. Major Players 5. Methodology of Study 6. Objectives of Study 7. Comparative Study of Online trading portals 8. Conclusion 9. Reference EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This project as a whole can be divided into two parts. ? First part gives an insight about online trading and Dematerialization account. What is share trading and how buying and selling takes place. For trading, it is mandatory for us to have a demat or dematerialization account. How to open a demat account and what all documents are required was part of our study. Various terms used in share market such as bears and bulls, intraday, delivery, settlement, index, etc. ? The second part of project represents the major players of India and a small comparative analysis has been done on their basis of services given by these different online trading portals with their brokerage rates, annual maintenance charges, account opening charges and customer base. INTRODUCTION Background of Stock Exchange of India The emergence of stock market can be traced back to 1830. In Bombay, business passed in the shares of banks like the commercial bank, the chartered mercantile bank, the chartered bank, the oriental bank and the old bank of Bombay and shares of cotton presses. In Calcutta, Englishman reported the quotations of 4%, 5%, and 6% loans of East India Company as well as the shares of the bank of Bengal in 1836. This list was a further broadened in 1839 when the Calcutta newspaper printed the quotations of banks like union bank and Agra bank. It also quoted the prices of business ventures like the Bengal bonded warehouse, the Docking Company and the storm tug company. Between 1840 and 1850, only half a dozen brokers existed for the limited business. But during the share mania of 1860-65, the number of brokers increased considerably. By 1860, the number of brokers was about 60 and during the exciting period of the American Civil war, their number increased to about 200 to 250. The end of American Civil war brought disillusionment and many failures and the brokers decreased in number and prosperity. It was in those troublesome times between 1868 and 1875 that brokers organized an informal association and finally as recited in the Indenture constituting the â€Å"Articles of Association of the Exchange†. On or about 9th day of July,1875, a few native brokers doing brokerage business in shares and stocks resolved upon forming in Bombay an association for protecting the character, status and interest of native share and stock brokers and providing a hall or building for the use of the members of such association. As a meeting held in the broker’ Hall on the 5th day of February, 1887, it was resolved to execute a formal deal of association and to constitute the first managing committee and to appoint the first trustees. Accordingly, the Articles of Association of the Exchange and the Stock Exchange was formally established in Bombay on 3rd day of December, 1887. The Association is now known as â€Å"The Stock Exchange†. The entrance fee for new member was Re. 1 and there were 318 members on the list, when the exchange was constituted. The numbers of members increased to 333 in 1896, 362 in 1916and 478 in 1920 and the entrance fee was raised to Rs. 5 in 1877, Rs. 1000 in 1896, Rs. 2500 in 1916 and Rs. 48,000 in 1920. At present there are 23 recognized stock exchanges with about 6000 stock brokers. Organization structure of stock exchange varies. 14 stock exchanges are organized as public limited companies, 6 as companies limited by guarantee and 3 are non-profit voluntary organization. Of the total of 23, only 9 stock exchanges have been permanent recognition. Others have to seek recognition on annual basis. These exchange do not work of its own, rather, these are run by some persons and with the help of some persons and institution. All these are down as functionaries on stock exchange. These are 1. Stockbrokers 2. sub-broker 3. market makers 4. Portfolio consultants etc 1. ) Stockbrokers Stock brokers are the members of stock exchanges. These are the persons who buy, sell or deal in securities. A certificate of registration from SEBI is mandatory to act as a broker. SEBI can impose certain conditions while granting the certificate of registrations. It is obligatory for the person to abide by the rules, regulations and the buy-law. Stock brokers are commission broker, floor broker, arbitrageur etc. Detail of registered brokers |Total no. of registered brokers as on 31. 03. 2008 |Total no. of sub-brokers as on 31. 03. 008 | |9000 |24,000 | 2. ) Sub-broker A sub-broker acts as agent of stock broker. He is not a member of a stock exchange. He assists the investors in buying, selling or dealing in securities through stockbroker. The broker and sub-broker should enter into an agreement in which obligations of both should be specified. Sub-broker must be registered SEBI for a dealing in securities. For getting registered with SEBI , he must fulfill certain rules and regulation. 3. ) Market Makers Market maker is a designated specialist in the specified securities. They make both bid and offer at the same time. A market maker has to abide by bye-laws, rules regulations of the concerned stock exchange. He is exempt from the margin requirements. As per the listing requirements, a company where the paid-up capital is Rs. 3 crore but not more than Rs. 5 crore and having a commercial operation for less than 2 years should appoint a market maker at the time of issue of securities. 4. ) Portfolio consultants A combination of securities such as stocks, bonds and money market instruments is collectively called as portfolio. Whereas the portfolio consultants are the persons, firms or companies who advise, direct or undertake the management or administration of securities or funds on behalf of their clients. THEORY OF SHARE MARKET Stock Exchange: A common platform where buyers and sellers come together to transact in shares and stocks. Electronic Trading: Eliminates the need for physical trading floors. Brokers can trade from their offices using fully automated screen based processes. Their workstations are connected to a stock exchange’s central computer via satellite using Very Small Aperture Terminus (VSATs). The orders placed by the brokers reach the exchange’s central computer and are matched electronically. Stock Exchanges in India: The stock exchange Mumbai (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) are the country’s two leading stock exchanges. There are 20 other regional stock exchanges connected via Interconnected Stock exchange (ICSE). Index: An Index is a comprehensive measure of market trends intended for investors who are concerned with general stock market price movements. An index comprises stocks that have large liquidity and market capitalization. At NSE, the capitalization of NIFTY (fifty selected stocks) is takes as a base capitalization, with the value set at 1000. Similarly BSE sensitivity index consists of 30 stocks. The index value compares the day’s market capitalization vis-a-vis base capitalization and indicates how prices in general have move over a period of time. Stock: In financial market, stock refers to the supply of money that a company has raised. This supply comes from the people who have given the company money in hope that the company will make their money grow. Bears and Bulls: Bears are cautious animals who don’t like to move too fast. Bulls are bold who might charge right ahead. An investor is said to be bearish if he or she believes that the stock market will go down. A bearish investor will buy the stock cautiously. A â€Å"Bullish† investor believes that the market will go up. He or she will charge ahead and put more money into the market. An investor can be bearish or bullish about a particular kind of stock. Likewise the term â€Å"Bear Market† describes the time the stock prices have been falling on the whole. A â€Å"Bull Market† is a period when stock prices are generally rising. Dematerialization: What is a Demat? Demat is commonly used abbreviation of Dematerialsation, which is a process whereby securities like shares and debentures are converted from material (paper documents) into electronic data and stored into computers of an Electronic Depository. Requirements to Open a Demat Account: 1) PAN Card 2) Cancelled Cheque 3) Address Proof 4) Photo ID Proof trading: It is defined as a function when an investor buys or sells in the market. BUYING: 1. An investor gets order executed and makes payment to the broker. 2. Investor instructs his Depository Participant to expect credit on settlement day. Broker instructs his DP to debit his Clearing Member account on settlement day. 3. Before settlement day Broker makes payment to clearinghouse through Clearing Bank. 4. On settlement day clearing house releases shares to broker’s Clearing Member account which is then transferred to investors account through NSDL (National Securities Depository Limited). Investor gets credit in his account. Selling: 1. An investor gets order executed. 2. Investor instructs his Depository Participant to debit his account with immediate effect. The shares move from investors account to Brokers Clearing Member account via NSDL. A Broker clearing member accounts is credited. 3. Before settlement day broker transfers shares from his clearing member account to Clearinghouse via NSDL. His account is debited. 4. On settlement day Broker receives payment from clearing house which he passes on to the investor. Intraday Based Trading: Day trading refers to the practice of buying and selling financial instruments within the same trading day such that all positions will usually (not necessarily always) be closed before the market close of the trading day. This is the opposite of After-hours trading. Traders that participate in day trading are called day traders. Delivery Based Trading: Delivery based trading involves buying shares on a market day, holding them and selling them only after receiving the delivery of those shares in demat account. ONLINE SHARE TRADING: Online Trading involves investment activity which takes place over the internet and it does not require physical inclusion of broker. An investor has to register with an online trading portal like Sharekhan. com, India Infoline. om and many companies like that and investor gets into an agreement with the firm to trade in different securities according to terms and conditions in the agreement. As the servers of the online portal are connected all the time to the stock exchange and designated banks the order processing is done in real time and the investors can also have updates on trading. They can also check the status of their order either through e-mails or through interf ace that it cannot be accessed by the third party. Some options are usually given to the users such as to link their bank account, Demat accounts and Brokerage account into a single interface. A single window is there for all exchanges and a single screen is there for the complete order routing mechanism. There are two broad models in play in the online brokerage space- 1) Bank-backed firms 2) Entrepreneur- floated firms Bank-backed firms: Bank-backed firms such as ICICIdirect. com and HDFC Securities have expanded on the basis of their brand name and trust of investors in them. The integrated 3-in-1 account offered by these companies help their parent bank by giving it accounts along with float income. Entrepreneurship-floated firms: Companies like India Infoline, Sharekhan, IndiaBulls, Religare and Karvy have expanded by offering the customers a mix of online and offline accounts, higher margin finance amount and lower brokerage rates. Advantages of Online Trading: 1) Provides with the freedom of information Through internet an investor can – ? Know the price of any stock he desires at any point of time on the internet. ? An investor can review the price history of any stock in the chart format online. ? The investor can follow in depth the events happening in the market. ? Consult with other online investors in any part of the world. Conduct extensive financial research of any company he desires. 