Friday 28 December 2018

HUMAN RESOURCE ACCOUNTING: THE WAY FORWARD

Human resources are one of the most important assets of an organization that are very different from the physical assets. Physical assets unlike human assets do not have emotions and feelings, they don’t get depreciated.

Human resource accounting is accounting for people as the organizational resources. It includes measurement of cost and value of people to organizations. It includes cost of recruiting, selecting, hiring, training and developing employees and judging their economic value to the organization.

The American Accounting Associations’ Committee on Human Resource Accounting (1973) has defined Human Resource Accounting as “the process of identifying and measuring data about human resource and communicating this information to interested parties”

In the traditional concept of accounting all expenses on human resources like training, recruitment, etc. are treated as expenses and written off against revenue instead of being treated as investments, to be amortized over a period of time.

Such a system will ensure proper furnishing of cost value information about acquisition, allocation, development and maintenance of human resources, their effective monitoring by management, development of management principles in context etc.

There are various methods of valuation of human resource accounting like Historical Cost Method, Replacement Cost Approach, Opportunity Cost, etc.

In the first method the actual cost incurred on recruiting, hiring, training and development of human resources are capitalized and amortized over the expected useful life of the human resources. If the human assets are liquidated before their expected useful life of human resources the whole amount not written off is charged to the income of the year in which liquidation takes place.

The second method values the human resources on the assumption that if the current human resources are to be replaced with equally qualified and experienced individuals what will be the cost to the company in recruiting, hiring, training and developing the replacement.

As per the third method several divisional heads bid for the services of various people they need among themselves and then include the bid price in the investment cost.

These methods have certain advantages as well as disadvantages; therefore, there is always a bone of contention among the firms that which method is ideal one.

Also as there are no standardized procedures developed so far, only few organizations are providing the data but only as additional information. The system will take a few years to flourish but it is indeed the right way forward.


Ms. Divya Gupta

Assistant Professor

Department of Management Studies


Wednesday 26 December 2018


ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS

Increasing attention towards the environment   becomes important once we realize that we are but a small part of the planet. Since time immemorial we have thrived on the abundant resources provided to us by nature. In our greed for more and more we have been extracting the maximum with total disregard to the fact that our insatiable greed has done irreparable damage to nature. There is an increasing awareness that if we continued in our quest without paying back to our planet and Mother Nature our very existence would become difficult.
People have voiced their concerns in World Forums. Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) was published between 1999 and 2005. It was developed to evaluate environmental sustainability relative to the paths of other countries. It was followed by Environmental Performance Index (EPI). This index was developed from the Pilot Environmental Performance Index (published in 2002).It was designed to supplement the environmental targets set forth in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. EPI is a method of quantifying the environmental performance of a state's policies. Both these indices were developed by Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, Yale University and Center for International Earth Science Information Network, Columbia University, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.
Another world body, The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system. It also serves as an authoritative advocate for the sustainability of the global environment.
 UNEP's mission is "to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations."
UNEP has a multifaceted agenda for promoting and developing regional programmes for environmental sustainability. It creates environmental awareness. Another important function is providing country-level environmental capacity building and technology support. It also helps to develop international environmental law, and provides expert advice on the development and use of environmental concepts and instruments. A major contribution being - the facilitator in the coordination of UN activities on matters concerned with the environment, and ensuring, through cooperation, liaison and participation, that their activities take environmental considerations into account.
 India’s position continues to be dismal. Statistics reveal that India is among the bottom five countries on the Environmental Performance Index 2018, plummeting 36 points from 141 in 2016, according to a biennial report by Yale and Columbia Universities and the World Economic Forum.
While our country is at the bottom of the list in the environmental health category, it ranks 178 out of 180 as far as air quality is concerned.
 NASA’s  visible infrared imaging radiometer suite (VIRS) ,which has a high spatial resolution of 375 meters and provides good response in detecting fires of relatively small areas, both during the day and at night time has reported more than 15,000 fires in the states of Punjab and Haryana during October,2018
 In order to curb vehicular pollution in the National Capital Region, about 1.8 lakh old vehicles face ban in Noida and Ghaziabad alone. The vehicular ban is for all petrol vehicles that are more than fifteen year old and diesel vehicles that are ten years old. Fingers point towards the numerous construction works in progress. Bursting of crackers has been banned. In spite of these measures the air pollution levels remain hazardous.
It must be noted that the above paragraphs deal only with the air pollution. The pollutants of the water and soil are also a cause of major concern.
Amidst various steps taken up by international bodies, governments of countries, different NGOs and self help groups, it is important that each individual becomes alert about the dire consequences of enviromenmental degradation and acts in a responsible manner. It is our daily activities that need modification.
Small steps that can be taken up in our homes such as:
1. Reducing the use of plastics.
2.  Eliminating the use of poly bags.
3. Segregation of wastes
4. Building of compost pits in the societies/ colonies where garden wastes and organic wastes from homes can be processed. This would lead to formation of compost which can be used as valuable manure for the trees in the societies/ colonies as well as on the streets. This would also eliminate the need of burning these leaves/organic wastes and thereby reduce the air pollution.
5. Reducing wastage of water.
6. Reducing wastage of electricity.
7. Installation of Solar Panels to supplement Power requirements.

