Constitution of India Essay

Section 10(3)(c) of the Passport Act authorizes the Passport authority to impound a Passport if it deems it necessary to do so in the in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of India, friendly relations of India with any foreign country, or in the interest of the general public. Maneka’s passport was impounded by the central Government under the Passport Act in the interest of the general public. Maneka filed a writ petition challenging the order on the ground of violation of her Fundamental Rights under Article 21. One of the major grounds of challenge was that the order impounding the Passport was null and void as it had been made without affording her an opportunity to being heard in her defence. The court laid down a number of propositions seeking to make Article 21 much more meaningful than hitherto. ↠ The court reiterated the proposition that Article 14, 19 and 21 are not mutually exclusive. A law prescribing a procedure for depriving a person of ‘personal liberty’ has to meet the requirements of Article 19. Also the procedure established by law in Article 21 must answer the requirement of Article 14 as well. ↠ The expression ‘Personal liberty’ in Article 21 was given an expansive interpretation. The expression ‘Personal liberty’ ought not be read in a narrow and restricted sense so as to exclude those attributes of personal liberty which are specifically dealt with in Article 19. The right to travel abroad falls under Article 21. ↠ The most significant and creative aspect of Maneka case, is the re-interpretation by the Court of the expression ‘procedure established by law’ used in article 21. Article 21 would no longer mean that law could prescribe some semblance of procedure, however arbitrary or fanciful, to deprive a person of his personal liberty. It now means that the procedure must satisfy certain requisites in the sense of being fair and reasonable. The procedure cannot be arbitrary unfair or unreasonable. As the right to travel abroad falls under art 21, natural justice must be applied while exercising the power of impounding a Passport under the Passport Act. Although the Passport Act does not expressly provide for the requirement of hearing before a passport is impounded, yet the same has to be implied therein. Case 2 Sunil Batra vs. Delhi Administration (1980) The Court has given several directives to improve many aspects of prison administration and condition of prisoners. In this case, the Court has pointed out that its powers under Art. 32 are free from the rigid restraints of the traditional English writs. Prison torture is not beyond the reach of the Supreme Court under Article 32. For this purpose, the Court treats letters from prisoners as writ petitions. In this case, the judicial process was set in motion by a letter written by a prisoner to a Judge of the Supreme Court complaining of the brutal attack by the prison staff on a fellow prisoner. Forsaking all procedural formalities, â€Å"since freedom was at stake†, the letter was treated by the Court as a petition for the writ of Habeas Corpus. Case 3 Hussainara Khatoon vs. Home Secretary – State of Bihar (1979) Hussaainara Khatoon case of the Bihar undertrials started with an article written in Indian Express. An advocate then filed a petition under Article 32 in the Supreme Court to protect the personal liberty of the undertrials. The Supreme Court has laid great emphasis on speedy trial of criminal offences and has emphasized: â€Å"It is implicit in the broad sweep and content of Article 21†. A fair trial implies a speedy trial. No procedure can be ‘reasonable fair or just’ unless that procedure ensures a speedy trial for determination of the guilt of such person. The Supreme Court has directed release of all undertrials who have been in jail for periods longer than the maximum term of imprisonment for which they could be sentenced if convicted of the offence charged. The Court also directed that the undertrial prisoners, who are accused of multiple offences and who have already been in jail for the maximum term for which they could be sentenced on conviction, even if the sentences awarded to them were consecutive and not concurrent, should be released forthwith, since their continued detention clearly violates not only human dignity but also their Fundamental Right under Art.21 of the Constitution. The Supreme Court has taken a big innovative step forward in humanizing the administration of criminal justice by suggesting that free legal aid be provided by the State to poor prisoners facing a prison sentence. Case 4 Keshavananda Bharati vs. State of Kerala (1973) The State of Kerala passed the Kerala Land Reforms Act. 1963. This Act affected the interest of the petitioner, Keshavananda Bharati, Swamiji of a mutt. So he filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the constitution, contending that his fundamental rights under Article 14,19(1)(f),25,26 and 31 were violated by the Kerala Land Reforms Act. While the case was pending, the parliament passed three constitutional Amendments, viz., 24th, 25th & 29th Amendments. The constitution Twenty-fourth Amendment repealed article 19(1) (f) which read â€Å"to acquire, hold and dispose of property†. It also repealed Article 31, i.e., compulsory acquisition of property. It made several other changes. It also included the Kerala Land Reforms Act in the ninth schedule, thereby making them immune from attack on the ground of fundamental rights. As a result, the fundamental right to property was deleted from the constitution. The petitioner felt that, by these Amendments, he would lose the case in the court. So, he amended his writ petition before the Supreme Court, & challenged the validity of 24th, 25th & 29th Amendments. He contended that though the power of the parliament to amend was wide, it was not unlimited. The power to amend under Article 368 should not empower the parliament to destroy the basic features of the constitution. The Supreme Court’s judgment in this case is as follows: i) The constitution Twenty-fourth (Amendment) Act, 1971, section 2(a) (b) of the constitution Twenty-fifth (Amendment) Act, and the constitution Twenty-ninth (Amendment) Act are valid. ii) The decision of the majority in Golaknath’s case that the word ‘Law’ in Article 13(2) included Amendments to the constitution & the Article operated as a limitation upon the power to amend the constitution under Article 368 