2) Ensures the best price for the investors. 3) Provides instant trade execution 4) Provides level playing field. 5) Keeps information secure. 6) Instant order trade confirmation. 7) Consult on line help desk for queries. Disadvantages of Online Trading: 1) Brokerage is high as compared to off line 2) Privacy ca n be less due to hacking scandals. 3) Transactional errors due to technical problems. MAJOR PLAYERS OF INDIA The following are the major players: ? A. G. Shares Securities ? India Bulls ? India Infoline ? Karvy Share khan ? ICICIDirect ? Motilal oswal Secureties ? Religare ? HDFC Securities ? Reliance Money A. G. SHARES SECURITIES: A. G. Shares Securities Ltd. (AGSSL)-(Sister Concern of India Casting Company) – a saga of success. Form a modest beginning in 1995 the Company has grown by leaps and bounds under the stewardship of Mr. Ajay Kumar Agarwal (Managing Director). AGSSL is an one stop shop providing gamut of financial services which include on line trading in NSE Depository Services and Dematerialization of eligible securities, disbursement of corporate action benefits viz. non –cash benefits to the beneficial owner, settlement of securities traded on exchanges, pledging and hypothecation of eligible securities, stock lending and borrowings. Their sister conc ern namely â€Å" Seema Securities Pvt Ltd. â€Å" a member of BSE is providing various exclusive financial services related to BSE like on-line trading sale and purchase of Debenture, Shares, Warrants, sale and purchase of Shares. The other sister concern GKSSL having membership of NCDEX is also giving extra opportunity of clients to trade in most valuable exchanges. Products Services: ? Broking with NSE in Cash Market Broking with BSE in Cash Market ? Dealing in Derivative trading in NSE BSE ? NSDL Service ? CDSL Service ? Cash on sale ? Update services ? NCDEX Service ? MCX service INDIABULLS SECURITIES LIMITED Indiabulls Securities Limited was incorporated as GPF Securities Private Limited on June 9, 1995. The name of the company was changed to Orbis Securities Private Limited on December 15, 1995 to change the profile of the company and subsequently due to the conversion of the company into a public limited company; the name was further changed to Orbis Securities Limited o n January 5, 2004. The name of the company was again changed to Indiabulls Securities Limited on February 16, 2004 so as to capitalize on the brand image of the term â€Å"Indiabulls† in the company name. ISL is a corporate member of capital market derivative segment of The National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. At present, ISL accounts for approximately 3% of the total daily turnover of the Exchange with 32,359 client relationships and 70 branches spread across the country as of April 30, 2004. Products Offered by Indiabulls: ? Equity Debt Stock Broking ? Insurance ? Commodity trading ? Depository Services ? Derivatives Broking Services Equity Research Services ? Mutual Fund Distribution ? IPO Distribution Type of Account Indiabulls Equity Trading Account Indiabulls Equity Trading Account is standard Online trading account from India bulls and along with online trading it also provides priority telephone access that gives you direct access to your Relationship Manager and full access to Ã¢â‚¬Ë œIndiabulls Equity Analysis’. Application Trading Terminal(Need Installation) Power Indiabulls Power Indiabulls trading terminal is the most advanced new generation trading platform with great speed. This trading terminal is built in JAVA. Power Indiabulls is extremely reach in features including Live Streaming Quotes, Fast Order Entry and execution, Tic by Tic Live Charts, Technical Analysis, Live News and Alerts, Extensive Reports for Real-time Accounting. Brokerage and fees : 1. Account opening fees : Rs 1200/- (One time non-refundable) as below: 250/- Equity Trading Account opening charge 200/- Demat Account opening charge 750/- Software changes Advantages of Indiabulls Equity Trading Account 1. Brokerage is less compare to other online trading companies. 2. Provide trading terminal ‘powerbulls’, a java based software. It’s very fast in terms of speed and execution INDIAINFOLINE SECURITY PRIVATE LTD India Infoline. com Securities Pvt. Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of India Infoline. com Ltd and is the stock broking arm of India Infoline. com. The subsidiary was formed to comply with regulatory guidelines. www. 5paisa. com is a focused website for online stock market trading. 5paisa. com is a trade name owned by the India Infoline. com group. IILSPL has applied for trading membership of the BSE under Securities and Exchange Board of India (Stock Brokers and Sub-Brokers) Rules 1992. IILSPL is in the business of providing broking services online via the Internet (â€Å"E-broking Services†) and has been permitted by the NSE by way of registration permission no: NSEIL/CMO/INET/1103/2000 dated 03/July/2000, and will be applying for permission to the BSE, to provide E-broking Services to its clients. IILSPL is a TRADING MEMBER of the National Stock Exchange of India. Products Offered by IILSPL: ? Stock market: IILSPL deals in stock market by trading in equity and derivatives. ? Personal finance: It Deals In Mutual Fund and Insurance. ? Online Trading: It provides services in stock and commodity trading (through Internet). Trade In: BSE and NSE Trading Terminals: 5Paisa offers 2 different online trading terminals to its customers: Investor Terminal (IT) Investor Terminal is 5Paisa’s equity trading terminal for low volume trader. This is web based terminal and could access from anywhere. This product provides limited features in comparison of Trader Terminal, which is another product provided by 5Paisa. Trader Terminal (TT) Trader Terminal is design for high volume equity traders or day traders. Trader Terminal provides high volume trading with powerful interface and fast order execution. Few popular features of trader terminal are: Fast trade execution with instant trade confirmation. o Live streaming quotes and price watch on any number of stocks. o Intra day charts, updated live, tick-by-tick. o Live margin, position, marked to market profit loss report. o Set any number of price alerts on any number of scrips. o Flexibility to customize screen layout and setting. o Facility to customize any number of portfolios watch lists. o Facility to cancel all pending orders at one click. o Facility to square off all transactions at one click. o Top Gainers, Top Losers, Most Active, updated live. o Index information; index chart, index stock information live. Market depth, i. e. Best 5 bids and offers, updated live for all stocks. o Online access to both accounts and DP to check live updated Order and Trade Book. o Facility to place after market orders. o Online fund transfer facility from leading Banks including ICICI, HDFC, CITI and UTI banks. o Online intra-day technical calls. o Historical charts and technical analysis tools. o India Infoline’s world – acclaimed news service and research. o and many more. Brokerage and Account opening fees: 1. Account opening fees: Rs 500/- one time non refundable. 2. 5 paisa offer competitive rates. They charge only 5 paisa for Rs 100 of trade done, which is 0. 05%. brokerage. In case of trade that result in delivery, they charge an additional 0. 20% for back office and securities handling. Advantages of 5paisa 1. Very fast execution speed. 2. Rates are very competitive then other providers. 3. Easy online fund transfer facility from leading Banks including ICICI, HDFC, CITI and UTI banks. 4. Free facility of subscribing to mutual funds, equity IPOs and other investment products. Disadvantages of 5paisa 1. No intra-day tick by tick charts in Investor Terminal (IT). 2. Investing in IPO and Mutual Funds is not so easy like in ICICIDirect. . Learning 5paisa Trading Terminal is little hard. IPO / Mutual Funds investment through 5Paisa (IndiaInfoLine) 1. 5Paisa provides free facility of subscribing to mutual funds, equity IPOs and other investment products using internet banking account of ICICI, HDFC, CITI and UTI banks. 2. Registered users with 5Paisa can logon to following website to apply in an IPO: http://www. indiainfoline. com/ipo 3. While applying for IPO shares online through 5Paisa, Investor are taken to there corresponding banks homepage. Investors can use there net banking user id password transfer funds directly using any of these banks. . 5Paisa members can use the similar steps to invest in Mutual Funds online. KARVY GROUP Karvy is a premier integrated financial services provider, and ranked among the top five in the country in all its business segments, services over 16 million individual investors in various capacities, and provides investor services to over 300 corporate in India. Karvy has a professional management team and ranks among the best in technology, operations and research of various industrial segments. History of Karvy: The birth of Karvy was on a modest scale in 1981. It began with the vision and enterprise of a small group of practicing Chartered Accountants who founded the flagship company, Karvy Consultants Limited. They started with consulting and financial accounting automation and carved inroads into the field of registry and share accounting by 1985. Since then, karvy utilized its experience and superlative expertise to go from strength to strength, to better their services, to innovate, diversify and in the process, evolved as one of India’s premier integrated financial service enterprise. Product Services Offered by Karvy Group: 1. Financial Products Distribution (Investments/Loans). . Karvy consultant ltd. 3. Karvy merchant banking. 