There is some hope for the future only when all of us act in a coordinated manner to protect the environment. It is our thinking that has to be modified if we plan a future for our progeny. This awareness has to be taken up with a level of seriousness that we exercise while carrying out financial planning. It must be strongly engrained in our psyche that we all stand to lose once we neglect/harm Nature.

Our planet is our home, our only home.
Where should we go if we destroy it?
(The Dalai Lama)



Ms Suchitra Srivastava
Associate Professor,
Department of Management,
JIMS, Vasant Kunj  



Do What You Love Or What Pays?

Excuse us for signaling cliched, but in my opinion everyone should have the prospect to get the career they want. Everybody has a passion in life, something they’ve continually wanted to do, but numerous of us get held up in the daily grind, and find ourselves slipping further away from our ambitions.
A career has a natural progression with which we build up skills, and will be promoted to greater levels within a company. On the other hand, a job is rather which pays the rent, and might not necessarily be pleasing or fascinating. Above all, we have ALL been there! Most of us will have to take jobs which we  don’t want, and don’t relish. So try and stay positive, there is a way out. It really is never too late to start a new career, and fulfill your dreams.
While making a career decision, ‘follow your passion’ is usually a  heard advice. Reality said, it can actually be a tad misleading, at least going by research. If you have been somebody fervent about becoming a designer or blogger or singer since your childhood and still pursued the dream till you got your dreamed job, you are certainly a fortunate person.
A well written quote which I like a lot says:

“LEARN TO BALANCE A DREAM AND A JOB, UNTIL YOUR DREAM BECOMES YOUR JOB”

Unquestionably the truth is all of us need a source of income, indeed a stable one to live our lives. This is one thing we are constantly reminded of, since our childhood. Somewhere amongst choosing the right course to study and finding the right job, we overlook what we call as ‘inner calling’. We are so dedicated about the stability and monetary aspects of life that we overlook our passion. Most people, settle for a job and never even try to build a career in the first place.

I feel personally that our ultimatum must be about feeling contented and happy, on every single day of our life with whatever we choose to do. People have jobs paying lucratively, but stress is all they carry back home along with their six or seven digit paycheck, whereas, there are others, who live a middle class, but come back home with a big  smile and an eagerness to pick their work the next from where they left it. This zeal only comes with the sense of fulfillment and gladness in your work is giving you. Basically, I believe this kind work is what all of us have to choose and build a career in.
Wise people say that money is not everything, but on the other hand you’d be more contented in a sedan than a bus. Truly, money can’t buy happiness. But in the world we live today, we need money to do the things we love. Therefore, we have to have a career or job that provides us with that paycheck. But the genuine key to happiness is, doing what you love to earn money. Only a lucky few in this world gets to have it that way. But surely, you can find something that you are passionate about in what you do to earn a living. If not? By all means, you need a career change. After all, that’s what I did.

