Decentralized Approach for Achieving Seamlessness

Decentralized Approach for Achieving Seamlessness CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK Thesis Outcome The major outcome of this research effort is to analyse the feasibility and benefits of achieving seamlessness with the proposed decentralized approach augmenting the conventional centralized approach for heterogeneous networks. In lieu of this, the outcomes achieved include A Hybrid Approach (Linux Kernel Module and SCTP) to decrease the latency during Vertical Handoff process and IP mobility to achieve seamless continuity. Location Awareness in Hybrid Approach to reduce the triggering of unnecessary handoffs during vertical handoff that result in performance degradation. Contributions of the Present Work In this thesis, several aspects and approaches for seamless continuity are discussed. The major contributions of the work carried out in this thesis are: Different approaches to achieve seamless continuity in heterogeneous networking environment. A brief review on the open issues and challenges related to seamless continuity. Design and development of daemon based decentralized approach for intranet environment. Design and development of an efficient and fast method known as kernel based decentralized approach for improving the latency during handoffs. Development of Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) approach for addressing dynamic address reconfiguration in heterogeneous environment. Design and development of a novel hybrid method using the combination of SCTP and kernel module. Development of a location aware method to incorporate into the hybrid approach for heterogeneous networks. Solution Overview The proposed solution is a hybrid approach to achieve seamless session continuity in heterogeneous networks. This approach is completely decentralized complementing the centralized approach which is completely based on server agents. It can be applied to both intra and Internet environment without any changes to the network layer. To prove this approach for seamlessness, testing was done on three network interfaces Ethernet (eth), WLAN (wlan), WCDMA (wcdma). For Intranet A vertical handoff daemon was developed to achieve seamlessness over heterogeneous networks. This daemon application runs as a background process at the user space and it also takes care of the handoff process between various radio interfaces. Firstly, this proposed daemon continuously polls for the registered interfaces and then checks the status (live or dead) of these devices. Later, it also updates the status to the network layer of the protocol stack to keep the service continuing between the mobile device and the server. The designed architecture is well suited for all the IP based multimedia applications but running only in intranet environment. IP mobility is an issue which has to be still addressed which cannot be solved in this approach. For Internet To achieve seamless continuity over heterogeneous networks, this proposed solution is a combination of Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) and Linux kernel module. This kernel module gets registered with the Linux kernel and updates the status of various interfaces by signalling the SCTP application running at the user level. This SCTP application will then accomplish the handoff process between various network interfaces. The reason behind this approach is SCTP has an advantage of IP address reconfiguration which solves the IP mobility issue and Kernel module has an advantage of latency. This accomplishes the handoff process in a faster and elegant fashion. But this will not solve the problem of unnecessary triggering of handoffs. In this regard the following handoff decision process was integrated into hybrid approach to improve performance while achieving seamlessness. Location based Handoff Decision This proposed algorithm is completely based on location based information. This is a research effort to study the feasibility of location based solution which consists of combining the conventional handoff decision with a location based evaluation mechanism. This mechanism relies on positioning method for obtaining mobile user position fixes. Once the user’s location, speed and direction are calculated, the evaluation mechanism will predict the user’s path. It will then decide whether the user will remain in the same network coverage area for necessary duration to result in performance improvement. If not, this proposed evaluation method will notify the mobile device to trigger a handoff. The knowledge on user’s location, speed and direction is necessary to prevent inefficient and unnecessary handoffs. Conclusion In this research effort, a seamless vertical handoff system across heterogeneous networks is presented. It is implemented in current Linux operating system. In the proposed system, the handoff latency is much shorter than other current systems focusing on the issue of vertical handoff. Different from other vertical handoff systems, handoff agents or servers are not required in this system. Only with the mobile host itself, the vertical handoff can be realized. Moreover, the overhead during handoff is also quite low. The system is evaluated through a series of experiments. The experimental results demonstrated the handoff is handled in a fast and elegant manner. The proposed system is tested in the real-world analyses. The experiments were conducted under different environments and evaluated with various multimedia applications. This work is not only for home network solution but it is extended to an Internet solution. Moreover, prior to triggering handoff, the algorithm’s ability to predict user direction, speed and visit to WLAN coverage area allowed it to provide an observable benefit both on user’s perspective and also on network’s perspective. This location based evaluation of the algorithm helped to not only prevent the occurrence of unnecessary handoffs which would result in performance degradation but also reduce wastage of resources. The novel hybrid decentralized approach based on location awareness presented in this work handled the issues of latency, dynamic address reconfiguration and unnecessary triggering of handoffs for seamless continuity in heterogeneous networks. Future Work Keeping in view the wide proliferation of heterogeneous networks and high level of interworking required for next generation mobile users, the scope of the future work can be more focussed on pursuing open challenges such as battery power consumption, Quality of Service (QoS) and security for effective ubiquitous experience and seamless continuity. Battery power consumption of the mobile client is a significant criterion for handoff. Whenever the battery power drops to particular threshold, the mobile client should immediately shift to lower power demand network interface. As the demand for multimedia applications increases there is a need to guarantee QoS such as high available bandwidth, Bit Error Rate (BER), network load balancing, Signal to Noise ratio (SNR) and so on. Security is another important criterion which needs to be addressed. Hence, when handoff data is exchanged between devices it is always preferable to have network with high level of encryption. In this research effort, some work was done on best Access Point selection algorithm. With the enormous increase of WLAN AP’s everywhere, there is a need to look at new approaches to select the best AP among multiple AP’s for achieving horizontal handoffs.