is erroneous, and so, is overruled. iii) The power of Amendment includes within itself the power to add, alter or repeal the various Articles of the constitution, including those relating to fundamental rights. iv) There is no power to amend or alter the basic structure of the constitution. v) The First part of the Article 31-C is valid, and the second part of the Article 31-C laying down â€Å"no law containing a declaration that if it is for giving effect to such policy shall be called in question in any court on the ground that it doesn’t give effect to such policy† is invalid. vi) There is no inherent or implied limitations on the power of Amendment under Article 368. Case 5 Air India vs. Nergesh Meerza (1981) A regulation made by Air India, a statutory corporation, fixed the normal age of retirement of air hostesses at 35 yrs but authorized the managing director to extend the same to 45 yrs at his option subject to other conditions being satisfied. The regulation was held bad as it armed the managing director with uncanalized and unguided discretion to extend the age of retirement of any air hostess. No guidelines, principles or norms were laid down subject to which the power was to be exercised. Nor was there any procedural safeguard available to an air hostess who was denied extension. A regulation providing for termination of service of an airhostess in Air India on her first pregnancy has been held to be arbitrary and abhorrent to the notions of a civilized society. Case 6 Visakha vs. State of Rajasthan (1997) The Supreme Court has declared sexual harassment of a working woman at her place of work as amounting to violation of rights of gender equality and right to life and liberty which is a clear violation of Article 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution. Article 21 guarantees right to life with dignity. Accordingly the Court has observed in this connection: â€Å"the meaning and content of the Fundamental Rights guaranteed in the constitution of India are of sufficient amplitude to encompass all the facets of gender equality including prevention of sexual harassment or abuse† Sexual harassment also violates the victim’s fundamental right under Article 19(1)(g) â€Å"to practice any profession or to carry out any occupation, trade or business†. Thus Article 32 is attracted. In the absence of any domestic law relating to sexual harassment in India, the Supreme Court has itself laid down under Article 32 some directions for prevention of such harassment. These directions are binding and enforceable and are required to be strictly observed in all work places until suitable legislation is enacted to occupy the field. Case 7 M R Balaji vs. State of Mysore (1963) An order of the Mysore Government issued under Article 15(4) reserved seats for admission to the state Medical and Engineering colleges for Backward classes(28%) and ‘more’ Backward classes(22%). This was in addition to the reservation of seats for SCs (15%) and for STs (3%). Backward and more backward classes were designated on the basis of ‘castes’ and ‘communities’ The Supreme Court characterized Article 15(4) as an exception to Article 15(1) (as well as to Article 29(2)]. The court declared the order bad on several grounds in this case. ↠ The first defect in the Mysore order was that it was based solely on caste without regard to other relevant factors and this was not permissible under Article 15(4) ↠ Secondly, the test adopted by the state to measure educational backwardness was the basis of the average of student population in the last three high school classes of all high schools in the state in relation to a thousand citizens of that community. This average for the whole state was 6.9 per thousand. The vice of the Mysore order was that it included in the list of backward classes, castes or communities whose average was slightly above, or very near or just below the state average(e.g., Lingayats (7.1) were mentioned in BC list). ↠ Thirdly, the court declared that Article 15(4) does not envisage classification between backward and more backward classes as was made by the Mysore order. In Balaji case, the Supreme Court could sense the danger in treating ‘caste’ as the sole criterion for determining social and educational backwardness. The importance of the judgment lies in realistically appraising the situation when the court said that economic backwardness would provide a more reliable yardstick for determining social backwardness because more often educational backwardness is the outcome of social backwardness. The court drew distinction between ‘caste’ and ‘class’. An attempt at finding a new basis for ascertaining social and educational backwardness in place of caste is reflected in the Balaji decision. The court also ruled that reservation under Article 15(4) should be reasonable. It should not be such as to defeat or nullify the main rule of equality enshrined in Article 15(1). While it would not be possible to predicate the exact permissible percentage of reservation, it can be stated in a general and broad way that it ought to be less than 50%. Case 8 Indra Sawhney vs. Union of India (1992) (Mandal Commission Case) The Supreme Court has taken cognizance of many complex but very momentous questions having a bearing on the future welfare and stability of the Indian society. ↠ The overall reservation in a year is limited to a maximum of 50% ↠ Amongst the classes granted reservation, those who have been benefited from reservation and have thus improved their social status (called the ‘creamy layer’ by the court), should not be allowed to benefit from reservation over and over again. This means that the benefit of reservation should not be misappropriated by the upper crust but that the benefit of reservation should be allowed to filter down to the lowliest so that they may benefit from reservation to improve their position. The court has said that if a member of IAS, IPS or any other All India Service, his social status rises; he is no longer socially disadvantaged. This means that, in effect, a family can avail of the reservation only once. ↠ An element of merit has been introduced into the scheme of reservation. o Promotions are to be merit based and are to be excluded from the reservation rule. o Certain posts are to be excluded from the reservation rule and recruitment to such posts is to be merit based. Minimum standards have to be laid for recruitment to the reserved posts.

