onlinebusinessandhomejobs

Make Money With Online Auctions

2008-12-22T22:28:00.001-08:00

Earning money from online auctions is one of the best ways to get started with your own home based business. It's one of the easiest home businesses to start, maintain, and earn a profit with. In fact almost anyone can do it, even teenagers! The concept is simple; buy a product cheap and sell it for a higher price. Think of it like having a neighborhood yards sale, you can sell old items that are just laying around the house or forgotten about in your attic. You can find unused items from your neighbors and friends, or buy a product online for cheap.
that mean that anyone can make money online Well, yes in fact over $44.3 billion in gross merchandise has been sold through eBay last year alone. If you consider all of the other . you can imagine why making money with online auctions has quickly become one of the most profitable business models available.
now consider that $27,500 per year is only 0.001% of the $27.5 Billion sold through PayPal using eBay last year. While it's important to set realistic goals, be sure not to "sell" yourself short. Imagine making 0.01% of that $27.5 Billion. That equals $275,000 per year and that is only 0.01% of the online auction sales. making money with online auctions Well, the first step is to realize that the only person that can make it happen is you. Once you are motivated to start making money with auctions, read as much information as you can. The more you know the more money you will make.
For the purpose of keeping the business concept simple, we will concentrate only on eBay (the largest online auction site). However, as you become more proficient in online auctions be sure to expand your arena and try some other online auctions as well.
What you will need to get started:
A credit card, debit card, or other pre-paid card
Computer and Internet Access
Product - Buy low and sell high
If you are not familiar with ebayObviously, getting the product at a low price and selling for a high price is the "meat and potatoes" of this business and is also the most complicated part. There are a number of wholesale warehouse that sell items for the specific purpose of allowing you to resell the products on online auctions. Often you can find items for sale with up to an 80% discount.
, now would be a good time to go look at their site. It's easy to understand even though at first glance in may appear a little cluttered. You can sell anything you can imagine here. For example, a couple from colorado recently sold real snow from the last snow storm. So, your imagination is your only limitation and remember that one person's junk is another person's treasure.
If all of this seems a little overwhelming, you might want to check out www.bidfuel.com. The site is designed to streamline the process of selling items on ebay and include an exclusive member warehouse and ebay auction wizard (it makes the auctions for you!) All you have to do is select which items to sell, and an auction template is made. The product is then directly shipped to your customer once they make a purchase. You don't have to manage any inventory either, it's all done for you. For a limited time bid fuel is offering free service and an ebay power user's bible. Be sure to check out or you can read more about bid fuel and the other auction related sites here. Start your journey and make money with online auctions.

Make Money Blogging

2008-12-22T22:26:00.000-08:00

Blogging - The most popular way to make money
This article is intended to teach you step by step how to get started and more importantly, make money blogging. We will teach you how to start a home based blogging business. Please leave us comments, questions, or success stories so that we can improve this guide.
"A weblog, which is usually shortened to blog, is a type of web site where entries are made (such as in a journal or diary)." (Wikipedia, March 2007) It was not until recently however, that people have been using blogging as a full time home based business and have been making enough money to make it worth while.
So, start to make money blogging Believe it or not, It's actually fairly easy to get started. If you have a access to a computer and internet it can even be completely free! If you do not have a computer at home, you can always go to your local library and blog from there. So, if you are serious about making money blogging, there should be no excuses stopping you.
Once you decide that blogging is right for you, you need to find a blogging platform. There are a number of web sites that will allow you to host your blog. Alternatively, you can create your own website and blog using wordpress. If you decide that making your own blog web site is a little beyond your technical skills, you can use any of the following companies.
Obviously there literally hundreds of other blogging sites that you can use. Feel free to do a search for "free blog" in your favorite search engine.
Once you have a platform from which to start blogging, you need to decide on your "niche" market. Think about the last time you searched on the internet for a topic that you wanted to learn Perhaps you even found our site by doing such a search. The simple fact is, people go to the internet to find information. If you can supply that information, you will begin to accrue readers and profit from that web traffic.
By choosing a niche market, like make money blogging for example, you are funneling the search traffic into a select group of people who will actually be interested in what you have to say. So, rather than coming to your blog and hitting the back button, the reader will see that your blog is about their interests and will stay and read.
The next step is to blog every day. In fact, one of the biggest mistakes new bloggers make is thinking that they can post a blog and forget about it. This is NOT the case. In order to make it big, you have to keep readers interested and coming back to your blog again and again.
It's really not hard to do, especially if you chose a niche market that you are interested in. People really do want to know what you have to say, even if it is only opinions or your daily life story. Once you get someone interested, they will come back time and time again and that is where the money is made.

Once you have your ads up and once you attract enough readers, sit back, continue blogging and watch the money come in. Each time someone views your blogs, there is a chance (usually around 2%) that they will click on an ad and you will get paid. Talk about an easy home business! The more readers you get, the more money you will rake in. Some blogs make well over 6 figures a year and the sky is the limit. So why not get started and begin making money by blogging

Make Money with Paid Surveys

2008-12-22T22:25:00.000-08:00

The Cold Hard Truth
The concept of paid surveys has been around for a long time. Some even say that marketing companies began using paid surveys as early as 1856. Only recently however, with the advent of home computers and the increase in home businesses, have paid surveys come back into the "lime-light" as a way to make money.
Most likely you are reading this because you want to know if you can you get paid to take online surveys. The simple answer is "Yes". Marketing companies or firms will pay participants to answer questions via surveys. They then resell the data they collect to larger companies looking to invest in a new marketing plan or ad campaign.
So your next question is most likely, how much can I make, or can I make enough money to live Well, the answer is "No". The simple, cold hard truth is that nobody has ever become rich from completing surveys. In fact, most hard-core survey participants make enough to cover their power bill or a trip to McDonald's once or twice a week at best. Lets face it, if you could get rich taking survey's I would be completing one myself vs. telling you about them. However, legitimate paid surveys are NOT a waste of time and can be a good source of supplemental income.
Let me explain how modern paid surveys work and then you can decide for yourself if participating in paid surveys is right for you.
There are companies and corporations that spend billions of dollars every year in advertising. You see their ads on TV, hear them on the radio and even get them on your cell phones. Obviously, these companies make money by "convincing" you to buy a product through these ads. they know what will make money for them and what Good question, because they don't know. Some companies will try sample ads to a select population and then monitor their results before ramping up to a full scale ad campaign. Other companies will hire a marketing firm before launching an ad campaign in order to get the best information on domestic trends, user habits and interests. Once a company hires a marketing firm, the firm will then collect data from a select populace using web site traffic results, TV ad results and yes...even paid surveys.
By completing a paid survey, you are offering information about yourself: your habits, opinions, likes and dislikes to the marketing firm. That firm will sell your information to another company that will in turn try to sell a product back to you via an ad somewhere.
So, back to the point; Is participating in an online survey worth your time.If you are unemployed and looking for a job, or employed and still have some free time, then participating in paid surveys might be for you. Marketing firms will collect information about you when you sign up and then use that data to match you with current or future survey needs. If you are selected to participate in a survey, you will be notified and given a link via email that will point you to the survey. Four to Six weeks later you will get a check in the mail for your participation.
Surveys are a great way to make an extra $25 to $50 a week in your spare time or after a long day of job hunting. If you are disabled, or a stay at home mom surveys will work well for you too. You can multiply the number of surveys you are selected for by signing up with multiple marketing firms possibly earning $100 to $150 a week. Just be sure to do something productive between each participation letter you get.
If you think paid surveys are for you, there are a number of legitimate paid survey companies available. For every legitimate paid survey company however, there are a dozen scams. Our next guides will delve more into how to recognize paid survey scams and which companies we suggest using. In the meantime, if you want to make an easy buck or two, get paid to take surveys.

Make Money with Affiliate Programs

2008-12-22T22:24:00.002-08:00

Turn Web Traffic To Cash
This article is intended to teach you step by step how to get started and more importantly, make money using affiliate marketing. We will teach you how to start a home based affiliate business. Please leave us comments, questions, or success stories so that we can improve this guide. You will find other affiliate related guides and articles on the lower section of this page.
"Affiliate Marketing" is a popular method of promoting web businesses in which you (the affiliate) are rewarded for every visitor, subscriber and/or customer provided through your efforts, much like the practice of paying finder's-fees for the introduction of new clients to a business. Compensation may be made based on a certain value for each visit (Pay per click), registrant (Pay per lead), or a commission for each customer or sale (Pay per Sale), or any combination of the three.
Affiliate Marketing is one of the best ways to make money online because there is little to no scamming or fraud. In fact, many home based affiliate business owners rely on affiliate marketing for their entire income.
First, let's take a look at the overall concept of Affiliate Marketing. The process starts when a company has a successful product to offer. The company will build a web site and offer that product to the consumer (or internet user). The next hurdle the company has to overcome is getting web traffic to their site. After all, they can have a kick-butt product but if nobody knows about it, they won't make a dime.
This is where you, the affiliate marketer comes into play. As an affiliate you will have or build a web site that generates traffic and then "refer" part of that traffic to a partner company. The program works well for both the company selling the product and the affiliate because both parties make money in the process and each helps the other become more successful.
For the purpose of this article and the goal of assisting you to make money with Affiliate Programs, we will only be looking at the Cost Per Lead (C.P.L.) commission structure. A C.P.L. program is advantageous because you simply need to convince your traffic to provide their information to your partner company.
Cost Per Lead:
A cost per lead affiliate program will pay for each person or "lead" that is referred to your partner's web site. A Lead is any personal information that a visitor submits to a company for the purpose of allowing the company to solicit their product or services.
Here is a rough example: Let's say that a company offering a "make money with affiliate marketing ebook" makes an average of $40.00 profit from each sale made on their web site. They know, based off of web site statistics and sales, that one in four customers will buy their product or "convert" as it is commonly referred to. They can then offer an affiliate a certain amount of money (we will use $16.00 for our example) for each person they refer to their web site that generates a lead.
So, if an affiliate gets 100 people each month to click on an ad and fill in their information on the company's web site they would make $1600.00. The company would have made $4,000 from the referrals and it will have only cost them the $1600.00. Again, both the company and the affiliate succeed in with this method because the company has extra sales it would not have had without the home based affiliate business and the affiliate gets paid for a product they do not manage or own.
Now, I don't know about you but as for myself, I don't mind having an extra $1600.00 each month from a website that maintains itself. Now, imagine having 10 web sites that all do the same thing for different affiliate programs.
make money as an affiliate Well, yes all you really need is determination and dedication. Use our building a web site guides and start making money with affiliate programs today.

Make Money with eBook Marketing

2008-12-22T22:24:00.001-08:00

Cash In on The Information Wave
This article is intended to teach you step by step how to get started and more importantly, make money with ebook marketing. We will teach you how to start making money with ebooks. Please leave us comments, questions, or success stories so that we can improve this guide.
An ebook, as defined by wikipedia is "an electronic (or digital) equivalent of a conventional printed book." As the internet becomes more and more popular, so to does the transmission of digital information such as ebooks. Naturally, most of us want to find a way to profit from this new trend. If you are one of these people who are looking to make money with ebooks, you have come to the right place.
Understanding and mastering these six areas of an eBay auction are absolutely essential to maximize the success and profitability of your auctions.
There are three basic ways to make money with ebooks. Writing your own ebooks, selling someone else's ebooks, or both.
Writing Your Own ebook - First, let's take a look at writing your own ebooks. It's not all that difficult and if you have ever written an essay for a school assignment you have all the prerequisites already. You don't have to be an expert on your ebook subject, although it helps, as most information can be found online and in your local library. You don't even have to be a good writer as most word processors have grammar and spell checking tools.
So, once you decide that you want to write your own ebook, you need to find a "niche" market or subject to write about. The more specific you make your ebook, the better it will sell.
Your next step is to complete an outline and table of contents. Having an outline will help you organize your thoughts and ensure that your new ebook flows well and keeps the reader focused. Once your initial outline is done (you can modify it as you go) you need to start your research. Get a pen and paper and spend several hours researching web sites related to each and every chapter of your ebook. Taking notes with a pen and paper will help ensure that you do not run into plagiarism issues. Be sure to spend a few hours in your local library as well. Research is one of the most important steps, even if you consider yourself an expert on your topic.
Once your research is completed, you are ready to begin writing. Use your outline to keep your efforts organized and on topic. Start with a rough draft and then get your friends and family to proof read it. Never do your one proof reading and editing!
Once your ebook is written, ad some nice graphics and a cover page. Compile the ebook into an ebook format (I suggest pdf) and you are finished. You should not have a unique and original ebook that you can sell.
Selling Someone Else's ebooks - Many of us don't have the "author" bug in us and the prospect of writing our own ebook reminds us of visiting the dentist. Do not fear, there are literally thousands of authors out there that need help selling there ebooks.
Selling ebooks is just another off-shoot of affiliate marketing. Sign up with an number of affiliate programs and sell the ebooks you want using your own website, email lists, or even word of mouth. Many people make their living selling ebooks using affiliate programs.
Writing and Selling Your One ebook - This is actually a lot harder that people think. Most of us are good at writing or marketing, very few of us are good at both. However, if you feel you can handle both roles you can make even more money.
Use the section above to write your own ebook. Read out to better understand how affiliates work. Then, sign up as an advertiser with any number of affiliate programs.
As an advertiser, you tell the affiliate networks what price you want your new ebook sold for and what commission you want to offer your affiliates. In addition, you will want to make your own landing pages for your ebook so that your affiliates can send new customers to your ebook.
Obviously, this guide is designed to provide you with the basics to get started. Please let us know if you would like any additional information added or feel free to leave a comment below. We truly want to ensure that you make money with ebooks.

Make Money as a Freelancer

2008-12-22T22:23:00.001-08:00

Freelancing Can Be a Rewarding Career
Making money online is a goal of many, but most don't know where to start. Freelancing is a broad term given to those who sell a service or skill on the internet, or off for that matter. A freelancer is self-employed and takes on clients. He or she performs her skill or service for current customers and then moves on to new clients, occasionally repeating the service for existing patrons.
Becoming a Freelancer:
To become a freelancer, you must first identify a service or skill you can market online. Perhaps you know a bit about a particular topic and can write well. You can market yourself as a freelance writer on your topic. Perhaps you spend a great deal of time on forums or blogs and like to participate in discussions. You can sell your posting skills.
The more experience and expertise you have in a given field the more desirable you will be and the more income you can generate. Technical fields such as programming and search engine optimization are always in demand, and more graphic fields such as design are sought out as well.
Even taking a class or two in a certain programming language or graphic design may give you the skills you need to launch a freelance career. It is possible to make a freelance career out of almost any field of work imaginable. It simply takes skill and a bit of marketing.
Marketing Yourself as a Freelancer:
The most challenging aspect of freelancing is finding a market for your particular skill. Marketing presents little problem for those who specialize in public relations and are selling their marketing skills, but for the rest of us, the ability to effectively market our wares separates those who are successful from those who are not.
To successfully market yourself and your offering, you must go where there is a need. If you are specializing in design, find those who are building websites who need your help. By the same token, if you are a freelance writer, it is not enough to simply maintain a blog demonstrating your skill. You must find readers and eventually clients who find themselves in need of your service.
Establishing a Successful Freelance Career:
Finding your skill set and then finding a customer base are the fundamentals of establishing a freelance career. To make that career successful there are many other aspects to consider:
You must research and benchmark your service and those of similar professionals. Could you be doing more or offering additional services.
Find the ideal rate that brings you the maximum amount of profit with a reasonable amount of work. Are you slaving away for pennies or have your price so high you're putting off clients your rate adequately reflect your level of expertise
Maintain professionalism at all times. Being a freelancer does not entitle you to act unprofessionally. Yes, you set the rules, but those rules also reflect you and your service. Act like a professional and your clients will think of you as one.
Stay current. The world is constantly changing, and you must stay current. Read the latest material and constantly network. Understand the changes to your industry and stay with or ahead of the times.

Make Money From Your Website

2008-12-22T22:22:00.000-08:00

10 Easy tips to make money off your website
This article is intended to teach you step by step how to get started and more importantly, make money from your website. We will teach you how to start a home based website business. Please leave us comments, questions, or success stories so that we can improve this guide. This guide is part of our make money online article series. More related articles can be found at the lower part of this page.
Hundreds of thousands of webmasters across the world make money with their websites. Here are 10 easy tips that you can use on your website to make it profitable.
Google AdSense - Make money selling advertising space. While banner ads are not worth your time for the most part, Google AdSense is. Many web site owners make a comfortable living off of AdSense profit alone.
affilate business - Make money referring your website traffic to other web sites. Just add someone else product to your site by joining an affiliate program and forget about it. If you have related content (free information) you will see a slow trickle of income from your affiliate links.
write an e book - Sell your own idea or product. I know it sounds like a day dream, but people do this all the time. In fact, it is the most common method that people use to make money. Write an eBook, offer consultations, or make something people will use. In this category, you are only limited by your imagination.
Create an online directory - Sell text links. Add a directory area to your site and offer to place links to other web sites for a small fee.
became a paid blogger. Offer to blog for companies. Blogging is fast becoming an important link building strategy for online companies. There are hundreds of small businesses that could benefit from a professional blog but, do not have the resources to hire a full time employee. You have a website, put it to use!
open your own e bay shop. Buy low, sell high. There is no easier place to sell than online with your own eBay store. You can concentrate on a particular type of product like coins and antiques or you can sell a wide variety.
Host an online competition. Offer prizes for the first, second and third place winners. Your competition can be on almost anything. Think of a way to offer a competition, create a small entry fee and you are set!
Create a members only area. You can create a members only site about anything from Fan Clubs, Online Newsletters, Courses and Training, Stock Trading Tips, Dating Sites, Personal Advice, Horoscopes, Family Trees, and so on. Again, your only limitation is your imagination. If you have a site already up and running, offer something in your paid member’s area that they cannot easily get for free.
Begin a paid advice service. Free information is great and will draw readers to your site. Once there, help the reader out with some basic information. Save the real “meat” for those that are willing to pay a small fee.
Sell your site. Why drag on a project for years when you can get in, get out and turn a quick (albeit smaller) profit Create your site, get it listed in the search engines, make sure you get a few dollars a week in online advertising and sell your site for a few thousand dollars.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM YOUR HOME BASED BUSINESS IDEAS

2008-12-22T22:15:00.000-08:00

Please note; this is an information site only. We are not trying to sell you something below. Please bare this in mind as you read on. This is not a sales pitch.
Do you wish you could work at home, perhaps start a nice little home based business and be able to work it all from the comfort of your kitchen table or spare bedroom . If so, believe me, you're not alone. Millions of people would love to to do the same thing.
Countless work at home schemes and home based business ideas are available, but in this industry you have to be careful you aren't scammed out of money, or that you don't make a big mistake and end up regretting having quit your job.
So think hard before you decide what home work or home based business opportunities you want to take on. Having said that, you really can join the millions who already do successfully work from home. But before you make any life changing decisions, be sure what it is you'd be happy doing.
One of the drawback of working from home is you have to be self-motivated, and this is a very difficult thing to keep up if you don't enjoy the work you do. It's different in the employed work-place when you've got other people around you expecting a performance within the time schedule you're paid for. When you work for yourself the only person you're usually answerable to is yourself.
Although it is possible to find employers who hire people to work from home for them, they tend to be on a per-need basis, and the pay, benefits and work opportunities can be less than inspiring. However, if this is the root you want to take your best and safest option will be to approach professional organisations, not least your local job center or employment office, to see what work at home based opportunities are available in your area. Don't ever pay money out for work at home jobs, they should be paying you!
It is more usual however, for people who want to work from home to prefer the idea of working for themselves, and taking advantage of the unlimited possibilities and the big tax benefits that come from being self employed. It's the dream of millions to be their own boss, and the successful really can make fortunes. However, starting a home based business can be a scary and daunting task to take on. But the lure of the unlimited potentials, and the freedom a home based business venture can bring, spurs people to keep on dreaming and wishing they could find a way.
Certainly, if you really do want to work at home, then starting a home business is a lot better option than working for someone else. But if you're not prepared to work hard for possibly little gain in the early stages, or if you're not prepared to make at least some investment (however small) then forget about most business opportunities.
Peoples fears of losing their investment tend to cloud this issue, and rightly so. The home based business opportunity industry is wide open to scams - so do be very careful. However if you want to be truly SELF employed, then all your new home based business really needs is a good service or product(s) to sell, and the means of selling them. If you could do this cheaply and hassle free that would be ideal, Well you can, and your saviour is ...the INTERNET of course!
These days more and more people are finding the Internet to be a whole new world of home business opportunities. I'll try and help you to get started in your search for ways to make a good living from the Internet. As the Internet offers direct access to the whole world, you have a very powerful medium right there in your own home...what better way to make money.
Learn all you can before you make any final decisions which direction to go, but once you have decided - GO FOR IT.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN YOUR HOME BASED BUSINESS

2008-12-22T22:14:00.002-08:00

As I have already mentioned, all you really need to start, build and successfully run your home based business on the Internet is a good product or service and the means of promoting it.
I'll show you how to promote on the Internet for free later on (or it at least doesn't have to cost you more than a few dollars). Well thanks to the integral technology inherent within the Internet, that is easy and free too. You don't have to worry about purchasing, stocking and distributing quantities of stock with an Internet based business. Affiliate programs can make all this very easy.
"Affiliate Programs" They are free and very easy to set up and apply for. An excellent way of selling other peoples products or services from the comfort of home without having to do anything other than provide a link to your suppliers website. This link has tracking code within it which your supplier provides for you, and you simply get as many people as possible to click through to their website. All resulting sales are then attributed to you and you are paid commission accordingly. That's how simple affiliate programs are, and there are thousands of suppliers throughout the world willing and eager to have you affiliated with them.
Most companies that supply anything online (and that's practically every product you can think of these days) are looking for additional sales, and therefore will pay anyone who can send them customers. All the big companies do it, including Amazon and eBay. In fact you can pick and choose from almost any industry that interests you, and you'll more than likely find many suppliers willing to pay you.
assuming you are an absolute beginner, your first task is to decide what subject matter you are familiar with and you'd enjoy writing about (think about what you enjoy talking about, or doing in your spare time). Whatever your answer is, that is your best theme to build a website about. I'm going to show you how to do this step by step. Be aware though, it may take you a few weeks to get to a satisfactory level, and a good few months to start seeing a reasonable income, but if you are determined most people can do it. I think you'll enjoy it too.
So, let's begin. Next I'm going to go over the basics of what you need for your new website. I am assuming you have already got a computer and access to the Internet, so you have already made the financial investment needed to establish and manage an Internet based business.

HOW TO BUILD YOUR HOME BUSINESS WEBSITE FOR FREE

2008-12-22T22:14:00.001-08:00

On the last couple of sections I have hopefully made you realise that starting an Internet based business is a good way to work from home these days - certainly if you want to be self employed and enjoy all the time freedom, tax breaks and job satisfaction this root brings.
So, assuming you now know what it is you'd like to build a home business webpage/site around, what is it you actually need. First and foremost, you'll need some software to build a website with. Do a search at your favorite search engine for "free wysiwyg web page editor". Don't panic about the jargon "wysiwyg", it's just an acronym for "what you see is what you get". It means the web page editor software you build your website with is user friendly. By using it you won't have to worry about learning html code (html is the language browsers such as Internet Explorer read). By using a wysiwyg editor your webpage building is as easy to do as using as a word processor. My advice is start getting used to one by playing around with it.
Next we need somewhere to put our website (a web host) so that it is accessible to the world through the Internet. Again we can do all this for free. Do another search at your favorite search engine for "free web space" and you'll see a huge choice. Pick one that you like the look of but make sure the supplier doesn't feed ads through your website either as pop-ups, or actual ads somewhere on each of your web pages. You might like to change your search phrase to "free web space no ads".
One last piece of free downloadable software you'll need is something to upload your web pages from your computer to your web hosts server. Again, don't be scared by the jargon, but what you need is "FTP". This is an acronym for "File Transfer Protocol", and it's very simple to use. All it does is downloads and upload files. That's it. All website hosting services will be compatible with standard ftp software. Do another search, this time for "free ftp". This should give you a wide choice of free ftp clients to work with.
When you apply for your web hosting account you will have been given some technical information for setting up your ftp. Usually it's just a couple of bits of information that your ftp will also ask you for when you're setting it up to start uploading. Once set up all you have to do is a couple of clicks and your new web pages and/or any changes you make to your web site will be uploaded and online.
That's it. You're now ready to create a website and upload it to the Internet. This is where you start creating. Next I'll help you with this and show you how to get going in the right direction.

HOW TO BUILD A SUCCESSFUL HOME BASED BUSINESS WEBSITE

2008-12-22T22:12:00.002-08:00

Now that you've got the essential tools you need to build your website and put it on the Internet, it's time to learn how to make your website popular and profitable. It's no good having a great website if no one ever visits it, so this is something we have to have in mind right at the very start.
What you should do when building a new website is create a theme to your site. You do this by having lots of unique text about a certain subject. This is why I said earlier that you need to think about what you would be happy writing about. Every page (and there should be at least several, the more the better) needs to be based around certain related key phrases.
I've already talked about Affiliate programs as a means of making money online. Do a search for "affiliate programs" at your search engine, that should be a good starting point to finding the affiliate program(s) that's right for you, or at least give you ideas.
Tip: Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Some plans will not work out as you hoped. If you focus too heavily on any one product or service, and things don't go to plan, then you may be struggling. Try to be truly independent by spreading the risk. You are more independent this way because you are not reliant upon any one product or service.
So sell several products and/or services at any given time, not depending on any one of them to survive. Also, this way you can actually provide impartial recommendations on the best products available in your field of speciality.

For example, say you find an ebook written by an authority in your field, and full of good well written advice. Then recommend that title for that reason. If you started writing your own ebooks to sell them you would lose that impartiality. How can people trust your opinion on a product that you have produced yourself, obviously you are going to say how good it is because you want them to buy it. They would have to get impartial advice to find out.

However, if you recommend a product or service that has been specially chosen, and is only one of the many available on the market, then you have chosen that product or service because you believe it to be the best on the market, and you should tell them why you think that.

So if you are not in the position of having your own product to sell don't worry, just make sure you only recommend to your customers the best products that are available on the market for the price.

You may believe that the best way to get rich is to create your own products to sell. That's fine if you're lucky enough to be able to do that. Especially if you can produce the best on the market. But if you can't create such a product or service then sell those that already are. There's plenty of choice if you conduct serious and in depth online searches.

Seek out products or services that are of excellent value for money in your specialised area. When you find them look to selling them yourself. Look for affiliate links, or contact the webmaster requesting how you become a dealer.

Also, please, please understand that you will not succeed overnight. All good things take time, and this is just as true in online marketing. It is going to take time to build your e-business, so you must allow for this. Plan your business strategy around this fact, and prepare yourself or a long-term commitment to greatly increase your chances of gaining success.

MAKE MONEY ONLINE BY WORKING SMART - NOT HARD

2008-12-22T22:12:00.001-08:00

Most people are paid for their time in doing a job. If they want to earn more they usually have to work harder or longer hours. If they want to work less it's usually hard luck, or they will at least have to take a pay-cut. You are simply being paid for your time and the skills you use within the time you give.

However, if you were the owner of a large successful corporation then things would be different. Then you could let your business pay others to do all the work for you (from directors down). This is why so many rich people can also have so much free time should they desire it. They have a system in operation that is earning their income for them. Think in a similar way.

Get your own money making system in place. As I said earlier, try to work smarter - not harder.

You don't have to go to the trouble of building up a huge corporation to benefit from a money generating system. These days many thousands of people are doing it on their own, sat in front of a computer screen. And yet, from this corner of a room in their home, they have access to the whole world via the internet. Not only this, but thanks to modern technology most of the repetitive work is actually taken care of for them - automatically, instantly and highly efficiently. Your computer can to a large extent actually automate your business.