Chasing your dreams and taking risks to do what you love, is never easy. But I’ve learnt that, at the end of the day, it’s worth it. Life is not about how fat your paycheck is. It’s about how fulfilled you feel at the end of a working day.

Ms. Sakshi Chhabra

Assistant Professor
Department of Management Studies

Thursday 22 November 2018


FOG COMPUTING

Fog computing is a term invented by Cisco. It is extension of cloud computing which provides cloud services to the edge of a network. Fog computing is also known as Edge Computing or fogging. Fog computing provides computing, storage and networking services between end devices and cloud computing data centers.
The areas of concerns in cloud computing architecture are high latency and QoS (Quality of Service). The goal of fogging is to improve efficiency and reduce latency time. It also reduces the amount of data to be transported to the cloud for processing, analysis and storage. It not only improves efficiency but it may also be used for security and compliance reasons.
The metaphor fog comes from the meteorological term for a cloud close to the ground, just as fog concentrates on the edge of the network.The OpenFog Consortium was founded in November 2015 by members from Cisco, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, ARM and Princeton University. Its mission is to develop an open reference architecture and convey the business value of fog computing.
Thedata is generated and collected by edge devices and sensorsin the network. They don't have the compute and storage resources to perform advanced analytics and machine-learning tasks. The servers at cloud with high storage capacity have the power to do computation, but they are often too far away to process the data and respond in a timely manner.  It increases latency time as well as degrades overall performance of the network.In addition to this, having sending raw data to the cloud over the internet can have privacy, security and legal implications.
In a fog environment, the processing takes place on a smart device, or in a smart router or gateway, thus reducing the amount of data sent to the cloud. It is important to note that fog networking complements not replaces cloud computing. Fogging allows for short-term analytics at the edge, and the cloud performs resource-intensive, longer-term analytics.
The major area of application of Fog computing is IoT. Because For many IoT applications where cloud computing is not feasible, fog computing can be used. Fog computing addresses the needs of IoT and industrial IoT. The smart sensors and IoT devices generateimmense amount of data. It would be costly and time-consuming to send this huge amount of data to the cloud for processing and analysis. Fog computing reduces the bandwidth requirement and reduces the back-and-forth communication between sensors and the cloud which can negatively affect IoT performance. Fog computing is very effective in the adhoc network environment with intermittent connectivity and low bandwidth medium.


Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Reduces amount of data sent to the cloud
Physical location takes anytime,anywhere, anydata benefit of the cloud
Conserves network bandwidth
Security issues: IP address spoofing
Improves system response time
Privacy issues
Supports mobility
Trust and authentication concerns
Minimizes network and Internet latency
Wireless network security concerns


Ms. Nisha Wadhawan 
Assistant Professor
Department of Management Studies

Forgiveness is the best medicine

The main reason as to why do we carry excessive psychological baggage throughout our lives is that we tend to not forgive others and hold grudges for long.

The pertinent question is: What stops us?

And there is only one answer to that question and that is: Our EGO (And EGO is the false self image made over the number of years).

But the thing is,when we forgive, who is benefitted, is it the forgiver or the forgiven? It is Both, as the stress carried in the mind of the forgiver for so many years has been wiped clean and there is an issuance of positive vibes resulting henceforth.

It results in Positive Wellbeing, peace and also in restoring mental balance, So therefore it is propagated that one must adopt the practice of Forgiving quickly, without dragging the things for long. And that will ease of lot of pain, particularly caused due to miscommunication and misunderstanding.