Activity Based Costing †Glaser Health Products Case Essay

Introduction Glaser Health Products manufactures medical items for the health care industry. Production involves machining, assembly and painting. Finished units are then packed and shipped. The financial controller is interested to introduce an activity-based costing (ABC) system to allocate (or distribute) indirect costs to products. Indirect costs, as distinct from direct costs, cannot be unambiguously linked to specific products. The controller would like to calculate product costs based on ABC for planning and control, not inventory valuation. Under an ABC system, the allocation of costs to products is achieved through at least four analytical steps. Firstly, costs are grouped into activity levels. Secondly, cost drivers are selected for each activity level to link activities with costs. Thirdly, for each activity level, a cost function is defined to arithmetically describe the relationship between cost drivers and costs. Finally, a unit allocated cost is calculated for each product (Schneider, 2012). This paper outlines a process for introducing an ABC system at Glaser. The paper is divided into six sections. The first section groups cost categories identified at Glaser by division. The second section groups cost categories by division and activity level. The third section identifies specific cost drivers for each activity level. The fourth section explains preliminary stage allocation. The fifth section explains primary stage allocation. The final section summarizes the main conclusions. Cost Categories by Division Glaser is organized into three functional divisions – Operations, Sales, and Administration. Operations is the only cost or activity center. Glaser recognizes 22 cost categories. These cost categories are grouped by division in Table 1, shown in the appendix. Cost Categories by Division by Activity Level The second step in an ABC system involves grouping costs based on the level of activity at which they are generated. An activity involves the movement or handling of any part, component, or finished product within the relevant organizational unit. The rationale for this grouping is that costs at each activity level are determined by different cost drivers. Four levels of activity are commonly recognized – unit, batch, product and facility level.  Unit-level activities are the most granular level of activity. They are performed each time a sub-unit is produced. Unit-level activities are on-going and reflect basic production tasks. Direct labor or direct materials are examples. Costs of these activities mainly vary according to the number of units produced. Batch-level activities are relevant to batch (rather than continuous) production processes. They are performed each time a batch of product sub-units is produced. Typical examples of these costs relate to machine setups, order processing, and materials han ¬dling. Costs of these activities vary mainly according to the number of batches produced, not the number of units in each the batch. Product-level activities support production of each product. The costs of these activities vary mainly according to the number of separate product models. Examples include maintaining bills of materials, processing engineering changes, and product testing routines. Facility-level activities are common to a variety of different products and are the most difficult to link to individual product-specific activities. These activities sustain the production process at an overall production plant or facil ¬ity. Examples include plant supervision, rental expense and other building occupancy costs. Some firms, including Glaser, choose not to allocate facility-level costs to product costs. Based on these activity level distinctions, the 22 Glaser cost categories may be grouped by division and activity level as shown in Table 2. By way of digression, it is worth mentioning that as a broad generalization, unit-level activities tend to generate mainly variable costs while and facility-level activities tend to generate mainly fixed costs, although there can be exceptions. Activities in the other two activity levels tend to generate a mixture of variable and fixed (Hansen & Mowen, 2006). Cost Drivers by Activity Level by Division Cost drivers can be identified for each activity or cost category based on observation, discussions with management, simulations and statistical studies. The key is to determine the behavior of indirect costs with respect to activity or resource usage in each activity center (Leslie, 2009). These efforts have identified the eight cost drivers shown in Table 3. Direct  labor assembly costs are, by their nature, directly traceable to individual products. Therefore the relevant cost driver for this cost is the number of Direct Assembly Labor Hours. The other 21 cost categories are indirect costs. At the unit activity level, electricity assembly costs are likely to vary with Direct Labor Hours, Assembly. Similarly, the three machining costs grouped at the unit-activity level are likely to vary with by the number of Direct Labor Hours, Machining. Secondly, at the batch activity level, paint cost is likely to vary mainly with the Number of Batches Processed. Painting activity is the only batch activity at Glaser. Thirdly, at the product activity level, the two Operations costs are likely to vary mainly with the Number of Units Produced and the three Sales costs are also likely to vary mainly with the Number of Units Produced. Finally, at the facility-level, the five Operations costs are likely to vary mainly with the Number of Units Produced, the Square Feet of Building Space Used, Payroll Costs, the Number of Employees, and the Change in Number of Employees. The three Sales costs are also likely to vary mainly with the Number of Employees. The three Administration costs are likely to vary mainly with the Number of Employees, the Change in Number of Employees and the number of Square Feet of Space Used. In summary, eight separate cost drivers may be used by Glaser to link activities with indirect costs and finally allocate those costs to individual products. These cost drivers are summarized by activity level by division in Table 3. Preliminary Stage Allocation Direct costs can be linked immediately to a product without the need for a cost driver. This is not true for indirect costs. An indirect cost requires a cost driver to link that cost with an activity and finally a product (Kimmel, et. al., 2010, Chapter 5). The first step in allocating indirect costs to products is to complete a preliminary stage allocation. This involves allocating the support center costs to the activity centers. In the case of Glaser, there is only one activity center, Operations. The Glaser controller has decided that the ABC system implemented at Glaser should allocate all indirect cost categories to products except for the three Sales and three Administration categories classified as facility-level costs. The only non-activity center costs that need to be assigned are the three product-level Sales division costs. This allocation may best be demonstrated  with an example as summarized by Table 4 provided in the appendix. The table assumes Glaser produces two products, A and B, with 30,000 units of each product produced during the period. It also assumes that product-level Sales division costs total $300,000. Allocation of these non-activity center costs result in unit costs of $5 for Product A and $5 for Product B. These unit costs are identical at $5 because the number of units produced is equal at 30,000 units for Product A and 30,000 units for Product B. These non-activity center unit costs need to be added to unit costs derived from the primary stage allocation. Primary Stage Allocation In the primary stage allocation, activity center (that is, Operations division) costs are assigned to each of the two products. In the example summarized by Table 5, the 13 costs assigned to Operations totaled $2,041,000. Allocation of these costs based on the various cost drivers results in unit costs of $40.60 for Product A and $27.43 for Product B. Once the $5 non-activity center unit cost is added to each product, the total allocated unit cost is $45.60 and $32.43 for Product A and B respectively. Conclusions Accounting provides information about the financial health of a firm. That information is used by a variety of stakeholders and other interested parties including managers, investors, investment analysts, employees, suppliers, customers, financial journalists, and regulators. At the broadest level, the information is used to improve resource allocation. ABC is a good example of accounting data being used to raise resource efficiency. ABC allows management to methodically identify activities and resources used to produce a product. The system distributes indirect costs to individual products and in that way improves product costing and pricing which ultimately affects buying decisions by consumers and investment decisions by management and investors (Edmonds & McNair, 2012). Finally, the Glaser controller decided that the ABC system at Glaser will not allocate all indirect cost categories to products. The three Sales and three Administration division cost categories classified as facility-level costs are excluded from the allocation process. To that extent, costs are not fully distribute or allocated to products. The excluded sales and Administration costs must be recognized at some stage during the product price setting process otherwise those costs will not be recovered by the resultant product prices. References Edmonds, T.; Olds, P. & McNair, F. (2012). Fundamental financial accounting concepts. Kindle Edition. Hansen, D. R. & Mowen, M. M. (2006). Cost management accounting and control. Ohio: Thomas South-Western. Kimmel, P.D., Weygandt, J.J. & Kelso, D.E. (2010). Financial accounting: Tools for business decision-making (5th ed.). John Wiley Sons: Hoboken, NJ. Leslie, C. (ed.)(2009). Management accounting: information for creating and managing value. McGraw-Hill Australia. Schneider, A. (2012). Managerial accounting: Decision making for the service and manufacturing sectors. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education.