For example, if you are interested in promoting affiliate programs, you can be receiving monthly commissions for every customer you find. You can benefit from an on-going income for sales made from people who joined the program through you.

Do you like the idea of building a "residual income" that keeps paying month. A residual income is the earning of an on-going income even though you are no longer working on the source of that income. When a writer has finished a novel, or a singer has recorded a song, the royalties continue to create earnings even though the work may have been completed years ago.

Try and adopt strategies that can self run if possible. This is how most riches are made. Equally important is the luxury of having more "free-time", so automate your business wherever you can.

CRITICAL ASPECTS OF BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL MONEY MAKING HOME BASED WEBSITE BUSINESS

2008-12-22T22:09:00.000-08:00

Okay, that said its back to the initial steps of building our website. Here are the critical aspects of how you should be thinking when starting a website business from home. These are the foundation principles we felt it is so important to help you understand before getting down to the real work of building your online business.

Step 1.
Get a domain name. You will not be considered a serious business without one, and search engines will probably ignore you altogether.

Step 2.
Get fast loading web-space with no ads. It doesn't have to be expensive, look around to find the best deal.
Step 3.
Find Key Phrases! In order to get high positioning on the major search engines you will need to find the best search phrases you can. The best way, by far, of doing this is to use the services of wordtraker A key phrase will get you a much higher ranking than just a key word, and will also pull you much more targeted visitors.

Step 4.
Build your pages based on the key phrases you find at step 3. Optimize each page using a service or software that can do this for you properly. We recommend webposition gold

Step 5.
Start building up your link popularity. This can be a very time consuming job but is becoming increasingly important in order to get a good placement on the top search engines. For managing and creating link exchanges we use some good software to take care of this process for us. They offer a free trial if this interests at you. Don't forget you will also get free traffic directly from your link partners, as well as the search engines being more likely to index you by finding you through your partner sites.

Step 6.
It may be an idea (depending on how your business is constructed) to set your site up to have an objective of getting visitors email addresses. If so offer a free ezine or newsletter so that people have a good reason to give their email address to you. Make it clear that you will not abuse this in any way and that their email address is safe from spammers. You can set up an automatic response system to take care of subscribers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Get a free version at: . Send this list offers from time to time selling your products and directing people back to your website. But more importantly, keep them happy by sending useful info.

That's basically it!

A couple of final tips:

Your index (home page) page is the most important page and should be the main page you optimize with the best key phrases you can find for your subject matter. This is because search engines place a greater priority on this page than those that are deeper within the site.

However, you should make sure that every page is optimized for a different key phrase (or two) as each page will then act as a potential way to be found; i.e. an entry page to your site for those alternative search phrases.

Around 75% of the worlds Internet users use Internet Explorer. The rest use any of the hundreds that are available. In order to be sure that your web pages look the same in alternative browsers (or at least the most important ones)

This site shows you for free if there will be any problems with your sites view-ability in different browsers, screen sizes etc.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM YOUR WEBSITE BY MAKING IT POPULAR

2008-12-22T22:07:00.000-08:00

The way to make your website receive hundreds, or even thousands, of visitors every day is to get it well established out there on the Internet. The best way to do this cheaply, or even for free, is to submit to popular directories. This is an important first step. Building up your link popularity is essential to developing a good relationship with the major search engines. To do that you need to establish as many inbound links as possible, preferably from highly respected directories such as from websites and directories related to your target field.
Many Webmasters establish links by emailing other Webmasters with websites of a similar theme to ask for a link exchange. This is one way of gaining links, but less effective than it used to be because these days search engines see a two way link and do not treat these as positively as one way links.
Submitting to directories is a good way to get one-way inbound links because you don't necessarily have to reciprocate. The one-way link carries more weight with the search engines than if you linked back to the same site. Therefore submitting to the best directories can give a huge boost to your sites ranking and is well worth the effort needed.
There is no easy way to submit to directories other than going to each one directly and dealing with them one at a time manually. There used to be software you could use to do the job automatically but the directories did not like this because of the huge amount of spam submissions they were getting, so the only way you can get into the directories worth submitting to these days is manually one at a time.

BUILD YOUR MONEY MAKING WEBSITE AROUND A THEME
So, as touched upon already, for good placement in the major search engines such as Google you need to have content based on a theme. It is important that each page of your website has a particular theme. This is because one of the most important elements to building your online business is to aim towards getting a good placement on the major search engines.

The first rule to obtaining this goal is to create a theme to your web-pages based around certain key-words and phrases (see step 3 above). Once you have got the key phrases you wish to use, build your page with content built around these words (see step 4).

Assuming that you don't want to spend a fortune on a huge marketing budget, getting a high search engine ranking will be the most critical part of your promotional campaign. As the web continues to grow at tremendous speed, getting a high ranking in the top engines is getting more and more difficult. But if you can obtain this then your site, at least in terms of visitors, is likely to be successful.
On first reading this next bit may sound a little technical but don't worry, its simple and straight forward really once you get into it. Once you have decided which key phrases you are going to base your page on, use this same phrase, or phrases, to make up the meta-tags in your pages' code between the tags. Tags are words between the angle bracketed commands e.g; words go here so your title command would look like this: your page title goes here. The forward slash indicating "end of tag".
To get an idea of what I'm talking about look at the source code on any web-page to see how it looks (simply click "view", then "source" on any webpage). Also bare in mind that if that page comes out at the top of a search engine query then you know that this is a good example of how the search engines like to see it done.

The title tag is very important for including your key phrases that people will be searching for. However also use these same key phrases throughout the body of your pages content (without overdoing it or you could get penalized for trying to spam the search engines).

All this will definitely help in your goal to establish a good position in the top search engines (even though there can be no guarantees). Getting good placement in the major search engines is one of the very best ways to be working smart - rather than hard.
In the next section I'm going to show you how to make your website really popular and busy.

THE CAPITAL CITY OF INDIA

2008-12-22T07:54:00.000-08:00

THE CITY OF DESTINY
How does one describe Delhi The capital city of India The capital of the world’s largest democracy Actually, Delhi is India in miniature. Delhi is 32,87,263 sq km of India’s fantastic variety compressed into 1483 sq km. Over the millennia, it has wooed rulers, attracted plunderers, and tried historians with so many details. Today, even as it preserves an enviable heritage, Delhi is a true cosmopolitan city always on the move.
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Location
Situated in the northern part of the country, Delhi extends latitude 28.38°N and longitude 77.12°E. It is encircled by the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in the east and by Haryana in the other three sides. Delhi is an ideal gateway to visit the north Indian states of Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana. Delhi is connected to all the major cities in the world by regular flights.
Climate
Delhi is hot and humid in the summers, and cold in the winters. The average temperature ranges from 25°C to 46°C during summer and 2°C to 5°C during winter. The cold wave from the Himalayan region makes winters very chilly. In summers, the heat wave is immense and adequate precaution has to be taken before going out in the afternoons. The best season to visit Delhi is during the spring seasons of February to April and August to November. It wears a festive look between February and April, the blooming season.
HISTORY
To go right back into an era where mythology and history are too closely intertwined, it is believed that Delhi, then known as Indraprashtha, was the scene of action of India’s great epic, the Mahabharata. Periodic archeological excavations bring in more and more evidence to support this contention.
Thereafter, historians say there have been seven cities of Delhi. If you count the smaller settlements and forts, the number may touch fifteen. Each city has left behind so much story and material for rumination that it requires many a lifetime to know them all completely.
Recorded history exists from the 11th century when Dillika, as this little town was known, found its focal point south of where it is now. This kingdom was known as Lal Kot. The famous ruler of this line of Tomars was called Prithvi Raj Chauhan. He is said to have built many temples and a huge fort called Qila Rai Pithora.
However, their 200-year-old rule culminated with the arrival of the first set of invaders—the Slave Dynasty. One of the rulers of this dynasty, Qutub-ud-din Aibak, built the tall Qutab Minar. The Qutab Minar has five floors. It is 72.55-m high with a base diameter of 14.40 tapering to 2.4 m at the top.
Time moved on and by the end of the 13th century, the Khilji Dynasty was looking around for the best piece of land on which to build their seat of empire. Today where Delhi’s best auditorium stands, the Siri Fort as it is called, was the site the Khiljis had chosen; it is closer to central Delhi than Aibak’s kingdom.
Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq succeeded Alauddin Khilji and, as vanity demanded, built a magnificent fort at Tughlaqabad. It is perhaps the most beautiful ruin in the country. Standing very tall, its massive structure quite contrasting with the delicate ornate style is still charming. The famous traveler Ibn Batuta recorded that it used to shine bright against the sun like a fort made of gold. There were huge silos at the entry points and this fort had umpteen gates. The story goes that a saint called Nizammuddin Aulia cursed Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq that his city would never flourish.
Perhaps, destiny willed it that way too. In those days of treason, Ghiyasuddin fell prey to his son Mohammad Bin Tughlaq’s ambition. Mohammad built his own city, Adilabad, a few yards away from Tughlaqabad. He enclosed a large area within a wall, creating within it the Jahanpanah forest. Then came the foolish attempt to move the capital away from Delhi. However, he had to shift his capital back to this city within a few months.
His nephew was Ferozshah Tughlaq. The fort built by Ferozshah—Ferozshah Kotla, as it is known—has stood as an inspiring backdrop to many famous bowlers and batsmen. The rest of the structures are, however, not intact. This fifth city, like the sixth city of the Lodi Dynasty, has few of its monuments left. Once again, Delhi saw a shift of capital to Agra.
However, it did not last long. This time the famous battle of Panipat, which brought the fulcrum back to Delhi eventually, saw Sher Shah Suri as the ruler. Sher Shah laid the foundation for the Grand Trunk Road and built the Old Fort. Today the fort complex houses the zoo in addition to preserving some of the buildings inside the fort.
The living legacy of Delhi is Shahjahanabad. Created by the builder of Taj Mahal, this city, with the Red Fort as the focal point and Jama Masjid as the praying center, has a fascinating market planned to shine under the light of the moon, called Chandni Chowk. Shahjahan planned Chandni Chowk so that his daughter could shop for all that she wanted. It was divided by canals filled with water, which glistened like silver in moonlight. The canals are now closed, but Chandni Chowk remains Asia’s largest wholesale market. Crafts, once patronized by the Mughals continue to flourish in the small lanes of the city, once known as Shahjahanabad. Tradition and modernity meet at unexpected places in Shahjahanabad. If you see a man pulling a rickshaw or feeding pigeons, you will see just as many talking over the cello or assembling a computer! An experience of timelessness awaits you at Shahjahanabad.
Modern Delhi, or New Delhi as it is called, centers around Rashtrapati Bhawan. It is architecturally a very impressive building standing at a height, flowing down as it were to India Gate. This stretch called the Rajpath is where the Republic Day parade is held. The imposing plan of this area conceived by Lutyens does not fade in its charm with the numerous summers or winters that go past.
Delhi remains the center of power. Once it was a city of royal power. Then it became the seat of colonial power. Later it was the seat of bureaucratic power. The seat of political power it has always been. Today it is emerging as an important center for corporate power too.
The most fascinating aspect of this city is its cosmopolitan nature. You can find the whole of India in its little colonies and structures. Contemporary times will be far more difficult to record for tomorrow’s history.
PEOPLE
Delhi is not a place in seclusion; it is by nature a homogenous city, which is ready to assimilate all incoming influences—whether they are people, culture, or the languages. The recorded history of Delhi started only after coming of Aryans from the Central Asia. These people, with their large forehead, wheatish complexion, and tall physique were the one whose descendants are even now in majority. Over the ages, the city attracted a large number of races because of its central position and wealth. Even now, the city is attracting people from all over the country who come in search of better life and opportunity. This character of assimilation has given a new dimension and dynamism to the city.
ECONOMY
With a per capita income of 11,650, Delhi is India’s most prosperous state. People here are enterprising with great business acumen. The state boasts of best infrastructural facilities available in the country. Major industries are manufacture of Razor Blades, Sports Goods, Radio & TV Parts, Plastic & PVC Goods, Textiles, Chemicals, Fertilizers, Soft Drinks, Hand & Machine tools, Leather Goods, Galvanizing & Electroplating, Printing, and Ware Housing.
CULTURE

Art
Cruising through the different art exhibitions and galleries of Delhi, one transcends to a different world altogether. Delhi can boast of having one of the most prestigious art galleries—The National Gallery of Modern Art, an institution by itself. In 1976, The Lalit Kala Academy, with the help of Delhi Development Authority, set up studios known as Garhi, the artists’ haven. Inspired by the city of art in Paris, where artists, are provided with studios and lodgings, Garhi was built on these lines. Only qualified professional artists can work here. Their work is evaluated and those with talent and great promise are taken in. The artists are given a free rein to explore and discover their creativity. Though situated in the center of South Delhi, it is cut off from the hustle and bustle of busy city life providing an opportunity to the artists to pursue their interest in a tranquil atmosphere.
At Anandgram in Qutab–Mehrauli is the Sanskriti Kendra, a serene sprawling sanctuary for artists, craftsperson, as well as visitors. Set amidst eight acres of land dotted with two thousand trees, the Sanskriti Kendra was the brainchild of Mr. O. P. Jain, a distinguished art collector. It was conceptualized as a place where creative minds could pursue and interact with others on an area of study of their choice with an aim that from such an interaction would emerge a new sensibility that in turn would enrich and strengthen the bond of our shared culture. Here craftspersons live in mud huts reminiscent of their village homes while, scholars are provided complete studio, workshop, library, and residential facilities. The Kendra has an art gallery for exhibition of work of artists, an auditorium, and an open-air amphitheatre.
Other important art galleries in Delhi include AIFACS Gallery, Art Heritage, Art Today, Azad Bhawan Gallery, Center for Contemporary Art, Delhi Art Gallery, Dhoomimal Art Center, National Gallery of Modern Art, Triveni Kala Sangam, Wadhera Art Gallery, Sahitya Kala Parishad, and many more.
Craft
A city that boasts of a minimum of seven incarnations will have more to talk about than just old monuments in different stages of ruination. Not surprisingly, Delhi has a rich legacy of crafts patronized by the emperors of yore.
Shahjahanabad, Old Delhi as it is called today, is the richest of the legacies. Not only because it is the closest to us chronologically, but also because the Mughals were great patrons of arts and crafts. Go to Matia Mahal’s Pahadi Bhojla and you will find umpteen shops of jewelers who fashion beautiful bangles and necklaces out of bone. Their predecessors were ivory craftsmen. However, with the ban on ivory, they were compelled to change their raw material and switch over to bones of buffaloes and camels instead.
Creating magic with golden thread embroidery or euphoria with semi-precious stones, there are the zardozis in the neighborhood. Zardozi is the art of embroidery with gold thread. These craftsmen work intricate designs on silk, velvet, and even tissue materials. Insignias, pulpit covers, embroidery on the robes of bishops and even the Pope are all created here.
The medicinal value of silver paper (varak) is well known. Thin sheets of silver paper are still wrapped around sweets and even betel leaves. If you are looking for the authentic one, go to Matia Mahal again. A few of the craftsmen who beat silver into thin sheets, by hand, still live here. Once upon a time, there were so many of them that you could just follow the sound of the hammer and reach them. Today you have to do a little asking around to reach some small workshops.
The famed meenakari work, where paint is embossed on silver or gold to give it the look of a precious stone, was once a thriving business of Shahjahanabad. Turbulence of Delhi, ever since Nadir Shah and later the colonial rule, pushed the artisans away to peaceful climes. This group moved partly to Rajasthan, while those who make bangles from lac moved to Hyderabad in the Deccan.
Lacquer work bangles are one of the old art forms still living in Shahjahanabad. Bright shades of yellow, red, and blue are perked up with tiny pieces of mirrors and gold-colored borders with beads to add that extra touch.
Common to many parts of Delhi are the potters. Not only do they fashion pots for the hot summer, which, in spite of refrigerators, are still greatly in demand, they also fashion beautiful clay and papier-mâché dolls. These clay dolls, some as toys and some as decorations and some even as clay idols during festivities, have a diminishing demand from the rural-urban migrators.
Then there are more. Making of incense sticks, of attars (perfumes), brass molding, and so on. Shahjahan’s gift to the country did not stop with Taj Mahal….
Dance
If it’s dance and music you are interested in, then you can choose which kind you prefer watching and concentrate your energies in that direction. If it’s the classical dance form you want to view, go to the Kamani Auditorium or Siri Fort. Triveni Kala Sangam has an auditorium too. Then there’s India International Center on Lodhi Road that offers very good programs. In the cooler months, many dance and music festivals are organized and every corner of the city is alive with various interpretations of movement and sound.
However, if it’s optimistic gyration that you prefer, then put on your dancing shoes and be prepared to rock the night at one of Delhi’s many exclusive dance clubs. These clubs are located within Delhi’s five-star hotels such as Maurya Sheraton (Ghunghroos), Le Meridien (C.J.’s), The Hilton (Annabelle’s), Hyatt Regency (Oasis), Taj Palace (My Kind of Place), and Park Hotel (Someplace Else). Houseguests and members can enter scot-free and the rest of Delhi (couples only) has to pay for some fun. Each place is distinct from the other in its décor, music, lights, and crowd. Ghunghroos, most popular with the younger generation, is perpetually packed in spite of the limited floor space. Annabelle’s and My Kind of Place have comparatively better seating arrangements and an older crowd. Oasis boasts of the best décor. Most of the places have laser lights, which is interesting for watchers as it penetrates the dancers to form myriad shapes and figures on the facing wall. Some places even have a couple of TVs and of course, all discotheques have bars for the ones who need a little spirit to raise their spirits.
For those Delhiites who are willing to go beyond their limits for fun, The 32nd Milestone (32 km from Delhi on the highway to Jaipur) has the answer—Fireball. The place has a futuristic look with the décor resembling the interiors of a spaceship. The dance floor is so large that you can actually move your legs along with your body unlike in the compact discos of Delhi.
Music
Music connoisseurs have a variety of sounds to choose from. The auditoria where these concerts are held are the same as the dance programs. Whether Indian classical, Hindustani or Carnatic, or the lighter ghazals, there is no dearth of choice. When a particularly well-known singer comes to town, it is usually well covered by the press. The papers also reserve a column in their daily editions to display a list of programs for the day. These programs include not only the visual arts but also lectures on a wide variety of topics by scholars or luminaries in that particular field. To see the craftsmen of the city and the country make their wares, you must go to the crafts museum in Pragati Maidan and Dilli Haat. They try to display this form of indigenous talent and let the craftsmen benefit from their skill at the same time.
What’s more, all these places have a café or canteen in the vicinity. So, if you feel like mind-satisfied-is-not-stomach satisfied it can be set right.
Overall, Delhi offers a profusion of cultural activities from light entertainment to scholarly programs.

SITES TO VISIT IN INDIA

2008-12-22T07:46:00.000-08:00

The Forts of Delhi
The best way to know about the glorious heritage of Delhi is to know its monuments, to travel through time back into centuries of history filled with the rise and fall of dynasties that ruled the land. These monuments stretch from Wazirabad in the north to the Qutab and beyond in the south of Delhi. Between these two points, lies scattered the history of this ancient city.
Indraprashtha
According to the Mahabharata, Indraprashtha was the most flourishing city, capital of the Pandavas, with gigantic forts and magnificent palaces. Excavations at the Purana Qila, identified as the site of Indraprashtha, have yielded proofs of the site having remained under continuous occupation up to 1000 bc. The Mauryas, Sungas, Kushans, Guptas, Rajputs, and Mughals held it under their sway. However, of its fabled epic glory no evidence has yet been unearthed. With the decline of Buddhism, Delhi fell into oblivion and for centuries remained an inconsequential adjunct of great contemporary cities like Mathura and Kannauj.
We hear of Delhi again, after a gap of countless centuries, when the Tomar Rajputs came to power, first settled at Indraprashtha before moving to the rocky terrain beyond Tughlaqabad. It is also said that a king called Delu founded Delhi but history is silent about him. Tomar history is verifiable. The water tank called Surajkund, ruins of fortifications, and a bund can still be visited at the stone-strewn site, mysterious as the Stonehenge. The dates are uncertain, but the architectural evidence is incontrovertible. When the Tomars shifted to Mehrauli in the eleventh century and Anang Pal II built a formidable fort to ward off the growing fear of invasions, Delhi got Lal Kot, the first fort strengthened with magnificent ramparts and numerous gates.
The Chauhan Rajputs defeated the Tomar and occupied Lal Kot. It was Prithvi Raj III who enlarged the Lal Kot area by extending it on the eastern, western and the southern sides and named it after himself—Qila Rai Pithora, the second fort of Delhi. With rampart walls, 10 feet in width at places, this fort had numerous gates, some of which can still be identified as giant gaps in the long stretching walls. Hauz Rani and Budayuni Gates were two most prominent gates. At Budayuni Gate, the guilty were tortured and beheaded in full public view. The gate was under constant watch for fear of Mongol invasions. Ranjit Gate on the northern ramparts was the grandest but weakest gate. The Turks had entered Lal Kot through this gate and had it immediately restrengthened to prevent a recurrence of invasion. Qila Rai Pithora continued to be used as the stronghold of the Turkish Slave dynasty Sultans who had replaced the Rajput rulers in 1193. Ruins of Rajput and Mamluk palaces can be seen behind Balban’s tomb near the Qutab Minar.
In 1303, the Mongols under Taraghai plundered Delhi and almost captured it when, quite inexplicably, they rushed back. Back from his Deccan campaigns, Alauddin Khilji decided to build a defense fortress at Siri with strong battlement ramparts and impregnable bastions. It was Delhi’s third fort. It was never attacked by enemies but destroyed by succeeding rulers who plundered it for the free building material for their forts. Timur, who sacked Delhi in 1398, found Siri a magnificent fortress. Only some portions of the Siri walls can be seen today, all else has been destroyed and stones removed.
When Ghazi Malik founded the Tughlaq Dynasty in 1321, he built the strongest fort in Delhi at Tughlaqabad, completed with great speed within four years of his rule. It is said that Ghazi Malik, when only a slave to Mubarak Khilji, had suggested this rocky prominence as an ideal site for a fort. The Khilji Sultan laughed and suggested that the slave build a fort there when he became a Sultan. Ghazi Malik as Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq did just that—Tughlaqabad is Delhi’s most colossal and awesome fort, even in its ruined state. Within its sky-touching walls, double-storied bastions, and gigantic towers were housed grand palaces, splendid mosques, and audience halls.
Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq, who is accused of having murdered his sire, built Adilabad and Nai-ka-Kot—two small fortresses adjacent to Tughlaqabad fort, Adilabad, the fourth fort of Delhi, contained a grand palace of thousand pillars and splendid halls. Later he enclosed the city lying between Siri, Tughlaqabad, and the Qutab and called it Jahanpanah. Ruins of gigantic ramparts of his two fortresses and some portions of the Jahanpanah walls have survived the ravages of time. A small portion of his Jahanpanah watchtower Vijai Mandal still stands in ruins dominating the landscape. But Muhammad Tughlaq himself brought about the ruins of his city by transferring the capital to Devagiri in the Deccan, compelling the entire population including the sick, old and children to move on foot. A few years later, he ordered them back to Delhi. However, the splendor and the soul of the city had been killed.
Ferozshah kotla
Ferozshah, Muhammad Tughlaq’s successor, built his new city northward on the banks of Yamuna. Kotla was the inner citadel of Ferozabad, built like Windsor. It had great palaces and a magnificent mosque that inspired Timur’s envy. Destroyed by the Mughals, Kotla palaces were reduced to mere ruins, exposing to view the subterranean passages and covered cloisters. One can still see the pyramidal structure topped by the Ashokan Pillar brought from Topra (near Ambala), ruins of the mosque, and a three-tiered baoli. Ferozabad stretched between Wazirabad and the Qutab with countless serais and schools and mosques in between. Timur’s invasion of Delhi in 1398 reduced the city to a city of ruins. He took away with him elephants loaded with treasures and costly building material, artists, masons and skilled workers as prisoners. No wonder that the Saiyyads and Lodis who succeeded the Tughlaqs only inherited a depleted empire and empty treasures. No new forts or palaces were built, only tombs. The Saiyyads and Lodis used Kotla as their citadel. In fact, the Lodis had moved the capital to Agra, and Delhi once again fell into neglect.
The Mongols who had set their eyes on Delhi since the founding of the Turkish rule in 1193, and had, in fact, invaded it on 12 occasions between 1245 and 1329 finally descended on the city in 1526 led as an invincible force by Zahir-ud-din Babur who vanquished the Lodis to establish the Mughal Empire. Babur chose Agra as his capital but his successor decided in favor of Delhi. His city Dinpanah was built on the site of Indraprashtha where then existed a village of that name to revive its claim to antiquity. Dinpanah was the sixth fort of Delhi. Within five years, massive gateways and lofty ramparts were completed but unfortunately, Humayun lost his kingdom to the Afghan chieftain Shershah, who destroyed much of Humayun’s buildings in the fort. He called his city Shergarh. Two gateways of his city, Lal Darwaza and Khooni Darwaza, can still be seen in their original grandeur. Within the fort, Shershah built a grand mosque and an octagonal tower called Sher Mandal. When Humayun regained his kingdom with Persian help, he hardly built any new structures. Humayun fell down from the roof of Sher Mandal. As the muezzin called for the prayer, Humayun kneeled down to pray when his foot got entangled in the dress and he tumbled down the steps, fatally injured to die within three days. This was the end of a lovable Mughal emperor. Akbar went back to Agra. Jahangir and Shahjahan also made architectural contributions to Agra fort.
In 1639, Shahjahan decided to shift his capital to Delhi. Within eight years, Shahjahanabad was completed with the Red Fort—Qila-i-Mubarak (fortunate citadel)—Delhi’s seventh fort, ready in all its magnificence to receive Shahjahan. Though much has changed now because of large-scale demolitions during the British occupation of the fort, its important structures have survived, the glory faded with age but still impressive. Passing under the grand Gothic arch and the octagonal open space of the market place—the Chatta Chowk, and the Naubat Khana—a double-storied structure where court musicians played five times a day, we see Diwan-i-Aam. Here is the fabulously crafted baldachino—the marble canopy decorated with the most exquisite pietra dura work. Diwan-i-Aam witnessed scenes of unexcelled splendor when it used to be decorated with golden curtains, gorgeous carpets, and gold and silver railings below dazzling chandeliers. Ministers, Rajas, and ambassadors stood in mute awe of the Emperor in court.
Behind the Diwan-i-Aam are the Zenana quarters with such grand palaces as the Rang Mahal and Mumtaz Mahal. The marble lotus, a fountain in the center of Rang Mahal, carved out of a single slab, is a piece of sheer beauty. In its sculptured grandeur, the lotus is matched only by the trellis wall under the scales of justice in the Khwab Gah. The pavilion in white marble—Diwan-i-Khas—has lost much of its splendor. Here, under the original silver ceiling, stood the world famous Peacock Throne studded with the costliest gems of the Mughal Empire, costing nearly 12,637,500 sterlings as per a contemporary account. On the ceiling slab is inscribed the line, ‘if there is a paradise on the face of the earth, it is here, it is here, it is here’. Nadir Shah, Ahmad Shah Abdali, Ghulam Qadir, the Marathas, and finally the British looted and plundered the Mughal treasures and destroyed many structures of immense beauty. Still the Shah Burjan octagonal tower at the corner, and the two marble pavilions, Sawan and Bhadon, named after the Indian months of rain, have withstood forces of destruction. The gardens—Mahtab Bagh and Hayat Baksh—have vanished. A later-day pavilion in red sandstone stands at the center of a dried up pool. It was built by Bahadur Shah II. Moti Masjid, the mosque built by Aurangzeb, is a gem of architecture despite the sickly marble of the new domes—original copper casing having been removed long back.
The Fort still retains some of its lost glory. It is the only fort with some well-preserved royal structures to give an idea of the glory of the Mughal Empire. The Red Fort was the last fort built in Delhi and it witnessed the vicissitudes of fortune, the splendor and the fall of the Mughals, British rule, and finally the dawn of Indian Independence.
Lesser Known Monuments of Delhi
Located between Uday Park and South Extension in South Delhi, Masjid Moth was built by Wazir Miyan Bhoiya, the minister of Sikandar Lodi, in the 16th century.
The Khirki Masjid is located in Khirki village in South Delhi and was built by Khan-i-Jahan Junan Shah, the prime minister of Ferozshah, in the early 15th century. This building is a link between Lodi style of architecture and the ornate Mughal architecture that was to follow.
Located near Hauz Khas village, the Hauz Khas Pond was probably built by Alauddin Khilji in ad 1295. Delhi Tourism holds various entertainment programs here and Alauddin’s tank now serves as an excellent backdrop to cultural events.
Other Places
If your image of India is made up mostly of the documentaries they show on the BBC and Discovery Channel on the cable network then the museum is the place for you. Here you will understand exactly what these programs mean when they happily announce that the average Indian’s idea of the good life is to clamber upon an elephant, ride up to the nearest palace, and spend the rest of the days cracking spices. The National Museum will let you in on these secrets. The museum houses one of the largest collections of Vedic and pre-Vedic relics, exotic paintings, old manuscripts, and mural paintings from Buddhist shrines in Central Asia.
On the bank of the legendary Yamuna, which flows past Delhi, there is Raj Ghat—the last resting place of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation. It has become an essential point of call for all visiting dignitaries.
Perhaps the most poignant, the most nostalgic feelings that still bring a tear to many an eye are stirred when one visits 1 Safdarjung Road. Once the permanent residence of the prime ministers of India, it now houses the Indira Gandhi Museum. Here, amongst other memorabilia, lies her saffron bullet-ridden sari, the scorch marks clearly visible even through the glass case. It was here at this table that she had her last breakfast, walked out through this door, along the flagstoned path shaded and flanked by greenery, towards the wooden gate where she was mowed down by a hail of bullets from her own security guards. Visitors stand clustered at the gate shocked into silence, reliving the treachery and the tragedy.
The cool, sylvan environs of the Lodi Gardens, where Lodi kings ambled with their consorts, today witness a new brand of VIP activity along with a daily convergence of people from several walks of life. The gardens are a popular retreat for a wide cross-section of Delhiites who enjoy jogging, quiet walks, picnics, naps under the shade of the boughs of some spreading tree or bush, basking in the winter sun, or simply soaking in the singularly soothing balm-like atmosphere.
Peace and quiet also pervade Chanakyapuri—the diplomatic headquarters where arterial pieces from other parts of the world have been transplanted. Here can be found the American Embassy, the British High Commission, and the embassies and missions of most countries big and small that have diplomatic ties with India. Their national flags flying proud and high, most of the countries represented have introduced striking architectural designs and highly individualistic interior designs. While the names of roads in other parts of Delhi are sometimes cosmopolitan—Josef Tito Marg, Africa Avenue, Max Mueller Road—at Chanakyapuri the roads have a predominance of names which exude a pure Indian essence—Shantipath, Nyaya Marg, Kautilya Marg, Niti Marg….
At the center of the city is India Gate, a memorial raised in honor of the Indian soldiers who were martyred during the Afghan war. The green, velvety lawns at India Gate, particularly, are a popular evening and holiday rendezvous for young and old alike. Ice-cream carts, balloon wallahs, popcorn and peanut vendors, carts selling cold water and cold drinks, panwallahs, men and women selling sweet-scented jasmine gajras (garlands) to decorate a bride, wife, daughter or girlfriend’s hair, do brisk business at the fringe of the lawns.
For lovers of flowers ad beauty, the annual spring opening of the glorious, meticulously tended Mughal Gardens at the stately Rashtrapati Bhawan is a bonanza topped by an amazing assembly of roses in perfect bloom—perhaps the best in the whole of India. Flower shows organized on a regular basis provide an extra edge of inducement to malis (gardeners), plant nursery owners, and the lucky ones who possess a green thumb.
Rashtrapati Bhawan was once the imperial residence of the British viceroys. Built on the Raisina hills of Delhi ridge, this 340-roomed structure has an imposing character overlooking India Gate and Rajpath. It is now the official residence of the president of India.
Down on earth, there is the sight of Vigyan Bhawan that has hosted some of the most important international events and summits. There is the sense of history, intermingled with pride as you go past Parliament House, the curiosity as you glance at North and South Blocks—the decision-making, bureaucratic heart of India.
Birla Mandir, a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu situated in the central Delhi, and Lotus Temple, a beautiful white marble building and a place of worship for Bahai’s, are two temples worth visiting for those in search of spiritual rejuvenation.
The Jantar Mantar, one of the many astronomical observatories constructed by Sawai Jai Singh of Jaipur, is situated in the center of the city near Connaught Place.
Through dark times of tragedy, throughout golden, heady periods of glory, since time immemorial, the eddying Yamuna has flowed past Delhi. Displaying different moods—sometimes a muted cadence or a gentle murmur, at others a gentle lapping of water, and in the monsoons, the fury of its swollen, wind blows on the bank—the Yamuna has remained indestructible.
Today, the river has changed course. But as you drive along Ring Road you can still glimpse the shimmer of the Yamuna as it flows past Delhi, and you realize with a start that this ageless river symbolizes the enduring soul of Delhi—enshrining the past, reflecting the present with all its contrasts and harmony, moving towards a tryst with the future. Delhi is the City of Destiny. In a very literal sense, Delhi—the capital of India, the city that history has made—is today still making history.

