New Agri. Bill

 

New Agri. Bill

What is the bill? 

The passage of three agriculture-related Bills in the Lok Sabha does not seem to have gone down well with farmers and the opposition parties, with farmers across Haryana, Punjab and Telangana erupting in protest. A look at what the Bills are and why farmers are unhappy: 

What are the three Bills?
The Centre passed three Bills — the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill.

What does the government say about the Bills?
The government claims the legislations will transform the sector and raise farmers’ income. The Centre had promised to double farmers’ income by 2022. It says the Bills will make farmers independent of government-controlled markets and fetch them a better price for their produce.

What are the new provisions in the three Bills?
The Bills propose to create a system where farmers and traders can sell and purchase products outside ‘mandis’. They also encourage intra-state trade and propose to reduce transportation cost. The Bills formulate a framework on agreements that enables farmers to engage with agri-business companies, exporters and retailers for services and sale of produce while giving the farmer access to modern technology.

They provide benefits for small and marginal farmers with less than five hectares of land. The Bills also provide for removal of items such as cereals and pulses from the list of essential commodities and attract FDI.

Cooperative federalism

Since agriculture and markets are State subjects – entry 14 and 28 respectively in List II – the ordinances are being seen as a direct encroachment upon the functions of the States and against the spirit of cooperative federalism enshrined in the Constitution. The Centre, however, argued that trade and commerce in food items is part of the concurrent list, thus giving it constitutional propriety.

End to MSP?

The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance aims at opening up agricultural sale and marketing outside the notified Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis for farmers, removes barriers to inter-State trade and provides a framework for electronic trading of agricultural produce. It prohibits State governments from collecting market fee, cess or levy for trade outside the APMC markets.

According to PRS Legislative Research, APMCs were set up with the objective of ensuring fair trade between buyers and sellers for effective price discovery of farmers’ produce. APMCs can regulate the trade of farmers’ produce by providing licences to buyers, commission agents, and private markets; levy market fees or any other charges on such trade; and provide necessary infrastructure within their markets to facilitate the trade.

Critics view the dismantling of the monopoly of the APMCs as a sign of ending the assured procurement of food grains at minimum support prices (MSP). To the Centre’s ‘one nation, one market’ call, critics have sought ‘one nation, one MSP’.

Critics argue that ensuring a larger number of farmers get the MSP for their produce and straightening kinks in the APMCs, instead of making these State mechanisms redundant is the need of the hour.

Framework for contract farming

The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance relates to contract farming, providing a framework on trade agreements for the sale and purchase of farm produce. The mutually agreed remunerative price framework envisaged in the legislation is touted as one that would protect and empower farmers.

The written farming agreement, entered into prior to the production or rearing of any farm produce, lists the terms and conditions for supply, quality, grade, standards and price of farm produce and services.

Conclusion

The government believes that the newly passed agriculture bills in India will accelerate growth in the agricultural market through investment from private sectors and supply of agro products in national as well as international markets.

Data Analytics: Need of the Hour

 

Data Analytics: Need of the Hour

We all know that data is the new commodity which is highly valued these days. And when we speak of data, we not only speak of personal or financial data, which is considered as highly confidential, but also mere information of the sites we happen to visit on a daily basis. This can be of great potential to people who can use it for their respective business gains.
Generation of data during the past decade has increased exponentially due to the invention of social media and the amount of individuals for whom it is freely and easily accessible.

Let’s take a quick look on some fun facts related to data generation that takes place on a daily basis:
2.5 quintillion bytes of data are produced by humans every day.
500 million tweets are sent.
294 billion emails are sent.
4 petabytes of data are created on Facebook.
4 terabytes of data are created from each connected car.
65 billion messages are sent on WhatsApp.
5 billion searches are made

Looking at the above figures makes us wonder how we can use this vast sea of data for achieving our respective needs and goals.
In comes Data Analytics. To define it in simple words, it can be described as qualitative and quantitative techniques and processes used to enhance productivity and business gain.
Now, if we see data in its raw form, it is surely of no use for making any decision or predicting any trend. There are certain number of operations which need to be done on this raw data to refine it for one’s specific need.
Following are a few steps of Data analytics:
Collection of Data according to the purpose
Cleaning and manipulation of the raw data
Model Planning
Model building
Extracting results
Operationalize based on the results

The refined data that we speak of can be translated into different forms such as graphs, histograms, etc. Modelling and visualizing plays an important part in data analytics process as this is the stage at which the decision making individuals of an organization get an insight of the situation at hand.

Let’s take an example of a marketing firm, which has collected a data of a certain number of customers’ choices of products they view in their apps or browser. Applying data analytics to this raw information in a proper way can be very fruitful for the company. They can target the proper audience with appropriate set of product ads and offers of which seems to be in their trend of interest. And due to the tools which are now available to analyze the data, these decisions are taken at quicker rate.

Data analytics can help grow businesses, both old and new to the fields, as it helps to get a clear picture of the industry as well as to discover new opportunities. In the changing economy, making profit means to be in trend with the dynamicity of the market’s/customer’s need. It not only helps the business to grow and provide better services to its clients, but also generates a lot of job opportunities for working professionals. In the past 5 years, data analytics has injected certain new profiles in the job categories. Roles such as data scientist, data engineer, data analyst, etc. are becoming common positions in every small & large organization.
Due to the growing effectiveness of data analytics, IT and analysts are starting to increase their co-ordination. It has also put a tad of a pressure on IT to provide an infrastructure so that the people responsible to make decisions for the organization get their answers quickly and correctly. We have till now addressed the data which is generated by humans on a daily basis, now to speak about the data generated by machines. Data generated by machine, be it as common as your car GPS location, or the reading of your smart blood pressure monitor, can be very resourceful if put to proper application.