The Wonder of Motion Pictures Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Wonder of Motion Pictures - Movie Review Example The opening credits start off in the Locker-room of the Tyrell Corporation during the day with the words, "It's magnified and deeply revealed. Flecks of green and yellow in a field of milky blue. Icy filaments surround the undulating centre," ("Blade Runner" p.1). Interpreting the author's choice of words, the 'field of milky blue' appears to be the sky itself. This description falls within the definition of Mimesis being that it uses descriptive tone to introduce a visual understanding of a scene. While it also fits within the parameters of Diegesis based on telling the reader at the beginning where they are, it uses more of Mimesis. The next paragraph deals more so with verbal choices that give a better sense of the physical environment for which the story is taking place. While there is a continued mention of colour, there is also an addition of 'hard' words to describe the items within the scene. Such as, "The eye is brown in a tiny screen. On the metallic surface below, the words VOIGHT-KAMPFF are finely etched. There's a touch-light panel across the top and on the side of the screen, dial that registers fluctuations of the iris," ("Blade Runner" p.1). ... With that being said, the previous paragraph detailing the milky blue and the flecks of green and yellow, in keeping with the theme of the iris, may actually be tied in together with the description of a human eye. The 'field of a milky blue' would be if one was to look into the eye of a person whose iris was blue. It is common for people to have small particles of a different colour that lies within their eye, so the 'flecks of green and yellow' would be the slight colour imperfections within the eye itself. As the script goes further, the author uses narration to give the story a clean movement from beginning to end. The reader is able to keep in line with how the story is intended to proceed. The frequency of descriptive words plays into the author's narration intent. For a piece of work to be best comprehended and ultimately enjoyed, the narrative has to be at which a clearer picture is given of what it is that is trying to be said in the first place. The following two paragraphs are important to mention, especially in deciphering the intent of their usage, and the meaning of how the author may intend to have the story play out.  

Law and state coursework 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Law and state coursework 1 - Essay Example Thus in theory, a strong Parliament keeps the government in check. Whether this is true or not, however, has been the subject of lively, sometimes contentious, debate for more than a century. Marshall (1989 pp. 2-4) was of the opinion that the phrase â€Å"Collective responsibility† invokes in the first place that the Crown is advised by a collectivity. Collective responsibility is generally represented as one of the major conventions of the constitution. It involves three sets of practices. The first is the Confidence principle, which requires governments to resign or advise dissolution in case of defeats in the House of Commons (understandably, only defeats on specific motions of no confidence are now thought to compel this consequence). The second, the Unanimity principle, states that all members of the administration speak and vote together and as one in the House of Commons; and the third is the Confidentiality principle, which asserts that members of the administration are entitled to the ministerial prerogative to resist disclosure of information. This last principle has consistently been pleaded as the ground for restricting information that can be given b y civil servants to Parliamentary Select Committees, the press, and the public in general. According to Morley (1889, Marshall e. pp. 17-19), the doctrine of collective responsibility is the most important of four principal features of the British system of Cabinet government. The second principal feature is that the Cabinet is held answerable immediately to the majority of the House of Commons, and through them to the electorate. Thirdly, the Cabinet is selected exclusively from one party, which is the general rule, and which identifies the British Parliament as a ‘strong party’ system. Occasionally this rule is breached, but only on the occasion of some ‘uncommon, peculiar, and transitory