Business Development

2008-12-22T05:06:00.000-08:00

Although the Business Development Office at Dalhousie medical school is only a few months old, it has already met its goal of forming 3 companies a year. Since last April, the office has helped 5 faculty members at the medical school turn biotechnology research in cancer diagnostics, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis treatment and pain management into commercial enterprises.
The office has also raised $2 million in seed money from venture capital corporations to kick start the companies - Liposome Pain Management, Nova Neuron and Onco-Dynamics. In about a year, each company will require an additional $2 million to $5 million in investment capital. "The growth is exponential," says Neil Ritchie, whose firm, BioMed Management, runs the Business Development Office for the school. "They have the potential to become significant companies."
Ritchie, who doubles as president of Nova Neuron, says his office earmarks research discoveries at the medical school that have commercial potential, helps the scientists form companies, finds investors and defines markets. The office also assists with basics, such as filing patents and drafting business plans. "Our objective is to try to create some infrastructure for building these companies," says Ritchie. He says that health and life-sciences businesses in the Maritimes have thus far amounted to little more than a cottage industry.
Ritchie's office has identified 30 of about 400 research projects at the medical school that have commercial possibilities. "About 10% of basic medical research projects have commercial potential. Of that, about 10% will form the basis of a company."
Ritchie says the medical school is not driven by a desire to reap profits from any companies founded by its faculty, although it may hold up to 10% ownership in some future ventures and intends to charge for the use of its facilities. "All of the intellectual property is owned by the scientist/entrepreneur. The school is interested more in the spin-off benefits of an enriched academic environment."
Have faculty been receptive to commercialization "Initially I had the impression that scientists would be resistant," Ritchie says. "But the reality is that they're starting to understand the importance of having commercial partners. We're seeing a new mindset emerging, and it's not a sellout at all. Scientists want to make a difference in people's lives."

Resources for Entrepreneurs with Disabilities

2008-12-22T05:05:00.000-08:00

If you have a disability and are considering starting your own business, contact the Office of Disability Employment Policy’s new Small Business Self-Employment Service (SBSES) for information. The SBSES World Wide Web site, includes links to other entrepreneurship sites, including the SBA and state vocational rehabilitation programs. It also provides information on a variety of other technical assistance resources for writing business plans, financing, and other issues specific to developing a small business.
Individual assistance is available at 800-526-7234 or 800-232-9675 (V/TTY).
Whether you are starting a new business or expanding an established business, the SBA has a variety of programs to assist you. Free one-on-one counseling is available locally to help entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs in the areas of planning, financing, management, technology, government procurement, and other business related areas.
The SBA’s Answer Desk is a national toll-free telephone service which provides information to the public on small business problems and concerns. This service provides general information about SBA programs and other programs available to assist the small business community.
Business Information Assistants are available to speak directly with callers between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. (East Coast Time) by calling the Answer Desk at 800-UASK-SBA (800-827-5722). Outside of these hours, callers may hear a recording of the information 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Write to this service at: 200 North College Street, Suite A-2015,Charlotte, North Carolina, 28202 or send your questions via e-mail at
The Office of Disability Employment Policy has initiated a range of activities with other Federal agencies to ensure that Federal employment programs for people with disabilities will promote small business ownership as a career option, and that potential entrepreneurs with disabilities know about the process and resources for starting a business. Information on these programs can be obtained from the Office of Disability Employment Policy’s

Important Considerations for Potential Entrepreneurs with Disabilities

2008-12-22T05:03:00.000-08:00

Self-employment offers many benefits for people with disabilities:
• The freedom, flexibility and independence that come from working for oneself
• The opportunity to work in a disability-friendly environment
• The ability to reduce the need for transportation
• The ability to accommodate changing functional levels
• The ability to create an accessible work environment
• Individuals with disabilities who receive income support, such as Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability payments, can increase their income while staying within the income and asset requirements of those programs.
But anyone considering entrepreneurship must also be aware of the challenges involved in starting a business. There remains an array of obstacles ranging from attitudinal barriers to lack of coordination among Federal programs:
• The possible loss of cash benefits from SSDI or SSI disability programs
• The possible loss of health care benefits such as Medicare or Medicaid
• The inability to get credit because of poor credit ratings
• The lack of assets to use as collateral
• The lack of access to programs promoting self-employment and small business development
• Government disability programs that overlook entrepreneurship as an avenue from the public rolls to self-sufficiency.
The 1999 passage of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act addresses some, but not all, of these issues.

Small Business in America

2008-12-22T05:02:00.000-08:00

With more than one million new businesses each year, America’s economy depends on small businesses for its vitality and growth. According to the 1997 report of the U.S. Census Bureau, the nation’s 17 million small, non-farm businesses constituted 99.7 per cent of all employers, employed 52 percent of private workforce and accounted for 51 percent of the nation’s sales. Small business-dominated industries provided 11.1 million new jobs between 1994 and 1998, virtually all of the new jobs created during that time period. Small businesses are most likely to generate jobs for young workers, older workers and women, provide 67 percent of first jobs and produce 55 percent of innovations.
Thousands of people with disabilities have been successful as small business owners. The 1990 national census revealed that people with disabilities have a higher rate of self-employment and small business experience (12.2 percent) than people without disabilities (7.8 percent). The Disabled Businessman’s Association estimates that 40 percent of home-based businesses are operated by people with disabilities.
The University of Montana Research and Training Center on Rural Issues for People with Disabilities has documented that entrepreneurs with disabilities have successfully operated a wide variety of businesses: Accounting Services, Air Conditioner Repair Service, Auction Service, Auto Body Repair Shop, Bakery, Bicycle Shop, Boat Making Shop, Child Care Service, Chiropractic Practice, Contract Services, Counseling Service, Farming, Janitorial/Maintenance Service, Piano Refinishing Service, Real Estate Office, Restaurant, Free-lance Writing, Used Clothing Store, Weed Abatement Service and Welding Shop. The type of business that a person with a disability can operate is limited only by imagination.

Small Business Characteristics

2008-12-22T05:01:00.000-08:00

Although the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) establishes industry-specific definitions, it generally considers any business with fewer than 500 employees, including self-employed individuals, to be a small business. The Federal Reserve Board’s report, “National Survey of Small Business Finances (1995),” found that small businesses were home-based 53 percent of the time. Twenty-four percent of all new businesses in 1993 began with no outside financing. The remaining 76 percent received funding from traditional sources, such as banks, credit unions, and finance companies, or from family members or credit card advances.
Although many people believe that 80 percent of all small businesses fail within five years, statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau reveal a different story. The Census Bureau reports that 76 percent of all small businesses operating in 1992 were still in business in 1996. In fact, only 17 percent of all small businesses that closed in 1997 were reported as
bankruptcies or other failures. The other terminations occurred because the business was sold or incorporated or when the owner retir

Trillion Dollar Bet

2008-12-22T04:58:00.001-08:00

This Website accompanies the "Trillion Dollar Bet" episode of the popular PBS television series NOVA which aired on February 8, 2000. "Trillion Dollar Bet" explored the 1973 discovery of the Black-Scholes Formula, which allows one to determine the value of a call option at any given time. The formula "revolutionized modern finance...[and] led to the creation of a multi-trillion dollar industry." The creators of the formula, Myron Scholes, Robert Merton, and Fischer Black, won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1997. The Website offers a pithy explanation of this complex formula, analysis of the world of online trading, and a "Traders' Lexicon." A resources section of nicely annotated links and a short recommended bibliography round out the site.
Breakeven Calculator
Professor Jose Antonio Rosa of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign introduces his Breakeven Calculator. Breakeven analysis, Professor Rosa explains, is "a means to calculate the volume of sales at which variable and fixed costs are recovered -- the point at which a product starts producing profits." Users enter variable unit cost, fixed cost, expected unit sales, and price per unit into the appropriate fields, and the calculator figures out general calculations and generates a full report. A helpful glossary is provided as is easy-to-understand analysis.
What's Next Online
What's Next Online is a free online newsletter which focuses on business marketing tips and discussion. Written and edited by B.L. Ochman, each issue contains several short articles about current issues in marketing as well as a list of annotated, notable links. Past issues are archived, and interested users may subscribe to the email version of the newsletter.
Superstar Investor
Superstar Investor is a straightforward, yet comprehensive, collection of over 11,000 investment-related links. Organized into several dozen catagories, including Day Trading, Picks & Trends, Stock Options, and International Indexes, as well as Top Market Commentary, Top Quote and Chart Sites, and Top Stock Pick Sites, Superstar Investor is a trustworthy resource for finding information about today's market.
Workforce Online
Workforce Online is a Webzine that focuses on human resource issues and concepts. The site includes weekly articles, daily tips, and advice, as well as networking opportunities, polls, and case studies. Free registration is required to use the research section, which features a database of HR-related materials, searchable by keyword and topic. The site also includes solid information on legal issues and analysis, basic HR information in the HR 101 section, and a community center of networks and forums on assorted topics. Interested parties may subscribe to a free e-newsletter with site updates and more.

Understanding Dairy Markets

2008-12-22T04:55:00.000-08:00

A joint project of the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research and the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Understanding Dairy Markets offers an in-depth guide to using dairy futures and options for price risk management. An extensive futures and options tutorial includes step-by-step instructions to understanding these two concepts, as well as definitions, explanations, a bibliography, and study questions. The Market Data section links to a variety of dairy market data including dairy consumption and productions, futures, stocks, and options; data is available in Excel and ascii formats. The site also contains daily dairy market news headlines, links, publications, and a frequently updated New Additions section.
mba101.com
Created by MBA students for MBA students, mba101 is a full-service portal designed to help Masters of Business Administration students get an edge on the competition by offering current and breaking information on the business world. Three main sections, Research, Business, and Fun, are all accessible from the main page. The site showcases a full spectrum of MBA culture from hard hitting research to fun IQ tests. mba101 also compiles a large collection of business-related news sources and information about and rankings of business schools. Note: The site is optimized for Internet Explorer, and other browsers may have display problems.
The Motley Fool's NOW 50 Index
Fool.com Quotes/Data
Launched on January 3, the Motley Fool's NOW 50 Index is intended to serve as a more relevant and realistic market index for the 21st century. The 50 companies included were selected from 288 nominated to the trustees, and they stand, according to the Motley Fool, "in the vanguard of the trends that will define commerce in the next decades." Users can read about the creation of the NOW 50 Index, a description of the methodology used to construct the Index, and details on all 50 companies. The NOW 50 Index daily numbers are listed on the right hand side of the page, but users can access more detailed information at the Fool.com main Quotes/Data page in the Indices section.

How to reserch companies on the Internet

2008-12-22T04:54:00.000-08:00

Joshua Blackman, editor of The Internet Lawyer newsletter, here reprints a guide from his new book The Internet Fact Finder for Lawyers. This index lists online resources that are useful in researching companies on the World Wide Web. Most of the Websites listed are thoughtfully annotated and are arranged into subjects including Phone Books, Public Company Starting Points, Annual Reports, and SEC Filings. This site should well serve those who are looking for the best places on the Internet to find more information on companies.
Eurolandia
Eurolandia, an "interactive journey to discover the euro," is a lively guide that teaches a basic understanding of the European Monetary Union (EMU) as well as delivering up-to-date news and resources about the euro and the EMU. Use the menus at the top and bottom of the screen to navigate through Eurolandia's vast collection of resources including News, Euro and Us, Games, and Staff Room, which includes courses and an event calendar. Eurolandia is an excellent resource for students who want a better understanding of the history and impact of the European Monetary Union. The site is also available in Italian.
International Baccalaureate Programme
biz/ed, a UK-based Website devoted to economics and business materials for the academic community has created this resource guide for international schools. The resources are divided into five sections: Resources and Markets, Business Economics, Macroeconomic Arguments, International Issues, and Development Economics. Each section includes a table of resources that can be found within biz/ed and another of links to other helpful Websites.

Business Process Outsourcing

2008-12-22T04:47:00.000-08:00

BPO [Business Process Outsourcing] has been the latest mantra in India today. As the current sources of revenue face slower growth, software companies are trying new ways to increase their revenues. BPO is top on their list today. IT services companies are making a quick entry into the BPO space on the strength of their existing set of clients. We hope to address all issues related to BPO in India on this portal.
We will attempt to explain what it takes to setup a BPO facility in India. Actually, setting up a call center is capital intensive affair. An ordinary BPO center that takes care of pure back office operation [e.g. payroll, data entry etc.] will not be as expensive as a call center.
The philosophy behind BPO is specific, do what you do best and leave everything else to business process outsourcers. Companies are moving their non-core business processes to outsource providers. BPO saves precious management time and resources and allows focus while building upon core competencies. The list of functions being outsourced is getting longer by the day. Call centers apart, functions outsourced span purchasing and disbursement, order entry, billing and collection, human resources administration, cash and investment management, tax compliance, internal audit, pay roll...the list gets longer everyday. In view of the accounting scandals in 2002 [Enron, WorldCom, Xerox etc], more and more companies are keen on keeping their investors happy. Hence, it is important for them to increase their profits. BPO is one way of increasing their profits. If done well, BPO results in increasing shareholder value.
Typically, a customer calls the call center [usually a toll-free number]. After pressing numerous numbers [1 for English, 2 for Spanish, 3 for bank balance!] the operator will answer your query by accessing the database. Call centers address sales support, airline/hotel reservations, technical queries, bank accounts, client services, receivables, tele-marketing, market research.
If a bank shifts work of a 1000 people from US to India it can save about $18 million a year due to lower costs in India. According to Mckinsey, giant US pharma firms can reduce the cost of developing a new drug, currently estimated at between $600 million and $900 million by as much as $200 million if development work is outsourced to India.
Outsourcing is not new - it has been a popular management tool for decade. One can safely say outsourcing has evolved :-
• 1960's - time-sharing
• 1970's - parts of IT operations
• 1980's - entire IT operations
• 1990's - alliances/tie-ups
• 2000's - IT-enabled services
India has one of the largest pool of low-cost English speaking scientific and technical talent. This makes India one of the obvious choice to outsource to. Dell, Sun Microsystems, LG, Ford, GE, Oracle all have announced plans to scale up their operations in India. Others like American Express, IBM and British Airways are leveraging the cost advantage India has to offer while setting up call centers. Several foreign airline and banks have too set up business process operations in India. Indian revenues from BPO are estimated to have grown 107 per cent to $ 583 million and this particular area employs 35,000 people in the year ending March 31, 2002.
Many European and US companies have realized that they should focus on their main business and outsource their Human Resource Department, accounting department etc. Bingo! it is here exactly India fits in! Today US corporations have embraced BPO wholeheartedly.
Managed Care Companies, which is more popularly known as Healthcare payers, are increasingly outsourcing business processes due to changing and challenging business environment and technological and legislative changes. There is a good opportunity for Indian BPO vendors in this space. BPO vendors will need to have good domain knowledge, process know-how and competence with technological solutions to cater to these Manage Care Companies.

THE BEST BUSINESS BOOKS OF 1995

2008-12-22T04:44:00.000-08:00

From global power to intrigue in the boardroom, from sharp ideas to prickly personalities, this year's top 10 business books cover an array of absorbing subjects.
In a competitive world, global economic might is fleeting. Far from it, says Eamonn Fingleton in Blindside: Why Japan Is Still on Track to Overtake the U.S. by the Year 2000 (Houghton Mifflin). In what our reviewer, former Tokyo Bureau Chief Robert Neff, called a ``prodigiously researched and engagingly argued'' work, Fingleton asserts that, in spite of the obvious problems, Japan continues to show inordinate competitive muscle. And rather than putting a burden on exporters and consumers, the mighty yen, he says, is ``one of the principal levers'' of Japan's power.
Most provocatively, Fingleton contends that the Japanese system, with its industrial targeting and research and development collectives, ``is not capitalism at all but a new formulation that is as sharp and portentous a break from capitalism as capitalism was from feudalism.'' Although occasionally given to alarmism and overstatement, Blindside provides a novel, audacious take on the world's second-largest economy.
Another global power--albeit a less conspicuous one--is the subject of Steven Solomon's The Confidence Game: How Unelected Central Bankers Are Governing the Changed World Economy (Simon & Schuster). Solomon scopes in on the masters of the world economy, the central bankers.
Starting with a fascinating account of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's effort to limit the damage of the 1987 global stock market crash, The Confidence Game often ``reads more like a thriller than a treatise on monetary affairs,'' according to our reviewer, William Glasgall. In keeping with the book's title, Solomon demonstrates how central bankers--even when they're not sure what action should be taken--have found they can talk away many near-crises. But the author warns of a creeping danger: In the quest for prosperity, national governments are transferring more and more authority to the central bankers.
All nations pursue prosperity--but only a few find it. What do such global powerhouses as Japan, Germany, and the They're all ``high-trust'' societies, says Francis Fukuyama, Rand Corp. senior social scientist, in Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (Free Press). Despite a sometimes ponderous style and a tendency to run on, Fukuyama doesn't shy away from the big questions--and he has a way of seizing on current hot topics.
Here, Fukuyama addresses the relationship between healthy community life and wealth creation. And he asserts that selfish behavior, often extolled by economists, can be self-defeating. For a society to prosper, he says, it must enjoy a high level of ``spontaneous sociability,'' under which its members tend to form and join a range of voluntary organizations, from sports societies to religious groups. These in turn prepare citizens to work cooperatively in large, private companies that are able to amass capital and develop technologies efficiently.
In contrast, the citizens of low-trust societies such as Italy, China, and France tend to avoid people who are not part of their immediate families, thus crippling attempts to build corporate structures. The analysis ignores numerous key issues, said reviewer Christopher Power--including the current difficulties faced by ``high-trust'' Germany. But just by tackling such major questions, Fukuyama has his readers reaching for their thinking caps.
Tasty food for thought is also provided by The Winner-Take-All Society (Free Press) by Robert H. Frank and Philip J. Cook, professors of economics and public policy, respectively, at Cornell and Duke Universities. The star system, according to which small differences in performance result in huge differences in rewards, has long been the rule in sports and entertainment. Now, say the authors, such winner-take-all markets are found throughout the global economy, with disastrous results.
The concentration of huge rewards among a handful of winners--in business, the media, law, medicine, higher education, and elsewhere--has dramatically widened the gap between rich and poor, they say. Moreover, the lure of huge gains skews the career choices of the next generation, as too many youths strive to become the next Michael Eisner or Madonna. And the pursuit of blockbuster movies and best-selling books has led to a dumbing-down of culture. Here, the authors fall short, said reviewer Kathleen Madigan. Nevertheless, Winner-Take-All Society frequently scores a bull's-eye.
The target of Serpent on the Rock (HarperBusiness), by New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald, is scandal-plagued Prudential-Bache Securities Inc. Between 1980 and 1990, Eichenwald says, Pru-Bache engaged in ``the most destructive fraud ever perpetrated on investors by Wall Street.'' It sold more than $8 billion in risky limited-partnership offerings--resulting in losses running to hundreds of millions.
Eichenwald fingers ``a small group of executives who cut corners or ignored problems as they promoted the firm and built personal empires.'' The limited-partnership deals provided lavish lifestyles for these execs--and vanished life savings for numerous investors. Reviewer Leah Nathans Spiro found the biggest heroes of the tale to be the state regulators who pushed to win a reasonable settlement for the unhappy investors. One moral: The system of state securities regulators, often said to be unnecessary, shouldn't be abandoned.
A very different ordeal in executive ranks is the subject of James Champy's Reengineering Management: The Mandate for New Leadership (HarperBusiness). Specifically, Champy's solo sequel to Reengineering the Corporation, which he co-authored in 1993 with CSC Index Consulting Group colleague Michael Hammer, points out the shortcomings of many efforts at ``reengineering''--or rethinking and redesigning basic business practices.
``The revolution we started has gone, at best, only halfway,'' Champy writes. Through interviews with managers who have executed successful reengineering efforts at such companies as Wisconsin Energy, Intel, and Frito-Lay, Champy attempts to show readers how to overcome the hurdles. Reviewer John A. Byrne found much of this oral history repetitive and uninformative. Still, he said, ``managers awash in the ugly chaos of tearing apart their companies will find guidance and consolation here.''
Two very different managers who were also inventors-cum-entrepreneurs provide the fodder for valuable business books. Neil Baldwin's Edison: Inventing the Century (Hyperion) delineates the life and creative processes of Thomas Alva Edison. Among Edison's well-known contributions: the light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture. Yet along with such successes, Edison stubbornly stuck by numerous errors in judgment--for example, calling radio a ``fad.''
Today's research and development wonks might be hard put to adopt Edison's favorite method of problem-solving: Simply try everything. But Baldwin shows Edison to be equally adept at creating systems, such as Edison Electric Light Co., a predecessor of General Electric Co. that manufactured and installed everything required to illuminate the night. Thus, as reviewer Peter Coy noted, ``in an era when how-to titles on management and creativity seem to flood into bookstores, readers in search of inspiration could do worse than to read this richly detailed biography.''
In Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure (Houghton Mifflin), Jerry Kaplan describes the experiences of an equally ambitious, but far from equally successful, inventor: himself. In 1987, Kaplan launched one of Silicon Valley's hottest outfits, GO, which attempted to pioneer computers that would translate handwritten scribbles into computer text. By 1993, GO--along with $75 million in investment--was gone.
Kaplan tells of his brushes with such titans as Bill Gates and John Sculley, both of whom wanted in on the action. Sculley's Apple Computer merely flirted with using Kaplan's system, and Gates's Microsoft, says a GO exec, ``ripped off our stuff.'' But it was investor AT&T that finally pulled the plug, ending GO's near-constant quest to stay afloat. Such engrossing details, said reviewer Kathy Rebello, make for ``a delectable account of what it's like to try to spin a dream into Silicon Valley gold.''
Such dreams are often merely a prelude to regret. Certainly, the visions of a nirvana in cyberspace are overblown, says Clifford Stoll, author of Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway (Doubleday). Heard the one about how the Infobahn will educate our kids, revive democracy, and Tell me another, says Stoll, an astronomer-turned-computer-security expert who once helped to hype the Internet.
The current infatuation with computers, Stoll insists, is endangering our libraries, which are abandoning books for computers--and a jumble of contextless data. Our education system, he says, is also losing out, as funds are diverted into the eye candy of ``edutainment'' software. And the democratic forums of online chat rooms are nothing more than another vast wasteland, dominated by vapid chatter and extremist bullies. No, said reviewer Geoff Lewis: Stoll shows himself to be ``a thoughtful, witty observer...who also happens to be a serious scientist.'' As we stare into the online future, we would do well to keep Stoll's cautionary words in mind.
One who seems ever unruffled by the future is investor Warren Buffett. Perhaps that's why so much about the Oracle of Omaha gets written--and read. The best book by far on this legendary character, said reviewer Chris Welles, is Roger Lowenstein's Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist (Random House). As is his usual practice, Buffett neither helped nor hindered the author. Yet Welles found that Lowenstein had produced a ``lively, smoothly written, and elaborately researched'' biography of the superinvestor, whose portfolio racked up a compounded annual gain of 28.6% between 1957 and 1994.
``It all comes from Graham,'' he once said--Benjamin Graham, that is, the father of ``value investing,'' which holds that every stock has an intrinsic value independent of the market's assessment. But, of course, it's Buffett's extra je ne sais quoi that really does the trick, keeping Buffett-watchers guessing. ``Much about Buffett remains obscure,'' admits Lowenstein. It's just such mysteries that inspire journalists to keep digging--and readers to keep searching business books for answers.