4. Insurance(life/general) 5. Stock Broking 6. Commodities Broking 7. Mutual Funds Services SHAREKHAN: Sharekhan is one of the leading retail brokerage of Citi Venture which is running successfully since 1922 in the country. Earlier it was the retail broking arm of the Mumbai-based SSKI Group, which h as over eight decades of experience in the stock broking business. Sharekhan offers its customers a wide range of equity related services including trade execution on BSE, NSE, Derivatives, depository services, online trading, investment advice etc. Sharekhan is one of India’s leading financial services companies. They provide a complete life-cycle of investment solution in Equities, Derivatives, Commodities, IPO, Mutual Funds, Depository Services, Portfolio Management Services and Insurance. They also offer personalized wealth management services for High Net worth individuals. With a physical presence in over 300 cities of India through more than 800 â€Å"Share Shops†, and an online presence through Sharekhan. com, India’s premier online destination, they reach out to more than 800,000 trading customers. Products Offered by Sharekhan: ? Equity Trading Platform (Online/Offline). ? Commodities Trading Platform (Online/Offline). ? Portfolio Management Service. ? Mutual Fund Advisory and Distribution. ? Insurance Distribution Trade In: BSE and NSE Type of Account Classic Account Trading Terminal ShareKhan Classic account Allow investor to buy and sell stocks online along with the following features like multiple watch lists, Integrated Banking, demat and digital contracts, Real-time portfolio tracking with price alerts and Instant credit transfer. a. Online trading account for investing in Equities and Derivatives b. Free trading through Phone (Dial-n-Trade) I. Two dedicated numbers for placing your orders with your cellphone or landline. II. Automtic funds tranfer with phone banking (for Citibank and HDFC bank customers) III. Simple and Secure Interactive Voice Response based system for authentication IV. get the trusted, professional advice of our telebrokers V. After hours order placement facility between 8. 00 am and 9. 30 am c. Integration of: Online trading + Bank + Demat account d. Instant cash transfer facility against purchase sale of shares e. IPO investments f. Instant order and trade confirmations by e-mail g. Single screen interface for cash and derivatives ShareKhan SpeedTrade account This accounts for active traders who trade frequently during the day’s trading session. Following are few popular features of SpeedTrade account. h. Single screen interface for cash and derivatives i. Real-time streaming quotes with Instant order Execution Confirmation j. Hot keys similar to a traditional broker terminal k. Alerts and reminders l. Back-up facility to place trades on Direct Phone lines Brokerage: Some stock trading companies charge direct percentage while others charge a fixed amount per Rs 100. Sharekhan charges 0. 5% for inter day shares and 0. 1% for intra day or you could say Sharekhan charges 50 paise per Rs 100. Advantages of Sharekhan: 1. Online trading is very user friendly and one doesn’t need any software to access. 2. They provides good quality of services like daily SMS alerts, mail alerts, stock recommendations etc. 3. Sharekhan has ability to transfer funds from most banks. Unlike ICICI Direct, HDFC Sec, etc. so investor not really needs to open an account with a particular bank as it can establish link with most modern banks. Disadvantages of Sharekhan: 1. They charge minimum brokerage of 10 paisa per stock would not let you trade stocks below 20 rs. (If you trade, you will loose majority of your money in brokerage). 2. Lots of hidden rules and charges. 3. They do not provide facility to b ook limit order trades during after-hours. 4. Classic account holders cannot trade commodities. 5. Cannot purchase mutual funds online ICICI DIRECT: ICICIDirect (or ICICIDirect. com) is stock trading company of ICICI Bank. Along with stock trading and trading in derivatives in BSE and NSE, it also provides facility to invest in IPOs, Mutual Funds and Bonds. Trading is available in BSE and NSE. Trade In: BSE and NSE Type of Account ICICIDirect offers 3 different online trading platforms to its customers: 1. Share Trading Account Share Trading Account by ICICIDirect is primarily for buying and selling of stocks in BSE and NSE. This account allows Cash Trading, Margin Trading, MarginPLUS Trading, Spot Trading, Buy Today Sell Tomorrow and Call and Trade on phone. ICICIDirect. com website is the primary trading platform for this trading account. They also provide installable application terminal based application for high volume trader. 2. Wise Investment Account Along with stock trading and IPO investing in BSE and NSE, Wise Investment account also provide options to invest in Mutual Funds and Bonds online. Online Mutual funds investment allows investor to invest on-line in around 19 Mutual Fund companies. ICICI Direct offers various options while investing in Mutual Funds like Purchase Mutual Fund, Redemption and switch between different schemes, Systematic Investment plans, Systematic withdrawal plan and transferring existing Mutual Funds in to electronic mode. This account also provides facility to invest in Government of India Bonds and ICICI Bank Tax Saving Bonds. ICICIDirect. com website is the primary tool to invest in Mutual Funds, IPOs, Bonds and stock trading. 3. Active Trader Account Active Trader account gives more personalized investment options to the investors. It allows investor to use online and offline stock trading. It also provides with independent market expertise and support through a dedicated Relationship Manager from ICICI. Active Trader also provides commodity trading. Brokerage and fees 1. Account opening fees : Rs 750/- (One time non-refundable) 2. Brokerage : ICICIDirect. com brokerage varies on volume of trade and inclusive of demat transaction charges, service taxes and courier charges for contract notes. It ranges from 0. 1% to 0. 15% for margin trades, 0. 2% to 0. 425% for squared off trades and 0. 4% to 0. 85% on delivery based trades. Advantages of ICICIDirect 1. 3-in-1 account integrates your banking, broking and demat accounts. All accounts are from ICICI and very well integrated. This feature makes ICICI the most interesting player in online trading facility. There is absolutely no manual interfere require. This is truly online trading environment. 2. Unlike most of the online trading companies in India which require transferring money to the broker’s pool or towards deposits, at ICICIDirect you can manage your own demat and bank accounts through ICICIdirect. com. Money from selling stock is available in ICICI bank account as soon as the ICICIDirect receive it. 3. Investment online in IPOs, Mutual Funds, GOI Bonds, and Postal Savings Schemes all from one website. General Insurance is also available from ICICI Lombard. 4. Trading is available in both BSE and NSE. Disadvantages of ICICIDirect 1. Getting access to ICICIDirect. com website during market session can be frustrating. 2. ICICIDirect brokerage is high and not negotiable. 3. Not all stocks are available under Margin Plus. MOTILAL OSWAL SECURITIES: Incorporated in 1987, Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd is a well diversified financial services firm offering a range of financial products and services such as Wealth Management, Broking Distribution, Commodity Broking, Portfolio Management Services, Institutional Equities, Private Equity, Investment Banking Services and Principal Strategies. Company have a diversified client base that includes retail customers (including High Net worth Individuals), mutual funds, foreign institutional investors, financial institutions and corporate clients. They are headquartered in Mumbai and as of September 30th, 2009, had a network spread over 576 cities and towns comprising 1,257 Business Locations operated by them. As at September 30th, 2009, company had 5,80,667 registered customers. Type of Account Most E-Broking MOSt E-Broking is complete online stock trading solution for Indiaian stock market. Following are the features of MOSt E-Broking account: o Easy single screen trader with instant trade confirmation similar to exchange based trading terminals. o Access to various online reports like margin report, Demat A/c details, trades executed, turnover report, net position report with mark to market profit/loss and realized profit. o Online transfer funds through HDFC Bank Awards 1. 2005, Asiamoney Brokers ranked MOSt the best Indian brokerage firm in India. 2. March 2006, AQ Research declared MOSt the best research house for Indian stocks. RELIGARE : Religare Enterprises Limited is Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited promoted financial product and service provider company. Religare provide its service in three different segments including Retail, Wealth management and the Institutional spectrum. Company offers wide range of services including equities, commodities, insurance broking, wealth advisory, portfolio management services, personal finance services, Investment banking and institutional broking services. Religare retail network has more than 900 locations in 300 cities and towns in India. Religare provides the online gateway to their investors so investor can trade online in Equities, Commodities, apply for IPOs, invest in Mutual Funds, and buy Insurance. Religare Securities Limited (RSL) is a subsidiary company of Religare Enterprises Ltd and involve in equity related services include online trading at BSE and NSE, Derivatives, commodities, IPO, Mutual fund, Investment banking and institutional broking services. People who wonder where Religare word came from, it’s a Latin word meaning ‘to bind together’. Type of Account Religare offers its wide range of financial services though a sophisticated and customized trading platform – R-ACE (Religare Advanced Client Engine). Below are 3 flavors of R-ACE accounts available to the investors. 1. R-ACE (Basic) R-ACE (Religare Advanced Client Engine) the basic online trading account provided by Religare. Investor can trade and access their account information online and over the phone as well. This account comes with a browser based online trading platform and no additional software installation needed. 2. R-ACE Lite (Advanced) R-ACE Lite is the advanced trading platform for the investor of Religare. This trading account provides the entire feature of R-ACE (Basic) account. In addition it also provides real-time streaming stock quotes and alerts. This trading platform is also browser based and no software installation is needed. 3. R-ACE Pro (Professional) As the name indicates this account is for high volume traders. Along with the features from above 2 accounts, this account also comes with Trading Terminal software which needs to install on your computer. This terminal directly connects the investor to stock market and having all industry standard Treading terminal features including technical charting (intra-day and EOD), multiple watch list, advanced hot-key functions for faster trading, derivative chains, futures options calculator etc. As in basic and advance account, trading is available online through internet and offline though phone. Brokerage and Account opening fees: Religare offers three kinds of accounts as above. Below are detail about fees and activation charges for each account: 1. R-ACE Account activation charges Rs. 299/-. Minimum margin of Rs. 5000/- required. 2. R-ACE Lite Account activation charges Rs. 499/-. Minimum margin of Rs. 5000/- required. 3. R-ACE Pro Account activation charges Rs. 999/-. Minimum margin of Rs. 10,000/- required. 4. Brokerage at Religare On the basis of volume and frequency of trading, Religare provide different options for brokerages. On the broader way they divided into three categories: o Classic Account Intraday brokerage varies from 0. 03% to 0. 05%. Delivery brokerage varies from 0. 30% to 0. 50%. Derivatives brokerage varies from 0. 3% to 0. 5%. o Classic Plus Fees: Rs 600 Validity Period 6 Months Intraday brokerage varies from 0. 03% to 0. 