Taxation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 10

Taxation - Essay Example This new progressive income tax introduced by Pitt saw the people remitting a levy of 2 old pence for every pound on incomes that were more than  £60 (this minimum amount was reviewed in 2014 and fixed at  £5348). The levy actually increased up to a maximum amount of 2 shillings (10 percent) particularly on incomes more than  £200. Pitt had projected a total receipt of  £10 million from the new tax but in actual sense it raised just over  £6 million in 1799 (James, 2009, pg. 30). This income tax introduced by Pitt was levied between 1799 and 1802 and was abolished by Henry Addington basically during the peace of Amiens. Addington had actually taken over as prime Minister following the resignation of Pitt in 1801 as a result of Catholic Emancipation. Recommence of the hostilities in 1803 saw the reintroduction of income tax by Addington; however, it was re-abolished in 1816 a year after the Waterloo Battle. Income Tax Act 1842 by Sir Robert Peel again saw the reintroduction of the income tax in the United Kingdom due to the growing deficit in the budget. This new income was only levied on incomes above  £150 which in 2014 was fixed at  £11,956 (James, 2009, pg. 41). Income tax in the UK has practically changed over the years. Firstly it was levied on a person’s income even though the persons were not beneficially entitled to the income which was taxed however; at the moment a person pays tax only on the income to which they are beneficially entitled. In 1965, an introduction of corporation tax took out most companies from the then income tax net. Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1970 consolidated the changes in the taxation. Further, there were changes in the taxation schedules. For instance, in 1988, Schedule B was abolished, in 1996, Schedule C was abolished and in 2003, schedule E was also abolished. The remaining Schedules were then superseded by an act introduced in 2005(Income Tax (Trading and other Income) Act 2005 particularly for the

Business Research Individual Work 1 Week 8 Essay

Business Research Individual Work 1 Week 8 - Essay Example Lastly, there was the stratum for the 100 taxi drivers in each of the major company who were to be interviewed. Random sampling was used in each of the strata mentioned above for example for choosing the countries, cities, taxi companies and lastly for the taxi drivers. There was no specified order for choosing any of the categories above and hence an assumption that the interviewers chose the kth item in each stratum is used. This sampling method not only simplifies the whole sampling method in the large population as well as reduces the expenses of having to travel to different places or collect unnecessarily large information. The fact that there are diverse drivers also makes the information collected generalizable (Zikmund, Babin, Carr and Griffin, 2012). The population in this case study was the taxi drivers because they were the ones whose information was being sought and who formed the basis for the whole research. However, in order to get the information from the taxi drivers but ensure the information was generalizable as well as was accurate and reliable, it was necessary to work harder. The taxi drivers had to be found in different countries which meant not only choosing the countries but the cities as well. Since the number of interviews to be conducted were many, it was necessary to find a taxi company with large number of drivers than the provided approximate of 100 drivers in each company so that they can be randomly chosen. The sample in the case was the number of the taxi drivers in each major taxi company which is 100 specified in the case study. The 100 taxi drivers were declared the sample because they were the ones who were to participate directly in the interviews for the research being carried out. The sampling method as mentioned above is the stratified sampling technique which is under the probability sampling methods because it is purely based on probability and not on judgment of the

Corporate governance Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Corporate governance - Literature review Example A comparison of different perspectives will also be discussed in this paper. Corporate Governance, in broader terms, can be defined as regulations, legislation and the procedures, which govern, standardize and control the whole business operations. Corporate Governance encompasses internal elements, such as managers, executives, shareholders, or organizational structure, and the external elements, such as customers, suppliers and government laws. The purpose of defining the corporate governance is to generate the well-organized and prescribed structure of the organization in a way that operates in the best manner for all organizational members. It guarantees that the corporation has implemented the prescribed rules, moral duties, and best practices. That is why, organizations have developed their operations effectively at local level, state level, and also global level. Within contemporary years, the concept of corporate governance has been attending much focus, as there has emerged eminent outrages, such as misuse of corporate authority and purported illega l actions taken by corporate managers. The establishment of â€Å"civil and criminal suits†, against the people who misuse the name of the corporation to fulfill their illegal interests, is a vital part of corporate governance (Rouse, 2008). Corporate Governance is basically the established structures, codes, and procedures, which controls the corporations. It establishes guiding principles which help in providing direction and managing the organization in order to achieve organizational objectives in the most effective way. Such established systems enhance the organizational value and are fruitful for all members in the long run. Organizational members include all stakeholders which are affected by such system, such as directors, stockholders, suppliers, managers, employees, and general people. The organizational management undertakes themselves

Managing Products and Finance Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Managing Products and Finance - Assignment Example Under a process cost system, the key points in costing are the various departments or processes in the production cycle. In a process cost system, the focal points in accumulating manufacturing costs are the individual production departments (or processes) involved in the production cycle. As a first step, the cost of raw materials, direct labour and factory overhead applicable to each department or process for a given period of time is compiled. Then the average cost of running a unit of product through each department is determined by dividing the total departmental cost by the number of units processed in that department during the period. When a product moves through two or more departments, the total unit cost of finished product is accumulated by tracing the costs of incurred in each department to the product as it moves from process to process. A basic objective of a process cost system is to determine the unit cost of direct materials, direct labour and overhead for each manufacturing process or department. These unit costs become the basis for valuing inventories and for tracing the flows of costs though the departmental work in process accounts and finally to finished goods inventory and to cost of goods sold (Meigs & Meigs, p1022-1033). To assess all the processes through whi... To evaluate the favorable and unfavorable variances determining labor capacity and efficiency. To inspect the reasons behind the unfavorable labour efficiency variance and total direct labour variance. To assess all the processes through which the production of the three doors passes in order to depict the correct picture of the process of production and the space occupied by joinery business comprising 5 units for every step involved in the production. To critically figure out the causes resulting into the tightening of joinery shop and to examine the existing shop layout. To gather the required data and information necessary to visualize the positioning and placement of machines used in the process of production within the joinery shop. To put forth suggestions for changes in the process and procedures within the joinery shop outlet to make it sufficiently spacious to carry out the process of production in different units of the shop. This study would help the company to reassign space to different units of joinery shop as appropriate and required for the process to be completed properly. Suggestion and Reason for Extending the Study The report has been extended to the study of process and procedures of materials and goods moving between the different estate units in order to give a complete account of the space occupied by different units through which the production of the three doors passes. This analysis has been considered necessary for an investigation into the effectiveness of product management being carried out by the company. The company did not have any provisions for product management at the outset. After having invested in a combined thicknesser and planer, the