pen drive

2008-12-22T04:41:00.000-08:00

A pen drive is a tiny portable data storage device that can be plugged in to the USB port of any compatible computer. A pen drive consists of a non-volatile memory, clock-generator, LED indicator and a controller. Some pen drives provide VoIP, mp3 player, fingerprint sensor, password protection and other functions.
The technological history of a pen drive began with a CMOS circuit. This low power, high density circuits marked the beginning of digital integrated circuits. CMOS circuits are comparable to the BIOS circuits of today and were responsible for the basic system settings of the computer. There was however a major problem with this CMOS circuit. A constant power source was necessary to maintain the data.
Then there was the advent of the EEPROM chip. This chip overcame the disadvantage of the CMOS chip but they had a limited lifetime. The materials inside the chip wore out with increasing number of write operations.
This paved the way for the entry of pen drives. Pen drives have flash memory and so are also called flash drives. Flash memory was originally invented by Intel in 1988 and they provided a faster access to data. Flash memory could be used by any electrical application which did not require electrical current. M-Systems (SanDisk) were the first to work on this concept in 1998. Initially, SanDisk collaborated with IBM in producing the pen drive, but later on it bought all the rights and produced advanced versions of this pen drive.
Flash memory was invented by Dr. Fujio Masuoka for Toshiba in 1980. Flash memory can be both NOR and NAND types. NOR-type flash chip was brought into the market by Intel in 1988. NOR-based flash memory soon gave way to the more affordable NAND-type flash memory. 1989 saw the advent of NAND flash through Toshiba. Comparatively, NAND had faster erase and write times, greater storage capacities and lower costs.
A pen drive uses NAND flash memory chip. NAND chip having storage capacity of 1 GB was introduced by SanDisk and Toshiba in 2005. Samsung followed suit with a 2 GB version followed by 4GB and 8 GB in the next year. Today we can get 128 GB memory pen drive in the market!
The latest technology to be tested in pen drives is the U3 platform. The security constraint has been greatly overcome by this technology. SanDisk has developed this platform. The pen drive can be made tamper-proof and integrated with passwords for security measures. U3 platform in pen drives utilizes ICQ instant messaging software. This software helps the pen drive owner to email and Google search with ease.
The LaunchPad interface is enabled inside the pen drive using U3 platform. Many different types of software can be loaded in the pen drive using this interface and various jobs can be performed. These include photo management, password protection, anti-virus, file synchronization and call-making software.
The U3 platform in pen drives has the ability to personalize any PC. It has the ability to customize desktop, games web browsers, e-mail programs, instant messaging and personal preferences. However, file security and data privacy are the most important considerations in pen drives using U3. Its unique password-protect software does not allow any breach of security.
Pen drives have thus made a mark for themselves in our lives and are now irreplaceable. Be it data management, storage, transfer or security; pen drives cannot be done without. Their portability and multi-utility make them the ideal companion for any computer buff. However, care must be taken to keep it entirely virus-free so that it does not transform into a bane from a boon.

health tip fat thpe and fat burning food

2008-12-22T04:34:00.000-08:00

There are five types of fat.
(1) Artificial trans fat
(2) Trans fat
(3) Saturated fat
(4) Polyunsaturated fat
(5) Monounsaturated fat
Artificial trans fat increases the Risk for Coronary Heart Disease.
The most conservative estimates show that the replacement of these fats.
In fact, the women with low blood levels of trans fat.
Trans fat :-
There are two types of Trans Fat.
The kind that occurs naturally in small amounts in animal products, and the artificial kind produced by adding hydrogen to liquid oils so they remain solid at room temperature, which helps extend a food’s shelf life.
So far no studies have examined how natural trans fat
Most commercially produced fried foods, baked goods, and stick margarines are made with artificial trans fat.
Natural trans fat :-
A product must contain less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving in order to bear a “no trans fat” label. However, such products may still contain up to 0.49 grams of trans fat.

To keep your intake low, stick to recommended serving sizes and read ingredients lists; they’re arranged in order, so the presence of partially hydrogenated oil can provide a clue as to the presence of artificial trans fat in a “trans fat-free” product.
Saturated fat

Animal products like whole milk, cream, butter, lard, and fatty cuts of meat.
Also a component of cocoa butter and tropical oils (palm, palm kernel, and coconut).
Less than 10 percent of your total calories per day (20 grams if you eat 2,000 calories) is a good starting point. For optimal heart health, the AHA recommends seven percent (16
Polyunsaturated fat :-
Vegetable oils like safflower, sunflower, sesame, corn, and soy, and nuts and seeds. Omega-3s are found in fatty fish, such as salmon and mackerel, flaxseed, and walnuts.
The AHA puts omega-3s in a separate category and suggests two to three meals of fatty fish a week. Two components of omega-3 fatty acid molecules have different benefits: EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) helps alleviate arterial inflammation and prevent blood platelets from clumping together, while DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) is valuable to the retina and brain.

Monounsaturated fat :-

Monounsaturated fat helps lower blood cholesterol levels when substituted for saturated fat in the diet.
Fat burning foods refer to specific type of foods that either burn fats accumulated in the body or improve metabolism. Adding these types of foods in your regular diet can easily wash out the fat from your body and keep yourself fit and healthy. In practice, foods function like fuel where metabolism as an engine.
You put foods like a fuel to your metabolism engine, and it uses some of the foods to make energy that is required to keep us moving and alive. However, not all parts of the foods we take are used to produce energy, simply because it is beyond the actual demand for producing energy. These foods, which are not absorbed during the energy production, are then stored as fat and the rest of the amount is excreted from the body as waste products.
Individuals become fatty due to several reasons. It can be due to the reason of taking too much food than actually required by the body. The excess amount is then stored for future use. An individual can accumulate fat due to slow metabolic process as well. In a slow metabolic process, foods are not burnt up in sufficient amount.
The result is inevitable accumulation of fat. Third reason may include inactivity. If you are not active enough, you body does not get the chance to burn up foods. Although, there are few medical conditions that contribute to obesity, but they are beyond the scope of this discussion.

This article sheds light on various fat burning foods and their various forms. It also suggests different ways to include them in your daily diet.

Citrus Fruits :-

Citrus fruits contain vitamin C and vitamin C possesses fat burning property. It trims down the efficacy of fat. Additionally, it can also liquefy the solid fat into diluted one. When fat gets diluted, it loses its ability to stay within the system; rather it washes out from the body effectively.

Vitamin C functions on cholesterol accumulation as well. Hence it reduces the possibility of cholesterol deposits in the blood vessels.
To enjoy the flavor of these fat burning foods rich in vitamin C, you can add oranges, limes, tangerines, and grape fruits in your daily diet. It will definitely enhance your metabolism as well as help you to regulate your cholesterol level.

Soybean :-

Lecithin is a chemical property of soybean. It helps in making sheath to your body cell, hence protects cells from accumulating fat. It is also capable of breaking fat contents that are already deposited in your body.

You can eat soy products several times a week in order to get rid off the problem of being obese.

Fresh Fruit :-

Pectin is an essential element that creates a natural limitation on the body cell regarding the amount of fat consumption. Pectin can be found in apples and in most of the berries and other fresh fruits. Pectin can absorb watery substances due to its water binding property. It helps releasing fats from cells. Hence fresh fruits can be an ideal choice for fat burning foods.

Garlic Oil :-

Garlic oil is found to be effective to reduce the amount of fatty acids
from the body cells. If you take this as a part of fat burning foods, it can lower down the level of fat deposits. Garlic including garlic oil offers antibiotic solution. Therefore, you can use it for many bacterial infections .

Liquid Fats :-

It is not true that all fats are bad for your heath. Rather you can consider liquid fats as one of the most essential fat burning foods. It helps your system to eliminate hard fatty substances from the body. Corn oil, Peanut oil, Safflower oil and Sunflower seed oil are great sources of liquid fats.

The liquid fats actually break down the hard fat content by releasing phospholipids fatty acids. Liquid fats functions in two ways. First of all, they provide you the required fats that are needed by your body. Secondly, they help your system to remove the hard fats from the body itself.

beauty tip

2008-12-22T04:31:00.000-08:00

Let's Discuss Some Healthy Beauty Skin Care Home Remedies :-

Skin is one of the most beautiful possessions in our body.
A good skin reflects good health and displays beauty of a person which requires a special beauty skin care
According to the latest fashion trends a beautiful skin is also a must for good looks along with the choice of good dress and right makeup.
Without a good skin all your makeup will look a waste.
A good skin is also one of the most attractive features for a good looking body that only comes out from a proper beauty skin care. A beautiful skin attracts everyone. If you maintain your skin it will help you to keep yourself healthier and look younger.
Having said all that, you might be thinking that a good skin would be a complex core but it is not exactly so. A good skin care routine is very natural, simple and easy to follow. Explore the ways in which you can make your skin glow out with smoothness, beauty and radiance of good health
Some of the most healthy and useful beautyskin care
Wash your face to remove the makeup completely. It is suggested to put off the makeup nicely before you go to bed to avoid skin problems and recharge your skin beauty.
The reason is your skin pores will get blocked by the makeup and all the harmful oils and excretory of the skin will stay inside your body (i.e. skin).
This damages your skin and your health. So don’t forget to wash your face with water before going to bed and in the morning.
Exfoliate daily

After washing your face at night, don’t forget to exfoliate. Use a delicate scrub for beautiful skin care.Use a tablespoon of sugar or oatmeal to keep you skin healthy and fresh.

Use Facial masks
Facial masks help a lot keeping a beautiful skin. It is a great beauty skin care. Find recipes for preparing yourown facial mask here, Face masks.
Pamper your skin with enough of moisturizer:-
Your skin needs it badly. You can apply moisturizer at night.
You can also treat your skin with alpha hydroxy acids, vitamin A or C, or any similar cocktail treatment. Apply your moisturizer after these treatments gets absorbed in your skin.

Don't trust blindly on any cosmeticsYou will have to find it out which works well for yourskin. Take a test of all those trusted names to find beautiful skin care the one that suits you best.
Treat your skin gently
Don’t pull, scratch or scrub your skin harshly.Be very gentle when you clean it, moisturize it or makeup on it beauty skin care.This will lessen the chance that you'll damage your skin and get wrinkles.
Keep your skin protected from direct sunlight:
Use proper lotions in your skin before you go out for sunbath.You can also try artificial skin tanning nut from the trusted hands only that has serious affects on your skin beauty.
Eat fresh foods and drink lots of water:
This plays a very important part in keeping your skin healthy and beautiful throughout your life, naturally.

Tips for pregnant woman

2008-12-22T04:27:00.000-08:00

Pregnancy is most Valuable and Careful Time Period for every WomanEvery pregnant woman wants to carry their baby from conception to delivery in good health.At Present, There are so many resources available easily that can guide a one pregnant woman for her pregnancy period.That’s why Here I am trying to share small amount of pregnancy care but helpful also.

Please Keep Away From Harmful Substances :-

Coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, certain kinds of medicines, drugs, and un-prescribed pills are all of these can be extremely harmful to you and your baby while pregnant. You must consult your physician to advice you on the kind’s professional speaker that are right for your health at this delicate stage of you and your baby's health. Other harmful substances include sugar in large quantities and caffeine.

Exercise:-
Please Do Exercise as much as you can.
The right amount of exercising not only regulates and rejuvenates your body organs and function, it also enables you keep your body fit, normalizes tension levels in your maid cleaning and keeps your blood pressure down and normal. Your baby needs your body in this condition to be healthy. And that’s why Walking and swimming are some of the exercises that you should indulge in.

The Appropriate Nutrition:-
Please put some concentrate also on good nutritional diet.At the time of pregnancy, your body craves a lot of unusual stuff - food, drinks, smells, scents, passions. And that’s why staying away from certain kinds of foods clean upholstered pose a challenge and stretch your will power. To eat a whole lot of grains and vegetables - especially the kind, which contains a lot of calcium, folic acid, iron and protein, which your baby needs to, stay healthy.

internet home based business

2008-12-22T04:26:00.000-08:00

How to Start a Free Internet Home Business
With so many opportunities and ideas out there to make money online, you can get very confused when searching for information on how to start a free internet home business. While there are many free ways to make money online, it is very difficult to start an actual internet home business for free. However, does offer entrepreneurs an extremely low cost of entry, especially in comparison to traditional offline brick and mortar businesses that often carry high start up costs.

To start a real business either online or offline, you should be prepared to make a monetary investment. There are countless websites, ebooks, seminars and coaching programs that promise to teach you how to start a free internet home business, but most of them will require you to spend money on something before it's all said and done. If you really want to start an internet business and make money online for free, there are a few simple ways to do so and you can begin using them immediately.

Here are 3 ways to start an internet home business and make money online without spending any money at all:

Affiliate Marketing – In simple terms this is just promoting products that other people have created and getting paid commissions from the product creator for any sales you make. One of the best places to find products to promote is on the digital products marketplace. Vendors place their products in the Clickbank marketplace and affiliates search the marketplace looking for products to sell for commissions. It's very easy and free to sign up as a Clickbank affiliate and start promoting the products found there.

Freelancing – This is another great way to start a free internet business. Internet marketers and other online entrepreneurs are always looking for freelancers to perform tasks for them. They will pay you to do things such as write articles, build websites, research information, create products, get backlinks, write blog posts, programming, and just about anything else you can think of. If you have a skill there is someone willing to pay you for your services. Freelance sites like guru.com, getafreelancer.com, and elance.com are all great places to find work as a freelancer.

Selling PLR Content – This can be a fast way to make money online in a short amount of time. There is no shortage of internet business owners looking for content that they can use on their websites and blog, or resell as their own. All you need to do is find an in-demand topic, research the topic, and write articles, reports, or ebooks on it. You can then sell the content and the Private Label Rights (PLR) to it. The Warrior forum, Sitepoint marketplace, and Digitalpoint forums are all great places to sell your content.

So, as you can see, it is possible to make money online for free. You can start a free internet home business by using any or all of the techniques above. If you are looking to build a long-term successful online business but don’t have any money right now then I suggest you make some extra money by using the techniques above and then invest that money back into your real internet home business.

honey moon spots

2008-12-22T04:23:00.000-08:00

Kerala is one of the astounding tourist attractions of India sandwiched along the sparkling Arabian Sea. It the only tourist destination of India that hit the top ten lists of the most admired tourist attraction of the world. The copious natural beauty of Kerala is world wide fame attracting the tourist along its shore. The scintillating natural beauty, exhilarating beauty of the green hills, fabled backwater and the rustic countryside view of this gives the delightful moments to enjoy Kerala. During the monsoon the whole landscape is dotted with flowers, great refreshing waterfalls and enjoying rain in the perfumed air adds magical moments in this place. It is one of the most fabled tourist attractions among the nature lovers and the honeymoon couples. Most of the entire place is a great for the newly weeded couples to share some memorable moments being together.
Kerala is blessed with unique and fabled backwater one of the unique feature offering grandeur moments for the newly weeded couples to share being together. Kerala is paradise e for the honeymoon couples to enjoy the beginning of there new life together. Enrolling in the enchanting backwater tour is of dreamy experience being in this state. Backwaters tour is the ideal place for the newly weeded couples to share some memorable moments on the famous backwater tour. The view of the rising sun over the Western Ghats is grandeur adding a icing on a cake experience of your romantic moments. Sail the houseboat together enjoying the beautiful landscape of Kerala. Get mesmerized with the beautiful tale of the ducks that is accompanying you throughout you romantic tour. Candle light dinner inside the house is the everlasting moments of your Honeymoon tours Kerala.
It’s creator’s magic that Kerala is blessed with all the serene beautiful places. Munnar stands with its high head to welcome to the honeymoon couples. With the mesmerizing beauty this unique hill station offers the couples to take pleasure in the cool hills taking a walk in the low flying clouds. Enjoy plucking the tea leaves together from the tea gardens. The exotic flora and fauna of this place is placed in a right place to give a perfect eye catching look to this beautiful hill station. Sipping stimulating hot tea & coffee sitting at the edge of the hills sharing romantic time is one of the great memorable moments of your Honeymoon tours Kerala.
Apart from all these Kumarakom gives the perfect harmony in the life of the honeymoon couples. It is a place with beautiful small islands, exotic flora & fauna, mangrove forests and the dotted coconut gives an ample moment to sail in the beautiful lake. Many astonishing birds take privilege in this landscape thrilling the gap with there miraculous songs. Sailing together in amidst of the beautiful lake sipping the nature fresh nectar is awesome experience of Kerala Honeymoon. Many exhilarating moments waits for you once you start sailing in the sparkling waters.
Beside all these mouthwatering cuisines adds delightful charm to your Kerala tour package. The magical hand worked over the pure natural spice creates some miraculous cuisine that enriches you taste buds. Thousands of tastes give you much of the delight and essence of why kerala is called the spicy state of India. After your entire honeymoon tour rejuvenates you mind, body & soul with the magical effect of Natural herbs. This unique feature of Kerala attracts many Honeymoon couples from all over the world. Get gingerly effects of the mysterious herbs treatment to your body. Lot more beautiful place waits for you to add some memorable moments in your newly beginning life

10 Powerful Networking Tips Using Business Cards"

2008-12-22T04:21:00.000-08:00

Whether you are looking for a job or running a business, giving out business cards is crucial to marketing your skills or services. Even as a job seeker, develop the mindset of running the business of YOU, Inc. Business cards speak volumes about who you are, what you offer and how serious you are marketing YOU, Inc. as a business. Oh! So, you have a resume and don't need business cards. Can you carry 10 resumes in your wallet' Do you or can you carry your resume everywhere you go' A church bell ringing lets people know they are open for business. Your business card is your bell. Here are some proven tips using business cards to increase your chances of landing a job or creating a business opportunity.

1. Never leave home without them. Before leaving home, your checklist should be expanded to include business cards, as part of "do I have my wallet/money, house keys, driver's license'" Any 'per chance' meeting is an opportunity to give out a business card. A morning run or a quick trip to the local store could be an opportunity to network. My wife and I always ask each other 'do you have business cards', before leaving the house. Make it a habit to carry business cards.

2. Insert a business card when mailing bill payments. Bills contain advertisements. Why can't you advertise your skills or services the same way' Insert a business card with your payment. You may not think a person in South Dakota who opens your credit card bill payment can help you. Never underestimate the power of networking. A movie, entitled '6 Degrees of Separation' points out we are 6 people away from knowing someone of influence. You could be 6 people away from knowing the President of the United Sates, your favorite movie star or someone who is in a position to hire your skills or services. Each of us knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone etc. Developing this powerful networking attitude will be a fundamental source of continued success.

3. Use proper business card etiquette. Whenever you give a business card, ask for a business card. When given a business card, don't just take it and place it in your pocket. Make the person feel important by looking at their card for a few seconds. You might see something that could be a topic of discussion. Write comments on the card such as date, location and common points of interest. These comments will prove valuable when following up with that person. This also demonstrates a sincere interest in the other person. Then place it in your wallet. This lets them know they reside in a special place with you. "Skill with People" by Les Giblin is a book that expands on this approach. Make people feel important, in order to make yourself important to them.

4. Be generous. Give business cards out to everyone, including family and friends. Don't let vanity stop you from giving out your last business card or giving 2 at a time to each person. I have met many people who have totally missed the purpose of a business card. I once asked a person for a second business card, so I could refer his services. His response was "I only have a few cards left and I need them", as he looked again at his name on the card. Hoarding your business cards only makes your wallet feel full, not your bank account.

5. Ask for referrals. When giving a business card, people feel more comfortable when you ask; 'I would appreciate a referral, if you know anyone that could use my services'. Don't make people feel like they are on the spot. This approach disarms people much better than asking them, 'is your company hiring'' People naturally like to do favors for people. Saying 'could you do me a favor by referring my services to someone'. This always places you in a better position with them. They will feel better about helping you. Give them 2 cards.

6. Maximize every "per chance" meeting. You never know when you might meet someone who can help you. Family or friends social events could produce unexpected encounters with people. Don't discount those events. So you're going to a birthday party for your friend's kid. You never know who you might meet. At a family holiday gathering last year, I met someone that has been instrumental in developing our business this year. Who would have thought this could happen by giving him a simple business card.

7. Place yourself at the right place at the right time. Have you been to a job fair or business conference and been disappointed with the networking results' Turn the tables around. Consider volunteering to help out at the job fair or other types of events. This puts you in a better strategic position for presenting your resume or business card. Company representatives might view you differently, if they know you are willing to go the extra mile in helping them make their presence easier to manage. Get involved by visiting Eventme.com, TheLunchClub.net, Craigslist.com or view the calendar of events for JacobJavitsCenter.com to place yourself in opportunities for giving out your business card. Volunteering for events has been a very successful resource for my business partner and I to expanding our business. Zig Ziglar, one of the most successful sales trainers in the world says "if you help enough people get what they want in life, you will get what you want in life".

8. Use "In Your Face" follow up. Did you ever have a job interview or meeting with a recruiter, potential client or employer and wonder why they never called you back' 'Out of sight, out of mind' is the operative phrase to remember. Today's economic climate dictates you might be competing with 20, 50, 100 or more other people for the same position or contract. It's quite a task for people to keep track of each individual meeting. So it's up to you to give a person a reason to call you back. Immediately after a meeting snail mail a hand written note thanking the person for their time. Insert your business card. Now you're in the driver's seat in standing out from other people. If you get no response, do it again. Patience and persistence pays off.

9. Use promotions to promote YOU, Inc. Newspapers often have stories of people being promoted to high levels in different organizations' This is an opportunity for you. Consider getting some invitation size blank greeting cards. Use the Internet's search capabilities to find out the address of the company's executive offices. Send the blank invitation type card with a hand written note sincerely congratulating a person on their promotion. Insert your business card. For the cost of a 37-cent stamp, you have just made someone's day and may create an impression that makes a person feel compelled to respond back to you. Make it a habit to do this once a week. Remember '6 Degrees of Separation'. You just never know . . . People open invitation type envelops faster than any others.

10. Brand yourself with a slogan. Print a slogan on your business card that answers the question 'Why should I hire you' Or "What makes you different from everyone else'" A catchy phrase or slogan insures people ALWAYS associate a company name with their product or services. People remember even after the commercial is over. That's called branding. Companies pay big bucks to advertising agencies to come up with these lasting slogans. Consider doing the exact same thing on your business card. This is your insurance people remember you, after you meet. Don't just put Hortence Smiley, Accountant on your business card. Add something like "Financial Services With Integrity". A slogan makes all the difference between getting hired or not, because people will remember you long after a meeting.

Free Home Based Job Search

2008-12-22T04:19:00.000-08:00

Here is a really cool free widget that was created by my friends over at WhyDoWork.com for finding telecommuting jobs, work at home jobs, and other home based jobs... or pretty much any job you want actually. It gives you immediate access to over 30,000 jobs in over 400 cities around the world and they are refreshed daily.

This is great for anyone searching for work at home jobs, or any site owner that wants to offer their visitors instant access to thousands of home based jobs for free.

To use the free work at home job search widget just pick your location, type in the keywords for the job category you are looking for, and click the "Go" button.

This free home based job search is perfect for keeping visitors on your website/blog longer and bringing them back more often. To put the widget on your own site simply click the "get & share" button, copy the code, and paste it wherever you want on your website or blog. It's that simple!

Data Entry Job

2008-12-22T04:17:00.000-08:00

Tips to Work From Home With a Lucrative Data Entry Job
When it comes to work from home data entry jobs, you might literally sift through thousands of opportunities on the Web trying to find that perfect job. Some are legitimate; some are not. And knowing which ones are okay and which ones are scams can take a lot of research and a bit of discernment. The good news is there are legitimate data entry jobs available if you know how to find them. There are even people willing to help you along your home business journey. So don’t give up hope. Follow these guidelines to get started with your home business or date entry career search.
Determine the Type of Data Entry Job
You might ask, “Are there really different types of data entry jobs online” The answer is a definite “yes!” Data entry comes in many forms, from affiliate marketing to paid surveys to traditional data entry as a direct employee or contractor for a particular company. There are also various fields that require data entry such as accounting, insurance, real estate, tourism, medical, etc.
Data entry for companies in these fields usually consists of entering data from one screen to another, which is given to you by the company. The company will provide software to use while doing your work from home, and you’ll look at data on one side of your screen and enter it into a form on the other side of your screen. Or the screens may be designed from top to bottom. This type of work is typically paid by the hour or by the number of keystrokes entered, and may have flexible or set hours depending on the company.
Another type of data entry is when you set up your own home business or Internet business and contact various companies that can benefit from your services. You become a service contractor (or independent contractor) and handle your own taxes and accounting. You will bill the companies by invoice on a regular basis and take charge of certain data entry needs for that company.
You might also sign on with a company that acts as a liaison between you and other companies (that are in need of data entry workers). This gives you a chance to work with multiple companies in your own home business setup without actually having to contact or promote yourself to the companies. In many cases, you’ll be required to pay a membership fee to gain access to the data entry jobs, but it’s well worth it once you get going with this type of work. The benefit is you can spend less time promoting and more time earning!
Tips to Get Started
To get started with data entry at home, register with one or several companies that offer help in this area. Having someone to mentor you and provide work opportunities will save you much trouble. There are many scams online concerning data entry jobs, so be careful when selecting a company. Before paying anyone for work at home opportunities, ask a few questions to ensure that you can talk with a real person, and look for the company on Better Business Bureau Online to be sure there are few or no complaints.
Make a list of possible home business opportunities, and compare the benefits you will receive from each. Some work from home companies will charge a membership fee, but then basically hand you a free home business that you can manage and build on your own. If you’re looking to start your own home business, joining with them will save much time and effort. Starting is usually the most difficult part, so it helps to get assistance with any new Internet business.
Be willing to work and follow directions. If you don’t follow the mentor’s advice, you can’t really expect to make money online in data entry. There are systems to follow and companies to please with your skills. Ignoring the rules will only take away from your own income.
Whatever type of work from home data entry position you choose, create some goals for yourself and determine in your heart and mind to reach those goals. You’ll soon be able to stand on your own two feet in the online business world!
Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Learn more about Tips for Work from Home, Data Entry.