An Analysis Of Sainsburys Supermarket

An Analysis Of Sainsburys Supermarket Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury along with his wife Mary Ann in London and then gradually grew to become the largest grocery retailer by 1922. Sainsburys is the UKs oldest major food retailer with their first store opened in 1869. It strives to keep up with its trusted heritage of quality with best services. Past: In the early 1990s Sainsburys, market leader so far, lost its position to Tesco and in 2004 it came down to no. three after Tesco and Asda. The downfall involved many reasons including changing managements, lack of innovative strategies, failing to assess the impact of loyalty cards scheme, unhealthy acquisition in Egypt and a misleading marketing strategy which failed to communicate the right message to the consumers. Present: Sainsburys started to fight back and be noticed after Justin King took over the management role in early 2004 and came up with a revival strategy under the name of Making Sainsburys Great Again. The process involved a no. of mergers and acquisitions of small chains in the south east England and the Midlands. The new message of Try Something New Today went really well with the media and the consumer led by the famous celebrity chef Jamie Oliver it encouraged buyers to innovate in their kitchens and make their food interesting. Future: The supermarket industry has reached a saturation point in the UK. How long can Sainsburys go on opening up new stores at locations such that its stores do not start to cannibalize each other? Using the Ansoff Growth Matrix two future strategies are suggested for Sainsburys: Opening up of Sainsburys Travels and Tours Product Development On the basis of the success potential in the travel business, Sainsburys might venture into the Travel and Tours business by way of Product Development as per Ansoff Growth Matrix tool for future strategy selection. Sainsburys has a very high probability of success as measured with the help of SWOT analysis and assessing the keys to success and the critical factors. Sainsburys China Market Development Sainsburys might opt for the Market development strategy by offering the supermarket business to the land of opportunities China. The move will be mad after the necessary PEST analysis has been done and companys SWT has been assessed with Chinese perspective. Sainsburys Strategic Corporate Development History: 1990 to 2004 Corporations are required to add value by mans of their business. The goal is to manage and control the businesses for a long term and sustainable success. The corporate level strategy deals with the choice of the business and the growth and development related to it. Sainsburys enjoyed the position of the leader in the UK supermarket industry up to the early 1990s. It had sustained its image of a name trusted with quality and service. British like old names with some history behind them. The company started to lose its grip in the early nineties due to a number of reasons. There was a change in management after the longtime CEO John David Sainsbury retired. He was replaced by David Sainsbury who bought about a change in the management style. Although the times were changing and some of the people in the management thought strongly about launching loyalty card schemes and also favored introduction of non-food items in the stores, both the options were rejected by the fresh management. The biggest rival Tesco had gradually moved up on the market scales and the internal indecisions help it get hold of better deals from suppliers. We will analyze Sainsburys approach in view of Ansoff Growth Matrix perspective. Ansoffs matrix is a tool that helps businesses decide their product and market growth strategy. Market Penetration: The strategy had been the simple approach of Market Penetration Strategy. As per Ansoff Matrix, this can be easily explained as the company keeps on offering the same product into the existing market. From 1993 onwards Sainsburys was unconsciously moving forward on the basis of wait and see policy. Up till now Sainsburys had enjoyed the position with no real threat. It started with price cuts on almost 30 of its labels, three months after came up with Tesco Value Lime. The move affected Sainsburys profit margins. Product Development: This made the management realize to offer something new to the customers and after Tesco came up with new format stores named Tesco Metro serving the town centers in 1994, Sainsburys responded with announcement of Sainsburys Central format. This approach is interpreted as Product Development strategy where a new product is introduced into existing market. The new project offered shopping facilities to the small towns was initiated leading to Country Town stores. The stores were formatted keeping in mind the distance the buyers have to travel for their weekly grocery shoppings. The new service enabled the customers to do so without going to large, out of town stores. They were mainly planned to be opened I the south east, which has always been Sainsburys strong hold. The 1st store was opened by the end of 1998 in Ongar (Essex). These stores have now been standardized as per the regular stores and they maintain even trading terms Setbacks: The company fell behind yet again in 1995 when the management failed to realize the importance of loyalty cards schemes and refused to go ahead with launch of any such offer. They had to reconsider their decision 18 months later after Tescos club card was introduced. In 1996 the company ventured into opening up of Sainsburys Bank. In addition it acquired Texas Homecare for 290M (GBP) in 1996. These expansions had a major effect on the financials and Sainsburys announced first fall in profits in 22 years. Another reason which affected Sainsburys sales was the perception among the customers that it is more expensive than its rivals. The marketing campaigns failed to convey the message that Sainsburys offers as good quality and value for money as its rivals. The marketing failed to communicate the required message of low cost and high vale and the company endured the consequences. The year 1996 saw Sainsburys losing its position of market leader to Tesco. Acquisition and Divestment: Sainsbury attained 80.1% of share in an Egyptian distribution group SAE. The group provided retailing services in Egypt with 100 stores and almost 2000 employees at the time or acquisition. The decision was criticized by the analyst as it was made during the most testing times of Sainsburys history. The reason behind the decision might have been the success Tesco outside UK. However the meager results shown by the Egyptian business led to the divestment of the share and sale of shares in 2001. The brand re-launch In 1998 the company again went under a management change and George Bull, the new Chairman took over and decided to re-launch the Sainsburys Brand. The new management targeted to revive Sainsburys corporate identity and started with the launch of a new logo, going for a slightly informal font and new slogan of making life taste better. Staff uniforms were redesigned The company underwent a Business Transformation Program (BTP) after the appointment of Peter Davis who showed significant improvement in the companys turnover and exceeded the targets. The BTP involved a 3.00bn (GBP) upgrade of the stores, distribution and IT equipment. The distribution setup included construction of fully automated depots which cost 100m (GBP) each and was later criticized by the new management. Sainsburys moved into the current headquarters at Holborn in 2001. The Nectar loyalty card scheme was launched in 2002 which replaced the Sainsburys Reward Card. Current Strategic Situation: 2004 to date: At the end of March 2004, new CEO Justin King joined the company who came up with a recovery plan for Sainsbury under the banner of Making Sainsburys Great Again. It was a three year recovery plan which was very positively received by the media and the stock market. The strategy involved laying off redundant staff from the head offices and recruiting additional staff for shop floors to increased and improved customer service quality. Sainsburys was having major issues with its stock availability, inventory and supply chain management. The new depot monitoring systems were to be implemented and IBM was given the deal to upgrade the system. Mergers, Acquisitions and Divestments: In 2004 Sainsburys new management under the Making Sainsburys Great Again plan to concentrate on its strong UK customer base, divested the American subsidiary Shaws. It was sold to Albertsons. The no. of convenient stores was increased through an acquisition of 54 Bells Stores chain which was based in the north-east of England. Another Acquisition took place with purchasing o 114 stores of Jackson Stores based in Yorkshire and the North Midlands. The acquisition took place in November 2004. Another small chain of 6 stores was acquired from SL Shaw lt. in April 2005. New Marketing Strategy Try something new today: Sainsburys is at a critical stage at the moment. Sainsburys Supermarkets have gone through a period of dramatic regression, in which they have been surpassed by rivals Tesco and, more recently, in 2004, Wal-Mart-owned Asda. (Global Market Information Database, 2004). It is not easy for an established and old UK brand to vanish off from the market but the competitors have. While it is rare for major brands to disappear completely from the UK high street, these competitors have acquired share from Sainsburys by way of their commitment to low and attractive prices, whereas Sainsburys has been focusing on its Business Transformation Program and has indulged itself in promoting an image of quality, and value rather than being affordable The present day UK customers which have a huge percentage of non British are heavily influenced by the economical changes and are passing through tough times. The message which has been conveyed by the Tesco and Asda was received warmly as it assured them of a combination of quality and assurance along with low price. As a result, Sainsbury is still considered comparatively expensive just because it failed to convey the message through proper marketing. A massive marketing campaign of Try Something New Today was launched in September 2005, which was designed to make people go off the shopping routine encourage them to be more adventurous in food eating. Under the campaign umbrellas, the spokesperson for the campaign Jamie Oliver encouraged the customers to be. The message conveyed was it supplies quality food as well as the only one offering useful ideas to make your food interesting. The aim was to reach and convince all the customers and not only the well off. Sainsburys is attempting to respond forcefully to the challenges it faces, however competition in the UK market is becoming increasingly intense, and Sainsburys faces a difficult struggle to regain the ground it has lost to rivals that continue to expand aggressively The management has a continuous approach towards work with responsibility. They attempt to provide fresh food and innovate with respect to customers needs. It serves over 18.5 million customers every week. The large stores offer over 30000 products along with complementary Non-Food products e.g. the TU clothing range which has over 1 million transactions every week. Along with other services, an Internet based shopping service has also been made available, keeping in trend with the changing requirements o the customers, to almost 90% of UK households. The company has a chain of stores with 537 supermarkets and 335 convenience stores, hence a total of 872 stores in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, including Hypermarkets (super large stores- Sainsburys stores- main plus), Sainsburys Central and Sainsburys local (supermarket and local convenient stores format main mission). The company has been eyeing the opportunity of expanding its business outside the UK. Especially the hyper potential in Asia (especially South East Asia and China). By analyzing Tescos huge success in the market outside UK, Sainsburys venture might not be far away. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/index.asp?pageid=12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainsburys Strategic Direction for the Future: Sainsburys has a history of innovation and it continues to strengthen its relationship with its customers and has gone ahead with the growth of their convenient store operations, the online offers and the Sainsburys Bank. They have a constant approach towards developing new offers in line with the evolving customers demands resulting in operational growth and profitability. http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/ar08/businessreview/corporateobjectives.shtml Choosing a Strategy: A marketing tool for making the market strategy is the Ansoff Matrix, which gives us strategic choices for obtaining our business and market objectives. It offers four choices which deal with marketing and growth of existing or new products in existing or new markets. Ansoff On the basis of current scenarios there are two pathways for Sainsburys to opt from, for a sustainable growth and presence for a long time to come. Product Development Strategy: Sainsburys has a huge loyal customer base. The suggested new service product through Sainsburys Travel and Tours will provide these customers to utilize yet another trustworthy service by their trusted name. Market Development Strategy: Although Sainsburys has not yet ventured into the International market but the step might not be that far away keeping in mind the huge success TESCO has had in the international market. Sainsburys could venture into international expansion keeping in mind the growing and still unsaturated markets of China and Southeast Asia. Product Development Sainsburys Travels and Tours: Sainsburys can opt for launching Sainsburys Travels and Tours is by choosing the Product Development Strategy and is introducing a new product into existing market. The growing Travel and Tours market will definitely have a positive effect on the Sainsburys portfolio by increasing its profits and hence strengthening its business. Why Product Development? The Sainsburys Travels and Tours will provide the company to excel and achieve its strategic goals on the basis The supermarket industry has become fairly saturated in the UK and at present Sainsburys is eyeing to expand itself in the International market but it will be a while before it actually does. The Travel industry is a growing market and has a huge potential of growth. The new product will benefit the company earn huge profitability margins which are becoming hard to achieve I the supermarket industry. The Sainsburys has a huge loyal customer base which will be utilized for promotions and marketing purpose. The project has a high probability of success given a chance of a fresh new product offered by a supermarket chain. Market Demographics: Although year 2009 has seen the worst recession since 1930, there are definite signs that the cycle is now turning. Travel industry has suffered consequences of economic crush but the consumer confidence is indicating escalating progress. UNWTO is expecting a reasonable growth of 5% in 2010. There was an upward trend during the last quarter of 2009 which showed 2% upswing. The development is further strengthen by the Air Transport Data from IATA, which shows passenger traffic strength since September 2009 Asia is expected to show the greatest recovery being less effected by the economic crush (comparatively). Growth is also expected to resume in America and Europe. A large number of countries around the world have shown positive growth in the first two months of 2010. Overall the total of tourists arrivals during the first two months of 2010 was 119 million showing 7% improvement as compared to 2009 SWOT The SWOT analysis summarizes the vital strengths and weaknesses of the company. This SWOT analyses the new product line and reviews the opportunities and threats which Sainsburys may face Strengths Image differentiation with respect to Brand name The customer to employee ratio is low Staff is highly trained and customer focused Loyal customer base An interesting, diverse and new product offered by a trusted service provider Established network of outlets Weaknesses Difficulties related to finding employees with required skills and attitude Presenting the customers with interesting offers on continuous basis Lack of experience in the new industry Business limited to UK only Opportunities rapidly growing market all over the world Growing number of people with increasing need and desire for holidays The existing Utilizing the existing Nectar database for identifying potential customers Threats Lingering effects of the slump in economy Natural disaster such as he recent Icelandic volcanoes eruption Highly competitive industry Key to success Sainsbury has always aimed to be the consumers first choice for food, delivering quality products with great service at a competitive cost. The company is striving to achieve the objective of leading margins with diverse market and delivering strong profits every year. The new product will benefit the company earn huge profitability margins which are becoming hard to achieve in the supermarket industry. Critical Issues: What can go wrong? The Sainsburys already has an established huge no. of loyal customers who would be happy to have an option o a different kind of service offered from their trust worthy service provider. The expectation for a stable turnover is based on the fact that it is an established name offering a new product on the basis of its goodwill. How likely it is to happen? The expected growth can be effected by increasing inflation rates. The Travel Industry faced a huge blow after 9-11 incident. What are the consequences? Any unforeseen incident like this (God forbid) will have long lasting effects on the companys growth, profitability and future expansions and plans. Competitive Advantage Nectar Loyalty Card Database The database can provide an excellent competitive advantage because It will help the management to design the product, offerings, and travel and tour packages as per the preferences. The database can also be utilized to acquire knowledge about customers such as No. of family members Spending habits Income estimates Preferences with respect to food etc. Holiday routines Market Development Strategy: Sainsburys could also opt for the Market Development strategy with offering its existing product of Supermarket and offering it to a new market by venturing into a growing international market such as China. China is the promising power in todays business world and its domestic market allows huge potential for international companies with promising growth. Sainsburys is the third largest supermarket name in UK after Tesco, which already has a huge presence outside the UK and Asda which is owned by the industry giant Wal-Mart. The immediate rivals have other sources /markets to benefit from other then UK. But Sainsburys has so far only focused on the UK market and from last two decades its concentration has almost completely been occupied by gaining back the lost market shares from its competitors. For Sainsburys to venture into a new market, a PEST has to be made to know the market better and plan the strategy accordingly. PEST Analysis China: Political and Legal: Since 2001, china has entered into WTO and its market is open or multinationals to trade in. In china, supermarket industry is not considered as a prestigious as some other industries so the government rules and regularities are not so tough. The government is favoring development in the supermarket industry. Social: The demographics of china show that population growth rate 0.629% (2008) in which the youth from 0-14 years comprises of 20.1%. The Chinese customers have become more concerned about issues related to health and safety after the 2008 melamine contaminated milk issue. As per the current shopping trends in China, people prefer to buy in person (online buying is almost non-existent especially daily grocery). The families are very small units on average maximum of 4-5 per unit in sub urban areas where as mostly population in the larger cities is singly. Chinese prefer to buy on daily basis, fresh produce as per days requirement. Technology and development: China is a vast country with underdeveloped infrastructure so there will be immediate warehouse setup requirements. Chinese households have a very low trend of keeping refrigerators at home so big weekly supplies trips will take time to adjust in the culture. Environmental Factors: The plastic bags have been recently stopped in china. The govt. is still trying to establish regular and long term procedures for recycling. All these factors will be required to be kept during the planning and project development phase for Sainsburys China. Furthermore we will perform a SWOT analysis for Sainsburys with respect to its entry in the Chinese market. Strengths: Over a century of supermarket and retail experience Ambition for growth Experience from failed International acquisitions as Egypt. Weaknesses: Cultural difference Expansion will be slow initially Opportunities: A very large market size Huge potential of industry growth Govt. policies favor the Industry Expansion opportunities in the rural/western parts of China Changing consumer awareness with respect to shopping habits Threats: Immature market Rivalry to increase immensely Weak infrastructure Untrained local staff Increasing prices of raw materials Strategic Recommendations: Based on the above analysis Sainsburys should consider a slow and steady expansion strategy in China for long term results and sustained presence. Initially the stores should be opened in the urban and economically grown regions where customers will more readily adapt to change and new trend. Gradually then, on the basis of acquired knowledge, preferences, culture etc Sainsburys should venture into the suburban and rural areas. Sainsburys should use the critical factors involved in the success of the strategy such as It should strive to obtain consumers trust by offering good quality products at affordable prices. Health and safety measures should be the first priority so that no incident like the contaminated milk will occur. China is a big country and the company should fully utilize this factor for the locations o the stores. The locality factor should be given priority wile employing the Chinese as trust and ownership has a great value in Chinese culture. China is a growing country and its economic conditions will affect the pricing of the products Sainsburys should work on differentiating itself from the rivals from day one for developing long tem and healthy relationship with the consumers. Once Sainsburys makes its entry into China market, there is no looking back from the kind of growth and expansion opportunities it may provide. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainsburys ) Conclusion: During the last decade of 1990s and early 2000s saw Sainsburys going through a very testing time in its history. It lost its no. 1 position to Tesco and then no. 2 to Asda. Time saw Sainsburys make some serious lack of judgments on behalf of management decisions related to adapting to the changing times, acquisitions and divestments. The management made a serious lack of assessment while deciding for bringing out the loyalty card scheme. The profit margins were affected as the companys marketing campaign failed to register with the consumers. The mid 2000 saw Sainsburys coming out again to be a Supermarket force lead by Justin King. The new campaigns Making Sainsburys Great Again and the companys new slogan of Try Something New Today succeeded in reach the customers positively. Given the market saturation of the industry Sainsburys has been suggested two options for business expansion using Ansoff Growth Matrix tool. Product Development Sainsburys Travels and Tours Market Development Sainsburys China The necessary SWOT and PEST analysis tools have been used to assess and measure the factor involved and could affect the growth suggested. The Travels and Tours Industry promises growth based on demographics provided by the WTO and the UK travel forecasts. The loyal customers of Sainsburys would be more the happy to have another product offered by their trustworthy service provider. Sainsburys China will provide an opportunity for immense growth of supermarket industry in a vast and massive population of China. Sainsburys should take a steady approach by starting from the urban areas and slowly expanding in the remaining country while studying and adapting to the new culture and country.