Smile and the World Smiles Back at You Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Smile and the World Smiles Back at You - Essay Example According to Grandey, Fisk, Matilla, Jansen, and Sideman (2005a), it is particularly important to appear both competent and likeable in making a good impression. Any part of the body can be used in nonverbal communication. However, one part, the face, is the most expressive. Various parts of the face and how they are used are strong ways of communicating: eye contact, frowning, dropping one's jaw, pouting, crying, smiling, and more. Though each of these topics can be a paper in and of themselves, it is the last - smiling - that will be the focus of this paper, specifically its role in retail sales. The paper will look at two factors: 1) Whether the salesperson smiled at a new customer as a function of whether the salespersons' previous customer interaction resulted in a sale or not and, 2) Whether the different conditions (smile/no-smile) led to a visibly different response (positive/engaged or negative/distanced) from the new customer. Further detail on the research hypotheses will be presented at the end of this section. There is a lot of literature on nonverbal communication and smiling. ... Duchenne smiles use specific muscles around the cheeks and the eyes, and raise the cheeks. Some authors refer to these as a "felt" or "authentic" smiles, and they are consistently preferred by observers to the non-Duchenne smile as reported by Ekman, 1992; Ekman & Friesen, 1982; and Frank, Ekman, & Friesen, 1993 (as cited in Grandey et al. 2005a). This division, while valuable for some research, also makes comparing research studies difficult as not all studies detail the "type" of smile of the person being observed. In addition, not all researchers are knowledgeable in the differences between the two types and how to assess if a subject (i.e. observed salesperson during field study) exhibited one or the other. However, given the many references to the two types of smiles, it is important to discuss the two types here. Swinyard (2003) completed a complex, multi-hypotheses study on the effect of salesperson mood, shopper behavior, and customer service looking at two store types (department store, discount store). He did not, however, articulate how "mood" was shown in the study, thus introducing complications, such as whether a smile (seemingly evidence of a good mood) was Duchenne or non-Duchenne, and the possible impact that might have had. Expectedly, he found that "store salespeople in a good mood will provide better customer service than those in a bad mood." This may seem to be a statement of the obvious, but "better customer service" is a hallmark of successful companies, particularly as he cited, Nordstrom. "Better customer service" does not always have to be complicated, it can be a genuine smile and a warm greeting. Hall and Horgan (2003) substantiate the

Relevance of Earlier Warfare to Modern Warfare Essay Example for Free

Relevance of Earlier Warfare to Modern Warfare Essay The art of War has been the subject of great scholarly activity as the attributes that make a person a skilled Commander in times of War have arose great curiosity amongst statesmen, generals and philosophers alike. More surprisingly, the advent of modern warfare has cast a shadow of fallacy on the minds of many individuals and has made them to believe that the current military professional has nothing to learn from the great commanders of the past as he is too â€Å"well equipped† to dwell on such detail. The truth is that history is the best teacher and as this paper progresses, I will be utilizing historic references to explain my point of contention that there is still a lot to learn from the likes of Fredrick the Great, Napoleon and Ulysses Grant. Argument The first and foremost evidence to support my thesis is that there is similarity between the goals of the current military professional and his counterpart from centuries ago. This similarity is more profound if you find yourself fighting for the same ideals, the same land and the same enemy. It is this similarity between the two that allows the current military professional to reassess himself in light of what is happening today. For example, according to Adam Hart – Davis (2007), the prime reason for the fall of Napoleon was that he invaded Russia, in the year 1812 (P. 179). The Russian Generals tactfully withdrew from territory destroying their own towns, farms, cultivation and infrastructure along the way. A month after defeating the Russians outside Moscow, Napoleon decided to retreat back to Paris out of concern of loss of control. However, his decision to do so in the winter proved fatal as the lack of shelter and infrastructure killed his troops physically and mentally. The Russians kept pursuit of the retreating forces and managed to kill scores of them. By the time Napoleon managed to get back home, all that was left of his army was a demoralized handful of men against an efficiently trained numerous force that had left Paris with him on the way to Russia earlier that year, contributing to his eventual fall in 1815. According to Gilbert (2004), a 130 years on, Hitler made the same mistake when he invaded Russia in 1941 just when the harsh winter started (P. 249). The Russians employed the same strategy and after defeating the Germans at the siege of Moscow and Stalingrad, they chased the retreating German forces back into Germany proper and were instrumental in the fall of Berlin and the end of the Nazi regime itself. Thus, had Hitler paid attention to the fault at which his predecessor had been, there was a great probability that he would not have met the end that he did in 1945. The second point of argument is that although how we conduct warfare these days has changed, the strategy or tactfulness has not. No matter what resources in weaponry and personnel that a general may have at his disposal, there is no denying that as far as tact is concerned, there is always a lot to learn. Consider Fredrick the Great who, in 1756, fearing a joint attack by major European powers including Russia, Sweden, and Hapsburg Austria etc launched a pre-emptive strike on its neighbors. According to The strategy was of immense benefit as he was able to destroy part of the hostile forces that allowed moral and tangible support when confronted by a full scale invasion. According to Adam Hart Davis (2007), the same strategy was followed by Israel in 1967 when on rumors of a joint Arab attack on her lands compelled her to make a pre emptive strike on Egypt, Syria and Jordan (P. 353). The result was that Israel doubled its land area in just six days by capturing the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank and the Golan heights. Again, what mattered was not the advanced weaponry that Israel had but the line of thought that was mutual between Fredrick the Great in 1756 and the Israeli leadership of 1967. Another example is the use of landscape and climate by the Russian Tsar Alexander in 1812 against Napoleon and by the Russian leader Joseph Stalin in 1941 against Nazi Germany. This use of the climate is yet to be seen again but, according to Adam Hart – Davis (2007), the use of the terrain and the landscape by the Viet-Cong against American forces in Vietnam and the Afghan Guerrillas against Soviet troops in Afghanistan enforces my point that tact is something which can be learned from the great Generals of the past (P. 355, 373-4). The last reason to support my thesis is that the rules of engagement have not changed as weaponry or tools have improved and not changed completely. This calls for a more proactive approach as to how we address the issue at hand, namely, whether the current military professional stand to benefit from the study of the Great generals of the past. Consider an example. The Trojan War, as depicted by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey, could be the first example in warfare history of deception. Whereby the Trojan horse was meant to be a gift, it turned out to be a mechanism as to how the Athenian forces enter the city. Contrast this with reports that in the run up to the 2003 Second Gulf War. According to Sifry and Cerf (2007), American intelligence agencies planted false evidence to make Saddam Hussein believe that the coalition attack would come from Turkey and not from the Southern neighboring countries of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia (P. 114). This forced Saddam to place more battalions to defend the Northern front than would have been necessary. Thus, it can be argued that weaponry or tools, to a large extent have remained the same in nature but have changed in form. Guns have replaced swords but their use remains the same. Cannon guns have been replaced but their use remains the same. The Trojan horse has been replaced by false intelligence and thus the use remains the same. In the end, the point of contention is that if the tools at hand for the general have only changed in form and not in substance, there is every reason to believe that the current military professional stands to benefit a lot by studying his counterparts from centuries ago. Conclusion Thus, as can be seen, there is still a lot for the current military professional to learn from his predecessors. The reasons are that situations repeat themselves, tactfulness is an attribute that can be readily applied and does not wither with age and the use of the tools at the military disposal remains the same. It can be argued, thus, that the greatest armies of our time will not be those that have the most advanced weaponry but those with the best Generals who happen to know the history of those before them yet alike them. Adam Hart Davis (2007). History: The Definitive Visual Guide from the Dawn of Civilization to the Present Day. London: Dorling Kindersley. Gilbert, M. (2004). The Second World War: A complete History. London: Henry Holt and Co. Sifry, M. Cerf. C. (2007). Iraq War Reader: History, Documents, Opinions. . New york: Simon Schuster