How to Earn an Income While Staying at Home

2008-12-22T04:16:00.000-08:00

Staying at home doesn't mean that you need to give up on the idea of having an income. There are many ways that you can make money without going "out" to work. Here are some tips and suggestions for finding a stay at home income.Consider Your InterestsIf you are not sure about what kind of work you want to do, start by thinking about what kinds of things you are interested in and enjoy doing. Make a list of all of these things, and then go through it to see how you can make money from doing what you love.

For example, if you enjoy working with young people and have the necessary credentials, then you might want to offer tutoring services to students who are having difficulty in school.Then offer lessons to others who want to learn.

Look at Your Employment History

Looking over your employment history listed in your resume is another place to get suggestions and ways to generate a stay at home income. Instead of looking at you past job titles, break each job down into specific duties.
If you enjoyed having contact with other people as part of your job, you might want to look into work at home opportunities where you are answering calls for a business or making outbound calls for telemarketing purposes.

On the other hand, if you prefer to work on your own, you may want to consider doing work that doesn't necessarily require phone contact with a client or customers. You may be more comfortable interacting with people by e-mail, and this certainly is an option.

Many people have elements in their lives where they simply don't have the time to do things for themselves. You could promote yourself as a personal shopper or offer to buy and deliver groceries to seniors or people with mobility problems that make it difficult for them to go to the store themselves.

Many people don't have the time to deal with the clutter in their homes and would welcome the opportunity to have some help in getting (and staying) organized. Perhaps a good fit for you would be to go to a client's home and prepare meals in their kitchen that they can freeze and enjoy through out the week.

If you are able to find a match between your own skills and abilities and a need that business owners or homeowners have, you are well on your way to being able to generate an income while staying at home. Don't be afraid to promote yourself to potential clients and say, "I can look after that for you!"

The Best Ways To Find Data Entry Jobs

2008-12-22T04:15:00.000-08:00

Data entry jobs are some of the best jobs that you can find online. The work is easy, and it goes very fast. You can work from home for a few hours a week out of the comfort of your own house and possibly over time be earning a phenomenal income. Therefore, working data entry jobs may be the best way that you have to either entirely replace your dreadful commute with a home based job, or just work part time to make a substantial amount of extra income at the time your family may need it the most.

It is important to find the right data entry jobs so that you can make the most money possible in the least amount of time - without falling victim to any scams or organizations that don't intend to pay you what they claim. When you are looking for data entry jobs, there are a few things that you should do before you sign up for one.

First of all, research the company name that is providing the job opportunity. Make sure that the company has a good history, and that they will provide what they state they will. Also, be sure that no one has claimed that they have not been paid by the company.

Be sure that you are working for companies that have addresses and phone numbers, and check out the company website to see that they are legit. Be wary of jobs that contact you through free email accounts.

Next, you want to be sure that the job offers you have been receiving are offers that will actually mean something for you. Think about the amount of time that it will take for you to complete the jobs that are required of you, and be sure that the money being offered is a fair match for the amount of time it will take you to complete it. Don't take a job unless you can be sure that you can complete it within enough time to make the money worth it.

If you can follow these suggestions, you will be able to find data entry jobs that are meaningful, and that provide you with the income that you really need. There are lots of great things to remember about data entry jobs.

First of all, this type of work can be done from the comfort of your own home and on your own schedule. You'll be ale to be there for your family when they need you, and you'll be able to make your own work schedule. This will provide you with plenty of chances to do other things in your life.

You can decide your own vacation time, and the days that you would like to quit early. You can choose to work at night or during the day; depending on what you feel is best. Many people feel that work at home jobs, allow them to be less stressed and have more time in their lives for the things that they have always wanted to do. Work at home jobs are great positions, and data entry jobs at home are among the best available.

If you can find a data entry job in a field that you are interested in, you'll be able to have a job that goes along with your interests or with something else that you enjoy doing. This can be great because while you are at work, you can also enjoy the freedom of doing something that you actually care about.

In return this will allow you to focus and work harder resulting in more money in the long run. Just be sure to set regular work hours and quit work when it is time so your work at home data entry job doesn't interfere with your family time.

As long as you take the time to do your research, find jobs that meet your specifications, pay you the money you deserve, and avoid scams, you'll find that data entry jobs can truly be your path to financial freedom.

Effects of Globalization on Indian Industry

2008-12-22T04:13:00.000-08:00

Effects of Globalization on Indian Industry started when the government opened the country's markets to foreign investments in the early 1990s. Globalization of the Indian Industry took place in its various sectors such as steel, pharmaceutical, petroleum, chemical, textile, cement, retail, and BPO.

Globalization means the dismantling of trade barriers between nations and the integration of the nations economies through financial flow, trade in goods and services, and corporate investments between nations. Globalization has increased across the world in recent years due to the fast progress that has been made in the field of technology especially in communications and transport. The government of India made changes in its economic policy in 1991 by which it allowed direct foreign investments in the country. As a result of this, globalization of the Indian Industry took place on a major scale.

The various beneficial effects of globalization in Indian Industry are that it brought in huge amounts of foreign investments into the industry especially in the BPO, pharmaceutical, petroleum, and manufacturing industries. As huge amounts of foreign direct investments were coming to the Indian Industry, they boosted the Indian economy quite significantly. The benefits of the effects of globalization in the Indian Industry are that many foreign companies set up industries in India, especially in the pharmaceutical, BPO, petroleum, manufacturing, and chemical sectors and this helped to provide employment to many people in the country. This helped reduce the level of unemployment and poverty in the country. Also the benefit of the Effects of Globalization on Indian Industry are that the foreign companies brought in highly advanced technology with them and this helped to make the Indian Industry more technologically advanced.

The various negative Effects of Globalization on Indian Industry are that it increased competition in the Indian market between the foreign companies and domestic companies. With the foreign goods being better than the Indian goods, the consumer preferred to buy the foreign goods. This reduced the amount of profit of the Indian Industry companies. This happened mainly in the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, chemical, and steel industries. The negative Effects of Globalization on Indian Industry are that with the coming of technology the number of labor required decreased and this resulted in many people being removed from their jobs. This happened mainly in the pharmaceutical, chemical, manufacturing, and cement industries.

The effects of globalization on Indian Industry have proved to be positive as well as negative. The government of India must try to make such economic policies with regard to Indian Industry's Globalization that are beneficial and not harmful

software companies

2008-12-22T04:11:00.000-08:00

In the present scenario most of the countries over the world have relied upon Indian software company and firms or Software Companies for the software development activities, as the country possesses a global competency in the IT sector.

The Software development company India comprises of businesses related to the production and maintenance of computer software. The roots of the Software Industry India lies in the IT phenomenon. Services regarding software such as training, consulting and maintenance are a part of this ever-growing industry. The Software companies is witnessing a rapid growth and offers lucrative job opportunities making IT a premium career option for the youth. Infact it is one of the fastest growing sector of Indian industry.

India is emerging as a Global IT superpower. The success can be attributed to factor advantage of high quality of software human resources. The Software Industry has succeeded in converting this comparative advantage to increasing exports. More and more companies are receiving the ISO 9000 certification and the day is not far when India will have the highest number of ISO 9000 companies in the world.

Indian Software Industry is estimated to be worth USD 1.2 billion. Unfortunately the growth has been limited to a few cities around Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Noida.

One problem that software companies in India are facing is that of outflow of IT professionals. This can be looked into by ensuring the conditions for investment and growth in the industry are safeguarded by political stability.

Wipro, HCL, Tata Consultancy Services, Satyam computer Services, CMC, IBM etc are some of the major Software development and software consulting firms or companies in India.

Banks in India

2008-12-22T04:10:00.000-08:00

Banks in India can be categorized into non-scheduled banks and scheduled banks. Scheduled banks constitute of commercial banks and co-operative banks. There are about 67,000 branches of Scheduled banks spread across India. During the first phase of financial reforms, there was a nationalization of 14 major banks in 1969. This crucial step led to a shift from Class banking to Mass banking. Since then the growth of the banking industry in India has been a continuous process.

As far as the present scenario is concerned the banking industry is in a transition phase. The Public Sector Banks (PSBs), which are the foundation of the Indian Banking system account for more than 78 per cent of total banking industry assets. Unfortunately they are burdened with excessive Non Performing assets (NPAs), massive manpower and lack of modern technology.On the other hand the Private Sector Banks in India are witnessing immense progress. They are leaders in Internet banking, mobile banking, phone banking, ATMs. On the other hand the Public Sector Banks are still facing the problem of unhappy employees. There has been a decrease of 20 percent in the employee strength of the private sector in the wake of the Voluntary Retirement Schemes (VRS). As far as foreign banks are concerned they are likely to succeed in India.

Indusland Bank was the first private bank to be set up in India. IDBI, ING Vyasa Bank, SBI Commercial and International Bank Ltd, Dhanalakshmi Bank Ltd, Karur Vysya Bank Ltd, Bank of Rajasthan Ltd etc are some Private Sector Banks. Banks from the Public Sector include Punjab National bank, Vijaya Bank, UCO Bank, Oriental Bank, Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank etc.

ANZ Grindlays Bank, ABN-AMRO Bank, American Express Bank Ltd, Citibank etc are some foreign banks operating in India.

Indian Insurance Industry:

2008-12-22T04:06:00.000-08:00

Insurance may be described as a social device to reduce or eliminate risk of life and property. Under the plan of insurance, a large number of people associate themselves by sharing risk, attached to individual.

The risk, which can be insured against include fire, the peril of sea, death, incident, & burglary. Any risk contingent upon these may be insured against at a premium commensurate with the risk involved.

Insurance is actually a contract between 2 parties whereby one party called insurer undertakes in exchange for a fixed sum called premium to pay the other party happening of a certain event.

Insurance is a contract whereby, in return for the payment of premium by the insured, the insurers pay the financial losses suffered by the insured as a result of the occurrence of unforeseen events.

With the help of Insurance, large number of people exposed to a similar risk make contributions to a common fund out of which the losses suffered by the unfortunate few, due to accidental events, are made good.

The insurance sector in India has come a full circle from being an open competitive market to nationalization and back to a liberalized market again.

Tracing the developments in the Indian insurance sector reveals the 360-degree turn witnessed over a period of almost 190 years.

The business of life insurance in India in its existing form started in India in the year 1818 with the establishment of the Oriental Life Insurance Company in Calcutta.

Some of the important milestones in the life insurance business in India are:

1912 - The Indian Life Assurance Companies Act enacted as the first statute to regulate the life insurance business.

1928 - The Indian Insurance Companies Act enacted to enable the government to collect statistical information about both life and non-life insurance businesses.

1938 - Earlier legislation consolidated and amended to by the Insurance Act with the objective of protecting the interests of the insuring public.

1956 - 245 Indian and foreign insurers and provident societies taken over by the central government and nationalized. LIC formed by an Act of Parliament, viz. LIC Act, 1956, with a capital contribution of Rs. 5 crore from the Government of India.

The General insurance business in India, on the other hand, can trace its roots to the Triton Insurance Company Ltd., the first general insurance company established in the year 1850 in Calcutta by the British.

Some of the important milestones in the general insurance business in India are:

1907 - The Indian Mercantile Insurance Ltd. set up, the first company to transact all classes of general insurance business.

1957 - General Insurance Council, a wing of the Insurance Association of India, frames a code of conduct for ensuring fair conduct and sound business practices.

1968 - The Insurance Act amended to regulate investments and set minimum solvency margins and the Tariff Advisory Committee set up.

1972 - The General Insurance Business (Nationalization) Act, 1972 nationalized the general insurance business in India with effect from 1st January 1973.

107 insurers amalgamated and grouped into four companies viz. the National Insurance Company Ltd., the New India Assurance Company Ltd., the Oriental Insurance Company Ltd. and the United India Insurance Company Ltd. GIC incorporated as a company.

Automobile Industry

2008-12-22T04:04:00.000-08:00

A well developed transport network indicates a well developed economy. For rapid development a well-developed and well-knit transportation system is essential. As India's transport network is developing at a fast pace, Indian Automobile Industry is growing too. Also, the Automobile industry has strong backward and forward linkages and hence provides employment to a large section of the population. Thus the role of Automobile Industry cannot be overlooked in Indian Economy. All kinds of vehicles are produced by the Automobile Industry.

India Automobile Industry includes the manufacture of trucks, buses, passenger cars, defense vehicles, two-wheelers, etc. The industry can be broadly divided into theCar manufacturing , two-wheeler manufacturing and heavy vehicle manufacturing units. The major Car manufacturer are Hindustan Motors, Maruti Udyog, Fiat India Private Ltd., Ford India Ltd ., General Motors India Pvt. Ltd., Honda Siel Cars India Ltd.,Hyundai Motors India Ltd., Skoda India Private Ltd., Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd., to name a few.
The two-wheeler manufacturing is dominated by companies like TVS, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (Pvt.) Ltd., Hero Honda, Yamaha, Bajaj, etc. The heavy motors like buses, trucks, defense vehicles, auto rickshaws and other multi-utility vehicles are manufactured by Tata-Telco, Ashok Leyland, Eicher Motors, Bajaj, Mahindra and Mahindra, etc.

Jobs in Automobile

2008-12-22T04:02:00.000-08:00

The contribution of the Indian automobile sector in the Gross Domestic Product of the country has increased over the years. Its growth has led to rise in automobile jobs since this industry is labor intensive in nature. It is expected that over the coming ten years India will be a major player in the international automobile market. India ranks high both in the passenger car as well as the two-wheeler segment. The availability of cheap, yet skilled labor is the primary reason behind the development of the Indian automobile sector.Jobs in automobile Industry.

There are several factors that have contributed to the development of passenger car markets in India. One is the lowering of the entry-level prices and the second is the rise in the disposable income. The small car segment is not so competitive as the passenger car segment but is likely to expand its size by 2011.

As of now the automobile sector in India employs about 10 million people who work in the manufacture of cars, motor cycles, tractors or trucks.

Jobs in automobile Industry According to the Automobile Mission Plan, the projected employment generation from the automobile sector in India is about 25 million by 2016. In the words of Jagadish Khattar (Managing director, Maruti Udyog), 'for every direct employment in this sector, generates indirect employment of another seven'.
From the above figure we find the composition of the workers in the automobile industry is biased in favor of skilled workers and management employees. The demand for unskilled workers is minimum. This is evident from the composition of workers in Ford. Almost half the workers in this automobile company are blue collared.

The automobile industry is acting as an engine for economic growth in India. Growth in the automobile sector implies employment generation in IT and oil companies. It is expected that the contribution to GDP of the Indian automobile sector will double over a decade’s time.

Software companyz jobs

2008-12-22T03:58:00.000-08:00

The software industry has developed the world over. This has called for higher employment opportunities in this sector. This article analyses the factors that have contributed to the expansion in software jobs in the world and then throws light on the software jobs in India in particular.
Effect of Globalization on Software Company Jobs
With globalization, the restrictions imposed on the software companies to enter the global market have been removed. This has created an employment market for the IT sector that is purely international. The IT giants of US have expanded their services to other countries, thereby absorbing higher workforce. The skilled workforce is also eligible to apply as computer technicians in US and Canada.

Effect of Outsourcing on Software Company Jobs
Together with globalization, outsourcing has also played an important role in employment expansion in the IT industry. Outsourcing also requires expertise in IT. Again there are companies that are based in US but work with companies, which outsource and work with IT professionals working overseas. This is basically, a cost effective measure for companies that are unable to set up separate IT departments.

Software Company Jobs In India
It is estimated that the Jobs in Software Industry in India will reach the 1.5 to 2 million mark by 2008. This would imply a compound annual growth rate by 40%. This is in sync with the business expansion of the software services companies in India. The revenue growth of Wipro and Infosys by 40% and 36% along with its expansion in the workforce by 46% and 35% respectively proves this point.

It is expected that IBM and Accenture would add 15,000 more offshore India Software Company Jobs by next year-end. According to the AMR Research, the headcount requirement in the US IT sector would grow by 7 lakh workers phased out over the next five years. So, it is clear that since the IT employment in India is also booming, the new jobs created in US would be filled by India itself. Not only that, about 8 lakh jobs would be outsourced to India. Owing to this mass scale outsourcing US is predicted to suffer job losses in the IT sector.

The following graph depicts the employment trends in the IT sector in India. It is analyzed over the years 2004-2007.

jobs in banks

2008-12-22T03:57:00.000-08:00

Financial Managers: Financial Managers formulate financial policies and also help in its implementation. They make business forecasts. Their main job is to manage the different branches of the bank. Financial Manager formulate strategies so as to minimize losses in the insurance sector of banks. The financial Manager prepares financial reports that reflect the financial health of the ban. along with this the Financial managers also monitor the flow of cash. The financial managers can work as controller, treasurer, credit managers, treasurer, cash mangers, and insurance or risk managers.Jobs in Bank Industry

Bank Tellers: The job of the Bank Teller is to focus on the minute details as in verifying the name, date and identity of the customers who are at the receiving end.

Bill and Account Collectors: The Jobs in Bank Industry of the Bill and Account Collector is to collect the money overdue from the debtors.

Loan Officers: The Loan Officer checks the eligibility of all the individuals seeking loans from the Bank. He checks their credit worthiness, i.e. their probability of loan repayment. After making a thorough evaluation of the loan application of the clients, does the loan officer recommends or approves them. Loans may be commercial real estate or credit loans.

Book Keeping And Auditing Clerks: the job of the Auditing Clerk is to record and classify financial data. They keep on calculating and keeping track of the financial records.

Financial Service Representative: The Jobs in Bank Industry of the Financial Service Representative is to promote different products and services offered by the banks. They are also responsible for opening and closing accounts and keeping a record of all the financial transactions.
Indian Bank jobs are open to all Indian nationals. A career in Indian Bank is reputed to be challenging and fulfilling. Recruitment in Indian Bank is a highly competitive process.
Candidates aspiring for Indian Bank jobs are required to pass a written examination followed by an interview. Qualifying parameters are set by the Indian Government. The following posts are open for eligible candidates:
Specialist Officers Law Officers Clerk cum cashier grade Sports persons Security Officer
Indian Bank is an equal opportunity employer. Candidates from all over the country are welcome to apply for any position in Indian Bank. Specialist Officers for agricultural and computer fields are especially in high demand.

Insurance Jobs

2008-12-22T03:56:00.000-08:00

The Insurance Act of 1938, Life Insurance Corporation Act of 1956 and the General Insurance Business Act of 1972 and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act of 1999 regulate the Insurance sector of India. The insurance market in India still remains highly unexplored. This leaves room for expansion in both revenue and Insurance jobs. The percentage of population that is still out of the insurance cover is approximately 80%.
With the aging of the population as well as the improvement in the standard of living in India, there will be a rise in the employment for insurance professionals in India.
The business in the life insurance sector has experienced a rising trend in terms of its sales volume. It has become one of the most promising areas in the financial sector of India. Jobs in Insurance Industry depend largely on the sale volume of insurance as well as other associated financial products. It is expected that there will be a rise in the sale of long-term care and health insurance. With further growth in the population, insurance demand will increase in the sectors such as real estate, automobiles as well as valuables.
With the expansion of corporate bodies and new lines of business, workers' compensation and employment benefits would also increase, absorbing more workforce.
The following types of job openings can be availed in the insurance sector.
• Actuary: The job of an actuary is to apply his analytical skills in measuring the risks involved in writing insurance policies pertaining property, life, health and business.
• Agent: The job of the insurance agent is to convince those people or organizations that are out of the insurance cover and sell insurance policies to them.
• Claims Adjuster: The job of the claims adjuster is to check the damages incurred for which insurance claims have to be paid. He is responsible for settling fair deals between the insurance company and the customer.
• Service Representatives: The service representatives shuttle between the insurance company that writes the policy and the insurance agent who sells it.
• Underwriter: The job of the underwriter is to decide whether the applicant is eligible to get the desired insurance cover by measuring his exposure to risk.
• Customer Service Agent: The job of the customer service agent is to answer the daily queries of the customers. He is also incharge of updating the coverage and policy of the customer.
• Risk Manager: The risk manager analyses the risk faced by an organization and suggests way and means out of it.
• Loss Control Specialist: The job of the loss control specialist is to examine the safety measures undertaken by an organization. This is to minimize financial losses owing to accidents in the workplace.
Eligibility For Getting Jobs In The Insurance Sector
Graduates who have a degree in business or economics can apply for jobs in the insurance sector. If individuals have flair in sales, they can apply for such jobs. The applicants who have a postgraduate degree or diploma in business, finance or insurance are eligible to get the best jobs in this sector.
Recent Recruitments In The Insurance Sector
The Life Insurance Corporation of India will appoint 3000 development officers. If the development officers together with the agents are calculated, then in all there will be around 60,000 job vacancies in this sector. LIC will allocate 50% of its new recruits in the rural areas.
Job creation in Insurance BPO
According to the KPMG Report, insurance outsourcing will absorb about 1 Lakh people by 2010. Insurance outsourcing is becoming a growing market in India. It is expected that the revenue earned from this sector will rise from 790 million dollars in 2007 to 2 billion dollars in 2010. The growth in the insurance outsourcing in India owes to the low cost advantage.

Pharmacy Jobs

2008-12-22T03:54:00.000-08:00

This article gives a brief overview of the pharmaceutical industry in India. Then it highlights the prospective Pharmacy Jobs.

Over the years the pharmaceutical industry has grown by about 10% in India. It is expected that the industry will further grow to US $ 12 billion by the year 2010. There are around 2.86 million jobs in the pharmaceutical industry in India.

Globalisation And The Pharmaceutical Industry In India
Globalization has integrated the different countries into a single market. This has favored the development of the Indian pharmaceutical market. Some of the leading players in the pharmacy trade are the Multi National Companies. Small sized companies also rule the market with an annual turnover of Rs 40-50 crore. There are also local companies, which do not have branches across the country. The top recruiters in the pharmaceutical industry are Pfizer, Ranbaxy, Cipla, Nicholas Piramal and Glaxo, to name a few.

Prospects of Getting a Job In the Pharma Trade
Since the pharmaceutical industry is fast growing in India, Jobs in pharmaceutical Industry are plenty here. It is seen that pharmacy companies invest a lot in promoting their brand and in sales. This is taken care by the Marketing and the Product Management team. The marketing team members, generally known as medical representatives promote their products to doctors who are likely to prescribe them to their patients. The Product Management Team makes use of indirect means of product promotion such as advertisement and organizing workshops for doctors as well as chemists.

There are other career options available in the pharmacy trade.
An individual can set up a local pharmacy and on its expansion can set up branches throughout the nation.

The Jobs in pharmaceutical Industry of the managed care pharmacist is to formulate rules and regulations pertaining to the utilization of different drugs. One can also venture along academic lines as basic scientist, clinical practitioners or educators.

The job of the pharmacy consultant is to serve as a trained clinician or an educator in adult day care centers or home care agencies. The pharmaceutical industry also provides job opportunities for biological scientists, chemists, medical scientists and chemists.

Sugar Company Jobs

2008-12-22T03:52:00.000-08:00

This article throws light on the sugar industry and the prospective sugar company jobs in India.

The sugar industry in India ranks second among the agro based processing industries in India. Hence the Jobs in Sugar Indusry has created ample employment opportunities in rural India. The sugar industry has absorbed about 5 lakh rural people. The cultivation of sugarcane, in the first place, employs about 4.5 crore farmers. Sugar mills, in India, may be cooperatives, public or private enterprises.

The manufacture of sugar requires the application of different technologies. It involves several biochemical processes. If one has to study sugar technology, he has to have knowledge about fermentation, boiling and sugar chemistry. One has to be a graduate in pure science in order to have degree in sugar technology. The courses offered by some of the universities in India like Meerut and Punjab are sugar technology, industrial fermentation and alcohol technology, sugar instrumentation technology, environmental science, Pulp and paper technology, sugar boiling certificate.

One interested in a Jobs in Sugar Indusry should be a diploma holder in Mechanical or electrical engineering along with a diploma in the sugar technology. At the entry level one can expect a remuneration of Rs 6000-7000 per month. With experience the pay may shoot upto Rs 6-15lakh per annum.

Sugar technologists can be employed in sugar factories, alcoholic or non- alcoholic production plants or sugar research labs. IFFCO and National Federation of Co-Operative Sugar Factories are the major recruiters in the sugar industry.

Jobs in Dairy Industry

2008-12-22T03:50:00.000-08:00

Dairy Industry In India: An Overview
The dairy industry in India engages in the production and processing of milk and cream. It is also involved in the manufacture of other dairy products like cheese, curd, yoghurt and many more. The dairy industry specializes in the procurement, production, processing, storage and distribution of dairy products.

India stands the first place in its share of dairy production in the international scenario. It contributes about Rs 1,15,970 in the national economy. This ever-expanding industry provides gainful employment to a vast majority of the rural households. It employs about 8.47 million people on yearly basis out of which 71% are women.

Jobs In Dairy Industry In India
Jobs in dairy industry are concentrated in the fields of production and processing of dairy products.

• Dairy Scientists: The responsibility of the dairy scientists is to deal with collection of milk and taking care of the high yielding variety of animals. Scientific tests are conducted to analyze the effects of different kinds of food intakes and environment on the quality as well as the quantity of milk produced. Research is also undertaken to further improve the breeding of cattle and quality of milk produced.
• Dairy Technologists: Dairy technology requires procurement officers who take the responsibility of collecting milk from farmers, milk booths ad cattle-rearers. The procurement officer should be well-acquainted wit the latest technology that is applicable in maintaining the quality of milk in the process of transporting it to the desired location. The processing of milk undergoes numerous steps and different levels of specialization are required for each step to be completed successfully. Various quality control measures are applied at each step of processing. Preservation of dairy products is very important since dairy products are highly perishable. The dairy technologists devise appropriate methods to properly store and preserve the dairy products.
• Dairy Engineers: The Jobs in Dairy Industry of dairy engineers is to set up and maintain dairy plants.
• Marketing Personnel: The marketing personnel deals with the sale and marketing of milk together with milk products.
Eligibility Criteria To Be in the Dairy Industry
An individual has to secure a minimum of 60% marks to gain admission to a bachelor's degree course in the dairy technology. For getting into the graduation course one has to qualify the All India Entrance Test that is affiliated to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. After that he or she may continue with his masters in dairy technology.

Aluminium Industry of india

2008-12-22T03:48:00.000-08:00

business

2008-12-22T03:46:00.000-08:00

India Business has experienced a significant growth owing to its competitive stand in the world. The business world in India has maintained a steady rising graph.

The Indian economy is on a role with its' steady 8 percent plus annual growth rate, rising foreign exchange reserves and booming capital markets among others. Observing the statistics, the macroeconomic situation of the country seems quite strong and positive. The GDP in the third quarter of 2006-07 grew at an impressive rate of 8.6 percent.

The Government of India has played a major role in its efforts to maintain the 8 percent plus growth rate and provide for a contributive policy environment to the enterprises, including both the public and private sector, to invest and grow their business in India.

To add to this, the Government has also liberalized the foreign investment regime substantially over the last decade which has tremendously helped in the improvement of the business scene in India. The India Business largely owes its development to the Government.

The positive points for the growth of Business in India:
• India is the world's largest democracy.
• A large group of young skilled work force, cost effective production facilities, large domestic market.
• Development in infrastructure, industrial base and intellectual capital.
• Progressive tax reforms.
• Progressive opening of the economy to FDI.
• Liberal policy on technology collaboration.
• Policies tailor made to suit the investors which in turn will help the growth in India Business.
• Acceleration of the privatization process and restructuring of public enterprises.
• Good quality research and development work promoting the business market in India.