I Remember :: Personal Narrative Nuclear Bombing Violence Essay

I Remember I remember Rick's face as he turned away from the window and came back toward his seat that day; it had a look of horror I was to never forget. His face expressed seriousness, disbelief, and sadness. We were all terror-stricken after we knew the awful truth, but Rick had seen it. He knew before all of us. Even before his eyes began to have problems, he was visibly affected by the bomb. I remember that day as if it were yesterday. It all started with more subtle things such as the small bomb at the World Trade Center, but then bigger disasters began to occur. When the bomb hit Idaho, everyone was devastated. . . . "What do you mean it's not an earthquake, Rick?" I asked. Before he could answer, we heard an announcement over the intercom telling all classes to get to a television. The newscaster's words shocked us all. "...what appears to be a bomb of nuclear origin. We are still trying to discover who dropped this bomb. All we currently know is that INEEL has gone up in flames as a result, and we have heard of no survivors so far." Everything began to sink in slowly . . . a nuclear bomb? INEEL? No survivors? What about radiation? I began to worry about everything at once. The school called an assembly ten minutes later. Many of us wandered into the gym in a daze. Some people didn't seem to know what was going on, or else weren't affected. As I looked around the crowded gym, the sea of faces reflected their emotions. Mr. Kyrel, a science teacher, looked extremely grim. He sat on a bleacher with his head in his hands. He wasn't paying any attention to the students passing by him. When he did look up his lips formed a tight line, his hair was tousled, and every wrinkle on his brow was visible. He sat in solitude with solemness etched into his eyes. A student on the other side of the gym was crying hysterically. Several people surrounded her. Her face was contorted by her anguish and sorrow. Those around her looked distressed as well, but they were focusing on calming her down. In another area of the gym a junior b oy was clowning around with a friend of his. He didn't seem to know what was happening. I Remember :: Personal Narrative Nuclear Bombing Violence Essay I Remember I remember Rick's face as he turned away from the window and came back toward his seat that day; it had a look of horror I was to never forget. His face expressed seriousness, disbelief, and sadness. We were all terror-stricken after we knew the awful truth, but Rick had seen it. He knew before all of us. Even before his eyes began to have problems, he was visibly affected by the bomb. I remember that day as if it were yesterday. It all started with more subtle things such as the small bomb at the World Trade Center, but then bigger disasters began to occur. When the bomb hit Idaho, everyone was devastated. . . . "What do you mean it's not an earthquake, Rick?" I asked. Before he could answer, we heard an announcement over the intercom telling all classes to get to a television. The newscaster's words shocked us all. "...what appears to be a bomb of nuclear origin. We are still trying to discover who dropped this bomb. All we currently know is that INEEL has gone up in flames as a result, and we have heard of no survivors so far." Everything began to sink in slowly . . . a nuclear bomb? INEEL? No survivors? What about radiation? I began to worry about everything at once. The school called an assembly ten minutes later. Many of us wandered into the gym in a daze. Some people didn't seem to know what was going on, or else weren't affected. As I looked around the crowded gym, the sea of faces reflected their emotions. Mr. Kyrel, a science teacher, looked extremely grim. He sat on a bleacher with his head in his hands. He wasn't paying any attention to the students passing by him. When he did look up his lips formed a tight line, his hair was tousled, and every wrinkle on his brow was visible. He sat in solitude with solemness etched into his eyes. A student on the other side of the gym was crying hysterically. Several people surrounded her. Her face was contorted by her anguish and sorrow. Those around her looked distressed as well, but they were focusing on calming her down. In another area of the gym a junior b oy was clowning around with a friend of his. He didn't seem to know what was happening.

Perl: A Popular Scripting Language :: Computers

Perl: A Popular Scripting Language Perl was created under strange circumstances, it was never intended to be a widely used public language but the features it provided caused many programmers to crave for more. Larry Wall initially created Perl to produce reports from a â€Å"Usenet- news-like hierarchy of files for a bug-reporting system.† 1 Apparently awk and sed could not handle the task. Larry decided to fix this problem with a C application now known as Perl, Practical Extraction and Report Language. Perl grew at the same rate as the UNIX operating system. It became portable as new features were added. Perl now has extensive documentation available in different man pages. Perl is growing now just as every widely used programming language. Perl is known for its management of data. It can manipulate files and directories and manage tasks. It can easily analyze results from other applications including sorting large files that would take a human a long time. Perl is generally used for its scripting abilities. String manipulation is much smoother using Perl than using imperative languages like Java and C. The data representation of numeric data in Perl is a little different than other languages. All numeric data is a double precision floating point value in Perl. For this reason it would not be a good idea to solve complex mathematical problems with Perl because it would be much slower than using a regular imperative language. String values are sequences of characters as in most other languages. The convention for scalar variable identifiers is a dollar sign followed by a character followed by a sequence of underscores and alphanumeric values. Scalar variables can contain a single value representing a number, string, or reference. For example â€Å"$a = â€Å"hello†Ã¢â‚¬  is just as valid as â€Å"$b1 = 3.4†. Perl has numerous built in functions and it allows for user defined subprograms. Subprograms are an example of data abstraction. To define a subprogram you use the convention if â€Å"sub subname { statements; }†. To pass parameters you call subname(arg1, arg2). To access the parameters is a little different, you must get the values from the temporary @_ array. The @_ array is private to the subprogram. Subprograms can return variables and can have their own private variables. Perl can have input from files and keyboards and can have output to files and screens.