                                                  (Source: Author)

And forgiveness is not only to be practiced by not only individuals but also by nations at the macro level.

The Nations must forgive each other and move forward to a level of better understanding and world peace.

Practicing forgiveness will lead a psychological well-being and lot of de-stressing.

The Art of HO'OPONOPONO

Highlighting one of the method of forgiveness is the technique of HO'OPONOPONO, popularized by Dr. Hew Len in treating the prisoners in a hospital by never ever visiting them.

The method is extremely useful in cleaning the bad memories in the subconscious and therefore it results in clarity and peace for oneself.

How to practice HO'OPONOPONO:

Setting the stage by accepting 100% responsibility for the current situation.

The practice can be started by repeating the following in the sequence.

STEP 1-I love you

STEP 2-I am sorry

STEP 3-Please forgive me

STEP 4-Thank you

The above method was followed by Dr. Hew Len in treating the prisoners and the real case study was mentioned in the bestselling book(2007), Zero Limits by Dr.Joe Vitale.

So the basic message is one can follow any method of practicing forgiveness as one desires but the ultimate objective is to have peace of mind which gets disturbed due to haunting past memories.

Mr. Vipul Singh
Assistant Professor
Department of Management Studies

Social Pressure

Man is a social animal and we learn most of the things from our surrounding. Society, friends, colleges have a great influence on our behaviour. At times this influence becomes so deep that this starts exerting pressure on us. This pressure commonly known as peer pressure or social pressure can be a positive one or a negative one.  As long as an individual can sustain it, it adds to growth of the individual but the time when it gets out of control it starts creating problems.
Social pressure is when an individual wants to get well accepted to the group and hence group norms. There is no fixed age at which an individual gets into the trap of this pressure i.e from children to oldies anyone can fall victim to this pressure. Adults by virtue of age and experience are in better position to handle this pressure but our younger generation specially the adolescent or a teen are not mentally grown to handle this pressure and hence the chances go getting indulge in harmful actives are high. In these situation individuals often lose the sense of right or wrong and hence peers becomes a great source of influence. The impact of this influence can be visible withrespect totheir style, taste, appearance, ideology, and values.
Social pressure is not always negative, I have seen this working as a magic for few. If we get aspired by a group that has got better values, performance, ideology or acceptancein the society then this group influence people to have better ideology and behaviour. This leads  to improvement inperformance that can be in academics, higher affiliation with parents,  participation in co- curricular activities like sports, dramatics, singing, etc.
Negative social pressure is something that is of great concern. This is an outcome of either getting into a wrong group or having an affiliation for something that negatively perceived. Outcome of negative social pressure can be disastrous. Person can alienate from the family i.e start avoiding parents, disinterested in studies, wrong habits like indulgence in smoking, alcohol, drugs and other violent activities. If such negative social pressure is not taken care of on time then the life of the person can be ruined. This becomes a cause of major psychological and behavioural disorders.


There are four possible responses to peer pressure:
  • Compliance – When we do not agree with group opinion or actions but, gets along with it.
  • Conversion – When we convert our thoughts and ideologies to confirm with the group.
  • Congruence – when we agreeing with the opinion/action of the group from the onset.
  • Non-Conformity – Either remaining independent (e.g., not succumbing to group pressure and maintaining personal opinion), or anti-conformity (purposefully expressing opinions or actions contrary to the status quo).
So, it depends on every individual as to how they will react to this pressure. One should consider society and its norms but certainly not at the cost of one’s happiness or life...


Ms. Anu Bhardwaj
Assistant Professor
Department of Management Studies
 
Improving Blog/Website ranking through use of SEO


Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a crucial aspect for marketing your website or blog. Wikipedia defines SEO as, ‘the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s unpaid results.’ Simply put, SEO can help a website or blog become more visible to people and rank high on the search engines like Google, Bing or Ask.
Research proves that around 50% of Google’s search Engines clicks are on the first or the second search result. If your website or blog is not among the first five search results on the search page, you will struggle to increase traffic on your blog. Thus it is important to apply these three most important tricks to improve your website’s SEO.