Business process outsourcing India

2008-12-22T03:39:00.001-08:00

The business process outsourcing India scenario is at its peak at the moment. BPO in India has been on the rise since the last quite a few years. BPO [Business Process Outsourcing] has been the latest mantra in India today. As the current sources of revenue are facing slower growth rates, the software companies are trying their best to find out new ways to increase their revenues. Among the different sources BPO is on top of the list today generating huge revenue for the country. Most of the IT companies are quickly entering into the BPO business on the strength of their existing set of clients which in turn is helping the Business process outsourcing India scene to grow.
India has one of the largest pool of competitive and low-cost English speaking scientific and technical talent. This makes India one of the very obvious and profitable choices to outsource to. The BPO India scenario has developed mainly because of the English edge that India possesses over the other developing countries.
The various benefits that can be derived from BPO can be summarized as follows:
• Productivity Improvements
• Access to expertise at a lower cost
• Operational cost control
• Cost savings
• Improved accountability
• Improved HR
• Opportunity to focus on core business
The idea that lies behind the BPO concept is, do what you do best and leave rest to the companies providing business process outsourcing services. Foreign companies transfer their non-core and back office jobs to Indian companies who provide BPO services. This is how the Business process outsourcing India scenario has developed so much. BPO saves precious management time and resources and allows foreign companies to focus on their main business while building upon core competencies. The list of jobs being outsourced to India is getting longer day by day. So the situation of India in business process outsourcing is getting better by the day.

India business opportunity

2008-12-22T03:38:00.000-08:00

The India business opportunity scene seems to be progressing at a very good pace. The scope for business opportunities in India is increasing every day. While checking out the prospects and the scope of doing business in India one should be careful in taking all the relevant information regarding the options that are available to a non Indian company to make investments in India. Since 1991 India has been through a big change in its outlook and attitude towards foreign investment and global collaboration.

A large opportunity of business in India has been created due to the development in the industrial sector covering a variety of work. As India marches forward with its economic reforms, a large pool of opportunities wait to be exploited in sectors such as energy, telecommunications, insurance and financial services, manufacturing, transportations, urban development, and other areas of infrastructure. Procedures are being simplified and streamlined to facilitate business and make the India business opportunity scene better.

India has the fourth largest economy in the world, and has the second largest GDP among developing countries, according to the purchasing power parity. It is the world's largest democracy, with a long established and robust democratic, federal system. India possesses a large market, and also has a middle class group of people who are growing at a pretty fast pace with substantial purchasing power which in turn provides a good base for the development of the India business opportunity scene. India has a long established legal and accounting system, an independent judiciary, a free and vibrant press, and a strong tradition of entrepreneurship. India's widespread pool of engineers, scientists, technicians, managers and skilled personnel are among the best in the world. The Information Technology sector continues to show robust and steady growth which has definitely provided a boom in the India business opportunity scene. India's vast reservoir of knowledge workers has attracted many global companies to do business in India. Thanks to all these which have helped in the creation of a huge business opportunity in India. The India business opportunity scene assures of a very promising future.

Small Business in India

2008-12-22T03:35:00.000-08:00

India being a developing nation is shifting fast from its agriculture based occupation to industrialization. It has about 80 thousand villages and almost 70% of its population are living in rural and semi rural areas. ' Small Business in India' is becoming popular among rural, semi rural masses and with unemployed urban youths.
' Small Business in India' output contributes almost 40% of the gross Industrial value-added 45% of the total exports from India and is the second largest employer of human resources after agriculture. The development of ' Small Indian Business ' has helped the rural, semi rural and unemployed urban class become self-supporting. Government measures covers -
• Industrial extension services,
• Institutional support in respect of credit facilities,
• Provision of developed sites for construction of sheds,
• Provision of training facilities,
• Supply of machinery on hire-purchase terms,
• Assistance for domestic marketing as well as exports,
• Special incentive for setting up enterprises in backward areas etc.
• Technical consultancy & financial assistance for technological up-gradation. (Source SSI).
Central Government provides institutional support-services and incentives. State Governments attract investments and promotes ' Small Indian Business' to enhance industrial production and to generate employment in their respective States.
The bottlenecks for developments are -
Large number of Acts and Laws,
Voluminous paperworks and documents requirements and critical and elaborate returns submission procedure,
Lengthy bureaucratic inspection process.
'Small Business in India' has emerged as a dynamic and vibrant sector during the eighties. After completion of Seventh Plan period, it accounted for nearly 35% of the gross value of output in the manufacturing sector and over 40% of the total exports from the country. It also generated employment for around 12 million people. In the nineties, it added more vitality and growth-impetus to the sector, particularly in terms of output, employment and exports. Further efforts had been made to deregulate and remove bureaucratic hurdles, with a view to remove bottlenecks on its growth potential, instilling greater faith in small and young entrepreneurs. Presently all statutes, regulations and procedures is be reviewed and modified, wherever necessary, to ensure rise of 'Small Business in India' to a new horizon.

Starting a Business in India

2008-12-22T03:28:00.000-08:00

The overriding reason for anyone thinking of ' Starting a Business in India' can be summarized in one word - 'opportunity'. Over the last decade and half the country is going through meteoric rise in each and every sector. IT, Telecommunication, Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology, Retail, Finance, R&D, Infrastructure and Out-sourcing business, each and every sector, providing either products or services, is generating substantial and ever growing profits.
To make great ideas work successfully while ' Starting a Business in India' deep introspection into the following points should be considered -
• Project Selection
• Technology and Machinery
• Unit Development
• Registration
• Approvals
• Clearances
• Quality Certification
Further, for Starting a Business in India 'Project Selection' needs further selection of Product , Process, Place and Partner. 'Technology and Machinery' can be imported in such cases agreements for technology transfer should be made with due care. A lot of technology is being developed at CSIR, Defense Research Labs and host of other government and private labs. Some of these technologies can even be be bought. Alternatively, indigenously developed technology can also be used. Consideration should also be given to skills of the workers ; requirements of water, power and other basic requirements; IP related rights; pollution or environmental regulations. 'Unit Development' with infrastructural supports and utility connections are fast and satisfactory. 'Registration', 'Approvals' and 'Clearances' are less bureaucratic, legally binding yet flexible much to the satisfaction of the entrant. These are necessary to avail some benefits, incentives or support given either by the Central or State Governments and also to be within the purview of law. 'Quality Certification' is extremely important in competitive markets and also while ' Starting a new Business in India' . Certification of ISO, SCMMI or Six Sigma will help reach global customers with much ease.
'New Business Opportunities in India' are enormous and ever growing. Today India produces most numbers of Technical and Business graduates. An English speaking young generation with high work ethics and professionalism provides perfect work force. With an investor friendly Government at the center, strong legal and administrative system and bullish financial market India is the place to be in for next generation Knowledge based economy

India business culture

2008-12-22T03:27:00.000-08:00

The India business culture is unique in it's own way. The Business culture in India is just an extension of the common culture of the society. The basic Cultures followed in Indian Businesses are:
GREETINGS AND COURTESIES:
Whenever Indians greet each other or say good-bye they do it with the namaste, which is formed by pressing the palms together (fingers pointing up) below the chin and nodding the head. When greeting superiors or showing respect, a slight bow is added. Indians also greet by a handshake. When meeting a woman, a man should wait for her to initiate a handshake. If she does not, then the man will smile and nod slightly. This is the basic India business culture .
DECISION MAKING:
Decisions are taken slowly and carefully. Indians require time to discuss every aspect regarding any matter, and then gives a final answer. Plans are made patiently. Impatience is viewed as rude, and high-pressure attempts to get things done faster are resisted and resented.
TOPICS OF CONVERSATION:
Talking about friends and family is an important part in the India business culture for building up a good relationship with those involved in the negotiating process. Indians tend to be enthusiastic when discussing about politics and religion.

India Business Online

2008-12-22T03:26:00.000-08:00

With the advent of 'Internet' the world has become a small place to live-in and do business. Today customer is not territorial in nature but global. Internet has shrunk the whole world on computer screen. Huge volumes of goods, services and money change hands where buyer and seller transact without meeting each other in person. ' India Business Online ' sector is getting hotter with increasing cut-throat competition companies are offering single-window marketing and buying opportunity to customers.
' India Business Online ' market provides platform for buying and selling of industrial goods and services, leveraging the access, power and speed of the Internet. Ideal for businesses buying and selling to a wide cross-section of industries. It features virtual storefronts, micro-website and online RFQ systems to allow online buying-selling activities. Buyers can locate and source from Indian suppliers and exporters across sectors like Information Technology and Electronics Hardware, Telecommunication, Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology,
Banking, Financial Institutions and Insurance & Pensions, Capital Market, Chemicals and Hydrocarbons, Agriculture and Food Processing, Retailing, Logistics, Manufacturing, Power and Non-conventional Energy, Automotive etc. ' India Business Online ' sector success story revolves around business like -

Indian Businesses

2008-12-22T03:25:00.000-08:00

Indian Businesses are slowly shifting their base from agriculture to major industrialization. Numerous types of Businesses in India are coming up. As India is developing the Iron & Steel Businesses in India, IT Businesses in India, Indian Businesses in Travel & Tourism, Indian Businesses in Business Process Outsourcing, Food Business market in India, Soft Drinks Businesses in India and various other types of businesses are coming to the forefront and taking the center stage.

The marketplace for Indian Businesses is quite varied including industries in the field of Agriculture & Forestry, Automobiles, Business Services, Chemicals, Computers, Construction, Education, Electrical, Electronics, Engineering/Machinery, Entertainment, Import & Export, Fashion & Advertising, Food Processing, Government of India Websites, Immigration, India Neighborhood, Intelligence, International, IT/ITes, Minerals & Metals, Packaging & Paper, Real Estate in India, Regional Portals, Travel & Tourism and many others. The scope of doing business in India has grown in its magnitude.

Some of the major companies in the IT sector are Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies, HCL Ltd, Satyam Computer Services, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Patni Computers, BFL MphasiS, Polaris, i-flex, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Accenture. In general the major Indian Businesses are the Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis and many more.

The Government has played a major role in the transformation of the Indian Business scenario in India. The major changes initiated by the Government for the betterment of the Indian Businesses are in the form of macroeconomic reforms, tax reforms, finance reforms and freeing of capital markets, reforms in the regulation of business firms, revitalization of the Indian private sector, removal of exchange controls and convertibility, trade reforms, and foreign direct investment.

The Foreign companies are showing massive interest in the Indian Businesses. The number of Businesses in India have increased at an impressive rate. More and more foreign companies are having their branches in India. They are either holding hands with the Indian Businesses by entering into a partnership with them or they are building up their own offices in India. The future of Indian Businesses looks bright and assuring.

International Business in India

2008-12-22T03:24:00.001-08:00

The current scenario for 'International Business in India' is more than heartening. With stupendous growth of more than 7% annually, improvement and stabilization of relations with neighboring countries and record setting rise of its stock indexes, India continues to grab international attention. It is destination of opportunity with its high-potential workforce and burgeoning middle class and as an increasingly dynamic competitor.
India being a multi-cultural, multi-lingual and multi-religion state, it is not advisable to formulate a uniform business strategy. The eastern part of the country is known as the 'land of the intellectuals' and is regarded as the cultural hub of the country. The southern part is known for its technology acumen and western part is the commercial-capital of the country. The north is where the political power sits and operates the country. ' International Business Opportunity in India ' exists in ares like -
• Information Technology and Electronics Hardware.
• Telecommunication.
• Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology.
• R&D.
• Banking, Financial Institutions and Insurance & Pensions.
• Capital Market.
• Chemicals and Hydrocarbons.
• Infrastructure.
• Agriculture and Food Processing.
• Retailing.
• Logistics.
• Manufacturing.
• Power and Non-conventional Energy.
Sectors like Health, Education, Housing, Resource Conservation & Management Group, Water Resources, Environment, Rural Development, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and Urban Development are untapped and offers huge scope. With highest numbers of technical, medical, business management graduates and highest numbers of Phd.s coupled with an energetic English speaking mass India offers 'services' with 50-70% less cost from their western counterparts.
For 'International Business in India' b odies like CII, FICCI and different Chambers of Commerce provides a variety of business facilitation services by -
• Closely working with Government and business promotion organizations in India and the respective partner countries.
• Also hosts high-level Government dignitaries and help build close working relationships between Governments and business organizations.
• It also exchanges business delegations, joint task forces and identify bilateral business co-operation potential and make suitable policy recommendations to Governments.
With opportunities galore for ' International Business in India' the trend is mind boggling. ' India International Business' community along with Indian Domestic Business community is steadily emerging as the Knowledge Capital of the world. The World Bank and different rating organizations have forecast that at 7-8% of Economic growth, she will be worlds second largest economy by 2050.

India Business Magazines

2008-12-22T03:22:00.000-08:00

Business magazines in India are one of the best ways of getting all the information regarding the current events taking place in the business world of India. Business magazines in India provide all the information that is required to quench the thirst and curiosity of the general mass. The market for the Business India magazine is vast. The Top Business magazines of India are sold in huge numbers all over India.

Some of the top business magazines of India are: Businessworld, Outlook Business, Business Today, BusinessBarons and Business India. These are the few Business magazines in India that have an excellent market.

Ever since India started riding high on the economic boom, countless business magazines have come into existence in the country and have opened up shops as well. The last few years have seen innumerable Business magazines in India hitting the market and it will not be an overstatement to say that their number would easily touch three scores. In the midst of this confluence of publications in the Business India magazine premise pitchonnet.com started its operations. The magazine soon emerged as one of the largest business publications providing a close view of the evolving market of media and communication in the country.

True to its commitment, the magazine spots, analyzes and reports the present trends, conducts industry surveys. The magazine looks ahead to create a database of profiles of the hotshots and rising stars of the Indian industry. This magazine was of great help and added to the overall development and promotion of the Business India magazine scenario. Most Business magazines in India follow the same time-tested model of presenting news. It is in this respect that Pitchonet scores ahead of the others. The magazine has developed innovative ideas of bringing cutting edge information in a never before way.

As India is developing and as more and more companies are coming into existence the future prospects of Business India magazine looks quite bright and prosperous.

Directory of India Businesses

2008-12-22T03:21:00.000-08:00

'Knowledge is power' and 'Time is money' the two buzzwords hold ultimate importance for the business community across the world. With 7-8% of India Inc. growth there is a burning need for proper business information. A comprehensive collection of information saves money and time. 'India Business Directory' community contribution for the overall growth is worth mentioning. It maintains two versions - soft copy (on Internet) and hard copy (printed book).

Sectors like IT, Telecommunications, Pharma & Biotech. etc. enjoys modern infrastructure and information collection and dissemination system in India. Under developed sectors (both in urban and rural areas) like small manufacturers and service providers (who don't have access to online version) depend heavily on hard copies of 'India Business Directory' for running their business. The details are broadly classified as 'Products' and 'Services'. Then it is sub divided according to Industry and further sub divided into Sectors. 'India Business Directory' provides a comprehensive details of Product and its – producers, manufactures, assemblers, traders, dealers etc. It is given in an alphabetical order. Furthermore, the details of individual company is given as -

Name of the company.
Name of the Proprietor and year of establishment.
Postal address.
Phone numbers, Fax numbers, Website (hyper linked in case of online directories), Email ID etc.
Summary company and its product line.
Contact details of person for business dealing.
This format is maintained for 'Services' also. In this section the type of service holds the key. All types of services from 'advertisement' to 'baby sitters' and each & every possible types of service information is hoisted.

'Indian Business Directory' does not only fulfill the needs of Indian business community but also of foreign clients. They can collaborate to form joint ventures, or sell their products or services, or even buy products or services from their Indian counterparts with a single click of mouse over Internet. In other words, it provides a common platform for smooth business dealing. 'Directories on Indian Business' provides a comprehensive and up to date information in a layered manner. 'India Business Directory' facilitates access of easy, accurate and fast business information. Both hard copy (printed version) and soft copy (Internet version) maintains same pattern unless limitation pops up, like there can be no hyper link of individual site on a hard copy (printed version) of 'Business Directory India' book

India Business Economy

2008-12-22T03:20:00.000-08:00

Introduction

India Business Economy had made its inception in the ancient past. Such activities have catered to every section of the society from rural to urban. The size of India Business Economy can be easily comprehended on viewing the following estimates:

The India Business Economy ranks 4th in the world in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). With a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US $ 1 trillion in 2007, the Business Economy of India ranks 10th in terms of exchange rates measured in USD. With a GDP growth rate of over 9 % by the 3rd quarter of 2007, it ranks 2nd among the fastest growing economies of the world.

Contrary to the aforesaid implications, India is still categorized under the “low income generating economies” due to the nation's association primarily with the following attributes:

Low level of per capita income of less than $ 4000 at PPP High dependence of the population on agriculture Low level of capital formation

The diversified business activities in India can be broadly classified under two heads:

Rural activities Urban Activities

Apart from agriculture, the rural population have always indulged in activities like animal husbandry, pottery, handicrafts, sericulture (rearing of silkworms for production of raw silk),horticulture(growing of vegetables and flowering plants), fishing and other cottage and small scale industries.

However it is the urban activities that have loomed large in depicting the progress of the economy in recent times as mentioned at the beginning. The nation starting from the slow industrial growth contributing merely 9 % of the nation's total GDP in the 60s and had stagnated to that level till 1991. The scope of activities in the tertiary or service sector also was restricted to banking and insurance under the strict supervision of the public sector.

However, the liberalization policies taken up by the government in 1991 marked a new dawn as far as Indian Business Activities were concerned. Licenses were issued to private enterprises in sectors such as manufacture,banking and insurance to both domestic and foreign, new as well as already existing players. This trend was further aggravated from the beginning of the 21st century with the emergence of a host of activities in Information Technology (IT) and IT enabled services like outsourcing. Other sectors like pharmaceuticals,biotechnology, telecommunication and aviation are also showing strong potential with rising growth rates.

iPhone India

2008-12-22T03:18:00.000-08:00

iPhone is a multimedia smartphone that works with the help of Internet. It is designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The multi-touch screen includes a virtual keyboard and buttons. This iPhone characterizes a minimal amount of hardware input.

The iPhone is a blend of a camera phone and a portable media player or iPod. The additional functions include text messaging, visual voicemail and other Internet services like e-mail, web browsing, and local Wi-Fi connectivity. The hardware present in the phone are quad-band GSM with EDGE; UMTS and HSDPA.

The other features of the iPhone are:
• Hardware: This includes a metal and black plastic at the back and light sensors on the first-generation iPhone and iPhone 3G. The screen and interface of this iPod is also good. The touch screen infers complex gestures using multi-touch. One can move content from one place to the other by the help of the touch-drag motion of the finger. The display responds to three sensors.
• Audio: Another feature of the iPhone, the headphones, has a multipurpose button to play or pause music, skip tracks, and answer or end phone calls. One can also get wireless earpieces using Bluetooth technology in the markets. The loudspeaker is available in both handsfree operations and media playback.
• Battery: One of the most important features of an iPhone is the battery. Every iPhone features a built-in rechargeable battery. It is not user-replaceable. Third party battery packs have been available since July 2007.
• SIM card: The SIM card of an iPhone is located in a slot at the top of the device. One can eject the SIM card with a paper clip or a SIM card ejection tool.
• Storage: The iPhone has two internal storage sizes- a 4 GB or 8 GB flash drive model. Later, on September 5, 2007, Apple announced that only the 8 GB models will be used. On February 5, 2008, a 16 GB model was added to the iPhone lineup.
Software: iPhone OS is the operating system of iPhone. It comprises the software component "Core Animation" from Mac OS X v10.5.

South India Tourism

2008-12-22T03:17:00.000-08:00

India is a land rich cultural heritage and diversity. The Northern and the Southern Part of India are as divergent as day and night. South India Tourism is globally known for the exotic tourist spots in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerela, Karnakata, Andhra Pradesh, and Pondicherry.

Tamil Nadu Tourism has developed a lot in the fast few years. Located on the Coromandel Coast along the Bay of Bengal, Tamil Nadu has a 1000 km long coastline. It boasts of a blend between culture and heritage, tradition and modernity. Chennai is the capital city and is a metropolitan city of India. The temples, wildlife, hill stations, and golden sand beaches full of casuarina groves and coconut palms make Tamil Nadu a tourist’s paradise.

Chennai is the new IT IT hub. is known as the city of 1000 temples. Kanyakumari is the place where the 3 seas meet and has Vivekananda Rock on its meeting point. Madurai is the glory of the Pandyas. Coimbatore is a hill station known for its scenic beauty and Vellore is now the new hub for medical tourism in India. All in all, Tamil Nadu makes for an experience to remember.

Kerala has the highest literacy rate in India, located in the southernmost tip of India. Thiruvanthapuram, its capital, is only one of the many special attractions in Kerala. Kochi, Kollam, and Beypore are the sea-ports of the state. Fort Kochi, Kappad, Bekal, and Kovalam are the beaches which Kerala is known globally for.

The major wildlife sanctuaries in Kerala are:
• Parambikkulam
• Aralm
• Thekkady (Periyar),
• Thattekad
• Kumarakom
The hill stations of the Kerala are:
• Munna
• Thekkady
• Ponmudi
• Peerumade
• Wayand
Apart from this, the backwaters, temples, and heritage museums are the main attractions for tourists in Kerala.

The state is very well connected by roads, air, railways. The state boasts of having 3 international airports. So, Kerala is easily accessed from various parts of the world. Accommodation here can be found in forms of resorts and hotels depending upon the budget.

Andhra Pradesh Tourism is known worldwide for its excellent infrastructure. The NTR Gardens and Lumbini Park are only some of the major tourist attractions. Hyderabad is now known as the Hi-Tech City worldwide.

Karnataka Tourism is known across the world mainly due to the capital city of Bangalore - the silicon valley of India. With200 or more pubs, it is now also known as the pub city.

Types of Tourism in India

2008-12-22T03:15:00.000-08:00

All types of tourism in India have registered phenomenal growth in the last decade ever since the Indian government decided to boost revenues from the tourism sector by projecting India as the ultimate tourist spot.

The reason why India has been doing well in all types of tourism in India is that India has always been known for its hospitality, uniqueness, and charm – attributes that have been attracting foreign travelers to India in hordes. The Indian government, in order to boost tourism of various kinds in India, has set up the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. This ministry recently launched a campaign called ‘Incredible India!’ in order to encourage different types of tourism in India.

The result was that in 2004, foreign tourists spent around US$ 15.4 billion during their trips to India. Being a country with tremendous diversity, India has a lot to offer in terms of tourism and related activities. The diversity that India is famous for, ensures that there is something to do for all tourists in India, no matter what their interests.

Adventure tourism
As a kind of tourism in India, adventure tourism has recently grown in India. This involves exploration of remote areas and exotic locales and engaging in various activities. For adventure tourism in India, tourists prefer to go for trekking to places like Ladakh, Sikkim, and Himalaya. Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir are popular for the skiing facilities they offer. Whitewater rafting is also catching on in India and tourists flock to places such as Uttranchal, Assam, and Arunachal Pradesh for this adrenalin-packed activity.

Wildlife tourism
India has a rich forest cover which has some beautiful and exotic species of wildlife – some of which that are even endangered and very rare. This has boosted wildlife tourism in India. The places where a foreign tourist can go for wildlife tourism in India are the Sariska Wildlife Sanctuary, Keoladeo Ghana National Park, and Corbett National Park.

Medical tourism
Tourists from all over the world have been thronging India to avail themselves of cost-effective but superior quality healthcare in terms of surgical procedures and general medical attention. There are several medical institutes in the country that cater to foreign patients and impart top-quality healthcare at a fraction of what it would have cost in developed nations such as USA and UK. It is expected that medical tourism in India will hold a value around US$ 2 billion by 2012. The city of Chennai attracts around 45% of medical tourists from foreign countries.

Pilgrimage tourism
India is famous for its temples and that is the reason that among the different kinds of tourism in India, pilgrimage tourism is increasing most rapidly. The various places for tourists to visit in India for pilgrimage are Vaishno Devi, Golden temple, Char Dham, and Mathura Vrindavan.

Eco tourism
Among the types of tourism in India, ecotourism have grown recently. Ecotourism entails the sustainable preservation of a naturally endowed area or region. This is becoming more and more significant for the ecological development of all regions that have tourist value. For ecotourism in India, tourists can go to places such as Kaziranga National Park, Gir National Park, and Kanha National Park.

Cultural tourism
India is known for its rich cultural heritage and an element of mysticism, which is why tourists come to India to experience it for themselves. The various fairs and festivals that tourists can visit in India are the Pushkar fair, Taj Mahotsav, and Suraj Kund mela.

The types of tourism in India have grown and this has boosted the Indian economy. That it continues to grow efforts must be taken by the Indian government, so that the tourism sector can contribute more substantially to the nation’s GDP.

Locating Sport and Health

2008-12-22T03:13:00.000-08:00

During recent decades, there has been a progressive decline in the level of physical activity in people's daily lives in developed countries. For a majority of people, little physical effort is involved any more in their work, domestic chores, transportation and leisure. Whilst specific health risks differ between countries and regions, the fact remains that physical inactivity is a major risk factor for most common non-communicable diseases and physical activity can counteract many of the ill effects of inactivity.
The WHO estimates that, with the exception of sub-Saharan Africa, chronic diseases are now the leading causes of death in the world. The WHO cites four non-communicable diseases that make the largest contribution to mortality in low- and middle-income countries, namely: cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and diabetes.

How can sport help to reach specific health objectives through these approaches

Read the sections on: the physical and mental health benefits of sport and physical activity; how sport tackles HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases; the practical implications for sport for HIV/AIDS prevention programmes; and the use of sport in public health campaigns.
Defining Health
One of the most widely-used definitions of health is that of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which defines health as: “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. This definition goes well beyond a condition of physical health but includes mental health and general well-being.
Physical Activity and Health
Sport and physical activity has long been used as a tool to improve mental, physical and social well-being. Physical inactivity is a major risk factor associated with a large number of lifestyle diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity. Sport projects that specifically focus on health outcomes generally emphasise:
• The promotion of healthy lifestyle choices among children and young people as well as adults to combat inactivity;
• The use of sport as a tool to raise awareness on communicable diseases in developing countries, for example, through district or national health campaigns supported by athletes and sports competitions;
• The use of sport as a didactical tool to communicate vital health-related information to ‘at risk’ groups;
• The use of sport to mobilise hard-to-reach groups as part of large-scale health campaigns, including for example, communities with low population density;
• Sport is considered to contribute to achieving mental health objectives, including addressing depression and stress-related disorders.

The Health Benefits of Sport and Physical Activity

2008-12-22T03:12:00.000-08:00

Although research interest on physical activity and health dates back to the 1950s, the breakthrough in the scientific evidence on health benefits of physical activity largely took place during the 1980s and 1990s. There is an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence on the positive effects of sport and physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle. The positive, direct effects of engaging in regular physical activity are particularly apparent in the prevention of several chronic diseases, including: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, obesity, depression and osteoporosis.
The Report from the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Sport for Development and Peace states that young people can benefit from physical activity as it contributes to developing healthy bones, efficient heart and lung function as well as improved motor skills and cognitive function. Physical activity can help to prevent hip fractures among women and reduce the effects of osteoporosis. Remaining physically active can enhance functional capacity among older people, and can help to maintain quality of life and independence.
Physical activity and psychosocial health
The WHO has estimated that “one in four patients visiting a health service has at least one mental, neurological or behavioural disorder, but most of these disorders are neither diagnosed nor treated”. A number of studies have shown that exercise may play a therapeutic role in addressing a number of psychological disorders. Studies also show that exercise has a positive influence on depression. Physical self-worth and physical self-perception, including body image, has been linked to improved self-esteem. The evidence relating to health benefits of physical activity predominantly focuses on intra-personal factors such as physiological, cognitive and affective benefits, however, that does not exclude the social and inter-personal benefits of sport and physical activity which can also produce positive health effects in individuals and communities.
Sport and Physical Activity as part of a Healthy Lifestyle
A number of factors influence the way in which sport and physical activity impacts on health in different populations. Sport and physical activity in itself may not directly lead to benefits but, in combination with other factors, can promote healthy lifestyles. There is evidence to suggest that changes in the environment can have a significant impact on opportunities for participation and in addition, the conditions under which the activity is taking place can heavily impact on health outcomes. Elements that may be determinants on health include nutrition, intensity and type of physical activity, appropriate footwear and clothing, climate, injury, stress levels and sleep patterns.