Data analytics has also intrigued students; we see new courses which are being developed and adapted in the curriculum as there is a growing demand for such profiles. It has also created many research opportunities which can be explored. Data analytics itself can be applied on student database to get better performance and set appropriate goals based on the student’s proficiency level and interests.

Data Analytics has great application in the medical field as well.  One such use is for image processing of a tumor to determine whether it is malignant or benign. Another good example is to predict the spread of pandemics and take necessary precautions/measures for the same.

To conclude, there are a lot of advantages of data analytics and soon it will be essential for an organization to survive. It not only finds new opportunities but also detects the hidden potential within the existing ones.

Roles adopted by Members in a Group Discussion

 

Roles adopted by Members in a Group Discussion

 

A Group Discussion (GD) refers to a communicative situation that allows its participants to share their views and opinions with other participants. It is a systematic exchange of information, views and opinions about a topic, problem, issue or situation among the members of a group who share some common objectives.
GD is a popular methodology used by many organizations (company, institute, business school, etc.) to gauge whether the candidate has certain personality traits; such as interpersonal communication skills, confidence in public speaking, team spirit, leadership abilities, social behavior and problem-solving skills. GDs form an important part of the short-listing process for recruitment or admission in a company or institution.

In this methodology, there are usually 7-12 participants in a group. The group of candidates is given a topic or a situation which could be either factual, abstract or case based, and typically given some time to think and make notes about the same. After this, the group of candidates is, and then asked to discuss it the topic among themselves for a specific duration ranging between 10-40 minutes (which may vary from one organization to another). While the group discusses the pertaining issue at hand, the Moderators/Panelists silently observe each candidate on various pre-determined parameters. The Panelists assign scores to every candidate based on his/her individual performance as well as how he performed within the group.

Following are some of the roles that members engaged in a GD adopt:

1)      Initiator:
This position belongs to the member who will start the discussion. The member has to be extra conscious as this position is a bit risky. The member has to be confident and will have to set the tone right at the very beginning. But this doesn’t mean that they have to keep silent for the rest of the discussion. They need to be active throughout the discussion.

2)      Clear facts:
There are always members in a GD that belong to this category, the ones who have all the facts. These members are data driven. They will support their statements with facts and statistics. But they have to make sure that the facts are correct. Also, merely stating facts won’t help them win a discussion. They need to interpret them well and make their point stronger with the help of the facts.

3)      Controller:
These members like to control the discussion. They want everyone in the group to approve of what they are saying.

4)      Moderate Referee:
These members act as coordinators. They ensure that every member of the group gets sufficient time to speak and put forth their perspective. They never lose their calm. When an argument gets heated up, they try to bring the discussion back to normal.

5)      Fault Finder:
These members try to find faults in what others are saying. They have objection in almost everything. They do not bring anything new to the discussion, rather try to bring down others in the group.

6)      Stopwatch:
These members are interesting to observe. They always keep a track of the time. They don’t get lost in the discussion. They know how much time has passed and how much is left, who all have gotten chance to speak and who haven’t. However, they should also focus on putting forth their impactful views.

7)      Audience/Viewer:
These members are easy to spot. They are quiet. They will be listening to and observing what others are speaking. They won’t put any points in the discussion as they do not have their own point of views.

8)      Gist Maker:
This member is the one who will end the discussion. It is a very important position as the member has to summarize the entire discussion and draw valid conclusions.

According to the roles mentioned above, the negative roles assumed would be:
Controller, Fault Finder and Audience/Viewer

Here are the remedies on how one can come out of these roles:

·        Controller:
The members of this category should learn that every other member in the group will have their own perspective. You cannot force your views on others. In order to change, these members have to keep their minds open and think in all directions. They should not restrict themselves in exploring points and views put forth by others. They should expand their way of thinking as well.

·        Fault Finder:
These members probably act so as they might not have their original points & hence bank upon others’ point to make an entry in the GD.
These members should come up with their own point of views rather than proving others wrong. They present a very negative image of themselves to the judges and other group members, and makes them lose marks.

·        Stopwatch:
Even though these members try to positive act in the GD, they miss their chance in participating in the group discussion. One can also say that keeping a track of time is important in a GD, but what is more important is to put your points and actively participate in the group discussion. They should not restrict themselves in only keeping the track of time but also equally participate in the discussion. In this way, they can gain some extra points for themselves.

Be mindful of the role you assume when you participate in your next GD! 🙂

Business Communication Channels

 

Business communication channels

 Hi readers!

Today lets talk about business communication channels. what it means, its types and which channels are most effective. Without wasting more time lets start with defining Business communication channels

Business Communication Channels

A communication channel is the medium, mean, manner, or method through which a message is sent to its intended receiver. The basic channels are written (hard copy print or digital formats), oral or spoken, and electronic and multimedia. Within those channels, business communications can be formal, informal, or unofficial. Finally, communications can be rich or lean.

Channel richness refers to the amount and immediacy of information that can be transmitted. Face-to-face communication is very high in richness because it allows information to be transmitted with immediate feedback. A tweet is very low in richness because it allows only 140 characters to be transmitted with no feedback. On the other hand, face-to-face communication is limited to one person communicating with a few other people in close proximity, whereas a tweet can go out to thousands of followers around the world. The following diagram shows the richness of different types of communication.

The above-captured image covers the crux of the channels used for the business communication process.

For more updates, stay tuned!