05%. Delivery brokerage varies from 0. 30% to 0. 50%. o Freedom Account In this payment plan, investor has to pay a fix amount in advance for Monthly (Rs 500), Quarterly (Rs. 1400), Half-yearly (Rs 2500) or Annual Subscription (Rs 4000). This one time payment enable account holder to trade for Rs. 3,00,000 intraday derivative trading and Rs. 40,000 of delivery based trading for zero brokerage. o Trump Account Trump account has four payment options, Trump Plus, Trump Super, Trump Star and Trump Super Star plan. ? Trump Plus has annual subscription fees of Rs 2,500, Brokerage on Delivery Trades is 0. 25% and Brokerage on Intraday Trades F Trades is 0. 025%. ? Trump Super has annual subscription fees of Rs. 15,000, Brokerage on Delivery Trades is 0. 15% and Brokerage on Intraday Trades F Trades is 0. 015%. ? Trump Star has annual subscription fees of Rs. 50,000, Brokerage on Delivery Trades is 0. 10%, Brokerage on Intraday Trades is 0. 01% and Brokerage on Future Trades is 0. 08%. ? Trump Super Star has annual subscription fees of Rs. 1,00,000, Brokerage on Delivery Trades is 0. 10% and Brokerage on Intraday Trades F Trades is 0. 005%. Advantages of Religare 1. Religare gives interest on unutilized cash when investor is waiting to make next trade or online investment. 2. They provide intraday reports and historical charting. 3. Varity of fee structure to fulfill need of different type of investors HDFC SECURITIES: HDFC Securities(HDFCsec) is Equity Trading Company of HDFC Bank. HDFC Securities provide both online trading and trading on phone. The HDFC Securities trading account has a unique 3-in-1 feature that integrates your HDFC Securities trading account with your existing HDFC bank savings account and existing Demat account. Funds / shares are seamlessly moved from the linked Demat/Bank account to execute the transactions. HDFCsec provides Cash-n-Carry on both NSE and BSE, Day trading on both NSE and BSE, Trade on Futures Options on the NSE and Online IPO Investment. Features on HDFC Securities Online trading : 1. Seamless Transactions – By integrating your accounts, we ensure minimal waste of time during movement of your funds and shares. . Speed – Orders are placed electronically, so proceeds are available instantly. 3. No manipulation – To prevent any mismanagement, we will send you an email confirmation, the minute your order is executed. 4. Safety and Security – HDFC Securities offer the highest level of security such as 128-bit encryption technology. 5. Dedicated and Separate contact numbers – for trading over the phone as well as for customer care. RELIANCE MONEY: Reliance Money, A Reliance Capital Limited Company, is the financial services division of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) Group. Reliance ADA group is among top 3 business houses in India with wide range of presence across various sectors. Group’s major interests ranges from communications (Reliance Communications) and financial services (Reliance Capital Ltd), to generation, transmission and distribution of power (Reliance Energy), infrastructure and entertainment. Reliance Money has over 22 lakhs customers and more then 10’000 branches in around 5000 cities in India. Company is among the largest broking and distribution house of financial products and having share of more then 3% of total stock market volume at BSE NSE. RelianceMoney. com is the web based investment portal (with Online Stock Trading) from Reliance Money. This website enables its customer to invest manage most of the services provided by Reliance Money including Equity (Stock) Trading, Commodity Trading, Derivatives, Mutual Fund Investment, IPO Investment, Life Insurances, General insurances, Money Transfer, Forex exchange, Gold Coins and Credit Cards Services. Company recently entered in to Wealth Management with tools like investment in equity-linked portfolio management services, structured products, insurance and mutual funds. The Reliance Money stock trading websites uses special security features ‘Security Token’, which makes your online trading experience more secure without complexity. Stock Trading through RelianceMoney. com is available for BSE and NSE stock exchanges. Offline trading is also available through Reliance Money partners in more then 5000 city across India and through phone by dialing 022-39886000. Investment Options The investment options available with Reliance Money online portal are as below: 1. Equity (Stock) Trading at BSE, NSE and NSE FO 2. IPO Investment 3. Derivatives Trading 4. Forex Trading 5. Commodity Trading(Gold, Silver, Crude etc†¦. ) at MCX, NCDEX and NMCE (FAQ’s) 6. Mutual Fund Investment 7. Life General Insurance 8. ‘Pure Swiss’ Gold Coins (99. 99% pure, 24 carat) Trading Platforms Reliance Money provides 3 different trading platforms for equity trading: 1. Insta Trade 2. Fast Trade 3. Easytrade Reliance Money Technical Analysis (A paid service) Relance Money offers a simplified, automated, sophisticated technical analysis to Indian retail broking consumers with the help of Recognia’s Technical Analysis tools. Recognia, a Canada based company, has proprietary pattern recognition technology capable of recognizing patterns in the price charts of any publicly traded financial instrument including stocks, bonds, funds, commodities, currencies and indexes. The technical services are available for introductory free 7-day trail period to Reliance Money users. Post the trail period, this service is available to users at a nominal subscription of Rs. 99 for 3 months/ Rs. 179 for 6 months/ Rs. 299 for a year, i. e. , less than Re 1 a day. Reliance Money Brokerage and fees: Reliance Money offers lowest brokerage rates in today’s online stock trading industry in India. The brokerages are as low as 0. 075% for delivery based trading and 0. 02 for now delivery. For more detail about Reliance Money’s brokerage and fees visit the below section of this webpage. Reliance Money Demat Account Charges: |Fee Head |DP Charges | |Annual Services Charges – For Individuals / HUFs / Trust |Rs. 0/- | |Annual Services Charges – For NRIs / Foreign Nationals, Corporates / Others |Rs. 1000/- | |Transaction Charges – SELL (Market Off Market) |Rs. 25/- | |For instructions given in physical form. | | |Transaction Charges – SELL (Market Off Market) |Rs. 12/- | |For instructions received through Internet/ online trading through Reliance Securities Ltd. | Advantages of Reliance Money 1. Extra security features with ‘Security Token†, which is the most secure and tested technology in computer world. 2. Simple, easy and fast online stock trading. 3. Almost all investment options are available under one account including Equity Trading, Derivatives, Forex, Commodity, IPO, Mutual Funds and Insurance. 4. Branches are available in all major cities and the number is growing. METHODOLOGY OF STUDY Research can be defined as a systemized effort to gain new knowledge. A research is carried out by different methodologies which have their own pros and cons. Research methodology is a way to solve research in study and solving research problems along with logic behind them are defined through research methodology. Thus while talking about research methodologies we are not only talking of research methods but also consider the logic behind the methods. We are in context of our research studies and explain why it is being used a particular method or technique and why the others are not used. So that research result is capable of being evaluated either by researcher himself or by others. Research Methodology: Research has its special significance in solving various operational and planning problems of business and industry. Research methodology is a way to systematically analyze the research problem. Sampling Methods: A sample is the representative of the population which will predict the behavior of the whole universe While deciding about the method of data collection to be used for the study the researcher should keep two types of data. . Primary Data. 2. Secondary Data. We use in our research secondary data. Primary means collected a fresh, and the first time data and secondary means which are already available like annual report, magazines etc. Limitations: Every work has its own limitations. Limitations are extent to which the process should not exceed. The following limitations for the project are: ? Data taken was secondary ? A time constraint has also become a maj or limitation ? Complete data was not available due to company privacy and secrecy Objectives of Study: Understand basics of Online Stock Market Trading in India. ? Provide detail about popular online stock trading companies in India. ? Compare and discuss about stock trading websites, their products and services ? To study the awareness of people towards online trading demat account. ? To study customer satisfaction towards operating expenses of online trading. ? To study the client’s satisfaction towards network security security of their money. CONCLUSION ? The brokerage rates of A. G. Shares and Securities are maximum, i. . 9 paisa intraday and 90 paisa delivery while brokerage rates of Reliance Money are minimum, i. e. 2 paisa intraday and 7. 5 paisa delivery rate. ? The account opening charges for Indiabulls is maximum while it is nil at India Infoline, Sharekhan and HDFC Securities. ? The AMC at India bulls and Sharekhan are Nil while maximum in Religare Rs 1200 p. a On the basis of our analysis Reliance Money is the best online trading account because it charges minimum brokerage rates and less annual maintenance charges ? Branches are available in all major cities and the number is growing ? It is very difficult to find out the best online trading account but in a web survey ICICIDirect was founded the best online trading account. ? Second no. was given to India infoline REFERENCE 1) http://www. chittorgarh. com/newportal/online-stock-brokers-list. asp 2) www. indiainfoline. com 3) www. 5paisa. com 4) www. sharekhan. com 5) www. indiabulls. com 6) www. agssl. com 7) www. karvy. com 8) www. wikipedia. com [pic] How to cite Best Online Trading Account- Width and Cost Analysis, Papers

Supermarket Industry Coles and Woolworths