Today The Worlds Becoming More Interconnected Information Technology Essay

Today The Worlds Becoming More Interconnected Information Technology Essay This dissertation will evaluate the network security issues, its current situation, existing network policies, key network security factors and challenges in SMB, and aims to propose the recommendations for improving the current policies and procedures to reduce or alleviate the impact of the security risk. The research plan includes survey, primary and secondary data collection on studying network security aspects. Background of the study Today the world becoming more interconnected than it was few years ago and the reason is fast growing network technologies and Internet. Nowadays it is almost impossible imagine world without Internet and network. As the speed is increasing the security issues related to the network security going up as well. If in early years we had minor threats and worries about the vulnerability and protection of our data in the internal and external network in a small business nowadays we should take care more than it was. About 10-15 years ago there was not even a sign that the technology will grow so fast. As an example the speed of Local Area Network will change from 10 M/bits to 1G/bit, the wireless technology such as Wi-Fi and WiMAX will come up, the mobile network technology will evaluate and could reach the speed when everyone can watch a movie in HD format. Fast and reliable network has born other new problems and concerns how to keep the internal data secure and not to be compromised (Richardson, 2008). Every technology and invention has another side as well such as security aspect. Network security has huge importance as the intellectual property and security data can be acquired easily through Internet if the organization has not any information and security policy. From what was said above we can define the Network security as: The combinations of policies and procedures and countermeasure acts implemented to avoid and keep track of exploitation, destruction, disclosure and well-implemented policies for blocking viruses, hackers from the accessing or changing secure information. Purpose and significance of the research area The pace of network technologies has risen and the hazards and threats, hackers attacks (Christian S. FÃ ¶tinger, Wolfgang Ziegler , 2005) to the business on the rise as well. With this speed we need to be aware and prepare network security policies and procedures in order to be ready to face any possible attacks, attempts to destroy, obtain or change any data being held by the business. The main purpose of this research is to define the awareness of network security and its effect to the small business by the employees, find out the current security policies and procedures and help to improve it and alleviate existing problems. Also this document will provide to small business owners and employees with a better understanding of network security and make recommendations to understanding and acknowledging the threats. Statement of the problem Statement of the Problem For a ordinary PC user the impact of virus attack or security breaches can be much less that if it had a place in an organization. The PC is generally just a single entity and any network security breaks impact is not distributed beyond that PC. But if it was in an organization premises it could have more serious impact not only on that particular work station also it could be spread among the organization as well. The most companies there are often consist of a number of different systems, different type of information, terminals for processing customers data, servers (Knapp, 2011). Having such a complex structure has determined multiple points of entry and source of vulnerability which can be used by hackers, viruses and who has any intention for espionage or attacks. Internet connection adding additional problems to maintain small business network environment secure and safe. The business use e-mail and Internet to communicate inside and outside the organisation. This poses other secure issues like spreading computer viruses and provided an additional opportunity for the hackers, which can easily enter an organization network and wreak havoc on total intranet. By growing the pace of online business the network security has become significantly important and costly to be ignored. Another problems are that most computer users have not enough knowledges about computer and network security (Kenneth C. Laudon, Jane P.Laudon, 2012). It might be result of lack of network policy of the organization or even not existence such a policy. Another problem is most of small business has limited fund to keep their own IT specialist or to have some IT companies on the side. All these problems stated above have impact on the business securities and can reduce companys ability to ensure confidentiality, authenticity and data integrity. Main research question and Sub questions Main research question: What are the key aspects and impact of the current network security policy of small and mid enterprise and what recommendation could be made to make the policy effective? Sub questions What are key defining factors of a Network security? What are key defining factors of a Network security for SME? What are challenges in Network Security? What recommendations to SME? What recommendations to any general SMEs? Plan of work 1. Written project proposal (draft) 18th January 2013 2. Written project proposal (final) 25th January 2013 3. Information and data collection 2nd February 2013 4. Analysis of the information collected 9th February 2013 5. Final writing of the dissertation February 2013 6. Submission Before deadline March 2013 Chapter summary Network security has become an essential need for any organization. The security issues and threats are increasing everyday and making high speed