1.      Focus on Quality Content:
Always provide relevant content on your website or blog for the Search Engine user. Good and relevant content equals a popular website. For example, you search for places to visit near New Delhi.  Google will put in everything to find the most relevant and quality content andmay come up with a blog post that segregates “Top 10 places under 300 kms from New Delhi” instead of something that resembles more of a Geography lesson around New Delhi. Focus on producing quality content that is relevant, crisp and error free.

2.      Use Keywords:
Keywords are the word or set of words that your audience will type in the search engines to find exactly what he or she is looking for. Thus, an excellent website or blog should have the right number of great and most relevant keywords. Before writing content, it becomes important to do a keyword research.These keywords should definitely be added in the title of your blog and throughout the blog post.In the above mentioned example, a keywords are – top, New Delhi, places, near etc.
The more relevant your keywords are in your blog, the higher the chances are for your blog to rank upwards in the Google Ranking system.

3.   Add Backlinks:
Backlinks are links to your blog embedded or placed openly in other blog posts or articles that redirect to your blog. While backlinks are important, they are not everything. They are at most a part of the whole SEO system.
While generating a lot of links are good, quality links matter the most. Building quality backlinks are all about going out there and providing some value in exchange of a good backlink. There is a tendency of people to wait for others to include their links into their posts, which is very wrong. You cannot expect someone to put your link into their blog without expecting something in return. You need to ask them to put your links on their blog.
Backlinks are seen very positively by the Search Engine, and apart from improving your blog rank, backlinks work as an excellent way to increase traffic to your blog when used in proper context.

      Ms. Chhavi Bakaria 
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Studies

Digital Milieu: The Changing Trends in Advertising


With the ongoing advancements and adoption of technologies along with the better penetration of internet, media landscape has been witnessing a tremendous change. In today’s scenario, media companies are investing huge amount of money in non-traditional media delivery options, start-ups are innovating and redefining how the content industry works. The consumers are also demanding and expecting access to content on any device at any time; the content not only includes media and entertainment content, but also corporate, social, marketing and personal media. Thus, a tectonic shift is happening in the media and content world that are going to irreversibly reshape how companies and consumers create, display, view and consume content.
This changing trend and the increasing competitiveness require the media giants, entrepreneurs and the start-ups to come up with user generated content to engage the viewers on digital platforms so that the traffic may increase on their apps or websites. This struggle is witnessed almost a similar one to that of getting TRPs of a channel which will eventually lead them to the revenue generation. The other areas that seems to be profitable for these entrepreneurs is that they can easily focus on brand awareness, market segmentation, customer satisfaction, consumer needs etc.
Trends in Digital Advertising)

 1) Video Advertising: The consumption of video content is increasing. It has been found that consumers are spending more time in watching videos. Considering its impact, they have found to be more impact ful in generating leads and conversions in e-Commerce industry.

 2)  Mobile Advertising: Researches have found that the consumption of Internet is more through mobile rather than desktops. Formulating marketing strategies towards mobile devices and smart phones is an absolute must. In 2018, over two-thirds of people have been using mobile devices for their everyday online usage. Therefore, sellers are trying to pitch the customers through mobile advertising.

3)  Personalization in Digital Content: Personalizing the digital content increases the opening rate of messages. This trend is widely being followed in Email Marketing and SMS Marketing. Organizations, these days, are working to build online experiences that provide engaging content, while remaining customized for each experience on an individual scale.

      4)  Interest Based Targeting: Digital platforms give opportunity to target the audiences based upon their interest, gender and demography. Organizations get the chance to bring together persons sharing the same interests known as affinity groups.

5)  Customized Budgeting: Digital Platforms provide opportunities to the organizations to set up their budget in a customized manner. They can set the budget on the basis of timings, geography and interest.