Question: Discuss about theSupermarket Industry for Coles and Woolworths. Answer: Introduction For a long time now, Coles and Woolworths have been dominating the Australian supermarket industry. The two supermarket giants have spread their tentacles into almost every aspect of the Australian economy. Their products range from grocery products, petrol, liquor, insurance, and even finance services. By and large, the prevailing supermarket industry has failed to provide level playing field for small supermarkets. Woolworths and Coles pose a significant threat to competition in the sector (Greenblat 2014). It is for this reason that most individuals argue that both supermarkets have excessive market power. Today, Australia has one of the most saturated supermarket industries globally. As at 2013, Woolworths and Coles controlled approximately 2 percent of the countrys sales of packaged groceries (Samuel King 2013). Metcash-supplied stores only accounted for around 20 percent of the sales. Thus, in this year, the countrys big three supermarkets accounted for almost 95 percent of the market share. In the same year, the two giant retailers had a total market share of over 80 percent of the industrys total market share (Ryan 2013). Still, the two supermarkets remain adamant and reject claims that they have too much market power. How Much Does Woolworths and Cole Own? Groceries According to a 2014 analysis, Woolworths and Coles had a market share of around 72.5 percent of the countrys $82 billion worth grocery sector. Individually, Coles market share was estimated at 33.5 percent while that of Woolworths was 39 percent of the total market share (Ma 2014). Coles increased market shares are predominantly attributed to the retailers momentous advertising over the past few years. Besides, Woolworths owns the only grocery distributor in Tasmania (Knox 2013). Liquor It is imperative to note that the two firms have a colossal interest in liquor sales within the country. A report by the McCusker Center for Action on Alcohol and youth indicates that Woolies accounts for about 40 percent of the total alcohol retail sales in the country. As at 2013, the retailer had more than 1355 liquor outlets all over the country. What is more, the company owns a 75 percent stake in the countrys Leisure and Hospitality Group (Ma 2014). The group controls a myriad of liquor outlets within the region, including pubs, clubs and bottle shops. In turn, the great sales avenue offered by the institution ensures profits for Woolworths. In the same way, Coles has a preferential interest in the sector. Particularly, its parent company, Wesfarmers controls about 20 percent stake of the national liquor market. In 2013, the company had almost 630 liquor stores (Ma 2014). In addition to this, both Coles and Woolies own numerous private label beer and wine products. These brands include Bay estates, South Island, Oak Lane, and Cradle Bay. Markedly, the supermarkets do not display their private label on these products. Thus, consumers are induced into buying them without the knowledge that the goods are products of the Coles and Woolies (Keith 2012). Petrol The ACCC reports that Coles and Woolworths own almost half of the petrol stations in the petrol retail market. In 2013, each supermarket owned about 24 percent of the total market share. Primarily, this occurrence can be traced back to 2003 when Coles bought out almost all Shell retail outlet stores (Ma 2014). Woolworths followed suit and entered into a joint venture with Caltex. Other supermarkets also started buying out petrol outlets. Typically, the success of Woolies and Coles in this sector is linked to the supermarkets ability to offer large discounts to their clients, something that initial petrol retailers could not afford. Consequently, this has led to the face out of most petrol retail outlets in the country. In this regard, the ACC warns that the petrol market in Australia may suffer greatly over the long term (Cohen 2013). Insurance It is worth noting that the two supermarkets also offer insurance services to the clients. While Coles ventured into the sector in 2010, Woolworths dived into the industry in 2011. In 2013, Coles had around 35000 clients (Ma 2014). The supermarket utilizes data collected from their customers through their loyalty rewards program and approach them with insurance offers. In turn, they are able to tailor insurance offers that target the specific requirements of their clients. As a result, they have been able to attract many clients to subscribe to their insurance packages over the years. Finance Today, Woolworths offers a range of financial products to its customers. The financial products comprise of credit cards and loans (Greenblat 2014). Likewise, Coles entered into a joint venture with GE Capital in 2015. As a result, it is able to offer its clients an array of financial products. In addition, its banking clients have access to additional rewards such as discounted groceries. Too Much Market Power It is worth pointing out that the two supermarkets have saturated almost all aspects of the Australian economy. The big market shares held by Woolworths and Coles and their high concentration in almost every retail sector indicates the lack of competition in the market. As such, the companies only face competition at the periphery. All its competitors are relatively small to offer significant competition to the two retailers. It is thus rational to say that the only real competitive problem faced by Coles and Woolworths in Australia is Woolworths and Coles (Samuel King). In addition, Woolies and Coles have created high barriers to entry and expansion of small retailers in the supermarket industry. Both firms have massively differentiated their products from those of competitors. They also tend to play a game of copycat. As such, they copy each other in terms of price discounts to customers, development of home brands, and discounts on petrol products. Thus, when one company makes a move, the other also simultaneously changes the strategy to maintain its customers. Regardless, these price wars are often associated with reduced profits for the supermarkets. Particularly, this is because the consumers perceive the two supermarkets as similar. Thus, there is limited loyalty. Hence, the price wars largely benefit consumers through lower prices but limit their choices. In addition, the high market power possessed by Coles and Woolworths enable them to influence the overall market prices for products and services in the market. Primarily, when the two firms engage in price wars and offer discounts on products, the other competitors are also forced to reduce their prices. Otherwise, they risk losing their clients. Often, clients move to the cheaper alternative. Thus, the small retailers are forced to offer large discounts to maintain their clients. Such discounts reduce their profits significantly (Edwards 2012). Over the long term, these small retailers are forced out of the market, leaving Coles and Woolworths to serve the Australian population. Overview According to a survey conducted in 2015 by independent grocery retailers in the country, many Australians are in favor of stringent regulations to enhance the degree of competition in the market. The survey also discovered that about 72 percent of the respondents regard the grocery market in the country as being too dominated by the Coleworths (Mitchell 2015). On the other hand, only 22 percent of the respondents believe that the competition level is healthy in the sector (Mitchell 2015). In this regard, an increase in the level of competition in the supermarket industry would be beneficial for Australians now and in the future. In the same way, an increased level of competition between Woolworths and Coles may be beneficial to the Australians, but only to a certain degree. Benefits of Increased Competition Between Coles and Woolworths Economic Wealth It is imperative to note that the two supermarkets have contributed substantially to the economic wealth of the country. The companies operate almost 1000 supermarkets in the country. For this reason, they offer great employment opportunities for the Australian populace. Coles and Woolworths are among the nations biggest employers. In total, they have employed approximately 400,000 employees in their various outlets (Bariacto Nunzio 2014). In this regard, the increase in competition between the countrys largest supermarkets is beneficial to Australians. Affordable Products for Consumers In 2012, Coles initiated a price war on its fruits and vegetable products. During this time, the company slashed the prices of fresh produce by approximately 50 percent (Edwards 2012). The price discount by Coles forced Woolworths and other competitors also to reduce their prices or risk losing their business. By and large, the price war is beneficial to the consumers as they are able to purchase relatively more products with the same amount of income (Edwards 2012). Besides, they are able to satisfy consumer needs with a variety of goods. Therefore, the price competition strategies used by the supermarkets enhances the diversity of product choices offered to Australians at affordable prices. Disadvantages of Increased Competition Between Coles and Woolworths Unfair Competition to Smaller Retailers When Coles initiated the discounts in 2012, the prices of fresh produce reduced significantly. In turn, a decline in the price of vegetables and fruits increased the risk of driving small retailers out of business (Edwards 2012). Mainly, this is because they are also forced to sell their products cheaply to maintain their customers. As a result, this leads to a significant reduction in their profits. In the long run, the small retailers are unable to keep up with the competition and are thus faced out of the market entirely. Thus, an increased competition level between Coles and Woolworths creates stiff competition for small firms (McCartney 2015). Thus it is disadvantageous to small retailers in the economy. Standardization Demands The standards and specifications imposed by Woolworths and Coles have a significant influence on the supply chain (Bariacto Nunzio 2014). The retailers determine the methods of production, size, color and shape of the products that are supplied to the market. Subsequently, this has put pressure on farmers and other suppliers to produce the ideal product or face the risk of being weeded out from the market. Given the importance of Coles and Woolies in the market for consumer access, the suppliers are forced to meet the demands (LaFrenz 2014). Normally, these standardization demands burden the suppliers who are forced to engage in capital-intensive production processes (Knox 2014). Thus, the competition between the two supermarkets is constricting to the operation of its suppliers in Australia. Wastage When the suppliers products do not meet the standards laid out by the two supermarkets, it results in rejection of the products. In turn, this leads to wastage. Typically, this occurs in the supply of products that are perishable in nature. It is worth pointing out that continued food wastage in the country is detrimental to the overall economy and is not sustainable for the countrys food security future (Bariacto Nunzio 2014). In addition, these standards may end up killing off productivity among local suppliers within Australia (Keating 2015). What is more, the competition is disadvantageous to farmers who supply their fresh produce to the supermarkets. They are forced to produce and supply more products to the company at relatively lower prices. This has mainly affected vegetable, dairy and fruit farmers (Cohen 2013). In the long run, the low prices will force small farmers to close down their operations. Is Increased Competition Advantageous or Disadvantageous? The existence of Coles and Woolworths in the Australian economy has significant advantages. By and large, the competition between the two firms in the supermarket industry has brought about significant benefits to the country. Predominantly, the wide array of products and services in the economy has generated economic wealth for Australia. Consumers are also able to access affordable goods and services (Edwards 2012). It has also created employment opportunities for many Australians. It is worth noting, however, that while the increased competition between the two supermarkets may be beneficial to the consumers, negative effects accrue to other sectors of the economy (Jones 