broadband weather wired or wireless insecure and less reliable. Working out the weak sides of the network security and improving the security policy and procedures are most important things towards which every owner or manager of small business must pay their attention (Spivey, 2007). This dissertation aims to help a small business to improve or alleviate that burden and network issues what they face in everyday base. Chapter 2. Preliminary literature review Chapter introduction This chapter will provide the collection of information and critical literature review which was collected and examined for the purpose of the study. Information mostly related to the network security issues and to the main and sub-questions question of this dissertation. The review gathered information regarding past and current network security management issues and highlighted nowadays security trends in wired and wireless network. Background of the Network security The computer security problem has the same age as the computer itself. Even in early 1950s the necessity of proper hardware-based protection already recognized. ( Karl Maria Michael de Leeuw, Jan Bergsta, 2007). But that was a time when everything could be controlled physically and have not had that complexity. Later the Internet took a birth on 1969 by Advanced Research Project Agency Network (ARPANet) which was accredited by USA Department of Defence (DoD). ARPANet was successful from the beginning and in two years it had 15 nodes (23 hosts) and the e-mail application was invented. Despite of the fact that originally it was designed for the research purposes and was aimed to allow scientist to share their data and access remote computers, electronic mail quickly becomes one of the most popular application. This gives for ARPANet to become a high-speed digital office of that time, where people could collaborate on their research projects and have a discussion various interests and t opics. On October 1972 the International Conference on Computer Communications at the Washington DC formed International Network Working Group (INWG) which main role was to identify the needs for a combined effort in advancing networking technologies and Vinton Cerf appointed first Chairman who becomes known as Father of the internet (Hobbes, 2012). In 1982 the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP) TCP/IP, as the protocol suite, were established for ARPANET and it was first time when all computers in the network were presented as a collection of networks or Internet. Shortly in 1984 as the number of hosts becomes more than 1,000 it becomes more complicated to remember each host address. Therefore the Domain Name Service (DNS) was presented the main purpose of which was to translate the numeric computer addresses presented as173.194.34.132 into understandable host name www.google.com. In 20 years the number of Internet hosts broke 1,000,000 and in this time period the Internet users already have faced with accidentally-propagated status-message virus in 1980, Internet worm which has affected ~6,000 of the 60,000 hosts on the Internet in 1988, and presented many different network protocols such as DNS, DHCP, UUCP, NNTP. It also have connected the Europe and North and South America continents (Hobbes, 2012 ). Starting from 1990s the Internet becomes available to the public. The main reason the World Wide Web (WWW) protocol was introduced and become more popular. First Internet browsers Netscape and Microsoft were competing by that time. Since then the Internet has become the source of threats for network security and any business network face constant threats from various types of viruses, worms, malware and spyware software and more. Design and achieving plans and network policies for network security for small business requires big effort to protect the business from these threats. Although numbers of studies were carried and information security law in operation we still facing new threats and it cannot be overcome by single and simple action. Below the key defining factors, challenges and main security factors will be reviewed. Key defining factors for Network security Regarding the key factors of network security different sources has controversial and different opinions and views. Depends on the place and auditorium where the survey was conducted this factors are different. The information security breaches survey in UK conducted by PwC with association InfoSecurity Europe, Reed Exhibitions and BIS in April 2012 find out interesting facts. According to this survey report up to 76% of small business had security breaches, 54% of small business dont have any plans or programme for improving or educating their staff about the security risks. The same time controls are not keeping same pace with business changes and most of SMBs (56%) did not carry out and checked their external providers security and just relaying on contracts. The same time 52% of SMB depends on social networking sites. The tendency to move towards mobile technology poses another risk and threats. As this is nowadays requirement almost 34% of SMB allows mobile devices to connect to their systems without insuring or mitigating the security risks. More than half (58%) SMBs in the UK even not trying to evaluate the network security effectiveness. Another key factor was the staff network security awareness. Nearly 45% of the staff were not informed or had lack or small information. (PwC, Infosecurity Europe, Reed Exhibitions, BIS, 2012). Almost the same percentage (48%) the network security awareness have resulted another survey which was conducted by GFI Software (GFI, 2007) Everything what was said above has relation only to the additional factors which can improve and help to build robust and secure network. Except that we should take in our account other key factors which might bring more tangible and intangible harms to SMB.