      Ms. Shruti Chopra Joshi
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Studies
    



Wednesday 21 November 2018


Blockchain Technology and the Future of Financial Systems

Blockchains are new technology layers that rewire the Internet and undermine to avoid more seasoned heritage structures. Trust lies at the center texture of the blockchain organizer which can possibly evacuate intermediaries and disturb their current working models. This progressive and basic convention enables transactions to be at the same time and safely kept up using a decentralized open or private record. 

Blockchain structure can for all intents and purposes record everything of value and will challenge and disrupt present incorporated plans of action and the financial sector.

The present financial framework is complex and that leads to potential risks. Another decentralized blockchain financial framework made conceivable with the utilization of digital currencies (Bitcoin, Ether, future Crypto $ | £ | €) could be significantly less difficult by evacuating layers of intermediation. This could help build collaboration amongst banks and etch trust and respectability at the center of the new blockchain financial framework. Moreover, the chance to decrease system risk will rise by moving towards a carefully designed decentralized public/private ledgers where a single version of the truth will triumph.

By moving money in various ways could open up the likelihood for various sorts of financial products. We could see monetary consideration expanding over the world because of the new blockchain financial framework. New computerized monetary forms will connect people who are at present avoided to the new financial system, lower barriers to entry and enable greater competition.

It has been widely acknowledged that blockchain offers an opportunity to reduce costs, to improve efficiency, to reduce risks and, overall, to provide a better customer service, which ultimately is what financial services need to be all about.



Ms. Smriti Dua
Assistant Professor
Department of Management Studies


Tuesday 30 October 2018


Digitization trends in the news & media industry


Today the news and media industry are at the stage of transition. The way people devour news today has altered with digitization. Traditional newspapers and media platform are now looking at digital opportunity for revolution. The Media Industry is looking out ways to attract and retain its readership. People want news as it happens. Anything that is pertinent and significant to them should reach them in an immediate, anytime & anywhere. The technology trends are modifying the media landscape. Here is a glance to know as how the media industry can use digitization to reinvent itself:

Design in content layouts:
The reading habits of the people have changed with digital platforms. Today users spend most of the time online understanding and reading content on their tablet and mobile devices. Design thinking helps to generate digital news stage that can serve the wants of the readers. The layout of the news portal can be customized according to the reading behavior, lifestyle and preference of the users for information flow. The content layout for the news can be selected by users as per their chosen reading habits.

Digitized platform for news:
The digital platform can bring news updates spot on time. These platforms can be updated at a higher occurrence than traditional media platforms. The trending topics change rather frequently through the day and digital is the only way to stay modernized, updated and simplified with the users. The digital platform can give instant news updates to its consumers or users. The digital platform can also facilitate faster publishing & can reach a wide audience in real time.

Personalization of news & content:
When users contact the news portal, they can receive the contents adapted according to their penchant & history. The personalization of content is vital with so much information excess. The users can select the topics, categories, and even content basis from social media to get tailored news. They can also choose the news layouts that they desire.

Organising diversity in content:
The interactive content is central to keep the consumers engaged today. The media industry relies on many types of content for reaching the users. They use high-resolution videos, ariticles, graphic, ebooks/magazines, Info graphics, animations, polls etc. All this can be managed quite efficiently and successfully with an online platform.

Social sharing:
The digital newspapers can be produced for the users based on the subject of their interest and are topical in nature. Every user can get the personalized copy of the e-paper according to their liking. The users can also share this personalized copy of the newspapers using a web link on social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, G+, Whatsapp etc. This creates a distinctive and persuasive social sharing experience.

The media companies are taking on digitization and design to meet the requirements of their consumers. Digitization has changed the way how content is selected, created, distributed and monetized. The digital technology has created prosperity of chance for media companies and does brought new avenues in the news and media industry.


Ms. Garima Malhotra
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Studies