2011). The massive competition by the two retailers has brought about significant problems to the suppliers, small retailers, and the economy as a whole (Chung 2015). The widespread nature of the flaws brought about by the competition warrants for a change in the countrys competition laws. Particularly, restrictive policies should be instigated to control the degree of competition within the economy to limit the competitive pressures brought about by the two supermarkets at healthy levels. Otherwise, the continued unhealthy competition in the country will be detrimental to the overall economic performance in the long run. Conclusion Coles and Woolworths play a significant role in the Australian economy. Over the years, the two companies have expanded their operations in the country and ventured in a diverse of sectors in the economy. Today, these retailers have large market shares in the grocery sector, fuel, liquor, insurance, and finance. The magnitude of their shares has given them the power to influence the operations in the sectors. As a result, they are able to effectively influence prices and quantity of products and services in the market. While great competition by the two supermarkets may be advantageous to the consumers, these strategies often create negative impacts to small competitors and suppliers in the market. For this reason, the Australian government should take a keen interest in the supermarket industry and offer viable solutions to the existing problems in the sector. Reference List Bariantico, N Nunzio, J. (2014). Market Power in the Australian Food System. [Online] Future Directions International. Available at: https://www.futuredirections.org.au/publication/market-power-in-the-australian-food-system/ [Accessed 29 January 2017]. Beaton-wells, C. (2011). Australian supermarket competition is great for consumers, but it could ruin the economy. [Online] Business Insider. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/australian-supermarket-competition-is-great-for-consumers-but-it-could-ruin-the-economy-2015-7 [Accessed 29 January 2017]. Chung, K. (2015). Supermarket monsters: How Coles and Woolworths suffocate us. [Online] News.com. Available at: https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/supermarket-monsters-how-coles-and-woolworths-suffocate-us/news-story/c901feb4f6c255d3a6b613140cbea30c [Accessed 29 January 2017]. Cohen, H. (2013). Casualties in the supermarket war. [Online] ABC. Available at https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/2013-03-24/4582278#transcript [Accessed 29 January 2017]. Cohen, H. (2013). Crunch time for supermarket food suppliers. [Online] ABC. Available at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-27/cohen---supermarkets/4597262 [Accessed 29 January 2017]. Edwards, M. (2012). Fruit, veg prices slashed in supermarket price war. [Online] ABC News. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-31/concerns-over-fruit2c-vegetable-discounting/3802094 [Accessed 29 January 2017]. Greenblat, E. (2014). Metcash boss warns on excessive market power of Coles and Woolworths. [Online] the Sydney Morning Herald. Available at https://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/metcash-boss-warns-on-excessive-market-power-of-coles-and-woolworths-20140721-zvhti.html [Accessed 29 January 2017]. Jones, E. (2011). Coles and Woolworths duopoly hard to swallow. [Online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/coles-and-woolworths-duopoly-hard-to-swallow-533 [Accessed 29 January 2017]. Keating, E. (2015). Supermarket Monsters: Seven insights into how Coles and Woolworths came to dominate Australian groceries. [Online] Smart Company. Available at: https://www.smartcompany.com.au/growth/48367-supermarket-monsters-seven-insights-into-how-coles-and-woolworths-came-to-dominate-australian-groceries/ [Accessed 29 January 2017]. Keith, S, 2012, Coles, Woolworths, and the Local, Locale: the Australasian Pacific Journal of Regional Food Studies, vol, 1, no. 4, pp 1-28. Knox, M. (2014). Supermarket Monsters. [Online] The Monthly. Available at: https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2014/august/1406815200/malcolm-knox/supermarket-monsters [Accessed 29 January 2017]. LaFrenz, C. (2014). The supermarket duopoly is starting to fray. [Online] AFR Weekend. Available at: https://www.afr.com/personal-finance/shares/the-supermarket-duopoly-is-starting-to-fray-20141114-11n8m4 [Accessed 29 January 2017]. Ma, W. (2014). Woolworths and Coles have taken over Australians lives. [Online] News.com. Available at: http https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/woolworths-and-coles-have-taken-over-australians-lives/news-story/344d02196373c4f960a0d0014613ac1c [Accessed 29 January 2017]. McCartney, M. (2015). Shop Small! The duopoly of Woolworths and Coles is killing small business. [Online] Independent Australia. Available at: https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/shop-small-the-duopoly-of-woolworths-and-coles-is-killing-small-business,7265 [Accessed 29 January 2017]. Mitchell, S. (2015). 75pc of Australians want more competition for Coles and Woolworths, Masters Grocer survey shows. [Online] the Sydney Morning Herald. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/business/75pc-of-australians-want-more-competition-for-coles-and-woolworths-masters-grocer-survey-shows-20150330-1mbjul.html [Accessed 29 January 2017]. Ryan, J. (2013). Woolworths denies supermarkets have too much power. [Online] ABC. 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At The Police Civil Service Commission There Were Three Commissioners,

At the Police Civil Service Commission there were three commissioners, along with the police chief, lieutenants and other officials. It is normally about 11 people in total, but this one was a little different with about 10-12 students and a reporter for the Bakersfield Californian. The three commissioners, Steve Anderson, Ken Vetter and William Perry are each elected to a three year term by the city council. During there term the will each participate as head-commissioner for one year. The meeting is started by the head-commissioner calling it to order and he states the time as well. Then roll is called by each member saying his or her name and title. Then the approval for the minutes of the last meeting is presented. After that, the head-commissioner opens the floor up to any public statements. At recent meetings, there hasn't been much public attendance, so not that much is said during that time. The next item on the agenda is the new business. First, any special orders are taken care of, such as appointments, promotions, retirements, etc. Next, all the new items are taken care of. At this particular meeting, the first was specifications for the new crime analyst job. Mrs. Valenzuela of Human Resources gave the commissioners the specs on the new job for review. After looking over it, one of the commissioners motioned for it and another seconded it. That is pretty much the procedure for all items put in front of the commissioners, in order for it to go through, it must be motioned and seconded. During the meeting, a certification of Police Detective/Lieutenant Eligibility List is presented to the commissioners for review. Once the list, of usually 10 or so people, is approved, the police chief is able to select whom he wants for the job out of the top three candidates. But this can only be done if the commissioners approve the list. At this particular meeting, there were no conflicts because everything put in front of the commissioners had passed. They had joked that not every meeting goes as smoothly as that one did, and sometimes there are disagreements or difference of opinion and some item will not pass. After the new business is taken care of, the commissioner discusses whatever he feels needs to be discussed. At the meeting I attended it was basically just reviewing the process and the meeting itself for us students present. Also, at that time, I don't understand why it fit in at that time, but, the police chief had asked the commissioners for their attendance at a promotion ceremony for three officers. Then, after that was taken care of, the meeting is adjourned with the time being stated again. Even though conflict didn't arise at this meeting, I can see where it can with the items being discussed. The new job of crime analyst can bring controversy because it wasn't available until just recently and some could argue it is not needed. So even though it is controversial now, later it can bring some difference of opinion to some people who disagree with it. But, by then it won't really matter because the commissioners have already approved it. Another frequent thing proposed at the meetings are Nepotism waivers. The way these work is if a family member such as a brother or father work for the department, a waiver must be put through and approved by the commissioners before the people are able to work. This goes for husbands and wives and even just boyfriends and girlfriends. The reason that these waivers must be passed is so that conflict doesn't rise between the people in question. All in all, I personally found the meeting somewhat interesting. I didn't think that the topics were all that appealing. I just thought that the way everything was run in a quick, to-the-point manner was efficient.

America 1900 essays

America 1900 essays America in the year 1900: prosperous, progressive, optimistic, a leader, on the cutting edge of education, and faced with horrible tragedy. When compared with America today, its difficult to not see likeness. Today, we are on the rebound with the belief that things will get better, and we are still a world leader. We are also similarly faced with horrific tragedy, the worst terrorist incident in our countrys history. The country today does, however, differ from itself in the year 1900 in many ways. Today we are more technologically, socially, and intellectually advanced. Things that people in the 1900s thought could never be done, have been. The events of the year 1900 have got us to the year 2002. One way to compare America in 1900 to America today is to look at the presidents. In 1900, the president was William McKinley. McKinley was a soft-spoken man, much like our president George Bush is today. On New Years Day, McKinley held the traditional open house reception. Today, having the White House open like that would be unthinkable. Another major difference is the security at the White House. During the night in 1900 there was only one guard on duty who often retired early. Guards are on alert around the clock in the present day. Both presidents, however, do have similar worries. Terrorism was a threat in the year 1900 just as it is today. The terrorists may not be the same (Anarchists vs. Al-Qaeda), but the threat was and is there. The economy is a constant worry among both presidents. Each of them knows and knew that people vote by their pocket books. Another key similarity is each presidents connections to big business. McKinley befriended J.P. Morgan, an infamous busines sman with more money than the U.S. treasury, and Bush has ties with Enron, the now defunct energy company. Just by looking to the presidents in each time connections can be seen. America was constantly changing scientifically and tech...