Sport and physical activity can make a substantial contribution to the well-being of people in developing countries. Exercise, physical activity and sport have long been used in the treatment and rehabilitation of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Physical activity for individuals is a strong means for the prevention of diseases and for nations is a cost-effective method to improve public health across populations.

Sport, Physical Activity and Risk Factors for Major Diseases

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An understanding of the most prevalent diseases and associated risk factors is crucial to conceptualise the role of sport in health prevention and promotion. In developing countries, sport is widely used as a tool to education individuals and communities on the risk factors associated with HIV/AIDS. Whilst HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases continue to affect millions of people around the world, there is a significant increase in the global burden of non-communicable diseases related to lifestyle changes in physical inactivity, unhealthy diets and tobacco use.
Cardiovascular diseases
Cardiovascular diseases include coronary heart disease and stroke and are the leading causes of death globally. Causes of cardiovascular disease are unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and tobacco use. Physical activity reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease by improving glucose metabolism, reducing body fat and lowering blood pressure.
Diabetes
Diabetes is a disease which occurs when the body does not produce or properly use insulin and this may result in Type I or Type II diabetes. Diabetes may be prevented, or at least delayed, by weight loss, a healthy lifestyle, in particular, regular physical activity. Diet, drug therapy and physical activity are also major components of the treatment of diabetes.
Obesity
Obesity is an abnormal accumulation of fat that may impair health and unlike other diseases, social and environmental factors play a significant role in defining obesity. The incidence of obesity is a growing concern internationally with an estimated 400 million obese people in 2005. The global rise in the incidence of obesity is related to a shift in diet and decreased physical activity levels.
Cancer
Cancer is not a single disease with a single type of treatment and in fact, there are over 200 types of cancer involving abnormal growth of cells in different parts of the body. It has been estimated that 40% of all cancers may be prevented by a healthy diet, physical activity and no tobacco use.
Mental health
One in four patients visiting a health service has at least one mental, neurological or behavioural disorder (such as depression, anxiety or mood disorders) that may not be diagnosed or treated. There is evidence to suggest that physical activity can reduce the symptoms of depression and can also be help to ameliorate mental well-being through improved mood and self-perception.
Physical Activity, Chronic Disease and Communicable Diseases
Global trends in physical inactivity claim that more than 60% of adults do not participate in sufficient levels of physical activity and physical inactivity is more prevalent among women, older adults, people from low socio-economic groups and people with disabilities.

In 2005 it was estimated that 80% of cardiovascular disease deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries. The prevalence of those suffering from overweight and obesity is increasing in developing countries and even in low-income groups in richer countries. The rise of chronic disease, coupled with the existing burden of communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, produces a ‘double burden of disease’ on low- and middle-income countries.

There are a range of methodologies utilised around the world to deliver health promotion and prevention strategies and an interesting example is the emergence of internet-based health information for developing countries. Sport and physical activity, however, remains an attractive low-cost strategy to promote healthy behaviours and lifestyles throughout the lifespan and reduce the burden of chronic diseases on public health systems.

Tackling HIV/AIDS and Other Communicable Diseases through Sport

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The World Bank states that communicable diseases are the largest causes of child deaths in the world and are significant causes of preventable deaths among adults in the developing world. Together they claim more than an estimated 15 million lives a year, with over 80% of these deaths occurring in developing countries.
Sport and physical education have shown that they can play an effective role in the fight against HIV/AIDS by providing a popular site for preventative education. There is also evidence indicating that involvement in sport may help to slow down the disease in individuals who are HIV positive.

In Africa, there is an overwhelming majority of sport programmes addressing health concerns with a particular focus on HIV/AIDS. Most of the sport-for-HIV prevention programmes centre their activities on sharing information and using sport and games to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS prevention measures to minimise the risk of contracting the virus. None of the sport-based programmes provide direct treatment such as ARVs (anti-retroviral treatment) for HIV positive individuals as part of their activities but rather focus on using sport as a method of mobilising youth, women and at-risk target groups for health promotion, prevention and education.

HIV/AIDS is usually considered a taboo subject and the creation of safe and informal spaces to discuss HIV/AIDS through sport and games allows young people to learn about steps they can take to protect themselves from this deadly disease and to avoid risk-taking behaviour. A study conducted by MercyCorps on two of their programmes in Liberia and south Sudan has shown that HIV/AIDS knowledge and protective attitude levels of the participants were higher after being involved in their programmes.

The role of sports coaches as role models and mentors has proved a vital component of HIV/AIDS prevention programmes using sport. These coaches can also be peers to other young people of a similar age, with whom building relationships of trust can be easier. The programmes that have proven to be most successful in HIV/AIDS prevention have been those that emphasise developing strong leaders and coaches who offer support and guidance.

Fifty-nine percent of HIV positive individuals in sub-Saharan Africa are women. A number of actors have attempted to address the impact of this gender bias in HIV/AIDS affected groups through sport. For example, the Go Sisters project in Zambia seeks to provide sports opportunities to girls and young women and to provide factual information pertaining to sexual and reproductive health. The health elements of the Go Sisters ‘message’ goes hand-in-hand with the promotion of young women as peer leaders and coaches for other girls and young women.

The use of sport in addressing HIV/AIDS does not only focus on the epidemiological aspects but the social impact of the disease on individuals and communities as well. The EduSport Foundation was created from the ‘bottom-up’ by individuals directly affected by HIV/AIDS, who not only prioritise providing young people in affected communities with life-saving information on preventative and protective measures but also actively promote the social integration of HIV positive individuals into the community through sport and physical activity.
Sport and other communicable diseases
A number of sports programmes target other communicable diseases in addition to HIV/AIDS. Programmes in countries affected by malaria and tuberculosis, for instance, have also used sport to raise awareness about prevention from these diseases. The Right to Play project called Thailand Migrant SportWorks Project focuses on using sport as a didactical tool to teach children about infectious disease prevention. Experience shows that programmes which aim to show how infection spreads, along with its causes and symptoms are also effective when physical activities and games are used to communicate these ideas. Partnerships between national health agencies and sport-focused organisations have attempted to provide children and young people with ‘active learning’ models in which to better retain and then discuss abstract health concepts

Practical Implications of Sport-for-Health Programming

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The optimal combination of type, frequency and intensity of physical activity for different populations in not known, yet there is a clear consensus that regular physical activity of at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity is recommended for a healthy lifestyle. It is also important to select activities with cultural relevance for individuals.
In at-risk populations, careful consideration needs to be given to the prescription of physical activity to ensure that the conditions to promote positive health benefits are optimised. Physical fitness, physiological factors (heart and respiratory rates, blood sugar), diet and nutrition, hydration and the type and intensity of activity are factors that impact on the provision of physical activity and sport, particularly for people at risk of chronic non-communicable diseases. For example, walking, light cycling and swimming and other low-impact activities are often selected for people with cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes.

There are a number of considerations for sport and physical activity programming that targets HIV/AIDS prevention across various settings:
Active learning models
Participatory game-based learning methods are increasingly being recognised as particularly useful in transmitting HIV/AIDS prevention messages and encouraging changes in attitudes towards HIV/AIDS and sexual health. In sports programmes, this approach towards HIV prevention has been favoured over ‘classroom-style’ teaching such as in school settings and workshop-based methods.
Overcoming barriers to delivering sensitive information
Active learning methods have proved useful in approaching the sensitive topics of HIV/AIDS and sex in ways that allow both mentors and young people to feel more at ease. Interactive games allow participants to address the subject of HIV/AIDS in an indirect way, with learning taking place in a more relaxed atmosphere.
Building capacity among youth leaders
The role of trusted adults in mentoring youth in order to develop youth peer leaders and youth mentors for younger children is increasingly being recognised as an important strategy in HIV prevention. Positive social networks (such as sports teams and after-school clubs) can be used as sites to identify, train and support mentors who can provide support to youth on how to mitigate social pressures that negatively influence behaviour.
Collaboration with health services and specialists
When present, existing HIV prevention services must work alongside sport programmes. The strengths in sport programmes lie in the delivery of information through facilitated means and the role of mentors in providing psychosocial support to young people at risk. In addition, HIV prevention services such as Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT), Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) treatment and condom provision are crucial to maintaining the effectiveness of an HIV prevention programme.

Sport and Public Health Campaigns

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In 2002, the World Health Organisation deemed ‘Physical Activity’ the theme of World Health Day. Since that time, April 6th is celebrated as the World Day for Physical Activity. This is an excellent example of a global initiative aimed at promoting health through physical activity across populations.
To reduce the burden of disease world-wide, the World Health Organisation introduced a global strategy in 2004. The Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health is a large-scale initiative aimed at promoting health enhancing physical activity and supporting policy development and research.

Collaborative efforts between organisations focusing on sport or health are necessary in ensuring that sport-for-health initiatives are more likely to achieve success. For example, UNICEF has used sport to raise awareness on immunisation and organised sports events for vaccination campaigns in Zambia against measles. Renowned sports stars in various sports promoted the health campaign through which approximately 5 million children were vaccinated in 2003.

Similarly, during the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the cricket teams from India and Pakistan together promoted the national polio eradication campaign in television commercials, competitions and events in the weeks leading up to the tournament.

In 2004, UNAIDS and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) began to collaborate to use sport as a tool for HIV/AIDS prevention. They jointly produced the toolkit on HIV/AIDS Prevention for the sports community and established an intensive communication and awareness campaign on HIV/AIDS prevention through sport during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Right to Play (an international Sport & Development organisation) has partnered with a number of multilateral agencies and inter-agency programmes for vaccination and immunisation. Right to Play worked with the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunisation (GAVI) in 2001 in order to advocate for vaccination. To raise awareness about HIV/AIDS as a preventative method of combating the disease, there are hopes to expand activities for social mobilisation in the 74 countries identified by GAVI. Right to Play also collaborates with the WHO for health and vaccination campaigns in the field as well as the celebration of international events such as World Health Day and World AIDS Day.

Sport and Development

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‘Sport & Development’ refers to the use of sport as a tool for development and peace.
Actors in sport, academia, private sector, non-profit and non-governmental organisations, government agencies, UN agencies and international organisations, the media, the general public as well as young people are increasingly interested in the potential of sport as a tool to reach personal, community, national and international development objectives. They are also interested in how sport can be used as a tool for addressing some of the challenges that arise from humanitarian crises and in conflict and post-conflict settings.

As sport becomes increasingly part of humanitarian and development work, as well as a part of the corporate social responsibility practices of some private sector actors, interested parties are anxious to explore the potential, as well as the limitations, of sport in their work.

For these very different actors to understand each other better, it becomes necessary to develop common definitions and frameworks for action in order to improve practice.

The UN's Perspective on Sport & Development
“People in every nation love sport. Its values – fitness, fair play, teamwork, and the pursuit of excellence – are universal. At its best, it brings people together, no matter what their origin, background, religious beliefs or economic status.

"And when young people participate in sports or have access to physical education, they can build up their health and self-esteem, use their talents to the fullest, learn the ideals of teamwork and tolerance, and be drawn away from the dangers of drugs and crime.

"That is why the United Nations is turning more and more often to the world of sport for help in our work for peace and our efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.”

History of Sport and Development

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Sport is not a new element in development cooperation. It has been used in an ad hoc way to reach development-related objectives as far back as the 1920s.
For example, within the United Nations, humanitarian aid workers have tapped the potential of sport as a means to improve the conditions of victims of conflict and natural disasters for many years.

The UN International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Olympic Committee signed an agreement to collaborate as far back as 1922.

However, sport was largely underestimated as a major tool in humanitarian programmes and was rarely used in a systematic way.

More recently, there has been a fundamental shift. Today, more and more national and international development organisations are using sport to add to their approaches in local, regional and global development and peace promotion programmes. This is done in close cooperation with sports organisations most of the time.

Despite recent progress, the systematic use of sport and physical education for development is still in its early stages as many remain unconvinced of the impact sport can have on reaching development and humanitarian objectives.

Timeline of major developments in Sport & Development

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The field of Sport & Development has emerged and continues to evolve as a result of major international policy developments. Below is a chronological list of some of the key milestones that have occured over the past few decades, putting Sport as a tool for development on an international agenda.
1978 – UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation) General Conference adopts the International Charter of Physical Education and Sport

1997 – Heads of State and Government of the European Commission focus special attention on sport during the Amsterdam treaty negotiations, during which it was stated that "the Conference emphasises the social significance of sport, in particular its role in forging identity and bringing people together".

2001 – UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appoints Mr. Adolf Ogi (former President of the Swiss Confederation) as the first Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace to enhance the network of relations between UN organisations and the sports sector.

2002 – The UN Secretary-General convenes the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Sport for Development and Peace to review activities that involve sport within the UN system.

2003 – First International Conference on Sport & Development, Magglingen, Switzerland. The conference was the first international, high-level event on Sport & Development, involving participants from sports federations, governments, UN agencies, the media, athletes, business and civil society.

2003 – First Next Step conference: ‘International Expert Meeting on Development in and through Sport’, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. On a different level to the Magglingen conference series, the Next Step conference was established to target practitioners, mostly at the grassroots level, to share experiences and best practices in Sport & Development.

2004 – Roundtable forum: Harnessing the Power of Sport for Development and Peace, Athens, Greece. The roundtable forum was hosted during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and brought together political leaders and experts in development to discuss the potential of sport in achieving development goals. The roundtable forum laid the cornerstones for establishing the Sport for Development and Peace International Working Group (SDPIWG) creating a new policy framework for the use of sport for development and peace.

2005 – International Year of Sport and Physical Education (IYSPE) 2005 is proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

2005 – The Sport for Development and Peace International Working Group (SDPIWG) is formed, with representatives from Ministers of Sport, Youth and Development from 15 countries, directors of UN agencies, and NGOs in the field of Sport for Development and Peace.

2005 – Second Magglingen Conference on Sport & Development, Magglingen, Switzerland.

2005 – Second Next Step conference, Livingstone, Zambia.

2007 – Third conference ‘The Next Step’, Windhoek, Namibia.

July 2007 – European Commission publishes a White Paper on Sport stating it will promote the use of sport as a tool for development in international development policy.

January 2008 – IOC and the UN agree on an expanded framework for action to use sport to reach the goals of the UN.

2008 – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon appoints Mr. Wilfried Lemke as the new Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, after Mr. Adolf Ogi steps down.

Sport, Education and Child and Youth Development

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Physical activity is vital to the holistic development of young people, fostering their physical, social and emotional health. The benefits of sport reach beyond the impact on physical well-being and the value of the educational benefits of sport should not be under-estimated.
Within schools, physical education is an essential component of quality education. Not only do physical education programmes promote physical activity, such programmes also correlate to improved academic performance under certain conditions. Sport can also, under the right conditions, provide healthy alternatives to deviant behaviour such as drug abuse, violence and crime.

A number of key themes related to these topics will be explored including:
• The healthy development of children and youth through sport
• Physical education in schools
• Social and emotional development
• Policy developments relating to physical education and sport
• Practical considerations for sport in education
This profile attempts to broadly introduce some of the current themes related to physical education and sport for children and youth. In the literature related to physical education and sport there is much debate across the world over definitions of physical education, sport and physical activity. There is also great variance in the standard age boundaries for youth world-wide.

These issues will not be explored in detail here. Rather a number of links to further reading and resources are provided after each sub-theme to direct readers to additional information.

Healthy Development of Children and Young People through Sport

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The educational impact of physical education and sport includes both the development of motor skills and performance as well as educational potential. This refers to the positive relationship between involvement in physical activities and psychosocial development.
Sport and physical education is fundamental to the early development of children and youth and the skills learned during play, physical education and sport contribute to the holistic development of young people. Through participation in sport and physical education, young people learn about the importance of key values such as honesty, teamwork, fair play, respect for themselves and others and adherence to rules.

It also provides a forum for young people to learn how to deal with competition and how to cope with both winning and losing. These learning aspects highlight the impact of physical education and sport on a child’s social and moral development in addition to physical skills and abilities.

In terms of physical and health aspects of child and youth development, there is an overwhelming amount of evidence that focuses on the (mostly positive) effects of sport and exercise on physical health, growth and development.
Long-term involvement in physical activity
Physical education and sport also build health activity habits that encourage life-long participation in physical activity. This extends the impact of physical education beyond the schoolyard and highlights the potential impact of physical education on public health.

To achieve broader goals in education and development, sports programmes must focus on the development of the individual and not only on the development of technical sports skills.

While the physical benefits of participation in sport are well known and supported by large volumes of empirical evidence, sport and physical activity can also have positive benefits on education.
Sport as a 'hook'
Sport is an attractive activity for young people, and is often used as a draw card to recruit children and young people to health and education programmes. Sport and development projects that focus on educational outcomes use sport as a means to deliver educational messages to participants, and spectators in some cases.

Additionally, some programmes aim to promote and develop other aspects of education such as school attendance and leadership. Sport does not inherently provide positive educational outcomes. Much of the literature emphasises the crucial role of physical education teachers and other providers of physical activity and sport as determinants of educational experiences.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), for example, are using sport and play programmes to encourage young people, particularly girls and young women, to attend school within refugee camps across the world. In addition, UNICEF has a strong focus on using sport to campaign for girls’ education, promoting education through events and awareness campaigns.
Learning performance
Sport-based programmes have been shown to improve the learning performance of children and young people, encouraging school attendance and a desire to succeed academically. Whilst a majority of research into the health and development impacts of sport has been conducted in developed countries, there are studies that support this relationship in developing countries.

For example, a study on sports involvement among children and young people in Namibia has shown that those who participated in sport and physical activity were more likely to pass the Grade 10 examinations. There is further research that suggests this relationship continues in tertiary education.

Physical Education in Schools

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Social and Emotional Development

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In terms of the social aspects of child and youth development, there are three main areas that have been under consideration: inclusion and community building; character-building; and delinquency and community safety.
Inclusion and community building
The role of sport in inclusion has shown to be strongly linked to building social cohesion and social capital among young people and adults in communities. Sport has been used as a practical tool to engage young people in their communities through volunteering, resulting in higher levels of leadership, community engagement and altruism among young people.

Positive peer relationships between young people are encouraged through physical activity and coaching is considered a key aspect of how physical activity can contribute to social inclusion among young people.

Social inclusion also relates to offering equal opportunities to sport and education programmes regardless of gender, ethnicity or ability. There is increasing attention on programme development both in and out of schools for example, to include girls, people with disabilities and refugees.
Character-building
Of all the literature on the social benefits of sport, the most intriguing is that which outlines sport’s positive impact on the moral development of children and young people.

The reasoning is that moral behaviour is acquired through social interaction that occurs through sport and physical activity conducted in a collective. Whether or not sport has a positive impact on character-building in an individual is highly dependent on the context of the programme and the values promoted and developed.

In this respect, physical education teachers and other providers (such as coaches, trainers or community leaders) have a determining influence on a young person’s sporting experience and on the degree of character-building. Some research also indicates that ‘physical activity outside of competitive sport’ may be more effective in promoting mutual understanding and empathy among young people.
Delinquency and community safety
In general, research suggests that sport can be used as a means to reduce deviant behaviour among children and youth.

The majority of programmes that target delinquent youth aim to act as either: diversions for delinquent youth away from other delinquent youth or behaviours; rehabilitation activities for those previously involved in delinquent behaviour; or gateways to engage the target group in sport in order to establish relationships with authority figures, social services, educational programmes and marginalised groups.

‘Gateway’ programmes seek to address the underlying risk factors for crime involvement, early school leaving, and other social problems that contribute towards delinquency by providing ‘at risk’ youth with access to social and job-skills training, education programmes and/or leadership programmes.

To increase the success of a sports programme in this area, activities should be provided through supportive, ‘bottom-up’ approaches; the activity must be purposeful to the individual, tailored to their individual needs and de-emphasise regulations and winning. Participating in physical activity and sports skills does not directly impact on deviant behaviour and accordingly, programmes should combine sports and physical activities with leadership and job-skills development and training to address risk factors in children and youth.

Policy Developments

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Selected international policies and declarations have influenced the delivery of physical education and sport across the world. While these policies may not always turn into action, they have stimulated national-level policy development in many parts of the world.
In 1959, the Declaration on the Rights of the Child was one of the first international instruments linking physical activity and education for children stating that “the child shall have full opportunity for play and recreation, which should be directed to the same purposes as education.”

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the UN’s lead agency for physical education and sport, introduced the first landmark policy related to physical education in 1978. Titled, the International Charter of Physical Education and Sport introduced by UNESCO in 1978, it declares that “every human being has a fundamental right of access to physical education and sport, which are essential for the full development of his personality.”

A serious decline in the presence of physical education during the 1990’s led to the development of two World Summits on Physical Education. The first World Summit was held in Berlin, Germany in 1999 and the second in Magglingen, Switzerland in 2005. A major outcome of each World Summit was an Action Agenda presented to Ministers responsible for Physical Education and Sport. These initiatives highlight the level of international policy interest, awareness of governments around the world and subsequent calls for action to promote and develop physical education world-wide.

The United Nations Inter-Agency Taskforce on Sport for Development and Peace advocates the use of sport to achieve each of the Millennium Development Goals, not only the second MDG that aims for universal primary education. The taskforce recognises that education is central to the achievement of all of the MDGs and sport is a key component of quality education.

A large number of countries have introduced national policies related to the provision of physical education in schools and yet even with these international activities and national instruments in place, there is a large gap between policies and the actual realities of physical education practices in schools worldwide.
Sport and physical activity as an entitlement
Many international and domestic policies highlight the role of sport as a key component of child development along with the associated aspects related to sport, play and recreation, such as the right to participate, to freedom of expression and a right to be
involved ‘freely in cultural life and the arts’ (as stated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child). This allows for sport, recreation and play to be considered not only as a necessary component of child and youth development (a ‘needs’ based perspective) but also one in which sport, recreation and play are considered as entitlements (a ‘rights-based’ perspective).

Action that incorporates sport in education and child & youth development should be aware of how sport, recreation and play can be considered as both a necessity and as an entitlement.

Practical Considerations on Sport in Education

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Leadership in sport
Evidence shows that the real benefits of sport involvement derive from the positive aspects that are released in children and youth who have experienced appropriate forms of leadership.

Efforts should be concentrated towards leadership training, the processes of training both professionals and volunteers who are likely to lead such programmes.

Coaches and physical educators have the potential to provide strong leadership if they fully activate this aspect of their work with children and young people. This is illustrated by research that conclude martial arts taught with a philosophy of respect, patience, responsibility and honour were related to decreased delinquency, when compared to martial arts taught with a focus on free sparring and self-defence.

Positive social interaction between peers also links strongly with the sporting and educational outcomes and as such, peer educators and leaders also require quality training and support.
Attitudes towards school
There is growing interest among the relevant Sport & Development actors in the relationship between sport and attitudes towards school among children and young people. A number of studies show a positive relationship between pupil attendance and the introduction of sports activities (i.e. there is an increase of children and young people in school where sports activities have been introduced).

There is also evidence that among those at risk of being excluded from school, an increase in the availability of sports activities would make the prospect of attending school more appealing. In this sense, sports activities in schools act as a gateway (if presented in appropriate ways) to drawing children and young people towards attending school.

On the other hand, research has shown that excessive and intensive training for competitive youth sport can act as an obstacle to fulfilling educational and academic pursuits among young athletes who compete in higher-level sports competitions.

Cases in which adults (including sports coaches and even parents) push young athletes to abandon their studies to focus almost full-time on their sport pursuits are prevalent in competitive youth sports. The distinction between recreational and competitive youth sport and physical activity must be drawn to understand the extent to which sport acts as a magnet or a repellent to school.

Sport and Peace-building

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The role of sport in peace-building is one of the most hotly-debated areas in Sport & Development. Find out more on the main areas of contention, including: definitions of 'peace' and the role of sport in (re)building relationships; sport & peace-building at the grassroots and nation-state level; and the use of sport for the reintegration of child soldiers.
The purpose of the section on Sport & Peace-building is to provide an overview of the main topics and concerns in this area. At no point should this section be considered to be exhaustive in its coverage of all areas and information relating to Sport & Peace-building,but that it rather seeks to provide a gateway for interested parties to access and be directed towards further in-depth sources of information. Linking sport and peace - a word of caution
Research and practical experience on the use of sport in peace-building efforts warns against the essentialising of sport as one of the greatest dangers when designing and implementing sports programmes in a conflict or post-conflict situation.

As emphasised in a vast amount of practical experience in peace-building, a holistic approach is needed to build sustained stability and peace in communities and nations facing conflict – a holistic approach that is sensitive and tailored to the political, economic and socio-cultural context. Sport, as such, should be considered as just one among many components of this approach.

Promoting sport as a tool in peace-building may seem surprising when contrasted with the phenomenon of hooliganism, most commonly associated with professional football. Fan violence in sport cannot be explained by solely focusing on the sport itself.

Research has shown that football hooliganism is a ‘peripheral phenomenon’ to the game and is ‘primarily rooted in the changing nature of post-industrial society, rather than being specifically caused by the game itself’. If anything, this serves to remind critical thinkers that sport will produce positive or negative outcomes, depending on how it is carried out.

Defining peace and relationship-building

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Current definitions of ‘peace-building’ go beyond an exclusive focus on the post-conflict phase and emphasise the building of relationships between people as a key component of peace-building.
For example, Lederach (the well-known conflict resolution scholar) has defined ‘peace-building’ as:

“…a comprehensive concept that encompasses, generates and sustains the full array of processes, approaches and stages needed to transform conflict toward more sustainable, peaceful relationships…”
Building relationships and the role of civil society
The Institute for Multi-track Diplomacy has highlighted the need to build strong interpersonal and inter-group relations throughout society and considers this to be a key principle in peace-building efforts.

Lederach has emphasised the importance of creating safe and accessible social spaces or ‘relational spaces’ as part of peace-building. In this sense, the creation of these social spaces (through the use of sport) can be innovative in broadening and deepening peace-building initiatives.

The nature of conflicts since the Cold War is widely perceived to have changed, taking place between rival groups within a nation state rather than between nation states. The OECD cites ‘cycles of civil violence’ as characterising these conflicts, which occur predominantly in developing countries, affecting civilians the most.

Increasing attention is thus being paid to the role of civil society in peace-building processes, emphasising a ‘relational’ response to reducing violence and tension between competing groups by fostering positive relationships.

The Role of Sport in Peace-building

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The contribution sport can make towards peace-building efforts has generally been considered at the grassroots and nation state levels.
At the grassroots or community level, sport can be seen to provide a useful way of creating an environment in which people can come together to: work towards the same goal, show respect for others and share space and equipment. All these aspects are crucial to peace-building processes and are exemplified in findings from a Peace Players International programme.

The programme ‘bridging divides’ in South Africa uses basketball to bring children and communities together. An assessment of the programme shows that the majority of participants expressed fewer racial stereotypes and less racism compared to children who were not part of the programme. Many participants were in favour of racial integration and further inter-racial socialisation than other children.

A study on the role of sport in fostering social integration among different ethnic groups in South African schools showed that several factors contributed to the use of sport being successful in bringing about exchange and building relationships between different groups, including sport’s non-verbal means of communication; sport as a means to engage in collective experience and establish direct physical contact; and sport’s ability to transcend class divisions.
The Open Fun Football Schools

The Open Fun Football schools were initiated in Bosnia-Herzegovina, using grassroots football as a means to provide a site for interaction and to build relationships between young people and coaches.