Managers :: Business, Transformational Leadership

Organizations need managers who are innovators because they offer the organization a competitive advantage and economic growth in a time of increased worldwide competition, technological revolution and fast shifting market situations (Damanpour, & Schneider, 2006). Innovative managers are good in adapting to new environments conditions because they form the organizational culture. Furthermore, they motivate and enable fellow managers or employees to build the capacity for change to occur. Organizations need to have many innovative managers because they have a positive attitude toward competition and entrepreneurship at the work place. Moreover, a manager’s capacity to innovate in an organization is positively associated with organizational climate (2006). Gumusluoglu, & Ilsev (2009) also states that organization needs to have many innovative mangers because they develop new and better products and services. Organization needs to have managers who are not afraid to take risk f or innovation to occur (Hancer, Ozturk, & Ayyildiz, 2009). A manager position permits other employees to gather and engage innovative thoughts from both the inside and outside the organization (2009). Organizations that have employees that trust each other are more likely to succeed (Simmons, 2002). This is because trust is the expectations or beliefs about likelihood that fellow employee’s actions will be beneficial or at least not harmful to his/her interests. Furthermore, an organization cannot succeed if the manager is not trusted because he/she will have extensive difficulties in establishing any trust with his/her fellow employees. Moreover, this can result in negatively affecting the organization culture and productivity (2002). Trust is very important for an organization because it explains the managers or employees organizational activities such as their â€Å"leadership, ethical behavior, teamwork, goal setting, performance appraisal, development labor relations and negations† (Andersen, 2005, p.396). This is because trust largely is contingent on the mutual confidence that no side in the relationship will exploit the susceptibility of each other (2005). Lastly, when employees perceived that their manager do not trust them, they start to mistrust the manager in a cycle of reciprocity (2002). Organizations need managers with integrity because they foster organizational compliance and create a positive environment within the organization (Verhezen, 2008). Furthermore, managers with integrity have a good moral character, are sincere, honest, and more likely to stick with their values (2008). A positive staff perception of a manager's leadership is associated with better job satisfaction and workforce retention (Jeon, Glasgow, Merlyn, & Sansoni, 2010).

The Ten Plagues of Egypt

TAKE HOME SHEET After hearing the full version of this song in class your challenge is to memorize and/or remix it!!!! First God sent, Plague number one, Turned the Nile into blood. All the people in Egypt were feeling pretty low, They told Pharaoh â€Å"Let them Go! † Then God sent, Plague number two, Jumping frogs all over you. All the people in Egypt were feeling pretty low, They told Pharaoh â€Å"Let them Go! † Then God sent, Plague number three, Swarms of gnats from head to knee. All the people in Egypt were feeling pretty low, They told Pharaoh â€Å"Let them Go! â€Å"Then God sent, Plague number four, Filthy ? ies need we say more? All the people in Egypt were feeling pretty low, They told Pharaoh â€Å"Let them Go! † Then God sent, Plague number ? ve, All the livestock up and died. All the people in Egypt were feeling pretty low, They told Pharaoh â€Å"Let them Go! † Then God sent, Plague number six, Boils and sores to make you sick. All the p eople in Egypt were feeling pretty low, They told Pharaoh â€Å"Let them Go! † Then God sent, Plague number seven, Hail and lighting down from heaven. All the people in Egypt were feeling pretty low,They told Pharaoh â€Å"Let them Go! † Then God sent, Plague number eight, Locust came and they sure ate. All the people in Egypt were feeling pretty low, They told Pharaoh â€Å"Let them Go! † Then God sent, Plague number nine, Total darkness all the time. All the people in Egypt were feeling pretty low, They told Pharaoh â€Å"Let them Go! † Then God sent, Plague number ten, Pharaoh's son died so he gave in. All the people in Egypt were feeling pretty low, Finally Pharaoh let them go. *Parents the original song is to the melody of â€Å"This Old Man†

Micro Environment

|Chapter | | 1 | Introduction 1. 1 Problem Background There are about three billion people, half of the world’s population, living on the income of less than two dollars a day. Among these poor communities, one child in five does not live to see his or her fifth birthday. One study in 2006 showed that the ratio of the income between the 5% richest and 5% poorest of the population is 74 to 1 as compared to the ratio in 1960, which was 30 to 12.To enhance international development, the United Nations Organization (UNO) announced the millennium development goals,aimed to eradicate poverty by 2015. In this regard, microfinance is the form of financial development that has its primary aim to alleviate the poverty. Governments, donors and NGOs around the world responded enthusiastically with plans and promised to work together towards the realization of these goals.In the recognition of microfinance, the UNO celebrated the year 2005 as a year of micro-credit, as a result this financ ing instrument is perceived worldwide as a very effective mean against hunger and poverty, mainly in developing countries. Microfinance is a credit methodology, which employs effective collateral substitute for short-term and working capital loans to micro-entrepreneurs. The level of a country’s poverty has long been linked with measures of its economic development. Little consideration was given to the social reorganization of the natural resources (e. empowerment vs. alien ation of people, sustainable use vs. depletion of the environment). The economies with positive growth rate of Gross National Product (GNP) were measured by their poverty mitigation. This gratitude emphasized on the achievement of wealth and technology as a path for development and assumed that improved lives for all would be the natural consequence. Microfinance is not a new development. Some developed countries as well as developing countries particularly in Asia hav e a long history of microfinance.Dur ing the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in number of European countries, microfinance evolved as a type of the informal banking for the poor. Informal finance and self-help have been at the foundation of microfinance in Europe. The early history of microfinance in Ireland can be traced back to 18th century. It is a history of how self-help led to financial innovation, legal backing and conductive regulation, and creating a mass microfinance movement. But the unpleasant regulations prompted by commercial bankin g brought it down.The so-called Irish loan funds appeared in early eighteenth as charities, initially financed from donated resources and offering interest free loans. They were soon replaced by financial intermediation between savers and borrowers. Loans were granted on short–term basis and instalments were scheduled on weekly basis. To enforce the repayment, monitoring process was used. In Latin America and South Asia, the microfinance has grown out of experiment s, but the best-known start was in Bangladesh in 1976, following a widespread famine in 1974 and a hard-fought war of liberation in 1971.Its origin can be traced back to 1976, when Muhammad Yunus set up the Grameen Bank, as an experiment, on the outskirts of Chittagong University campus in the village of Jobra. The inspiration of Grameen Bank came to Muhammad Yunus’ mind when he lent the equivalent of $26 to $42 to exploited women who were working as bamboo furniture maker. He saw that, they were enthusiastic about it and paid back their loans on time.In the beginning, Muhammad Yunus focused the activities of Grameen Bank mainly on savings and small loans, and decided to put the interest rates high enou gh to cover the expenses. Finally yet importantly, he asked borrowers to organize themselves in solidarity groups of five people (who have to meet every week in order to repay their loans and to ex change their opinions). Inspired by the success of his experiment, he decided t o spread out this system to other villages in Bangladesh. In 1983, this institution became a bank.Today it operates in almost 36000 villages and serves more than 3500000 people. On 13th October 2006, the Nobel Peace Prize went to Muhammad Yunus and Gramen Bank, the microfinance institution he founded 30 years ago. Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also in many other countries. Loans to poor people without any financial security had appeared to be an impossible idea. 2 Eventually we are in a situation, in which Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank, tells us the goal spread of micro-credit and finance, which give us the hope, may be our great-grandchildren will go to museums to see what poverty was like. This report is about microfinance and its contribution to the improvement and poverty alleviation for millions of the poorest people of Ba ngladesh. Micro finance has a huge impact on the lives of millions of poor people..Numerous scholars and NGOs have been working to take microfinance within the reach of poor people, who are still not benefited by the conventional financial system. It was believed that microfinance is not important for all people but most groups can benefit from this idea. In this report, we try to present evidence of the important contributions made by microfinance in the eradication of poverty by increasing the income generating activities, empowerment of poor people to access development services such as health and education, and reduction in vulnerability. 1. 2 Problem StatementIn the light of problem, background leads to the following problem statement, Impact of Microcredit on poverty alleviation of the poor people in Bangladesh 1. 3 Objectives of the study To be meaningful, every work must have to formulate the objectives of the study. In the light of the topic of the report, the objective of this study is to show how microcredit works, by using group lending methodology for reducing poverty and how it effects the living standard (income, saving access to health and education, etc. ) of the poor people in Bangladesh. 1. 4 Methodology of the studyData & information are mainly collected from secondary sources. We have used several books, research literatures, articles, journals and report, as secondary sources for our study. Internet sources were also used as a secondary source for our report. Since the internet sources are less reliable, we have limited the use of those sources to the web pages of prominent organizations like Grameen Bank. Most of the sources, we tried to use, are reliable and are acceptable almost everywhere. Nevertheless, from them we had to choose the most appropriate literature for our report.For this reason, we had to go through numerous references related to this topic, to find the suitable materials. Besides these, Google Scholars were also used to find the suitable research material. The keywords used when searching for scientific articles and literatures were; microcredit, microcredit and Bangladesh, poverty reduction and microcredit, Muhammad Yunus and microcredit,living standards and microcredit etc. 1. 5 Limitations Due to shortage of time, the accuracy of information may not have been completely flawless. 1. Definitions and Key Concepts Microcredit It is a component of microfinance and is the extension of small loans to entrepreneurs, who are too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. Especially in developing countries, micro-credit enables very poor people to engage in self-employment projects that generate income, thus allowing them to improve the standard of living for themselves and their families. Poverty Poverty is a condition in which a person of a commumity is deprived of the basic essentials and necessities for a minimum standard of living.Since poverty is understood in many senses, the basic essentials ma y be material resources such as food, safe dringking water and shelter, or they may be social resources such as access to information, education, health care, social status, political power, or the opportunity to develop meaningful connections with other people in society. According to the World Bank’s (1980 ) definition of poverty, condition of life so characterized by malnutrition, illiteracy, and disease as to be beneath any reasonable definition of human decency. Extreme Poverty/Absolute PovertyExtreme poverty is the most severe state of poverty, where people can not meet their basic needs for survival, such as food, water, clothing, shelter, sanitation, education and health care. Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 is a Millennium Development Goal set by UNO. To determine the number of extreme poor people around the world, the World Bank characterizes extreme poverty as living on the daily income of US $1 or less. It has been estimated that around 1. 1 bill ion people currently live under these conditions. Moderate povertyIt indicates the condition where people earns about $ 1 to $2 a day, which enables households to just barely meet their basic needs, but they still have go for many of the other things – education, health care –that many of us take for granted. Relative Poverty It means that a household has an income below the national average income. Micro finance Institutions (MFIs) A microfinance institution is an or ganization, engaged in extending micro credit loans and other financial services to poor borrowers for income generating and self-employment activities.An MFI is usually not a part of the formal banking industry or government. It is usually referred to as a NGO (Non-Government Organization). |Chapter | | 2 | Theoritical Framework 2. 1 What is microcredit? Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to the unemployed, to poor entrepreneurs and to others living in poverty who are not consi dered bankable. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit.Microcredit is a part of microfinance, which is the provision of a wider range of financial services to the very poor. 2. 2 Features of microcredit †¢ Size – loans are micro, or very small in size †¢ Target users – micro entrepreneurs and low-income households †¢ Utilization – the use of funds – for income generation, and enterprise development, but also for community use (health/education) etc. †¢ Terms and conditions – most terms and conditions for microcredit loans are flexible and easy to understand, and suited to the local conditions of the community. Usually micro-credit is provided to a particular geographical area or community. †¢ Micro-credit funds are sometimes initiated in response to the needs of a particular group . †¢ Some loan circles and lending institutions require participants to attend ongoing business training and mentoring programs, which is not the case with traditional debt lending. †¢ Micro-credit is recognized as having increased risk and is treated as a separate class of product by lenders. †¢ Its mission is to help the poor families to help themselves to overcome poverty. It is targeted to the poor, particularly poor women. 2. 3Classification of microcredit I. Traditional informal microcredit (such as, moneylender's credit, pawn shops, loans from friends and relatives, consumer credit in informal market, etc. ) II. Microcredit based on traditional informal groups (such as, tontin, su su, ROSCA, etc. ) III. Activity-based microcredit through conventional or specialised banks (such as, agricultural credit, livestock credit, fisheries credit, handloom credit, etc. ) IV. Rural credit through specialised banks. V. Cooperative microcredit (cooperative credit, credit uni on, savings and loan associations, savings banks, etc. VI. Consumer microcredit. VII. Bank-NGO partnership based microcredit. VIII. Grameen type microcredit or Grameencredit. IX. Other types of NGO microcredit. X. Other types of non-NGO non-collateralized microcredit. |Chapter | | 3 | Major MFIs and their role in Bangladesh Back during late 1970s, when the Jobra experiment was underway under Professor M. Yunus, the Dheki Rin Prokolpa was initiated by the Bangladesh Bank in collaboration with the Swanirvar Bangladesh, and several other pilot schemes were initiated by a handful of the NGOs who were active then.At that time, it was difficult then to conceive that these initiatives would lead to a major micro-credit movement, which would make Bangladesh known to the rest of the world. Even during the 1980s, in spite of Grameen Bank’s success, the main discourse amongst development practitioners in Bangladesh centred on the desirability of micro-credit program as opposed to concie ntization. By 1990, unhindered experimentation in the fields led to a quiet resolution of the debate and the country experienced a massive expansion of micro-finance activities during the 1990s.This is borne out by the figures on the time path of MFI expansion (see Figure 1), [pic] Many studies and surveys have been carried out by different agencies regarding the working of MFIs and their impact on the poor people in Bangladesh. The agencies like Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies and World Bank have found strong evidence that functioning of MFIs have helped the people in meeting their daily needs and at the same time building their assets.It has been stated in The World Bank Economic Review that microfinance has not only helped people to develop in their material capital but also in the human capital, by better access to health care and education system, and general awareness among the people about their rights and duties towards society. However, there are numerous MFIs w orking in Bangladesh at present so it is almost impossible to mention all of them. Therefore, we have chosen four of the most important ones and try to give the overview of them. 3. Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) With a vision of â€Å"a just, enlightened, healthy and democratic Bangladesh free from hunger, poverty, environmental degrad ation and all forms of exploitation based on age, sex, religion and ethnicity†, BRAC started as an almost entirely donor funded, small-scale relief and rehabilitation project to help the country overcome the devastation and trauma of the Liberation War. Today, BRAC has emerged as an independent, virtually self-financed paradigm in sustainable human development with its motto ?Alleviation of poverty and empowerment of the poor. It is the largest in the world employing 97,192 people, with the twin objectives of poverty alleviation and empowerment of the poor. Through experiential learning, BRAC today provides and protects liveliho ods of around 100 million people in Bangladesh. Diagnosing poverty in human terms and recognizing its multidimensional nature, BRAC approaches poverty alleviation with a holistic approach. BRAC's outreach covers all 64 districts of the country. 3. 1. Microfinance Programs of BRAC, at a Glance (Source: BRAC Annual report 2005) |Inception of micro finance programme |1974 | |Programme coverage |Districts 64,Thanas:507 | |Total No of Area/Branch Offices |1,381 | |Total No of village Organizations |160,197 | |Total No of Members |4,837,099 | |Percentage of Women Members |98% | |Outstanding Borrowers |4,159,793 | |Cumulative Loan Disbursement |165,794 million (US $3,094) | |Members’ Savings |9,159 million (US 141 million) | |Average Loan Size |9,452(US $145) | |Repayment Rate |99. 49% | 3. 2 Grameen Bank The history of origin of Grameen Bank can be traced back to 1976, when Professor Muhammad Yunus, head of the Rural Economics Program at the University of Chittagong, launche d an action research project to examine the possibility of designing a credit delivery system to provide banking services targeted at the rural poor.The initial activities started from Jobra village (adjacent to Chittagong University) and some in th e neighboring villages in the following years. Later in 1979, with the sponsorship of central bank and support of the nationalized commercial banks, the project was extended to Tangail, a district north of Dhaka. Later the Grameen Bank became an autonomous organization through the government legislation of October 1983. Today, Grameen Bank is mainly owned by the people whom it serves and they own 90% of its shares and remaining 10 % are owned by the government. 3. 2. 1 Microfinance Programs of Grameen bank, at a Glance (Source: Gra meen Bank annual report 2007) |Numbers of Members |7. 5 million | |Percent of Women Members |97% | |Number of Canters |99,502 | |Number of Villages covered |59,912 | |Number of Branches |2,499 | |Number of A reas |81,334 villages | |Number of Zones |21 | |Cumulative amount Disbursed since Inception |256,497. 40 (Million Taka) | |Cumulative Disbursed during |2005 39,183. 49 (Million Taka) | |Amount of Loan outstanding |27,970. 31 (Million Taka) | |Members |20,138. 7 (Million Taka) | |Non-Members |11,521. 19 (Million Taka) | |Portfolio Growth Rate |39. 66% | 3. 3 Association for Social Advancement (ASA) ASA in Bengali means ‘HOPE’. ASA is a non-governmental organization based in Bangladesh, which provides micro-credit financing. It was established in 1978 by Shafiqual Haque Choudhury who is also the current chairman. Its functioning is basedon the institutional support system.Innovations and simplifications of staff training, monitoring and bookkeeping are the three areas responsible for ASA's ability to effectively manage established units and pursue bold growth initiatives simultaneously. This makes the operations smooth and efficient. This makes it simple and easy to operate both for the organization and for the clients, without the unnecessary delays of bureaucracy and red-tape. Its mission is to â€Å"reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of the poor through the provision of qualitative and responsive micro finance services in an innovative and sustainable way†. ASA offers a successful alternative microfinance model to that of the Grameen bank.ASA combines low cost operations and high growth to fuel its success. ASA continues to perfect the role of financial intermediation by developing a variety of savings p roducts that are quite successful at generating the necessary funds from local sources. The experiences of ASA's managerial dynamism and replication of its simple model have much to offer the diverse microfinance sector as it accommodates demand for quality Financial services by the poor masses. ASA is confident that a financially viable microfinance sector that provides competitive financial services to its customers will be able to expand outreach at a pace similar to its own. 3. 3. Microfinance Programs of ASA, at a Glance (Source: ASA Annual Report 2005) |Inception of micro finance programme |1978 | |Programme coverage |Evenly distributed over the country | |Total No of Area/Branch Offices |2,291 | |Total No of village Organizations or groups |178,904 | |Total No of Members |5. 99 millions | |Percentage of Women Members |Not sex biased | |Outstanding Borrowers |4. 8 millions | |C umulative Loan Disbursement |33,082 million (Taka) | |Total Members’ Savings |3,036 million (Taka) | |Average Loan Size |Taka 7,129 | |Avg. savings balance by members |Taka 748 | 3. 4 Proshika Immediately after the ‘WAR OF LIBERATION’ in 1971, a group of young men, who could realize the inadequacy of the conventional development practices, began to plan development activities with an alternative appr oach. With an objective to contribute to rebuilding the war-ravaged country, they formed Proshika M anobik Unnayan Kendra (Proshika Centre for Human Development).The development process of PROSHIKA, one of the largest NGOs of Ban gladesh, started in a few villages of Dhaka and Comilla districts in 1975, although the organization formally took its first step in 1976. Proshika is an acronym of three Bangla words, proshikkhan (training), shikkha (education) and kaj (action). PROSHIKA envisages a society, which is economically productive and equitable, socially just, environmentally sound, and genuinely democratic. The main mission of PROSHIKA is to conduct an extensive, intensive, and participatory process of sustainable development through empowerment of the poor.Through empowerment, the poor are or ganized and made aware of the real causes of their impoverishment, a leadership is developed among them, their material resources are mobilized, income and employment is increased, and capacities are developed to cope with natural disasters. Empowerment makes th e poor functionally liter ate, enables them to take better care of their health, to get involved in environmental protection and regeneration, get elected in local government bodies and community institutions, and provides the poor with better access to public and common property resources. 3. 4. 1 Microfinance Programs of PROSHIKA, at a Glance ((Source: PROSHIKA Annual Report 2005) |Numbers of Members |2. 7 millions | |Percent of Women Members |Approximately 60% | |Number of Groups |148,039 | |Number of Villages covered |23559 | |Number of Slums |2102 | |Number of Households |2. 3 millions | |Number of primary Groups |148,039 | |Cumulative Disbursed during 2005 |Taka 31,870 millions | |Number of Education Centres Set Up So Far |53,616 | |Persons graduated with technical skills |1. 11 millions | |Chapter | | 4 | Impact of Microcredit Program on Poverty Alleviation 4. What the microcredit clients do with the loan money In one of the country's large formal MFIs, it was found that about sixty eight per cen t of the clients used 54% of their total loans for small trades. A few clients used 64% of the loan money for buying homestead and cropland. A small number of clients used 67% of the loans to build new houses. Some spent 15% of the total loan for medical treatment of their relatives and themselves. Some spent 19% of the total loan money for consumption purposes. A few clients used 29% of loan money for sending their relatives abroad for jobs. A smaller number of clients used 18% of their loan for major repairing of their dwelling houses.A handful of clients used 42% of the loan for buying television sets, furniture and gold ornaments, while others used the loan money in buying rickshaws, livestock and lending to others in a modicum scale . In another large non-governmental organisation (NGO)-MFI, it was spotted that fifty per cent of the clients used 95% of the total loan money in trading businesses like vegetables, grocery, fish, and betel leaves, etc. A few clients used 40% of the loan money in repaying occasional borrowed debts. Some clients used 35% in agricultural farming. Some used 37% of the total loan for buying livestock for rearing. A few clients used 41% loan money for redeeming mortgaged cropland.Some clients used 61% of the loan money for sending relatives abroad. Again some used 34% of the loan money for meeting the debts from moneylenders. Some clients used 15% of the total loans in repaying loan installments of other NGOs. Some clients used 17% of the loan for medical treatment. Some used 100% loan for house construction, while others used the loans for buying land, rickshaw vans and consumption purposes. Yet again in another large NGO-MFI in the country, about fifty per cent clients were noticed using 66% of the total loan in running their businesses. Several clients used 43% of the total loan for marriage ceremony of their family members.A few clients used 38% of the loan for house construction and repairing. Some used 32% of the total loans in repaying loans of the local moneylenders. A few clients used 59% of the loan for various litigation purposes. Some clients spent 41% in food consumption. Some clients used 67% loan for weaving purposes. Others used the loans for medical treatment, buying livestock, cropland, taking others land for cultivation and repaying loan installments of other NGOs. In a mid-level MFI operating in the urban areas, cent per cent clients used 86% of the total loan in various types of businesses that include grocery, cattle hide, computer composing, photocopy service, commercial phone service, saree selling, etc.Some clients used 84% of the total loan for house construction. A few clients used 81% of the total loan in buying land in the villages where they hailed from. In a pretty tiny NGO-MFI, some clients were found using 74% of the total loans for buying fishing equipment like nets and boats, etc. Some clients used 46% of the loan for buying livestock. A few used 74% of the loans as business capital. Some kept 52% of the loans as savings in the commercial banks, while others used the loan money for repairing houses and meeting medical costs. 