HUME Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

HUME - Essay Example According to Hume in the article, â€Å"we may divide all the perceptions of the mind into two classes or species †¦ The less forcible and lively are commonly denominated THOUGHTS or IDEAS †¦ The other species †¦ impression, then, I mean all our more lively perceptions, when we hear, or see, or feel, or love, or hate, or desire, or will.† On the basis of this statement, the ideas and impressions comprising the mental faculty of a man, though possessing significant relation to each other, are distinct among themselves and this working difference is where human belief is conceived. Impressions pertain to sense-perceptions that enable disposition of an individual with emotions or immediate passion whereas ideas constitute ‘faint copies or images’ of impressions within thoughts. Characterized by vividness, impressions are claimed to be more active in the living consciousness compared to ideas. While impressions logically precede ideas, the latter being derived from the former, Hume considers the probability that certain ideas may generate impressions either as reflections or sensations which themselves develop the capacity of formulating ideas in return. Since these constituents of the mind may be held in flexible connections as in random order with or separate from each other, such associations vary with respect to mental operations involved. By cause and effect relation, contiguity, or resemblance, a mental behavior manages to create joints between ideas out of which spring human beliefs which serve as a consequence once the manner of associating impressions and ideas is employed with repetition. Beliefs are further classified into two of which one refers to ‘relations of ideas’ and the other, ‘matters of fact.’ Through the section â€Å"Of the Origin of Ideas†, Hume illustrates stating â€Å"Every one will readily allow, that there is a considerable difference

Concerted practice is the most nebulous of the three categories caught Essay

Concerted practice is the most nebulous of the three categories caught by Article 101 TFEU - Essay Example 2 With regard to paragraph three and exceptions to the prohibitions in paragraph one of Article 101, those relate to what the law determines as contributing to society either through economic development, technical development, and improvements in the way goods are produced or distributed 3 Under the law, moreover, the European Commission has the power to impose the law, to investigate infringements relating to the violation of the prohibitions in Article 101, and to impose penalties and sanctions. 4 To this end, the Commission may compel suspected parties to share information. 5 There is some consensus that it is difficult to pin down the existence of concerted practice, as reflected in case law. 6 For instance, in cases where increases in prices occur in tandem among a group of players, the price increases themselves may not be sufficient to prove concerted practice. In some cases, for instance, as in Case c-47/09 involving the Netherlands T-Mobile business entity, just one meeting among parties was deemed sufficient to establish concerted practice. In 40/73 involving Sulike Unie, the ruling was that concerted practice may be direct or it may be indirect too, and that no written or verbal communication is necessary to establish concerted practice. In the first instance of consideration of concerted practice in case law, or Case 48/69 involving firms operating in a market that is oligopolistic in nature, the Court of Justice ruled that the presence of parallel price increases amounted to the existence of concerted practice, even if the parties to the case m ade a formal challenge to that ruling. This case involved Imperial Chemical Industries, in the industry involved in dyes. In this instance the Court of Justice established a definition of concerted practice as thus: â€Å"†¦a form of coordination between undertakings which, without having reached the stage where an agreement properly so-called

Research in Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Research in Practice - Essay Example This will be done from study of existing literature concerning McDonalds and its Chinese market and outlets. McDonalds is one of the biggest fast food restaurants in the world. The fats food stores giant has been operating in several countries worldwide and in most cases it has outsmarted its competitors to remain the number one fast food shop worldwide. The fast food giant entered the Chinese market in the 1990 and has been operational since then. There has therefore been the need to study and analyze its operation in China market in order to predict the future of the restaurant in China. Articles and journals have been selected for use in this research to help achieve the objectives of the study. McDonalds Corporation is an American world’s largest fast food chain that specializes in serving of hamburger in over a hundred countries globally. The fast food giant has its head quarters in Illinois in the United States of America. The fast food giant was founded by businessman Ray Kroc. McDonalds has three modes of operations in its various countries of operations. The McDonalds restaurants are either operated by the corporation itself, as an affiliate or as a franchise. McDonald’s main products include hamburger, French fries, breakfast items, chicken burger, milkshakes and soft drinks. The fast food restaurant has heavily standardized its menus in its various outlets worldwide .In some scenarios however, the fast food giant has altered its menu or expanded it in order to meet the needs of the local clients especially in the Middle East. McDonalds made an entry into the china market in the year 1990.The fast food group of restaurants had an increasing and promising growth rate in its fast three years of operation. However, in the subsequent years the growth rate of the fast food restaurants was lower compared to the growth rate between the year 1990 and 1993.This was due to a number of factors such as competition, cultural

Impact of the Digital Divide

Impact of the Digital Divide OECD (2001, P5) defined the digital divide as â€Å"the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels [and other demographic levels] with regard both to their opportunities to access information and communication technologies (ICTs) and to their use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities.† When we refer digital divide, we refer not only the opportunities to access to or use of ICTs but also the ability or knowledge of using ICTs. Besides, the statement â€Å"nearly everyone has a mobile phone† is falsified, 15% adults in US didn’t have cellphone until 2011 (Zickuhr, 2011).Therefore, digital divide still is an important issue. Digital divide exists in different countries and different regional areas and social groups within countries. There are two types of digital divide: domestic digital divide and international digital divide. In this article, I will discuss domestic digital divide at first. Th en I will discuss international digital divide and how it forms. Finally, I will discuss why digital divide matters. Couldry (2007) pointed out the complexity of digital divide. He thought digital divide was complex because there were at least two situations of digital divide: domestic divide and international divide. First, it involves the gap between those who can access to ICTs and those who cannot within countries. Secondly, it involves the absolute gap of communication facilities, information transmission capacity, the amount of computers and network hosts, the amount of telephone users and such other aspects between countries. Within countries, people have different access to ICTs because of their gender, income, race and region (Rice, 2006), which splits them into information rich and information poor. In US, the poor, the old, minorities, less educated people and rural residents had less access to ICTs. Comparing racial groups, African-Americans and Latinos have less access to and worse skills of ICTs. Because of poverty caused by racism, they have limited opportunities to learn about and use ICTs. Until 2011, 82.7% Asian-Americans could assess to the Internet and computer, but only 56.9% Black and 58.3% Hispanic could. Besides, rural Native Americans possessed the fewest telephones, followed by rural Hispanics and rural Blacks. Black households possessed fewest PCs. Comparing age groups, 95% of people between 18 and 34 were cellphone users, and only 48% of people older than 75 used cellphones. 59% and 52% US citizens possessed desktop and laptop, and only 28% of people over 75 possessed desktop and 10% possessed laptop. Until 2013, 81.9% of people between 35 and 44 could assess to the Internet and computer, while 61.7% of people older than 55 could. Besides, rural young under 25 possessed fewest telephones, and rural old over 55 possessed fewest PCs. Comparing income groups, the poorest households in central cities possessed fewest telephones, followed by the rural poor and the urban poor. The rural poor possess fewest PCs. Comparing educational level groups, 89.9% of people with bachelor degree or higher could assess to the Internet and computer, but only 36.9% of people without high school degree could (File, 2013; Mossberger, Tolbert, Gilbert, 2006; NTIA, 1995; Zickuhr, 2011). Unbalanced ICTs use also can be found in Canada. The old and the poor had less access to cellphones and Internet. Only 3.5% of people from the lowest income group could access to the Internet (Sciadas, 2000). Additionally, unbalanced Internet use between different social groups and regional areas was obv ious in China. Until 2007, among Internet users, 32.3% of them were students, while only 0.4% of them were peasants. 82.9% Internet users were urban residents. The Internet penetration rate was 20.2 in urban areas and only 3.1 in rural areas. East areas had higher penetration rate than central and west areas. Until 2012, Internet users increased to 516 million. 55.9% of them were male and 44.1% were female. Besides, 29.8% of people between 20 and 29 were Internet users while only 4.8% of people older than 50 were Internet users (CNNIC, 2007, 2012). From these data, we find domestic digital divide occurs in both developed countries and developing countries. Furthermore, with the rapid development of ICT and expansion of globalization, international digital divide becomes an important issue. Nowadays, countries have more connections with each other than before, and they have more influence on each other as well. Digital divide between countries causes serious problems. Firstly, ICTs develop rapidly in both developed countries and developing countries. The UN Millennium Development Goals report: 2008 showed the number of fixed telephone and mobile users increased from 530 million in 1990 to 4 billion. From 2005, the number of new mobile users rapidly increased by more than 500 million, and until 2006, the total number of mobile users increased to more than 2.7 billion. The amount of mobile users grew faster in the areas where the amount of fixed telephone users was small. In 2006, the number of new mobile users increased by 60 million in Africa. There were more mobile users than fixed telephone users in almost every country. By the end of 2006, 22% Africans use mobiles, and 3% Africans used fixed telephone and 5% Africans used the Internet. By the end of 2006, 1.2 billion people on the earth could access to the Internet, which occupied more than 18% of the whole population (UN, 2008). Network construction improves poverty alleviation, education and employment in developing countries. With the development of technology and the widespread use of broadband, there were more opportunities for developing countries to catch up with developed countries. However, according to current spread speed and development trend, although developing countries showed faster rates of growth in network development than developed countries (Fink Kenny, 2003), the digital divide will exist for a long term and hardly be diminished in a short term because the existing gap between developed countries and developing countries was huge. The UN Millennium Development Goals report: 2008 showed Internet penetration rate was 58 in developed countries and 11 in developing countries and 1 in the least developed countries. Until 2006, there was no commercial broadband service in most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and