Since then, the initiative has expanded to being a reconciliation tool to encourage understanding and tolerance in FYR of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Moldova, Georgia and various other countries in the Balkans, the Caucasus and in the Middle East.

The Open Fun Football Schools implemented in eastern Europe and the Middle East organised street events for the wider community, which have sometimes acted as the first significant post-war contact between communities that were formerly close but are now deeply hostile to one another.
Sport and National Identity
The United Nations Report on the International Year of Sport and Physical Education 2005 highlights the benefits that sport can bring in building national identity, especially at the level of elite sport.

Sport can provide a positive image of the nation to the international community. Studies on specific cases have shown that sport, especially football, can positively contribute to strengthening national pride and forming a cohesive national identity.

For example, a study on the case of football in Liberia shows that football is considered ‘a “neutral” pursuit – a common cultural property unspoiled by war’. During the civil conflict, football tournaments were considered the only occasions that produced a sense of national unity.

On the other hand, sport can produce nationalist expressions that are detrimental to peace. For example, the 1956 Olympic water polo match between Hungary and the Soviet Union that took place after the Soviet invasion of Budapest led to violent clashes between the athletes.

In addition, many scholars associate the importing of modern sport into former colonies as an explicit strategy of imperialism and conquest. In this sense, it is necessary to consider both the potential dangers and benefits of sport in forming national identity

Reintegration of Child Soldiers through Sport

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The reintegration of former child combatants and children affected by armed conflict into their former or new communities is considered to be one of the most difficult challenges in peace-building.
A recent UN study on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children reports that government and armed groups around the world have recruited tens of thousands of children, most of them under 18 (many under age 10) in the past 30 years. The report states that children need the intellectual and emotional stimulation that is provided by structured group activities such as play, participating in sports, drawing and storytelling.

Research has shown that sport may help children and young people who have been involved in armed conflict, by drawing them out of violent routines and offering them socially-acceptable and structured patterns of behaviour. Research on the reintegration of former child combatants in West Africa has shown that participation in sport helped to make a shift from a social context in which violence is ‘normalised’, towards one in which working together as a team is recognised and acknowledged in ‘peaceful and socially-accepted ways’.

The re-introduction of former child combatants back into the community is a difficult process and is sometimes unsuccessful. Reintegration requires community-based rehabilitation projects, which enable former child soldiers to access education, address the trauma and psychological effects of being involved in armed conflict, and to create opportunities for an alternative to violent conflict.

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This section is intended to provide a summary of current thinking on the adaptation of physical activity, sport and recreation opportunities to ensure participation of individuals with disability in development contexts.
Today, the idea of people with a disability being able to participate in sport and physical activity is not so uncommon. In many countries, opportunities exist at the grassroots level through to elite competition for people with a disability to showcase their abilities in the domain of sport and physical activity. However, this is not uniform around the world and whilst there has been progressive and positive change in quality of life for people with disabilities in many developed countries, often this progress is not reflected in developing countries.
Introduction
People with a disability in developing countries face major barriers that limit their access to and participation in sport and physical activity. Within a development...
People with a disability in developing countries face major barriers that limit their access to and participation in sport and physical activity. Within a development context, these barriers impact on both the building up of activity pathways for people with disabilities in developing countries and also on the use of sport and physical activity programmes for wider development goals.
The World Health Organisation estimates that six hundred and fifty million people live with disabilities of various types, and the number is increasing due to the rise of chronic diseases, injuries, car crashes, falls, violence and other causes such as ageing. Of this total, 80% live in low-income countries; most are poor and have limited or no access to basic services, including rehabilitation facilities.

This rising incidence of disability, particularly in developing countries has the potential to place further burdens on governments and health care systems. Sport can be a low-cost and effective means to foster positive health and well-being, social inclusion and community building for people with a disability.

The Role of Sport and Adapted Physical Activity for People with Disabilities

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Sport can play a key role in the lives and communities of people with disabilities, the same as it can for people without a disability. Sport encompasses all forms of physical activity and includes play, exercise, recreation, organised, casual or competitive sport and indigenous sport or games that contribute to physical fitness, mental well-being and social interaction. There is a wealth of evidence to support participation in sport and physical activity for people with a disability concerning trends, barriers and benefits of participation.
Over the past three decades, research efforts have developed significantly in the area of disability sport and adapted physical activity. Numerous studies have revealed that physical activity and sport participation result in improved functional status and quality of life among people with selected disabilities.

Scientific research has been conducted across disability groups that reveal participation in sport and physical activity leads to improved levels of physical health and well-being. Sport and physical activity has also been shown to improve physical fitness and general mood in psychiatric patients with depressive and anxiety disorders. Additionally, sport and physical activity has been linked to improvements in self-confidence, social awareness and self-esteem and can contribute to empowerment of people with disabilities.

In developing countries, people with a disability often face additional barriers to participation in sport and society and these may include for example, complex issues including attitudes towards disability, traditional and religious beliefs, physical education systems, access to sporting infrastructure including services, facilities and equipment.

Integration and inclusion of people with disabilities in mainstream sport has been a key focus in recent decades and has created new opportunities for participation and competition. On a larger scale, participation in disability sport also contributes to nation building and national identity and can also promote rehabilitation of people with disabilities following natural and man-made disasters.

Milestones in APA and Sports for Participants with Disabilities

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There is evidence of people with a disability participating in sport as early as the 18th and 19th centuries and sport activities were instrumental in the rehabilitation of people with a disability.
The earliest international competition that still exists today was the first International Silent Games held in Paris in 1924. Two men are credited with pioneering the first International Silent Games, Mr Eugene Rubens-Alcais of France and Mr Antoine Dresse of Belgium. Although the name of the games changed periodically, a world games for the deaf was held every fours since that time, except during World War II. Immediately at the end of the war, however, deaf sport quickly resumed and the first winter games took place in 1949 in Seefeld, Austria.

World War II had a significant impact on the development of disability sport and during the rehabilitation of injured war veterans, the Paralympic Games were born. In 1944, Sir Ludwig Guttmann organised a sports competition for World War II veterans with spinal cord injury in Stoke Mandeville, England. By 1948 this had quickly developed into the first Stoke Mandeville Games, which were the precursor to the Paralympic Games. In 1976, the games expanded to include other disability groups and the first Paralympic winter games were held in Sweden.

In June, 1962 Eunice Kennedy-Shriver started a summer day camp for children and adults with intellectual disabilities at her home. This rapidly developed into the first Special Olympics World Games that took place in 1968 at Soldier Field in Chicago, USA. The first winter games followed in Colorado, USA in 1977.

Since the 1970s the concept of organised multi-sport and multi-disability games became popular and a number of regional games for people with a disability also emerged. These include games such as the Parapan American Games and the Far East and South Pacific Games.

Whilst there is limited historical and statistical evidence of the participation of people with a disability in developing countries, in the three largest international competitions – Deaflympics, Paralympic Games and Special Olympics World Games, participation by developing countries has seen the greatest improvement since 1990.

Definitions and Terminology in sports

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The language of disability sport differs in some parts of the world and an overview of the latest definitions and terminology is provided.
Disability
Anyone in the community may experience disability at some point in their lifetime. Disability is a normal part of the human experience, and people with disabilities are part of all sectors of the community: men, women, and children; indigenous and non-indigenous; employers and employees; students and teachers; consumers and citizens.

There are numerous definitions of disability and the debate surrounding appropriate definitions of disability have evolved over time. The World Health Organisation states that “disability (resulting from an impairment) is a restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.”

The United Nations defines persons with disabilities (PWD) as persons who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments, which, in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.

Statistics on disability are difficult to compare internationally and also disability statistics do not always include the same definitions, types or categories of disability. The length of time a person is deemed ‘disabled’ affects the way the statistical data is measured and interpreted.
Disability Sport
Disability sport is a term that refers to sport designed for, or specifically practiced, by people with disabilities. People with disabilities are also referred to as athletes with disabilities. Deaf sport is distinguished from other groups of people with disabilities and in some countries deaf people prefer not to label deafness as a disability. The rules of deaf sport are not altered, only instead of whistles and start guns, athletes and officials communicate through signs, flags and lights. In many developing countries deafness is still considered a disability.
Adapted Physical Activity (APA)
Adapted physical activity is the profession, the scholarly discipline or field of knowledge, and the service delivery, advocacy and empowerment systems that have been created specifically to make healthy, enjoyable physical activity accessible to all and to assure equal rights to sport instruction, coaching, medicine, recreation, competition and performance of persons with disabilities. According to the International Federation of Adapted Physical Activity (IFAPA), Adapted Physical Activity (APA) means:
• A service-oriented profession
• An academic specialisation or field of study
• A cross disciplinary body of knowledge
• An emerging discipline or subdiscipline
• A philosophy or set of beliefs that guides practices
• An attitude of acceptance that predisposes behaviours
• A dynamic system of interwoven theories and practices
• A process and a product (i.e. programmes in which adaptation occurs)
• An advocacy network for disability rights to physical activity of participants with disability
Terminology
The language that used to describe people with disabilities has an impact on impressions and attitudes. The consensus is to always refer to the person first rather than the disability. For example, ‘person with cerebral palsy’, ‘person with downs syndrome.’

It is widely recognised that using words such as ‘tragic,’ ‘afflicted,’ ‘victim’ or ‘confined to a wheelchair’ should be avoided. Words such as ‘uses a wheelchair’ are widely considered more appropriate. It is important to use normal language and to recognise that some terms are more accepted than others and the language of disability can differ between countries.

Opportunities for Participation in sports

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Since the 1970’s, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of international organisations and associations serving athletes with disabilities. At the local level, in some countries there are increased opportunities for people with a disability to participate in school-based physical education, clubs and community associations and casual recreation.
In terms of competitive sport, opportunities for athletes with a disability range from sport and disability specific world championships, regional multi-sport tournaments such as the Parapan American Games, selected events for athletes with a disability in Olympic and Commonwealth Games and some athletes with a disability also compete in mainstream competitions against able-bodied athletes. There are now more than 17 international games for athletes with disabilities.

The three largest international disability sport competitions are the Special Olympics, Paralympic Games and Deaflympics. Special Olympics provide year-round training and competition opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities at all levels. The Paralympic Games provide international competition for six different disability groups including amputee, cerebral palsy, visual impairment, spinal cord injuries, intellectual disability and les autres (those that do not fit into the other groups). The Deaflympics provide competition for athletes who are deaf or hard of hearing.

The Paralympic Games cater for elite athletes with intellectual disabilities while Special Olympics offer sporting opportunities to all persons with intellectual disabilities from elite to those with severe and profound challenges. Since 2001 athletes with an intellectual disability have been unable to participate in the Paralympic Games. This is due to the suspension of their representative body, the International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability (INAS-FID), from the International Paralympic Committee while the classification system is reviewed.

Recent research conducted in 2007 highlights the lack of participation from developing countries in international disability sport competition. In total, 23% of developing countries have not participated in either Deaflympic, Paralympic or Special Olympics World Games competition. Oceania is the region with the least participation historically, followed by Africa and Asia. Participation in winter games from developing countries is very low, whilst the participation of women in winter sport is even lower and declining with time.

At the grassroots level, programme development from key organisations, such as Handicap International, have enabled thousands of people with a disability in developing countries to become active in sport and physical activity

Barriers to Participation in sports

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On an individual level, people with a disability may face a number of additional barriers to participation in sport compared with people without a disability.
Some common barriers include:
• Lack of early experiences in sport (this varies between individuals and whether a disability is from birth or acquired later in life)
• Lack of understanding and awareness of how to include people with a disability in sport
• Limited opportunities and programmes for participation, training and competition
• Lack of accessible facilities, such as gymnasiums and buildings
• Limited accessible transportation
• Limiting psychological and sociological factors including attitudes towards disability of parents, coaches, teachers and even people with disabilities themselves
• Limited access to information and resources

Regarding participation of developing countries in international sports there is a widening gap between developed and developing countries. This gap has been linked to a shortage of physical education and sport for all programmes, a lack of financing for sport, few sport facilities and little equipment, a ‘muscle drain’ to developed countries, and no capacity to host major sporting events with the result that developing countries have fewer world-level sport performances than developed countries.

Limited access to sport services, sports information and the issue of doping are becoming increasingly problematic. Developing countries also face a range of social and cultural barriers that impact on sport participation including: religion, culture, language, and the lingering influence of colonialism in many parts of the world.

Listed together these barriers may appear insurmountable but it is important to recognise that not every person will experience all of these barriers. In the interest of facilitating active participation from people with a disability in developing countries, the potential impact of these barriers should be taken into consideration.

There is limited research that explores the specific barriers to participation in sport for people with a disability in developing countries. Much more evidence is needed along with financial support to ensure that people with a disability have both the opportunity and the choice to participate in sport regardless of which country they live in.

Eligibility and Classification for sports

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At the grassroots level, people with a disability can participate together with limited emphasis on rules and regulations. As elements of competition are introduced, it becomes more important to group people together according to their abilities in order to ensure fair competition.
Eligibility
For an athlete with a disability to participate in international disability sport competitions such as the Paralympic Games, Deaflympics and Special Olympics World Games, they must first meet minimum eligibility criteria and be a member of an affiliated national association.

In the Paralympic Games, the eligibility criteria differ across sports and disability groups. The Paralympic Games also have qualification criteria that athletes need to meet in order to compete at a Paralympic Games.

To be eligible to compete in the Deaflympics, athletes must have a hearing loss of at least 55 decibels in the better ear. Athletes are forbidden to use any kind of hearing amplifications during competition to avoid taking an unfair advantage over those not using these devices.

In Special Olympics, an athlete must be at least eight years of age and be identified by an agency or professional as having an intellectual disability to be eligible to participate. A unique system of ‘divisioning’ groups athletes together for competition based on age, gender and ability.
Classification
Once eligible for a sport or event, an athlete is then classified according to their level of functional ability. The concept of classification is similar to the way athletes compete in different weight categories in wrestling, boxing and weightlifting. The classification system varies for each sport but is simply a system of grouping athletes of similar abilities for sport competition.

For more detailed information regarding athlete classification in the Paralympic Games, see the website of the International Paralympic Committee

Disability and Gender in sports

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In all areas of disability, women have a right to participation and this includes as athletes, coached, officials, managers, sport scientists, administrators and leaders. More than two-thirds of the world’s women live in developing countries, but the overall participation rates for sport are minimal.

Women in developing countries experience additional barriers to sport participation and these have been linked to issues such as the male dominated world of sport, class, culture, body image and dress in addition to religious, traditional and cultural beliefs regarding the role of women.

Women with disabilities have ‘double discrimination’ in disability sport – being disabled and being a woman. There are statistically less women with disabilities across the spectrum than men and women are less prone to taking up sport. In 2005, it was estimated that women make up only about one-third of athletes with disabilities in international competitions.

Further research is required in specific countries and regions to identify the issues and obstacles that women are facing.

Equipment and Technology in sports

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Sports equipment and technology is an issue for developing countries and will continue to restrict participation and performance in sport.
Equipment
Some adaptive equipment is required for some athletes to participate in sport and include things like throwing frames for athletes, crutches, sport-specific wheelchairs (such as those used in basketball, tennis and rugby)

In developing countries, often lack access to things such as crutches, everyday wheelchairs in additional limited basic sporting equipment. A lack of facilities or limited access to existing facilities is often problematic in developing countries and with limited means to host large sporting events, the onus is on local and national governments to maintain and develop sporting facilities.

Some organisations focus on providing much needed equipment to people with disabilities in developing countries and prosthetic limbs, wheelchairs and crutches are sometimes the focus of equipment donations.
Technology
The introduction of new materials for prosthetic devices such as carbon flex-fibre, along with new developments in wheelchair technology is impacting on the performance of many sports.

A recent example is the quest of South African Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius who has ambitions to compete in the Olympic Games. In January 2008, research conducted by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) ruled that his ‘cheetah’ blades gave him mechanical advantage and prevent him from participating in the Beijing Olympic Games.

As technology and assistive devices continue to advance, the gap between participation and performance of developed and developing countries is likely to continue. One innovative project is underway to provide a low-cost universal sports wheelchair for developing countries. The Motivation Trust in the United Kingdom is pioneering and testing a new design that is hoped to fill a much needed gap in the provision of affordable sports wheelchairs in developing countries.

At the grassroots level, expensive equipment and technology is not required in order for people with a disability to participate and through inclusive coaching everyone can be encouraged to actively participate in sport. Many games and activities can be designed or adapted to require minimal or no equipment. If individuals require assistive devices (prosthetics, orthotics, wheelchairs), the ideal situation is to have these items made and maintained locally. There have been many innovative solutions, such as crutches made from bamboo in remote village communities.

Policy Development in sports

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A number of international charters and policies have had an impact on the area of disability sport and development.
International Charters and Policies
Early international policies related to sport and development began with the Council of Europe formulating a policy on Sport For All which was passed in 1966 declaring that every individual shall have the right to participate in sport.

In 1978, the United Nations Education Science and Cultural Organisation adopted an International Charter of Physical Education and Sport which stated that every person is entitled to participate in sport, including specifically women, young people, the elderly and those with a disability. The United Nations declared 1981 the International Year of Disabled People and although there was much debate over the term ‘disabled people’ this was the first step in raising global awareness about people with disabilities and some of the issues they were facing.

In 1987, the Council of Europe extended their recognition of the right to participate in sport by creating the Sport for All: Disabled People charter:

What matters most for the Council of Europe, as reflected in the words of Sir Ludwig Guttmann, is that ‘sport should become a driving force for the disabled to seek or restore his contact with the world around him and this his recognition as an equal and respected citizen.

The United Nations declared 1981 to 1991 the International Decade of People with a Disability and following this decade developed the United Nations Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Persons with Disabilities. Another important outcome of these developments was the introduction of an International Day for Disabled People.

Some of these early international instruments related to sport have enabled participation in sport to grow around the world and also stimulated policy development in regions of the world. In Europe, 2003 was declared the European Year of Persons with Disabilities at the end of which a Decalogue of Adapted Sport was proposed. This was followed by a European Year of Education through Sport in 2004. Similar examples of regional policy development are evidenced by the African Decade of Disabled Persons (2000 – 2009).
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
In December 2006, the United Nations enacted a comprehensive legislation called the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The purpose of the convention is to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights by persons with disabilities. Importantly, the convention also includes in Article 30.5, specific legislation on the rights of people with a disability to participate on an equal basis with others in recreational, leisure and sporting activities.

This convention is a major step toward changing the perception of disability and ensures that societies recognise that all people must be provided with the opportunities to live life to their fullest potential, whatever that may be. Other human rights treaties, such as the conventions on the rights of children and women have had a major effect in addressing rights violations and this new convention is a major milestone in the human rights protection of people with a disability around the world.

sports and disasters

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This thematic profile introduces the concepts surrounding sport and disaster response. It includes an overview of the key issues along with links to recommended reading and resources.
Disasters, both natural and man-made, have occurred for many centuries and continue to affect the lives of millions of people across the world. Humanitarian relief efforts provide assistance to rehabilitate and rebuild communities affected by disaster. To address emotional distress, disaster responders have traditionally used a clinical mental health approach, focusing on trauma recovery. Trauma occurs when a person is exposed to a life-threatening event and their response is most often one of intense horror, fear and/or helplessness.
A psychosocial approach
In recent years humanitarian organisations have begun to look more towards psychosocial interventions to address both emotional and social needs of people affected by disasters. A psychosocial intervention will aim to use community resources in order to rebuild the coping capacities of individuals affected by disasters, thus enhancing their inner strength, responsiveness and flexibility in the face of high levels of stress and traumatic events. In other words, this re-enforces their resilience - an inner strength, responsiveness and flexibility that enable them to withstand stress and trauma.

More and more projects are emerging that use sport as a psychosocial tool in disaster response. Sport interventions are being used in the field as a non-medical approach to build the coping capacities of people affected by disasters. Psychosocial sport projects are not about winning and losing but rather about the process of helping people to restore their social and psychological health. It is important to emphasise that the definition of sport used here goes beyond competitive sport but also includes notions of play and recreation.
Sport as a component of disaster response
Although the use of sport and play as a part of psychosocial disaster response efforts outlined in this section focuses on the use of sport and play specifically, it does not mean to imply an exclusive focus on sport and play as the only element in a psychosocial response to disaster response. The points raised in this section seek to highlight particular peculiarities pertaining to sport and play that may be beneficial in disaster response, as part of a wider disaster response framework, including e.g. nutrition, health and sanitation provision; education provision, generating economic opportunities, and so on.

Sport as a Psychosocial Intervention

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The use of sport as a means to provide psychosocial support to people affected by disaster is a relatively new area of sport and development. A small number of research efforts and project evaluations have begun to help us understand the link between participation in sport and physical activity and trauma relief. While it is not yet clear how sport programmes might be effective in relieving trauma, the little evidence available (most of which focuses on children and youth) has shown that sport and play activities can enhance resilience, facilitate emotional and social stabilisation and the acquisition of new skills and abilities in people affected by disasters.
Psychosocial sport and play programmes aim to restore social well-being and psychological health through group-focused practices, tailored to fit the contexts of local culture, traditions, needs and resources. It is understood in the emergency field that group intervention is most effective, whilst it is appropriate for individuals with more serious psychological symptoms to receive individual support within the overall health system.

Psychosocial sport programmes can provide a safe, structured and friendly environment for people to begin to share their emotions through verbal and non-verbal communication. The emphasis is on building social cohesion and encouraging community members to interact and communicate with each other. Sport and physical activity can allow for brief periods of respite, focus attention away from the experience of loss and provide an opportunity to reinforce educational messages. Additionally, sport and play can provide a welcome breathing space for parents and caregivers, highlighting the impact of sport and play programmes on different levels of community members.
Creating a supportive environment through sport
Several project evaluation reports of the Fondation Terrre des hommes - Lausanne’s psychosocial programme of recreation centres after the Bam earthquake in Iran revealed that children preferred being in the group rather than ‘doing nothing at home.’ In fact, ‘having fun’ was the least popular reason children chose to participate in the sport and play programme. There are also indications that participation in psychosocial sport programmes can positively influence school performance and children’s behaviour in the home environment.

Psychosocial sport activities do not have a primary focus on competition but rather an emphasis on creating a cooperative and supportive environment in which people can share their emotions through verbal and non-verbal communication. There is no direct evidence supporting one activity over another, although contact sports should be avoided. Also, preferences for certain sports or games can differ between male and female participants for reasons relating to culture and religion.
The role of sports coaches in psychosocial healing
Coaches (sometimes referred to as animators or facilitators) have an important role in providing psychosocial support. Coaches, after training, can become trusted adults whom young people, parents, and others affected by disaster can build relationships with over a period of time. This is an important element of psychosocial healing.

There is compelling practical, anecdotal and theoretical evidence to suggest that psychosocial sport and play programmes can assist people who have experienced severe stress or trauma in a disaster setting. However, little empirical evidence exists and this has been linked to the complexities of conducting research in an emergency setting, to limited financial and technical capacities of disaster relief agencies and to a small number of validated tools to measure psychosocial impacts of sport and play.

Sport as a Psychosocial Intervention

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Key Considerations in Project Planning and Implementation

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Using sport and play in the post-disaster setting takes more than simply rolling a ball on the pitch. According to an expert account of sport programmes in Bam, when children were invited to play, “…no one moved. They were totally inhibited as if they had stayed frozen since the earthquake.”
There are a number of key considerations in developing psychosocial sport programmes to achieve maximal effectiveness. These include:
• Deliver well-structured and planned interventions based on identified psychosocial goals
• Aim to meet the needs of all community groups
• Actively recruit the less-powerful or mobile members of a community
• Develop the programme in collaboration with local organisations and agencies
• Consider long-term sustainability from the outset
The needs of the most vulnerable community groups should be considered including those of women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities. Programmes also need to be flexible enough to adapt to changing needs of participants and be sensitive to local culture, traditions and gender relationships.

In relation to sport activities, it is important to bear in mind that local attitudes towards particular sports may prevail that dictate which social groups traditionally have or had access to competitive sport. For example, if sports were considered to be only accessible to social elites within the community, disaster responses that focus on the most vulnerable should consider how using a particular sport may be interpreted within the local community.

Experience shows that efforts are more successful when emphasis has been placed on the rehabilitative and recreational aspects of sport and play, rather than the sport itself. Disaster responders and coaches must bear in mind that rules to games can be changed in order to further emphasise the psychosocial benefits of sport, including building relationships or trust, self-confidence, partnership and resiliency.

The physical space for sport and play activities is a crucial aspect to take into account in the planning and implementation of such programmes. In most disaster settings, space is particularly important, especially in camps for refugees or the displaced. Space for sport and play activities must be allocated with the participation and ‘buy in’ of the local community.

The experiences of loss, grief, guilt and other emotions can emerge in survivors of disasters as well as in disaster responders. Disaster responders can benefit from participating in physical activities which helps them both manage their own stress and trauma and to be more effective when helping others.

As with other areas of development and humanitarian aid, monitoring and evaluation of projects is essential to gauge how effectively a programme is meeting its intended aims. There are a number of challenges associated with conducting monitoring and evaluations in a post-disaster setting. However, a commitment to improve existing assessment tools will go a long way to enhance psychosocial sport programmes by building on empirical evidence.

Experts have highlighted the central role that the family and community can play in building the resilience of an individual. The participation of the family unit in overcoming trauma and accelerating the healing process is crucial.

International Charters and Recommendations

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In the humanitarian sector, recommendations and guidelines provide the basis of training and development and in planning and delivering psychosocial sport programmes in disaster response, practitioners should be aware of a number of international instruments in humanitarian relief.
With specific reference to sport and games, the Council of Europe developed recommendations in 2003 on the contribution of sport to alleviating the consequences of humanitarian disasters: “Ballons rouges.” Furthermore, leading sports organisations and international actors gathered to discuss the response from the world of sport to the tsunami in South East Asia in 2004 and have begun dialogue on avenues for future cooperation.

The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement developed a Code of Conduct in 1997 which outlines ten ethical standards in humanitarian relief. The code is voluntary and has since been signed by over 400 organisations committing to adhere to its principles.

Also in 1997, a group of NGOs and the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movements developed the Sphere Project which is a Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response. It includes a Handbook, a process of collaboration and a commitment to quality and accountability. Importantly, a new chapter was recently added to the health chapter of the Sphere Handbook on Minimum Standards in Disaster Response which provides clear messages to improve mental and social health during humanitarian assistance.

A set of Minimum Standards for Education in Emergencies, Chronic Crises and Early Reconstruction has also been developed based on the right to education. These standards were developed in 2004 by the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) which is a global network working to ensure the right to education in emergencies and post-crisis reconstruction.

The “Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings” is the latest effort sustained by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Task Force (IASC) issued in 2007, which highlights the growing international focus on psychosocial intervention in disaster response.

With an increasing number of organisations implementing sport and physical activity programmes with psychosocial aims, there is a need for recommendations and guidelines to prevent harm, guide training, development and research and promote best practice.

Sport and Economic Development

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This topic includes a number of diverse issues relating to sport’s role in economic development in developing countries
Four main areas that present the limitations and the potential of sport to contribute to economic development are discussed in dedicated sub-sections:
• Underdevelopment of sport and ‘muscle drain’ in developing countries
• Exploitation and child protection in sport
• Developing local markets through sport by means of hosting local sports events, producing low-cost and affordable sporting goods and through athletes’ remittances
• Building skills for employment through sport
This topic also includes a selected number of project profiles, which provide illustrative examples of using sport to encourage economic development.

Each sub-section includes further recommended reading with links to online documents and further sources of information.