4. 2 Impact of Microcredit The major objective of microcredit (MC) is to create income among poor households and thereby alleviate poverty.In this respect the question can be asked at two levels, first, whether MC leads to an improvement in income and second whether the increase in income is sufficient to lift them above the poverty level. There is also a third aspect related to the second that is whether poverty alleviation takes place on a sustained basis. Though most impact assessment studies examine the impact of MC on income, the analyses concentrated on mainly the first question. It should be mentioned that most studies consider the total impact on growth of income and do not examine whether a redistribution of credit fund has a redistributive impact on poverty and income of households 4. 2. 1 Findings of PKSF ME Study by BID SPalli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) commissioned a longitudinal Monitoring and Evaluation Study (MES) which was conducted by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). Started in 1997, the studies were completed in 2001. The study covered 3026 sample households spread over 91 villages located in 13 of PKSF POs operational areas. A census was administered in late 1997, covering 19151 households in 91 villages. The first and the second round surveys under the study were administered in 1998 and 1999 and the third and final round survey was conducted in 2000. Some findings on the impacts of microcredit as presented here are gleaned from the reports and papers prepared by BIDS. The summary of the PKSF-ME Study by BIDS is shown in the Table below- Table: Impacts of Microfinance (compared to non-participants) Broad Category |Indicatiors |Type of Change |Cause of Change | |Economic Impact |Income |+ |Self employment activities | | |Food Security |+ |Greater access to cultiv able land through the | | | | |rental market | | |Wage (land poor) |+ |Transport and other non-agril activities sup. by MC| | |Employment (land poor) |+ |better access to the land rental market | | | | |Wage emoloyment in non-ag. sector | | |Assets (land poor) |+ |av. ow land size than non-participants | | | | |larger operational holding | | | | |impact of MF (poultry livestock, bi-cycles, | | | | |rickshaw/van) | |Social and other |Fertility and contraceptive use |+ |program participation | |development impacts | | |female methods dominate | | |Health and Nutrition |+ |program placement effect | | |Sanitation and drinking water |+ |program participation | | |Literacy and school enrollment |+ |program participation | | |of children | | | | |Social mobility |? |do not vary significantly | | |Women articipation and HH |+ |participation in a MC program | | |welfare | |increasing women’s income | 4. 2. 2 Measuring the Impact of Microfinance Grameen Bank has been tracking the pro gress of its clients in achieving all ten indicators since 1997, and reports that 55 percent of its established members (Grameen annually surveys all clients who have been in the program more than five years) had crossed the poverty line by the end of 2004: [pic] (Source: CIA World Factbook: http://www. cia. gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/bg. tml) This is an impressive achievement, and exactly the type of information that one might hope any MFI would be tracking. Though it might seem arbitrary to determine that achieving all ten indicators constitutes movement out of poverty, in fact all poverty lines are to some degree arbitrary, and they are meant to quantify whether or not families are meeting basic needs—such as those represented in the Ten Indicators. Knowing that 55 percent of established Grameen clients never go hungry, have access to safe drinking water, and send their children to school is important to Grameen. Table 1: Poverty rates among Grameen Bank members vs . Non-participants, 1984-85 |Grameen members |Target non participants |All households | | | |Grameen |Comparison |Grameen |Comparison | | | |villages |villages |villages |villages | |Moderately poor (percent) |61. 0 |83. 7 |80. 4 |61. 5 |76. 3 | |Extremely poor (percent) |48. 0 |76 |74. 4 |47. 1 |54. 6 | Table 2: Poverty rates among Grameen Bank members vs. Non-participants, 1996-97 |All households | | |Grameen |Comparison | | |villages |villages | |Moderately poor (percent) |18 |57. 5 | |Extremely poor (percent) |15 |54. 5 | Table 1 and 2 suggest that Grameen Bank members are substantially less poor than non-members, and that Grameen Bank’s activities affected the poverty levels of entire villages. The centerpiece of the findings of a survey is that every additional taka lent to a woman adds an additional 0. 18 taka to annual household expenditure—an 18 percent return to income from borrowing. Notably, the returns to male borrowing were considerably lower, only 11 per cent.The paper and the book reported a variety of â€Å"wider† impacts, including: †¢ A one percent increase in credit to Grameen women increased the probability of girls’ school enrollment by 1. 86 percentage points. †¢ A 10 percent increase in credit provided to women increased the arm circumference of girls by 6 percent. †¢ A one percent increase in credit to women increased the height-for-age of both boys by 1. 42 percent and girls by 1. 16 percent. Microcredit is not merely an instrument for credit extension to the poor borrowers. It is a movement to emancipate the poor to alleviate their poverty, improve their quality of life, and build their capacity and awareness and to integrate them economically and socially into the mainstream of the economy.The benefits of microcredit go beyond the quantifiable ones, there are other benefits, which are not seen, but are evident in the socio-economic transformation of rural Bangladesh. |Chapter | | 5 | Conclus ion We have come to the conclusions that there is a noticeable and positive impact of microcredit activities on the living standards, empowerment and poverty alleviation among the poor people in the society. If one can help, a poor person to stand on his own that cannot only bring about a revolution in their lives but also in the society. The dream of a healthy and educated society with no discrimination and biased can be achieved through this simple thought, the dream which seems to be coming true and becoming practical.The simple vision of one man, Muhammad Yunus has taken the shape of the revolution and has shown the ray of hope in the path of life to every human, irrespective of his background or status or position. The hope of a life that no one will sleep hungry, no one will die due to lack of medication, our children can read and write on their own and everyone will be the pillar of the society. Scope for further research The current study did not consider the reasons of moti vation to join the microfinance program. Another area that has not been investigated is the difficulties that the borrowers face to repay the loan. These areas deserve to be studied by future researchers in the field. There is also another field, which is neglected in our study that the supply gap of MFIs.Actually, to what extent the MFIs are capable to deliver their service to the poor people. Further research could be conducted in this area and for finding the reasons for the gap between demand and supply in terms of microfinance services. References www. google. com Grameen Bank official website (www. grameen-info. org/) ASA official website (www. asabd. org) BRAC official website (www. brac. net) PROSHIKA official web site (www. proshika. o rg/) Rahman, R. I. , 1994, Impact of Credit for the Rural Poor: An Evaluation of Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation's Credit Program, Report Nr: 1207, BIDS, Dhaka. (found on the internet)The World Bank, 1996, Staff Appraisal Report, Bangladesh Po verty Alleviation Micro-finance Report 1, South Asia Region. (Found on the internet) Khandker, S. R, 1998, Micro-credit Programmes Evaluation —- A Critical Review, IDS Bulletin of International Development Studies 29 (4), 11-19. (Found on the internet) Measuring the Impact of Micro? nance: Taking Stock of What We Know (December 2005) – by Nathanael Goldberg. (Found on the internet) Impact of Microfinance on Living Standards,Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation of Poor People: A Case Study on Microfinance in the Chittagong District of Bangladesh. -by Mohammad Arifujjaman Khan and Mohammed Anisur Rahaman.