even if there was, people cannot afford to the expensive service fees. But broadband technology stimulates the wide use of Internet in developed countries. The Global Information Technology Report 2007-2008 published by World Economic Forum (2008) ranked the Networked Readiness Index of 127 developed and developing economic entities which occup ied 95 percent of global GDP. The top 20 were: Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, the Netherlands, the United States, Singapore, Iceland, South Korea, Norway, Hong Kong, the UK, Canada, Australia, Austria, Germany, Taiwan, Israel, Japan, Estonia. Most of them were European and North American developed countries, and only a few of them were emerging economies. Most Asian, African and Latin-American countries were ranked low. Data from International Telecommunication Union showed in developed countries about 77% people could access to broadband Internet, while in developing countries only 31% could. What’s worse? There were about 4.5 billion people cannot access to Internet, which occupied 66% of the whole population on the earth (Chinn, Fairlie, 2007). In 2001, the computer penetration rate and Internet penetration rate of North America were 61.1 and 49.8 respectively. In contrast, they were only 0.5 and 0.6 respectively in South Asia (Chinn, Fairlie, 2007). In 2002, 59% US citizens used Internet, but only 4.8% Chinese used Internet (Chen Wellman, 2004). Until 2011, the Internet penetration rate of Iceland was 97.8, and the average rate of top 50 countries was 78.6, but the rate of the rest of world was only 25 (Internet Usage Stats and Population Statistics, 2011). From these data, we could find huge a digital divide between developed countries and developing countries. International digital divide continues to enlarge as the gap of economic development and education level between countries enlarges. The difference of economic development between countries is a main cause of digital divide. In the early stage of development, a large amount of fund needs to be invested in digital information industry and information communication infrastructure. Developed countries possessed more resources including but not limited to capital to innovate and apply to ICTs. They had abundant money investing in research field and ICT infrastructure construction, while many developing countries could not afford to undertake large amount of capital investment. Therefore, developed countries had more advantages in digital information industry, especially in research field. Many underdeveloped countries became digital indigent countries because of underdeveloped digital information technology and infrastructure. Lack of telephones and computers, low network transmission ca pacity and deficient telecom infrastructure increase the difficulties to start digital economy for developing countries; lack of updated software and technology and expensive Internet service fees impede the development of digital information technology in developing countries. Therefore, an increasing number of developing countries became more backward as they are isolated by digital technology and information resources; developed countries enjoy the convenience of low-cost and high-speed information. Imbalanced distribution of information is closely related to imbalanced distribution of global wealth. Additionally, the difference of education level between countries is another major contributor of international digital divide. Education level determines people’s ability to use and develop digital information technology, and people’s ability of ICT use determines the foundation of developing a digital information technology society and how much technology weighs on the economic structure of their country. Because of better education, people in developed countries are better at using new technologies than people in developing and underdeveloped countries. In developing and underdeveloped countries, the low level of ICTs education was attributed to the following reasons (Nair, Kuppusamy, Davison, 2005). Firstly, there were no sufficient ICTs facilities in the school. For instance, in Argentina, 82% private schools and 51% public schools had ICTs facilities; in Peru, only 13% public schools had ICT facilities, so students had unequal access to ICTs (Hilbert, 2011). Seco ndly, there were limited numbers of competent teachers who master ICT applications in educational institutions in these countries. Thirdly, there were short of public ICTs facilities for educational purpose in these countries. To sum up, the backward education level directly restricts the development of ICTs in developing countries. Digital divide should be attached importance to, because it negatively affects social and international stabilities. Digital divide widens the gap between rich and poor, polarizing people within countries, causing social conflicts, enlarging the gap between developed countries and developing countries, hindering the development of developing countries, and leads to digital hegemony which threats international security. Firstly, an increasing domestic digital divide leads to many social problems within countries. Now it’s information society, and information becomes more important than capital. Poverty means not only wealth shortage but also information shortage. People need unblocked and updated information to innovate or catch the opportunity to make fortune. Limited access to ICTs means limited opportunities to create fortune, and digital divide increases the polarization of the rich and the poor within countries. Wealth gap in virtual world is related to wealth gap in reality. People who are excluded by information society are isolated from mainstream political and economic life and have to suffer from long term poverty and developmental stagnation. Increasing digital divide makes people who have gotten rid of poverty become poor again. If this problem is not solved, the informatization of a country cannot be accomplished, and digital divide will split people into two worlds. One world is heaven for information rich while another world is hell for information poor, and the polarization of wealth becomes more serious and leads to social tensions. What’s worse? As information technology grows so fast, the period of upgrading become shorter and new digital divide comes when old digital divide still exists. Secondly, digital divide widens the wealth gap. It is the product of wealth gap, and it widens this gap, which forms a vicious circle. From economic perspective, ICT becomes a new source of fortune, and digital divide increases the difference of ability to create fortune in information era. Large amounts of labor are idle and large amounts of labor can only work in traditional agricultural sector and traditional industrial sector because they lack relevant knowledge and cannot engage in modern economic activities which create a great deal of fortune. Besides, the difference of ability to use information technology and obtain useful information between people from different countries and different social groups leads to the Matthew Effect. Because of digital information technology, rich become richer and poor become poorer; developed countries become more developed and underdeveloped countries become more underdeveloped. Therefore, ICTs benefit people and countries on the advantage si de of digital divide and widen the development gap between those â€Å"haves† and â€Å"have nots†. Thirdly, international digital divide hinders the economic development of developing countries. In the information economy era, ICT plays a vital role in the enhancement of productivity, creativity and competitiveness of a country, and information and talented people become vital endogenous variables. In that case, the advantages of cheap labor and abundant land and resources in developing countries are weakened, and the international competitiveness of developing countries is lowered. In developing countries, most people work in primary and secondary industry, and only a few people engage in ICTs related work. In china, only 200 million Internet users engaged in E-commerce, including online shopping (CNNIC, 2012). Raven, Huang and Kim (2007) thought there were many obstacles in using the Internet and e-commerce in developing countries, such as low demand of commercial network integration caused by poverty, and lack of infrastructure to participate in network commercial activities be cause of no support from government. Inactive involvement in digital economy hinders developing countries from benefiting from increasingly growing digital economy, which increases the economic gap between developing countries and developed countries. As developing countries lagged far behind developed countries at first and disadvantaged is intensified by digital divide, developing countries suffer from serious asymmetric information and have less opportunities to create fortune. To conclude, digital divide increases the differences of economic development between countries and negatively affect the economic development of developing and underdeveloped countries. Finally, digital divide also causes digital hegemony. Some countries which have monopoly in digital technology field obstruct and suppress the freedom of using and developing information technology for other countries and impose their own values and ideologies on other countries in order to benefit themselves. Digital divide provides opportunities for those countries to carry out digital hegemony. For example, until 2002, US had 4.11 million to 4.12 million Internet hosts, which occupied more than 80% of the total amount of hosts in the world (Norris, 2000). Besides, most information on the Internet was provided by the United States. US government uses its absolute advantage on the Internet to conduct ideological and cultural infiltration into other countries. US tries to dominate other countries in digital field and control users’ computers instead of letting users control their own computers. In conclusion, the development of ICTs has greatly changed the way people live and work and become a driver of the expansion of economic globalization. Besides, it brings about opportunities for developing countries. However, there’s a huge digital divide between people with different genders, races, socio-economics status and nationalities. Digital divide causes two main problems. Firstly, digital divide intensifies unfair allocation of social wealth and other social conflicts. It turns information poor into real poor. Lack of information means lack of opportunities to make fortune, and limited money means limited access to ICTs. Those who cannot access to ICT cannot benefit from ICT. Digital divide forms a loop of poverty for the poor. Secondly, digital divide brings about challenges to developing countries. As the progress of ICT promotes social and economic development, digital divide widens the gap of national power between developed countries and developing countries as well as threats international security and stability. Therefore, problems caused by digital divide should draw attention from governments, international organizations and academia. To diminish domestic digital divide, government should narrow wealth gap nationally as well as identify people who are on the disadvantage side of digital divide and effectively support them. Diminishing domestic digital divide maintains social stability and promotes the balanced development of a country. To diminish international digital divide, developing and underdeveloped countries need to invest more in constructing of infrastructure of ICTs. Governments need to invest largely in education and skills training to cultivate a large number of information literate or qualified personnel who have the ability to innovate and master advanced technology. Besides, developed countries should break technological monopoly and support developing and underdeveloped countries financially and technologically. Furthe rmore, international organizations need to financially support developing and underdeveloped countries to construct infrastructure of ICTs and provide opportunities for technical personnel from these countries to go to developed countries to learn advanced technology and be trained. Diminishing international digital divide not only narrows the gap of national power between countries but also balances global economic development. Above all, digital divide is a vital issue which needs to be pay attention to.